Perrotto: Pirates Promise to Right a Big Wrong

Wednesday proved to be a good day for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

And they haven’t had many since the season opened on March 27.

The Pirates won a game, beating the Washington Nationals 6-1 at PNC Park. It was just the Pirates’ seventh win in 19 games during an awful start to the season highlighted by fundamental mistakes and poor roster management by general manager Ben Cherington.

The Pirates even had a public relations victory off the field. That hasn’t happened for an organization that can never get out of its way.

At least, the Pirates tried to right a wrong on Wednesday.

Club president Travis Williams said that the Pirates are working on a permanent display for the commemorative Bucco Bricks purchased by fans before PNC Park’s opening in 2001 and found on a scrapheap last week.

The Pirates replaced the bricks over the last 24 years because of wear and tear and sidewalk repairs outside the ballpark.

However, when the Pirates did maintenance work on the sidewalks this past winter, they did not replace the bricks. That went unnoticed until last week when KDKA-TV showed footage of the bricks in a large pile at a recycling center in Westmoreland County.

Those visuals angered fans, particularly those who bought bricks to honor or memorialize loved ones.

Count me among those who were upset. My mother, who has since passed away, and I bought a brick commemorating my late father, who died in 1991. My father was a lifelong baseball fan — stretching to the first game he attended in 1935 when Babe Ruth hit the final three home runs of his career at Forbes Field — and the Pirates were his favorite team.

On Wednesday, Williams wrote an open letter to fans offering anyone who bought a Bucco Brick a free commemorative copy of their brick. Williams also said the team is working on a display for the new set of bricks that will include their original messages.

“We are, and have always been, absolutely committed to ensuring these special messages and tributes live on permanently at PNC Park,” Williams wrote.

We have no choice but to take Williams at his word.

Yet it seems odd that the Pirates never notified their fans about the disposal of the bricks. That they did not reveal more details for their plans to display the bricks makes you wonder if they had one before last week’s outcry.

Did they think fans would show up on opening day and not realize the bricks were missing?

Williams also wrote that the Pirates are expediting the new display. And they should. The sooner they can put this mess to rest, the better for everyone.

But you never know what the Pirates are really thinking

Nutting and Williams communicate with the fans through press releases and team-released statements, the type of stuff people in the Tri-State area loathe. Being authentic plays very well in our part of the world, and the Pirates never seem to understand that.,

The Pirates are trying to put their best foot forward here. The fans certainly deserve that.

And from a selfish standpoint, I’m weary of having to write about the Pirates shooting themselves in the foot.