Telling fans that revenue sharing amongst owners will help make us
competitive with the larger market teams. The Pirates have received revenue sharing but the money has basically been
put into McClatchy’s and the other owners pockets and not back into the on-field product. |
For making it so easy for the Pirates and the city of Pittsburgh
to be the butt of jokes for Jay Leno on the Tonight Show. |
All those Major League Baseball “Game of the Week” appearances
the Pirates have made in the last 8 years. |
Alienating fans with ridiculous policies of bringing in bottled water
and snacks into PNC Park. (McClatchy did later revise this policy). |
Not resigning first baseman and Pittsburgh native, Sean Casey, to a new
contract. Since being acquired from the Reds before the start of the 2006 season Casey has been nothing but classy and
professional and why not make a local boy the face of the young Pirates for the next few years. The guy actually wants
to play here, so sign him Littlefield, we don't need Randall Simon brought back for a third time. |
Hiring David Littlefield as your GM, who has released
such MLB players who have had great success elsewhere because he has such a great eye for talent. Among the players let
go by Littlefield include, Bronson Arroyo, Dunaur Sanchez, Chris Young, Chris Shelton, Gary Matthews, Jr., and Jose
Bautista who he had to trade P Kris Benson for to get back. |
Giving us Derek "Operation Shutdown" Bell. |
Ordering GM David Littlefield to cut costs by giving 3B Aramis Ramirez and
OF Kenny Lofton to the Chicago Cubs for infielder Bobby “Freakin’” Hill. |
Tricking taxpayers into building PNC Park because it would make the team
competitive again. The Pirates have been a combined 370-521 as of July 16, 2006 since PNC park had opened on their
way to a 3rd last place finish in their division to go along with 2 fourth place and a fifth place finish in the
span. |
Though every CEO of a corporation’s goal is to make a profit and are
entitled to that, McClatchy and his partners have pocketed numerous millions from league revenue sharing and the 2006
All-Star game (though MLB makes profits from the All-Star game, to get tickets to the game you had to be a season
ticket holder to have the option of purchasing the tickets, thus a big spike in the sells of season tickets for the
2005 and 2006 season) and the Pirates still have one of the lowest payrolls in the league and continue to flounder
as one of the worst teams in the league year after year. Though the fans continue to attend Pirate games even with
the poor showing tells a lot about the passion the city had for Baseball and the Pirates. But we would rather see
some great baseball than 30 promotional fireworks nights at the stadium each year. So Thank You Kevin McClatchy, the Nutting
family and the rest of this group who have brought this once proud franchise to nothing more than a MLB laughingstock. |
