"Every season has its peaks and valleys.
What you have to try to do is eliminate the Grand Canyon."
--Andy Van Slyke
In the Canyon: 16 years and counting ...

In the spring of 2005, I was bored. As a sophomore at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, I knew several things. I knew that I didn't like studying for organic chemistry. I knew that liked talking about the Pittsburgh Pirates. And I knew that being a science major didn't give me nearly the outlet that I wanted to write.

On a whim one night shortly after the beginning of the 2005 season, I created a Pirate blog. I quickly named it after the player I idolized as a child, the player that made me love baseball as a kid: Andy Van Slyke. I initially intended to write for family and friends, though I slowly built up the nerve to push it out to a general audience on the internet. To my surprise, it found one.

That this blog still exists and has any audience at all is, as far as I can tell, a testament to Pirate fans. By any standard, the Pirates shouldn't have fans. If they complete another losing season in 2009, the Pirates will have put their fans through something that no fans in the history of American sports have ever had to endure: 17 losing season. Writing WHYGAVS quickly helped me realize that despite this, there are still many smart and passionate Pirate fans out there that care about the team and obsess over the Bucs every bit as much as I do.

Nearly four years later, I still study science but I no longer live in Pittsburgh. WHYGAVS is still here, because as long as the Pirates are playing baseball, I'm going to have an opinion about them.