2009 Dapper Dan nominees and memories, moments & miracles

Sunday, January 10, 2010
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

LAS VEGAS - JUNE 18: Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins poses with the Art Ross Trophy and the Conn Smythe Trophy following the 2009 NHL Awards at the Palms Casino Resort on June 18, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

2009 SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR

• Dion Lewis -- Pitt tailback ... The true freshman was named the Big East's Offensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year. Eclipsed Tony Dorsett's freshman rushing record with 1,799 yards for the season and was recently named National Freshman of the Year by Sporting News.

• Evgeni Malkin -- Penguins center ...Helped the Penguins win the Stanley Cup championship and was named playoff MVP, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy. Also led the league in scoring with 113 points in the regular season and was awarded the Art Ross Trophy.

• Ben Roethlisberger -- Steelers quarterback ... Led the Steelers to a Super Bowl victory in February then set a record in 2009 as the first quarterback in Steelers history to throw for 4,000 yards or more in a season. Was named the team's MVP for the first time in his six-year career.

• Ray Shero -- Penguins GM ... Architect of the team that won the 2009 Stanley Cup. Made several moves including the installation of Dan Bylsma as head coach in February and roster acquisitions at the trade deadline that had a huge impact on the Penguins' success.

• Dave Wannstedt -- Pitt football coach ... A graduate of Baldwin and the University of Pittsburgh, led Pitt back to the national stage and top 15 ranking with 10 wins for the first time since 1981 including a win at the Meineke Car Care Bowl in December.

Penn State's Kelsey Ream (8) holds the trophy after Penn State's win over Texas in the NCAA college volleyball national championship match Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009, in Tampa, Fla. Penn State won 22-25, 20-25, 25-23, 25-21, 15-13.(AP)

2009 SPORTSWOMAN OF THE YEAR

• Meghan Klingenberg -- North Carolina soccer player ... A Pine-Richland graduate who is one of the star players for the Tar Heels' 2009 national championship soccer team and a midfielder for the U.S. national team.

• Suzie McConnell-Serio -- Duquesne women's basketball coach ... Pittsburgh native and Dukes coach since 2007 has guided the team toward national respectability by winning 20 games last season and earning a WNIT trip, then upsetting Pitt in December, their first win against a ranked team since 1994.

• Carol Sprague -- Pitt Sr. Associate Athletics Director ... Recognized for her tireless efforts to help bring the women's basketball program into the national spotlight and was instrumental in bringing the NCAA women's basketball championship opening rounds to Petersen Events Center in 2010.

• Penn State Women's Volleyball Team -- Made NCAA history, becoming the first team ever to win three consecutive NCAA national championships and winning 102 matches in a row, a feat topped only by the University of Miami men's tennis team for longest streak ever (137).

CHARLOTTE, NC - DECEMBER 26: Dion Lewis #28 of the Pittsburgh Panthers runs with the ball against the North Carolina Tar Heels during their game on December 26, 2009 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Getty Images)

BREAKTHROUGH ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

• Dion Lewis -- Named Big East Offensive Player of the Year in his freshman season and rushed for 1,799 yards.

• Andrew McCutchen -- Hit .286 with 12 HRs and 54 RBIs in 108 games for the Pirates as a rookie. Stole 22 bases.

• Rashard Mendenhall -- Led Steelers with 1,108 rushing yards in his first full season and scored eight TDs.

• Mike Wallace -- Steelers rookie caught 39 passes for 759 yards and six TDs, including last-second, game-winning catch vs. Green Bay.

MEMORIES, MOMENTS & MIRACLES

Reuters Pictures

Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison runs back an interception 100 yards, the longest in Super Bowl history, for a touchdown against the Arizona Cardinals that ended the second quarter of the NFL's Super Bowl XLIII football game in Tampa, Florida, February 1, 2009. The Cardinals Mike Gandy attempts a late tackle.

2009 BEST PLAY

• Big Return -- James Harrison makes Super Bowl history with a 100-yard interception return for a TD.

• Super Catch -- Santonio Holmes snares a catch for the ages, leading the Steelers to victory in Super Bowl XLIII.

• Trick Shot -- Evgeni Malkin launches a backhand flip for a goal vs. Carolina in the Eastern Conference final.

• Great Save -- Marc-Andre Fleury makes brilliant save in Game 7 on Nicklas Lidstrom to win Stanley Cup.

Getty Images

DETROIT - JUNE 12: Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates with the Stanley Cup after defeating the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 2-1 to win Game Seven and the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena on June 12, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan.

2009 BEST SPORTS MOMENT

• Sixburgh --- The Steelers win their sixth Super Bowl in dramatic fashion in Tampa, Fla.

• Magnifique -- Mario Lemieux hoists the Stanley Cup then hands it off to captain Sidney Crosby as the Penguins celebrate triumph in Detroit.

• Three Deep -- Andrew McCutchen hits three homers vs. Washington on an electrified night at PNC Park.

• Graduation Day -- Duquesne's Sam Ashaolu graduates after near fatal shooting and becomes an inspiration to the university.

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First published on January 10, 2010 at 12:00 am

Who cares what Pirates do anymore?

Monday, December 14, 2009
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

I'm trying really hard to work up a good case of angst over the Pirates' decision to release closer Matt Capps in what clearly is another salary dump. But I can't. How do you get upset over something you don't care about?

I guess that's what really ticks me off most, that the Pirates have become so irrelevant in our sporting consciousness. Baseball is such a beautiful game and we're stuck with the worst franchise with the worst ownership in the sport. What did we do so wrong?

Peter Diana/Post-Gazette

Pirates reliever Matt Capps

So what if the Pirates let Capps go and almost certainly will head into the 2010 season without anything even remotely resembling a bullpen hammer? What's the big deal? They're the Pirates, right? Maybe they'll lose 105 games instead of 99. It really doesn't matter what moves they make, does it?

On some level, I suppose, the decision to release Capps isn't completely idiotic. The way baseball's wacky economic system works, he was due a raise through arbitration from his $2.425 million salary last season. That despite the fact he badly underachieved with a 4-8 record, five blown saves and a 5.80 earned run average. It is safe to say Joe Kerrigan, whom the Pirates like to portray as the pied piper of pitching coaches, couldn't get through to him. That can mean only one thing, of course: Poor Capps must be hopeless.

Not to be cynical.

Speaking of Kerrigan, who might be just a bit overhyped and overrated, is there another organization in sports that promotes its coaches more than the Pirates? I guess that's what you have to do when you never have a winning team and are the biggest sports joke in town. It was as if the world was ending when the club lost infield instructor Perry Hill after last season. Shame on me, but I don't see that as such a big issue. So maybe the Pirates will lose 110 games instead of 105. Really, what's the difference?

But back to Capps.

I had to laugh out loud at the Post-Gazette report last week that said Pirates general manager Neal Huntington threatened to release Capps and not take him to arbitration if he didn't agree to the team's contract offer. That's really showing him, isn't it? If I'm Capps, I'm begging to be released. At least now, as a free agent, he has a chance to go to a club that knows what it is doing and has a chance to win. Huntington did him a favor.

Teams all over baseball are looking for relief pitching. That includes the Pirates, who, after releasing Capps and left-hander Phil Dumatrait over the weekend, are looking at a bullpen next season of Joel Hanrahan, Evan Meek and what other low-priced stiffs they can find to put out there. Good luck with that.

