Would the Pirates be better off if Nutting sold the team?



… still not revered by Bucs' fans 

Bob Nutting points with pride to the accomplishments that have taken place since he took over as controlling partner of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2007. From a 57-105 record in 2010 to a 98-64 in 2015 was tremendous.

The Post-Gazette noted yesterday, “The last five years, we’ve had the fifth-best record in baseball. That’s great,” Nutting said.

Fans do not revere Bob

However, the fans are not exactly thrilled with his direction of the wagon train. As the PG piece notes, the Pirates "went to the playoffs three times … but never got further than the NLDS and lost two consecutive wild-card games. They have acquired and developed great players … but lost them in free agency or traded them before they got there."

Nutting has definitely made more money in those years, and Bill Brink, the PG beat writer, noted that the Pirate payroll "rose from $44.1 million [in 2010] to $99.9 million [today] … but only rose from 29th in MLB to 23rd."

Money has always been a problem with Nutting. He is wealthy, but he does not exactly have "deep pockets," which is what is needed to succeed with a MLB small market team.

Compare with Mark Cuban

For instance, I once rooted for Mark Cuban to buy the Bucs -- he is a Mount Lebanon guy who built the Dallas Mavericks into a winner in the NBA -- but I wanted to see him own the Pirates because he indeed did have "deep pockets."

In short, Cuban is a bona fide billionaire. He has wealth of $3.3 billion according to Fortune Magazine. In addition, he is a self-made man, whereas Nutting inherited his money from his father.

Cuban would spend what he needed to make the Bucs successful, but when he expressed interest in buying the team more than 11 years ago, the Pirates in Nov. 2005 told him that the team was not for sale. "They told me they have no interest in selling," Cuban told ESPN at the time.

At that juncture, the Bucs had recorded 13 consecutive losing seasons, which would increase to more than 20.

Nutting did rescue them from that, but he does not have the billions to spend like Cuban did. His Ogden Newspaper business is reputed to be worth approximately $630 million, though the value of newspaper chairs is declining, but individually, he is not a billionaire.

The Pirates were bought in 1995 by a group of investors led by Kevin McClatchy, whose family owns the McClatchy Newspaper chain. He is currently chairman of the McClatchy Company board.

McClatchy's accomplishments

McClatchy saved the Pirates from leaving Pittsburgh. He had some bona fide offers that would have made him a significant amount of money.

However, he turned them down and worked with state and city officials to raise money to build a new ballpark.

He deserves credit for that.

Ownership

McClatchy had a plurality share in the group, but the largest investors were led by Ogden Nutting and his two sons. However, they never gave McClatchy the money to spend in those years, until they finally forced him out by becoming the majority owners in the mid-2000s. That is when Bob took over, but it took him quite a bit of time before the team became winners.

And while he has spent much more money, and while the Pirates are much better than they were ten years ago, many fans would like to see Nutting sell the team and go off into the sunset.

He is not leaving

I am one of them … but it is not going to happen. He is making money on his investment, even though he is also spending more. Their attendance has always been a plus.

So, for those who want to see Bob go, I have bad news for you. He is going to be here for a while.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering the toughest loss I ever experienced in approximately a quarter-century of coaching football. George Pasierb was a great coaching adversary.

Image
R.I.P. George Pasierb, 1946-2020 Shade-Central City High School football coach Photo: Tribune-Democrat No high school football fan could ask for anything better than this. On a beautiful sunny, warm afternoon on Saturday, October 30, 1982, in Nanty Glory, Pa., the battle featured a clash of two undefeated titans of the Appalachian Conference.  One was the preseason unanimous favorite to win the title, the other a veritable surprise that season, one that had built an 8-0 record entering that game.  This battle lived up to the pre-game hype, ending in a one-point decision that was not certain until the final play of the game.  I thought of this because the coach of the powerful Shade-Central City High School Panthers, George Pasierb, passed away earlier this week. He coached the Panthers for 20 years, but his best team was arguably that 1982 team that battled the Blacklick Valley Vikings on that Saturday afternoon before more than 3,000 ebullient fans.  And, the one-po...
Read more

Why did Tennessee-Chattanooga hire trainer Tim Bream despite his role in the alcohol-induced death of Tim Piazza at a Penn State frat?

Image
… was a live-in advisor at the fraternity On paper, Tim Bream has an impressive resume. Actually, very impressive — up to a point. That seems to be when Bream’s life appears to careen out of control. Bream, who resigned as Penn State trainer in Feb.,  was a graduate of Penn State with a bachelor’s degree in physical education, specializing in athletic training. He then attended West Virginia as a grad assistant trainer, where he received a master’s degree in Physical Education with an emphasis on Sports Science. All of this information is from his bio on the Penn State athletic site. He then worked his way up the ladder impressively, working at Syracuse, Vanderbilt, and finally at the University of Richmond, where he was the Director of Sports Medicine and Head Athletic Trainer. Then he received his big break, being name as Assistant Athletic Trainer for the Chicago Bears in 1993, and four years later, Head Athletic Trainer. He was with the Bears for 19 years when inexplicably,...
Read more

Why did Mike Tomlin start hiring black coaches after 15 years?

Image
Brian Flores … hiring Flores probably rankled Goodell To place this into context, understand that the only reason that the Steelers hired Mike Tomlin 15 years ago is because he was black.  Why? He had never even been a coordinator anywhere, never in the NFL. The only reason that he was interviewed was because of the “Rooney Rule.” That rule is one named after the late Dan Rooney who led the effort to force every NFL team to interview at least one black coach when it had head coaching openings.  The Steelers had focused their coaching search after Bill Cowher left on Ron Rivera, then a defensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears. Their interview with Tomlin was a peremptory one, something to satisfy the smell test.  After all, why interview a guy who was just a defensive coach? Coordinators are the people who are hired for the big gig.  Tomlin, though, is a great talker, and he wooed Dan Rooney so much that he was hired for the position.  Which begs the q...
Read more