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Source: Erie Times-News, Pa.迷你倉庫Aug. 11--It didn't take long for the Cleveland Indians game to go south in a major way on Thursday night, and after a trying day at work I was in no mood to watch the first-place Detroit Tigers finish the sweep with a rout.So I switched to a channel I knew would offer a happy ending. The Pittsburgh Pirates had won earlier in the day with a walk-off single in extra innings, and the replay was inspiring even without the suspense.Those would be the first-place Pirates. Those would be, on that night, the best-record-in-baseball Pirates.My old friend Tina, a maven of all Pittsburgh sports franchises, has fully bought into the program. After each win, she takes to Facebook to raise the Jolly Roger and proclaim, "I BELIEVE!"Other Bucs fans I know are more cautious. They're digging their team's run, sure, but they're a bit reluctant to trust it.They have their reasons, chief among them living through the Pirates becoming a punch line as they compiled the longest string of losing seasons, 20, of any team in North American professional sports. Even seeing the Bucs hitting on all cylinders well into August can't completely dispel the effects of that.A similar psychology can be found among my fellow Cleveland Browns fans, some of whom are diligently downplaying hopeful signs coming from the new regime. If you don't get your hopes up, the Browns can't let you down.There's no rivalry between local Pirates and Indians fans to parallel the spiteful divide between the faithful of the Browns and Pittsburgh's Steelers, though I suppose that might change if the local favorites ever collided in the World Series. They're in different leagues in a more genteel game.In fact, I've long rooted for the Bucs second only to the Tribe. I was raised that way.Following her Pirates was one of the big joys of life for my grandmother, who lived with us for much of my childhood. In those days before cable, she'd follow their fortunes religiously on her transistor radio.Her passion for the Pirates rubbed off more readi儲存y, I'm sure, because they were winners in those grade school years when I first started paying close attention. My only real sporting idol as a kid was the great Pittsburgh right fielder Roberto Clemente.My loyalties drifted to the Indians in due course, perhaps conditioned by my friends or out of geographic solidarity with my dad's preference for football's Browns. But my soft spot for the Pirates endured.I remember my whole family gathered around the 25-inch console TV on that October evening in 1979 when Willie Stargell cranked one in Game 7 on the way to the Pirates winning the Series, their second of the decade. We were cheering for Grandma as much as the Bucs.The championships of the 1970s are just stories to younger generations of Pittsburgh fans. And the past two decades, with the unrelenting litany of losing, have taunted those who remember glory days and denied younger fans any highlights of their own.Pittsburgh sports backers can't complain too much in the scheme of things. There have been Super Bowl rings and Stanley Cups in the years since the Jolly Roger was the last banner waving.But I remind myself that if my grandmother even knew the Steelers existed, she paid them no mind. And I'm pretty sure she never watched a hockey game in her life.To her, baseball was the only game there was. And when her Bucs were going well, all was right with the world.Memories of that are a big part of what has me rooting for the Pirates almost as much as the Indians this summer. I think of how avidly she'd be following along, pulling for "my boys."Now and then the world of sports comes up with a magical, out-of-nowhere moment. Here's hoping that what's unfolding at PNC Park turns out to be one of them.Write to Managing Editor Pat Howard at 205 W. 12th St., Erie, PA 16534, or e-mail him at pat.howard@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNhoward.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Erie Times-News (Erie, Pa.) Visit the Erie Times-News (Erie, Pa.) at .GoErie.com Distributed by MCT Information Services新蒲崗迷你倉