It’s almost better that there’s not a Yankees-Red Sox type rivalry for the Pirates, isn’t it? I mean, the Cubs and Cardinals, and Giants and Dodgers have a particular disdain for one another. But isn’t it almost more fun to be able to throw the hate around the standings at your leisure?
If there’s any recency bias (which is an interesting thought when considering they’re the two oldest franchises in baseball), the Reds should be public enemy No. 1 right now for Pirates fans. Of course, there was that fun little dust up in 2019.
But in 2021, they're 0-4 against the Reds and, even before the Pirates' lineup was left barren by injuries, it didn’t seem like it’d be a joy to see those Redlegs on the schedule. Jesse Winker leads the National League with a .359 average, and he and Nick Castellanos are top 10 in the majors in slugging percentage and OPS.
A lot of that damage has come against the Pirates. Cincinnati has outscored the Buccos, 44-9, in the four games they’ve played against each other this season, including the past three contests where they’ve scored 14, 11 and 14 runs.
This is what’s great about not having a true, clear-cut rival. You think Red Sox or Yankees fans really get the blood boiling for the Rays the way they do for each other?
Some fans might hold on to a decades-long contempt for a team that, like the Pirates, might be struggling in the present day, but it just doesn’t matter to them because of that one thing from childhood that really sticks with a fan.
There’s definitely some Orioles fans still hung up on the 1979 World Series, right? Maybe, although he was just nine years old at the time, one of them even manages the Pirates right now?
Everybody has their thing. And, not to demean some of sports’ greatest rivalries, but they can get kind of boring when they’re doted on -- like, say, when there are more ESPN Sunday night broadcasts of five-hour Red Sox-Yankees games than it would seem statistically possible.
It’s great to be able to live in the moment, and have a rolling scale for who could be the most bitter flavor of the month.
YOUR TURN: Who do you think is the Pirates’ most hated division rival, and why?
