Pirates Owner Bob Nutting: "I am shocked -- SHOCKED -- to discover incompetence in this organization!"

The Post-Gazette headline over the weekend read,

Pirates Notebook: Nutting 'frustrated ... shocked'

Well, this is just too easy.

It's Bob Nutting, of course, playing the role of Capt. Louis Reynaud (Claude Rains) in the movie classic, Casablanca ...

Capt. Reynaud: "I am shocked! -- shocked -- to discover gambling in this establishment!"

Croupier: "Your winnings, sir."

Capt. Reynaud: "Ah yes. Thank you."

It's just too easy, even without the obvious parallel background history of whisperings -- fair or not -- that Nutting has been secretively pocketing profits over the years without investing much back into the on-field product.

Pirates management, after all, are open to criticism, as they have displayed all the candor of BP executives.

No matter. It is what it is (as the kids say these days).

Honestly, they've reached the pinnacle of absurdity with this.

By "this," we mean the entire mess:

The Great Pierogie Purge of 2010 ... the Double-Secret Probation Contract Extensions for Neal Huntington and John Russell ... the tepid return on trades ... the Aki Iwamura Fiasco ... the botched free-agent signings ... the continual front office blundering ... the lack of vision ... the 25-44 record ... the organizational transparency of Kim il-Jong ... the perennial .392 winning percentage ... the 17 years -- going on 18 -- of losing, absurdity and the ongoing tack record of poor decision-making on and off the field.

In any case ... like Bob Nutting and Capt. Louis Reynaud, Joey Porter's Pit Bulls are "Shocked -- Shocked! -- to discover incompetence in this organization."

Other than that, everything's been great the past 17 years. The ballpark's nice, and the food is good. The team's won two in a row, and the Bucs finally have some good young talent to build upon. In fact, quite a few players on the team (and in the minors) are talented, promising and likeable, gosh darn it -- there is much to feel good about.

We're still fans, and we still care. So, we've got that going for us. And it's the first day of summer.

Things are looking up, with better days ahead.