21

BY KEVIN KERNAN

Not only are the Pirates a terrible baseball team, a terrible organization – but they also have terrible timing.

Organizational cluelessness is the order of the day in Pittsburgh, thanks to Bob Nutting, the worst owner in Major League Baseball, and that is saying something.

By now you have heard about the the elimination of the No. 21 logo on the right field wall of PNC Park that was placed there to honor the Great Roberto Clemente, one of my favorite players growing up, a superstar right fielder who could hit, run and throw; his arm was a cannon.

The No. 21 was also there to remind this generation of Pittsburgh fans that the Pirates were really good at one time, World Champions. So that number 21 played an important part in history of not only honoring the Great Clemente, but it was also there to give Pirate fans of today something good to remember.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame put out a reminder Sunday on X, saying of Clemente: “A champion on the field and role model off of it, Roberto Clemente was truly The Great One. The @Pirates retired his No. 21 on this date in 1973.”

Imagine that for bad timing.

So on the exact same date they retired Clemente’s number, April 6, Roberto Clemente Jr. had to put out a statement saying, “Yesterday I was shocked to learn that the Clemente 21 sign – a tribute to my father on the right field wall at PNC Park in Pittsburgh – had been removed and replaced by an advertisement. This change was made without any communication or consultation with our family.’’

The scorching statement went on to say: “While we appreciate that the Pirates acknowledged their failure to inform us, it reveals a broader issue: a lack of meaningful collaboration between the organization and on matters that are deeply personal and historically significant to us and the fans.’’

The advertisement that replaced Clemente’s No. 21 was Surfside Iced Tea + Vodka, right above the 320 mark in right. When Clemente Jr. first saw the pictures of the ad where his father’s No. 21 had been, he responded on X: “Wow…”

And you wonder how any team can be so bad that it has produced 28 losing seasons over the last 32 years and are on their way to another one. Their 5-4, 11-inning win over the Yankees Sunday at PNC Park puts them at 3-7 to start the season, all this despite having the best young pitcher in baseball in Paul Skenes.

Nutting did nothing to improve the Pirates in the offseason and the Pirates, as Michael Kay pointed out Sunday, have not signed a free agent to a multiyear contract since 2016 – and that was former Yankees hurler Ivan Nova. The Pirates and GM Ben Cherington are constantly scraping the bottom of the free agent barrel. Nothing is easy for them and even on Sunday they went into the ninth inning with a 4-1 lead over the Yankees but Derek Shelton, the worst manager in baseball, opted to go with soft-tossing left-hander Ryan Borucki to get the save. Borucki, 31, has never had a save in the majors. In fact, he has only one save in his professional career and that was way back in 2014 in A Ball with the Blue Jays.

Sure, send him up against the Yankees for the save, makes perfect sense. Borucki surrendered three runs in the ninth, allowing the Yankees to tie the game and wiping away one of Andrew Heaney’s best starts of his career as Heaney went seven innings, allowing only one run while striking out 10 Yankees. Tommy Pham’s 11th-inning RBI single to the left field wall off Devin Williams drove home the winning run and snapped a 0-for-20 Pirates stretch in the tortuous affair for the 5-4 victory

This is an embarrassing organization in every way. The sad part of all this is that Pittsburgh, a great football city, was once a great baseball city, but Nutting tore the heart out of the fanbase in every way.

The win no doubt will be the highlight of the season for the Pirates other than sparkling performances from Skenes. It’s my guess Skenes will be traded by the Pirates two years before he can become a free agent. The Pirates never keep any of their young pitchers, just ask Gerrit Cole & Co.

Nutting has owned the team since 2007 and recently said, “Yes, I think I’ve done everything that I can to provide the tools and resources to the team. There is a point where it becomes execution.’’

Execution indeed. This is an embarrassing organization in every way. The sad part of all this is that Pittsburgh, a great football city, was once a great baseball city, but Nutting tore the heart out of the fanbase in every way.

He is totally oblivious to how he has ruined the franchise. On Opening Day, he was peacocking around the stands in left field when fans recognized him, razzed him in a polite Yinzer manner and immediately started chanting “Sell the team.’’

