A Pirates Fan in DC

Alright, alright I am back.  Enough with the emails telling me how much you missed me, although I must say it is flattering to have a following.  Thank you.  I am back to the regular schedule until next week.  And I will get something figured out for all you Rumbunter crazed fans of this nonsensical mess of a blog.

I had to share this with you about my trip.  In my line of work, I get to entertain clients and most of the time it happens in Washington DC.   On Monday night I was looking for a spot to enjoy the game with a fellow Pirate fan who is trapped in DC.  The gentleman is a die hard Bucco fan and he loves Pennsylvania.  We didn’t have much time to plan and that is where the fun began.  We headed to Fast Eddies in downtown DC

just a few blocks from The Washington Court.  My favorite DC hotel.

The pain of following a losing baseball team extends well outside of Pittsburgh. While looking for the game, well I guess I should say, trying to sort out how we could get it on the TV in the DC areas ‘finest sports bar’, I was shocked to meet a sports crazed bartender/server/line cook named Mercedes.  Even the twenty something Mercedes knows the Pirates have been lackluster.

She looked at me twice as she stopped at our table just back from the packed bar stools.  When we requested the Bucs to be turned on one of the televisions she said,  “The Pirates?  What?  Are you serious?  Well, I’m all alone,” she said as she quickly walked away to wait on another table.   She let us sit painfully watching the trivia games on the big screen where our Pirates should have been.  And of course the place was packed and as she told another table who requested the Blackhawk game, “I’ve got these crazy heels on and they are slowing me down!” 

• No Blackhawk game.  They aren’t even playing tonight I thought, but all we really cared about was the Bucs.  I scoured the bar and nobody seemed to be watching anything.  Odd.  Painfully odd.
• The DO NOT TOUCH TVs signs just beg me to touch them.  I can hear them saying, “change me, I dare you”
• DC might be the worst sports town in America which doesn’t make sense to me whatsoever.  The Nats were playing the Phillies in a slugfest and nobody was watching or seemed interested.
• CNN in sports bar should be outlawed, let alone on three tvs.

So much for catching the game I thought, but thanks PJ and Nick for the updates. And heh Fast Eddies, you have 14 tvs and three of them had on buzztime trivia which doesn’t make sense…nobody was playing except Jade who had 3084 points. But I did learn that nursery rhyme character Solomon Grundy died on a Saturday and was buried on a Sunday.  By the way, Jade I found out was playing at one of Fast Eddies other locations?  Huh?

Then a miracle happened, the remotes were left on the bar as she brought us our food.  We took control of the tvs.  I met some gentlemen and they did all the magic with the remote and then it appeared…our Pittsburgh Pirates were on tv number seven. 

I took some ribbing from Chicago Charlie too!  And I must agree with you Charlie, you did steal Aramis from us.

All in all, the respect was earned from the crowd who had given us a few looks when we switched the game on the tv.  And the Pirates made us proud as they battled back Monday night against those Brewers.  Do we make them look tougher than they are?  Sure does seem like it.

The bullpen implosion was difficult to watch.

We had most of the bar cheering for the Pirates, and those who weren’t were just captivated by CNN.  I overheard someone say, “You know that guy with the hacking cough back there?  He might have that Swine Flu,”

As we spoke with Lou, Frank, Jimmy, and Johnny Two Times, Two Times, I realized everyone is from somewhere else.  We talked Raider football.  Wow, what a draft.  We talked 49er football, Mercedes the 49ers are gonna make some noise we decided.

And one thing was clear as we walked out the door with our heads held high, the Pirates have a great story to tell and few people understand just how many memories people in DC have of the Bucs.  Remember, most of the people in DC that I spoke with grew up in other states.   Florida, California, Chicago, and Texas were all represented.

The patrons at Fast Eddies had great memories of the Pirates, because the ones I spoke with, grew up Oriole fans.  Now they are  in an interesting situation with the Nationals in town.  Most at Fast Eddies are still fans of the Orioles.  Another interesting ownership situation exists in Baltimore and nobody was afraid to talk about it either.

I couldn’t imagine if we ever lost the Pirates.  Could you?