Friday, February 22, 2008
By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
BRADENTON, Fla. -- The Pirates' players know Steve Blass as a broadcaster and, away from the booth, as one funny individual. Yesterday, they saw a different side when he addressed them inside the Pirate City cafeteria.
They saw the pitcher who blew away the Baltimore Orioles in Game 7 of the 1971 World Series, ending it with his famous leap in front of first baseman Bob Robertson.
They saw the pitcher who two years later began battling an inexplicable loss of control that soon would result in his retirement. The pitcher who, by his telling yesterday, was reduced to tears not because he might be finished with baseball but because he no longer would be among his teammates in Pittsburgh.
They also saw, perhaps, a bit of themselves.
"Probably the best speech I've ever heard," reliever John Grabow said. "For Steve to talk about the pride he had in putting on a uniform every day for the Pirates, what it meant when that was taken away ... it was pretty emotional in there. He came right from the heart, and we felt it."
"I had chills, especially growing up a fan of this team," said reliever Josh Sharpless, a Freedom native. "He told all of us what it means to be a true Pirate."
The annual spring gathering of the Pirates' top brass and the players -- behind closed doors -- covered a half-hour, just as it covered 122 years of history.
As players entered the cafeteria, they saw freshly hung images of Sports Illustrated covers featuring Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell and others from the glory years. Next, owner Bob Nutting and president Frank Coonelly gave speeches. Then, a short video was shown that overlapped written messages such as "Five World Series titles" and "Fifth-most wins in baseball" across images of players from the present such as Jason Bay and Jack Wilson, as if to make a connection.
But all concerned, Nutting and Coonelly included, conceded that Blass stole the show.
Which, from the sound of it, reflects how high he had set the bar for himself.
"For all the speaking I've done, I've never spoken to a major-league team," Blass said. "And I'd never prepared for a speech for two weeks. I've been walking up and down the beach practicing this, I was practicing with my wife, and I woke up at 4 a.m. today thinking about this."
No jokes this time.
"Serious as a heart attack. I've wanted to do this for a lot of years, and I'm honored they asked."
Among his many points ...
• Do not forget that the baseball world did not always look down upon the Pirates: "It's a great franchise, and you need to know what your heritage is. I'm still living it. I've got loyalty to this team that I can't even begin to describe to you."
• To that end, do not squander the opportunity to learn from alumni Bill Mazeroski, Kent Tekulve, Manny Sanguillen, Bill Virdon, Chuck Tanner and others in that cafeteria: "That professionalism, that Pirates pride ... it's written all over those guys. Shame on you if you don't go to them. They've been there. They're champions."
• Do not settle for simply making it to Major League Baseball: "Find out how good of a player you can be. Don't just be satisfied to be here. Push yourself, and push the guy next to you."
Nutting called the speech "amazing." Perhaps even more meaningful, director of player development Kyle Stark approached Blass immediately afterward and told him, "You have got to give that speech to every one of our minor-league teams this summer."
Blass' response?
"I'd be proud."
Nutting and Coonelly each stressed accountability in his speech.
With Nutting's first such address last spring, a month after taking control of ownership, he promised there would be change if failure persisted. Since then, nearly every face in the upper tiers of management is new.
"I hope they can see in the year that's gone by the real changes we've put in place," Nutting said of the players. "We're committed to being a first-class organization, from the new leadership to the new coaching staff to the tools we're giving them. And now, really, the responsibility, the accountability is shifting onto the field. It's time for everyone to perform."
That will start, he added, by not being bogged down by the past decade and a half.
"We have a 15-year stretch that we can't dwell on. For most of our history, the Pittsburgh Pirates have been a tremendous, respected franchise, with players who were proud to wear the uniform and had an expectation of excellence. I believe we're in a position now to begin that execution."
Nutting had dinner Wednesday night with manager John Russell and his staff, and he said he came away with a feeling that the Pirates can contend in 2008.
"I certainly believe that. I've never professed to be an evaluator of baseball talent, so I trust the guys we have in place to make those decisions. But the optimism I've heard, the enthusiasm I've seen, certainly gives me a wonderful feeling."
Nutting reiterated that he will increase the payroll above $50 million if his baseball people ask but added that it will "depend on the circumstances," referring to the Pirates stressing that each player is worth the investment.
"We're always going to have to live within market-appropriate means, but we have not tied our hands so much that, if that opportunity comes, we can't take advantage of it. When we do that, it's never going to be about the total dollars, it's going to be about the right choices."
Coonelly told the players that, just as the Pirates will judge their performance, he welcomes the reverse.
"They've heard a lot about accountability, but I told them that accountability starts with us," he said. "Are we going to stick with our plan? We're saying things, we're telling people that we're doing this right by building a foundation, but are we? We can't worry about skepticism, As I told the players, they do not own the last 15 years of losing baseball in Pittsburgh, and they shouldn't be defined by it."
Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@post-gazette.com.
First published on February 22, 2008 at 12:00 am
No comments:
Post a Comment