I’m old enough to remember the Pirates winning the 1960 World Series, one of the strangest World Series ever, the Yankees won three games by scores of 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0 while the Pirates won 6-4, 3-2 and 5-2, bringing the Series to Game 7 at Forbes Field. Bill Mazeroski’s home run gave the Pirates a walk-off, 10-9 victory on October 13th. The ball cleared the left field wall at 3:36 in the afternoon over Yogi Berra’s head. That crushed a seven-year-old boy watching back in Kenilworth, NJ and that kid did not come out of his Yankee funk until days later when his father purchased a white football, a ball made for NFL night games, that was all the rage back then.

As fate would have it that kid was covering an NFL playoff game many decades later in Pittsburgh, ordered up a local Yinzer beer, Iron City at a classic corner bar and there was Mazeroski again celebrating and heading home waving his batting helmet on the can, just as he did in 1960.

The win no doubt will be the highlight of the season for the Pirates other than sparkling performances from Skenes. It’s my guess Skenes will be traded by the Pirates two years before he can become a free agent. The Pirates never keep any of their young pitchers, just ask Gerrit Cole & Co.

Nutting has owned the team since 2007 and recently said, “Yes, I think I’ve done everything that I can to provide the tools and resources to the team. There is a point where it becomes execution.’’

Execution indeed. This is an embarrassing organization in every way. The sad part of all this is that Pittsburgh, a great football city, was once a great baseball city, but Nutting tore the heart out of the fanbase in every way.

He is totally oblivious to how he has ruined the franchise. On Opening Day, he was peacocking around the stands in left field when fans recognized him, razzed him in a polite Yinzer manner and immediately started chanting “Sell the team.’’

I’m old enough to remember the Pirates winning the 1960 World Series, one of the strangest World Series ever, the Yankees won three games by scores of 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0 while the Pirates won 6-4, 3-2 and 5-2, bringing the Series to Game 7 at Forbes Field. Bill Mazeroski’s home run gave the Pirates a walk-off, 10-9 victory on October 13th. The ball cleared the left field wall at 3:36 in the afternoon over Yogi Berra’s head. That crushed a seven-year-old boy watching back in Kenilworth, NJ and that kid did not come out of his Yankee funk until days later when his father purchased a white football, a ball made for NFL night games, that was all the rage back then.

As fate would have it that kid was covering an NFL playoff game many decades later in Pittsburgh, ordered up a local Yinzer beer, Iron City at a classic corner bar and there was Mazeroski again celebrating and heading home waving his batting helmet on the can, just as he did in 1960.

Clemente, the pride of Puerto Rico and a devout Catholic, died on December 31st, 1972. He was on a plane that crashed shortly after takeoff just off the coast of San Juan, the plane was overloaded with relief goods on a charity mission to Nicaragua where there had been a devastating earthquake. He was 38. Months after the crash Clemente was elected to the Hall of Fame on April 6, 1973. The wall at PNC park in right field is 21 feet high to honor Clemente. His number was out there too, until it wasn’t, until Bob Nutting and the Pirates realized they could make a few more advertising bucks, bucks for the Bucs owner.

They say it was an oversight, an honest mistake. They are going to fix it but the damage has been done.

The Pirates, on essentially the anniversary of his special Hall of Fame induction, overlooked The Great Clemente, forgot about No. 21, essentially erased No. 21 from the right field wall all for a fistful of dollars.

This act tells you everything you need to know about Pirates leadership and ownership. This was a betrayal to their history, a betrayal to the legacy of Clemente. While there are many calls for MLB to retire Clemente’s No. 21 just as they have retired Jackie Robinson’s No. 42, one of Rob Manfred’s owners simply erased No 21 from the right field wall at PNC Park for an advertisement.

Nutting and the Pirates should be ashamed of their actions. Pirates’ fans deserve an owner who will try to win, who will not embarrass the organization.

Instead of erasing Roberto Clemente’s number, the Pirates need to erase Nutting as owner and rebuild this franchise from the top down.

Roberto Clemente was the best thing to ever happen to the Pirates. Bob Nutting is the worst.