Cannon Firing Line
The Proof Is In The Photos
By Ellis G. Cannon
PSR Publisher & ESPN Radio 1250 Talk Show Host

It's enjoyable to think of the mundane in an unusual way. But even by my standards, finding that some Pittsburgh Pirates' fans and certain Iraqi citizens have something in common was a stretch.

Then Brooks Robinson was traded.

After that, it all became clear.

Go back to the days after photographs of Saddam Hussein's sons were released and consider the reaction of many Iraqis. Many scoffed they were the brothers. Others described them as pure fiction. The reasons were many, but after fostering mistrust for years, they weren't about to believe anybody.

Move ahead to the reaction of many Pirates' fans in the days following the collection of trades involving Mike Williams, Scott Sauerbeck, Ken Lofton and Aramis Ramirez. The fallout, considered by pundits as extreme as any ever seen here, reminded us of the reaction in Iraq.

Not just the disbelief part, rather the utter distrust coming from the Pirates' fans.

To hear the locals describe it, we shouldn't be surprised by this reaction, even if they were presumably put on notice an honest-to-goodness rebuilding may be around the corner. To them, we're the oddballs for even questioning their reaction, because, of course, they have been lied to and basically cheated by the Pirates management.

Let's be clear, these people aren't saying the trades made them feel cheated. No, they're saying they have been cheated as a result of a deliberate, calculated and intentional plan going all the way back to the pre-PNC Park days.

Not casual lying. Criminal lying.

No wonder they mistrust what the Pirates 'did' to them. Ditto for the Iraqis who won't believe the photos. You been lied to enough by a regime Ð either by political totalitarianism or major league baseball ownership Ð and you get trained to think this way.

Fact is, this type of reaction, fostered more in self-pity than deception, has become a bit of a problem around here, in spite of what sport it is. It's becoming an epidemic. 'Woe is us' for this, 'Woe is us' for that. The refs screwed us on the Joe Nedney re-kick, major league baseball is out to get us and how could Mario play for Canada?

Sadly, this isn't ending soon. Not until an exorcism takes place to rid so many of the whining and near paranoia apparently consuming them. It better happen soon; a couple bad calls against the Steelers may stir anarchy.

Please tell me this picture is wrong. That it doesn't represent the local average sports fan. That the irrationality doesn't represent us. That fans knew what they meant when they kept calling for the Pirates to 'burn it down'. That media just held up a mirror to fans and wasn't acting like fans themselves.

There are valid reasons to be disappointed the Pirates even have to explore dismantling. Some people rightfully believe this orchestration by David Littlefield is the same music, just a different dance. The Pirates are vulnerable, courtesy of a bit of overselling themselves when the stadium funding battle was in full rage, not to mention a series of PR missteps.

But there's a big difference between that and going Iraqi.

The reconstituting of the Pirates really boils down to whether or not fans trust Littlefield. If people don't, fine. They have that prerogative after years of abuse, albeit many before Littlefield arrived. There's no problem with them stepping aside. The problem is with the folks who say they've done so, but really haven't. They've not gotten it out of their system, so they call every talk show in town airing their persecution complex. Their rage goes back years, some of it valid, some of obsessive. In short, while they were sounding off about Brooks, it was much deeper.

Still, the reaction was disturbing.

First, it's questionable if the premise of the reaction is true. To accept it is to also accept the Pirates' management intentionally sabotaged itself. That seems like a stretch. Somehow, that leads to fans being deceived because the Series isn't being held here this October, when, in reality, PNC Park was built to keep the Pirates in town. The hope was the Bucs would be more competitive as well, but competitive should have been the height of fans' expectations until even a couple .500 seasons were put together. But fans heard things were going to get better, were victimized by bad decisions, and the next thing you know the fans' thirst went dry.

Then Brooks got traded and the outrage was on. Perhaps fans believed Ramirez was a symbol of progress and trading him represented a betrayal to that progress. That's OK, except it flew in the face of their relationship with him and assumed conclusively Littlefield has no big picture vision. This from many who have openly disavowed the sport and presumably don't have the capacity to evaluate his industry or vision or trades.

Rational discussion, and frustration, was warranted. It was also reasonable to demand the Pirates figure out a way to get this mess straightened out like teams in other similarly-sized markets that have just as many hurdles but manage. Those hurdles are no different than any other similarly sized market. They all have the same reduced margin for error compared to the larger markets. The problems inherent in the Pirates' situation is not limited to the Pirates, it just seems that way because everyone keeps repeating it to each other around here.

This view, of course, is not 'right'. It's better to play into the small-market be doomed scenario, the inevitability of failure forecast, etc. It's better to rationalize if it's not right for Pittsburgh, it's wrong. There's no value to offering rebuilding should be judged as a video and not a snapshot, that finances do play a role and that even the best of plans may still not work out.

No, that would require putting aside the palpable mistrust that exists here.

That would require you to believe the photos.

Ellis Cannon is also a regular contributor on the '#1 Cochran Sports Showdown', aired Sundays at 11:35 on KDKA-TV.