My wife’s aunt, Pat, has redefined what it is to be a Pittsburgh Pirates’ fan.

If Los Angeles fans bleed Dodger Blue, Pat certainly has Black and Gold coursing through her veins.

Even in the midst of a historic stretch of losing, Pat has stood by her “Boyz of Summer” as she is fond of calling them.

She even jokingly convinced Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl to start the ticker-tape parade in front of her home in Edgewood should the Bucs win the World Series.

Each spring she proclaims, “This is our year.”

Of course, each year she has been wrong.

Well, except for this one, maybe.

The Pirates are actually, gasp, good. At the All-Star Break, they sit 11 games above .500 and are in first place in the National League Central.

They have won more games than the Dodgers, the Phillies, the Red Sox and the Braves.

Only three teams — the Nationals, Yankees and Rangers — have won more games this season.

They have arguably the best young player in the National League in Andrew McCutchen, who leads all of baseball with a .362 average and all the Universe in charisma.

Too bad no one else has noticed.

Here in the Pittsburgh area, we have. How could we not?

The losing seasons have piled up faster than traffic on the Parkway during rush hour.

“Wait until next year,” has been uttered more times than “yinz” and “jaggoff.”

So, now that the Bucs are finally, gasp, good, we get excited while the rest of the country goes about its business, oblivious.

It’s understandable. When a team has been as bad for as long as the Pirates have, people just assume they are stinking up the North Shore again.

That fact has been fairly evident by watching ESPN and other national sports networks.

The World Wide Leader in Red Sox-Yankees coverage has mostly turned a blind eye to the Buccos.

Sure, they show highlights and say stuff like, “Hey, they aren’t as bad as they usually are.”

It still hasn’t quite registered that this team might actually be for real.

It’s almost as if two decades of losing has erased the franchise from all consciousness.

The Pirates have been in a sort of baseball witness protection program since 1992.

“You mean Pittsburgh still has a team? When did that happen?”

The Pirate ignorance also was apparent during the All-Star Game coverage Monday and Tuesday.

While McCutchen was taking his hacks during the home run derby, ESPN interviewed Josh Hamilton.

When Joel Hanrahan entered the game Tuesday and was blowing people away, one of the announcers said something to the effect of, “They should call him ‘The Hammer.’”

Um ...

Even when the Pirates were discussed, it involved their second-half collapse of last season.

Should the Bucs win the division or make the playoffs, perhaps people outside of Western Pennsylvania will finally notice.

Maybe “next year” is this year. That would make Pat very, very happy.

Mike Kilroy is staff writer for the Butler Eagle.