Joe Starkey: Bob Nutting has ruined the Pirates and broken plenty of hearts along the way

Joe Starkey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on May 9, 2025

Published in Baseball

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PITTSBURGH — You know what I kept thinking about Thursday? The Bucco Bricks.

We all know the story. We all saw the images. These were commemorative bricks thousands of Pirates fans bought and inscribed to loved ones a quarter-century ago as a fundraiser for the Roberto Clemente Foundation, only to see them years later wind up discarded and crumbling in a Reserve Township recycling bin.

Has there ever been such an unmistakable metaphor? I don't know about you, but it hit me over the head like, well, a ton of bricks: Those were the hearts of Pirates fans. That was you and so many people you have loved tossed aside like empty beer cans.

Bob Nutting has ruined baseball in this town. He has ruined a beloved civic institution called the Pittsburgh Pirates. Something that was passed preciously from one generation to the next is sitting in a garbage bin somewhere, broken and decayed, and despite their apologies and vows to make good, there is nothing the Pirates can do now to fix it. Not as long as Bob Nutting is in charge.

Bob Nutting has ruined everything.

I hadn't forgotten the images of those broken bricks — it's not the kind of thing one forgets easily — but they came roaring back Thursday upon the firing of manager Derek Shelton. It wasn't about Shelton. He needed to go long before Thursday. It was about how the baseball world reacted, blatantly and rightfully mocking the pathetic, cheap, incompetent charity case that is the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Every once in a while, the Pirates become the center of the sports world. It's almost always because of some sort of calamity like an usher beating a fan with a belt, but sometimes it's because of something good like Paul Skenes — and even he has become as much a curse as a blessing, as was stated in this space before the season.

The blessing, of course, is that he is Paul Skenes, a generational talent and by all accounts an awesome guy. The curse is that his enormous presence turns eyes toward the Pirates and all the ridiculous things they do and all the things they haven't done to build around him.

It's like some horrible family secret you'd prefer never sees the light of day.

It gets people to recite sickening facts like, "The Pirates haven't won a division title since 1992 or a playoff series since 1979. They've had losing records in 28 of the past 32 years and are on pace for 51 wins, which would be their fewest all time in a 162-game season."

It turns attention toward Nutting and how he has always prioritized the bottom line over winning, despite his enormous personal wealth and the enormous MLB welfare checks his team receives every year. It underscores how he runs his baseball franchise like a mom and pop grocery store, hoarding every penny as if his very survival depended on it.

It's just more reason for everybody to laugh at us.

Longtime baseball scribe Buster Olney appeared on ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption" Thursday with Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon.

Kornheiser started: "The Pirates are 12-26. They fired manager Derek Shelton saying they want to 'fix this now.' Has managing been the central issue with the Pirates?"

Olney laughed.

"Is this a trick question Tony? I'm kidding. It's about ownership spending money, which they just haven't done."

Olney then mentioned that since the start of the 2019 season the Pirates have spent $200 million less on players than another small-market team that has dominated their division, the Milwaukee Brewers.

"Bob Nutting, the owner, came out today and said, 'Look, I want to see a sense of urgency,' " Olney said. "Bob, how about you? Stop hoarding your revenue sharing money and spend some money on good players."

Everybody laughed.

"Sounds like a reasonable solution to us, Buster," Wilbon said.

Rage, periodically defused with dark humor, used to be the default setting around here. Maybe it still is. But I'm sensing an ancient human truth emerging within the Pirates fan base: Beyond rage there is grief and emptiness. There is nothingness.

We're here.

Thanks to one man, we're here.