Vomit, The P-G's "Editorial"

[vandelay industries]

http://post-gazette.com/pg/10035/1033306-192.stm

Winning offer: An open letter to Pirates owner Bob Nutting

Dear Mr. Nutting,

Major league sports is a brutal business. What with aggressive player agents, deep-pocketed competitors and more venues vying for the public's entertainment dollar, it is not a pursuit for the faint of heart.

Still, your family has had an ownership stake in the Pirates for 14 years and you've been the controlling owner since January 2007. Not once during the Nuttings' involvement has the team had a winning season. The Pirates' streak of 17 losing campaigns exceeds any run of futility in the history of professional sports. It is, no doubt, as frustrating for you as it is for the fans.

The difference between you and the other Pirates faithful, though, is you can do something about it.

When you took over the Pirates, you talked about your commitment to win. It hasn't happened and, even with the latest clutch of young prospects, it's unlikely that 2010 will be a winning season. When you installed a new management team, they said they were out to change Pirates culture. That cultural shift produced more Pirates losses in each of the last two seasons than the year before. When the fans showed their growing impatience, you said there would be accountability. Let's draw a hard line in the infield dirt on when the Nutting regime will be accountable and return this storied franchise to a modicum of respectability -- or else depart the scene.

That change could come sooner if you were open to the reported offer by Penguins co-owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle to buy the baseball team. Your insistence that the Pirates are not for sale would seem to put an end to the whole idea. Let's hope not.

As a sports owner powerhouse, Lemieux-Burkle has been able to put the necessary money into the hockey team to keep top talent on the ice. To no one's surprise, the Pirates and Penguins are poles apart in terms of image, success and symbols of Pittsburgh.

The Pirates ownership of the Nutting era has never spent much on players. Yet team officials over the years have resisted the notion that this has any bearing on the 17 losing seasons. Even this year, the franchise will be a bottom feeder in terms of total salary in Major League Baseball, with the added twist that ownership is now trying to sell cheapness as a virtue, saying it is necessary to save money for when today's Pirates prospects blossom into the superstars the team will want to keep tomorrow. If only it were so.

That's why you shouldn't dismiss an offer by the Penguins' co-owners out of hand. With their management smarts, superior finances and record of success, they could build this team into not only a sure winner but also one with staying power. Like the Pirates we remember.

In that way, by selling the team you can finally deliver on your promise of producing a winner, and probably years ahead of schedule. You would become an overnight sensation, Pittsburgh's newest baseball hero. It's worth thinking about.

Pandering at it's finest.

[Kipper]

Pittsburgh newspapers! - Allowing the general public's stupidity the chance to be published

[PittFaninVa]

http://post-gazette.com/pg/10035/1033306-192.stm




Pandering at it's finest.

That's an article from an author who knows nothing about what's happening with the Pirates and has no historical perspective of the Pens.

[BigBen2112]

Id love to see Lemieux as the owner. Simply b/c I think people would respond better and we'd get better attendance and more interest...it could, I think, only help the team. You would get some Pens fans who might not really be Pirates fans etc...I think it'd be good.

[vandelay industries]

That's an article from an author who knows nothing about what's happening with the Pirates and has no historical perspective of the Pens.

I wonder if a quick search on the P-G would give us old articles about people calling Mario etc 'cheap' et al in the days before the cap when he didn't spend.

[PittFaninVa]

Id love to see Lemieux as the owner. Simply b/c I think people would respond better and we'd get better attendance and more interest...it could, I think, only help the team. You would get some Pens fans who might not really be Pirates fans etc...I think it'd be good.

The biggest advantage of a merger that would benefit the Pirates would be the revenue streams from a sports network that Burkle/Mario could/would start.

[exNCite]

That's an article from an author who knows nothing about what's happening with the Pirates and has no historical perspective of the Pens.

Sad part is it's the same people who also have the right to vote.

[BigBen2112]

The biggest advantage of a merger that would benefit the Pirates would be the revenue streams from a sports network that Burkle/Mario could/would start.

And that is bad how?

I am not saying I agree with everything in the article...just saying I like the idea of Lemieux as owner.

[PittFaninVa]

And that is bad how?

I am not saying I agree with everything in the article...just saying I like the idea of Lemieux as owner.

I said the sports network would be a good thing, not a bad thing about Mario/Burkle buying the Pirates.

[Daskid]

Wow. Just, wow.

[Kipper]

I wonder if a quick search on the P-G would give us old articles about people calling Mario etc 'cheap' et al in the days before the cap when he didn't spend.

You wouldn't have to go back that far either. Mario was villainized by some but due to his name and status as a player and such, he was able to avoid a lot of media criticism...

But it happened. Mario was called cheap for having one of the lowest payrolls in Hockey, fielded teams that were generally last in the division and worst in the league and traded away his best players for heaps of trash...

[Kipper]

I said the sports network would be a good thing, not a bad thing about Mario/Burkle buying the Pirates.

It would be a great thing but I don't understand why they need to buy the team to do it. The YES network wasn't created because George Steinbrenner bought the New Jersey Nets, they just combined to form a regional/local sports network. It think the same thing could easily be accomplished without ownership change and with the Pirates and Penguins coming together to form their own network.

[buccoray61]

It would be a great thing but I don't understand why they need to buy the team to do it. The YES network wasn't created because George Steinbrenner bought the New Jersey Nets, they just combined to form a regional/local sports network. [HIGH-LIGHT]It think the same thing could easily be accomplished without ownership change and with the Pirates and Penguins coming together to form their own network[/HIGH-LIGHT].

That's the question I was going to pose. Couldn't the two ownership groups combine forces and co-own a regional sports network? There would be a lot of details to be worked out,but I'm sure there're people much smarter than myself that could figure these things out.

[Kipper]

That's the question I was going to pose. Couldn't the two ownership groups combine forces and co-own a regional sports network? There would be a lot of details to be worked out,but I'm sure there're people much smarter than myself that could figure these things out.

If the Yankees and Nets could do it, I don't know why the Pirates and Penguins couldn't do it if both would find it more beneficial for them..

I mean it's been done elsewhere which is why I'm trying to figure out why Burkle would want to dump what is rumored right now to have been a $325 million offer for a small market regional spots channel

[BigBen2112]

If the Yankees and Nets could do it, I don't know why the Pirates and Penguins couldn't do it if both would find it more beneficial for them..

I mean it's been done elsewhere which is why I'm trying to figure out why Burkle would want to dump what is rumored right now to have been a $325 million offer for a small market regional spots channel

Because the revenue share he'd have would be much larger than if he split it.