Baseball is a business and, like in all other businesses, the goal is to make money.
Fans, players and even owners may hate to admit that profits are the primary concern, but there's no disputing the fact that dollars come first and wins are just a desirable consequence.
In many cases, though, winnings and earnings come hand in hand. The Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees — three of Major League Baseball's wealthiest and most fruitful franchises — won the World Series in 2007, 2008 and 2009, respectively.
But while virtually every team in the league is turning a profit, some are doing little to reward the fans who bring it in.
The sports blog Deadspin on Aug. 23 released the financial records of several major league teams. The dreaded leak revealed that the Pittsburgh Pirates — arguably baseball's most maligned franchise, just clinching its 18th consecutive losing season — raked in a combined $29.3 million from 2007 to 2008.
The Pirates have not come close to contention for a playoff appearance since Barry Bonds, then a five-tool phenom and two-time MVP who led them to a 96-66 season in 1992, left for San Francisco. Nor have they appeared in the World Series since 1979.
Fans in the Steel City have enjoyed some flashes in the pan, including Aramis Ramirez, Brian Giles and Jason Bay, but those star players were never given the complementary pieces necessary to keep the Pirates alive in October.
Pittsburgh's current ballpark, PNC Park, opened in 2001, hosted the All-Star Game in 2006 and is hailed as one of the most beautiful stadiums in the country. Yet the on-field product inside the publicly funded, $216 million facility has been anything but beautiful.
The average attendance at the 38,496-seat stadium has dwindled from 30,839 in its inaugural season to just 20,184 this year. Nonetheless, team president Frank Coonelly, majority owner Robert Nutting and their partners are turning a profit, leaving them happy to search for scapegoats that explain the team's longstanding misery.
Not surprisingly, the list of excuses reaches far and wide. The Pirates have had six managers since 1992, including Jim Leyland and Jim Tracy, both of whom have enjoyed plenty of success since their stints in Pittsburgh. Likewise, four general managers have tried their hand at fixing the eternally broken roster, and current GM Neal Huntington is still struggling to repair the wounds left by his predecessors.
Of the Pirates' last 18 first-round picks, only three are still believed to have true star potential.
Pittsburgh selected left-hander Clinton Johnston in 1998 with the 15th-overall pick, just moments before the Astros nabbed Brad Lidge and the Indians plucked CC Sabathia. Johnston never made it out of Double-A ball, but Lidge and Sabathia were crucial members of the past two World Series-winning teams.
In 2006, the Pirates used the fourth-overall pick on right-hander Brad Lincoln, who made his big league debut only this year. But the No. 10-overall selection, the San Francisco Giants' Tim Lincecum, has won two Cy Young awards, and the fifth and seventh picks — Brandon Morrow of the Toronto Blue Jays and Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers — are two of the most promising young hurlers in the majors.
That pins fans' hopes squarely on centerfielder Andrew McCutchen, third-baseman Pedro Alvarez and right-handed starter Jameson Taillon — the Pirates' first-round selections in 2005, 2008 and 2010. If they don't blossom into the core of a perennial contender, PNC Park may not witness postseason baseball for yet another generation.
But all the failed skippers, poor executives and sour luck in the draft cannot explain the past two decades of gloom. The Steelers and Penguins have both won championships in their leagues, so it can't be the city, either.
No, the blame rests at the top, with Nutting and Coonelly. And the financial success they've achieved in spite of the Pirates' .434 winning percentage since the start of the 1993 season leaves little incentive for them to change their ways.
Such is life in baseball under the revenue-sharing system stipulated by the current collective bargaining agreement, which runs through 2011. The system forces every franchise to contribute 31 percent of its annual revenues to a pot that is then evenly distributed among the 30 teams, in order to level the playing field between the otherwise more profitable franchises, such as the Yankees, and the less profitable ones like the Pirates.
But the use of that money is poorly enforced. The Pirates' roster has benefited little from the $69.3 million in revenue-sharing profits that the team received between 2007 and 2008, as evidenced by the Pirates' 100-loss pace this year.
Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista — who currently leads the majors in home runs — was a member of the Pirates from 2004 to 2008, and he wasn't pleased with the way the organization utilized its budget. He told the Associated Press that Pittsburgh "didn't do anything illegal or wrong," but added that the current system has a glaring flaw that allows teams to make money without putting a winning product on the field. The Pirates unquestionably took advantage of it.
In addition to Bautista, Huntington has since shipped All-Stars Jason Bay, Freddy Sanchez, Matt Capps, Nate McLouth and Jack Wilson out of Pittsburgh. Coonelly claims that the organization has reallocated its budget to focus on building a farm system that represents the team's future, but Taillon and fellow 2010 additions Stetson Allie and Nate Kingham have a long way to go on their mission to erase the memories of the Pirates' recent draft nightmares.
The 2009 Yankees were guided by the motto, "Pride, Power, Pinstripes," and they rewarded their fans with the 27th world championship in the franchise's history.
The 2010 Pirates chose to adopt a similar slogan, displaying "Pride, Passion, Pittsburgh Pirates" atop their website.
Their fans may have to settle for the first-overall pick in next year's draft and become united in their hope for a better future — a future that includes better luck, better management and most importantly, a better revenue-sharing system than the one that has left them buried since 1993.
