Intro to The White Flag

Well after months of contemplation (and 15+ years of the Pirates losing), we've decided to do it. We've finally had enough of bending over and taking the McClatchy and Nutting soft-serve. The name pretty much sums it up. The White Flag. We've now endured season after season of losing, bad decisions, bad personnel moves, bad...well just plain bad. Bad everything.

So rather than turning a new page, or giving the new management some time to prove themselves, we have decided it is time to "go big or go home". We're gonna let everything hang out and hope that if nothing else, we can spark some more interest in the lovable losing Pirates.

The White Flag has several meanings. In addition to the aforementioned losing streak, we would also like to commend the following pitchers for being the White Flag of the Pittsburgh Pirates for the last 15 years. Here are the nominations:

1993: Mark Petkovsek
1994: Blas Minor
1995: Jim Gott
1996: Steve Parris
1997: Dave Wainhouse
1998: Todd Van Poppel
1999: Jose Silva
2000: Jeff Wallace
2001: Omar Oliveras
2002: Ron Villone
2003: Brian Boehringer
2004: Ryan Vogelsong
2005: Ryan Vogelsong
2006: Victor Santos
2007: Tony Armas Jr.

Each one of these names should bring back a certain ire to any Pirates fan, along with the constant notion of "why?". At any rate, those 15 names represent a whole bunch of worthless as far as I'm concerned, and I'm happy to debate the early stages of 2008's White Flag (think Meek, Osoria, Morris).