Opinion
Perrotto: Pirates Break a Brick Over My Father’s Memory
For the second time in three days, I’m making my father the lead in my column. I wouldn’t have expected that just a few days ago.
At least I could spotlight my father’s sense of humor in the previous column, saying how incompetent people could “(mess) up a one-car funeral.” He would certainly concur that Bob Nutting, Travis Williams and the merry men who run the Pittsburgh Pirates are capable of such an impossible feat.
Perhaps my father is looking down and smiling at that column. He would find Nutting and the rest of the crew who run the Pirates as a bunch of goofs.
However, my father might be angry with the Pirates, who are off to a 4-8 start. He would be perplexed by general manager Ben Cherington’s strange roster construction and manager Derek Shelton’s baffling moves.
Sadly, though, Tony Perrotto would have shed a tear on Tuesday. I know I did. I’m sure my late mother would have.
The Pirates tripped over themselves yet again, just days after the Roberto Clemente sign fiasco, but this time it was worse. The Pirates played with the emotions of some of their oldest and most loyal fans.
Fans could buy commemorative “Bucco Bricks” from the Pirates while PNC Park was being built. The bricks were then displayed in areas outside the ballpark.
Some of those bricks had messages from fans showing support for the Pirates. Even more bricks were dedicated to fans, some living and many dead.
My mother and I bought a brick in remembrance of my father, who died in 1991. He was a huge baseball fan, and the Pirates were his favorite team.
His brick was near the Honus Wagner statue in front of the home plate gate. The photo accompanying this story shows my wife and me looking at the brick on what would have been opening day of the 2020 season until the pandemic struck.
I’d often stop to look at the brick and feel Dad was there with me.
My father watched at least a thousand games at Forbes Field and Three Rivers Stadium. The first game he attended was in 1935 at Forbes Field when Babe Ruth hit the last three of his 714 home runs while finishing his career with the Boston Braves.
The Pirates did some much-needed renovations to the sidewalks outside PNC Park during the offseason. It was overdue.
However, the Pirates also removed some of the Bucco Bricks and did not replace them. KDKA-TV reported Tuesday that the bricks were found dumped in a recycling facility in Westmoreland County.
It seems callous for the Pirates to take the bricks and throw them out with empty Sprite bottles and old editions of TV Guide.
Recycling wasn’t a thing when my father was alive. I’m sure he would approve of the concept. However, he would have difficulty accepting that his memory would be recycled.
The Pirates say they will make things right and preserve the memories inscribed on the bricks. I’d like to take them at their word. Considering their preternatural ability to mess up anything, I’m not expecting much.
It was cheaper for the Pirates to tear the bricks out and send them to the scrapheap than to preserve them and return them to the people who bought them.
I get it.
We all know the Pirates usually choose to save money. I worked for Nutting’s Ogden Newspapers. It was one of the cheapest operations I’ve ever been associated with.
That is not axe grinding, either. It’s telling the truth, which is something my father taught me.
At the very least, the Pirates could have alerted their fans that the bricks were being recycled and laid out a solid plan to replace them. That’s common courtesy, and where the lack of interpersonal skills by Nutting and Williams shows.
I’ve been blessed to cover baseball over the last 38 years. I have been to places, seen things and met people who would have been beyond my wildest dreams while growing up in rural Ohioville in Beaver County.
None of this would have happened without my father handing down his love of the game to me.
When I watched the KDKA report, it felt like the Pirates had urinated on my father’s grave. And like they had hit me over the head with a brick.
Great Article. I am appalled that the Pirates would do this. This is inexcusable. When they were selling these bricks, it was stated that the bricks would be there for the lifetime of PNC Park. Obviously that was a lie. But then again, everything Nutting says is a lie. The Pirates have always been my favorite team, and I have defended them for years. Well, NO MORE. They took my deceased fathers brick, which I cherish, and scrapped it. And I am sure Nutting got paid for the scrap too. This is sacrilegious to me. I want an answer, compensation, an apology and someone’s butt. They say they want to make another place for dedications, more of a vertical wall to commemorate whoever. No doubt, WE THE PEOPLE WILL HAVE TO PAY, AGAIN, TO HAVE A TRIBUTE TO OUR PAST HEROES(MY FATHER)!!! I feel like crying. I am ashamed to be a Pirates fan. I am ashamed this owner is associated with this city. I am ashamed that a once great baseball town has been reduced to a team that no free agents want to come to, an owner that everyone hates, and a punchline to a joke. This town deserves a winner. This town will support a winner. And it wouldn’t take much right now to get there. And yet, they fail at every level, every year. I am spent. I can’t go on any more. The Pirates have broken my heart, and this time they didn’t even take the field to do it. I don’t know how long it will take me to get past his, but right now, I’m not sure I ever will. LOVE YOU DAD!
=How can i get a hold of anyone at PGH Baseball Now?
One of the reasons I never bought one was because I felt they would be gone eventually.
I always found the bricks to be a tacky/corny ploy to get some free money and should have never been offered in the first place. With that being said, they made a contract with those people who had purchased them, and it should be honored and not taken to a scrap heap. Nutting is unable to understand the concept of spending money on the Pirates so how could one expect him to understand those people who spent their money showing their love or someone else’s love for the team.
Good article , sad situation John. The current Pirates ownership, management and some players need a lot of work, but not the benefit of the doubt…
This team has the worst PR dept in all of sports. Unbelievable!
My brick is also dedicated to my dad who died in 1992. Disrespectful is being kind.
The Pirates have been horrible for decades and doing stupid things like this over and over recently. Why do Pittsburghers still support this team?
I haven’t been to a game since 2009 and don’t plan on returning as long as Nutting is being Nutting.
You can see fireworks and get bobbleheads elsewhere… just stop supporting this clown organization until MLB gives them a badly needed wakeup call.
This is so sad to me what has happened this week, but what else would you expect from this ownership team. We have been the laughing stock of the MLB as this ownership makes a killing and gives its fans nothing, and now they don’t even care about there fans and players that have died as pirate players and fans.