Maybe it's just my opinion, but this is a dumb and bad tweet about baseball players and when they're allowed to party:


(This reply is somehow even worse.)

With a win in Atlanta, the Pirates clinched at least a wild card berth and their second consecutive postseason appearance, after more than two decades without a one. There are people out there—few of them, but they exist—who believe that a team should not celebrate a mere playoff berth, that the champagne and cigars should be reserved for World Series alone.


That is objectively a terrible take because making the playoffs is probably the greater achievement. The conventional wisdom these days, backed up by studies, is that the MLB postseason is a crapshoot, and the slog of the regular season is a much better indicator of the best teams. Just getting to October is the real accomplishment. Anything else is gravy.

But more than that, clubhouse celebrations are awesome. What the hell else do you play competitive sports if not to celebrate like madmen when you do something great? And for whatever reason (maybe because they've been here before and now know how to do it up?), the Pirates' celebration last night was a classic.

Clint Hurdle kicked it off with what was supposed to be a speech but skipped right to the soaking instead:


A smoking Andrew McCutchen and a two-fisting Tony Sanchez infiltrated the live shots:



And here are some more photos of the Bucs' champagnekkake. Sports are bad and sad these days. The Pirates celebrating should make you happy.






Photos by AP Images and Getty Images.