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By all accounts, Pirates president Frank Coonelly is a very smart man.
He should start acting like one.
Running the day-to-day operations of the least successful franchise in American professional sports should be a full-time job and all any man can handle. Coonelly should not have time to dash of angry letters to newspaper columnists who write things he doesn’t like. But even if he does have the time, his skin should be thick enough for such criticism not to be a bother.
But those are minor and private matters that are insignificant compared to Coonelly’s public mistakes. Coonelly, whether he wants to admit it or not, has an image to maintain. If he's not more careful about what he says, people -- important people -- are going to begin to wonder about him.
Coonelly, as well as owner Bob Nutting and manager John Russell, seem to think they can say anything and not be held accountable for their words. The three of them are good for at least one or two absolutely ridiculous remarks -- ``the best management team in baseball’’ -- during the course of a season. If they’re strictly preaching to that small base of fans who believes everything they‘re told, that’s fine.But they are destroying their credibility with a far larger group.
Coonelly outdid himself yesterday at Pirates City.
In comments to the media, following a meeting with the team, Coonelly said, ``Don’t let people tell you that the Pirates have a great future, but it’s not today. Today is our future. 2010 is the beginning of the next dynasty of the Pirates, for me.’’
That’s right, he used ``dynasty’’ and ``Pirates’’ in the same sentence.
About that dynasty, Frank, you might want to wait for a winning season before you start talking about a succession of championships.
What exactly is Coonelly smoking? Has the task at hand so overwhelmed him that he’s taken to speaking gibberish.
As far as a dynasty, if he and general manager Neal Huntington are able to turn the Pirates around, there is no dynasty is the offing. There will be a small window of opportunity, nothing more.
Not even the Yankees have dynasties any more.
Coonelly was asked about what message he delivered in his speech to the team. His answer certainly brings into his question his focus on reality.
``The message is that this is the group that's going to turn this franchise around. For the first time since I've been with the organization, I really believe that . . . this is the first time each of the players on this team believes that they are part of the team's long-term future.''
I guess Coonelly forgot the organization said something almost identical to players in the past and then proceeded to trade the best of them away.
Finally, he said of the players, ``They are all looking forward to being part of the team that this year turns the franchise around.’’
I hate to tell you this, Frank, because I really don’t think you believe it, but most of the players who have been around for a few years can’t wait to get out of here. They’re hoping to be the next bunch of players traded.
Why would anyone want to play for the Pirates? They not only have a history of losing, they have a history of trading away players as they approach their peak. And they have an owner regarded as one of the cheapest in baseball. That's a nasty mix that few players with options would prefer.
Frank, you’ve got a full-time job and then some. As Syd Thrift, who once did what you’re trying to do, said back in the late 1980s, ``It ain't easy raising the dead.’’
As you're discovering, Frank, it's actually very hard. And pestering newspaper columnists, who actually find the attention flattering, and making outlandish statements that can’t possibly come true, is something you need to forget about as you attempt to raise the dead -- and, yeah, build that dynasty
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