I know Capps isn't Mariano Rivera, but it is incomprehensible how the Pirates can give away one of their few commodities without getting anything in return.

Now that is completely idiotic.

It's hardly unfathomable that Capps will bounce back to have a much better season in '10. It's not uncommon for a relief pitcher to have a bad year. Huntington knows that. He has said that any reliever's performance is the toughest thing to predict from one year to the next.

Capps was pretty decent before last season. Just last week, Pirates manager John Russell talked as if he planned on him as his closer again in '10. "It's Matt's job to lose."

So much for that.

Capps lost the job without throwing a pitch.

All because he might make -- heaven forbid! -- $3 million-and-change next season.

What a franchise!

The Pirates want us to believe that this wasn't a salary dump, that it merely was about the team wanting better value for its dollars. Funny, that's what management said after parting ways last season with pricey veterans Nate McLouth, Adam LaRoche, Jack Wilson, Ian Snell, Freddy Sanchez and John Grabow. After each move, the payroll went down, much to the delight of Bob Nutting, the sport's worst owner but a tremendous businessman. It is far beyond the point now that it is hard to believe anything that anyone in the organization says. It's an absolute farce. The franchise is an absolute farce.

Here's the most absurd part:

In Dejan Kovacevic's well-timed two-part series in the Post-Gazette last week examining the Pirates' finances, team president Frank Coonelly actually had the nerve to moan that too much attention is paid to the club's major league payroll.

I couldn't make that up.

Well, I'm here this morning to tell you that tiny payroll number isn't what is so troubling. These numbers are: 99, 95, 94, 95, 95, 89, 87, 89, 100, 93, 83, 93, 83, 89, 86, 61 and 87.

That's the number of Pirates' losses going backward for the past 17 years. (You have to put an asterisk beside the 61 because it came in the strike-shortened 1994 season).

You might care if the team loses 115 games next season.

I don't.

I stopped caring a long time ago.

Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.

First published on December 14, 2009 at 12:00 am

Fanning the fire on the hot stove

Thursday, December 10, 2009
By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

Two words for Pirates management this morning: Ramiro Pena.

That's whom they ought to have been targeting this week in tropical Indianapolis, the site of baseball's annual Winter Meetings, which have long since become the December marketplace where the Pirates reliably maneuver just carefully enough to achieve their unique equilibrium -- modest profits from an acutely substandard product.

Yes, it's all perfectly legal.

Ramiro Pena makes the major league minimum: $400,000.

He's a perfect fit.

With all the resources available within what Bob Nutting once called the best management team in all of baseball and maybe in all of sports (and certainly the best in the 100 block of Federal Street), somebody has to have a cell phone number for Ramiro Pena, likely the most underrated utility man in all of Monterrey, Mexico.


Oakland Athletics' Bobby Crosby rounds third after hitting a home run in the second inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP)

I only offer this suggestion in response to the club's pursuit of Bobby Crosby, the American League Rookie of the Year in 2004, when he hit 22 homers. The fact that he has hit about 22 since has not deterred your Buccos. All right, he has hit 39 in the past five years, but let's not be persnickety.

Of all the personnel strategies initiated by the Pittsburgh Baseball Club over the past 17 years of win avoidance (this being the start of year III of five-year plan IV), none smells so strongly of abject surrender than management's stated reason for wanting Crosby, a shortstop with more than a million bonus points as a platinum member of the frequent-guest program of the American League disabled list.

The Pirates want Crosby, again by public admission, to push their starting shortstop, who, if you haven't noticed, is Ronny Cedeno.

After arriving from Seattle at the end of July in the trade that sent shortstop Jack Wilson and starter Ian Snell to the Mariners, Cedeno put the finishing touches on a season in which he hit .208 in 105 games, had more strikeouts than hits and walked 19 times in 376 plate appearances.

If you went to the plate 376 times without a bat, you would walk more than 19 times.

Defensively, Cedeno was by turns brilliant and inadequate.

And yet Pirates manager John Russell, explaining to the Post-Gazette's Dejan Kovacevic the need to "push" Cedeno, said, "It's just consistency. Ronny has so many tools, as we saw, but he needs to maintain his concentration. You got the sense that he wasn't always locked in."

Hmm.

Isn't it bad enough that your starting shortstop, whom you're paying close to $1 million, can't always be bothered to, you know, pay attention, or is it far worse that the solution to this problem is to acquire another substandard shortstop that you hope will spur the starting substandard shortstop to previously unscaled heights of near adequacy?

Seriously. Can we pretend this is the big leagues?

Either push Cedeno off the plank, or please, give me Ramiro Pena.

Pena played in 34 games in the majors last season at shortstop, starting only 11, but the shortstop he was "pushing" had 212 hits, scored 107 runs, stole 30 bases, whacked 18 homers, batted .407 in the World Series and wound up on the cover of Sports Illustrated as its Sportsman of the Year.

Oh, yeah, Derek Jeter really got pushed.

The Pirates are awaiting the results of a physical on Crosby before handing him potentially $1.5 million to make sure Cedeno pays attention. Crosby's attention span apparently isn't an issue, but his 18 extra-base hits in 238 at-bats don't figure to keep Cedeno up at night.

For real fan-base buzz, the Crosby deal, should it happen at all, won't compare to the earlier acquisition of psychotic Japanese second baseman Akinori Iwamura, who said through a translator after being dealt from Tampa Bay to Pittsburgh: "Hopefully, we can go to the playoffs next season."

You don't normally regard translators as a mischievous lot, but, really, who did they tell him he was traded to?

On the always humorous Rule 5 issue, Pirates general manager Neil Huntington seems to have waffled a bit this week on whether the club would be interested in tomorrow's Rule 5 draft. The past two brought Evan Meek and Donnie Veal, and Huntington said he might be interested again if there is another pitcher available. That's good. There's nothing the club can use more than a marginal reliever who can't get any innings and won't develop as a result.

Not to be critical.

Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com. More articles by this author

First published on December 10, 2009 at 12:00 am

Open Your Books, Mr. Nutting!

Open your books, Mr. Nutting!
By Bob Smizik Wednesday, 1 a.m.
http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/bobsmizik/default.aspx

In a startling bit of reporting, the widely respected Jason Stark of ESPN.com wrote last week that many small-market MLB teams are far wealthier than anyone ever expected.

According to Stark, teams like the Pirates receive about $80 million in revenue before they sell a ticket.

That’s a figure that had not previously been reported and it's one that has to make any Pirates fan wonder where all the money is going because it’s certainly not going toward payroll.

Are the long-held suspicions that principal owner Bob Nutting is pocketing a handsome profit while foisting a third-rate team on the Pittsburgh fans true? Is Nutting the villain many fans and former fans portray him to be?

Based on Stark’s reporting, there is reason to be at least suspicious.

Stark reported that all MLB teams receive $30 million from the Central Fund, which includes revenue from national television, radio, Internet, licensing, merchandising, marketing and MLB International.

Additionally, every team but one (not believed to be the Pirates) makes at least $15 million from local radio and television revenue.

Finally, the teams that have the lowest revenue (the Pirates are in that group) receive about $35 million in revenue sharing.

That’s $30 million from the Central Fund, $15 million from local media and $35 million for revenue sharing. That comes to $80 million.

What about it, Mr. Nutting?

Nutting wasn’t talking but team president Frank Coonelly spoke to Ken Rosenthal of Fox. Rosenthal, working with a different figure, wrote: "He [Coonelly] said his club received substantially less than $40 million in revenue sharing last year, but declined to say what the specific numbers were.’’

