Dave Littlefield Is Fired: SWEET RELIEF!!!

In the midst of all the steroid/HGH garbage that's been going on in baseball today, which has been a real downer, there has been one incredible high point that's let me get through the day. As Matt told you earlier, Dave Littlefield has been fired as GM of the Pittsburgh Pirates. I don't know if I can quantify how happy this makes me. Let me try.

In 2001 Cam Bonifay was fired in early June from his position as Pirates' GM. On Baseball Tonight that evening (this was way back when BBTN was cool, mind you), Peter Gammons looked right into the camera and said, "Cam Bonifay has dug the Pirates into a hole so deep, it will take until 2006 to dig them out of it, no matter who the GM is," (OK, I'm paraphrasing a bit, I don't have a memory that good). It's 2007 and the Pirates are arguably worse off now than they were in 2001 when Littlefield took the job. They're a perennial 73 win team at the major league level and at the minor league level they have somewhere between zero and two legitimate prospects.

And that's where the torture for us Pirate fans has lain in the past six years. Littlefield constantly did nothing to improve the team, often did things to make the team worse (Aramis Ramirez and Kenny Lofton for Bobby Hill and Jose Hernandez, turning down Ryan Howard for Kris Benson and getting Ty Wigginton instead, making terrible, senseless draft picks, I could go on but I won't). Instead of getting fired, his reward has consistently been a contract extension on or near Opening Day.

Will firing Littlefield fix all of the Pirates' problems? It certainly won't, but man, it feels good to know that someone in the front office is making a decision based on baseball. I'm going to have a beer in celebration. If you're a Pirate fan, I hope you'll join me.