On this opening day of the Major League Baseball season in Pittsburgh, our city's 144th, I'll open up with this: It'll be like no other.
A few thoughts in advance of Mitch Keller's 4:10 p.m. first pitch to whichever of the Yankees' weaponized bats enters the box first:
• No one can know how -- or if -- fans might voice their displeasure with the Pirates' ownership and/or management, but the one certainty is that $4,000 has been paid by a group of fans to a private plane operator to circle Downtown and the North Shore in the early afternoon flying around with some sort of banner calling for some sort of change. That'll be newsworthy unto itself, I'd say. It'll be seen by everyone around here, and it'll no doubt spread on social media.
• Some of the protesters who'd conducted marches through Downtown this past winter will be on Federal Street before the game. Not sure what all they'll do, but I do know there's a movement to get fans to chant 'SELL THE TEAM!' each time the crowd would normally do 'LET'S GO BUCS!'
• The degree to which that might catch on could be influenced by the percentage of the crowd sporting pinstripes. Already yesterday, there were Yankees fans everywhere. If they consume, say, half the seats at PNC Park ... well, let's just say they're not about to protest the Pirates being one of their many figurative farm teams. They'll be happy to sit there and daydream of Paul Skenes blowing fastballs by batters in the Bronx someday.
• Also of interest to that segment of the crowd: Thanks in part, no doubt, to their new 'torpedo' bats, the Yankees have belted 22 home runs through their 4-2 start, including three more to out-slug the Diamondbacks, 9-7, last night back home. Aaron Judge alone has five of those home runs, or one more than the Pirates' entire roster:
• It's not about being negative. It's not about being pessimistic. It's not even about the 2-5 start, the embarrassing fundamentals, the nonexistent offense or the negligible bullpen, anything that can be condensed into any one bad week. No, it's about five-plus years of all of that under this front office.
• The manager gets introduced in these pregame ceremonies. Which means that Derek Shelton's name will be boomed out to ... we'll see. Maybe they'll pump up the music to drown out the reaction. And imagine if they'd introduce the GM, never mind the owner.
• At least everyone's been spared struggling with how to react to David Bednar, who, beyond being a Butler boy, is one of the best humans around.
• On the sunnier side, I can also imagine the paying customers -- even the New Yorkers, who briefly had him as own of their own -- paying appropriate respect to the great Andrew McCutchen in what might his last such intro.
• Want a solution to all this?
I've got three, in ascending order, all of which could be completed by the lunch hour:
3. Ben Cherington could fire Shelton. Don Kelly, a multiple-time managerial candidate elsewhere, could be promoted from bench coach. In addition to being bright, qualified and let's-not-pretend-it-doesn't-matter-in-these-parts local, he'd have the full backing of the clubhouse and would be beyond worthy of a long interim look.
2. Bob Nutting could fire Cherington. And I'm talking, like, 10 minutes later. The meeting could begin and end with Nutting asking Cherington to identify the only three proven hitters in his lineup today, then asking him to name the GM who acquired that hitter: Bryan Reynolds (Neal Huntington), Oneil Cruz (Huntington) and Cutch (Dave Littlefield).
1. Nutting could put the team up for sale. Doesn't mean it'd happen in a snap, but it'd at least begin the process of the one thing, I swear, that'd make Pittsburghers as happy as any sporting thing in my lifetime. Whether he's making or losing money doesn't matter in this context. Neither does fairness. Neither does the lack of a salary cap system. There are just times, in any walk of life or business, where perception carries the day. And the perception of this franchise has never been lower in any of our lifetimes.
Change means change. Maybe that begins in earnest here.
Oh, and hey, play ball!
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THE ASYLUM
Dejan Kovacevic
7:10 am - 04.04.2025North ShoreDK: An opener like no other
On this opening day of the Major League Baseball season in Pittsburgh, our city's 144th, I'll open up with this: It'll be like no other.
