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Tuesday, May 20, 2003

The way the past week has gone in sports, Kevin Young probably will say today that his foolish and horribly timed comments over the weekend about the Pirates' lack of fan support at PNC Park were taken out of context.

Isn't that what Vijay Singh did last week? He said absolutely nothing wrong when he said Annika Sorenstam didn't deserve to play in the Colonial this weekend. Suzy Whaley deserves to play in the Greater Hartford Open in July because she qualified. Sorenstam is in the Colonial only because of a free pass from the tournament sponsors, who have managed to turn the world's greatest woman golfer into a freak-show attraction. Singh certainly was entitled to his opinion, yet he still felt the need to do a cowardly retreat after he was widely criticized. He retreated so far and so fast that he pulled out of the Colonial to avoid the media circus. Shame on him.

We saw something similar last week with Pirates Manager Lloyd McClendon. He did absolutely nothing wrong when he publicly challenged Kris Benson to start pitching like a No. 1 starter. The team might start playing better if he called out a few more of his underachieving players. Yet, McClendon also did a surprising retreat after his observations led the next day's sports news. He immediately sought out Benson and told him -- according to Benson -- "the way it came out or the way it was taken was not what he meant to say." It might have been his worst moment as manager. He's too much of a man to do such a wimpy thing.

Then again, it's always easier to blame the messenger than to take the heat.

That's why it's so easy to respect Todd Jones of the Colorado Rockies. He started a major controversy earlier in the season when he said he wouldn't want a gay teammate. He later apologized, but he refused to back down from his opinion or say he was misquoted. Props to him.

The truth is, Young also is a stand-up guy and almost certainly won't do a Singh-like or McClendon-like retreat. That's admirable. But he's also not likely to offer any apologies, either. That's too bad.

Pirates fans deserve one.

Forget that Young failed to observe the No. 1 rule of any business, which says that the paying customers are always and unequivocally right.

Forget even that Young and too many players fail to see any correlation between the fans and their astronomical paychecks. In Young's case, he should be eternally grateful that enough fools paid high ticket prices to watch an inferior team that Kevin McClatchy was able to give him a $24-million contract.

This is a fairness issue.

It defies belief that Young or anyone in the Pirates' organization could even hint that the fans are responsible for the lack of a home-field advantage at PNC Park. Too many fans in this city have been persistently loyal beyond reason to a team that has given them nothing but atrocious baseball for 10-plus seasons.

Young doesn't like the booing at PNC Park? He and his teammates should be saying thanks every night that so many people still bother to come to the games. If you really think about, the Pirates' average attendance of 17,244 at PNC Park is one of the season's most amazing statistics. That's about 17,000 more than the team deserves at the moment with its 18-26 record, including a lame 6-16 at home.

Young and the players don't deserve all of the blame. The front office has made its share of horrendous decisions. One of the worst was giving Young that $24 million.

But the players clearly are most responsible for the depressing days and nights at PNC Park. They're also the only ones who can do something about them. They might be surprised at the fan reaction if they ever would win a home game or two.

"I think it would turn on a dime if we started performing well," McClatchy said.

It's unfortunate McClatchy had to rush to the telephone yesterday in an attempt to clean up Young's mess. At a time when he's looking for all of the friends he can find for his team, he shouldn't have to waste energy on damage control.

"I want to thank our fans for coming out," McClatchy said. "They've been seeing us lose quite a bit and doing it in some pretty bad conditions. When it's 45 degrees and raining and the team isn't playing well, they're not going to be very happy ...

"I realize it's tough being a fan and watching us lose for so many years without being negative. But I'm convinced our fans will support us if we start winning. We're going to have 30,000 Wednesday night and 30,000 Saturday night, so it's not like people aren't coming. We've just got to start playing better baseball for them."

It's also unfortunate McClatchy -- as the boss -- went out of his way to defend Young.

"I'm sure Kevin is frustrated by the losing. People tend to say things they might not ordinarily mean when they're frustrated."

Wouldn't you love to know what McClatchy really thought?

It's probably just as well he kept that to himself.

If he shared those thoughts yesterday, he would have to say he was misquoted today.