Sep 26, 2015 5 min read

Don’t be feeling too sorry for the 2015 Pirates.

Now that that Pirates have clinched a playoff spot for the third year in a row, you will be hearing a lot of complaining about how unlucky they are to be playing in what is probably the best division in baseball and how they would be leading every other division.

And playing in the National League Central Division might mean more than a play-in game just to get to the real postseason. It also could mean they will have to face 2015’s best pitcher.

And Jake Arrieta of the Chicago Cubs hasn’t just been the best pitcher since the all-star break. If his 0.86 ERA since the break holds up through the end of the season, then it would be the best post-all-star game ERA in major league history.

The Pirates have faced Arrieta four times and he’s given up three earned runs in 29 innings.

So, the Pirates, who could still win 100 games, stand a pretty good chance of being one and done.

But, you’re either a championship team or your not.

The last Pirates team to win a World Series was given virtually no chance in 1979 against the Baltimore Orioles.

Same thing for the 1971 Pirates.

And nobody gave the Pirates a chance to beat the New York Yankees in 1960.

And then there was the Pirates’ National League champion that got to face the 1927 Yankees in the World Series.

The Pirates’ best decade was probably the 1970s.

In 1970, they won the NL East with 89 wins.

Their reward was a five-game series against the Cincinnati Reds, who won 102 games and won the West by 14½ games.

In 1972, the Pirates won the East by 11 games, but they had to face what had become the Big Red Machine in the NLCS. The Reds won their division by 10½ games and won Game 5 on a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning.

The 1974 Pirates won the NL East with 88 wins and had to face a Los Angeles Dodgers team that won 102 games.

In 1975, they won 92 games, won their division by 6½ games and had to face The Big Red Machine that won 108.

The Pirates had some good teams in the ’60s, but never saw a World Series in that decade after 1960. The 1966 team included three future Hall of Famers, Roberto Clemente, Bill Mazeroski and Willie Stargell. It won 92 games and finished three games out in third place behind the Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. Those two teams had a few Hall of Famers of their own – Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Juan Marichal.

Back then, in baseball, there was first place and no place. No wild cards.

So, having to face tough odds after putting together six months of excellent baseball is nothing new.

That’s what makes winning championships so much fun.

And that’s why enjoying the ride is so important.

• I like 3-on-3 overtime in hockey. There really is only one reason not to like it:

It’s new.

It’s never been done befor, but is that a good enough reason to not like it? I also like the shootout and I definitely prefer both to a tie. The NHL’s tiebreaking system sets it apart from other major pro sports, but is that a bad thing?

Like the shootout, 3-on-3 is something that, if it had been in existence from hockey’s beginning, it would be looked upon as an interesting tradition that sets hockey apart. You know, like the postgame handshake and introducing the three stars after the game. Or fighting. Or punishing a player by making him sit by himself in a little compartment for two minutes while his team has to play a man short.

• Remember when Pirates owner Bob Nutting said his team had the best management team in baseball and everybody laughed? That doesn’t seem too funny now. The Pirates are one of the best teams in baseball and have a legitimate chance to win the World Series. In Major League Baseball’s stupid economic world, you have to be really good and/or really lucky to do that.

Neal Huntington has been general manager since 2007. He didn’t look so smart those first few years, but some good draft picks and amateur free-agent signings have made him and Nutting look pretty smart.

There hasn’t been a GM in Pirates history who did better than Huntington has done with signing veteran free agents. There have never been better Pirates free-agent signings than Francisco Liriano and Russell Martin.

Huntington has a lot of major league general managers wondering why they didn’t sign the kid from South Korea, Jung Ho Kang.

Huntington was probably the only guy in town who thought bringing A.J. Burnett back was a good idea.

At the trade deadline, Huntington added J.A. Happ, who is 6-2 with a 2.28 ERA, and Aramis Ramirez, who has driven in 33 runs in 49 games.

Huntington has been mentioned as a strong candidate for Sporting News Executive of the Year. Maybe Nutting was right.

John Steigerwald writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.