Maybe that number was the $35 million, as reported by Stark, which is substantially less than the $40 million Coonelly was asked about. In effect, Coonelly could have been confirming Stark’s figure.

Rob Manfred, MLB’s chief of labor relations, told Rosenthal, "There is no one club getting $80 or $90 million in combination from revenue sharing and Central Baseball. Not one.’’

That’s not what Stark wrote. He said teams were getting that much money from revenue sharing, the Central Fund and local radio and TV.

Manfred was denying nothing.

So what is the real story?

No one is saying and Pirates fans, who never trusted Nutting, now have less reason to do so.

Is he financing Seven Springs with Pirates money? Is he bailing out his small-town newspaper empire with baseball profits? Or is he just putting it in his pocket?

People are suggesting as much and as long as Nutting remains quiet, he only stokes the speculation.

There’s one way to end the talk.

Open your books, Mr. Nutting.

Let the public know how much profit you’re making and where that profit is going.

Of course, you don’t have to do that. The Pirates are a private company. But they are public institution playing in a beautiful baseball stadium that was largely financed by tax dollars.

Your team relies heavily on public goodwill and through your actions you are destroying that goodwill. I have followed the Pirates as a fan for more than 60 years and as a journalist for more than 40 and I’ve never seen the team and the organization held in such a low regard.

It’s not just the losing. It’s the way you go about your business. You arouse suspicion by your actions and the actions of your subordinates.

If a public opening of the books isn’t to your liking, at least allow a government-appointed commission study your finances and report back.

If you have nothing to hide, this should not be a problem. If you do, of course, you’ll reject any attempt to let the public know how you run your business.

To use a term from another sport, the ball is in your court, Mr. Nutting.

You can surprise us all by being open and honest about your financial situation. Or you can continue to arouse suspicion and drive away customers by conducting business as usual.

Posted: Bob Smizik with 18 comment(s)
Filed under: Bob Nutting, Frank Coonelly

Pirates' McCutchen cops BA's top rookie

By Rob Biertempfel, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Andrew McCutchen's rookie season with the Pirates went about as well as he could have hoped.

"There's nothing I would change," McCutchen said Monday. "There are a few things I'll fine-tune this winter and get better at, but as far as how I did during the season, it all was good."

The analysts at Baseball America agreed, as they named McCutchen the magazine's major league rookie of the year.

"It's a great honor," McCutchen said by phone from his home in Lakeland, Fla.

McCutchen, 23, batted .286 with 12 home runs, 54 RBI and 22 stolen bases. He topped National League rookies with 47 extra-base hits and ranked second in multi-hit games, runs, walks and total bases.

The Pittsburgh chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America voted McCutchen the Pirates' MVP.

Voting for Major League Baseball's major awards, including Rookie of the Year, is conducted nationally by the BBWAA. Ballots are submitted before the end of the regular season, and the winners are announced after the World Series.

McCutchen and Pirates first baseman Garrett Jones — whom Baseball America also named to its all-rookie team — are generally considered among the top candidates for the National League rookie award. Also in the running are Florida Marlins outfielder Chris Coghlan, Milwaukee Brewers infielder Casey McGehee and pitchers Tommy Hanson of Atlanta and J.A. Happ of Philadelphia.

"Whatever happens, happens," McCutchen said. "I did all I could, and it's up to (the voters) to make the decision. We'll see. For now, I'm happy to take the Baseball America award."

Only two times in the past 10 years has Baseball America's choice not been one of the two league Rookies of the Year selected by the baseball writers.

In 2004, Baseball America selected San Diego shortstop Khalil Greene, while the writers voted for Pirates left fielder Jason Bay and Oakland shortstop Bobby Crosby.

In 2003, the magazine tabbed Arizona pitcher Brandon Webb, while the media honored NL pitcher Dontrelle Willis and AL shortstop Angel Berroa.

This winter, McCutchen will train in Lakeland. He also plans to work out with left fielder Lastings Milledge, who grew up in Palmetto, Fla., a 20-minute drive from Pirate City.

Notes: The Pirates requested outright waivers on reliever Tyler Yates, who then opted for free agency. Yates missed most of last season after having reconstructive elbow surgery. There are 38 players on the 40-man roster, plus pitchers Evan Meek and Jose Ascanio, who both are on the 60-day disabled list.

CF McCutchen voted Pirates MVP by media

From staff and wire reports
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Center fielder Andrew McCutchen is the winner of the Roberto Clemente Award, which is presented annually to the top Pirates player of that season.

McCutchen received seven of a possible nine first-place votes in balloting by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. First baseman/outfielder Garrett Jones edged pitcher Ross Ohlendorf by one-half vote for second place.

McCutchen joins second baseman Tony Womack as the only rookie to win the award, which is named for the late Hall of Fame outfielder. Womack shared the 1997 award with first baseman Kevin Young.

The Pirates didn't recall McCutchen from Triple-A Indianapolis until they traded Nate McLouth — the 2008 Clemente winner — to the Atlanta Braves on June 3. McCutchen went on to hit .286 with 12 homers, 54 RBIs and 22 stolen bases in 108 games.

Jones, a late June callup, batted .293 with 21 homers and 44 RBIs in 82 games. Ohlendorf was the only starting pitcher to stay with the Pirates all season who had a winning record, going 11-10 with a 3.92 ERA in 29 starts.


• Pirates games on FSN Pittsburgh drew a Nielsen rating of 3.25 that was higher than the regional sports network ratings for 11 other major league clubs, according to SportsBusiness Journal.

Although the Pirates lost 99 games during a record-setting 17th consecutive losing season, their ratings were higher than those for the Royals, Orioles, Astros, Indians, Mets, Rangers, White Sox, Dodgers, Angels, Athletics and Nationals.

The Pirates' ratings were up 18.2 percent from 2008 and the average number of households watching, 38,000, was up 18.8 percent. By comparison, Dodgers games on FS Prime Ticket drew a rating of 2.15, but the average number of households watching was 122,000, according to the publication.

The Nationals had the lowest rating (0.60 on MASN/MASN2) and households (14,000) of any team in the majors, SportsBusiness Journal reported.

The rating is the percentage of all homes with TVs, whether or not they are in use.


DIGITS

1 — Player on the Pirates who finished with more RBI than leadoff man Andrew McCutchen's 54 (Andy LaRoche, 64).

3 — Rank of McCutchen among National League leadoff men in RBI. He finished behind only Jimmy Rollins (71) and Felipe Lopez (55).

On the Pirates: 17 bests and worsts from 2009

From Alvarez to Zach, the highs and lows of another long summer

Sunday, October 04, 2009
By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

CINCINNATI -- It was the year of 17 for the Pirates.

From losing 17 in a row to the Brewers to the 17-2 loss at Wrigley Field to 17 consecutive losing seasons, here are 17 bests and worsts of the franchise's 123rd season that ends today at Great American Ball Park ...

Top player: Zach Duke. A starter's primary job is to give his team a chance to win, and no one did that more often. Duke's 213 innings led the staff, he pitched into the seventh inning in 18 of 32 starts and, as the Pirates' second choice for the All-Star Game, he made it on merit.

Bottom player: Ian Snell. He underperformed, complained, asked for a demotion, then bashed pitching coach Joe Kerrigan after Kerrigan had been the only supporter he had left.

