At Saturday’s Pirates game, we may see a walkout of thousands of green-clad baseball fans after the third inning, a protest against a horrid years-long slump and management’s seeming indifference to the ongoing problems.

(Actually, “see” may not be accurate — the team has instructed its television crew not to show footage of any protest; the radio broadcasters have similarly been muzzled.)

I’m with the folks who are pissed off about the Pirates’ persistent ineptitude. It hasn’t been that long since the Pirates were a power — I remember watching playoff games while I was in school, just before the Indians began their early 1990s turnaround — and it shouldn’t take this long to get a team back in contention, at least occasionally.

Management complains of working with the constraints of a small market — a legit gripe, but one that seems pretty old here, especially since there’s another small-market team about two hours to the northwest that seems to do pretty well. Management also talks about bad luck — free-agent signings that didn’t work out, youngsters who didn’t live up to their potential. But that’s all stuff any team has to deal with, and I’m baffled — along with everyone else — over why it’s so bad here.

I wish it wasn’t. This is a good baseball town, and it would be a lot of fun to be able to go to a game occasionally and see a meaningful game. I’ve said this before — as much fun as Pittsburgh is in the summer, I think it would be, uh, even funner if there was a decent baseball team to be excited about.

I’m afraid I don’t have any answers for Pittsburgh’s baseball fans, but I do have a solution. It seems like someone tries to organize one of these walkout things about once a season, and they always turn out to be disappointing.

Want a better form of protest? Become an Indians fan.

Show up in PNC Park with Tribe gear on (the stores in Boardman have tons of stuff). Better still, show up at Jacobs Field instead. Either way, you’re still following baseball — although you might find it difficult to watch games on TV — and you’re going to have a lot more fun:

Indians: 46-32, a half-game out of the American League Central lead.

Pirates: 33-45, 13 games out in the National League Central.

See? It’s quite a deal, lemme tell you. September baseball games that matter (although here, meaningful games in July would be a novelty). Not having to cringe when your buddies from New York or Philly or, well, anywhere ask you how the season’s going. A general manager who’s not an idiot. What’s not to like?

Think about it, yinz … a happy baseball season is just a couple of hours away.