It's pretty easy to come down hard on the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Alongside the Devil Rays, Orioles, Atlanta Hawks, and Arizona Cardinals, they are more than a decade and counting for losing seasons in major professional sports.  Heck, one could come down on them, as did Colin, for announcing their manager on the same day the Dodgers will announce the arrival of Joe Torre.  To boot, the Steelers play a division foe tonight (as an aside, I can't stand Colin and Salisbury's editorials on the Ravens.  I guess if you aren't an affiliate, it's okay to make grandiose statements.  I guess they've never heard of streaming).  So the Pirates aren't even going to be the biggest story in their own town.

One could also come down hard on the Pirates for their choice in manager.  Perhaps this Russell fellow is a competent guy.  Perhaps he's worth a few victories.  I tend to believe that managers have some impact, but not a double digit win impact.  There are anomalies such as Bob Melvin (a good anomaly) and Sam Perlozzo (a bad anomaly).  For the most part, the manager is interchangeable.  If Joe Torre or Eric Wedge managed the Red Sox during the playoffs, they probably still win the World Series.  Whether they get to the playoffs with a different manager is a worthwhile debate (Which I'd welcome in the comments).

Do most fans believe my assertion to be true?  Probably not.  Hey, I'm all for firing an incompetent boob.  Costing a team games is worse than just happening to manage a bad team.  I'm not sure Jim Tracy was costing the Pirates any games, but the fanbase, at some point, does come to believe it.  So why replace Tracy with someone who was on a losing staff?  If the manager was the problem, shouldn't you go out and make a splash?  Probably, but then again, Lou Piniella was an expensive non-factor in Tampa.  As I said, I see both sides to this story, and could be swayed either way.

Real quick though, on to today's egregious error.  Colin Cowherd declared that "The Pittsburgh Pirates have been lousy for 25 years."  2007-25=1982.    Six winning seasons in that time.  Three division titles.  It's nothing to write home about, but it's an exaggeration to say that they have been lousy for 25 years. 

With 2.4 million being the high water mark, an inferior roster, and an unproven manager, the last thing this team needs to have piling on them is people believing that this team has been awful for more than a generation.