Editorial: Is this the Pirates' year?

Baseball is a game of numbers.

Sure, every sport can claim that to some extent. A scoreboard is all about the numbers, after all. A tie is never broken by an essay question.

But baseball may be the peak intersection of jocks and accountants. Even before the book (and movie) “Moneyball” brought a spotlight to the predictive and analytic power of math in sports, baseball was as much about statistics as it was about pitching.

The sports industry uses numbers to analyze the best and worst of throwing, catching, hitting and running. The fans calculate their favorite players’ percentages and their teams’ averages. The ever- growing, multibillion-dollar sports betting industry is like alchemy, spinning the lead of sports numbers into the gold of gambling wealth.

In cities with Major League Baseball teams, investment in stadiums is a numbers game, too. The idea is to provide infrastructure for a sport that will act like a battery, juicing the local economy. Aside from ticket sales and broadcast money and the sponsorship agreements, sports can pay off in hotel stays, bar tabs, restaurant meals, pumped gas and retail revenue.

Does that happen in Pittsburgh? Of course it does.

If the Pirates were a TV show, they would have been canceled decades ago. Sports, however, plays a long game. When you change the skyline of a city with a massive building project, you have to be in for the long haul.

But the economy surrounding the Pirates makes money even if the team doesn’t win. Pittsburgh is a convenient destination for Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, meaning there are plenty of fans willing to make a drive or take a flight to see their team win.

And there’s a good chance that’s what they will see. The team has a depressing list of losing seasons. Fans don’t expect a World Series run. A postseason is mythically rare.

Despite building dreams around the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year, pitcher Paul Skenes, and the return of hitter Andrew McCutchen, the only confidence many fans have is the Pirates front office will find a way to screw things up for them.

The 2025 season has started in the basement. The best thing the Pirates can say is they aren’t the bottom-of-the-barrel Atlanta Braves. That’s something — but the team has a tendency to start stronger and peter out. Yikes.

The team — specifically, the management — owes Pittsburgh better baseball. We have said that before. Almost everyone has said that before. During Friday’s home opener, a flyover banner begged owner Bob Nutting to sell the team.

The city, the county and the region have supported the team in multiple ways, through the worst times and the not-quite-as-bad times. There has been a drought of return. That needs to end. This should be the last bad year.

The numbers are in Pittsburgh’s favor. Statistically, the Pirates should be good eventually. The fans — and the players — deserve a concerted effort to have a goal that isn’t just eking out a winning season. They deserve a winning team.