Oct 8, 2015 5 min read

It was hard to tell who suffered the biggest loss Wednesday in our corner of the state.

Was it the Pittsburgh Pirates?

Or was it the WPIAL?

Though not totally unexpected, both the Pirates and WPIAL took devastating shots to the solar plexus.

The Pirates were shut out in the National League wild-card playoff game for the second year in a row. They were dominated by Chicago Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta, who since mid-July has been on the kind of off-the-charts roll that would make Cy Young jealous, but that doesn’t make the loss any easier to accept.

After winning 98 regular-season games and having the second-best record in baseball, the Pirates were eliminated in one game. Without scoring a run.

Again.

The Pirates were blanked by San Francisco 8-0 in last year’s wild-card game.

Some people will say the Pirates didn’t even make the playoffs because they failed to play a postseason series. You can make a small case for that twisted thinking. After all, the Pirates lost again in a one-game, winner-take-all gimmick game. Professional baseball playoffs are a five- or seven-game series in which a team’s entire starting rotation and depth is tested. One-game, loser-go-home playoffs in baseball are for high schools.

The Pirates won 186 regular-season games over the last two years – only St. Louis won more – but none in the postseason. Being shut out two years in a row in the wild-card round will certainly tempt general manager Neil Huntington to swing a deal in the offseason for more hitting, but he has significant holes to fill in the pitching rotation. A.J. Burnett is heading off into retirement. And does anybody believe Charlie Morton or Jeff Locke can develop into a No. 3 starter?

While Pirates can rebuild and be better in 2016, the WPIAL will never be the same after the PIAA – the governing body of high school sports in Pennsylvania – voted to expand to six classifications in football, basketball, baseball and softball beginning in the 2016-17 school year. Those sports, in the WPIAL, will indeed be different next year.

The biggest change for the WPIAL will be in football. No longer will it be able to host its championship games at Heinz Field. WPIAL executive director Tim O’Malley told the Observer-Reporter earlier this year “we can’t play more than four games in one day, and we certainly can’t go in more than one day. We would lose that.”

That loss was finalized Wednesday when the PIAA Board of Directors voted 26-4 to expand to six classes in football. Prior to the vote, WPIAL chairman Jack Fullen voiced his concerns, noting 81 of the WPIAL’s 123 schools that field a football team were against six classes. He also said the added travel times and costs that are sure to come with six classes should not be ignored.

Fullen’s speech made no impact. The four votes against six classes in football came from the WPIAL (3 votes) and the Pittsburgh City League (1 vote).

The PIAA Board must have been so ecstatic over the vote that not long afterward it did the equivalent of running its own bylaws through the shredder by suspending protocol and voting (23-7) to expand basketball, baseball and softball to six classes. In addition, girls volleyball and boys and girls soccer were expanded to four classes, field hockey to three and lacrosse to two.

While those from the PIAA and many schools across the state are saying the changes will “level the playing field” and “give more schools a chance to win a state championship,” – there is some validity to both of those statements – the real reason for six classes is what the sports world centers around.

Money.

More classifications mean more playoff teams, which results in additional playoff games and a financial windfall for the PIAA and its districts.

It always about money, isn’t it?

The PIAA already is considering playing its six championship football games over three days, starting with a Thursday night game.

Those who supported the six-class format said a driving force behind the move in football was reducing the length of the season by one week. That problem could have been solved years ago by the PIAA voting to shorten the season. But that would mean fewer playoff qualifiers, fewer playoff games and fewer dollars generated for the districts. We can’t have that.

Starting with the 2016-17 school year, schools will have the option of playing a nine-game regular-season football schedule and two scrimmages or a 10-game regular season with one scrimmage. It will be interesting to see which format the WPIAL will adopt.

What’s certain is WPIAL sections – conferences in football – will see drastic changes. There will be more hour-plus road trips for section games and some long-standing rivalries ending because of schools being put in different classes.

If there is a positive, then it’s there might be more scheduling freedom for athletic directors and some dormant but meaningful football rivalries – Trinity-Wash High and Charleroi-Monessen come to mind – can be revived. If that happens, then six classes can’t be all bad, even if the WPIAL football season concludes with the “Way to Wexford” instead of the “Highway to Heinz.”

Sports editor Chris Dugan can be reached at dugan@observer-reporter.com.