It was July of 2009, and I was in the kitchen of Villa Ballanca, an Italian restaurant in my hometown of Lower Burrell, PA, washing dishes and sneaking peaks at my LG enV Touch trying to keep up to date on the Pittsburgh Pirates at the MLB trade deadline. The end of July was one of the very few interesting parts of baseball season for a Pittsburgh Pirates’ fan back then. The team was in last place almost by default and we were all only interested in seeing what prospects we might acquire in exchange for what would we could try and convince other teams was major league talent. The previous summer we had traded away one the few standouts that had rolled through Pittsburgh, Jason Bay, in exchange for Andy LaRoche, Craig Hansen, and Bryan Morris. All three of those names would spend some time with the Pittsburgh Pirates but none of them had any significant impact, all being released or traded away for nothing. The rebuild was 100% on and the next few Julys would see all-time highs in Internet usage for myself.

In the same July week in that kitchen, I received word of the trades of Freddy Sanchez and Jack Wilson as the dirty dishes piled up in front of me. I had one eye on Benny, the restaurant owner, in front of me as he yelled at me for my neglect, and the other eye on my phone. I would find that the Pirates had brought in Jeff Clement, Ronny Cedeno, Aaron Pribanic, Brett Lorin, Nathan Adcock, and Tim Alderson in exchange for their fan-favorite middle infield. I was overjoyed. If you asked me at the time, I was as smart a baseball fan as you’d ever find in an 18-year-old kid, and I was ready to be done with the Wilsons, Sanchezs, and Bays of the world as long as it meant we brought in some minor league players that you could at least imagine becoming a part of a winning Pittsburgh Pirate team. Villa Ballanca’s dishes have never been cleaner than they were in the following few weeks.

The future was ahead. The team, in hindsight, had made a much more significant trade in early June of 2009, acquiring Charlie Morton, Jeff Locke, and Gorkys Hernandez (all of whom are currently on a Pirates team that has reached the playoffs in two consecutive years) for Nate McLouth. A tough loss at the time, but that disappointment was quickly erased by the call-up of Andrew McCutchen. The 2010 season came along and I found myself in my freshman year of college. I was fortunate enough to live across the hall from two fellow idiots that had invested too much of their time into the Pirates. As a group, we probably spent way too much time in front of the TV watching a losing team instead of being out meeting girls or whatever the other college kids were doing, but things turned out to be okay.

Everybody was excited for McCutchen’s first full year in the bigs, but wiser fans realized this still wasn’t a very competent major league team, and even those fans were overestimating the talent as the team went on to lose 105 games (the third-most in franchise history). A big time draft that saw the selections and signings of flame-throwing pitchers Jameson Taillon and Stetson Allie fueled the fire inside of future-minded Pirates fans. Pedro Alvarez made his big league debut which brought some extra fans to the ballpark, and then it was time for another trade deadline. The Pirates would receive Chris Snyder and Pedro Ciriaco from the Diamondbacks in exchange for D.J. Carrasco, Bobby Crosby, and Ryan Church in one deal and then in the same day received James McDonald and Andrew Lambo for Octavio Dotel, which seemed at the time to be the most lopsided deal Neal Huntington had pulled off to date.

In 2011 things seemed to come together way earlier than expected, as the Pirates found themselves in first place of the NL Central as late as July 25th. My fan dreams seemed within reach and I’m sure I was more than obnoxious in letting my fellow Waynesburg University peers know how dedicated a Pirate fan I was. That season turned the trade deadline tide completely and the Pirates became buyers. Cooler heads prevailed from the front office and the Pirates would settle for two minor additions in Derrek Lee and Ryan Ludwick, which filled temporary needs without losing any real minor league talent. The team would finish the season 19-43 and ended up in fourth place, a tease to the fanbase if there ever was one.

If you asked me at the time, I was as smart a baseball fan as you’d ever find in an 18-year-old kid, and I was ready to be done with the Wilsons, Sanchezs, and Bays of the world as long as it meant we brought in some minor league players that you could at least imagine becoming a part of a winning Pittsburgh Pirate team.

Another hot first half made the Pirates buyers again in 2012, this time with an even better Major League team on paper. The front office was a bit more confident in what they had at the upper levels, and they displayed that in trading Rudy Owens, Robbie Grossman, and Colton Cain to Houston for immediate pitching help in Wandy Rodriguez. They would complete their trade deadline by filling an outfield need with Travis Snider, whom they got for a strong bullpen arm in Brad Lincoln that they felt they could deal without. Fans watched the team go through their second heartbreaking collapse, but they would manage to finish with a much more respectable 79-83 record.

I would graduate college in May of 2013 and was fortunate enough to start a full time job in IT in downtown Pittsburgh just two days after receiving my diploma. The Pirates were seemingly just waiting for me to finish my schooling, because you all know what happened in that summer of 2013.

The last two-and-a-half years of my life have been significantly less interesting, so I’ll stop dragging that story along. The Major League team had found its first winning combination in 20 years, without much help from the names mentioned above acquired in trades. Charlie Morton and Jeff Locke were the only significant acquisitions that helped the Pirates in their last two winning seasons, and much more credit should be given to international signings (Starling Marte), free agent steals (Russell Martin, Edinson Volquez, and Francisco Liriano), one buy-low trade helped by a wife’s fear of flying (A.J. Burnett), and the willingness to spend big in the draft (Alvarez and Gerrit Cole). It was a rough, windy road to take, but it worked out well and the Pirates have another very solid team that’s looking at a very good chance at making the playoffs for the third time in a row, which would have been unheard of back when I was washing dishes in the summer of 2009.

As for me, not a Pirate game goes by where I’m not at least keeping an eye on the score. I’ve matured quite a bit since I was that 18-year-old kid blowing off half-eaten plates of fettucini just to check Altoona Curve box scores, and it’s been quite a drag. Growing up sucks, but at least the Pirates winning percentage has grown along with me.