For many years, the Pittsburgh Pirates played their home games at Three Rivers Stadium, a home they shared with the Steelers at the confluence of the Allegheny, Ohio and Monongahela Rivers. It was a picturesque setting, except that the upper bowl encircled the ballpark and blotted out any sense of place.

The Pirates’ current ballpark, PNC Park, sits close to the old one and opens to the city, the decks of seats along the baselines stretching out, like welcoming arms. For 12 years, the stadium hosted only losing teams, home to a tradition in tatters. Then came 2013.

The Pirates broke their streak of 20 losing seasons — the longest stretch of misery in the history of the major American sports — and earned a date with the Cincinnati Reds in the National League wild-card game on Oct. 1. Wild cards did not exist in 1992, the last time the Pirates had been winners, but the setting hardly felt like a gimmick. It felt like the most thrilling moment of the baseball season.

The fans were the reason. They glided across the golden Roberto Clemente Bridge to the North Shore, where the bars and the restaurants hummed. Jolly Rogers topped the boats docked along the Ohio. Doug Drabek, who had lost the Pirates’ last playoff game, fired the first pitch and waved a black towel. Petrina McCutchen, whose son Andrew is the Pirates’ star center fielder, belted out the national anthem.