Typical Pirates

As if ashamed of announcing they had extended the contract of general manager Neil Huntington, the Pirates "braintrust" waited until about an hour before kickoff of the Steelers' season opener in Baltimore to reveal the news.  It was as if they (owner Bob Nutting and team president Frank Coonelly) wanted to hide the news and sneak it through on a day they knew most Pittsburghers would be focused on the Steelers and the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Even the Pirates, as tone-deaf as they are, had to realize that speculation like this would arise.  If this had been an announcement they wanted to spotlight, they could have waited until tomorrow or even Tuesday.

It's not even the deal itself that's offensive, although three years (plus a club option for year four) seems excessive in the extreme for what Huntington has "accomplished."  It's the way the club handled it:  Sneaky.  This is so-o-o typical of the Pirates' management team, which has all the PR savvy of BP during the company's oil spill off the coast of Louisiana.

We'd like to know when this deal was struck and whether a conscious decision was made to announce it on Steeler Sunday and the 10th anniversary of 9/11. If so, the timing of this announcement reeks of Coonelly's handiwork: surreptitious, sneaky, slimy and smarmy. 

This stinks almost as much as the Steelers "performance" today in Baltimore -- maybe even more so, because it appears so snide, calculating and manipulative. 

It's pathetic, cartoonish and clownish.