Once upon a time, the Pittsburgh Pirates were one of the proudest franchises in all of baseball. They've been around for well over 100 years, have won nine Pennants, and five World Series titles. Over the course of their history, the Pirates have rostered several legends of the game including Honus Wagner, Willie Stargel, and Roberto Clemente.
Clemente is the most recognizable Pirate in their history, and for good reason. He was just about as good as anybody on and off the field. For that, his number 21 is retired, and the right field wall at PNC Park is known as the Clemente Wall. Or, at least it was.
WOW………….. https://t.co/qcL1O6zPZ2
— Roberto Clemente Jr (@RClementejr21) April 5, 2025
The Pirates inexplicably removed a logo with Clemente's name and number off of that iconic right field wall and replaced it with an advertisement. Clemente's son made sure to make his outrage known on X. Stunts like this are why younger fans might not believe that the Pirates were once a proud franchise, and it has Bob Nutting written all over it.
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Bob Nutting's greed reaches new heights with Clemente logo removal
I mean, what're we doing here? I understand that as an owner, Nutting would like to make some money, but this is outrageous. He really removed the Clemente logo only to replace it with a random Surfside advertisement?
If Nutting did that and then spent the kind of money he'd bring in from the advertisement on the team, it'd still be a bad look, but at least it'd be done with the franchise in mind. Knowing Nutting, though, the opposite will occur. The money will be made, but it's tough to envision him re-investing any of it.
Under Nutting, the Pirates haven't done much spending whatsoever. The Pirates have ranked in the bottom five in the sport in luxury tax payroll every year since 2018. They've ranked in the bottom 10 every year since 2011. Sure, the Pirates haven't had the best front offices, but a big reason they've made the postseason just three times in the 18 years Nutting has owned the team is because of his frugalness.
If there was ever an offseason for Nutting to spend, it would've been this past one. The Pirates have Paul Skenes, Jared Jones, and Mitch Keller locked in for several years, and needed to bolster their offense and bullpen to be serious contenders. Their payroll wound up going down (somehow) from where it was last season, and the team has unsurprisingly started the 2025 campaign by going 2-6 as of this writing.
What's abundantly clear is it's unlikely that the Pirates will ever be serious under Nutting's ownership. Tone-deaf shenanigans like the Clemente logo removal only partly explain why Pirates fans went out of their way to tell Nutting to sell the team at their Home Opener.