Management of the Pirates Realizes the Importance of the Print Media

In contrast, they miss the newspapers here. Then again, the Pirates have something good that’s being hidden rather than something sour that can’t be hidden.

The Pittsburgh papers have been on strike since May and the nuance of a good season has been a well-kept secret.

“I love to pick up the papers in the morning with a cup of coffee, a cigarette and my wife on the porch,” Pirates Manger Jim Leyland lamented. “It don’t get any better than that.”

In East Rutherford, at Giants Stadium, it’s not so sweet. As much as Ray Handley would like to hide himself and the disintegration of the New York Giants, he can’t. But he tries. He’ll talk to the press twice a week for 20 or 30 minutes and two days for 10 minutes. No players on Friday and maybe not on Wednesdays--and the other days are merely difficult.

“I’d consider that policy very dangerous,” Pirates General Manger Ted Simmons said Thursday.

Of course, Simmons’ team is in the National League Championship Series and he has seats to sell for Sunday, and maybe the World Series and certainly for next season.

Leyland is a generous man and a perceptive man who knows about struggling to pay the rent himself. He says he feels sorry for the baseball writer who spent his time in the trenches and doesn’t get to cover the playoffs and the World Series. It is a mixed bag at best, but it is the showcase.

“People say to me, ‘I bet it’s nice not to get the criticism,’ ” Leyland said. “I think more people miss seeing something nice about them in the papers. They may say they don’t; that’s bull.”

Simmons’ view and Handley’s view of the media’s role and how to use it differ. Handley’s team is growing old, and the disdain for him is clear, but the Giants haven’t had to sell a ticket since 1958.

In Pittsburgh, attendance is off 200,000 while the Pirates have won their third successive division championship. “We’re working very hard to take a small market and get people to the ballpark,” Simmons said.

Bill Bradley, in his book “Life on the Run,” accurately called the relationship of media and athlete “a waltz.” Neither partner moves as well without the other.

The Pirates’ pitcher Friday night, Tim Wakefield, is one of their bright stories. “And I can’t tell the people about him in the newspaper,” Simmons said.

Football coaches are nurtured in places like Norman, Okla., and Eugene, Ore., where the coach rules players and media almost equally. Handley blames the irrepressible New York print in particular for asking things he doesn’t want addressed. He wants the press to get with his program.

He doesn’t understand he doesn’t have Norman or Eugene. He can’t manipulate the footballs between Jeff Hostetler and Phil Simms, and he can’t hide fading players. He is unequipped to deal with the questioning press. So he tries to shut it all out.

And George Young, a perceptive general manager who misread Handley’s big-city acumen, can’t override the coach entirely without effectively dismissing him.

If the Giants were winning, Handley might be able to bully his way through; but then if the Giants were a better team, he wouldn’t have to deal with so many negatives.

Even the Mets have managed to wet the blanket of a public relations dream by coddling, hiding and misdirecting players, and preventing them from growing into their situation.

Jeff Torborg, who didn’t learn as much from the Billy Martin experience as he thought, wasn’t prepared for questioners who found out things he didn’t want them to know. He said he understood that the questioners had a job to do but proceeded to reveal he didn’t understand that job. His attempts to sugarcoat worked to the detriment of him and his team.

The spring-training silence was foolish and several players wanted to continue it. Management should have helped them understand it was easier to deal with than deny the facts of life.

“People don’t understand the competitiveness of New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Los Angeles newspapers,” Simmons said. “When I got older I understood better.”

That failure will be Handley’s undoing, and Young should have known better before Handley was hired.

Simmons was a very good player over a long career. He also knows how to read. “Players like to be stroked,” he said. “I liked to be stroked. I want my Pirates in the papers every day. So do the Steelers and the Penguins. I’d like it to be flattering; if it’s negative and justified, I understand.”

Some players think it’s an unreasonable rip when they read they left two runners on third base in a one-run loss. Almost all of them prefer the TV cameras that come around after a good day and throw up softball questions to go with the smiling face. The print reporters ask the embarrassing questions.

Leyland likes to tell the story about the TV interviewer who noticed the Pirates’ struggle to find a leadoff man a couple of years ago and suggested that Leyland use John Cangelosi at shortstop and bat him first. “His peers are laughing their butts off, but I tried not to laugh,” Leyland said. “I simply explained we don’t normally put left-handers at shortstop.”

Once a player came to him furious at what had been written, and Leyland pointed out the story was all facts. “I respect people who can have a critical opinion without using a guillotine,” Leyland said. He deals with the ax-wielders, too. Part of his secret of success is his willingness to accept the newspaper realities.

“Most players don’t understand,” Simmons said. “If they did, it would be a hell of a lot more pleasant in the clubhouse.”

Leyland’s team finished the workout. “I hope I can get back in the house, down two games to none,” he said. “I may have to get a park bench and a newspaper. The bench will be easier to find than the newspaper.”