Pirates Owner Bob Nutting "Underrated" In Terms Of Running The Team, Dealing With The Media

Pirates Owner Bob Nutting has been a "good owner for the Pirates," and anyone "expecting him to write huge checks ... has no grasp on the economics of the game or, for that matter, any concept of how to balance a budget," according to Bob Smizik of the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE. Nutting "has become a convenient scapegoat" for the team's losing years "for all the wrong reasons." Although he "had a hand in keeping payroll down" in his early years, Pirates GM Neal Huntington's "only course possible" was to rebuild slowly. Just as Nutting is "underrated for his role as chairman of the board of the Pirates," he is "underrated for his skill in dealing with the media." Nutting's Spring Training appearances in recent years "have become something approaching a major event in the Pittsburgh media." He has "mastered the news conference." He has "not only learned to say next to nothing, he says it in such a way people actually think he's saying something" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 2/27).