close

Pirates’ management sticks to losing formula

By Commentary John Mehno 3 min read

PITTSBURGH – Poor Dave Littlefield. The Pittsburgh Pirates general manager came home empty-handed from baseball’s winter meetings and has been taking a pounding in the court of public opinion.

Maybe it’s encouraging that people are finally wising up to what’s wrong with the Pirates. It isn’t just the size of their budget that dooms them to losing seasons, it’s the way they run their organization.

Enough whining about the New York Yankees’ budget. The Pirates compete in a division where it took 83 victories to win last season.

Operating on a shoestring is tough in any business, but it can be done. In baseball that means being smart, pro-active and creative. The Pirates come up with a Jeromy Bunitz-like 0-for-3 there.

Instead it was just a year ago that they were feeling good about the $17 million they’d wasted on Burnitz, Sean Casey and Joe Randa.

Being creative and bold means considering trading a young starting pitcher, if that means acquiring a commodity, like power, that doesn’t otherwise exist in the organization. A team like the Pirates cannot have any untouchables.

Littlefield’s predecessor, Cam Bonifay, made just as many curious decisions with his limited funds. You’d think by now there’s enough of a template of how not to run a small market organization, but the Pirates hold to the pattern that’s made them losers for nearly a decade and a half.

When TV guys scream that “the fix is in” regarding the awarding of western Pennsylvania’s slots license, viewers ought to scream “Prove it” just as loudly.

It’s possible that the fix really is in. This is, after all, politics. But where’s the proof?

Some of the local stations heavily promote their supposedly dogged investigative teams. If the process is corrupt, sniff it out. Perform a public service, win awards and gain “We told you so” bragging rights that can translate into ratings.

Surely KDKA-TV’s hard-hitting Marty Griffin would welcome a chance to investigate something a little less sordid that some of the stories he’s been doing.

So Steelers linebacker Joey Porter is blaming the media for the $10,000 fine he got from the NFL for using a homosexual slur to describe Cleveland Browns tight end Kellen Winslow.

Porter made the comments to a cluster of reporters carrying recorders and cameras. It’s not like someone eavesdropped on a sideline conversation.

Blaming the media is like blaming the surveillance cameras when you get arrested for robbing a bank.

But that specific example would probably be more of a Cincinnati Bengals thing.

This is what it’s come to: A couple of banners hanging from the Mellon Arena balconies on Friday mentioned Isle of Capri, the slots license bidder which has promised to build a new arena.

Fans used to make banners for their favorite players, not corporations.

John Mehno can be reached at johnmehno@lycos.com

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $4.79/week.

Subscribe Today