The Pittsburgh Pirates are under fire for removing one of the in-stadium tributes to legendary slugger Roberto Clemente to put an advertisement in its place.
And many are probably wondering how the team could make such a simple mistake. It would appear that people inside baseball are wondering the same, as former Miami Marlins team president turned Meadowlark Media commentator David Samson slammed the Pirates this week for violating one of the golden rules of running a team.
“The Clemente family is high maintenance,” Samson said Monday on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. “If you’re the Pirates, you can’t do something regarding Roberto Clemente without telling Roberto Clemente’s family. And they violated (that) right off the top.”
After Pittsburgh sold the right-field wall panel to show an ad for Surfside canned cocktails, the Clemente family released a statement ripping the team for “a lack of meaningful collaboration” with the family. In response, the team released two of its own statements before Clemente’s son eventually clarified he was in conversation with the team about how to replace the right-field panel.
To Samson, this was an easily avoidable mistake. If the Pirates simply contacted the Clementes before replacing the panel, this never becomes a story.
“Let’s face it, what brought this to a bubble was the Clemente statement, but then the Pirates dealt with it so badly,” Samson said.
“The Clementes do this, it’s known around baseball. There are certain families from the history of the game who are higher-maintenance than others … the Clementes are celebrated. The family is brought to events. Baseball pays for them to go to events. There’s a whole level of support that is deserving, but the families of other superstars do not necessarily get that support. But you’ve gotta know your customer. That, to me, is what the Pirates did most wrong. It’s a simple phone call.”
Pittsburgh is off to a 3-7 start despite an army of young pitchers bolstering the rotation, led by 2024 All-Star Paul Skenes. They have drawn the ire of MLB fans all year for failing to spend money to improve the roster around Skenes.
With this latest PR gaffe, the Pirates give their fans and baseball lovers even more of a reason to hate them.
“It just bothered me what the Pirates did, because the Pirates are getting a bunch of crap over their payroll, over their lack of revenue and the fact that they don’t win,” Samson said.”And now, this just makes it worse.”