The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
September 6, 2009
PITTSBURGH — Fading sunlight twinkles off the Allegheny River. Fans take the golden Roberto Clemente Bridge to cross it as optimism calls from the loudspeakers at PNC Park. The Black Eyed Peas have a feeling that tonight’s going to be a good, good night.
It is just a recording, of course. The band itself will be in town Thursday for a concert to celebrate the N.F.L. season, which starts that night at the stadium next door. Only 15,258 fans bought tickets to the Pittsburgh Pirates’ game on Friday. But Heinz Field will be packed all season.
David Zalubowski/Associated PressPirates Manager John Russell can only hope for better days.
“The Steelers are Super Bowl champions,” said Gary Varsho, the Pirates’ bench coach. “The Penguins are Stanley Cup champions. We want to get on board. It’s just going to take some time.”
It has been nearly 17 years since Varsho, then a backup outfielder, watched helplessly from the bench as the Pirates lost the pennant in Atlanta on a two-run single by Francisco Cabrera in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series. They have not had a winning season since.
When the Pirates lose their 82nd game this season, they will set a record for consecutive losing seasons, surpassing the 1933-48 Philadelphia Phillies. Their 80th loss — and eighth in a row — came Friday, 14-7, and it hurt from the start. The St. Louis Cardinals’ Skip Schumaker smashed the first pitch off the center-field wall for a double. He went to third on a wild pitch and scored when the Pirates’ catcher, Ryan Doumit, threw away a chopper for a three-base error.
Four Cardinals homers followed, including one by Albert Pujols, the kind of star the Pirates have missed since Barry Bonds left after the 1992 playoffs.
“We feel the impact of the streak,” said Neal Huntington, the Pirates’ general manager. “It’s a reality of us doing business. We see it, we feel it, we hear it. But our evaluators and instructors should be insulated from the 17 years. Hopefully, we’re able to continue moving forward to put this team in a position to win for many years, and not try to break the streak one year and then figure something out after that.”
When the streak began, Huntington was two years out of Amherst College, editing video for the Montreal Expos in a cramped scouting office at Olympic Stadium. Only one person fit in the room, so Huntington would move when the Expos’ pitching coach, Joe Kerrigan, studied his tapes.
Now Kerrigan is Huntington’s pitching coach, part of a new regime trying to revive the tradition of Honus Wagner, Clemente and Willie Stargell. The principal owner Bob Nutting took over in 2007, hiring Frank Coonelly from the commissioner’s office as president and hiring Huntington from the Cleveland Indians.
“The days of Band-Aids and patching and filling have been over for two years,” Coonelly said. “And while we recognize that some of the trades we have made are unpopular, our sole motivation is to give the Pirate fans what they truly deserve, and that’s a winner.”
The Pirates’ best accomplishment since 1992 is the building of PNC Park, a nine-year-old jewel that has never hosted a pennant race. A decade of wasted drafts and alarmingly poor judgment is to blame.
The general managers for the first 15 years, Cam Bonifay and Dave Littlefield, made some good deals. In 1998, Bonifay acquired the slugger Brian Giles from Cleveland for reliever Ricardo Rincon. Five years later, Littlefield peddled Giles to San Diego for Jason Bay.
But mostly, the Pirates invested their limited funds on fading veterans like Jeromy Burnitz, Pat Meares and Matt Morris. At least Derek Bell, the outfielder who owned a yacht, inspired a memorable punch line. After playing one halfhearted season of a two-year, $9.75 million contract, Bell was said to be the perfect pirate: he lives on a boat and steals money.
“Previous administrations were trying to win for the day,” said Joe Sharek of Sewickley, Pa., a season-ticket holder since 1992. “They would sign these veterans trying to get that one last contract. It appeared that they didn’t put much emphasis on the farm system. The difference now is they’re building for the future. They’re not concerned about trying to stop this record, which is smart.”
The Pirates have traded 10 veterans since June. The first to go was the All-Star center fielder Nate McLouth, 27, who had signed a three-year contract extension in February.
“Everybody was like, ‘What’s going on?’ ” said outfielder Eric Hinske, who was shipped to the Yankees soon after. “Nobody had any idea in the clubhouse what was happening, because he was the face of the organization.”
The trades kept coming through July, overhauling the major league roster and flooding the bereft farm system. When the purge was finished, the Pirates were left with the youngest team in the majors, and Huntington held a clubhouse meeting.
“Neal kept talking about trying to build a team that is constantly competing for championships,” said starter Ross Ohlendorf, who came from the Yankees last season and was 11-9 entering Saturday. “He wanted to let us know he was putting us in position to have a better team going forward. It’s exciting to play in a place like that.”
Others seem more skeptical, including the rookie center fielder Andrew McCutchen, whose speed and power have eased the sting of losing McLouth.
“Hopefully we can be able to play with this young team for years to come, and not have to worry about losing people when trade deadlines come,” McCutchen said. “Hopefully, if anything, we can be gaining people, not losing people.”
Keith Srakocic/Associated PressAndrew McCutchen taking his warm-up swings before another sparse crowd at PNC Park, where the Pirates are mired in failure.
That is part of the plan, the Pirates insist, though they admit roster turnover is inevitable. The goal, Coonelly said, is to develop stars, keep them as long as possible and have replacements ready.
The Pirates have plowed money and manpower into that effort, spending $5 million to build an academy in the Dominican Republic. Of the 21 full-time scouts employed at the start of the 2007 season, just 13 remain and 18 have been added. The team has nine full-time international scouts, up from three in 2007, and a new scouting director and farm director.
In the 2007 draft, the Pirates passed on the acclaimed catcher Matt Wieters, who signed for $6 million with Baltimore. The Pirates spent just $4.2 million on all of their choices that year, a figure that jumped to $9.8 million in 2008 and $8.9 million this year.
In each of the last two seasons, the Pirates have ranked among the top 10 in spending in the draft. Coonelly, in his previous job, had implored teams to stay within bonus guidelines established by Major League Baseball.
Now, he authorizes the Pirates to go higher. After signing their first-round pick, catcher Tony Sanchez, for a market-price $2.5 million bonus, the Pirates splurged on picks in the later rounds. Coonelly readily names them and makes no apologies.
“I have a much different job now, and my focus now is building a winner in Pittsburgh,” Coonelly said, adding later: “In the larger context, is $1 million for Zach Von Rosenberg or Colton Cain more wisely spent than $10 million a year for four years for a .500 pitcher on the free-agent market? We choose to invest our dollars in the draft and in the international market, because we think there’s better value there.”
Coonelly said there was no excuse to fail in Pittsburgh, especially with successful small-market models in Minnesota, Tampa Bay and Oakland. The Pirates’ manager, John Russell, spent eight seasons as a minor league manager for the Twins, guiding a steady flow of talent to the majors.
Most of the Pirates’ best prospects are still in the minors, including third baseman Pedro Alvarez, pitchers Tim Alderson and Brad Lincoln, and outfielder Jose Tabata. Someday, those players may lift the Pirates over .500 and beyond. Until they do, they must live with the ignominy of the streak.
“We can’t say it’s not us,” Russell said. “We’re a part of it and we have to accept it. At the same time, we can’t let that dictate what we do and we can’t look for the quick fix. Just stay the course. Most of our fan base understands it’ll turn around. It’s hollow words until it does. But we’ll get there.”
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