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Three Rivers Stadium: 1970-2000 Friday, September 29, 2000 By Paul Meyer, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
Who can forget how the 1990s began for the Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium? And who wants to remember how the 1990s ended?
And, in between, who won't remember the 1994 All-Star Game played at Three Rivers?
With the exception of the miracle run the Pirates made at a division championship in 1997, that All-Star Game that attracted 59,563 -- the largest crowd to see a baseball game in Pittsburgh -- maybe was the last time there was any real excitement at the old ballpark.
Soon after that mid-summer classic, major league players went on strike. The World Series wasn't played that year. The season didn't begin until late April the following year.
And the Pirates soon sank below mediocrity, for the most part, for the rest of the '90s.
To borrow a phrase from Bob Prince, the early '90s for the Pirates were a blast. The rest of the '90s, pretty much a bloop.
Three Rivers Stadium ends its days as the Pirates' home without being host to a World Series since 1979 -- not to mention without ever having a National League Division Series.
In its final season the stadium was home to a team whose owner thought his club had a chance to win 90 games. Instead, it lost more than 90.
Three Rivers Stadium closes its baseball chapter with none of the glory that graced its concrete walls when it opened in 1970, the first of six seasons that decade in which the Pirates won a divisional championship.
In short, to borrow a line from a Bob Seger song, the Pirates will bid farewell to Three Rivers Stadium Sunday "in dust and disarray." And with Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days" a fitting nostalgic tribute to an era long gone and perhaps not soon to return.
In 1990, there was Doug Drabek throwing that 2-0 shutout on a Sunday in St. Louis that clinched the first of those three straight division championships.
And Manager Jim Leyland being carried off the field by his ebullient players that sun-splashed day at Busch Stadium.
And the Cardinals fans -- think of this! -- giving the Pirates a standing ovation as they headed for the champagne in their locker room.
In 1991, there was another division championship and a near-miss home run by Andy Van Slyke in the sixth game of the National League Championship Series that would have sent the Pirates to the World Series.
And in 1992, there was the rally from being down, 3-1, in games to Atlanta in the National League Championship Series and then Bob Walk and then Tim Wakefield and then. . .and then. . .and then. . .and then along came Francisco Cabrera's hit and. . .
Since then. . .nothing.
"I thought a lot about the history and an organization with a lot of pride when I was drafted," said catcher Keith Osik, a Long Island product picked by the Pirates in 1990 in the 24th round out of Louisiana State University and the only player who's remained in the organization continously since then. "There was Stargell and Clemente, yes. But more than them, there were some championships. That was awesome.
"We have young kids now who maybe don't. . .Well, I was invited to big league camp in those early 1990 years to catch bullpens. And there was Bonds and Van Slyke and Lind and Bell and King and that pitching staff with Drabek. That was impressive. I was in awe of who they were and what they were accomplishing."
And now, as the last game approaches, what exactly are these Pirates accomplishing?
Certainly not what Osik envisioned when he began his professional career with this organization 11 years ago and watched the players drink champagne the first three Octobers. Certainly he didn't think he'd end his Octobers in the major leagues guzzling Snapple. Certainly he dreamed of being on Pirates teams that won championships.
"Yeah," he said a bit wistfully, "but it seemed so far away back then."
Those Pirates in the early 1990s were solid teams -- good position players, airtight defense, good enough starting pitching behind Drabek, a fine bench.
They produced unbelievable victories. In a game against the Chicago Cubs, for example, they rallied from two five-run deficits and won in extra innings.
Those three division championship teams were a total of 82 games over .500.
In the next seven seasons, the Pirates were a total of 97 games under .500. And to finish it off, add however many games under .500 the Pirates wind up this season.
The decade of the 1990s for the Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium was a Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde thing. They were great the first three seasons. They were awful -- or worse -- the next seven seasons of the '90s, plus this season.
Except for that 1997 season which nobody had a right to expect.
That year, experts picked the Pirates to be losers of at least 100 games. They did lose 83, but their 79 wins were enough to push Houston to almost the limit before the Astros clinched the division championship on the fourth-to-last day of the season.
And they were in first place at the All-Star break that year. Amazing!
Or. . .
"Awesome," Osik said.
That '97 season rekindled the fun of following a team in a division race.
Remember? The Pirates would win a game in, oh, Minneapolis in the afternoon and you'd sit in your gameroom until SportsCenter came on at 11 to see if the Astros beat the Giants -- and they wouldn't and the Pirates still would be in front by a delicious half-game!
In the early '90s, it was pretty much the same.
You'd sit in Three Rivers and plead silently in your seat for a hit by Barry Bonds with runners on second and third in the bottom of the ninth inning of a one-run game -- and he'd line a single into left-center field!
Or you'd demand vociferously on your favorite stool in your neighborhood bar for a strikeout by Stan Belinda when the opponents had the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the ninth of a one-run game -- and Belinda would deliver on a 3-2 pitch!
Or you'd hope while listening to the game on the radio in your car that Chico Lind really would dart behind second base to field that sure hit by the Mets' Tim Teufel and somehow leap, whirl and throw him out -- and, oh, man -- he would!
And, maybe best of all, that '97 season rekindled the simple pleasure/gut-wrench of scoreboard-watching. What a great thing that was!
In the early '90s you'd watch to see if Philadelphia could beat the Mets -- and that night, the green and red line score numbers on the scoreboard told you, it would and the Pirates would go up by six games.
Or you'd watch the scoreboard on a Saturday afternoon to see if the Mets could possibly lose to the Cubs again (get real) and the Pirates would clinch a tie for the division title -- and they would.
Glory days indeed.
"But it's been tough here the last couple years," Osik said, "when it's seemed like we were out of it at the end of June and playing for nothing."
No scoreboard-watching. No wondering how the Mets were doing. No hoping the Cardinals would lose. No relishing a Houston defeat.
No nothing, really.
And through all these years, the first six spent in the minor league system, the last five spent with a major league team that will be maybe 80 games under .500 total, Keith Osik has been there.
He's seen that.
And he's seen this.
"The one thing so far -- supposedly 10 years as a player is a milestone -- is that through half of my career here I can be proud of myself for doing what was asked of me and giving everything I had," Osik said.
And the second half?
"I haven't done the other half yet," he said. "The other half is being part of seeing this thing get done, you know. Obviously, when things aren't going right, a lot of people get criticized -- the owners, the manager, the players, the coaches, the front office. Everything stinks when you're losing.
"For me, the '90s is Barry Bonds and Andy Van Slyke and Bobby Bonilla and Doug Drabek and that pitching staff and Jim Leyland and his coaching staff. That sticks out.
"And the latter part of the '90s is us trying to rebuild. And to be part of getting to where the Pirates should be again. That's going to be really rewarding."
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