Fox Sports [Dayn Perry], CBS {Larry Dombrow], Baseball Prospectus [Steven Goldman], Deadspin [Don Spagnolo], ESPN [Jerry Crasnick], among many others, have all come out hammering the Pirates organization the last few months.
None of them caused more than a ripple in the ocean.
Staring down the barrel of the organization’s 15th consecutive losing season, Pirates Chairman of the Board and principal owner Robert Nutting talked about the Nutting’s family commitment to winning Sunday, telling Pirate fans:
"Nobody is going to apologize.." – link to Bucco Blog
Nutting’s comment caused a typhoon.
This is the same family that some say caused a financial rift in the organization in early 2003 while grabbing control of the organization and causing one of their top prospects in Aramis Ramirez to be traded for junk bonds. The team’s position then was that they couldn’t afford Ramirez, who was making $3MM in his first arb year. A couple of months later, the Pirates received $13MM in revenue sharing.
It isn’t Pirate fans’ fault their team stinks. Heck, many of them still believe this is ‘THE’ year. How sad they will be by June. What then? Does Nutting think the fans will ‘apologize’ for not buying tickets after July?
Hardly…they have had it.
Perhaps someone in the front office will have to be the scapegoat and that could only mean David Littlefield, just as many in the media above suggest. But when it comes right down to it, the problem isn’t Dave Littlefield – the problem is lame ownership who have the Marge Schott, Richard Jacobs, Bud Selig financial greed disease [link].
Jake at Bucco Blog
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