PENN TWP — Sister Sledge and an annual pledge.

Carol Edwards heard the former and has maintained the latter.

Edwards, 64, a Penn Township resident, will be attending her 40th consecutive Pittsburgh Pirates home opener Monday when the Bucs entertain the St. Louis Cardinals.

“Baseball's always been my sport and the Pirates are my team,” Edwards said. “I guess it's because the games are played in the spring and summer.

“I like the nice weather. My sister had season tickets to Pitt football and took me to a game. I was so cold I couldn't feel my feet.”

Edwards' streak of attending Pirate openers began in 1980, the year after the team's last World Series championship. She remembers the music group Sister Sledge performing its hit song “We Are Family” and the Pirates being paraded around the field while sitting in convertibles.

“That was such a fun time,” Edwards recalled. “I've been an optimist ever since. I can't help it. Every year, I say it's our year.”

Edwards used to attend Opening Day with a family member or two. She got her daughters on board with the idea years ago.

One daughter, Laura, has gone to every home opener with her mother in recent years with one exception.

“I was pregnant with my daughter and pretty far along ... I didn't want a bunch of people in the ballpark trying to deliver my baby,” she said.

Her other daughter, Cindie, relocated to Florida for a while and missed an opener.

“Otherwise, I'd be building up a pretty good streak myself right now,” she said.

While Edwards' streak has gone on, her company at the game has grown through the years.

She plays in the 8-ball co-ed pool league at The Beacon restaurant and has recruited a number of Pirate fans while frequenting that establishment.

“Once you've been coming (to the Beacon) for a while, you become part of the family here,” Edwards said. “When the Pirates moved into PNC Park, I got a 20-game season ticket plan because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get tickets for the first game otherwise.

“Now I get a bunch of people together and we go as a group of 15 or more.”

Debra Krelow, an owner of The Beacon, has a bus of 20 people — including Edwards and her daughters — leaving from the restaurant for Monday's game.

Edwards used to attend the opener with one or both of her sisters, Peg and Kathy. Now her daughters go. Later this season, 5-year-old grand-daughter Madi will attend her first Pirate game with them.

“She's a little too young to subject her to that big opening game crowd,” Edwards said. “We'll probably take her to next year's opener.”

At Monday's opener, Edwards' daughters hope to have a message for their mother appear on the ballpark Jumbo-tron.

“When she did her 30th straight opener, we had a message put up there that said, “Rain or shine, sleet or snow, she's been here 30 years in a row,'” Cindie said.

“This year, it's going to say, 'Through cheers and tears, Mom's been here for 40 years.'”

Edwards said she never liked Three Rivers Stadium for baseball.

“I sat in the upper deck and the players looked like ants,” she said. “PNC Park isn't a stadium. It's a ballpark.

Edwards does not have cable TV in her home. She attends five or six Pirate games a year. She listens to the rest of the games on the radio or catches a few on TV at The Beacon.

“When I'm in here watching the ballgame ... everyone knows not to bother me,” she said, laughing.

So how much longer will Edwards' streak go on?

“As long as I'm able,” she insisted. “When I can no longer walk, my daughters have been instructed to wheel me into that ballpark.”

Laura concurred.

“It's true,” she said, smiling. “She made us promise.”