What is the point of bringing in Barry Bonds to present Andrew McCutchen's MVP award? Dick Groat, the 1960 MVP, will also be on hand, and the idea is clearly to connect the Pirates' present to the past. But why?
The Pirates finally had a season to celebrate, and they're going to dilute that by linking to the past? It's finally a chance for the franchise to focus on the here and now instead of relying on nostalgia.
By inviting Bonds, the Pirates have bumped McCutchen out of the spotlight. The coverage will focus on how fans react to Bonds and what he says. Bonds left the Pirates after the 1992 season, which means someone has to be nearly 30 to remember his years here.
This isn't a healing, because no one is aching for a reconciliation. Bonds played the first seven years of his career with the Pirates, and posted exceptional numbers in the final three seasons. Then he left as a free agent and played 15 seasons with the Giants. The Pirates didn't even make an offer when he hit free agency. He belongs to the Giants, and they're welcome to all the baggage he carries from his expanded physique years.
Opening day 2014 should be a celebration of the Pirates' long-overdue success in 2013. Instead, it's needlessly been turned into a referendum on Barry Bonds.
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--DRAGGING ON
We're still more than two weeks away from the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs, which is another reminder that the NHL season is too long.
Last year's 48-game season, shortened by the lockout, came with an urgency. A team going through the kind of tough stretch the Penguins are now experiencing might be in trouble. Instead, the Penguins are still coasting because of the cushion they built in October and November.
A 60-game regular season would be about right, but it won't ever happen.
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--GETTING TESTY
Remember when Clint Hurdle was first hired by the Pirates and he was this rollicking loud guy with a big John Wayne personality who wanted to make sure everybody was "all in?"
Has anyone seen that Clint lately? Seems like there are a lot of days when he comes across as excessively irritable. He was snapping off non-answers to questions the other day like he was being interrogated by the secret police.
Maybe it was just a bad day, but it seems like clipped Clint shows up often. Some of the people who cover the team daily are young and inexperienced, but that isn't their fault, nor does it preclude their right to ask questions. Hurdle sometimes even snaps at the announcers who host his pre-game radio show, even though they work for the team and aren't trying to trip him up.
At least Mike Tomlin reserves his blatant contempt almost exclusively for questions asked by Jory Rand.
Hurdle has enough finesse that he doesn't need to steamroll people over minor matters.
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--UNIQUE COMBINATION
When Root does one of those cheapo combined spring training broadcasts with the Red Sox crew, there's one positive takeaway:
The mash-up of Jerry Remy's chowderful New England accent and John Wehner's Pittsburghese is oddly compelling.
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