I hate February. I hate how it’s always cold and dark. I hate how there is no football. And I could do without Valentine’s Day. As far as I am concerned, February only has one redeeming event: Pitchers and catchers report.

Somewhere in the middle of the month, pitchers and catchers show up to spring training camps in Florida and Arizona and start gearing up for the long season ahead. In a few weeks spring training will start in earnest, and in about six weeks the season will start. For as much as I love football – and I LOVE football – baseball has always been my first love. I look forward to the start of April the way that kids look forward to Christmas morning. By the middle of February, I can’t wait for the start of April – those first few weeks of the season (when the Pirates still have hope), day games, the ESPN Wednesday doubleheader (or quadruple header if you have Dish Network), and Sunday night baseball.

Like many Pirates fans, I can barely remember the last time the Bucs fielded a decent team. (On the bright side, the years of struggling allow me to watch baseball without any of the stress that accompanies Steelers games.) I am one of those fans who will see a .500 season, if it ever happens, as a reason to celebrate. And this season, unlike the past 10 or so, 81 wins is probably a reality.

It might have been easy to miss, but the Pirates have been steadily improving for the past few seasons. The improvement may not have shown up in the final standings, but the talent on the field is definitely better now than when Dave Littlefield took over as general manager. In a nutshell, here are the consensus (Greg and I) opinions on the Pirates’ chances to reach .500 in the past few years:

2002 – The Pittsburgh Condors had a better shot at the '02 ABA title.

2003 – If everything goes much, much better than the best-case scenario (and then some).

2004 – If everything goes absolutely perfectly.

2005 – If the pitchers pitch to their absolute best and the hitters do better than expected.

2006 – If there are no disasters, if the pitchers pitch as well as their ‘stuff’ suggests, and if none of the hitters go in the toilet, the Pirates can get to .500.

It might sound like a stretch, but 81 wins is probably a reasonable expectation for the 2006 Bucs. The off-season was kind to Dave Littlefield, and he was able to add a few serviceable players without breaking the bank. I will devote an entire column to the personnel changes closer to the season; today I want to focus on what might have been the biggest change for the Pirates, the signing of manager Jim Tracy.

The list of positives about Tracy doesn’t start with his pedigree (though he did a darn good job managing the Dodgers) or his name recognition (though signing an established manager made the normally cheap Pirates look serious about winning). The best thing about Jim Tracy is that he never played or coached for Jim Leyland. Leyland was a good, if not great, manager during his tenure in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, the Leyland ‘dynasty’ outlasted him by nearly ten years, and his two students did little to help the team. Neither Gene Lamont nor Lloyd McClendon was ever confused with any of the game’s great managers, and McClendon was particularly awful. The trouble with Lamont and McClendon only started at the top. Both made a habit of recycling old Leyland coaches and players, culminating in the eventual promotion of former janitor Spin Williams to pitching coach. Tracy’s first order of business was to revamp the entire coaching staff, and, at least to this fan, the change is welcome.

In addition to being ‘not Leyland,’ Tracy has brought a new attitude to the Pirates. The McClendon regime, at least from a fan’s perspective, did not emphasize fundamentals and execution. During January’s mini-camp, Tracy was on the field reinforcing just that – baseball basics. "As small an aspect of the game as bunting might appear to be to a lot of people, it's really important to me," Tracy said at mini-camp. "The complexion of a game can change because you have the ability to advance a runner 90 feet. It's huge." For a team that did a horrible job of advancing and scoring runners in 2005, this sort of attention to basics is not only welcome, it is crucial.

Tracy’s emphasis on ‘the little things’ isn’t limited to bunting: "Pitching and defense has been the name of the game in baseball forever. I don't care what level you're playing at," Tracy said. "My philosophy since I started managing has been that, before you can look at any other phases, you've got to feel fairly comfortable that you've got some people who can pitch and you've got to be able to catch the ball. If you can't do either one, your chances of being very good are slim." As a fan, this makes me absolutely excited about Tracy the manager. Playing the game in an intelligent way? Bucco fans haven’t seen that for years!

Tracy has also shunned the idea of considering the Pirates a young team. "You will never, ever hear the complaining about being young from me. Hey, fine, you're young, so what are you saying? You can't be successful when you're young? You've got to be old before you can become successful? How old you are or how much you make does not play into the success or failure of the team. That comes from how you execute and do the fundamentals."

If all of this talk about bunting and fundamentals seems boring, consider this: a fundamentally sound team will always win more games than an undisciplined team with equal talent, and even when they lose, the team with good fundamentals will look like a professional team. After so many years of losing in Pittsburgh, at a time when having a mediocre team sounds fantastic, just looking good will be a huge improvement.

----Dr. Burgher

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