Commentary
Monday’s call caused negative PR for Pirates PITTSBURGH-It was one of those “darned if we do” and “darned if we don’t” situations for the Pirates.
Darned if they didn’t make the wrong decision in handling Monday’s scheduled opener.
It was a miserable day, cold, raw and rainy. Things only figured to get worse after sunset.
The Pirates opted to try to play the game at its scheduled 6:05 start. By 3 o’clock, they knew that wasn’t going to happen and they postponed the game until Tuesday.
It was a bit of indecision that led to a lot of inconvenience and negative public relations.
There are only two choices in that situation: Either call the game early or make every effort to play it, no matter what the conditions.
The Pirates were basing their decision on a weather forecast that said precipitation would move out of the area by 1 p.m. For the most, the rain did go away.
But it was still cold, damp and windy. Wind chill readings were in the teens. It obviously wasn’t a night for baseball under any circumstances.
Given that – and the fact that a lot of sports fans wanted to watch the NCAA championship game – the Pirates should have the good sense to call of their game at noon.
They didn’t, so people who had to drive several hours to the park started their trip. In some cases, they arrived and paid for parking minutes before the game was officially called.
Even if they didn’t get to the park, a lot of people burned money on gasoline, which is no small matter these days.
The Pirates used to have a policy in place that they would attempt to play every game unless they absolutely had to call it. Their feeling was that people who lived a good distance away could leave for the park confident that they’d make every effort to get the game started.
They need to be more decisive and let people know what they’re doing.
A team official went on the local TV news at noon and said they were going to play.
Three hours later, they had completely reversed their course without a significant change in the weather.
It’s always going to be a tricky call but Monday’s wasn’t.
The game should have been postponed before anyone went to lunch – or before anyone started out for the ballpark.
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Every indication is that Skip Prosser of Wake Forest is the man Pitt has targeted to replace Ben Howland.
Prosser is a Pittsburgh native who has a winning tradition of his own. He put together a solid program at Xavier before he moved to Wake Forest. Supposedly Prosser is favored over John Calipari, the Moon Township native who is now at Memphis.
It’s a delicate situation for all involved when the candidate already has a head-coaching job. The candidate can’t express too much interest because it makes for difficulty if he doesn’t land the job and stays put.
After losing Howland to UCLA, Pitt is understandably sensitive to the perception that it’s raiding another school for a coach.
Most of the communication is done through back channels but Prosser appears to be Pitt’s first choice.
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Here’s the biggest reason the Penguins should be looking for a new coaching staff:
Has any player gotten appreciably better in the two years the current staff has been in charge?
If anything, players have regressed.
It’s time to get a staff with solid teaching credentials.
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You can quibble about the language he used but Kansas coach Roy Williams had an honest answer to the question posed by CBS, didn’t he?
Sports correspondent John Mehno can be reached on line at: johnmehno@lycos.com.
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