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Sunday, August 19, 2001

HOUSTON -- It has only happened six times in franchise history, so it would be as out of the ordinary as it would be dubious should the Pirates lose 100 games. Nobody wants to see it happen, but don't expect the slogan for the last 40 games to be "Avoid Triple Digits."

"It's been a miserable season regardless," Kevin Young said. "If you lose 99, that means you're still going home. But that one extra digit. Yeah, it sounds a lot different. Nobody wants to be associated with that. Not too many teams lose 100."

The last Pirates team to do it was in 1985, the year of the drug trials and the year Chuck Tanner got fired. The hapless teams under Branch Rickey did it three years in a row -- 1952-54. It happened in 1917 when Doughboys were fighting in World War I trenches, and in 1890, the year of a players revolt when the franchise established an all-time low-water mark of 113 losses.

The century mark might be an issue with the media and the fans, but not to Manager Lloyd McClendon.

"Not in my mind. If you lose 90 or lose 100, what's the difference? It's still a bad year as far as wins and losses are concerned," he said. "We're all about trying to win games, not thinking about losing 100. My motivation is to go out every day and try to win that game. I'm thinking about today's game. We have to win this one."

Brian Giles knows all about how the expectations fizzled this season, but he thinks it's time the organization starts setting the bar a lot higher and starts assembling the necessary parts to build a winner -- and by that he means titles, not winning one more game than you lose.

"One hundred's an ugly number," conceded Giles. "But we're going home in October. If we won 100 games and weren't going to the playoffs, it wouldn't matter anyway. Mac's done a good job of holding this team together and getting the most out of what we've got, and that's where we're at right now. This organization's goal can't be to get above .500. The object is to be a championship team, and that's why ownership has to do all it can to sign some players in the off-season."

This will be the Pirates' ninth consecutive losing season, and Jason Kendall has been around for six of them. His father played on a 100-loss club when the Padres were an expansion team, so he has an inkling of how bad it would be. But then again, losing is a grind no matter how many games under the team finishes.

"This game's all about winning. The bottom line is if you lose 50, 60, 70 or 100 and don't make it to the playoffs, it doesn't matter anyway. When you're at home and watching other teams in the playoffs, it feels like you lost 100 games," Kendall said.

As for motivation, Kendall said it should be unnecessary to tell players that the Pirates need to finish 18-22 to avoid 100 losses.

"I hope people in here have enough pride to prepare and to give it everything they have every night, every pitch, every at-bat," Kendall said.

This sounds crazy

When somebody starts a thought by saying, "I know this sounds crazy," it should raise immediate caution flags. But McClendon has shown bulldog tenacity in sticking to his belief that the Pirates are not that far away from a turnaround, despite having won just 45 of their first 122 games.

"I know it sounds crazy, but I'm excited about this young team. I see a lot of positive things," he said last week in the midst of a road trip in which the Pirates lost six consecutive games, a mark that matches their previous season-worst losing streak.

"I'm not going to sit here and say we're not a little short. We need to get better. We need to get some more players. We need as many good players as we can possibly get. If we don't we're dumb. After what happened this year, I don't take anything for granted."

Just don't come around and say something like pity the poor Pirates.

"People come around and they want to give me this sympathy pitch. I don't want to hear that crap," McClendon said. "We've had a lot of devastating injuries. But that's behind us. We're taking our licking right now. But certainly there are things we won't forget. There will come another time when these kids grow up and they're playing real good baseball, and people are going to hate to see us come around."

A bright spot

The Pirates have lost 14 of 18 games since trading Jason Schmidt, John Vander Wal, Mike Williams and Terry Mulholland, and their absence had an unsettling effect in the clubhouse. But one immediate addition, off the waiver wire, has been Gary Matthews Jr. in center field.

He has stabilized the defense up the middle, has run down balls in the gaps and added some pop with his bat. It's easy to see why the Pirates have missed Adrian Brown so much. Despite going hitless yesterday, Matthews is 10 for 29 (.345) since joining the Pirates.

Matthews, whose father played the outfield for five major-league teams, said he plans on making the most of the opportunity to play everyday -- something that didn't happen when he was with the Cubs.

"I'm just happy to get a chance to play," Matthews said. "This game is all about winning, so it's a little different coming from a first-place team. But it's also about improving yourself. The key to consistency is being out there and having a chance to make the adjustments. When you're sitting on the bench and playing two or three days a week, it's not easy."

Since his arrival, Matthews has been working diligently with bench coach Bill Virdon, who patrolled the outfield in Forbes Field and who conducts daily clinics for outfielders.

"This guy's been around the game a long time and obviously has a lot to offer as far as baseball knowledge," Matthews said. "There's no doubt he's going to help me."

When the Pirates get Brown and Armando Rios back next year, outfield should be one area where there's some depth and competition.

Fighting words

During the brawl last Tuesday in Arizona, Giles locked up with Diamondbacks pitcher Miguel Batista. While those scrums can get nasty and dangerous, there's also some levity.

"He was saying, 'It's over, it's over,' and we were just holding on to each other," Giles said. "Then he said, 'Hey, your brother Marcus is a pretty good player.' "