Tuesday, August 19, 2008 Bits by jc * According to USA Today, Pirates' director of Latin American scouting Rene Gayo is at the Olympics * Chad Tracy, son of former Bucco manager Jim Tracy, leads his Texas League team Frisco on August 16th. * Pirate 2004 draft pick Sean Spetzer was named starting QB for Utah State. *Meanwhile former Bucco farmhand Joe Bauserman will ride the pine as a backup QB for the Ohio State Buckeyes. * New Pirate Craig Hansen doesn't miss the Sawx. * Some guy named Jason Bay continues to impress those same Sawx and their fans. * SI.com fantasy advice: play Freddy Sanchez, bench Andy LaRoche. Posted at: 09:35 AM EST | | Buc Up! by jc Greetings and salutations. Welcome to "Buc Up!" a chronicling of the Pittsburgh Pirates, baseball, and other teams (Penguins, Steelers, whoever else I feel like writing about at that point in time). Why "Buc Up!" and why not some other title, you may find yourself asking? Let us consult the dear Mr. Michael Quinion from World Wide Words: "BUCK UP" We use it now to suggest somebody should cheer up, and not be downhearted or oppressed by circumstances. It is a phrase from nineteenth century Britain, derived from those bucks or dandies who were regarded as the acme of snappy dressing in the Regency period. (In its turn, that word came from buck in the sense of the animal, and had a slightly older meaning still that suggested male gaiety or spirit, with unsubtle suggestions of rutting deer.) In its dandyfied sense buck up first meant to dress smartly, for a man to get out of those comfortable old clothes and into something drop-dead gorgeous. Since to do so was often a fillip to the spirit, the phrase shifted sometime around the 1880s to its modern meaning. It seems to have been public school slang to start with, probably from Winchester College, and rather stiff-upper-lip British. It could suggest that the person being addressed should stop acting like a wuss, ninny or coward, as here from Edith Nesbit’s The Wouldbegoods of 1901: “Be a man! Buck up!”, and was something of a cliché at one time in stories of Englishmen abroad bravely facing adversity. From the early years of the twentieth century, it could also be an injunction on somebody to get a move on or hurry up; here’s an example, from D H Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers of 1913: “ ‘Half-past eight!’ he said. ‘We’d better buck up’ ”. And there you have it, my dear reader. If you are a Pirate fan, and by reading this blog you must have at least a small interest in the affairs of the Corsairs, then you know that of which I speak. Fifteen years of losing, going on Sweet (Sour?) Sixteen and yet time and time again we are told by management to look on the bright side of things, that hope springs eternal, that this rebuilding will actually work. Perhaps this time it shall, but who are we to know? The only thing we can do is to "buck up" to cheer up, to hope. And meanwhile we in turn ask those in charge of said rebuilding to "buck up" to speed it along, to start winning. Otherwise we risk being witness to another series of Bonifay and Littlefieldesque "buck ups" and mistakes. So join me, dear reader, as we attempt to explore the lighter side of being a Pirate fan... Posted at: 08:59 AM EST | |	CALENDAR August 2008 S M T W T F S           1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31             [Archives] SEARCH Search Buc Up: [Archives] SYNDICATE LINKS PIRATE BLOGS Honest Wagner WHYGAVS Mondesi's House Jake's Bucco Blog Bucs Dugout PIRATE NEWS LINKS Pittsburgh Pirates: Official Site Post-Gazette Sports: Pirates Post-Gazette PBC Blog Tribune-Review: Pirates ESPN.com Ballbug BASEBALL RESOURCES Baseball Reference Retrosheet.org The Deadball Era Ballparks.com OTHER BASEBALL BLOGS I LIKE Bronx Banter Brewerfan.net The Cub Reporter Get Up, Baby (Cardinals) Reds (and Blues) The Crawfish Boxes (Astros) BURGH WEATHER DATES TO REMEMBER September 28, 2008 - Last Pirate Game of the Season BLOG HELP