We break format in our Hugo- and Nebula-Award-winning 2008 Season Preview to reprint a recent speech from Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama, which seemed to be a pretty good Pittsburgh Pirates preview to us. We here present this speech excerpt, delivered last Thursday in Erie, Pennsylvania, with special permission from the Obama campaign. Thanks, Michelle!

…My fellow Americans, I stand before you today in western Pennsylvania, one of our great country’s most proud and patriotic regions. Obviously, I am asking for your vote in the upcoming Democratic primary. But I am not willing to pander for that vote — not only are you too smart to fall for that sort of thing, it just isn’t me. I think we all learned that in an Altoona bowling alley a few days ago. [Chuckles from crowd.] So I hope you don’t think that I am pandering to you when I tell you that you and I have something surprising in common: the Pittsburgh Pirates.

I was shocked the other day to read on an influential sports weblog that my esteemed opponent, Senator Clinton, claims to be a Yankees fan. [Lusty boos from audience.] Now, now — be cool. Everyone has the right — nay, the responsibility — to have a favorite baseball team. And it is true that there are many Yankees fans in this country, and I have no doubt that most of them are all patriotic Americans. A few of them, anyway.

As for me, I am happy to count myself as a proud fan of the great Pittsburgh Pirates. I always have been, ever since that important day in 1971 when they won the World Series behind the heroics of Roberto Clemente, Steve Blass, and Willie Stargell. I was just a child then, but it was the first time I ever loved a baseball team. I was crushed just a few months later when Clemente died in an airplane crash trying to help earthquake victims in Nicaragua; in many ways, my lifelong career in public service started on that fateful day of December 31. As a young African American growing up with a European American mother in Indonesia, I was thrilled when the Pirates fielded the first all-black lineup in the history of Major League Baseball. [Murmurs from crowd.] Not to denigrate the great Negro Leagues teams that brought joy and comfort, and a lot of great baseball, to many African Americans. [Relieved sighs from crowd.] And how could anyone not love the “We Are Family” teams of the late 1970s?

But my character was really formed in the years since then. Let’s face it: things have not been so hot for our team since 1979. We have consistently fielded one of the least-successful teams in baseball over the last three decades, and if we have a losing season this year we will beat the all-time record for consecutive futility by any American sports franchise. I will admit that I have often used bad language while perusing the morning newspaper, and even occasionally wept bitter tears over the sad state of my beloved Bucs. It’s been a long nightmare ever since. But never once did I abandon my team…our team. That’s not who I am.

So I will let Senator Clinton go ahead and root for the front-running Yankees, or Cubs, or whoever she decides is the most fashionable and convenient team on that particular day. As for me, I stand up for the underdog; the little guy; the unheard voices in our national choir. And I will never give up hope in the Pittsburgh Pirates.

You know, hope is a funny word. In fact, I wrote a book entitled “The Audacity of Hope.” There are many people who have criticized me for hoping for a better team. They say, “We just don’t have the money to compete in today’s game.” They say, “No one wants to come play here.” They say, “The era of great baseball in Pittsburgh is over.” I say, “Over? Really? Is that our best alternative? Surrender? Capitulation to the soulless corporate efficiency of the big market teams? Rooting for the Yankees? The Red Sox? [More scattered boos from crowd.]

Well, I don’t believe it. Hope, ultimately, is all we have, in politics as well as in baseball. I have hope that things are turning around for my beloved Pirates. Let’s start with the amazing PNC Park, a shining beacon in the heart of Pittsburgh, a veritable Mecca for baseball fans from all over the world. [Murmurs from crowd.] Oh, I didn’t mean the actual Mecca, I meant that as a metaphor only. [Cheers from crowd.]

We have a new manager, John Russell; he may not be the fieriest of guys, but he has a heart as big as the Monongahela, and twice as reliable. And we can also place our faith in Neal Huntington, truly one of the visionary general managers in the game today. His knowledge of numbers and data analysis are combined with a fierce will to win; a perfect fit in western Pennsylvania, where so many of you balance your own checkbooks and work so hard to put food on the table.

Ultimately, though, it is the players who have to win the games. And win they will in 2008. We’ve got an incredible amount of talent out there. Ian Snell is widely recognized as one of the toughest pitchers in the nation — hey, I took him in two different fantasy baseball drafts. [Random noise from crowd.] 2006 batting champ Freddy Sanchez still roams the infield, and Jason Bay will live up to his potential as the greatest Canadian-born hitter of all time. Don’t forget the Latino Americans on the roster, including José Bautista and Xavier Nady. I like what I’m seeing from Ryan Doumit behind the plate, and any team with Andy LaRoche at first is a team that is hardly ever going to throw the ball into the dugout.

In conclusion, I’m reminded of a recent conversation I had last week with a woman named Grace Kovac. Grace is a single mother in Johnstown, widowed when her husband John fell into an unsafe vat of boiling metal at one of this region’s fine steelworking shops. Things have been tough since then for Grace and her three children, Willie, Tyler, and Lester; she works three jobs during the week to try to feed her growing boys, but it still isn’t enough. Though the union members pitched in, the family still cannot cover their bills, and their health insurance has run out. She caught her foot in a swimming pool drain last month, and our antiquated court system cannot even guarantee that it will pay for the iron foot she now needs. When I meet with people like Grace, I usually end up having to reassure them that I can make everything all better through some kind of political legerdemain and my considerable personal charm. But Grace just looked me in the eye and said, “Hey, enough of my yappin’. How ’bout that little cutie Nate McLouth? He’s got more wheels than a Cincinnati chop shop!”

Tell me that isn’t audacity. Tell me that isn’t hope. Tell me we can’t band together to support a team that will likely not get any better in our lifetimes. But I will reply, it is, and it is, and yes, love our Pittsburgh Pirates. We can love them, and hope in them, and support them all the way to an NL Wild Card berth. Yes we can! [Chanting, cheering.] Yes, we can, indeed.

Now about the differences between my health care plan and that of my opponent….