DUNEDIN, Fla. -- They were all here in the good times for the Pirates. All were here and there -- to varying degrees -- during the present bad times.

Now they are back in roles where they can have an impact on trying to get the Pirates back to the good times.

Rich Donnelly, from Steubenville, Ohio, has been a Pirates fan virtually all his life and a Pirates employee for a good part of that life, including as a coach during the run of three consecutive division championships won by the Pirates in the early 1990s.

After coaching stints with Florida, Colorado, Milwaukee and Los Angeles, he's now a player development advisor.

Gary Varsho was a key role player on the division championship teams in 1991 and '92. After managing in the Seattle minor league system, managing in Philadelphia's organization, coaching for the Phillies and working in Cleveland's farm system, he's now the Pirates' bench coach.

And Tony Beasley played six seasons in the Pirates minor league system beginning in 1992, then became a highly successful manager in the team's minor league system. He was gone for a season in 2006 to be the Washington Nationals' third base coach under manager Frank Robinson before returning to the Pirates as a minor league infield coordinator last season. He's now the Pirates' third base coach.

All would love to be part of a Pirates resurgence that would return this team to what it was like back in the day.

"It would make me feel good if we can get these players to feel like we did when we were here [in the early '90s]," Donnelly said. "I think that was the greatest feeling I've ever had in baseball."

Even with the heartbreak on that October night in Atlanta in 1992, a heartbreak that in some ways has been ongoing throughout 15 consecutive losing seasons.

"I think when you lose over a period of time, you fall into the mode of, 'Well, here we go again,' " Beasley said. "We have to get rid of that and start believing that we can do something good."

That's hard, though. Real hard. How does this team rekindle the good feelings of the early '90s? And the '70s? And '60s? And the early 1900s?

"I think before you can have pride in an organization, you have to learn about it," Donnelly said. "I'm an 'A' student in Pirate history. I think the new people [in management] want these kids to know what happened here and how neat it was."

Management has brought several former Pirates into the organization in the past few months, including Chuck Tanner, Sid Bream and Carlos Garcia, and had Steve Blass speak to the major and minor league players early this spring.

The walls of the cafeteria in the refurbished minor league complex are adorned with pictures of Blass, Bream, Garcia, Barry Bonds, Kent Tekulve, Bill Virdon, Bill Mazeroski and Roberto Clemente.

"It's pretty neat to see those pictures," Donnelly said. "Someday, we hope, they'll move those pictures and put up pictures of the guys that are here now."

Donnelly, Beasley and Varsho can be part of that happening because they're part of manager John Russell's commitment to detail and teaching.

"We need to be fundamentally sound -- in bunting, baserunning, the teaching part of the game," Varsho said. "Guys have been in the classroom more often than not. There's a point of emphasis behind everything we do.

"Is it hard work? Yes. We have to get that foundation in place so guys understand what needs to be done to give ourselves a chance to win in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. How many wins is that going to amount to? I don't know, but we'll find out."

Nobody in the organization thinks this is going to be easy to accomplish. There are no quick fixes when a team has had 15 consecutive losing seasons.

"It's tough, no doubt about it," Beasley said. "Winning and losing are contagious. It would be a beautiful thing if we could start the season off on a good note and get a few wins under our belt and get guys feeling good about what we're capable of doing. Then they start to expect that to happen consistently. ...

"The first thing is, we have to get back to playing solid baseball. We have to play the game a little bit better. The way we run the bases is going to be an important factor this season. I think we have to manufacture runs. We have to find a way to score one more run."

Last season, the Pirates were 57-35 when they scored at least four runs in a game. When they scored three or less, they were 11-59.

"We have to play the game hard," Beasley said. "We have to respect the game and win the city back with the way we approach the game and represent the city of Pittsburgh and what it stands for."

The current Pirates include many players Beasley managed and/or evaluated in the minor leagues.

"They know that every day I expect to win a ball game," he said. "That's the type of approach I bring to the clubhouse as far as my conversations with players. Hopefully, the winning mindset can come back -- 'Expect to win. Expect something good to happen.' "

There are a lot of reasons why that's important for the Pirates.

Donnelly mentioned one.

"The fans are ready," he said.