Before reading this article, ask yourself: did you jump on the Pirates Bandwagon this year or do you suffer with acute “hipster-itis”? In either case, you’d have to be living under a rock if you didn’t realize that the Pirates, who used to be the team that the nation loved to ridicule, were actually in the playoffs this season. Any time prior to the past three months, it was a rarity to see anybody dressed in Pirates’ attire. Since the beginning of “Buctober,” one could barely look down the hallways here at Freedom without seeing someone sporting Pirates’ gear. Even though the Pirates didn’t advance in the playoffs, their popularity within our school has increased.
Of course all of this begs the question: is it really so bad that the majority of the students here at Freedom are Pirates fans now? Shouldn’t we just be happy that the student body is more unified now?
Senior Luke Hutchison, longtime Buccos fan, sure thinks so. “It’s kind of cool seeing the city get into it and just seeing people starting to get really interested and connecting with this team again,” Hutchison said.
I will be the first to admit that I’m more of a hockey fan, and I can’t really keep up with all the baseball games. However, I still enjoy attending them and occasionally sitting down with my dad to watch them on TV. Does that not qualify me as a fan? Maybe we should be focusing less on the “bandwagon” aspect and focusing more on the support our city’s team has gained. Besides the fact that we have another winning sports team in Pittsburgh, I love knowing that there is such a vast, positive group of people behind them all the way.
“I think it’s pretty cool seeing [this happen] because a lot of the people who were beating me up in elementary school for wearing my Pirates stuff are the people who are walking around wearing their McCutchen jerseys now, and it’s pretty fun to see. I’m not kidding. [The bullying for being a Pirates fan] happened,” Hutchison said.
It’s safe to say that longtime supporters won’t receive any negativity from anyone for supporting the Pirates any time soon.
Whether you just joined the bandwagon or you’ve been on it your entire life, everyone can agree that we have one thing in common; we all support our now successful baseball team. The Pirates may be out of the playoffs now, but let’s keep this support and positivity rolling into next year and every year after that.