Pittsburgh Pirates Management Called Out by Little Leaguer

I ran 10,000 simulations and in none of them did I predict a Little Leaguer from Canada embarrassing the Pittsburgh Pirates on TV.

But then again, every one else is, so I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised. On Tuesday night, Dan Potash and AT&T Sports Network decided to interview a Little Leaguer who was attending the Pittsburgh Pirates game at PNC. Here is what happened:

Well that was awkward.

Everett Bertsch from team Canada put it well. PNC Park is beautiful, but it doesn’t matter if no one shows up to watch the games. Yes it was a weekday night. Sure, it was hot, and at 77% humidity,  I guess we could say it was a bit humid too.

But honestly, all of those excuses come across as empty.

One of my favorite memories as a Pirates fan is from back in 2015. My brother and I attended a very hot and very humid game on July 12th. The Pirates would walk off that game in the 10th inning by scoring three runs against Trevor Rosenthal, who owned a 1.49 ERA at that point. If Everett was attending that game, I think he would have quite a different opinion about Pittsburgh and the Pirates as over 33,000 fans were in attendance.

The excuses of temperature, humidity and the day of the week only highlight what is a stark reality. The reality that this current management team has unequivocally failed at their own goals. Neal Huntington has stated over and over again during his tenure that it is management’s sole goal to play competitive baseball every year – to play meaningful baseball games in August.

For the fourth year in a row, the Pirates have not played meaningful baseball in August. And, unlike last season when the team still finish with a winning record, the 2019 Pittsburgh Baseball Club is stumbling to the finish line with the worst second half performance in MLB history.

With the Pirates losing, yet again, on Thursday 7-1 to the Nationals, the team has dropped to 52-75. The Pirates are 8-30 since the All Star break. The team is far closer to competing for the first overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft than a playoff birth. Day in and day out the team takes the field with a clear lack of leadership, a lack of motivation, and a lack of potential to win. Some of this is on the players, but the majority of this is on management for failing to supply the team with leadership, motivation, and the player talent and depth needed to win professional baseball games.

This, young Everett, is why no one is at PNC Park on a Tuesday night in August.