PITTSBURGH — The family reunion will be short. Whether it will be sweet hardly matters. At last, the wounds of 21 years of futility have finally started to heal.

One magical summer took care of all that.

When the Pittsburgh Pirates take the field for Monday’s opener against the rebuilding Chicago Cubs, they’ll do it without the burden of two decades of losing. They’ll do it with the momentum that comes after the best season in a generation, and something just as valuable as they try to prove their breakout 2013 was no fluke: legitimate optimism.

“I feel very confident about the hunger in the room, the focus on getting better,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “These guys work hard and they have a lot of fun. It’s a unique combination to be a part of.”

One last bit of housekeeping awaits for the Pirates before 2014 begins. In a nod to the club’s storied past and its promising present, two familiar faces will provide some closure on a breathtaking season when Barry Bonds and Jim Leyland present their current-day counterparts with a little hardware.

Bonds will hand star center fielder Andrew McCutchen the 2013 NL MVP Award. Leyland will do the same for Hurdle, the 2013 NL Manager of the Year.

Leyland remains a beloved figure 18 years after his departure. Bonds, whose decision to leave Pittsburgh for San Francisco following the 1992 season marked the start of the darkest era in Pirates history, does not.

Though their reception might be mixed, their presence will serve as a symbolic closing of one of the most ignominious chapters in the history of professional sports.

Finally, baseball is back in Pittsburgh.

“This is a group that has come together,” Hurdle said. “They know what they want, they know the sacrifice they have to make to get there.”

Perhaps it’s fitting then, that the player who exemplified Pittsburgh’s resurgence in 2013 will take the mound in the opener. Last spring, left-hander Francisco Liriano was rehabilitating a broken right arm.