Cory Giger

As we welcome the Curve back to the playoffs for the first time in seven years, I get to dust off one of my favorite sayings: Fans in this region have long been spoiled by the Curve’s success.

This is the 10th time in 27 years (26 seasons) that the franchise has reached the Eastern League playoffs. The ratio used to look a lot better prior to the recent seven-year drought, but still, postseason appearances haven’t just been a hope for the club, but rather the expectation.

The Curve flirted with the playoffs their first few years before finally making it in 2003, then made it the next three years, as well. The team brought the city its first professional sports championship in 2010, and another came seven years later in 2017.

That 2017 title came as part of a four-year stretch (2015-18) when the Curve made the playoffs each season. Again, that’s when it was abundantly clear just how spoiled we all were to get to see quality minor league baseball every season.

I remember Pirates personnel telling me repeatedly back in 1999 — and for many years after — that they definitely wanted to win in Double-A. Say what you will about the Pirates’ lack of total commitment to winning in the big leagues over the years, but in all honesty, they did hold up their end of the bargain with the Curve.

In the franchise’s early days, the Pirates did whatever they could to mix and match prospects and veterans to give the Curve their best chance to win every night. Remember, Adam Hyzdu was 27 years old when he was signed by the Pirates and assigned to Altoona in 1999, a move that helped ensure that year’s young team would have a true leader.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Minor league baseball isn’t supposed to be about winning.

OK, that is true. Development of players trumps everything.

But if you’ve followed the Curve since the beginning, you also know how important winning has been for fans in Altoona and throughout the region. We pride ourselves on championships here. From Steelers fans, to Penn State football, to the Penguins and Penn State wrestling, fans of many different teams here have grown up spoiled.

I do not believe the Curve franchise would have been anywhere near as successful as it’s been all these years without the team on the field enjoying a lot of success. The Pirates laid the foundation early on that they were committed to winning in Altoona, and we’ve all reaped the benefits of it.

That was never more true than 2010, when the Pirates left the entire fantastic core of the team — Josh Harrison, Matt Hague, Rudy Owens, Tony Watson, Justin Wilson, etc. — with the Curve all season, and it led to a championship. The Pirates could have promoted all of those guys to Triple-A, but they held off doing so, and the Curve greatly benefited.

The 2017 championship team came on strong late and, led by Mitch Keller, surprised many people by winning the EL title. Anyone who was at Peoples Natural Gas Field on that magical evening of Sept. 14, 2017 will never forget the amazing atmosphere as the Curve finished off Trenton for the championship.

It would be awesome to see something like that happen again this year.

Cory Giger covered the Curve from 1999 through 2022 for the Mirror, making him the longest-tenured minor league beat writer in the country at that time.