If you're from the Pittsburgh area or are a fan of baseball you are probably aware of the city of Pittsburgh's redheaded stepchild-the Pittsburgh Pirates. For the 18th consecutive season the "Buccos" have failed to produce a winning record and in a city that prides itself on it's athletic prowess this is an embarrassment.
The problem with the Pirates lays with the ownership group and their lack of motivation to produce a winning team but I can't say I blame them. Because of major league baseball's profit sharing program the Pirate organization will never suffer a loss of profits if they do not succeed on the field and therefore the logic behind maintaining the status quo is not flawed. It is good business to not take unnecessary risks, such as investing big money into the players, when you can continue to profit from business as usual. There is no accountability for the Bob Nutting (that really is his name) and the other owners of the Pirates.
The owners don't answer to anyone and therefore they will never change their practices. Unless the fans stop supporting the Pirates when they play at home there is no cause for alarm and I don't think that this will ever happen because Pirate games are a lot of fun to attend. They aren't fun because anyone likes to see their team get hammered every night but because the owners offer just enough incentive to the fans in order to keep them coming back. Fireworks after the game, all you can eat seats and concerts; just some examples of the promotions that are regularly offered throughout the season, and these are just enough to keep the fans coming back for more.
There are a lot of parallels that can be drawn between the owners of the Pittsburgh Pirates and the politicians and bureaucrats who people our government system. The similar profit sharing system and lack of accountability among the different agencies and organizations of our government has made it easy for the people who oversee those groups to fall into the same trap as the Pirate's ownership has. Our tax dollars have been grossly mismanaged and misused and as a result we as Americans find ourselves in a whole heap of debt, and there is no sign that government spending will cease. Politicians see the huge slush funds and stimulus funds as a way to, not necessarily line their own pockets, but ensure themselves reelection by securing a portion of that money for their district. Just like the owners of the Pirates, these people think that they can give us just enough handouts in order to keep us coming back for more. And the truly sad thing is that, up until now, this method has worked extremely effectively.
I think that it is time for Americans to understand and hold politicians accountable for their disturbing abuse of power and funds. We face a debt crisis that was started by President Bush, has been sped up drastically by President Obama and has reached a point where every American man woman or child, in order for American debt to reach zero, owes 44,000 dollars. This is unacceptable and unsustainable. I don't assume to know how to reduce our debt and fix the economy but November is coming and anyone running for office needs to have a well thought out plan for fixing this mess if they want to have a chance at election.
-Jim at the D.W.
I read this and instantly thought about the Detroit Tigers, both detroit and pittsburgh have great hockey teams. Jake and me yak at each other every fall about it, the Pirates remind me of Detroit's football team. For so long it seemed the Ford just didn't give two hoots about the performance, and he was happy to put buddy Matt Millen as the president and ceo. Seemed as though no matter how bad it got,Millen was safe, considering his buddy was the owner. He consistantly gave the draft picks away and so on. It got to the point that folks calling into our local sports talk radio station were pleading every day that Ford sell the team or fire Millen.
ReplyDeleteThe similarities are astounding thuogh as you showed. The Lions for all intents and purposes were (perhaps still are?) scrubs. Yet they'd fill the stadium up each game. "Lions are losing, screw it were making cash just the same." The promotions you mentioned are the exact same ones happening with the Lions. With a grizzly sounding fellow bellowing out "WITH ALL YOU CAN EAT SEATS!" oh boy!
It got to the point that people were getting into contact with Ford and Millen and giving them what for, by way of piece of their mind.
Same thing has happened with officials here in Detroit. Everyone's seen the famous "Kwame Kilpatrick Show" as I like to call it. "what did you do with that cash sir?" lol.
Not to give support or hate to Obama, but I wonder how much he really was stymied when he sat down in the office for the first day of real work. I don't think the general public will ever know the true extent of the mess one president may leave or not.
Yea you know I agree with that-and trust me I hear you about the whole Lions deal, it is a kind of helpless feeling to know that your team sucks and there isn't anything you can do about it. Thats how I feel about the mismanagement of tax dollars in the government both state and federal-its like I know we can do better but we won't as long as people are satisfied with the handouts
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