While many of you are in full football frenzy, plopped down on the sofa, drinking a beverage out of your favorite football shaped glass and watching the NFL Network 24 hours a day, there is another sport going on.

It's called baseball. And it doesn't involve Fran Charles, Marshall Faulk or Jim Mora talking about the playoffs.

Playoffs? Playoffs? Talking about playoffs? Playoffs?

This practice is completely understandable.

Baseball in the Pittsburgh area is dead. Losing every year for nearly two decades will do that to you.

The Pirates wrapped up losing season No. 17 early this week, not that it was a shock — No. 17 was as inevitable as a Matt Capps blown save.

The last winning season was in 1992, and media outlets from the Internet to print have emptied the time capsules with stuff like:

• Brett Favre made his debut with the Green Bay Packers the last time the Pirates had a winning season.

• Johnny Carson and "The Cosby Show" were still on the air" the last time the Pirates had a winning season.

• Al Gore hadn't even invented the Internet yet the last time the Pirates had a winning season.

It's a shame baseball is so irrelevant in this region in September because there are some intriguing things going on in Major League Baseball now.

Such as ...

•

The Colorado Rockies re-living 2007 all over again.Two years ago, the Rockies went on an amazing run, winning 14 of their last 15 games to make the playoffs.In 2009, Colorado began the season 10 games under .500, fired manager Clint Hurdle and gave the job to Jim Tracy (remember him, Pirates fans? The dude who couldn't manage?).All Tracy has done is lead the Rockies to a 63-32 record since taking over.I guess Tracy wasn't the reason for the Pirates' losing seasons in 2006 and 2007 after all.•

Veteran pitchers should take a pass on the American League.Need more proof the National League is the inferior circuit?I give you Exhibit A: John Smoltz. Exhibit B: Brad Penny.Smoltz was a glorified BP pitcher in Boston. His ERA carried more girth than Prince Fielder.The Red Sox ultimately pulled the rip cord and bailed out of the crashing, flaming plane that was Smoltz, who then signed with St. Louis and went from Anthony Young to Cy Young.Penny, another pitcher jettisoned by Boston because, well, he couldn't get any American League hitters out, signed with the San Francisco Giants and tossed eight shutout innings in his first start.He never made it into the seventh with Boston.Perhaps that will be the Buccos major pitch to hurlers in the offseason."I know we have 17 straight losing season, but we are in the NL."•

The human fan, Brian Bixler. Some jaw-dropping stats from Mr. Bixler, and not in a good way: 33 at-bats, 23 whiffs. Ouch. Sounds like my stat line when I played baseball.Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.