Mr. Nutting:
Tough start, huh? Not only is the team 5-9 after last night’s 5-3 loss to the Reds, but the Pirates already have been outscored by 21 runs in their first 14 games, and they are in last place in the National League Central Division. Again.
And now you’ve been quoted in the Tribune Review saying that you, as the owner, have done enough for this team to win more big-league baseball games than lose.
The question, the Trib’s Joe Starkey pointed out this past Wednesday, came from the Post-Gazette’s Noah Hiles: “Do you feel like this current regime has the resources that are necessary to be competitive?”
And you replied: “Yes. I think that I’ve done everything that I can to provide the tools and resources to the team. There is a point where it becomes execution. That’s why you play the season. That’s why you play the games.”
Now, if we’re advising manager Derek Shelton and GM Ben Cherrington, we’re telling them to pack their bags for home because that statement sure sounds as if a housing cleaning is coming soon despite the fact the owners of the Dodgers are spending $331 million (according to USA Today’s partner SporTrac) to “provide tools and resources” to win compared to your one-quarter-of-that $84 million investment.
That storyline, though, only covers the on-field misery, right? The avoidable dramas involving the Clemente Wall in right and the commemorative bricks sold to WE FANS 25 years ago are other narratives that could have been avoided by – ironically since your family has owned newspapers for more than a century – proper communication.
Instead, business is business when making those decisions, and business is not personal, right?
But it is, Bob. It’s all personal. The ballcaps on our heads, the shirts on our backs, the hot dogs, the nachos, the cotton candy, the peanuts, the popcorn, the extra $10 on the cable bill you have to charge us because not enough advertising could be sold, and the money we spend to come inside the ballpark our tax dollars paid to construct is all VERY personal just like the chants and the billboards that ask you to sell the organization to someone who wishes to win in the box score and not just on the bottom line.
Because, Bob, we feel WE have given YOU the tools and resources to be successful, and that there is a point where it becomes execution.
Sound familiar?
Sincerely,
The Piggy Bank
