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Sunday, August 05, 2001

The saga of the Pirates, who were supposed to have a feel-good rebirth this year entering their new ballpark, seemed to be summed up last week when Armando Rios, a key ingredient in the trade of Jason Schmidt and John Vander Wal, no sooner had been placed in right field when the ligament in his left knee was torn and he was lost for the season.

"It's just one of those years where everything goes wrong, I guess," said bench coach Bill Virdon.

Outside of Bill Mazeroski finally making it to the Hall of Fame, the organization has endured a disappointing, miserable year on the whole.

Kevin McClatchy alluded to it after the bottled water flap, which roiled during an atrocious start after the bittersweet christening of PNC Park -- the best new ballpark in baseball opening the same day Willie Stargell died.

"It's seems like there's been a cloud hanging over us all year," McClatchy said.

General Manager Dave Littlefield has triggered his first trades to bring in young arms that will help the team build with pitching, but he'll have a challenging off-season of internal housekeeping and finding the right impact veterans with the payroll saved by the trades.

Lloyd McClendon was tested mightily after the Pirates fell 23 games under .500 nine days in early June, but now his clubhouse has lost some veteran grit that was dealt away to bring in new talent. It didn't help that Rios went down on the night Schmidt limited his former team to one hit in seven innings.

"We're picking up the pieces from that," McClendon said. "We have to keep plugging away. Adversity has a tendency to bring out your true character.

"The No. 1 thing we have to do is get healthy. It should be interesting to see what happens when we get a healthy [Kris] Benson, a healthy [Francisco] Cordova, a healthy Adrian Brown, a healthy Mike Benjamin, a healthy [Jose] Silva, a healthy Jason Kendall. The guy who I thought we were going to miss the most was our starting center fielder and lead off hitter," McClendon said. "The first half of the season, I'd spend the first half hour in my office trying to figure out a lineup. My garbage can would be filled with ones that didn't work."

Gone to the dogs

The dog days of August have arrived. The term comes from the late summer appearance of Sirius, also known as the Dog Star, the brightest star that can be seen from the earth at night. But it applies to a baseball team again playing for next year with two months left in the season.

For McClendon, there's plenty of incentive left for a last-place team.

"Guys are playing for jobs for next year," he said. "If guys are tired, shame on them. I don't think that's the case in our locker room."

No-so minor dealings

A trade that seemed minor at the time and drew little attention has paid immediate dividends in the Pirates bullpen.

Nobody took much notice when acting General Manager Roy Smith was able to get Damaso Marte from the Yankees for infielder Enrique Wilson, who never lived up to the intriguing offensive potential he flashed when he was in the Cleveland minor-league system. The Pirates risked letting Wilson go for any team to claim him before Smith worked a deal to get something in return.

Marte, called up on June 22, has been scored upon just twice in eight appearances. In his past two appearances covering nearly seven innings, including an impressive stint Friday night at hitter-friendly Coors Field, Marte is unscored upon and has allowed just four hits with six strikeouts and no walks. Opponents are hitting .188 against him.

While Marte has some learning and seasoning ahead of him, McClendon figures it might be time to test him in more important roles than long relief and mop-up.

"The more I see of the young man, the more I like," McClendon said. "Certainly, he's earned the opportunity to pitch in more important situations. We need to see more of him."

Part of the game

Trades are an occupational reality, even if they cause disruptions in personal lives.

After four Pirates were dealt this week, catching instructor Russ Nixon recalled the time he was traded to the same team twice in the same year.

It was 1960, and Nixon was dealt from Cleveland to Boston for Sammy White and Jim Marshall.

"I packed the family up and moved to Boston, but after two days, White decided to retire. Ford Frick was the commissioner, and he nullified the deal after I sat around for two weeks and couldn't play in a game," Nixon said.

The worst part was Boston had given him a $5,000 raise -- the largest raise Nixon had ever gotten -- then demanded it back when he shipped back to Cleveland.

But later that year, on June 15, Boston swung another deal to acquire Nixon.

And the money? It took some doing, but Nixon got the $5,000 anyway.

Home, sweet home

After today, 29 of the final 52 games will be played at home. And McClendon had this to say about what will be a record year in attendance: "I have no complaints when it comes to our fans. They've supported us. It just proves me right. The only thing they want is good, hard, clean baseball."