Mark Madden's Hot Take: The Pirates continue to fleece fans, city

Pirates owner Bob Nutting garnished the home opener at PNC Park this past Friday with a huge steaming helping of horse manure.

Nutting said that winning is “the most important thing we’re focused on.” A bold-faced lie.

Nutting also said, “I think I’ve done everything I can to provide the tools and resources to the team. There is a point where it becomes execution.” Bold-faced lie No. 2. Although when it comes to the Pirates’ execution, I’m for it.

The entire Pirates franchise is a bold-faced lie.

The Pirates lost that home opener to the New York Yankees, 9-4.

A plane flew overhead demanding that Nutting sell the team. (Nutting says he won’t.)

There was a photo posted to X of a fan wearing a Yankees jersey with “Skenes” and “30” on the back.

The sellout crowd was outright hostile, booing manager Derek Shelton during pre-game introductions and chanting “sell the team.”

The Pirates nearly have MLB’s lowest payroll and have done zilch to augment Paul Skenes, MLB’s best pitcher.

It really is a beautiful ballpark, though.

The Pirates are crooking their fans and the city.

They won’t spend a day over .500 this season.

I’m not one to encourage boycotts. It’s your money. But you’re stupid if you go. You’re validating and enabling.

It’s time to stop perceiving and presenting the Pirates as serious people.

Related

• Tim Benz: Opening Day crowd should open the ears of the Pirates (and the owner)
• Mitch Keller fails to quiet Yankees' bats in Pirates' 9-4 loss in home opener
• Mark Madden: Management failures, Paul Skenes' future and more Pirates notes

The media shouldn’t treat the Pirates as if they’re a competitive entity. Regardless of the hillbilly thief’s propaganda, winning isn’t close to being an organizational priority. You just can’t field a team this bad and make that claim.

Media shouldn’t go on the road. (Not many are.) The journalistic entities should be as cheap as the Pirates.

Daily coverage shouldn’t parse meaningless minutiae. It doesn’t matter who plays first base, or who’s the closer or if Oneil Cruz is reading “Baseball for Dummies.” All of that adds up to nothing.

The Pirates should be the subject of constant criticism and ridicule.

Maybe that’s no fun, but the home opener was no fun. It was grim.

The media won’t acquiesce. It’s the era of soft, feel-good, home-team media. Nobody wants to foul their nest by way of a tense working environment.

It’s all of bunch of cow flop, just like the Pirates.

It won’t get better.

It has potential to get much worse.

Wait till Skenes leaves.