McClatchy and Cuban

Ever since the Cuban rumors have restarted I've been getting some comments and reading some things questioning why Cuban would be better for the team than McClatchy. I do understand the aversion to having a guy with Cuban's personality running the team, after all he gets a ton of bad press for his behavior with the Mavs and really does seem like nothing but a jerk. But beyond that, him buying the team could mean nothing but good things for the Pirates. The difference between him and the current ownership is a pretty simple one. Currently, the Nuttings, McClatchy, and the rest of the people on the board that own the team have one primary concern, not losing money. Things are working out fairly well for them, as that article over the summer by Dejan suggested. Still, they haven't had a single winning year, either pre-Nuttings or post. The Clippers are a great example of how you don't have to win to make money and the Pirates seem to be following their model, keep the fans excited about young talent and bring in some marginal veterans, but never actually get serious about winning. I'm not saying that winning is impossible in a small market (in fact, I know it isn't) but it's a lot harder to do if winning isn't among the concerns of the owners (this is where the rant about how they know nothing about baseball nor do they care to and it's evident from how they stuck with Bonifay blindly and now they're probably doing the same thing with DL would go if I wanted this to be a novel instead of a blog post). If Cuban buys the team he also only has one concern and it has nothing to do with money and everything to do with winning. I'm not here to detail every little move he made in Dallas since buying the team and I do realize that the NBA and MLB are quite different in how a team can be rebuilt, but go ahead, look at the team's results from 1991-2000 (he bought the team in January of the 2000 season, in which they closed 31-19 after a 9-23 start) and then from 2001-now. And remember that the bulk of those results were achieved by using his beautiful, state of the art arena (anyone know where we can find one of those?) and three franchise players he had inherited (Finley, Nash, and Dirk, know a baseball team with any equivalents?) to turn Dallas into a destination for free agents instead of a laughingstock, and thus into a successful (in more ways than just profit margin) franchise.

I'll finish up by saying that I absolutely do realize that at this point it's only a pipe dream of a snowball's chance in hell that the current ownership sells this team at any point before the All-Star game, if ever. And I know that myself and other people publicly bitching for McClatchy to sell the team will probably accomplish nothing (though as long as the ownership thinks the public supports them, or more accurately doesn't hate them, they will continue to think they can get away with anything). And I know that if Cuban were to buy the team, things I like would change (like our uniforms, of which I am currently a big fan, even with the hideous Sunday pinstripes, would probably return to something more like this) and that he'd be in the news every day for his antics as owner, some of which I would probably find outrageous. The only point I'm trying to make is that I don't think everyone sees the whole picture of what would happen if Cuban did buy the team. We're not just talking about an owner that will sink money into the team without thinking, assuming that that's the solution (like a McCourt). We're talking about a very shrewd businessman that revived one moribund franchise and WANTS to do it again. So here's hoping he doesn't give up just yet.

(On that note, I realize I've said A LOT about Cuban over the last three days and I'm done with Cuban until something more substantial actually happens, if it ever does. It's just that nothing else interesting has really happened with the Bucs the past few days (Zach Duke made the TOPS AAA All-Star team, woo-hoo) and this intrigues me much, much more. But now that I've said my entire piece, I'm done. It is Hot Stove Season, afterall, and we can find better Pirate-related topics to talk about. You know, like the ineptness of Dave Littlefield, which I have a feeling he will give us ample opportunity to discuss.)