How Long Is Pirates 2005

[Jon Levatte]

Long Long PiratesStatisticsJapanese Name:ロングロング海賊団Romanized Name:Rongu Rongu KaizokudanOfficial English Name:Long Long PiratesFirst Appearance:Movie 13[1]Captain:Long Long[1]The Long Long Pirates are a pirate crew that only appeared in One Piece Film: Gold.[1]

The crew consists of many members, although only five are named: Long Long the captain, Morkin, Narcy, Balong, and Nypers. These are also the few crew members with distinct appearances, with most of them being larger than average with elongated body parts and using elongated weapons (Fitting the long theme of the pirate crew). The others are foot soldiers who all resemble each other, as they all wear pink pants, no shirt, and have long beards.[1]

The Long Long Pirates boast swordsmen in Narcy and Morkin, a strongman in Balong, and most if not all of the other members possess firearms, making them a well-armed crew. Although they were strong enough to operate in the New World, the Long Long Pirates were extremely weak compared to the Straw Hat Pirates, who took them out within minutes while sustaining no injuries or damage in the process.[1]

The Long Long Pirates have several very long ships that are chained together to create a single, incredibly long ship. It has several masts and sails; the main mast that flies their Jolly Roger is extremely tall, but can be retracted in order to pass through tunnels. The ship's masthead is a long cannon that is functional and also serves as a bridge for the crew to board enemy ships.[1]

The Long Long Pirates went to Gran Tesoro to win money. However, they lost it all. When the Straw Hat Pirates arrived at Gran Tesoro, the Long Long Pirates attacked them to steal their money, but they were quickly defeated. After the top members were defeated, the remaining foot soldiers tried to run away, but Gild Tesoro grabbed them with tendrils of gold and encased them in gold.[1]

So maybe it should have been obvious had I thought about it for more than two seconds, but when looking at an old (poorly made) graph for a post I had written I was shocked to see just how long it has been since the Pirates finished ahead of the Cardinals in the NL Central standings. I will share that graph here.

Throughout history there have been people willing to rob others transporting goods on the water. These people, known as pirates, mainly targeted ships, though some also launched attacks on coastal towns.

The explorer Christopher Columbus established contact between Europe and the lands that were later named America at the end of the 15th century. As he was working for the Spanish monarchy, these 'new lands' were claimed by the Spanish, who soon discovered them to be a rich source of silver, gold and gems.

From the 16th century, large Spanish ships, called galleons, began to sail back to Europe, loaded with precious cargoes that pirates found impossible to resist. So many pirate attacks were made that galleons were forced to sail together in fleets with armed vessels for protection. As Spanish settlers set up new towns on Caribbean islands and the American mainland, these too came under pirate attack.

Buccaneers lived on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola and its tiny turtle-shaped neighbour, Tortuga, in the 17th century. At first they lived as hunters, but later the governors of Caribbean islands paid the buccaneers to attack Spanish treasure ships. Although raids began in this way, with official backing, the buccaneers gradually became out of control, attacking any ship they thought carried valuable cargo, whether it belonged to an enemy country or not. The buccaneers had become true pirates.

Privateers, meanwhile, were privately owned (rather than navy) ships armed with guns, operating in times of war. The Admiralty issued them with 'letters of marque' that allowed them to capture merchant vessels without being charged with piracy.

In England there was social disruption. Smaller farmers were forced off the land by ruthless landowners and smaller tradesmen were challenged by larger businesses. These displaced people flocked to urban areas looking for work or poor relief.

In London especially there was overcrowding and unemployment and funds for the poor could not meet the need. People had to shift for themselves. Distressed people weren't simply worse off, they had no hope of making a better life. Piracy tempted poor seamen because it offered them the chance to take more control of their lives.

In an age when few people travelled and young men might have to work seven-year apprenticeships before they could make an independent living, many were tempted to go to sea anyway, though the life was a tough one.

Yet ordinary seamen toiled for modest wages and were subject to strict discipline. In contrast, piracy not only offered them a chance to get rich quick but also a rare opportunity to exert a degree of power over others

OVER THE WINTER, as the Pittsburgh Pirates considered how to unleash the best pitching prospect in a generation on the baseball world, they landed on a plan with which they felt entirely comfortable and positively uncomfortable. No matter how well-thought-out the steps, how sound the logic, how reasoned the process, the success of a pitcher hangs in the balance. Even if a team does everything right, it still can go very, very wrong.