A few thoughts in advance of Mitch Keller's 4:10 p.m. first pitch to whichever of the Yankees' weaponized bats enters the box first:
• No one can know how -- or if -- fans might voice their displeasure with the Pirates' ownership and/or management, but the one certainty is that $4,000 has been paid by a group of fans to a private plane operator to circle Downtown and the North Shore in the early afternoon flying around with some sort of banner calling for some sort of change. That'll be newsworthy unto itself, I'd say. It'll be seen by everyone around here, and it'll no doubt spread on social media.
• Some of the protesters who'd conducted marches through Downtown this past winter will be on Federal Street before the game. Not sure what all they'll do, but I do know there's a movement to get fans to chant 'SELL THE TEAM!' each time the crowd would normally do 'LET'S GO BUCS!'
• The degree to which that might catch on could be influenced by the percentage of the crowd sporting pinstripes. Already yesterday, there were Yankees fans everywhere. If they consume, say, half the seats at PNC Park ... well, let's just say they're not about to protest the Pirates being one of their many figurative farm teams. They'll be happy to sit there and daydream of Paul Skenes blowing fastballs by batters in the Bronx someday.
• Also of interest to that segment of the crowd: Thanks in part, no doubt, to their new 'torpedo' bats, the Yankees have belted 22 home runs through their 4-2 start, including three more to out-slug the Diamondbacks, 9-7, last night back home. Aaron Judge alone has five of those home runs, or one more than the Pirates' entire roster:
• It's not about being negative. It's not about being pessimistic. It's not even about the 2-5 start, the embarrassing fundamentals, the nonexistent offense or the negligible bullpen, anything that can be condensed into any one bad week. No, it's about five-plus years of all of that under this front office.
• The manager gets introduced in these pregame ceremonies. Which means that Derek Shelton's name will be boomed out to ... we'll see. Maybe they'll pump up the music to drown out the reaction. And imagine if they'd introduce the GM, never mind the owner.
• At least everyone's been spared struggling with how to react to David Bednar, who, beyond being a Butler boy, is one of the best humans around.
• On the sunnier side, I can also imagine the paying customers -- even the New Yorkers, who briefly had him as own of their own -- paying appropriate respect to the great Andrew McCutchen in what might his last such intro.
• Want a solution to all this?
I've got three, in ascending order, all of which could be completed by the lunch hour:
3. Ben Cherington could fire Shelton. Don Kelly, a multiple-time managerial candidate elsewhere, could be promoted from bench coach. In addition to being bright, qualified and let's-not-pretend-it-doesn't-matter-in-these-parts local, he'd have the full backing of the clubhouse and would be beyond worthy of a long interim look.
2. Bob Nutting could fire Cherington. And I'm talking, like, 10 minutes later. The meeting could begin and end with Nutting asking Cherington to identify the only three proven hitters in his lineup today, then asking him to name the GM who acquired that hitter: Bryan Reynolds (Neal Huntington), Oneil Cruz (Huntington) and Cutch (Dave Littlefield).
1. Nutting could put the team up for sale. Doesn't mean it'd happen in a snap, but it'd at least begin the process of the one thing, I swear, that'd make Pittsburghers as happy as any sporting thing in my lifetime. Whether he's making or losing money doesn't matter in this context. Neither does fairness. Neither does the lack of a salary cap system. There are just times, in any walk of life or business, where perception carries the day. And the perception of this franchise has never been lower in any of our lifetimes.
Change means change. Maybe that begins in earnest here.
Oh, and hey, play ball!
Want to participate in our comments?
Want an ad-free experience?
Become a member, and enjoy premium benefits! Make your voice heard on the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates, and hear right back from tens of thousands of fellow Pittsburgh sports fans worldwide! Plus, access all our premium content, including Dejan Kovacevic columns, Friday Insider, daily Live Qs with the staff, more! And yeah, that's right, no ads at all!
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