r/buccos • u/ZordonsTorso Jeff King's Mustache • 3d ago
13 years ago today: WHYGAVS' post before the Cueto game still gives me chills
Hard to explain how electric this felt after two decades of losing baseball. Pat Lackey was a real one - dude was there blogging on WHYGAVS every game through the Dark Times and was so good at articulating what being a Pirates fan was like. This post is a gem.
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u/jtish412 3d ago
WHYG-WHYGAVS
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u/whygavs we found him, guys 3d ago
I'm here!
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u/ZordonsTorso Jeff King's Mustache 3d ago
Haha I didn't know you were here! That's awesome. Thanks for, you know, everything and just learned you're on bluesky so I'll have to get on there. Hope life is good!
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u/Mr_Raditch brunch-clearing brawl 3d ago
I worked for the Pirates when I was in college and on slow days we would get sent out to survey random fans during games. WHYGAVS was a frequent answer to "where do you typically get your pirates news" in 2012, I will tell ya
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u/whygavs we found him, guys 3d ago
well, that wasn't a reliable way to get your news
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u/Mr_Raditch brunch-clearing brawl 3d ago
Pretty much word for word what the supervisor would say every time he saw it on the answer list
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u/idris_dragon 3d ago
How dare he get a legit job
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u/whygavs we found him, guys 3d ago
I did get a job and wanted to focus on it, but 2016 really bummed me out hard with the Liriano trade. I could feel them sliding back into the Before Times. I really had no intention of going back to writing the same things I wrote from 2005-2012 all over again, especially from a perspective where I was getting older than the players.
I was really proud of everything that I wrote especially in 2012 and 2013 and it's really meaningful to know it still resonates, but I felt like I was starting to repeat myself and I could feel the internet getting meaner and I felt like everything had maybe run its course.
I never wrote a farewell post because I wasn't sure it was farewell at the time and I was trying not to draw attention to it for job-related reasons. I do feel bad about that, but on the other hand it *is* a little funny to show up as a half-remembered internet legend in threads like this from time to time.
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u/idris_dragon 3d ago
Your efforts were appreciated across the world. I remember that night staying up in my room having just started my PhD here in the UK and seeing just how alive the place was that night was incredible.
Not writing a farewell post means that you have made yourself room for one more piece, the day the Pirates appear in the World Series...
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u/IAPiratesFan Skenes 3d ago edited 3d ago
The greatest thing you ever wrote was the Pirates-Royals live blog from…. Oh fuck 2006. That was 20 years ago?
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u/whygavs we found him, guys 3d ago
It was ... that post is actually what made the blog blow up, because it got featured on Deadspin.
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u/IAPiratesFan Skenes 3d ago
WHYGAVS, Deadspin, just old school sports internet stuff. I should go write about this on my Geocities page.
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u/GeorgeBonanza00 23h ago
Your articles helped me take my mind off of my mom passing away during that summer of 2013. She had passed in May 2013 and I had just graduated college. She was a huge Pirates fan and growing up my fondest memories were going to 3 Rivers and PNC even though we stunk. In 2012 and early on in the season in 2013, my mom and I would watch games whenever I could visit her in the hospital and she would always say, "This team is different. They're going to do it."
The Pirates that summer were the only thing I looked forward to on a daily basis during the most difficult time of my life. I was constantly on Bucs Dugout and your articles were the ones I looked forward to the most.
Re-reading your words tonight brought a tear to my eye. I will never forget that game and that team. So what I'm saying is Pat, thank you for what you did and I hope life is treating you well.
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u/Awkward_Potential_ 3d ago
WHYGAVS was back when the Internet was cool.
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u/ZordonsTorso Jeff King's Mustache 3d ago
Thank you for saying this because I wholeheartedly agree but also don't want to sound too old-man-yells-at-cloud
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u/albundyrules 3d ago
pat lackey was an internet treasure
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u/BlitzburghBrian 3d ago
WHYGAVS is and has always been elite.
He's still tweeting about Pirates baseball over on bsky as well
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u/LastAmericanHero 3d ago
Still under WHYGAVS or a different user name?
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u/ZordonsTorso Jeff King's Mustache 3d ago
I think I lost him after the blog because I'm not on Twitter but I probably need to get on Bluesky - especially now that I can get more WHYGAVS back in my life!
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u/decent_folk0306 3d ago
That post made me weep back then, and again today.
Pat has a real way with words. I really miss his writing.
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u/whygavs we found him, guys 3d ago
Thank you! It really means a lot to know that what I wrote back then still resonates with people after so long.
