One of the hardest things about being a fan of a sports team (besides the increased inflation of ticket prices and stadium food prices) is being a fan of a team that hasn’t found much success in the past decade or even much during your lifetime. Meaning? It’s really tough being a Pirates fan.
Pittsburgh fans aren’t alone. Ask any Cubs fan what it was like to have generational years of sadness and disappointment … until the 2016 season culminated in a World Series victory. Ask a Detroit Lions fan what it has been like to watch so much ineptitude that other football fans pity you or watch two Hall of Famers retire to save themselves from any more harm. Or better yet, ask a Lions fan what it feels like to watch their previous quarterback get traded and win a championship all in the same season.
At the end of the day, it’s hard being a fan of a sports team, but even harder when the lackluster seasons turn into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
Courtesy @OneilCruz412 on X
What the fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates have had to endure for the latter part of their lifetimes can only be described in one word…pathetic. Having the record for the most consecutive losing seasons at twenty is one thing Pirates fans would rather rip from the sportsbooks. That is atrocious enough. But what has become even more egregious is that over the past decade, the Pittsburgh Pirates have been one of the most irrelevant teams in the majors. Not having had a winning season since 2015, the only thing the Pirate fans can pretty much guarantee is that they may win some games here or there, but in the grand scheme of things, they will not have any substantial things to hope for.
Photo courtesy Sports Illustrated
The owner of the Pirates, Robert Nutting, has done very little or, in some ways, very much to lead to the current state of misery. Even though he is one of the wealthiest owners in the MLB, the Pirates are in the bottom third of payroll every year. He has turned down multiple offers for others to buy the team, and always states the team is not for sale. His trades of Gerrit Cole and Andrew McCutchen were part of a deemed fire sale. It also became public knowledge that Nutting pocketed any extra revenue from TV, MLB, or concession sales as profit.
Nutting’s damage to the organization has been borderline unbelievable, and at the end of the day, it is what many sports fans fear. They fear a world where team owners prioritize lining their pockets with money over helping the team on the field. It goes back to the old saying that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The Pittsburgh Pirates fanbase and their players are in a contaminated pool of disappointment, sadness, and grief.
Every season that Nutting continues to be the owner will just lay a foundation for them never seeing the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Fans who started a petition or donned “Sell the Team” shirts did the intended damage, but not enough.
The best teams in the majors have generously over-expensive payrolls that pay their players substantial amounts to play baseball. The Los Angeles Dodgers. The New York Yankees. And even with their somewhat average season, the New York Mets. There are clear lines between the team owners who are willing to pay and the ones who are not, which leads to the inadequacy of a level playing field.
Multiple teams find themselves at the bottom of the majors and are mostly deemed irrelevant in the grand landscape. The Oakland A’s fans are swirling in a vortex themselves. Somewhere between Oakland and Vegas is what is left of the A’s, and that’s a tragedy of its own. Baseball is where owners and payroll really display their dominance.
Pirates fans have felt that weight for too long, and it’s time for change. To wait and continue to allow this misery only causes more pain. To continue to call baseball “America’s Pastime” is doing a disservice. If an owner like Nutting can continue to lead a team to the bottom pits, then the interest of what is best for anyone besides owners seems like a blatant lie.
Worse than that, it is forcing current players, including those from countries like Paul Skenes, to play for a team that has proven it does not have their best interests at heart. Everyone is stuck.
The Pittsburgh Pirates have been around since 1876, when they were initially called the Alleghany Baseball Club. They were the first organization in baseball to have an African American coach and manager in the 1960s. They have many halls of fame or memorable players, which include Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell. They have their rightful place in Major League Baseball history.
Watching the current state of the franchise means forgetting those things that should not be forgotten.
The best thing about being a sports fan is watching your team win a championship. Or watch one of your most revered players go into the Hall of Fame. Or go back and forth with someone about what to make of your team’s chances as victories stack up. Or to want things to change drastically if the opposite happens.
Being a sports fan is one of the most incredible things you can do in a lifetime. It can build community with strangers, and it can make regular people seem like immortals (e.g., Michael Jordan). Being a sports fan becomes a part of someone’s identity—a generational rite of passage.
Pirates fans deserve better. Until they get it, it is a great disservice to every fan everywhere, especially any generation that wears the Yellow and Black.
