PG Editorial Board: “Bob Nutting should field a major league team — or find someone who will”

A disgrace to MLB — but more so, “an embarrassment” to the city of Pittsburgh

… “Just look at the Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers”

Just 50 years ago, I was studying at a university in suburban Philadelphia and living in a graduate dorm. This was the fall of 1971, the year that the Pittsburgh Pirates enthralled much of America with their victory over the Baltimore Orioles. 

My friends were from all over the East Coast, from Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Delaware, Rhode Island, Maryland — and probably more. 

What they had in common was few, if any, had ever watched the magnificent Roberto Clemente play baseball. Because of the vagaries of Major League Baseball, only one major league game per week was broadcast in the country — or so it seemed. 

And never, ever, was that game one involving the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, over three years in a 19-year span, the Pirates captured three World Series titles — but none since. 

What was so gratifying — and what made me so proud — was how number 21 electrified America and my friends as Jim from New Jersey said, 

“Roberto, you’re my man.”

And he was a New York Yankees fan!

And perhaps Pittsburgh will never again see another championship as long as long as the miser Bob Nutting controls the team. 

PG says it best

The Post-Gazette last week last down the marker about Nutting, though I doubt that it will do any good. As long as fans still support the team and go to games or watch them on TV, this will not change. 

And, the excuse of being a “small-market team” is not sufficient. They could field a competitive team, which is all we could ask,

We know the economics of Major League Baseball leave small-market teams at a disadvantage. And we know that big payrolls don’t necessarily lead to success (see Mets, New York).

But we also know that smaller-market teams can be consistently competitive with just a little extra buy-in from ownership. Just look at the Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers, who won their divisions this year and are regularly in the playoff conversation despite having below-average payrolls.

Baseball boondoggle shows why Nutting should sell Pirates

There’s a difference, though, between below-average and bargain basement. There’s a difference between creative frugality and outright miserliness. There’s a difference between giving the baseball staff just enough cash to be a competitive franchise and giving them just enough to field nine warm bodies.

Under owner Bob Nutting, the Pirates have been the latter. And it’s an embarrassment to this city, to baseball fans and to the world-class ballpark the team consistently fails to live up to.

The Editorial Board, “Bob Nutting should field a major league team — or find 

someone who will,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 18, 2021

Laying down the gauntlet

The PG board was blunt in its assessment,

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: If Bob Nutting doesn’t want to pay to field a legitimate Major League Baseball team in Pittsburgh, he should sell to someone who will … Since the Pirates’ decline began in 1993, Pittsburgh has celebrated two Super Bowls and three Stanley Cups, but that electric autumn night on the North Shore rivals them all.

That memory now feels cold, like a cruel tease. It was just enough to make us believe things could be different and for good. It was never going to be that way, though, not under this ownership.

A baseball team, like any business, is not just an investment. It is not merely defined by its balance sheet. Its value cannot be reduced to the profit it generates.

It is a community institution, with community responsibilities. It is, like all of us, meant to serve a good beyond itself — in this case, civic pride, athletic excellence and compelling entertainment.

Seen this way, the Nutting regime has been a failure, not just athletically but morally. That regime should come to an end, sooner rather than later.

The Editorial Board, “Bob Nutting should field a major league team — or find someone who will,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 18, 2021

Hyperbole? Not at all

A moral failure? Is this going beyond the pale?

No, the city and state have invested tremendous amounts of money in the Pirates with the beautiful PNC Park, one of the nicest in MLB. 

The truth is that he PG editorial did not go far enough. I will in a future letter to the mayor of Pittsburgh.