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u/decent_folk0306 3d ago
Pat I was 10 in 1992. Old enough to know the end was coming but young and dumb enough to think it wouldn't be that bad....20 years in the desert, it was guys like you and the folks id meet at the ballpark that kept me coming back year after year.
The lead in to that game was 20 years in the making. My inner 10 year old was ready to wash away the memory of Sid Bream ruining my childhood (after being my favorite player and first ever autograph)
The last line you wrote about Liriano getting the start and that he is a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates... That did it for me. That's what started the tears.
Thank you for everything man. I hope your career is still rewarding, I remember all the posts on Twitter about how long it took to get there.
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u/whygavs we found him, guys 3d ago
We're about the same age ... I was only 7 in 1992. I actually didn't remember much of this post, but I do remember writing that last line.
I still have the same job that I took in 2016 when the blog closed up! Actually, we're closing in on the amount of time I've been doing this surpassing the amount of time I wrote the blog. Sheesh.
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u/Sidbright 3d ago
I watched that game with my dad, a few years later, he was gone. I still remember the chant, Cueto dropping the ball, and the chant getting louder.
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u/ZordonsTorso Jeff King's Mustache 3d ago
I'm sorry, man. Really glad you have that memory. The Pirates are a core part of my family bonding, too, which is why I don't care how good or bad they are - memories are memories!
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u/madaboutjules 3d ago
41 years old and that game was undoubtedly the best sporting event I’ve ever experienced. I was in left field and every time I see the Martin HR I catch a glimpse of my younger self going ape shit with the left field loonies.
I can’t wait to experience it again next year.
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u/Silly_Collar_5850 3d ago
I can’t wait to experience it again next year.
lmao how many years have you been posting that3
u/madaboutjules 3d ago
First time I actually believe it
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u/Silly_Collar_5850 3d ago edited 3d ago
lol there's a fucking sucker born every minute. This team will almost certainly be worse next year if baseball is even played.
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u/JeniIsMyBestFriend 3d ago
This is one of the dumbest comments I’ve ever read on this website. If you didn’t see the progress made this year, you are blind.
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u/Silly_Collar_5850 3d ago edited 3d ago
Remember the progress they made in 2018? A winning season? What happened the season after that?
There is no interseason momentum. They are losing 20% of their offensive output in the offseason. They are short a starting pitcher. "Look at all the progress they made" only makes sense if they're keeping the roster they had this season. They are not.
Half this sub bets on games and they are trying to magical thinking a playoff season into being despite all the evidence that it isn't going to happen. Degens.1
u/JeniIsMyBestFriend 3d ago
You’re just plain wrong. It’s ok. Just don’t celebrate when the team wins, please.
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u/OwnSpring6400 3d ago
Love this….
My .02 to any fan of any team is to completely enjoy the ride no matter where it ends up.
Decades ago I decided to make as many games in one season as I could for my CFB team. Little did I know it would be an epic season. Looking back I do remember all the armchair qb’s on the message board who nitpicked everything and couldn’t seize the joy of it. I wonder about them sometimes. That team (that they bitched about) has gone down as one of the greatest ever assembled.
Since then - no matter the sport or season - I enjoy everything for what it is. Win lose or draw - just soak it in. That’s sports.
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u/Better-Tackle6283 3d ago
I was there. It was the best sporting event of my life, and the pregame block party on federal was the second, for all the reasons whygavs gave.
I was an obsessed kid in 1990-92, and a hostage every year since. I’m a little embarrassed to say that that day was one of the most memorable of my life. It’s not because I love the Pirates so much - it’s hard to love something fully when it treats you so poorly - It’s because it tapped into that feeling of joy and excitement that you can only feel as a child. Or so I thought.
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u/ZordonsTorso Jeff King's Mustache 3d ago
I understand! It does feel weird to care so much about a team, let alone a team that constantly disappoints, but it does make the highs all that much higher. I wish I could have been at this game!
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u/Koulditreallybeme 3d ago
It's crazy how much of this I remember after all this time, especially the last line.
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u/ZordonsTorso Jeff King's Mustache 3d ago
Last line = best line. My brain cues "He's a Pirate" from Pirates of the Caribbean after I read it
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u/HoselRockit 3d ago edited 3d ago
That blog should be in the internet HOF. His writing was top notch and he really captured the vibe of that season.
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u/Low_Lunch_1852 3d ago
I miss Francisco Liriano. That slider was disgusting
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u/ZordonsTorso Jeff King's Mustache 3d ago
I think the last few lines of his post are my favorite.
"He is a Pittsburgh Pirate." really gets me.
