Monday, July 1, 2013

Nobody Ever Told Me Zoltan Was Back

Out in the Pirate hinterlands, news of the Buccos is sporadic and often unreliable.  But, I was still surprised to hear recently that early on in the season, McCutchen had announced that Zoltan was back.

One might think that Zoltan would be an unreliable source of power after the Pirates' epic collapse last year.  But the forces of the supernatural are niether predictable nor fully capable of human understanding.  Maybe, like heroes of old, the Pirates had to undergo trials before Zoltan would grant them a boon.  If nothing else, Zoltan explains the Pirates' still soaring Luck Rating as generated by teamrankings.com.  It has now risen to an unprecedented 9.0, while number 2 Baltimore scores only a 4.1.  Let's just hope that the power of Zoltan can ward off end of season fatigue.



Travis Snider flashes the Zoltan salute after his RBI triple in the second inning against the Cubs on May 23rd. As Snider slid safely into third, he didn’t bother to get up or even look up before putting on the Zoltan sign.





Of course, Snider is capable of generating magic of his own, like when he climbed the chain link fence in Citi Field and robbed Mets' Mike Baxter of a home run last year.

1 comment:

James R said...

I had not seen that catch. (After last year, which came after 19 previous years, I not only reconsidered the Pirates, but all spectator sports. Play them, don't watch them.) Here you can see that it may be the greatest catch ever made. Snyder is not Willie Mays so you will never convince anyone of that, but notice that long before the ball arrives, Snyder looks away from the ball, judges its position and momentum (not easy in this day of quantum mechanics) finds a spot on the fence where his calculations tell him the ball will pass over, plants his foot, climbs the fence, grabs on to the top of the fence with his left arm and elbow, looks uo to try and find the ball again, extends the right hand, and barely snow cone the ball.