Finest moment: Andrew McCutchen's third home run on the evening of Aug. 1 provided Pittsburgh its two rarest commodities as related to baseball: A curtain call, and some hope.

Foulest moment: How much lower does it get than Charlie Morton and Chris Bootcheck giving up two touchdowns in two innings of the 17-2 rout Aug. 14 at Wrigley Field?

Emotional high: The 11-7 start through an April trip to San Diego had the Pirates, perhaps naively, confident to the point of a little healthy cockiness.

Emotional low: The trades of Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez, July 30 in San Francisco, brought a near-funereal atmosphere to the clubhouse that would take weeks to dissipate.

Best front-office move: Keeping ticket prices level for a seventh consecutive year.

Worst front-office move: Not signing Miguel Angel Sano. Blame can go all-around for this mess, but the bottom line is that the player Latin American scouting director Rene Gayo identified as the best prospect he ever saw will wear the uniform of the Minnesota Twins for $3.15 million, only $550,000 more than the Pirates' last offer. Something went wrong.

Best personnel move: Some in baseball snickered with the Pirates' low-cost top draft pick in June, Boston College catcher Tony Sanchez, but he batted .309 with seven home runs in his Class A debut. And the money invested in the rest of the draft brought, by all accounts, another impressive class.

Worst personnel move: Setting aside how the Nate McLouth trade actually turns out, general manager Neal Huntington's most controversial move damaged not only the public's trust in the franchise -- if that still has room to be damaged -- but also the view among players that they can stick around long enough to matter. It will take a long time to undo this on both fronts.

Best managerial move: John Russell's relentless stressing of fundamentals in the field resulted in the fewest errors in franchise history, this despite many of his top gloves being traded. A manager has more control over this facet than any other, and the work ethic of Russell and his coaching staff was without peer.

Worst managerial move: Pulling Duke last week. Russell surely meant well, but the move and his reaction afterward displayed a striking disconnect from the team's paying customers and, far more important, from one of his best players.

Best quote: In late July, Sean Burnett called the Pirates a "laughingstock," and, as per the strict definition of the term, he was proven right. The franchise became the butt of jokes across the country, including the Web-circulated photo of the road sign that read: "Welcome to Pittsburgh. City of champions. And the Pirates."

Worst quote: The summer-long complaining the Brewers did about Ryan Braun getting hit by a Jeff Karstens pitch. Where have you gone, Bob Gibson?

Historical high: Garrett Jones' 21 home runs are the franchise's most by any left-handed rookie, and they came in half a season.

Historical low: Clinching the 17-year losing streak drew national attention, but nothing rivals the 3-23 spiral fall last month that was the franchise's worst such span since ... 1890!

Top play: With apologies to Wilson and Sanchez, the play that might have meant most to the Pirates' future was Lastings Milledge's crash-into-the-wall catch Sept. 20 at PNC Park. Although his knee was bloodied, he stayed in the meaningless game, addressing with one fell swoop many of the doubts that accompanied him in the trade.

Bottom play: Ryan Doumit's swing April 19 that resulted in his missing 2 1/2 months with a fractured wrist. If it can go wrong with Doumit ...

Most encouraging: The maturation of Ross Ohlendorf into an often dominant starter was a boon to the rotation, as well as a needed boost for the return on the Pirates' many trades.

Most discouraging: By contrast, Kevin Hart's showing, 1-8 with a 6.92 ERA, was the latest showing that called player evaluation abilities into doubt.

Leap forward: Andy LaRoche has been modest offensively -- .260, 12 home runs, 64 RBIs -- but but no player showed greater improvement in any facet than LaRoche with his defense.

Step backward: Matt Capps recorded 27 saves despite being baseball's Maytag repairman as the Pirates' closer. But a 5.80 ERA, eight losses and a .324 opponents' batting average -- all fueled by an unprecedented lack of control -- were nowhere near good enough.

Accountability: Team president Frank Coonelly was the only member of management to express -- and display -- visible disgust with the Pirates' performance, though his sentiment apparently rubbed off on few.

Lack of accountability: Some of the worst baseball seen in Pittsburgh in a century resulted in exactly one non-player change, that being the dismissal of Rich Donnelly, the seventh coach on a seven-man staff.

Leadership: With Doumit in a huge slump before an Aug. 22 game, Chuck Tanner pulled him aside, put his arm on his shoulder and told him -- in bold terms -- of his faith in the Pirates' catcher. Doumit had a home run, double, single and three RBIs that night, then became emotional afterward in talking about Tanner.

Lack of leadership: Take your pick.

Positive force: The smile, the passion and the energy of Nyjer Morgan was unmatched on the Pirates' scene in years. Small wonder so many still steam over his departure.

Negative force: Eric Hinske never came close to fitting in, sought a trade, then trashed the city and his former employers even after they granted his wish. And this was the player management touted as Doug Mientkiewicz's replacement.

Sweetest swing: Not long after Pedro Alvarez's big cuts in spring training prompted Manny Sanguillen to compare him to Willie Stargell, Alvarez hit 27 home runs with a .288 average and 95 RBIs in his first full professional season. Expect him next summer.

Miserable miss: Brian Bixler's 26 strikeouts in 44 at-bats is futility that might not be matched anywhere for a long time, even by a pitcher.

Powerful crowd moment: The booing of Russell for pulling Duke, by a PNC Park gathering thick with season-ticket holders, probably had the feel of scream therapy for those who had watched so much abysmal baseball for six months.

Weakest crowd moment: A solitary fan clapped two weeks ago when pitcher Eric Hacker made his major league debut. And the fan, as it turned out, was local horror novelist Stewart O'Nan. Fill in your own punch line.

Reason to believe in the 2010 Pirates: If San Francisco could contend with a lineup as weak as the Giants had, pitching clearly is the answer. The Pirates cannot match the Giants' pitching, obviously, but there is some ceiling there.

Reason not to believe: Teams that win one of every four games, as the current roster has since late July, are not exactly trending toward dramatic turnarounds.

Catch more on the Pirates at the PG's PBC Blog. Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@post-gazette.com.

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First published on October 4, 2009 at 12:00 am

Past, present, future Pirates lament streak

Prospect Lincoln longs for day when franchise is not 'mockery'

Tuesday, September 08, 2009
By Chuck Finder, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/pirates/


Pirates of the past can hardly believe it lasted this long, can hardly envision when it may end.

Pirates of the future hardly can wait for a chance to alter the course of this horrific history.

The alumni talk about the unthinkable happening right here in the City of Champions. This is the town that has hoisted two Lombardi trophies, taken one Stanley Cup and visited yet another Super Bowl and Cup final while its once-proud baseball franchise has nothing to show for itself.

Nothing other than a slew of failed next great prospects, a half-dozen different managers, 1,501 defeats and, now, a North American professional-sports record of 17 consecutive losing seasons.

The Washington Generals of baseball, one wag called them. America's new, true biggest losers.

The pledge class talks about it, but not too often, not too loudly. They do think about it, though. Often. Quietly.

Rusty Kennedy/Associated Press

Atlanta first baseman Sid Bream lies on top of teammate Dave Justice at home plate as they celebrate Bream scoring the winning run in bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 1992 National League Championship Series. It was the last time the Pirates ended a season with a winning record.

Dave Parker sees speckles of talent, having been present for a 1979 championship-reunion weekend a fortnight ago when the Pirates won two of three from Cincinnati, having witnessed foundation bricks in "two or three of those young players and two or three of those pitchers; build around that." Ed Ott sees light at the end of the tunnel, though he prays it isn't an oncoming train. Bob Friend sees promise, especially in fleet Andrew McCutchen.

