Sometimes, the planets align

Baseball is a tough sport to follow if you're on an extended stay in Central Europe.

In that part of the world, they prefer to follow the likes of football (what we call soccer), Formula One racing (what we don't call NASCAR) and, if a visiting American is lucky, ice hockey. Baseball may be huge in Japan and Latin America, but it still is a mild curiosity, at best, in places like the Czech and Slovak republics.

In the waning days of the 2003 season, I was in the midst of a Rotary-sponsored trip through those two countries. We had sporadic access to the Internet, and after e-mailing my wife to assure her I still was alive, I usually checked the baseball scores. History was going to be made. The Detroit Tigers were going to set a new record for losses in a season, and I wanted to read all about it when the historic event occurred. The standard of 120 defeats, set by the New York Mets, had stood since 1962, the year I was born.

As baseball fans know, the '03 Tigers rallied to win six of their last seven games, finishing with 119 losses. I hadn't gotten to a computer the last several days I was in Europe and didn't know about Detroit's near miss until I returned home. I was disappointed, of course, but at least the Tigers set an American League record.

Fast-forward to last October, when Jim Leyland was managing in the World Series, something he never accomplished in his 11 seasons with the Pirates. His team, of course, was the Detroit Tigers, three years removed from their pathetic showing, having improved by 52 wins in that span. The development of a number of good young pitchers, combined with the acquisition of some savvy veterans - including Upper St. Clair's own Sean Casey, plucked from the Pirates in midseason - unexpectedly pulled the Tigers out of a long mire.

If they have a shot at repeating is anyone's guess, but quite a few baseball analysts expect Detroit to be right in the thick of things again this year.

Detroit is well within driving distance of Pittsburgh. A whole lot of people from this area made the commute when the Steelers played there in Super Bowl XL, a little over a year ago. (Doesn't it seem like longer ago?) In the baseball world, at least prior to 2006, the cities were comparable, with a dwindling fan base because no one expected the respective teams to be anything near competitive, year after year.

We've seen what happened in Detroit. When will it be Pittsburgh's turn?

The 2007 version of the Pirates includes several elements that can lead to optimism: an established 30-homer, 100-RBI slugger (Jason Bay); the defending National League batting champion (Freddy Sanchez); a No. 1 draft pick who actually might live up to his potential (Andrew McCutchen); and a starting rotation of under-30 types (Duke, Maholm, Snell, Gorzelanny, Armas) who actually might pitch a few seasons without hurting their arms.

Can they represent the nucleus of another worst-to-first story?

Sure they can. Sometimes the planets align just right.

But more often they're scattered all around the solar system, and it's business as usual. So look for the Pirates to, as usual, lose more than they win in '07.

And if they do the same in '08 and '09, they Pirates will set their own record: most consecutive losing seasons.

If I take another trip to Europe, maybe I'll miss that.