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Band Who Wrote Pirates Fight Song Celebrating End Of Curse

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- "We've been waiting 20 years, we are the Pirate fans. Hey!"

Playing on a front porch in West Kittanning, a band celebrates the end of a regrettable 20-year losing streak for the Pittsburgh Pirates

The song continues: "Now we finally have a team that makes the city proud. We don't need Family Buc Night any more to draw a crowd."

Ben Valasek and the Growlers play mostly original material.

But none of their songs ever got the attention of Ben's composition about the Pirates, "We've Been Waiting 20 Years."

"People can identify with the song," says the band leader, "because it's not about the team, it's about the fans, and what the fans have been supporting for the last 20 years."

He says social media expanded their audience.

"I've had comments from California and Maryland," he says. "It's like Steelers fans, there are Pirate fans everywhere."

Ben was a freshman in college the night that Sid Bream slid across home plate to doom the Bucs' playoff hopes. He expected a couple of down years after that. But two decades?

"There's a ton of baseball fans in Pittsburgh who've been wanting a winning team for a long time," Ben says. "And I'm one of them."

For more information, visit http://benvalasek.com/.

RELATED LINKS:
New Pirates Song For The Fans: "We've Been Waiting Twenty Years" (8/5/13)
More Pirates News
More Reports by Dave Crawley

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