Pedro Alvarez sees the seemingly everyday trading. Brad Lincoln sees, hears, feels the derision that he terms "mockery." Andrew McCutchen sees red: "We all know. We all know. We're experienced enough to know we need to get certain things done" -- a critical defensive play, a shutdown inning of pitching, a ball lifted into the outfield or laid down for a bunt.

Currently, the Pirates have their third-youngest roster of the past half-century, and many more of the prospects such as Alvarez and Lincoln remain months, a year, a couple of years away. So, it is still a matter of time until these kids will be able to enact what they know, execute it, perhaps exceed expectations and extinguish the torch of defeatism passed from Pirates team to Pirates team for nearly a generation.

Winning is the legacy left behind by Friend, Parker, Ott and so many others before them with this tradition-steeped, 123-year-old franchise.

Losing is the reason Andrew McCutchen is here, the reason Alvarez and Lincoln are in waiting,
the reason the organization is dealing cards to reshuffle the underside of the deck: the minor leagues.

"That's why the organization every year tries to make as many moves as possible: to end that," said Alvarez, the 2008 second-overall draft choice and its great, wide-shouldered hope who clubbed 27 homers and collected 95 RBIs in 126 games at Class A Lynchburg and Class AA Altoona combined in his first pro season. "Every decision they make is for the benefit of the organization."

These are the voices of the halcyon days and the are-they-here-yet days, glory days and gory days, salad days and days of just-dessert, first-round, draft selections.

They are the artifacts of days gone by.

They are the building blocks of days yet to come.

Climbing out

Bob Friend has seen the absolute bottom, endured the worst of Pirates baseball.

He went 7-17 on what is considered the nadir of the franchise.

"That '52 team that lost 112, these guys [in 2009] are so much better. I hate to compare them to a team that lost 112. But you can see the talent; I'm not kidding."

The mention of '52 kindled a recollection.

"I won't forget a meeting [general manager Branch] Rickey had at Havana, Cuba -- that's where we trained," Friend recalled. "We just lost 112 of 154, and Rickey said, 'Gentlemen, we have World Series potential sitting in this room.' I was only 21 at the time, but the old-timers in the room, they were like, 'Holy cow.' But that's what you got to build on."

In that same room were Vernon Law, Dick Groat, El Roy Face -- bricks on the '60 champs.

Friend brings the grandkids to PNC Park games nowadays. The heck with the long ball; he digs Andrew McCutchen and a youth movement that, at long last, seems to possess some talent.

"This is the first time we've got young kids who are going to develop," Friend said. "We had the old-timers come in -- they were done two years before. They got more talent in place now. They keep talking about the bottom up. I don't think they care about setting the record. The next year or two, they can climb up and maybe be .500. Who knows, they could surprise. I tell you what, I'd pay to go see them. It's just a matter of getting them to believe in themselves."

Own the park

The Cobra hissed.

"You hate to see it 'cause it's such a sports-oriented city, the City of Champs," Parker, a former MVP and four-time All-Star Pirates outfielder, said last week from his Cincinnati home. "You have that hockey and football team winning championships. I hate to see the Pirates be the missing link.

"People will say, 'What happened with the Pirates?' It's really evident that it's tougher for the smaller markets to compete with the larger markets. The larger markets just go out and get what they need.

"The Pirates have had some good, young talent, but, unfortunately, they chose to go in other directions and get rid of the nucleus they had there. The type of personnel that's got to out-hustle, manufacture runs to compete. You ain't gonna hit it all the time, you ain't gonna catch it all the time, but the one thing you can control is your hustle. If I had anything to do with it, I'd tell them, '... you've got to out-hustle your competition.'

"It's a different type of baseball now," Parker continued. "We had great leadership: [Willie] Stargell, [manager Chuck] Tanner, [Phil] Garner, [Bill] Madlock -- we had four or five guys who'd take charge. Chuck put the responsibility on us to govern each other."

Perhaps, some leaders will grow from the current crop. Yet Parker believes it must be fertilized by past successes.

"Bring back the tradition," he said. "Bring back some of those guys from '79, some of those guys that are winners. Bring back some of that tradition as well. It's been a long road, 17 years, you say? That's a long time. Sometimes you can learn to accept losing. That's the one thing we took pride in, we tried to reflect what the city was about. The Pittsburgh people. The hard-working people.

"When we stepped between those lines, it was all business; we were not going to be embarrassed, by no means."

Sure, these Pirates have crafted a winning record in PNC Park. Parker, though, wants them to completely own the place. Use its nooks and crannies and friendly right-field porch to full advantage. They should dominate that house, to his way of thinking.

"It's beautiful," Parker gushed. "Willie would've hit some Downtown, and I would've capsized a few boats. I would've loved to have played there."

The descent begins

Oct. 14, 1992, Stan Belinda threw the last meaningful pitch, the last playoff gasp offered to Pirates followers. Almost a generation of youth have not beheld such a baseball thing of beauty. Meanwhile, the Steelers, Penguins, Pitt football and Pitt basketball have combined to play 297 postseason games. The city has staged two Downtown victory parades alone in the past half-year.

Belinda's pitch. Francisco Cabrera's hit. Barry Bonds' throw. Sid Bream's slide.

That's how Atlanta marched directly to the World Series plus a decade and a half of dominance.

That's how the Pirates fell into a death spiral of losing.

Seventeen years since that National League Championship Series ...

"It's a shame," said Jason Kendall, a catcher on the one Pirates club that came close to the postseason. "I know in '97, we went into the last four days of the season with a chance for the playoffs, the heck with a .500 record. Wish I could have been part of the turnaround, but that's the way it goes."

"We put together a team; on paper it looked good. One bad month, and we couldn't regroup from it," added Dale Sveum, a teammate in '97 and nowadays Kendall's coach with the Milwaukee Brewers that endured 14 seasons at .500 or below before their youth movement blossomed into a contender in the National League's Central.

"Yeah, [17 losing seasons] is kind of amazing, especially with the ups and downs of this division. ... You'd think there'd be a chance. It's unfortunate. There has been some talent go through there and stuff, but they haven't been able to put together the whole puzzle. The history and the banners and the Hall of Famers and the great players and the winning teams there ..."

High expectations

The highest-paid Pirate in 2009 turned out to be a boatload of them: the entire draft class, at roughly $9 million.

None of those 18- to 21-year-olds played any higher than Class A this summer.

"With everything that's been done bringing the level of competitiveness up in the organization, getting more guys in the minors," began Daniel McCutchen, a young starter acquired last July in a trade with the New York Yankees. A line of succession has been drawn. Players won't so much look behind them at a sordid, 17-year history; they'll look beneath them at players pushing for their jobs.

"I know how hard I worked and how hard my teammates worked [to reach the majors]. With the competitiveness, don't take a day off 'cause there's a guy behind you in the minors to take your spot."

And this from Andrew McCutchen, talking about the present: "We know we have what we need to compete and to win games."

It isn't happening yet, what with the Pirates' 11-23 record since the last of a dizzying number of trades that left three starting position players standing from the opening-day roster.

"We understand what's at stake and what has to be done to change the scenario," said Lincoln, a Class AAA Indianapolis pitcher who was the fourth overall selection of the 2006 draft.

