With the Pirates sitting on 81 wins, it’s just a matter of time until winning baseball officially returns to Pittsburgh.

While hopes are high as to where the Pirates can go the rest of this season, it’s also a fitting time to look back on where they’ve been.

It was a few minutes before midnight, October 14, 1992. I was sitting in the reclining chair in our living room with a blank stare aimed at the television. To my chagrin, I was watching the Atlanta Braves celebrate their second straight National League Championship Series win over the Pirates. Atlanta was trailing 2-0 entering the bottom of the ninth inning. Every Pittsburgh baseball fan old enough remembers the rest of the story. In short, Francisco Cabrera’s name will always hold a place — and not a good one — in Pirates’ history.

My dad was sleeping on the couch, unaware that I, with every other Pirate fan, had just had my heart ripped out.

After about 20 minutes, he awoke and asked how the game had turned out. I told him in a very matter-of-fact voice and he reacted by saying, “What?! They were winning before I fell asleep.” Some things never change with my dad. When he takes a nap, he expects everything to be exactly the same when he wakes up, even the score of a baseball game.

Anyway, I made my way upstairs and got into bed. I wanted to fall asleep as soon as possible, to get my conscious mind off the disappointment.

Even as a 14-year old kid, I realized that the Pirates would struggle for the next few years. Many of the key players who had helped Pittsburgh to three straight 90-plus win seasons were as good as gone thanks to free agency. That group included Barry Bonds, Doug Drabek and Jose Lind.

Little did I know that it would be 21 years before Pittsburgh would have winning baseball again.

Players like Jason Kendall, Kevin Young, Brian Giles, Aramis Ramirez, Jack Wilson, Denny Neagle, Reggie Sanders and Todd Ritchie, among many others, were all sold to Pirate fans as part of the team that would get the Pirates back to the playoffs, or at least above .500.

It never happened. Sure, there were glimpses of success, but I’m a firm believer that you are what your record says you are. And at the end of every season, the Pirates were losers.

Finally, a group that includes Andrew McCutchen, Pedro Alvarez, Russell Martin, A.J. Burnett and Francisco Liriano, among others, has turned the pushover Pirates into the bully and, as a fan, I love it.

Who knows how this year will turn out? Maybe another heart-breaking postseason is around the corner, but I’ll take it.

It would sure beat anything from the last 20 years.

Derek Pyda is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.