Coonelly Bucking His Past to Improve Pirates’ Future
By Murray Chass
January 25, 2009
Frank Coonelly has been given a mandate to manufacture miracles. He was hired a year ago as the president of the Pittsburgh Pirates, a team that hasn’t had a winning season since 1992, and one does not seem to be coming in the foreseeable future.
The 48-year-old Coonelly is operating from a unique perspective. He didn’t come to the Pirates from a front office job with another team. His baseball experience came in the commissioner’s office as general counsel in the labor relations department. He negotiated collective bargaining agreements and guided clubs in their decisions on salaries they should pay players.
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You Get What You Pay For
By Murray Chass
January 21, 2009
Some day, some year, some decade the National Football League Players Association may get it right, but it apparently won’t be this year. The players are searching for a new executive director to replace the late Gene Upshaw, and they are looking in the wrong place.
According to a recent column by William Rhoden in The New York Times, the union had been focusing on eight candidates. That number was then reduced to seven. Six are former players; the seventh is the chief executive of a gas and electric company. That’s right he’s management, just what the N.F.L. players need heading into negotiations for a new labor agreement.
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To Play Or Not To Play
By Murray Chass
January 18, 2009
Cole Hamels, Roy Halladay and Brandon Webb would form a strong nucleus of a starting pitching rotation. Jake Peavy, Roy Oswalt and John Lackey aren’t a bad trio either.
The pitchers in the second group are on the provisional roster of Team USA for the World Baseball Classic. The pitchers in the first group could have been on the roster but said no, thank you, to their invitations from USA Baseball, the governing body of United States participation in international baseball tournaments.
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