"Guys who have been up and down [from the Pirates] let you know how the situation is up there."

But it remains relatively unspoken among the Pirates of the future.

"It's just one of those things we have to deal with, have it in the back of our minds that this is what we have to do no matter what," added Lincoln.

A long streak of above-.500 baseball, "that'd be something we need to achieve. Just show baseball that we deserve to be here and not [be made] a mockery every year that we're the Pittsburgh Pirates."

Catch more on the Pirates at the PG's PBC Blog. Chuck Finder can be reached at cfinder@post-gazette.com.
First published on September 8, 2009 at 12:00 am

How bad is bad?

Tuesday, September 08, 2009
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

It's not true that there were only Chicago baseball fans left at the end of another depressing day at PNC Park yesterday, although the "Let's Go Cubs!" chant that fairly rocked the yard in the ninth inning surely made it seem that way.

At least one man who knew his Pirates inside and out remained until the bitter end of the 4-2 loss that officially secured the Pittsburgh Baseball Club's rightful and deserved place in infamy as, at least in one significant respect, the losingest franchise in North American sports history.

He was the guy with the I WISH I WAS A DETROIT LIONS FAN sign.

PNC Park could have been filled with people with bags over their heads, and it wouldn't have said nearly as much as that clever sign about the national joke that the Pirates are and have been for as long as many of us can remember.

Doesn't seem like 17 years we've been watching this garbage.

Seems like 17 lifetimes.

Pittsburgh Pirates fans Ben Samson, left, and Iliya Udler, of Pittsburgh, hold signs at the end of another Pirates loss, 4-2 to the Chicago Cubs in a baseball game in Pittsburgh on Monday, Sept. 7, 2009. By losing their 10th in 11 games, the Pirates will finish below .500, just as they have every season since 1993. The string of 17 losing seasons is a record in the majors. (AP)

Sadly, this loss was like so many of the others before it. The Pirates didn't make any laughable blunders like they did in a rare win Sunday when catcher Jason Jaramillo caught a pitch and tossed the ball back over pitcher Paul Maholm's head to allow a St. Louis run to score. They just didn't pitch or hit well enough to win.

They do that with amazing, mind-numbing regularity.

That's why the Pirates thoroughly earned this consecutive losing seasons record, every bit as much as Joe DiMaggio earned his hitting streak and Cal Ripken Jr. earned his iron-man streak.
Epic, almost unthinkable, records that might never be broken don't just happen by accident. The Pirates used a lethal mix of bad ownership, bad management, bad drafts and bad players to get theirs done.

Mostly, bad ownership.

The losing streak started in 1993 under a conglomerate of Pittsburgh businessmen, continued under a group led by Kevin McClatchy and rolls on with no end in sight under Bob Nutting. With the first two ownerships, there was no real money to compete. That's the only reason promising young star Aramis Ramirez was traded to the Cubs for next-to-nothing in 2003. With Nutting, there's no real willingness to spend no matter how much he boasts about signing Pedro Alvarez, beefing up the minor league system and making progress in Latin America. Those are just a few of the costs of doing basic business in baseball, aren't they?

This is America.

You get what you pay for.

The Pirates are getting exactly what they have paid for.

Or as actor Michael Keaton, a Pittsburgh native, said before he threw out the ceremonial first pitch opening day in '06, "At some point, you have to write the check."

Speaking of low points for the franchise during the losing streak ...

Only the Pirates could honor someone and have him rip the organization.

On those few occasions when the team did spend, it made colossal mistakes. It gave contracts to players who quit on the team (Derek Bell, Raul Mondesi). It gave big money to players who were injured when they signed (Pat Meares, Kevin Young). It brought in retreads (Joe Randa, Jeromy Burnitz, Pokey Reese). It gave a six-year, $60 million contract to a singles-hitter (Jason Kendall). It took on other team's horrendous mistakes (Matt Morris). And, all the while, it drafted poorly, notably taking mediocre pitcher Daniel Moskos No. 1 in '07 instead of highly touted catcher Matt Wieters even though management said it had the money to sign Wieters, who already is in the big leagues with the Baltimore Orioles.

The Pirates couldn't have done worse if they had tried to fail.

A lot of people will tell you the Ramirez salary dump or the Kendall signing is the move that best defines the organization's ineptitude. I say it's the franchise's inability to take advantage of beautiful PNC Park and all it has to offer.

Not once, but twice.

McClatchy promised the new palace would mean a winning team when it opened in 2001. Yeah, right. It was bad enough the Pirates lost 100 games that season, which is really hard to do. But management further alienated the fan base by temporarily banning bottled water in the park and not allowing the high school kids to play their championship games on the pristine grass. Then, it had the brass to raise ticket prices after the season.

No wonder the ball club lost $30 million in its first three seasons in PNC Park.

Still, Major League Baseball gave McClatchy another chance to save himself from his mismanagement. I'm still convinced commissioner Bud Selig felt sorry for him when baseball awarded Pittsburgh the '06 All-Star Game, even though we didn't deserve it after hosting one just 12 years earlier. It should have given the Pirates a major boost, but, ah, no.

How humiliated McClatchy and Nutting must have felt when their team rolled into that All-Star break with a 30-60 record on its way to a 95-loss season. There would be 94 more losses in '07 and 95 last season. The current bunch of Pirates has a 54-82 record and an outside chance of getting to 100 defeats again.

So much for the promise of PNC Park and that All-Star Game lift.

Nutting has a relatively new management team in president Frank Coonelly and general manager Neal Huntington, who can't possibly be as bad as McClatchy and Dave Littlefield and McClatchy and Cam Bonifay before them. Still, an 18th consecutive losing season next year seems like a given because of all the young, inexperienced players Huntington has brought in.
Maybe by '11 or '12, if everything goes right, the Pirates will win more than they lose and end the streak. Or maybe not.

When does everything go right?

The losing could go on and on and on without a ownership change. This record might not be broken.

Here's one final depressing way to blow the Pirates' ignominious march to history into perspective: Kids who graduated from college this spring aren't old enough to remember when they had a winning team.

I'd like to predict it will happen at some point in their lifetime, maybe even before their kids graduate from college.

But I can't.

That would be irresponsible journalism.

Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com. More articles by this author
First published on September 8, 2009 at 12:00 am

As Losses Mount, Pirates See a Brighter Future

By TYLER KEPNER
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 Press
Pirates 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 Press

Andrew 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.”

Ohlendorf's historic inning wasted in Pirates' 2-1 loss

Starter strikes out side on nine pitches, but St. Louis' Pujols wins it in 10th

Sunday, September 06, 2009
By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

It had been long expected that the Pirates might make history this weekend, but who thought it would be something to relish?

Ross Ohlendorf, in the team's most riveting pitching performance in recent memory, struck out a career-high 11 last night at PNC Park, including the fanning of all three St. Louis batters on the minimum nine pitches in the seventh inning of ... well, OK, so it turned out a 2-1, 10-inning victory for the Cardinals.

As first baseman Steve Pearce would put it, "After what Ross did, it's amazing that we lost that game."

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

Pitcher Ross Ohlendorf held St. Louis to one unearned run over eight innings

It probably was, given that Ohlendorf held St. Louis to one unearned run over eight innings, but Albert Pujols' pinch-hit home run off Matt Capps in the 10th extended the Pirates' losing streak to a season-high nine and pulled them within one loss of 82. Thus, the record 17th consecutive losing season can be clinched this afternoon.

