The Pirates aren't alone in producing big things from a small market this season.
At the beginning of play Wednesday, the Pirates led the National League's Central Division, the Montreal Expos were atop the NL East and the Minnesota Twins had a share of the lead in the American League Central.
Considering the Expos and Twins were on track to be contracted out of the majors until legal considerations put that move on hold, theirs is the greater tale.
But division-leading status for the Pirates in the season following a 100-loss 2001 campaign is big news, too.
"It's amazing what confidence and winning can do for a team," Pirates outfielder Brian Giles said. "Each year you have two or three teams that compete; small-market teams that nobody thinks can compete.
"Guys start believing they can win every time they take the field."
Confidence produces wins, which produce more confidence.
Somewhere along the line, this perpetual motion machine tends to lose its momentum.
While small-market surprises seem to happen every spring, their longevity frequently proves to be less than the 162-game grind of a regular season.
Last year, the Minnesota Twins led the AL Central at the end of April, May, June and at the July 9-11 All-Star break.
Their five-game lead over the Cleveland Indians in mid-July had evaporated by the end of the month. By the end of the season, the Indians won the race by six games, although the Twins did manage a winning record at 85-77.
Oakland, another AL small-market team, made the playoffs as an over-qualified wild-card team last season. The A's won 102 games but settled for second in the AL West behind the 116-win Seattle Mariners.
The A's, who are having the same problem with Seattle this season, are the exception. More often the early season surprises fade from the playoff field as the months pass.
That reality hangs over the Pirates, offering the kind of perspective that halts early self-congratulation in its tracks.
The knowledge creates mixed emotions for a player such as Giles, who has seen the World Series first-hand while with Cleveland in 1997, but is waiting for his first playoff experience with the Pirates.
On one level, it irritates him that so much is being made of the Pirates' bid to put together their first winning month of April since 1994.
"Everyone wants to make a big deal here about playing .500 baseball, having a winning season," he said. "If you don't get to that next level, it doesn't mean anything."
But Giles also realizes the Pirates' limitations and the folly of putting the weight of great expectations on an unproven team. That tempers his thoughts and produces a modest-sounding goal.
"If we can get the most out of the guys we have in this room and play up to our potential, we'll be happy wherever that puts us in September," Giles said. "That's all this team wants to do. Top of your division in April is a nice start for us and everybody's excited about it. But it is only the third week in April. It's going to be a long, tough grind from here to September."
In Minnesota, in Montreal where the work of hockey's Canadiens eclipses any Expos excitement, there are those who are waiting for baseball performance levels to decline to recent norms.
Regarding the Pirates, the daily battle between optimism and reality will continue to be fought.
"I've been pleased to this point with where we are right now, but, as I said before, we still have a long way to go," manager Lloyd McClendon said.
April has been nice. History suggests May, June, July, August and September could be less so. Fans taking early success and extrapolating it for five additional months are setting themselves up for disappointment.
Fans of the Expos, Twins and Pirates should be content to revel in the moment. The remainder of the season might not be as enjoyable.
If any of these teams continues to defy the odds and makes the playoffs, it would be that much sweeter for the fans who maintained their perspective along the way.
Sam Ross Jr. is a columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
