Between a Laugh and a Tear

The Pirates ended the '06 season with a series of escapes: with their 1-0 victory over the Reds, they escaped the cellar, leaving the Cubs to hibernate there for the offseason; they escaped having a worse won-loss record than the '05 squad (both finished 67-95); they escaped finishing the season as they had begun it -- with a loss; and they actually played two games above .500 (37-35) in the second half of the season.

And so the clouds parted just a sliver on yet another season shrouded in gloom. And yes, there were several other rays of sunshine that fell on PNC Park on Sunday:

• Freddie Sanchez concluded a remarkable season by winning the batting title, the first by a Pirate in 23 years. He finished at .344 and earned the crown in typical Freddie fashion, shunning the idea of sitting the game out to protect his lead and salting things away with two hits in his first two ABs.
• Rookie Shane Youmans duplicated the seven innings of shutout ball produced by Marty McLeary on Saturday. Shane didn't get the win, but he put the Pirates in position to get one. Youmansin the last two weeks of the season lived up to the attributes of his 1953 film namesake, described by http://www.filmsite.org/shan.html as a "mysterious, gunslinging hero from the wilderness who appears from nowhere."
• Salomon Torres, the best story on the Pirates this year by anyone not named Freddie, appeared in his 94th game -- the most in Pirate history -- and collected his 12th save in as many opportunities. That concluded a season that the Buccin' Ear continues to maintain was every bit as notable as Sanchez's.
• Rookie Matt Capps appeared in his 85th game and collected his ninth win against one defeat. Capps certainly makes the short list of best rookie seasons by a Pirate.

As might be expected, in the flush of victory, there was much brave talk about '07. Resident Genius Jim Tracy can, the Buccin' Ear supposes, be granted one last don of the rose-colored glasses:

"We had an above-.500 second half of the season for the first time since 1992," RG said.

No word on when the last 30-60 start was.

Not to worry about that detail, of course. RG is nothing if not the eternal optimist -- or spinmeister, depending on your point of view.

"And this is a team that played 90 games before the break and lost 60 times, with pretty much the same group It's great to see. I think the thought process for 2007 is that we're going to pick up where we left off instead of feeling like we're starting over."

Pardon the cynicism, but does picking up where we left off mean finishing 2-0 or finishing 2-8 and scoring 24 runs total in the last 10 games?

But the Buccin' Ear will leave a more detailed assessment of the '06 season and what it has wrought to another post. Let's conclude with a snatch of a John Mellencamp tune suggested by regular reader Zack from Shanghai. Z-man decided that JM's tune "Between a Laugh and a Tear" from the Scarecrow album sums up being a Pirates fan (see more of the lyrics in the comments to the "Mailbag" post of September 22):

"Between a laugh and a tear

Smile in the mirror as you walk by

Between a laugh and a tear

And that's as good as it can get for us

And there ain't no reason to stop tryin'".

The Buccin' Ear will leave the last regular season post with this remark from Zack:

"The Pirates of Penance" is that space between a laugh and a tear. It is necessary because sometimes it laughing that keeps us from crying."