Same old story for Pirates
PITTSBURGH – Pittsburgh’s steel-and-glass skyline is so close, it appears to hover over the right fielder’s shoulder. There are three major rivers located about the length of a Jason Bay home run from the ballpark’s boundaries.
The Roberto Clemente bridge offers a meaningful backdrop in left field, not far from the imposing statue of Hall of Famer Willie Stargell. Large passenger boats toot out “hello” in steam-filled blasts as they meander by, their occupants rushing to the railings to wave to fans watching baseball.
“It’s gorgeous,” said Tigers manager Jim Leyland, an off-season resident of Pittsburgh who admittedly is biased on the subject of PNC Park. “With the rivers and the boats, it’s just tremendous. I think it’s the best ballpark in America.”
The All-Star game has visited many stadiums during its 78-game history, but Pittsburgh’s 5-year-old limestone-faced riverside park may be as picturesque as any. It’s difficult to find anything negative to say about a venue that is the smallest in the majors (smaller now by a few hundred seats than Boston’s Fenway Park) and incorporates the best of the back-to-the-old-days baseball parks.
Except, of course, for the ballclub that plays inside it.
The Pirates are the perfect example of a team that does everything right when building a ballpark, and everything wrong when building a team.
Consider this: The Pirates, stuck in the longest losing rut in the franchise’s lengthy and oft-successful 120-season history, are playing host to an All-Star game for the second time in a dozen years. Yet they haven’t had a winning season since 1992, made a playoff appearance or staged many significant games during that time, except for the All-Star games.
Consider this, too: When Barry Bonds took off for the Giants, shortly after Francisco Cabrera, Sid Bream and the 1992 Atlanta Braves kept the Pirates out of the World Series, Bonds had all of 176 home runs. Any talk of him challenging Hank Aaron’s record would have been dismissed as laughable.
About the only thing the Pirates have done right since 1992 is build PNC Park.
Two ownership groups, three general managers, four managers and almost countless veteran retreads and failed prospects have failed to get the Pirates above .500. Every scheme they’ve tried – going with the kids, bringing in reasonably priced free agents, building around pitching, building around hitting – has failed.
With the Pirates losing nearly two of every three games this season, they are well on pace for a 14th consecutive losing season – two off the Phillies’ major league record of 16 in a row in 1933-48.
Moments after yet another recent Pirates loss, reliever Roberto Hernandez gave a succinct answer when asked to sum up the team’s problems: “We stunk.”
With their solid young pitching (Zach Duke, Mike Gonzalez, Ian Snell) and a mostly youthful lineup led by All-Stars Bay and Freddy Sanchez, the Pirates are confounding others in the game with their inability to win this season.
Of course, money is an issue – the Pirates lack the deep-pocket owners some big-market clubs possess. Yet there is every indication the club is making money, since their payroll of approximately $48 million nearly is covered by TV revenue and revenue-sharing money alone. The club’s primary owners, small-town newspaper publisher G. Ogden Nutting and his family of Wheeling, W.Va., are plopping down nearly $90 million to buy a ski resort east of Pittsburgh.
There’s a fitting analogy: A ballclub that’s gone downhill for years owned by a ski resort operator.
But, if only for one night, Pittsburgh can show off what’s good about baseball in the city, even if many of its stars haven’t played for decades: Clemente, Stargell, Honus Wagner, Pie Traynor. It’s not as if the fans have lost interest or given up hope: They flooded the ballot box with so many All-Star votes that Bay – the former North Idaho College and Gonzaga University star – was the leading vote-getter among N.L. outfielders.
Leyland will be among those watching Tuesday night. His Tigers have had the majors’ best record for much of the season, yet he passed up the chance to be an A.L. coach to sit in the grandstands with some buddies.
His advice, even for those who have long since wearied of the Pirates’ losing, is simple. Enjoy the moment, the All-Star players, the evening and, most of all, the setting.
“It’s one of the best-kept secrets,” Leyland said. “It’s a beautiful place.”