Pirates' plan backfires as fans absolutely destroy them in survey

Just when we thought the Pittsburgh Pirates front office couldn't possibly be any more tone deaf toward their fanbase, they went ahead and proved us wrong.

Months after billboards began to pop up around the city of Pittsburgh urging owner Bob Nutting to sell the team, and less than two weeks after a literal protest broke out at the team's annual PiratesFest fan event, the Pirates thought it was a good idea to email out a survey to select fans asking for their feedback on the on-field product and their overall perception of the organization.

Yeah. That went over about as well as one might expect.

The survey consisted of 10 multiple-choice questions, including: "Overall, do the Pittsburgh Pirates make you feel satisfied as a fan?" and "To what extent do you agree with the following statement: The Pittsburgh Pirates care as an organization about building a winning team?"

Were the billboards, protests, t-shirts and boycotts not clear enough? If the Pirates need a survey to gauge the overall temperature of their fanbase, then maybe this organization is truly beyond saving.

Pirates' plan backfires as fans absolutely destroy them in survey

Fans took to social media to express their displeasure with the fact that the Pirates were even conducting a survey in the first place. Did they really think the answers they received in the survey would be any different than what the fans have been telling them – loudly – for years? It really is laughable, if not downright disrespectful.

Pittsburgh Clothing Co., the same company behind the "Sell the Team" shirts that have been popularized by the grassroots movement publicly condemning Nutting, released a new shirt design Friday mocking the Pirates for sending out the survey. The shirt bears the exact text from the survey question about the organization caring about building a winning team, with the "Strongly Disagree" response highlighted in gold.

The survey has since closed, and it's unclear whether the Pirates will actually use any of the feedback, but fans will continue to express their frustration until they see meaningful change. In the meantime, the club and its ineptitude will continue to be the laughingstock of the baseball community.

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