One hundred losses. 100. 1-0-0. It’s a lot of losses. You might say that it’s a ton of losses, but because a loss doesn’t have an assigned weight or mass, it’s pretty impossible to say what a ton of losses is exactly. It’s hard to define exactly why 100 losses is worse than 98 or 99 losses, except to say that once upon a time, back before you or I were even a twinkle in the twinkle in the eye of our greatest grandparents, someone counted to nine and quit.
What I’m trying to say is this: people are going to make a big deal about 100 losses. They’re going to point out that the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise lost 100 games in 2010 for only the third time since the 1950s. They’ll likely point out that for someone my age (born: January 1985), the Pirates have lost 100 games in a season as many times as they’ve made the playoffs. And all of the people that say those things will be 100%, dead-on balls-accurate.
But the point is that 100 losses is just a number, and that the Pirates are ending 2010 with a pretty good idea that Neil Walker and Jose Tabata are legitimate Major League players. They’re ending 2010 with James McDonald in black and gold instead of Dodger blue. They’re ending 2010 with much more elite minor league pitching talent than they began it with. 100 losses is a lot of losses, but it doesn’t have to mean that the future is dark. It’s possible, of course, that the Pirates’ future will be dark, but it doesn’t have to be. And that’s what’s worth remembering tonight.
