And unlike the Cylons from the reboot of Battlestar Galatcia, we may know what the plan the Pirates have actually is before long.

This winter there was much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth when the Florida Marlins were singled out by Major League Baseball and the Players Association and told that they have to spend more money going forward. “The Pirates are next” we heard from various columnists the likes of Bill Madden, the NY Daily News writer who hates teams that aren’t the Yankees, Red Sox or Mets (and maybe the Phillies). If Madden had done a modicum of research he would have known that the Pirates were never going to be next.

That was confirmed yesterday when Rob Biertempfel from the Tribune Review wrote an article about how the Players Association is OK with what the Pirates are doing right now.

“We’ve been in touch with the commissioner’s office and with people in the Pirates’ (front office) over the years about how things are going,” Weiner said. “To date, at least, we have been satisfied that the new administration there understands the conditions of the basic agreement. I can’t get into the specifics, but it appears to us that they have a plan.”

This plan includes spending a lot on a baseball academy in Latin America, being one of the top 3 big spenders in the draft the past two seasons (something that is likely to continue this year) and developing players which they will spend on when the time comes.

Don’t get me wrong, there are things that I’m not happy about with the Pirates. I wish that they could have signed Sano, and the returns that they have gotten in some of the trades has been less than impressive. I would rather them spend the money on players that have the potential to do well with the Pirates rather than just pay for past performance and didn’t do anything with the Pirates.

Right now the Pirates are a game above .500 and although I don’t think that this will continue, things are looking up.

Here is a amusing cartoon that was in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette when the G-20 was in Pittsburgh last summer.

It’s Sunday, I’m back from San Jose and spring training starts about in a little more than a month. That means it’s time for me to take up defense of the Pirates that can do no research and complain about them. This time it’s the New York Daily News and their grupmy columnist, Bill Madden. Madden hasn’t liked the Pirates since Mazeroski got elected into the hall of fame by the veteran’s committee many years ago. This is mainly because he is a good friend of Yogi Berra and Maz caused the Yankees not to win a world series.

But back to the present. Madden seems to be of the opinion that MLB will be cracking down on the Pirates to spend more money on the major league roster. His logic is that since the Marlins were told to spend more money the Pirates will be forced to do the same.

That’s all well and good but if he had bothered to read any of the excellent work that Post Gazette Pirates’ beat writer Dejan Kovacevic. This past week he reported from sources outside of the Pirates organization that they were not going to be a target. This is something that he was also told by the commissioner of Major League Baseball. (Dejan also has a nice take down of Madden’s article, citing the real 2009 salary of the Pirates).

Yeah, we’ve sucked for 17 years and are a laughing stock for most of the league and press. But having fools like Madden not even bothering doing any research into the situation is just lazy journalism.

It’s bad enough that there are fans who feel that if we just spend more money we’d have won a world series by now. That is just not the case.

It’s well known that the Pittsburgh Pirates set a new record for inepitude last season with 17 seasons in a row with a losing record. While I believe that this will turn around shortly, what I didn’t learn until recently is that the Pirates have another streak that is a Major League Baseball record which may seem more unreal to most people. They have kept their ticket prices the same for the past 8 years. This is the take away from Frank Coonley, the Pirate’s President

“We haven’t performed over the last eight years, but we can’t keep it there forever,” he said in a phone interview from Indianapolis, where the league’s winter meetings are being held. “While fans appreciate the tremendous value they get now, I’m sure they’d love us to be in a position for us to raise prices because that would mean we’re improving.”

I’m glad to see that the Pirates are doing this. It doesn’t seem that they would be winning over more fans by raising their prices during this streak of ignominy.

While I was in Pittsburgh last month I was able to get away one night and watch the Pirates play the Milwaukee Brewers. In spite of the rain delay it was a good game and the Pirates came out on top (which is a very rare thing). Here are some pictures of the game:

Statue of Willie Stargell

Rain Delay

View of Right Field

The Clemente Bridge

The Pirate Parrot

A Perogie Race

The Benches Clear

I decided to reopen my Pirates blog Bucco Blather. I decided to do this for two reasons, first because I like to write about the Pirates and the way that they have been playing makes it look like it will be a fun year. Second, I don’t want to bore any readers of this blog with sports related content (unless it’s me falling on my butt while curling).

However if you are interested in sports, the Pirates and baseball feel free to stop by the blog.