oct 2 1995 THE 1995 PIRATES: LOOKING HARD FOR THE BRIGHT SPOTS LONG SEASON COMES TO CLOSE "I can't be extremely negative about what we've done this year," General Manager Cam Bonifay said. "It's time for this organization to be positive. This organization has to start to be positive, even though our record might not explicitly show that. "I think we did make some progress this year. Our record wouldn't indicate that, but we had three or four guys out of the lineup at that one point whom we had projected would help us."I think we're better because the pitching is better. The prospect for our young pitchers, with the experience of this season, has gotten better. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- oct 3 1996 LAMONT THE GUY PLAYERS AGREE WITH PIRATES' CHOICE FOR LEYLAND'S HEIR APPARENT Date: October 3, 1996 Publication: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Page Number: B-1 Word Count: 768 Gene Lamont is expected to be named the Pirates' new manager today. ``Certainly if anybody can replace Jim Leyland as the manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, it would be Gene Lamont,'' said shortstop Jay Bell, who could be traded before he gets a chance to play for Lamont. ``Gene's in the same mold as Jim. He's certainly the best person for the job.'' ``We're getting a proven winner ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oct 4 1997 PIRATES HAD LAST LAUGH Date: October 4, 1997 Publication: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Page Number: C-3 Word Count: 111 When the baseball season began in April, the Pirates were the laughingstock of the league. They defied all odds and almost pulled off a miracle. Tony Womack became an All-Star. A star was being born in Jose Guillen. Jason Kendall, Al Martin, Joe Randa and Kevin Young provided the leadership. Rich Loiselle, Kevin Polcovich and Ricardo Rincon were unknown commodities who became household names. Turner Ward and Dale Sveum showed their former teams that they had plenty of baseball left in them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMER BUMMER THERE WAS NO MAGIC, ONLY DISAPPOINTMENT, FOR '98 PIRATES Date: October 4, 1998 Publication: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Page Number: D-3 Word Count: 2364 Among the wreckage of the 1998 Pirates season, one part of the team emerged unscathed. The pitching continued to improve. The team's 3.91 earned run average, which ranked sixth in the league, represented a drop of almost two-thirds of a run over the last two years. "The staff in general is better," pitching coach Pete Vuckovich said. "They know more about themselves. They know more about how to get hitters out at the major league ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oct 1 1999 PIRATES CLINCH 3RD WITH 3-2 TRIUMPH Date: October 1, 1999 Publication: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Page Number: C-1 Word Count: 1069 The Pirates last night clinched third place in the National League Central Division with a 3-2 victory over Milwaukee achieved on a seventh-inning home run by Kevin Young and scoreless work by four relievers. "Third place is something we were shooting for," Manager Gene Lamont said, "but what we're really doing is trying to get above .500." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SELLOUT CROWD WATCHES PIRATES LOSE LAST GAME AT STADIUM BYLINE: PAUL MEYER, POST-GAZETTE SPORTS WRITER DATE: October 6, 2000 PUBLICATION: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) EDITION: SOONER SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-2 MEMO: THREE RIVERS STADIUM: THE FINALE SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2000 PUBLICATION: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) The Pirates said goodbye to a stadium and a manager yesterday. Today, they can begin thinking about next season, their first at PNC Park, and Manager Gene Lamont's successor. They can begin pondering the advice Kevin Young, Jason Kendall and Brian Giles gave them the past week. Young, Kendall and Giles met with General Manager Cam Bonifay and offered their thoughts about what should be done to improve this team. We all have something in common -- Kevin McClatchy, Cam Bonifay, myself -- all of us," Young said."Cam has a tough job because he's strapped financially. There's a lot more pressure to be a general manager when your payroll's around $30 million as opposed to $90 million. We totally understand that, but a lot of stuff we went over had to do with what direction we're going. