Pirates a pathetic excuse for a major league franchise
EDITOR’S NOTE: Pittsburgh TV sports personality John Steigerwald writes a weekly column that will appear in Sunday editions of the Herald-Standard. Following is Steigerwald’s most recent column.Have you had enough? It’s kind of fitting that the Pirates would pass up a chance to draft a can’t-miss prospect in the amateur draft because they can’t afford him on the day before they open a series in New York against the Yankees.
By now you know that they passed on Matt Wieters, a 6-5, switch hitting catcher who was called a “once in a decade” player by Scouts Inc., to take Daniel Moskos, a lefthanded pitcher from Clemson who had a five-something ERA.
Wieters is represented by Scott Boras, an agent who made it clear a long time ago that he expects big, big money for his clients.
The Pirates can’t compete with most of the teams in the Major Leagues for the top professional free agents and they can’t compete for amateur free agents in foreign countries and now it’s obvious that they can’t compete with free agents who are eligible for the draft.
They’re right in the thick of things with free agents named Tony Armas, Jr., though.
The Baltimore Orioles took Weiters with the next pick-the fifth overall-when the Pirates passed on him at number four. According to a report on SI.com, Pirates General Manager Dave Littlefield asked for permission from Pirates ownership before the draft to spend big bucks on Weiters and was turned down.
Littlefield denied that report yesterday.
Non-Bobblehead/Fireworks Pirates fans – all 11 of them still living in Western Pennsylvania – were outraged. I’m still amazed that anybody would be surprised or care. Some of them sent me emails saying that this was the last straw.
The Pirates have a $38 million payroll and they’re playing a weekend series against a team that has a $189 million payroll. The average Yankee makes $5 million more than the average Pirate.
Who needed what happened on Thursday to be convinced that the Pirates are a pathetic excuse for a Major League Baseball franchise?
-By the way, in 1992, the last time the Pirates had a winning season, their payroll was the sixth highest in the Major Leagues at $36,228,647. The Yankees were ninth at $34,902,292. Since then the Yankees have increased their payroll by $153 million. The Pirates have increased theirs by $2 million.
-Here’s something for you to think about as you’re getting ready for the U.S. Open at Oakmont C.C. this week: The average score for an American man on a full-sized, 18 hole golf course is 97. That tells me that there are way too many people playing golf in America. Long lines are formed at tee boxes all over the country because of way too many people who should be bowling.
-It’s only a matter of time before you read or hear somewhere that ESPN’s coverage of Thursday’s baseball draft drew a bigger audience than the Game 5 Stanley Cup clincher on NBC Wednesday night. Of course, if more than 100 people outside of the players themselves and their immediate families were watching the draft, America is in deep, deep trouble.
-I’m rooting for the UFL to succeed. That’s the United Football League that has former Mt. Lebanon billionaire Mark Cuban as a major investor.
He and a couple of former USFL owners want to start playing next Spring with franchises in non-NFL cities like Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Mexico City. They plan to go after second and third round caliber players to stock their teams.
You could write what I know about anti-trust law on the head of a pin, but I’ve never been able to figure out why people in places like San Antonio, Portland and the three cities mentioned above can’t have a major league professional football team to watch. The NFL has all the TV networks and all the stadiums tied up.
What could be more monopolistic than that? I’ve never really needed a Spring football fix, but it sure would be more interesting to watch second and third round caliber players playing an actual game in June than it is to talk about how the Steelers organized team workouts are going.
-Maybe Gary Sheffield was on to something. He took a lot of heat this week for comments he made in Esquire Magazine. He was accused of being a racist for saying that there are fewer and fewer African-American players in the Major Leagues because it’s easier for the owners to intimidate the Latin players. Here’s what former Detroit Tiger Willie Horton, who worked as a consultant for Tigers’ owner Mike Illitch, told Michael Rosenberg of the Detroit Free press: “They brought (Latin Players) over here without visas. They couldn’t go off base. You send them home or they go to jail. I had to come out and give a hundred dollars out of my own pocket. They didn’t have money or anything.”
Sounds like the Latin players were in a pretty good position to be intimidated, don’t you think?