For the last month, Paul Skenes, the subject of all the planning, has carved up Triple-A hitting. His long-awaited debut in Pittsburgh is imminent, with the Pirates announcing he will start Saturday against the Chicago Cubs, and Skenes will arrive with a bullet train full of hype. He went to the Pirates with the No. 1 overall pick in last year's draft, the deepest in recent memory. He is capable of doing things with a baseball unlike any man before him: No starter in the big leagues ever has thrown as consistently hard as Skenes.

None of that hoopla factored into Pittsburgh's approach to his 2024 season, but the alarming rate at which it has watched the game's best pitchers hit the injured list certainly did. The Pirates didn't want to rush the right-hander -- and they didn't want to hold him back, either. They loved everything about him -- except for all of the things they couldn't know. They drew a roadmap they hoped would bring out the best in him -- and acknowledged they had no clue whether it would succeed.

"I don't claim that we have any sort of scientific master formula for how we're doing this," Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said. "I don't know for sure that this plan is right. I can't say that."

The Pirates, though, understand that results-oriented analyses are inherently flawed. And while they found no comfort in managing the future face of their franchise with what amounts to an educated guess, they were able to take solace in at least one thing: When it comes to following a plan, Skenes has plenty of experience.

WHEN HE ARRIVED at the Air Force Academy in 2021, Skenes did not appear on any list to be the next great major league pitcher for a good reason: He was a catcher. As a freshman, he hit .410/.486/.697 with 32 extra-base hits in 188 at-bats. He was also the Falcons' closer, notching 11 saves and showing enough acumen to go full Ohtani as a sophomore, starting 15 games on the mound and spending the rest of the time behind the plate.

Schools around the country took notice. Skenes entered the transfer portal and drew widespread interest. While some teams wanted him as a two-way player, LSU recruited him strictly to pitch. It appealed to Skenes, as did the Tigers' pitching coach, Wes Johnson, who had parlayed a successful college coaching career into the Minnesota Twins' major league pitching coach job before returning to the amateur ranks with LSU.

Deeply thoughtful and impressively methodical, Skenes gobbled up the knowledge offered by Johnson -- in some cases literally. Typically, a pitcher throwing with the force of Skenes burns about 5,000 calories a game. To combat the energy drain of pitching, Johnson suggested Skenes supplement his diet with shots of honey.

Skenes needed the pick-me-up to execute what he was trying to pull off: surviving a jump from the Mountain West Conference to the SEC, the best college baseball conference in the country. Even more important than his dietary changes -- which allowed him to maintain his weight during the season, a rarity -- were the efforts to help Skenes start throwing an effective breaking ball. He had thrived at Air Force with a fastball-changeup combination, but SEC hitters would pummel him without an effective spinner. He spent the winter working with Johnson on a slider, and scouts who went to see Skenes in Baton Rouge emerged suggesting something that once seemed inconceivable: He might be good enough to steal the top spot in the amateur draft from his teammate, outfielder Dylan Crews.

At one point during the season that would end with Skenes winning the College World Series' Most Outstanding Player for the national champion Tigers, he asked to meet with Johnson to assess his progress. During the conversation, Johnson said, Skenes seemed to finally realize what would soon become clear to anyone watching him.

To make that harder to do, he picked up a few other pitches at LSU to complement his fastball and slider. To capitalize on his velocity, Skenes toyed around with a splinker -- a hybrid of a splitter and a sinker -- thrown by only one other pitcher, Twins closer Jhoan Duran. With his newfound feel for spin, he developed a curveball, too. While neither pitch fully formed in college, he kept working at them.

"What we're seeing, more than anything, is a remarkable desire to be very honest with information, very honest with feedback and very fast to adjust," Cherington said. "I hate making comps. This is not a great comp because it's not the same type of player. But I've told people I believe Mookie Betts is the best practice player I've ever been around. Yes, he's talented, but specifically because he's so open to the truth and has such a comfortable relationship with, 'Oh, I'm not doing that well enough? Great. Give it to me so I can do something about it.'

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