Jun 5, 2009 3 min read

This is a particularly difficult time to be a Pittsburgh Pirates fan. Today’s team is a shadow of what it was in its glory years, clearly heading toward a record 17th losing season. In the “good old days” of baseball, more often than not a fan could root for a player over the entire period of their careers, as teams generally knew better than to trade away someone who had captured our hearts and minds.

Pirates management, despite poor attendance and putting on the field modern-day teams with a dearth of major-league talent, demonstrate little concern for fan loyalty and goodwill.

The 2008 trades of popular sluggers Xavier Nady and Jason Bay caused reverberations and outrage which continue to this day.

Many of the players who were left on the team told the media that they did not agree with the decision to trade away our heart, and that the move caused upheaval and pain in the clubhouse, as demonstrated by the team’s awful play for the balance of the 2008 season.

Having learned nothing from the Nady/Bay debacle, we now lose popular, beloved, and talented outfielder Nate McLouth, traded to the Atlanta Braves for three nobodies, a transaction which defies management’s consistent stance that McLouth is one of the players around whom a successful franchise would be built.

What reason do Pirates fans have to believe that the team will not give away any player once they demonstrate their talent? Would we not be foolish to become attached to any Bucco, knowing that they are not likely to be around tomorrow?

The Pirates are currently under construction, wild bets being made with the hope that the moves will result in a better team years from now, and the “dust” from the construction has left the team in a shambles.

Giving away Nate McLouth may have been the last straw for many of us.

For all of its efforts to pay lip service to building fan loyalty and to demonstrate that it is listening to us, Pirates management’s deeds do not match its words.

A team whose management consistently expectorates in the faces of the fans deserves to lose.

It is doomed to be in the cellar in major league baseball attendance, and the reason for fan desertion should be no secret to the team.

It is a sad day for those of us who love the great game of baseball and our Pirates.

Orien Spiegler, a long-suffering Pirates fan, is a resident of Upper St. Clair near Pittsburgh.