Monday, October 01, 2007
By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Keith Srakocic/Associated Press
Jack Wilson had to be carried off the field Saturday night, but he returned to the ballpark yesterday to say goodbye to the fans.
It was Saturday afternoon, and shortstop Jack Wilson was fretting yet again that he might be in his final weekend with the Pirates, given the chance the team could trade him.
But he was pleased about one thing ...
"The good part is that we're at home and I get a chance to say goodbye to the fans."
Hours later, he was carted off the field after his horrifying head-on-head collision with second baseman Matt Kata. Diagnosed with a concussion at Allegheny General Hospital, he spent the night there with blaring headaches and dizziness.
Some farewell.
Wilson was discharged from the hospital at 11 a.m. yesterday. The team arranged for his flight home to California, leaving a comfortable amount of time to get to the airport that afternoon.
He insisted on a detour.
A car took him to PNC Park while the Pirates were in the midst of losing their season finale to the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-5, and he rushed to the clubhouse to don his full uniform. As the game was winding down, he joined his teammates in the dugout.
And, when it ended, he climbed the steps and spent the next 15 minutes -- as much as the travel itinerary would allow -- playfully flinging his cap and wristbands to children in the crowd, shaking hands and signing a couple of autographs.
"I just had to do it," Wilson said later by phone while hurrying to the airport. "Did you see the crowd we got today?"
It was 25,664, larger than expected, especially for a team that clinched the worst record in the National League at 68-94 and the second-worst record in Major League Baseball.
"Those people have been through a lot, and I feel like I've been through it with them," Wilson said. "I just felt like I needed to be there."
Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Jack Wilson leaps over Arizona Diamondbacks' Stephen Drew, left, and can't complete the double play in the sixth inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007.
Trouble was, few others did.
No more than a handful of Wilson's teammates joined him in what has become a Pirates tradition of engaging the crowd along the railings after the final home game. The other players simply collected their equipment, turned and left for the clubhouse. By the time the room was open to reporters, about 15 minutes after the final out, half the stalls had been cleaned out.
This scene, make no mistake, underscores one of the many failings of these 2007 Pirates, the 15th in a row to labeled losers:
Some players showed up.
Some did not.
And that, coupled with the myriad shortcomings in talent, is enough to make more than a few wonder if the players' roster might not be changing as much as the management roster by next spring.
Two players yesterday bluntly endorsed the idea.
"You have to have an environment where you're not just happy to be collecting a paycheck," utilityman Josh Phelps said. "You've got to have the kind of people who aren't going to accept losing anymore. Look, it's OK to get beat. It happens. But you've got to take it personally. You need the character to say, 'I'm sick of this.' If some of your players don't have that, hey, you've got to get rid of them."
Phelps was acquired in June off waivers from the New York Yankees.
"I've been on a winning team, and here ... it's like, 'Oh, well, it's just another day in Pittsburgh.' That's what you have to get rid of."
"I'm not in upper management," outfielder Jason Bay said. "But you've got to be honest with yourself: We've had basically the same group the last four years, and to think that we're going to win 100 games or go the World Series next year with the exact same team ... it would be a little foolish. I'm not saying you need an overhaul, but something's got to change."
One veteran pitcher took specific umbrage with the scene this weekend, when the Pirates topped 90,000 in attendance but mostly went through the motions in being swept by St. Louis.
"You look at all these people still coming to our games, and you'd think that would get guys pumped up," the pitcher said. "Nothing. It had no effect. It's just another day."
And this on a weekend when the Pirates' players had two reasons -- beyond pride -- to perform well: One was that a new general manager, Neal Huntington, was evaluating the roster for the first time. Two, of course, was that manager Jim Tracy's job is on the line.
Afterward, a clearly downcast Tracy tried to maintain an upbeat tone: He spoke of seeing improvement, even though the team finished with only one more victory than it had each of the past two seasons. And he commended the players for their effort, even though many of the players themselves regularly questioned it.
"It didn't completely turn out in the manner we would have liked," Tracy said in what might have been his final postgame news conference. "I give an awful lot of credit to that group of players out there. They put it all on the line. In my opinion, as compared to a year ago, we had some brilliant moments and then some down times. ... They gave everything they had, and I tip my cap to every single one of them."
Bryan Bullington turned in his best major-league start, limiting St. Louis to two runs and five hits in five innings, but Juan Perez and Franquelis Osoria each was charged with two runs in the Cardinals' four-run sixth.
Steve Pearce, Jose Castillo and Nate McLouth had RBIs in the seventh to pull the Pirates within 6-4, and Xavier Nady's two-out single in the ninth made it 6-5. But St. Louis closer Jason Isringhausen got Jose Bautista to pop up to center for the final out of the season.
There are 163 days until someone -- Tom Gorzelanny, perhaps -- makes the first pitch of the 2008 season April 1 in Atlanta.
It remains to be seen how much changes.
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