Bob Nutting: He loves me. He can’t get enough. Bob Nutting wishes I could clone myself and be twice as awesome for him.
Bob Nutting loves me because I love the Pirates, and I just can’t stop. I still go to the games, still root on the Buccos, still spend money on the product, and I have raised my sons to do the same.
And Bob Nutting has become a billionaire.
The guy has ham-fisted my beloved baseball club with the finesse and creativity of a drunken caveman, acting all the while like the smartest man in the room because fans like myself are too stupid to decipher his money-grab.
Of course, I’m not that dumb. Nobody is, but Nutting doesn’t know that. He doesn’t care, really, because I still go to the games, still watch on TV. I still grasp at any small glimmer of hope.
That’s why Monday mattered. That’s when Nutting introduced Travis Williams as the new club president, replacing Frank Coonelly, and Neal Huntington was finally dumped as general manager. The moves were a long time coming for a club that, in 12 years under Nutting/Coonelly/Huntington, had eight losing seasons, made the playoffs just three times, and won zero division titles.
If only baseball was so easy a caveman could do it.
This past season was such an unmitigated disaster it may be a 30 for 30 classic someday. If only Rod Serling was around to write it. I mean, Marlin fans everywhere – all 17 of them – are saying, “Well, at least we aren’t the Pirates.”
There was the annual second-half swoon punctuated by several in-house tussles involving members of the bullpen. We won’t blame the Bucs on the bizarre, gross behavior and subsequent arrest of their best player, Felipe Vazquez, but it’s safe to say that Pirates’ Manager Clint Hurdle had lost control of this club. You can argue the competence of Hurdle The Manager all day long, but he clearly had to go.
Of course, Nutting didn’t exactly follow
parliamentary procedure here. He stumbled into Hurdle’s firing on the last day
of the season – Steve Blass Day, in fact, botching one of the rare feel-good
days of the year, and in the process disrespecting two good men. Bob Nutting, a
rich man by birth and awkward by nature, has no empathy for real people.
He then issued a statement that stopped everybody in their tracks: “While we felt it was time to make a change at the managerial level, I strongly believe that Neal Huntington and his leadership team that he has assembled are the right people to continue to lead our baseball operations department.”
That was one month ago, on Sept. 29.
Then, on Monday, Nutting went with “the opportunity to refresh our operations” and admitted that he started working toward this end in August. So, did he lie to us on Sept. 29? Or on Monday? Does it matter?
Look at it another way: He says he “really began discussions back in August” to replace Coonelly and/or Huntington yet he kept them on and allowed Coonelly to negotiate the crucial TV contract that he had so badly botched the last time (Travis Williams had done the same with great success for the Penguins years ago); and allowed Huntington to interview several candidates for manager. What the hell was the plan!?? Does anybody know how this looks across Major League baseball?
OK. So now we reboot. Finally.
It’s up to Travis Williams to restore some semblance of sanity and hire a general manager. Several names have come up, including Dave Dombrowski and Buck Showalter. One of the more interesting candidates I’ve heard is Marc DelPiano, who scouts the majors for the Yankees. He’s a former Pirates scout who recommended the acquisitions of A.J. Burnett, Russell Martin and Jason Grilli. That’s a good start.
It’s certainly best if Nutting stays out of it and allows Travis Williams to do his job. I can see Nutting trolling Pirates Nation and hiring the disgraced Astros assistant GM Brandon Taubman, and saying he’s got the scent of a winner. Or hiring the corpse of Joe L. Brown: “He works cheap!”
And for Manager? Why not hire the one guy Nutting loves more than me: Sean Rodriguez!
Nah, that won’t do. Gatorade coolers are expensive these days.
See ya Opening Day.
