Kovacevic: There best not be a sequel, and that begins with Bob Nutting

Mitch Keller couldn't string together consecutive strong starts.

The Pirates couldn't complete a sweep.

And in other news, COVID-19 can be contagious, our political parties aren't pals, it rains at the Three Rivers Arts Festival, and it doesn't take Google Maps to locate a bar on Carson Street.

Oh, also this: Not many people come to PNC Park anymore.

Yeah, I know, the Pirates' attendance, even amid a pandemic, can be the lowest-hanging fruit of Pittsburgh sports topics. If only because it segues so smoothly into the one issue that unites our citizenry like no other, that, of course, being the loathing of Bob Nutting. And I'm barely joking. I'll bet I could seat at the same table a local epidemiologist, an avowed anti-vaxxer, a Democratic social worker, a Republican fundraiser, a fry cook at Primanti's and the CEO at UPMC ... and they'd all sing kumbaya when it came to Nutting.

Here's the thing: They're not wrong. They can't be.

Because this, my friends, was the scene I snapped when Keller climbed the mound for the first pitch of what wound up a 5-1 loss to the Tigers, this at 6:36 p.m. on a gorgeous 71-degree evening, with discounted $20 tickets available, inside one of the world's great sporting facilities, framed within one of the world's great urban centers:

DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS

First pitch between the Pirates and Tigers, Wednesday at PNC Park.

And it's not as if the scene altered much once the skies -- and score -- darkened:

JUSTIN BERL / GETTY

The fifth inning, Wednesday at PNC Park.

Dammit, that is sad. 

And all those people who complain about it incessantly, aren't wrong. I never lose sight of that, even when they really annoy me because I'd rather talk ball.

Not a single one of these Twitter replies, all sent to me during this game after I tweeted out that top photo, is wrong:

As long as Nutting remains, this is what we’ll see every September!

— Dr Vinny Boom Botz (@botz_dr) September 8, 2021

Tim, Vince, Tracey, Garry and Bob aren't wrong. 

This isn't about the numbers. Let me get that out of the way.

The official attendance was 8,382, or several times the number actually on hand. Believe it or not, that's not the Pirates lying. All Major League Baseball teams announce a figure known as 'tickets in circulation,' or however many tickets have been sold, re-sold or whatever, regardless of whether they're used.

But then, think about that many tickets going unused, and it's all the uglier, right?

The overall attendance for 2021 might mean even less, here and everywhere in 2021, since the pandemic crushed season-ticket sales across the spectrum of sports. Single-game sales, too. So the Pirates' average crowd of 10,356 being sixth-lowest in the majors doesn't mean much. Nor that it'll be the second-lowest in PNC Park history, since, you know, the average crowd in 2020 was 0.

Like I said, forget the numbers. It's about the feel.

Take it from someone who's spent a sizable portion of his life at this place: The feel is as bad as it's ever been. Yeah, worse than within the 20-year losing streak. Because back then, there wasn't the despondency of genuinely believing that the owner doesn't care. Or that the front office is either conspiring with the owner or powerless to overcome his profiteering. Or that the manager or even the players are part of some daily tanking efforts and ... man, I can't even continue typing this paragraph.

But these people aren't wrong, either. Because perception tops reality in almost every circumstance when it comes to business. Customer's always right, as they say.

So, for everyone out there who, like me, tries to share this detail or that about Travis Williams' business approach or Ben Cherington's plan or Derek Shelton's focus on fundamentals ... it whisks off into the wind, buried by perception. Doesn't matter if that perception's fair, accurate or all-out wacky.

This needs to change. And only one change, shy of the owner selling a franchise he continues to insist isn't for sale, can work.

You know, win.

At the very pathetic least, make some visible, palpable progress toward winning.

Not in Greensboro. Not in Altoona. Not in Bradenton. I know what's happening in those places. Most readers of this column know. But less than 0.1% of Pittsburghers know or care. We're a big-league city. We've always been one. We'll always be one. And we, in the collective, symbolic sense, won't know or care about Roansy Contreras' 100-mph heat or Nick Gonzales' 110-mph exit velocity or Henry Davis' 1,000,000-mph throwing arm until it's happening right here on our North Shore.

Baseball people tend not to care about such stuff, meaning those doing the baseball work at 115 Federal and beyond, and Cherington's staff won't be an exception. Their world's incredibly isolated. That's understandable. There are a lot of games to track all over the globe, a lot of players to follow, a lot of analysis, a lot of execution.

