Time to write anew about uniformed emotion, overdone self-interest, and anonymous carping. Yep, we’re talking sports — a two-pronged observation on racing’s Memorial Day weekend and the coming back to Earth in May of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
First, the racing.
The Indianapolis 500 ended in dramatic fashion Sunday, traditional Memorial Day, with a last-lap pass after yet another red-flag stoppage due to an accident, that saw American Josef Newgarden edging out Swede Marcus Ericsson for the win.
Ericsson, the defending Indy champion, believed race officials should merely have run out the race under caution instead of stopping it to allow time for actual racing to the finish, not exactly an altruistic thought since Ericsson was leading at the time of the last red flag.
But Indy, which did a similar thing last year, throwing a late red flag to give the fans a green-flag finish, only repeated history. Last year, when Ericsson held the lead, that red flag was OK.
This year, when Newgarden was able to overcome Ericsson’s weaving and blocking to pass him, the Swede spewed sour grapes about it all being “unfair.”
So, last year, when Ericssson won, it was fair. This year, he didn’t win; unfair.
Not everyone agreed with that assessment.
Fellow driver Santino Ferrucci, who finished third driving for the team of legendary A.J. Foyt, the team’s best Indy finish since 1999, was quoted as having no problem with red-flagging Indy races late, and restarting them for a green-flag finish, either last year or this.
And Tony Kanaan, who won Indy in 2013, a race finished under the yellow flag, also was quoted as agreeing that finishing races under the green flag was the way to do it: “I think it was perfect.”
I did see at least one story which panned the finish, but didn’t bother to get anybody on the record. An unofficial canvass of social media indicated that finishing a race under green-flag racing conditions was popular, imagine that.
Rain scrambled NASCAR’s scheduling, sort of like many traditional celebrations in this area often are – but not this year – forcing the Coke 600 to be run Monday.
Along the way, Chase Elliott appeared to wreck intentionally fellow racer Denny Hamlin, prompting Hamlin to label it a “tantrum” in an interview after the event and call for a one-race suspension for Elliott.
There was no word whether Hamlin planned to park his team’s car transporter trailers in front of Elliott’s house to get even for the affront.
And fan video showed an incident earlier in the race involving Bubba Wallace and Aric Almirola, According to Almirola, Wallace, who was not reprimanded by NASCAR for giving the finger to someone during a live TV interview the past race, gave the finger to Almirola in Monday’s Coke 600,
During a red flag stoppage later in the race, Almirola approached Wallace in pit lane and, again according to Almirola, he shoved him because of the combination of the vulgar gesture and some “cussing” Wallace did during their pit-lane chat.
Now, about the Pirates, who inexplicably began the season 20-9 through April, but have gone just 6-18 in May. Their 14-4 loss to San Francisco Monday put the Pirates’ record at 26-27, the first time they’ve been under .500 since the third game of the season.
And I’m reminded of a fan discussion between a man and woman overheard at a bar-restaurant on opening day.
The man was talking the postseason for the Pirates and the woman, citing recent history, was questioning his sanity. This amused my wife, and I told her, as a guy who did this for a living for 35 years or so, the woman most likely was right.
When the Pirates were winning at a 69-percent rate through April and on pace to win 112 games for the season, I was questioning my sanity. Maybe my wife would have been, too. Fortunately she pays little attention to sports.
But the great thing about the 162-game baseball season is it eventually separates contenders from pretenders and this is far from a great Pirates team.
The franchise’s top win total ever was 110, which came in 1909, during a 152-game schedule, not the current 162 games. Those Pirates would go on to win the World Series.
The 1979 Pirates, also World Series winners, went 98-64 during the regular season. And the 1960 World Series winning Pirates were 95-59 in the regular season.
Pirates fan sites were replete Monday night with anonymous keyboard warriors giving up and walking the plank regarding the season.
“Nice while it lasted” wrote one.
But the Pirates are blessed to play in a weak NL Central Division and despite this swoon, are in second place, just two games behind the Milwaukee Brewers.
By way of comparison, all five teams in the AL East have better records than the Pirates and the Pirates would slot in fifth place in the AL West and fourth in the NL East and NL West.
There is hope for the Pirates based on their division. But expecting results like April to be repeated is extremely unrealistic.
Sam Ross Jr's site 