Ron Cook: Ownership Team is Obstacle to Success

[I was saddened by Mr. McClendon's firing...John McGraw couldn't win with the teams the Pirates have fielded over the last few years. McClendon was a competitve manager who never made excuses for his players and consistently demanded their best effort. It's not his fault that the players were less than capable of matching those qualities. I'm grateful for Mr. McClendon's service and I wish him all the best.]

Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

One day, the Steelers sign Hines Ward for the long haul.

The next day, the Pirates fire Lloyd McClendon.

Talk about a marvelous week for Pittsburgh sports fans!

There's only one way it could possibly get any better.

Mario announces he's going to play until he's 50.

I'm kidding, but you probably aren't.

It's sad but true that a lot of people around here are reveling in McClendon's misfortune as much as they are in Ward's newfound wealth. A significant number of misguided fools are convinced McClendon is to blame for that minor-league joke of a team the Pirates have been running out not just this season, but for 13 seasons. They refuse to acknowledge the team was losing long before he got here. Gene Lamont, another good baseball man, couldn't win under this management group. And, before Lamont, Jim Leyland got out after he realized he had no chance. He's merely the best manager of my lifetime.

That isn't to say McClendon didn't have to go. The Pirates had lost nine of 10 games and 14 of the past 18. There's a decent chance they'll lose 100.

McClendon insisted he didn't lose the clubhouse.

"Who did I have to lose? I had all kids, basically," he said yesterday after his firing was announced. "If Jason Bay wasn't still climbing the walls to make catches or if Jack Wilson wasn't still diving into the stands to catch a ball, I might say that. But this team busted its fanny for me.
We were just short."

It doesn't matter.

All that matters in pro sports is the win-loss record.

McClendon's carelessness last week when asked about being called "an idiot" by St. Louis Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan didn't help. He left the impression he was playing the race card, a perception he quickly tried to fend off by saying his remarks were misinterpreted.

But that, too, doesn't matter.

McClendon was going anyway.

The team's 55-81 record assured that.

"I think it's time for a change, time to try something new," general manager Dave Littlefield said.
That point is indisputable, but so is this one: A change isn't going to make the Pirates winners all of sudden. Not with this ownership team.

"My response to that is that's not true," Littlefield said. "We're gonna win here."

Asked what he would say to those who are convinced the Pirates will never win as long as he's in charge, Kevin McClatchy looked at the ground and said: "If we didn't have any young talent, I would agree with that. But I believe we're going in the right direction. I think we'll just keep plugging along and see what happens."

Give McClatchy credit for showing up to face the tough questions. His partner, G. Ogden Nutting, the man many believe is calling the shots for the Pirates, was a no-show. We can only assume he's too embarrassed to associate himself with his team.

But, really, what was the point of McClatchy being there? Isn't his "next-year-will-be-better" mantra getting old? He talks of the Pirates' young talent? This is an owner who once said publicly the team wouldn't trade its good young players -- "Jason Kendall, Jermaine Allensworth, Mark Johnson." Another year, he predicted the Pirates would win 90 games. They finished 78-83.
McClatchy has a track record of nothing but failure.

How do you believe anything he says?

Here's another question: Would you want to work for him and Nutting?

A bunch of young, unproven go-getters will apply. Like McClendon and Lamont, they'll believe they can be the miracle-worker. And like McClendon and Lamont, they'll walk away realizing Pittsburgh is a graveyard for managers and always will be under the current management.

The Pirates might be able to attract a proven manager such as the Oakland Athletics' Ken Macha. Word is he would love to come back to his hometown, and it can't be easy working for A's general manager Billy Beane, a hands-on egomaniac. But can't Macha do better than the Pirates?
Working for Beane would seem like heaven after working a month or two with Littlefield, who, because of his bosses, has to go into all his baseball fights wearing handcuffs and a blindfold.
Not that Littlefield probably is long for his job.

He's now next in line to go. Maybe next season or the season after, but certainly on some beautiful summer day when the Pirates are 20 games under .500 and McClatchy is telling anyone who will listen that they really are close to being winners.
It's always the same story with this doomed franchise.

The managers and general managers go, but the owners stay.

That thought is enough to ruin even the best of news weeks.

(Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1525.)