That's why the direction for 2022 needs to come from the very top.

Another of those tweeted replies summed this up better than I ever could:

Ron isn't wrong. It isn't binary. At all.

Hold up a hand, and close it into a fist. That right there is the exact payroll commitment the Pirates have toward 2022. No kidding. Doesn't mean they get to keep all the players they'll want to keep for free. But it does mean that all significant obligations are gone with Gregory Polanco off the books and every other contract on the active roster either expiring or within team control.

From 2013-17, the Pirates' average payroll was a shade over $100 million, in contrast with one of those many misperceptions. They were for-real spending, and they were doing so in a range that's somewhat reasonable in sports' only system lacking a salary cap. But now, they're now down to a projected $58 million payout for the current year, almost half of their recent peak.

To an extent, I get that.

For one, I'm told Williams and Cherington have assurances from Nutting that they've got the leeway to finance the business as they see fit. Meaning if baseball booms, so does business and, in turn, baseball benefits all the more. These are two super-smart, successful executives. Trust me, they didn't come here from excellent jobs elsewhere to become anyone's henchmen. And they, as I'm further told, see it as fruitless to spend in 2021 when they'd do better to spend upon the prospects' cavalry-like arrival.

For another, I know Nutting cut the equivalent of a $17 million check to get rid of Frank Coonelly, Neal Huntington, Kyle Stark and Clint Hurdle. That's a lot of cash to find the exit door, but man, that was well spent.

For yet another, the pandemic hit every sports franchise hard. No one needs to rip through the recepits to believe that.

But in 2022, sorry, that's it. No more mulligans.

The gates are back open, the games are back on, the tickets can be sold, the buyouts are further into the past, the payroll commitment couldn't be lower and, by far most important, Pittsburgh's running -- no, it's already run -- out of patience.

Bump the payroll meaningfully. Keep the players who need to be kept. Entertain extensions. And by all that's holy, fill the holes with real freaking players, not the flotsam and jetsam that's oozed through here this year.

The Rays can get away with running Ka'ai Tom into the outfield or Kyle Keller onto the mound because no one in St. Petersburg, Fla. cares about them. They can trade Blake Snell right after a World Series and not have it register a blip at the local bingo parlor. Heck, it's part of what works down there, in that they can indiscriminately make unpopular moves without public backlash.

Not here. This is Pittsburgh. This franchise has been rooted here since shortly after the smoke cleared from the Civil War. People here might not follow the Grasshoppers' every game, but they sure as hell know their ball. It's generational. They know it's hard to lose 100, which this 50-90 team will. They know it's hard to rank bottom-three in both hitting and pitching, which this team will. They know it's hard to go through an entire season without a sweep, which this team, now 0-12 when it's got a chance to do so after dropping the third game of this series to Detroit, almost certainly will.

Alienate this citizenry any further, and this whole process risks going kablooey. Remember, there's a component in which their money must enter the equation, and that day can't come without an immediate -- and impressionable -- change.

The 2021 season's got to be rock bottom. Can't happen again. Or anything close.

Start showing progress where Pittsburgh can see it.

JUSTIN BERL / GETTY

The Tigers' Robbie Grossman touches home after Jeimer Candelario's RBI single in the fifth inning Wednesday at PNC Park.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

1. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
2. Yoshi Tsutsugo, RF
3. Bryan Reynolds, CF
4. Colin Moran, 1B
5. Ben Gamel, LF
6. Jacob Stallings, C
7. Cole Tucker, 2B
8. Kevin Newman, SS
9. Mitch Keller, RHP

And for A.J. Hinch's Tigers:

1. Akil Baddoo, CF
2. Jonathan Schoop, 2B
3. Robbie Grossman, LF
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Jeimer Candelario, 3B
6. Harold Castro, SS
7. Victor Reyes, 2B
8. Dustin Garneau, C
9. Matt Manning, RHP

THE SYSTEM

• Indianapolis
• Altoona
• Greensboro
• Bradenton

THE SCHEDULE

Nine games in nine days, wrapped up by this wretched bore, will be followed by a blessed day off Thursday. Come Friday, the Nationals' Josh Bell will be back for a visit. I'll be back, too, to cover.

THE CONTENT

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