Bungling Bucs
Despite what you may have heard, the Pittsburgh Pirates are exceptional. Unfortunately, the team’s specialty is not baseball. No, the Pirates lead the majors in doing stupid stuff. In fact, this past week was a perfect microcosm of the absurdity that is the Buccos.
Hours after GM Neal Huntington adamantly insisted top prospect Pedro Alvarez wasn’t ready for the majors, he was magically called up. Alvarez went hitless in his first 10 at bats as the Pirates ran one of their longest losing streaks in a half-century to 13 games.
Then, team president Frank Coonelly was forced to reveal that the contracts of Huntington and manager John Russell were secretly extended during the offseason. The team never disclosed the deals because it apparently feared fan backlash.
And for an odd twist, the Pirates fired one of their racing pierogi mascots because he criticized the extensions on his Facebook page. A day later, he was rehired but the team didn’t make that public for another four days.
However, the decision to extend high profile contracts under KGB-like secrecy is the most troubling move by a team that excels at causing fans consternation. The team has long been accused of being cheap – their payroll regularly ranks at the bottom of the league – but never outright deceitful.
That all changes with the revelation that Coonelly implied, inferred and outright said that the team had not extended Huntington and Russell’s deals when it already had. This all comes on the heels of the team vowing to be competitive as part of the deal for taxpayers building PNC Park. Turns out that promise was the first of many to be broken over the years.
And now there’s Contractgate. Simply put, to make such a high profile move secretly is unheard of in professional sport. It’s downright bizarre. Of course, the Pirates hold the North American record for consecutive losing records, so doing the unheard of is nothing out of the ordinary for this once-proud franchise.
The repeated failures – on the field and off – only serve to validate those who decried the team’s decision to hire a team president, general manager and skipper with zero experience. The Pirates fail in comparison to teams like the St. Louis Cardinals, who have put experienced and talented people in key positions and seen results from it.
The team also excels at getting the least bang for its measly buck. The Pirates are 20 games under .500 and have the second-worst record in the majors. The Padres, whose payroll is $2 million more or $1 million less than the Pirates (depending on who is doing the math), are 38-28.
The Nutting family long ago convinced us that they weren’t interested in running the Pirates like a sports franchise. No, they’re much too happy milking the team for profit. But to have a team president who purposefully misleads the media and the fans? That’s just too much, even for a team that is so good at being so bad.