Marty Blake, the witty late former NBA scout, was once the general manager of the Pittsburgh Condors, one of several failed attempts to make pro basketball work in Pittsburgh. I once asked him why it was so hard to sell tickets. He answered: “You can make a big thing bigger. You can sell tickets to a lot of things in this world. But you can’t promote a funeral,” he answered.
If the Pirates aren’t careful, they may soon find this to be true. In fact, they may be finding this out already, as fan anger has turned to fan apathy. Owner Bob Nutting has quickly become public enemy No. 1 and the face of the Pirates’ penny-pinching ways.
The biggest problem isn’t the Pirates spending habits, their budget or their personnel decisions. Their biggest problem is that team president Frank Coonelly, general manager Neal Huntington and Nutting are really bad at public relations. The three can’t seem to get out of their own way these days, and every time one of them opens his mouth he makes a bad situation worse.
Fans, for the most part, understand the Pirates’ plight. They know this is a small market, that there are economic limitations to what the Pirates are capable of doing. Nobody, except for the extremely delusional fan on the lunatic fringe, expects them to sign a bunch of free agents to long-term contracts for big money.
Is it too much, though, for fans to ask for an honest answer? Is it too much for the Pirates management team to answer questions without a condescending tone as if fans are the stupid ones? Is it possible for Pirates management to try to be a little more transparent about their motivations and intentions?
This constant need to treat fans like they are idiots is the problem. It isn’t just that they have mismanaged this team for the past two years. They have. And it isn’t just that Huntington’s past two years have been a disaster and he has seemingly lost his magic touch, either. The Pirates had a chance to start fresh this season, and they decided the best course of action was to trade their two best players, Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole. That wouldn’t have been so bad because many fans expected those deals, but the return they got was underwhelming, to say the least.
Maybe the market is down. But then Huntington decided to double down, and once again, act as if fans are the dumb ones.
“There’s a lot of misinformation and a lot of false narrative out there about when we’re looking to compete again,” Huntington said, with a straight face. “We’re looking to compete again this year.”
Huntington, by the way, is the one who told the crowd at PiratesFest the Pirates are better in 2018, with Cole and McCutchen on the roster. That means, by his own admission, the Pirates are worse now than in December. Yet, we’re supposed to believe they are trying to compete?
Not to be outdone, Coonelly offered a statement last week to counter the story that the Major League Baseball Players Association had concerns about the Marlins and Pirates investing the money from MLB’s revenue-sharing plan into payroll in an effort to try and win. The statement was laced with the same indignant tone the Pirates always give when questioned about their payroll.
Fans aren’t stupid. The Pirates need to stop treating them like they are. This is a rebuilding season, and the Pirates are not going to contend for anything. They are behind the Cubs, Cardinals and Brewers and will be for a few years given their reluctance to spend money. They would be better served to admit this, or better yet, say nothing at all. The Pirates think they’re pulling a fast one on their fans, but when they look at their ticket sales this season, they will see the joke is on them.
First Published: January 30, 2018, 5:34 p.m.