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u/sixtyninetacks 3d ago
I have been alive for two Super Bowl championships and three Stanley Cups. But nothing will ever compare to the feeling of this game. The first of two times in my life I ever cried tears of joy after a sporting event (the other was when I was playing HS basketball and we won the section championship). The third will likely be if we ever somehow win the World Series or if the USMNT somehow wins the World Cup.
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u/ZordonsTorso Jeff King's Mustache 3d ago
I genuinely can't imagine what it would be like if we ever won the WS. I don't think that emotion currently exists in the known universe.
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u/newguy1787 3d ago
What an incredible piece of writing! Thanks so much for sharing. I saw a Cueto clip earlier and, even though I know what was coming, the anticipation built to full blown, spine chilling goosebumps. Absolutely amazing. Baseball is a treasure.
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u/Corno_one 17h ago
Lifelong Pirates fan that moved away from Western PA as a kid, but always kept my Pirates love. I was 14 in 1992. My grandfather would mail me newspaper articles and box scores from the 1990-1992 seasons from the PG. When we would talk on the phone long distance, we would always talk baseball. Summers visiting three rivers stadium with him, and my other family members. Great memories.
I always kept the hope we would be good again. I started following WHYGAVS as a source for Pirates news, as it was a quick way to catch up while dealing with a busy young career. When the good years came, it was on my daily reading list.
Fast forward 21 years and it’s the very end of September, 2013. I have to fly to Pittsburgh as my Grandfather is dying. We speak on the phone one last time and discuss the wildcard game and that I should try to attend. I decide
to buy a ticket. Things start to really go downhill for him. I arrive the morning of October 1. He unfortunately passes away not long after I arrive at the hospice facility.
That evening, with my heart heavy, I attend the greatest Pirates game in the past almost 50 years. It was unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed. An absolutely electric atmosphere. And- You will never convince me otherwise that my grandfather helped push that ball out of Johnny Cueto’s hand. It was an incredibly emotional moment in my life.
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u/LastHistoryMan 3d ago
Remember those douchebag Zoomers who at the beginning of the season, called real fans “toxic” for pointing out that the team would fail because it’s what they always do?
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u/jayhawk8 Cruz 3d ago
Oh man I forgot about whygavs
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u/whygavs we found him, guys 3d ago
How dare you
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u/jayhawk8 Cruz 3d ago
Fair. In my defense it's been like a decade and I've had three kids since then, but man I loved your blog.
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u/Jolly_Job_9852 🏴☠️🏴☠️ Raise the Jolly Roger🏴☠️🏴☠️ 3d ago
Watched this game on TBS and damn it was spectacular to see Cueto drop the ball
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u/Dazzling-Produce-471 3d ago
The hardest part about reading this is that this game is the only meaningful positive memory any Pirates fan under the age of about 50 has.
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u/Neb-Nose Clemente 2d ago
It’s depressing to me that our halcyon days don’t even include a single playoff series win or divisional championship.
Forget about a World Series win, I’m talking a postseason series win. We had that one play-in game win over the Reds and we talk about that like it was Game 7 of the World Series.
As someone who’s old enough to remember what it was like when we actually were winning World Series, that reality makes me very sad. I think that says so much more about the Pirates than people realize or are willing to acknowledge.
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u/Significant_Yam_248 2d ago
I was 16 during that game working at a pizza shop in my town. I will never ever forget that game. I get chills every time watching highlights and remember how excited I was to watch that first Pirates playoff game. Man those were good times. A hell of a post here too makes me feel just like I felt then
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u/LetTheKnightfall Penguins 1d ago
Anyone else catch a dropkick to the face from something resembling nostalgia when they read the name Zach Duke
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u/Silly_Collar_5850 3d ago
lol we're in the middle of another two decades of losing baseball, looking back at something that happened a long time ago like Al Bundy and his four touchdowns for Polk High.
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u/runningfortheweekend 3d ago
at least we ended the 7 year losing streak this year
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u/IAPiratesFan Skenes 3d ago
I think 2018 and 2026 are a testament to how insane 20 straight losing seasons were. Both the 2018 and 2026 Pirates were just as unmemorable as any from 1993-2012 but they just managed to win a few more than they lost. During that 20 season stretch they should have had a nothing burger 83 win season in there somewhere, accidentally won 82 games somehow. Instead they managed to just never get there.
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u/durkdirkderq 3d ago
I was there. It was all that and more. I’ve been to Stanley Cup finals games, AFC Championships, and this one MLB playoff game. And this was easily the best sporting event I’ve ever been to. The sea of black clad fans was unimaginable if you weren’t there to witness it and be a part of it. WE made Cueto drop that ball. The rest is history.