Still, the highlight last night was the history made by Ohlendorf with his immaculate inning, as it is commonly called:

• It was only the 43rd in Major League Baseball history, 40 different pitchers having done it. The three to have done it twice: Sandy Koufax, Lefty Grove and Nolan Ryan.

• It was the second this year, the other by the New York Yankees' A.J. Burnett, June 20 against the Florida Marlins in Miami.

• And it was the second in the Pirates' 123 years, the other by reliever Jeff Robinson, Sept. 7, 1987, against the Cubs in Chicago.

Ohlendorf's was one part fantastic, two parts filthy ...

Khalil Greene swung through all three sliders he saw. The third hit the dirt, forcing catcher Ryan Doumit to throw to first.

Julio Lugo looked at a fastball and slider, then swung through a dirty slider. Again, Doumit had to throw to first.

Finally, Jason LaRue looked at a slider, swung through a slider and swung over another dirty curve. Doumit did the rest.

The crowd of 27,071 stood and roared, and Ohlendorf and Doumit discussed the feat shortly after reaching the dugout, but neither knew the scope of it until afterward.

"That's pretty cool," Ohlendorf said. "It actually crossed my mind after about the fifth pitch because I don't think I've ever done that. Ryan did a great job. I threw a lot of sliders that bounced tonight, and he did a great job of knocking them down."

"Nine pitches, three Ks? That's pretty special," Doumit said. "And the thing with Ross is, he's getting better every time out. He's starting to look like that guy you can really rely on to take the ball every fifth day."

No one would dispute it: Ohlendorf is 11-9 with a 3.97 ERA, but it should be underscored that he has a 2.70 ERA since the All-Star break, after which he and pitching coach Joe Kerrigan altered his delivery to throw more over-the-top and, in the process, restored the velocity that had been mostly missing since he was acquired from the Yankees last summer.

The confidence has made a clear comeback, too, judging by Ohlendorf pounding the zone for 77 strikes out of 103 pitches.

"I felt really good about how I was throwing," Ohlendorf said. "Probably my best all year."

Probably?

The 11 strikeouts were the Pirates' most since Ian Snell did likewise April 3, 2007, in Houston.

"Ross was outstanding," manager John Russell said. "It's just a shame that the first balk called against him all year works against him."

That and more, actually.

Pearce blistered a ball in the fourth that looked to be a two-run double, but left fielder Rick Ankiel made a superb running catch. The Pirates settled for one run that inning.

"Unbelievable," Pearce said.

Ohlendorf's unearned run came in the sixth, when Skip Schumaker singled, took second on the balk, third on a flyout, then scored when third baseman Andy LaRoche muffed a difficult bouncer to his left. The score was 1-1.

"If I make that play -- and I should -- Ross wins this game," LaRoche said.

The Pirates left bases loaded in the ninth, part of an 0-for-6 output with runners in scoring position, and St. Louis manager Tony La Russa made them pay in the 10th.

St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols(notes) (5) follows through on a tenth-inning solo-home run off Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Matt Capps(notes) in a baseball game in Pittsburgh Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009. The Cardinals won 2-1. (AP)

La Russa acknowledged afterward that he rested his biggest bats, Pujols and Matt Holliday, in part to load up left-handers against Ohlendorf -- "This guy's been pitching very well, and you saw it again tonight," La Russa said -- but now Pujols would lead off the 10th against Capps.

Capps got ahead, 1-2, but the fastball that followed -- which was supposed to be down but stayed at belt level -- was belted by Pujols it into the visitors' bullpen for his 44th home run.

"If that pitch is down, it's a grounder to short," Capps said. "But it wasn't, and ... I'm not the first person Albert's done that to."

Paul Maholm will try to avoid being a historical footnote today.

Catch more on the Pirates at the PG's PBC Blog. Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@post-gazette.com.

First published on September 6, 2009 at 12:00 am

Jones turns into 'Legend' in 55 games

'You see what he's doing now. Play a full season, he might hit 30 home runs, you know?'

Friday, September 04, 2009
By Chuck Finder, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

Matt Freed/Post-Gazette

Pirates outfielder/first baseman Garrett Jones has become a candidate for the National League's rookie of the year award.

This time last year, the man now known as The Legend had one last swing, one last hope.

He remained stuck for a fourth summer in Class AAA, finishing the first few September days that were his last at home in Frontier Field, polishing off a brilliant career as a Rochester Red Wings fan favorite. It was a curtain call. And it was an audition.

"Maybe somebody else would see me, and I'd get an opportunity with their team," Garrett Jones recalled.

Sept. 2, 2008, in their International League season finale, he strode to the plate with a tie game, the usual public-address introduction for most of the home versions of his 1,940 Red Wings at-bats -- Garrett Joooooooooooones -- and a fidgety crowd of 11,374, because most everyone there knew it was his closing Rochester bow. He promptly stroked a walk-off, three-run homer to beat rival Buffalo and walked away. "Very cool," Rochester announcer Josh Whetzel called the moment.

Sept. 2, 2009, in an otherwise humdrum National League Central affair, he strode to the plate with a one-run, early innings deficit and stroked the 10,000th homer in Pirates history, with 11,541 on hand in Great American Ball Park. He had to trade an autographed baseball and bat to get back the artifact, yet another career first for Jones. "It's fitting that Garrett got it," said fellow Pirates rookie and Pittsburgh native Neil Walker, "because he's been swinging the bat well, he's been looking great at the plate and he's been hitting the ball far."

Now he is a 28-year-old candidate for National League Rookie of the Year, an everyday outfielder-first baseman hitting 18 homers in just 55 games since his July 1 Pirates debut and a burgeoning Legend, as online followers dubbed him. With two walk-off homers and a piece of franchise homer history in his scant Pirates portfolio, his tale borders on baseball fiction. A homer-bashing hero from western New York? Wasn't that "The Natural?"

"Aw, shoot, I'm having fun watching him, dude," Cincinnati's Darnell McDonald added. "Especially the ball he hit in the river out there."

McDonald was referring to a Jones bash against the Reds Aug. 21 at PNC Park, long before Jones came to McDonald's end of the Ohio River and clubbed Pirates franchise homers No. 9,999 and No. 10,000 Tuesday and Wednesday. McDonald has deep, minor league-system roots with Jones. He batted No. 3 in Rochester's lineup last year just ahead of Jones. An eight-year veteran of Class AAA, an even longer stint than Jones, McDonald also played against him for a career.

Despite the vast difference one year has made for Jones, McDonald sees a common storyline.

"The first half of [last] season, I didn't know where Garrett was," McDonald began. "The second half, he was swinging it like he's swinging it now. I've never seen anyone as hot as he was then and is now. See, that's what I know he can do. I was hitting in front of him there. To see him in the second half [last year], he was hitting balls all over the field -- and he didn't get called up. The way he was swinging it, I thought he would.

"You see what he's doing now. Play a full season, he might hit 30 home runs, you know?"

Jones remembered going into the 2008 International League all-star break "around .220 with nine homers. I saved my season. And that saved me a chance for this year. That's the funny thing about baseball. I mean, you're going to have cold streaks, you're going to have hot streaks. It's just a matter of staying positive through the tough times."

