Mark Madden once again has his finger on the pulse of what’s wrong with the Pirates organization (“Mark Madden’s Hot Take: Ke’Bryan Hayes’ gaffe again makes Pirates a national punchline,” Sept. 17, TribLIVE). The embarrassment of Hayes eating sunflower seeds while at work was just despicable.
The thing is, that’s what’s to be expected from an owner who has previously said he expects his teams to (paraphrasing here) “be competitive on the field.” In the 15 years since Bob Nutting has been the owner, in only two of those years have the Pirates been “competitive” enough to qualify for the playoffs. Sorry, Pirates fans, celebrating the mediocrity of a .500 season doesn’t count, either. As far as I can tell, he is the only owner of all the teams in the four major professional sports leagues who has never once uttered the phrase, “Our goal each and every year is to win a championship.” All teams’ goals should be and only be to win a championship.
The other embarrassment is the amount of visiting fans who come into PNC Park and call it their own. I have seen fans from St. Louis, Chicago and New York come into our house and make it theirs.
This baseball product is less than professional and is below the standards of Major League Baseball. Here’s hoping that the powers that be in the MLB take action and save the Pittsburgh Pirates from Nutting’s ineptitude.
Tony DiPardo
Carnegie