Joe Starkey
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, June 23, 2006
Reporters recently questioned the Pirates' media-shy chairman of the board, Robert Nutting, about his family's pending purchase of Seven Springs Mountain Resort.
No, they didn't ask if there would be pierogi races in the snow, February fireworks shows or a cigar bar at the Main Lodge Hotel. They didn't wonder if the payroll would be covered through ski resort revenue-sharing or if Kevin McClatchy would become the face of the establishment, either.
They wanted to know if the sale would create a conflict of interest with Major League Baseball because of the proposed gambling casino at Seven Springs.
Rest assured, Nutting said, "We will do nothing to embarrass Major League Baseball."
Nothing but continue to field one of the worst products in the league, anyway -- and this season has suddenly become way beyond embarrassing.
The Pirates have been swept by the Kansas City Royals.
So, the question must be asked: Did the 15-7 loss Thursday -- the one that extended the Pirates' losing streak to eight games and dropped them to a season-worst 22 games below .500 -- represent the low point of the McClatchy/Nutting era, or perhaps even the low point in the franchise's 14-year losing streak?
Granted, there's plenty of competition. I mean, where do you start?
With the raising of ticket prices after a 100-loss season in 2001?
With Derek Bell or Raul Mondesi?
With Jim Leyland quitting in the middle of a contract?
With the massive payroll purge of 1996, which occurred 20 days after Nutting's dad, G. Ogden Nutting, upped his stake in the franchise?
How about the time Al Martin blew a game by failing to score from third on a single; the day Aramis Ramirez was traded for a pack of sunflower seeds; or the day the Pirates left Chris Shelton exposed in the Rule 5 draft but made sure Jason Boyd and Carlos Rivera were protected?
Which do you weigh more heavily -- leaving a productive Joe Randa unprotected in the 1998 expansion draft, or signing a washed-up Joe Randa to a $4 million deal eight years later?
I know. There's plenty more.
We haven't even mentioned first-round busts such as Clint Johnston and J.J. Davis, losing 25 of 30 to finish the '98 season, or McClatchy saying this on the day he hired Lloyd McClendon: "We got the guy we felt would get us winning the fastest."
I grant you all of that and more. I just wonder if any of it tops getting flushed by the Royals, whose roster is replete with Pirates castoffs such as Emil Brown (three RBI yesterday) and who have, for much of the season, been justifiably compared to the worst teams in baseball history.
The Royals became the first club in more than a century to post two double-digit losing streaks (11 and 13 games) before their 44th game and recently were on pace to finish 41-121, which would set a modern-day record for losses.
Today, those same Royals are just 2 1/2 games behind your Buccos, who were supposed to be "turning the corner," who supposedly are "this close" to being a good team and who will be hosting the All-Star Game - perhaps with the worst record in the majors -- in 18 days.
Oh well. At least Jason Bay might start in left field that night.
Joe Starkey is a sports writer for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He can be reached at jstarkey@tribweb.com
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