Miller: Fates of Pirates and Pittsburgh are interrelated

Another October has rolled around and, as usual, I am watching playoff baseball that does… Another October has rolled around and, as usual, I am watching playoff baseball that does not include my Pirates.

As I write this, the Colorado Rockies are battling the Arizona Diamondbacks for the right to go to the World Series. I look at the muted TV and Yoruit Torrealba of the Rockies has just cracked a three-run homer into the rain-soaked bleachers of Coors Field.

The last time the Pirates were in the playoffs, neither of these teams existed.

Like a hockey team from Southern California tipping the Stanley Cup, watching two baseball teams younger than me compete for the senior circuit pennant is just unnatural. I think that only hockey clubs from above the Mason-Dixon line should be allowed to compete for the cup, and only baseball teams created before the first Roosevelt administration should be allowed to even think about winning the World Series.

But traditions do not count for much these days. The Pittsburgh Baseball Club, with its 120-year history of winning, is now the rusty standard of awful baseball.

One of my friends, an avowed ex-Pirate’s fan, calls the team irrelevant. He has it in his head that the Pirates do not matter anymore; I disagree.

The Pirates, in all their misery, are more relevant to Pittsburgh than ever before, at least in a metaphorical sense. Pittsburgh cannot seem to get enough of its steel-making past.

The cliche for new buildings here has become the exposed steel super-structure, to “highlight the steel heritage of the city” as any hack PNC Park tour guide will say. And, I am sure that if pressed, nine out of 10 Pittsburghers will say that the Steelers best represent the image of Pittsburgh. Maybe that was true back when there actually was steel being produced within the city limits, but it is certainly not the case anymore.

The Pirates are still relevant because they best represent this city in its current form. What my friend does not see is that while the Pirates are irrelevant nationally, they are still very much relevant in Pittsburgh because the city itself has become so irrelevant.

The histories of the city and the team are like two different ways of telling the same folk-tale. Both had a tradition of winning, whether it’s the Pirate’s five World Championships or Pittsburgh’s role as the Arsenal of Democracy in the World Wars. Both were populated by larger than life figures: Carnegie, Wagner, Frick, Clemente, Lawrence and Stargell.

Now, neither can keep it together financially, nor keep its young talent from running away to greener playing fields. No amount of fancy new ballparks, convention centers or brash young leadership can make the world want to come to Pittsburgh or watch the Pirates play baseball.

The inept managing styles of the Pirates and the powers in Pittsburgh are so similar, it is as if they went to the same sub par business school. The Pirates spend ridiculous sums of money on over-the-hill free agents, while the city borrows some cash from the federal government to build a pointless extension of the light-rail that will go just a little over a mile

All the while, they skimp out on the projects they should be paying for, like a decent farm system or a subway extension that would go as far as Oakland. The good news, for the Pirates at least, is that the ownership group is finally shaking things in the management. Next year, the Pirates will have a new President, General Manager and Manager. Maybe the infusion of fresh blood in the organization will wake up a new baseball juggernaut in the form of the Buccos.

Now, there is not much anyone can do to affect how the new staff goes about rebuilding the Pirates, but there is plenty of concerned citizens can do about how the local government rebuilds this city.

On Nov. 6, the city will elect a mayor. Voting in an off-year election for the mayor of a small town may seem about as cool as going to a Pirates game, but it is so very important. Young people are leaving this city in droves. Clearly, something is wrong, and I am sure no one has a better idea of why than college students.

Whether the exodus is due to a lack of jobs, fun or winning baseball, everyone can do something to help. Vote, and make the issues that matter to future of this city heard.

Also, anytime someone says that the Pirates don’t matter, remember that the Pirates are this city’s sister in misery. So, to cheer for the Pirates is to cheer for Pittsburgh.

E-mail Jack at jhm15@pitt.edu.