MIKE BURKE
Allegany Communications Sports
The Pittsburgh Pirates are a community treasure in Pittsburgh and in Western Pennsylvania, and have been for nearly 140 years.
For 18 years, the Pittsburgh Pirates of owner Bob Nutting have operated with an indifference and a lack of perception and sensitivity in all matters of the community’s treasured sentiments.
Nutting came into his fortune by inheriting the family newspaper business that was started about the same time the Pirates joined the National League, which made him rich enough to buy a major-league baseball team, but clearly not smart enough or interested enough to run one.
Small-market teams that have owners who care can win, as we see in Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Milwaukee and now Baltimore, because they invest in players and are committed to winning. This would seem to have been the perfect time for the Pirates to invest more in players and in their commitment to winning, given the heart of their team is a starting rotation, led by Paul Skenes, that could soon be the best in baseball.
But, no, the Pirates of Bob Nutting had other things to entertain themselves with during the same weekend fans chanted “Sell the team” through the course of the Pirates’ home opener last Friday. It’s not enough to anger the devoted fanbase; after all, that’s what your average tyrant does. He knows there is unrest and suffering in the land, yet that only fuels his megalomania.
Why be content trifling with the little people who pay to see your team play? Why not go straight to the top and anger the family of the most important and beloved player in Pittsburgh Pirates history?
That’s what the Bully Bob Nutting Pirates did when they removed a sign honoring the late Roberto Clemente from the right-field wall at PNC Park and replaced it with an advertisement for booze in a can.
And it wasn’t even IC Light.
Naturally, the Clemente sign was restored on Monday, but only after the Clemente family, and baseball fans everywhere in the world, expressed their displeasure for the Nutting Pirates’ insensitivity toward the namesake of Major League Baseball’s most prestigious individual honor, which annually recognizes the player who best represents the game through character, community involvement, philanthropy, and positive contributions both on and off the field.
“This change was made without any communication or consultation with our family,” Roberto Clemente Jr. said in a statement from the Clemente family. “While we appreciate that the Pirates acknowledged their failure to inform us, it reveals a broader issue: a lack of meaningful collaboration between the organization and on matters that are deeply personal and historically significant to us and the fans.
“The outpouring of support from fans in Pittsburgh and across the country has been overwhelming and deeply appreciated. It is clear that our father’s legacy continues to inspire and unite people, not only for his achievements on the field, but for the integrity and compassion he demonstrated off of it.”
Naturally, Nutting Pirates president Travis Williams was there to play flunky and take the hit for the man in the bunker.
“We did not intend to disrespect the legacy of Roberto Clemente by adding the advertisement to the pad in right field,” Williams said in his statement. “When we added the advertisement to the pad, it was an oversight not to keep the No. 21 logo. This is ultimately on me, not anyone else in the organization. It was an honest mistake.
“We want to make sure that the Clemente family understands that we intended no disrespect to their father. We look forward to continuing our relationship with the Clemente family and apologize to them and our fans for our honest mistake.”
That the sign, which again hangs on the right-field wall at PNC Park that stands 21 feet high in honor of Clemente, had to be physically removed, then physically replaced by an advertisement doesn’t seem to be much of an oversight, though the Nutting Pirates said in their statement that the Clemente marker, which had been on the wall since 2022, was meant to be temporary.
There is nothing temporary in the heart of Pittsburgh about Roberto Clemente, but while Bob Nutting surely knows this, it’s even more evident that he doesn’t care.
“Any time,” said Roberto Clemente, who died while trying to help others live, “you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on Earth.”
The Pirates retired Clemente’s No. 21 on April 6, 1973, just over four months after his death. Fifty-two years and one day later, the name and the number were put back onto the PNC Park right-field wall.
But only after Bob Nutting’s Pirates had replaced it with an advertisement for booze.
Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X @MikeBurkeMDT