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 100 DOWN, ONE TO GO Date: October 7, 2001 Publication: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Page Number: D-6 Word Count: 796 On the next to the last day of a season that Manager Lloyd McClendon said seemed to begin a century ago, the Pirates reached the century mark in losses. They reached this dubious achievement by having no hits and no runs until the eighth inning as the Chicago Cubs won, 13-2, on a chilly, blustery afternoon. What's more, the Pirates fell a game behind Tampa Bay to own the worst record in baseball with one game remaining. "Whether it's 99 or 100 or 90 or --------------------------------------------------------------------------- DATE: October 6, 2002 PUBLICATION: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) EDITION: TWO STAR SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-3 MEMO: Robert Dvorchak can be reached at bdvorchak@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1959. The task of improving the Pirates began long before Aramis Ramirez grounded into the final out last Sunday in Wrigley Field. But with the club watching playoff baseball on TV again after a decade of losing, the focus shifts to what's next The Pirates took a step in the right direction in 2002. The Pirates will receive $6 million more in revenue sharing money and will be free of Derek Bell's $4.5-million contract.I'm a firm believer that you win with quality starting pitching, and I think we have three solid guys there. How much they improve -- and they all need to improve for us to get better -- we'll see," Littlefield said.This is going to be a big off-season for me," Benson said. "I was able to get back to pitching at the level I wanted to be. I got my sharpness and finish back. I can't be more pleased --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHANGING COURSE Date: October 5, 2003 Publication: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Page Number: C-1 Word Count: 2094 Dave Littlefield's priorities this winter are to find a closer, a third baseman, a power hitter in the middle of the lineup and pitching, pitching and more pitching. Of course, those are commodities Littlefield, the Pirates' general manager, traded away during the 2003 season to shore up the franchise's foundation -- its talent pool. Management gave up on the version of the Pirates that had been constructed the past few years ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 0ct 4th 2004 In what otherwise would have been good riddance to another losing season, Oliver Perez and Jack Wilson -- two of the building blocks for the future -- made it an upbeat goodbye --------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLUCK OF THE PIRATES Date: October 4, 2005 Publication: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Page Number: B-6 Word Count: 307 The Pittsburgh Pirates' 2005 campaign is history and, although the team notched its 13th straight losing season and tied for the second-worst record in baseball, it finished with some notable bright spots. * The team won its last two games -- and in large part due to some of its newest or youngest players: Zach Duke, Nate McLouth, J.J. Furmaniak and Freddy Sanchez. * The Pirates will soon hire a new manager, one probably with previous experience. The team's reported ========================================================================= IT'S TIME PIRATES GET SOME DIRECTION Date: October 3, 2006 Publication: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Page Number: D-8 Word Count: 825 Hello again and welcome to America's slowest-rising game show, "Who's More Delusional?" Today's question: Who's more delusional, the Pirates' fan who thinks the team has turned a corner despite losing 95 games again, or the fan who sees no progress in a team whose young pitchers led them to a 37-35 record after the All-Star break? We'll depart from tradition and have only one contestant, allowing ------------------------------ PIRATES' TRACY WALKS THE PLANK Date: October 6, 2007 Publication: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Page Number: A-1 Word Count: 1107 With one swift swing, the Pirates, losers for 15 consecutive seasons, yesterday fired manager Jim Tracy and began a top-to-bottom overhaul of their baseball operations. "We have many challenges ahead, but we are moving forward," new general manager Neal Huntington said at a PNC Park news conference. "We need to change the culture of this organization, and this is a step in that direction." Several steps were taken: Gone were Mr. Tracy, ------------------------------------------------------------ sept 2008 owner Bob Nutting says, we have the single best management team in baseball and GM Neil Huntington reponds, we aren't going to increase payroll just to increase payroll. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feb 2009 Wednesday, February 18, 2009 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette McLouth's contract caps Pirates' internal goal Center fielder gets 15.75 million, as team retains rights into 2012 The long-term commitments we have made to core players developed here, both this year and last year, reflect our commitment to build a strong core from within our system," team president Frank Coonelly. The three-year, $15.75 million contract they signed yesterday with center fielder Nate McLouth buoyantly capped management's goal of securing all three of its identified core players -- along with pitcher Paul Maholm and catcher Ryan Doumit --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pirates trade McLouth to Atlanta Wednesday, June 03, 2009 By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The Pirates have traded center fielder Nate McLouth to the Atlanta Braves.