Pirates Got More Than Bargain in Thrift

“Are we good?” “Yeah!”

“How good?” “Real good!”

That postgame locker-room chant may not have the beat of the rock ‘n’ roll clubhouse blare of the 1979 world champion Pittsburgh Pirates, but it’s resounded more than once this brand-new baseball season. And it’s music to the ears of Pirates followers who have fallen on hard times lately, particularly during the nightmare, cocaine-tinged, 57-104 year of 1985 when even the longtime owners, the Galbreath family, threw in the towel.

When the rebuilt Pirates began this season 14-4 it was their best start since 1937, and their 17-6 on the evening of May 1 led the majors for 1988. Pittsburgh’s Fred Rogers, “Mister Rogers” of PBS-TV, threw out the first pitch at the home opener before an unprecedented sold-out-in-advance Three Rivers Stadium crowd and one stadium banner that read: “Can you spell PENNANT?”

Says Syd Thrift, who barely more than two years ago quit his thriving Northern Virginia real-estate business to become general manager and make the Pirates sound again, “We’ve got a long season,” but right now it’s “beautiful.”

Is progress ahead of projections or right on the Thrift timetable?

“To be very honest,” he said over the phone from the West Coast, “we never really had any specific timetable, but I feel we’ve progressed further than I anticipated. Just a little over two years--it’s been a miracle. And I’m not responsible for miracles. My Heavenly Father is.”

Of course, the Almighty had a bit of help from Thrift’s already legendary trading acumen, his knack for developing talent, and assembling staffs of scouts and instructors who are up to the task of putting his baseball-physics principles to optimum use. They’re the same principles he expounded upon at many a clinic during the nine years the former Royals and Athletics executive took away from organized baseball to follow the development of his son, Jim, from high school on to college and minor-league ball.

Whatever, counting last season’s 27-11 closing rush to a fourth-place tie (80-82) in the NL East, the Pirates began this week having won 44 of their last 61.

Much of the 24-player roster came via trades, but the likes of Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla and Jose Lind were Class A Prince William (Va.) Pirates as recently as 1985; John Smiley as recently as 1986.

“There’s no team in baseball that has any better athletes than the Pittsburgh Pirates,” Manager Jim Leyland told reporters after NBC-TV shuffled its pre-set “Game of the Week” schedule a week ago Saturday to give the Pirates their first national exposure since 1985. “These guys have a chance to be real quality players and I’m glad for their sake and the city’s sake some people got a chance to see them play.”

And a lot of observers believe that no team in baseball has any better manager than Leyland. Thrift picked him out of the Chicago White Sox third-base coaching box just after Thrift was tapped in November 1985 by the new corporate-civic ownership coalition to resurrect--thriftily--a franchise on the brink of removal from the city it has inhabited for a century. Ever since, for Pittsburgh fandom, Leyland’s been their guy, even through a 64-98 first year while the rebuilding geared up.

One of the cornerstones of that rebuilding program is catcher Mike “Spanky” LaValliere, the roly-poly little man whose throwing, glove work and handling of a young pitching staff won him a 1987 Gold Glove. It was a bonus when he also hit .300, but evidently no fluke.

He drilled a two-run single to pull out a 5-4 victory on the national telecast, part of a surge of 14 hits in 19 times up that moved him into the National League lead at .412 before he tailed off.

LaValliere reminds old-timers of Smoky Burgess, the similarly portly left-handed, line-drive hitting catcher of the 1960 world champion Pirates. Others of the blooming-as-a-bunch Pirates conjure up other Pirates of the halcyon days. You want “athletes”? Lean, lithe Lind looks nothing like the compact Bill Mazeroski, but the faithful are sure Lind can play second like no one since. And for Marv Albert, on NBC-TV’s pre-game show, Lind jumped over the dome of an erect Joe Garagiola.

Cleanup hitter Bonilla (a 1983 Alexandria, Va., Duke) in fact brings not one but a couple of Pirates greats to mind. Bonilla plays with the flair and gusto of Roberto Clemente and, at 6 feet 3, 230 pounds, has begun to pound the long ball like Willie Stargell. What’s more, off a hip-level, cha-cha style batting windup as distinctive as Stargell’s windmill, he does it from either side of the plate (once last year and once more this year, he homered left-handed and right-handed in a game)--and, in his switch from outfield to everyday third baseman, is improving as a fielder by leaps and bounds.

Left fielder Bonds is a natural out of the mold of his dad, Bobby Bonds, and strong-armed center fielder Andy Van Slyke can do it all--witness their ascension to the elite 20-20 (homers and stolen bases) club last season. Darnell Coles and R.J. Reynolds, sharing time in right field, have been producing game-winning RBI regularly. First baseman Sid Bream led the league in April doubles.

The pitching staff took a sub-3.00 ERA into May, with ex-Yankees Doug Drabek and Brian Fisher, ex-Cardinal Mike Dunne and ex-free agent Bob Walk anchoring the rotation and with ex-Giants Jeff Robinson and Jim Gott as good a pair of closers as you’ll find.

And now there is a left-hander converted from relief, Smiley, to join all those right-handed starters. Pitching coach Ray Miller--who was so successful guiding the Baltimore pitching staff before his stint as Minnesota Twins manager--has taught Smiley some offspeed stuff to go with his potent fastball.

“Ray Miller,” says Thrift, “has been an immeasurable help. . . . Of course, our knowledge of the aerodynamics of a baseball in flight helps. But you need someone to impart the knowledge so that the pitchers can use it to their maximum efficiency.”