Dave Littlefield's reign of terror in Pittsburgh has come to an end! Pirates owner Bob Nutting announced this morning that he's fired Littlefield after leading the team to their seventh losing season on his watch (and 15th in a row). From the Post-Gazette:"After eight months of listening and analyzing the situation, it has become clear that this decision was necessary to move our organization forward," Nutting said. "While there are many bright spots for us to build from, I am not satisfied with the overall performance and progress that has been made. I'm committed to building a successful organization, and this is an important step in that process."I'm not even a Pirates fan but I have to ask, what took so long? Littlefield has had a moment of triumph or two over the years, but by and large his career has been marked with mistake after mistake (after mistake ...). Yet, against all reason, he was actually given an extension on opening day of last year, which means Nutting will be paying Littlefield to do nothing through 2008.
Nutting announced that Brian Graham, the team's director of player development, would take over for Littlefield on an interim basis, though a search for a permanent replacement will begin shortly. If all goes according to plan, the Pirates should head into 2008 with a lot of new faces in the front office, as the team is also searching for a new CEO to replace Kevin McClatchy.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-07-2007 @ 2:28PM
Raeanne Ponzo said...
Thank goodness! As a longtime Pirate fan, it's been hell watching them lose over the past years. I was at the NL playoff series against Atlanta and it's been long overdue to get rid of the mess in the organization. Hopefully, this will be the start of something good......AGAIN!
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9-07-2007 @ 3:04PM
Ralph Smith said...
Littlefield is not the problem. Just imagine the NBA, NFL or USA track without any minority participants. The MLB is a joke with very little major talent available. All the GM`s can do is roll the dice. All i had to do is Look at the team picture to predict dome for the last 10 years.
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9-07-2007 @ 4:10PM
john said...
I don't know too much about the Nutting/Littlefield relationship, but if my major waiver pick up was Josh Phelps and he stepped into my 3-4 batting order and also picking up battered Matt Morris.my question is????Did Nutting ever give Littlefield any$$$$ to work with? it sounds like anybody who steps into that position will fail???I think Littlefield is either a dumb baseball GM or he was a smart milk the owner for $ GM...someone please enhance me or tell me the real truth what went on...because the Pirates are doing nothing good for baseball.
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9-07-2007 @ 9:04PM
George B Vieto said...
Bob Nutting either didn't fire David Littlefield either because Bob didn't want to eat the contract or he decided to sock it to the Pirate fans playing them for fools.
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9-10-2007 @ 7:20PM
Terri Middleton said...
I am hoping that Bob Nutting is looking at the success of Milwaukee and going after Jack Zduriencik. His name definitely should be in tyhe ring of "hopeful contenders for GM". I am a Full season ticket holder and I think it would give us some confidence with PROVEN ABILITY.
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