Chuck Greenberg announced the sale of the Altoona Curve today and, judging by the comments of those who emailed the announcement to me, everyone seems a bit uneasy.
I was too, until I thought a bit more about it.
At first I told myself Greenberg is simply cashing in while the franchise is at the top. You know, buy low, sell high. That was backed up by an article written by WeAreCentralPA.com where they said Greenberg wasn’t even trying to sell the club. What they apparantly want us to believe is that Greenberg must have been handed stupid money to walk away and, considering the state of the Pirates organization right now, how could he refuse?
But I’m not so sure I buy into all that.
* Jake uncorks a bottle of 1902 Conspiracy Theory wine and starts to drink *
I don’t know Greenberg other than though mutual friends and limited email contact over the last couple of years but one thing is certain, he has black-and-gold blood in his veins, as well as a deep passion for baseball.
I heard a few months ago that the Nuttings might be willing to listen to offers for the Pirates but who ever bought the club would probably have to pay better than market value instead of bottom-feeder value. I never found out if the rumor was valid or not but the source had been accurate in 2003 when Ogden Nutting started buying all the limited owner’s stock he could get his hands on seeking control.
Chuck Greenberg, like a couple of other groups around Pittsburgh, has always been interested in buying the club and I had heard just a few months ago from a mutual friend his group was as ready as ever. Whether the Nuttings would even answer his phone call regarding a possible sale is another thing entirely. That I don’t know.
The Nuttings have a cash cow in a recessionary time and I assume they need the cash for their newspaper and magazine business because of the down-trending nature of print publications in general. But I suppose a sale would give them a lot more than they need too.
Still, the one thing that confuses me the most is why Greenberg would divest himself of the Curve franchise if he was truly making a play to buy the Pirates considering the organization would then own two of it’s affiliates (is that even allowed?). Sure, he might have needed the cash since money is tighter now, but somehow I don’t think so.
While I want to believe he’s making a play to buy the club and the sale of the Curve was nothing more than a prelude, I’m not so sure that’s actually happening. Not yet, anyway. But like I said before, I don’t know. We’ll have to watch for the press release if one ever materalizes.
“Tradition does not mean guarding the ashes, but fanning the embers.” – Benjamin Franklin
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Ken Mandel at MLB.com first reported yesterday that the Pirates might be interested in Mark Loretta.
Huh? To play… where? Forget his range at short with our pitch to contact arms, and we certainly can’t swing Sanchez to short, so is Freddy on the way out the door? I had mentioned a gut feeling the Phillies might eventually sink their teeth into Sanchez but I haven’t seen any rumors yet.
And there’s no way Neal Huntington is going to pay Loretta $3M+ to sit on the pine in a utility role – forget that.
Well, I’ll toss this one into the annual “feeding BS to the fans” basket because Lorretta can get a much better gig down the road unless a few other teams are brain dead.
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I asked Marc Garda of the Pirates for the names of the three announcer finalists last week and I haven’t heard back.
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