A Losing Tradition

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is one of the most successful sports towns in the country.  Every year, the area produces great football, baseball, and other sports stars.  The city's professional teams have won two super bowls and one Stanley Cup in the past decade.  The Steelers and Penguins are two of the more consistently successful organizations in professional sport.  Among all of this success, the Pittsburgh Pirates have managed to foster a losing atmosphere that has resulted in a string of nineteen losing seasons.  This is the longest such streak of any organization in the four major sports leagues in the US.

The Pirates organization has failed to live up to the expectation that Pittsburgh sports fans have grown to be accustomed to.  Despite having a low budget and payroll, fans from Pittsburgh expect to see at least a competitive product, and rightfully so.  In recent years, the MLB has seen other small market teams succeed, such as the Twins, Rays, Marlins, and Brewers.  These teams have succeeded in various ways including:  good scouting, coaching, drafting, and, in general, good management.  The Pirates have proven to fail in all of these areas.

The most frustrating aspect of this losing culture to most Pittsburgh fans is the fact that the organization has produced quality players.  Names such as Jason Bay, Nate McClouth, and Jose Bautista have all come up through the Pirates organization in recent years.  However, management has failed to retain these quality players and they have all gone on the become All-Stars on different teams.

In spite of all of this, the organization continues to turn a profit every year.  There are a number of possible reasons as to why this happens, but one possibility seems to be more likely.  The organization was given a brand new stadium, paid for by the city's taxpayers.  This stadium is considered by most fans of baseball to be one of the best five in baseball.  Not a dollar came from the organization.  However, the Pirates take advantage of this by not making an effort to produce a competitive product and instead, place a mediocre team on the field.  People still come to the games because of the beautiful ballpark, and the organization makes a profit.  For this reason, I believe the culture will not change until Pittsburgh fans show their discontent by not going to games, not purchasing merchandise, and not giving the organization any incentive to continue its ways.  This is the only reason they would have to change, it will not happen otherwise.