New season dawns for Pirates
BRADENTON, Fla. — Derek Shelton stood beyond third base on Field 1 of Pirate City’s sprawling baseball campus on Monday morning, a fungo bat slung over his left shoulder. Surrounding the new Pirates manager were first base coach Tarrik Brock, third base coach Joey Cora and special assistant Grady Little.
As the four men chatted while waiting for players to arrive, the drums playing over the sound system intensified, signifying the start of Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy.”
At home drawing pictures. Of mountain tops.
With him on top.
Although you’d never know it because he traverses the fields here with equal parts quiet and cool, Shelton, a first-time MLB manager, spent Monday — for the Pirates’ first full-squad workout — atop his own personal mountain, at long last reaching a moment he had fantasized about for years.
Before assuming this spot near third, and for the first time since becoming manager, Shelton addressed the entire team at once, delivering the traditional, startthis-thing-right address. Those who heard the message said it hit the same themes Shelton has been hammering since Day 1.
Be intentional with your work. But also make sure you have some fun while doing it.
“He wants us to take care of our business, go out on the field and compete and bring everything we’ve got,” shortstop Kevin Newman said.
Added pitcher Chad Kuhl: “It feels like everybody is in a good spot, ready to go.”
That much was reinforced throughout the Pirates’ workout, held on a picture-perfect spring training day: about 75 degrees, sunsplashed, the type of thing where you feel like you’re getting away with something simply by standing there.
Shelton’s energy and the tone he wanted to set were evident from start to finish. During infield practice, Shelton chided Kuhl when another special assistant, Jamey Carroll, sneaked a ball through a hole on the left side of the infield.
“Chad, we’re going to need better pitches from you if Jamey Carroll is getting RBIs off of you,” Shelton shouted from near that same third base bag. During other drills,
Shelton fell in line with his players, making small talk and cracking jokes. At one point, Shelton functioned as a runner at third base, threatening to score. Shelton never made it home. “I had the tendency to not get to home plate a lot in my career,” the former catcher said. “It’s hard when you’re catching in the bullpen to actually get to third base.”
Once the outfielders finished their work, Gregory Polanco came sauntering around the back of the batting cage on Field 1 and joked with a few fans.
“Josh! Josh!” others screamed from the same spot, luring first baseman Josh Bell — snapping throws with his new three-quarters motion — over to sign a few autographs in between drills.
On another field, Pirates owner Bob Nutting chatted with president Travis Williams and general manager Ben Cherington about 6foot-7 shortstop Oneil Cruz.
“They asked what it meant to be that tall and play that position,” Cherington later explained. “I said, ‘I don’t know. It’s new for me, too.’”
Newness was a consistent theme of the day, because of Cruz, because
of Nutting, Williams and Cherington together, because of Shelton and because of it all. There’s a sense of rejuvenation around the Pirates, said Steve Rogers, a 43-year-old Canonsburg native who has lived in Apollo Beach — about a 40-minute drive from Bradenton — since 2015.
“You can tell they’re making changes and changing the culture,” he said. “I like what they’re doing so far.”
But Rogers also works in manufacturing. He has lived in Wisconsin, Illinois, California, Arizona and Florida, and he’s paid to evaluate — and eventually improve — manufacturing plants.
The Pirates are productive, Rogers said, though they’re not yet running at full capacity.
“It’s going to take time,” Rogers said.
Hopefully, not much of it, added Nancy Gordon, Rogers’ mom.
“I want to see a pennant,” Nancy said. “It’s been way too long. I watched the Pirates at Forbes Field. I saw [Roberto] Clemente play. It’s been too long.”
Nancy was a season ticket holder until she moved down here in 2018.
“I’m not going [to PNC Park] if they just give us bobbleheads,” she said. “I don’t want a damn bobblehead. I want a pennant.”
Tom Blahut said what happened on Day 1 “seems like a different atmosphere.” An 81-year-old retired Postal Service employee who relocated here from Wexford, Blahut has been coming to spring training for the past 26 years.
This one, Blahut said, felt decidedly different.
“New management. New outlook. New way of thinking,” he said. “You have to respect what they’re doing.”
Dick Astor saw something else worth noting. Astor is 70 and now retired from his job as superintendent in the Conneaut School District. On Monday morning, he made the hour drive from his home in Englewood, Fla., where he has rented a place for the past five years, because he wanted to see what might be different with Shelton and company.
Astor didn’t hear Shelton’s speech, nor did he probably think about the Pirates’ work being more intentional. But he did seem to notice the fun, upbeat environment that has already been cultivated by the new group in charge, specifically the Pearl Jam nut in Shelton who often hangs on Eddie Vedder’s every word.
“I saw Travis Williams a little bit ago mingling with fans,” Astor said. “I give that guy a lot of credit for doing that after the year we had. But I think it’s a good sign, a positive sign. Let’s hope the trend continues.”
At one point during the workout, Shelton flagged down Cherington — “BC,” Shelton called him — to check something, one of a handful of conversations they had throughout the day. The bond between those two has been evident, the same as it’s been between Shelton and bench coach Don Kelly.
“Between the two of us, he’s the orator,” Cherington said later. “I’ll happily let him have that moniker. He’s good. He’s comfortable in that sandbox.”
And, apparently, on a baseball field, atop his own personal mountain.