Friday, July 6th, 2007 by Adam Wagner
It Makes No Difference to Me
Kevin McClatchy announced today that he was stepping down as CEO of the Pirates, effectively ending any affiliation that the former savior has with the franchise. Sure, he’ll still be a minority owner, but McClatchy is leaving all position of power with the club. Of course, the question is does this make any difference to the Pirates? The answer to that is, simply enough, no.
McClatchy’s position meant effectively nothing, as his position was simply to appear as the franchises’ representative in various places and to sit behind home plate occasionally. Essentially, McClatchy’s last year with the franchise was spent doing nothing outside of going to China as a representative of MLB, but even there he was prevented from doing too much damage as he was accompanied by bigwigs Sandy Alderson and Larry Lucchino, both of whom certainly possess more power than the former CEO did.
McClatchy’s legacy will forever be saving baseball in Pittsburgh, and today we must thank
him for that. When the young man from the newspaper giant came to Pittsburgh with intentions to buy the floundering Pirates, speculation exploded that he simply wanted to move the team to Sacramento, California. To his credit, McClatchy kept the team in Pittsburgh and eventually succeeded in building a gem of a baseball park.
Even as he must be thanked for these feats, however, McClatchy can be sent into his self-imposed exile with shame, as the Pirates fielded some of the worst teams in baseball history with him as owner. This is unfortunate, as McClatchy never seemed like he was completely about the dollar, as the Nuttings do. McClatchy instead seemed to realize that there was a profit to be made through winning, but could just never get his teams to a point which was acceptable to him. For instance, look at the manner in which McClatchy announced that he is leaving.
It was supposed to be something of a surprise announcement, but it instead was met with about half of the press it should have received essentially because most Pittsburghers have seen such a move coming since the Nuttings took the franchise from McClatchy. The timing was, however, interesting in that McClatchy stated that such a move had been planned “since the winter,” meaning that the Nuttings were waiting for a time when Pirate fans were basically in a good mood towards the team as opposed to the quiet fury that they were met with every time they stepped onto the field throughout the first half of this season. Now, however, the Nuttings know that fans are on their side thanks to the failed walkout and the recent success of the team, meaning that they could make the announcement and have it be more about McClatchy’s leaving instead of the success, or lack thereof, of the team.
Tonight, I think we must do what the Nuttings want us to (for once . . . it will be the one of the only times, I promise) and acknowledge what Kevin McClatchy has done for baseball in Pittsburgh while wishing him a fond farewell and success in whatever future endeavors he chooses to take on (certainly more than he met in Pittsburgh).
With that, if the Nuttings hire someone that they can simply control, I will completely flip out. They need to hire a recognizable baseball person who can turn this franchise around. Nothing else is acceptable.
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