Kovacevic: Should have been a game here tonight ... but who cares, right?

"Beautiful day," this guy said, turning to his buddy on what legitimately was a beautiful day here in our little corner of the world. "Wouldn't it have been nice for a wild card game?"

Hm. Honestly hadn't occurred to me.

But it was around 5:30 p.m., the sun was setting over the West End Bridge, and I took a ride over to PNC Park to snap the pic above. No particular reason. Nothing too powerful. Just did it on a whim.

There was no baseball happening, of course. Nothing, really. Might as well have been a graveyard.

And that, unless I'm missing something in the broader scope, seems to be just swell with the biggest portion of the public. You know, because wild card games can be painful and no one wants to go through that again, as if that's somehow relevant toward the pursuit of a sixth World Series championship.



It's also OK with the front office of this franchise. And that's not even a criticism. It's demonstrable fact. Bob Nutting, Frank Coonelly and Neal Huntington had every chance last winter to add to a starting rotation that had two known commodities. They instead swapped out Neil Walker for a $10 million bust in Jon Niese, waited until the dumpster-diving phase of free agency to add a 38-year-old washup in Ryan Vogelsong, kickoff off an experiment to convert a two-pitch reliever in Juan Nicasio, then reinstated Jeff Locke after he'd been demoted the previous winter.

Why?

Lack of appreciation for winning can generate additional revenue?

That's on Nutting.

Lack of an intelligently negotiated local television contract?

That, the costliest financial mistake in franchise history, is on Coonelly.

Lack of courage or conviction?

That, as ever, is on the relentlessly meek Huntington.

These three gentlemen, together, traded away Francisco Liriano for a 25-year-old non-prospect with no out pitch, and they threw in two top-10 prospects to ensure the Blue Jays would pick up all of Liriano's salary this year and next. And Liriano took the mound in Toronto last night as the hero in a wild card game that generated so much attention across Canada and, no doubt, so much additional revenue down the road that the Jays could remain an American League power for years.

Not having a salary cap excuses this reprehensible behavior?

Not seeing Liriano's best for a couple of months justifies a trade so heinous that even other teams around Major League Baseball were put off that the commissioner allowed it?

There could have been a game here tonight.

Easily.

These Pirates, and I'm talking about the ones at field level, overcame the hibernating offseason and the deliberate regression at the trade deadline to the point they were six games over .500 on the 28th of August. Had they competed at just barely over .500 the rest of the way, they'd have been playing rather than one of the Giants or Mets. They might even have been hosting.

And that doesn't bother most people, even some who profess to be diehard fans?

Wow. I mean, wow.

Anyway, you've heard all this before. Just had a moment today and thought I'd share.

Nothing will change about the Pirates until Pittsburgh takes its team back. I've written this before, and I've spoken it directly to Nutting: This 130-year-old team is a civic institution, a civic trust. It's not his or any individual's to truly own. It's part of this city. It's like the symphony or the opera, like our Courthouse or other historic structures, like our iconic Fountain.

Like the legend of this eternal figure, who also stood sadly alone on this night ...