I want to see the Pittsburgh Pirates win 82 games this season.
This has not always been the case. When the Pirates were on their way to breaking the record for consecutive losing seasons (now at 20 and counting), I cheered every loss. This was mostly because I wanted that record to be disassociated from my team, the Phillies, who finished below .500 for 16 seasons from 1933 to 1948.
It’s likely also because of deep emotional wounds I suffered when my family lived in Pittsburgh for a few months in the late 1970s, in the midst of a years-long, intense, cross-state, NL East rivalry between the Pirates and our Phillies—one of the rare times when both Pennsylvania teams were competitive. (My brother, less than 10 years old at the time, once came home crying from a double header that the Phillies swept from the Pirates because of stuff Pirates fans said and did during the game.)
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