The 6-foot-4, 245-pound quiet giant from Tinley Park, Ill., knew plenty of those times. Flaming out after parts of four summers in the low minors with the Atlanta Braves, who drafted him in the14th round in 1999, Jones signed with the Minnesota Twins in May 2002 and started all over again. In three seasons he climbed to Class AAA Rochester, though he could never grasp that final rung. He spent 31 games amid three separate call-ups with the Twins in 2007, mashing all of two home runs in 77 at-bats, or one every 38.5, and batting just .208.

Look at him now: 18 homers in 214 at-bats, or one every eight, and a .294 batting average with 34 RBIs (a dozen of his homers have been solos), 14 doubles and -- get this -- nine stolen bases in 10 attempts. He has a higher on-base percentage, .363, and slugging percentage, .621, than at any time in his 10 1/2-season, minor league journey, and there is a reason. After signing with the Pirates two days after Christmas, Jones has worked on putting the ball in play to all fields and cutting down his strikeout totals.

A few big league blemishes remain, though. He possesses a .136 average with runners in scoring position, though it balloons to .313 with two out. He is batting just .271 in lefty-friendly PNC Park. He is dogged still by wonders about his age, his minor league tenure, his legendary nine-week flourish.

"There's always skepticism," Pirates manager John Russell said. "I don't think we saw it as much as people tried to lean on us, whether it was the media or people saying, 'He can't last ... there's something wrong, because he hasn't been in the big leagues.' You go back to spring training, what he did, the consistency that we saw, the low-maintenance swing, the strength -- we thought he could be consistent.

"He'll go through stretches like any power-hitter does, where it doesn't quite click for you. But he's been able to fight through that. He's adjusted to the league as they've adjusted to him. Andrew [McCutchen] has done the same thing."

The other rookie McCutchen, pitcher Daniel, who played with him in Indianapolis this year and against him previously, used to wonder the same thing as Pirates fans now: Why wasn't Jones in the majors before?

"That's what we said ... we were wondering why he doesn't have more [service] time," Daniel McCutchen said. "Even with speed he has for his size. In Indy, he had 15 infield hits. An all-around good player. Personally, I don't think it's a fluke. He's a professional hitter."

This time last year, the Twins no longer wanted him. They had made that clear earlier, in spring training, when they placed him on waivers. Problem was, no other major league team claimed him, either. No other team wanted him. Until the Pirates came along at Christmas.

"Ah, you can't ask for anything more," Jones said. "To get a chance to play every day, that's all you can ask for. It's up to you as a player to take advantage of that opportunity and try not to let it pass you by. Give everything you got, when you get that chance.

"Only got one month left in the season. Trying to finish strong and help the team win. I'll sit back, kind of soak it in a little bit more, once the season is over. Then get prepared for next season."

This time next year... ?

Chuck Finder can be reached at cfinder@post-gazette.com.
First published on September 4, 2009 at 12:00 am

Jones delivers franchise's 10,000th homer

Reds 5, Pirates 3

Thursday, September 03, 2009
By Chuck Finder, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/


Al Behrman/Associated Press

Pirates first baseman Garrett Jones is congratulated by third base coach Tony Beasley after Jones hit a solo home run off Reds pitcher Homer Bailey in the second inning of yesterday's game in Cincinnati. Jones' home run was the Pirates'' 10,000th in franchise history.

CINCINNATI -- On the occasion of the 132nd game of the 123rd season of the Pirates Baseball Club, history came to pass that the franchise's 10,000th home run would be struck.

It figured.

The Reds' starting pitcher yesterday afternoon was named, appropriately enough, Homer Bailey.

Garrett Jones, whose major league breakthrough began June 30, scrawled his name in Pirates lore with that blow, his 18th home run in 55 games as a Pirates player. His 13th solo shot came on a second-pitch fastball to open the second inning of a 5-3 loss against the Cincinnati Reds, and it traveled an estimated 375 feet before landing in the right-field bleachers of Great American Ball Park.

"That's a big number," the 28-year-old rookie said of the 10,000 homers.

And there were plenty of other big Pirates numbers to go along with it.

• So ended a four-game sweep by Cincinnati, marking the 12th time this season the Pirates have been broomed. Cincinnati's previous sweep of the visiting Pirates came Aug. 14-17, 1975.

• So continued a seven-game losing streak, their second-longest slump in a season in which they already have compiled two eight-game slides.

• So continued an 11-game road losing streak that also encompasses defeats in 16 of their past 17, 21 of 23 and 24 of 27 away from home.

• So closer they creeped -- the Tragic Number is 3 -- to a 17th consecutive losing season that will be the longest all time among America's major professional sports.

Reds and Pirates officials had to engineer a trade, an autographed ball and bat, to pry the historic homer ball from the clutches of the fan among the announced crowd of 11,541 who snagged it in the right-field bleachers. Such a swap was yet another first for Jones.

Yet even for the Pirates' myth-in-progress at the plate, it was not enough to secure a victory.

"It's a tremendous honor," Jones said in little more than a whisper from inside perhaps the most-hushed Pirates clubhouse -- except for an expletive screamed by Joel Hanrahan -- perhaps this season.

"It feels good to get it. But it'd feel a lot better if we would've gotten the win."

Zach Duke (10-13) lost for the fourth time in his past five decisions and seventh in his past nine.

The difference this time came after the Pirates grabbed a rare lead of late in the top of the sixth inning.

But, in the bottom of the sixth, Duke allowed a leadoff homer to Drew Stubbs -- who hit three of his season's four against the Pirates this series.

Worse, Duke followed with three hits and two unearned runs that all started with an error by Pine-Richland High's Neil Walker in his major league starting debut.

In that half inning, the Pirates' 3-2 lead transformed into a 5-3 Cincinnati advantage, one the Pirates could not overcome.

Cincinnati's relievers continued to shut down the Pirates, who struck out 14 times in nine innings against them, scratching out just one run and four hits in that time.


Al Behrman/Associated Press

Pirates first baseman Garrett Jones fields a ground ball hit by Reds first baseman Joey Votto for an out in the fourth inning.

Now, the losing road show that is the Pirates return home to PNC Park, where they are a glimmering 35-29 before entertaining St. Louis and Chicago starting tomorrow.

Their numbers away from the North Shore? The worst in the majors: 18-50.

This from the club that started the season by winning five of their first nine on the road.

They have meandered to 13-46 since, a .220 winning percentage.

"Nope," second baseman Delwyn Young said when asked if he realized the Pirates' road losing streak had reached 11.

"I mean, look at most of the ballclubs. There are, I don't know, five teams that have a winning record on the road?"

There were eight entering the games last night, and just two in the entire American League.

"It's not like we're doing anything out of the ordinary," Young added.

Well, even the club last season managed to win road games with greater regularity than these post-April Pirates (28-53). Same for the 100-loss teams of 2001 (24-57), 1985 (22-59) and even the 1952 edition considered the franchise's worst all time (19-58).

True, such a disparity in play can be ascribed to youth, this club averaging 26.4 years of age that ranks as the third-youngest Pirates team in the past half-century.

But these same kids who won seven of nine games on the previous homestand, including two final-at-bat rallies against the world champion Philadelphia Phillies, seemingly have not come close to matching those efforts in any of the seven consecutive road losses that ensued.

Or the four before that.

Or the 13 of 16 ...

"Wish we could put a finger on it," Duke said of the road woes, "so we can change it."

3

THE TRAGIC NUMBER

Number of losses that will clinch the Pirates 17th consecutive losing season. Games remaining: 30


Chuck Finder can be reached at cfinder@post-gazette.com.
First published on September 3, 2009 at 12:00 am