A Modern Fable: Pirates and Furries Converge

I was in Pittsburgh over the Fourth of July weekend, walking along Penn Avenue in what is now called the “cultural district” of downtown. Having grown up in Pittsburgh in the 1970s, I was struck by two sights. First, an unusually large number of people wearing Pirates gear. The Pirates haven’t had a winning season since 1992, which happens to be the year after the team traded Barry Bonds. It seems like a lot longer since I’ve seen so many adults in Pirates jerseys and caps on the streets of Pittsburgh.

But amid the black and gold, I noticed a statistically significant number of people in full animal costumes. I’d see somebody dressed as a kind of space wolf on one street corner, then a minute later a woman with kitten ears and paws would pass by. I could only assume that they were part of a promotion at the Pirates game. Then I saw this lean, barfly-looking guy with a mildly disgusted look on his face, dressed all in black and threading his way through a throng of Pirates fans in front of a bar. I assumed he was going to get a beer, but he passed right by the pub. He was wearing a huge skunk tail that hung down to his ankles.

I saw another guy having a cigarette outside the convention center. He had fox ears, a matching tail and big fur boots, and I asked him what was going on. He told me he was in town for Anthrocon— a convention for fans of anthropomorphism, commonly known as furries.

It was a perfect alignment of misunderstood subcultures: Pirates fans and furries. The furries’ ascendancy seems the more assured of the two. Although the Pirates had the best record in baseball the weekend I was in Pittsburgh — which hasn’t happened this late in the summer since I can’t remember — Anthrocon was having its strongest convention ever, having grown to more than 5,000 furries since it started in Albany for a few hundred like-minded anthropomorphs in the late ’90s. This year, The Post-Gazette estimated, Anthrocon would bring an estimated $6.2 million to the city. The attendees would also try for the world record for the largest parade of people in fur suits.

I will admit to knowing little about the furries, though when I was there they seemed to be in a better collective mood than the Pirates fans. The Bucs, it must be noted, dropped two of three to the Phillies last weekend.