Our goal is to make the playoffs, period.

Full stop.

This was from Travis Williams, of course.

Last fall, Travis himself is very familiar with the impact that this had on the fan base

in various forms. He also really, really, really realizes that it's going to come up a time

or two billion between now and the end of the coming season. Good morning to you. Good. Wednesday morning

from New York. I'm Dan Kovachievich of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports and this is Daily Shot of Pirates. It comes

your way bright and early every weekday. If you're into football and or hockey, I also offer

daily shots of Steelers and Penguins in the same place

that you found this. Pirates versus Mets opens the Pittsburgh Baseball Club's 145th season.

Tomorrow here at City Field, the team will engage in a pre-opener practice this morning and into the afternoon.

That's why I'm up here a day early to cover that.

And from there, the real thing begin tomorrow in the form of a first pitch from Freddie Peralta to I'm going to presume it's O'Neill Cruz at 1.15 p.m. And then there we go. You know,

to the playoffs. From 71 wins to something in the high 80s, from perennially dead last in the central

to, I guess, at least one of the top couple of spots, from packing it

all in at the end of September to playing ball in October. That's the spirit of the spring.

That's what everybody right now wants to hear, wants to believe, and I am completely cool with that.

But I've also got an accompanying question to go with it.

What if they don't?

What if they fall short of the playoffs?

Never mind the possibility that they fall a mile short of the playoffs.

What happens?

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