Tim Benz: Start of 2022 reminds us of the many weird dynamics that go into being a Pirates fan

Everything about being a Pittsburgh Pirates fan is weird right now.

Who am I kidding? It’s been weird most of my life. I’m 47. Over that time, I can cognitively remember about seven or eight years when I genuinely felt like this franchise had a chance to compete for a championship.

For many of you reading this right now, that number could be cut in half. Yet here we are, still trying to care.

The start of 2022 has been particularly strange. Coming out of covid-19 restrictions only to enter into a labor dispute that delayed the start of the season. Finding ourselves rooting for the work stoppage to continue in order to make baseball’s competitive cost structure change.

Only to be somewhat disappointed when the game started back up since so little had been altered.

The organization immediately played contract hardball with star player Bryan Reynolds over a piddly $600,000. Even though it cobbled together an opening day payroll for its roster that dropped from “next to nothing” to “yup, somehow even less.”

Then, all of the sudden, ownership throws a franchise-record $70 million at third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes.

That was surprising. If anyone was going to shatter the decades-old Jason Kendall franchise record of $60 million over six years he signed back in November 2000, I thought they’d blow past it by way more than that in 2022.

Furthermore, I didn’t think it would be Hayes. I never got the impression he was all that interested in staying in Pittsburgh. Why would he be? I also never got the impression he’d want to do so for what can easily be presented as a team-friendly deal over eight years.

And if the Pirates were going to shell out big dollars on a long-term guaranteed contract, why Hayes instead of Reynolds? Reynolds looks like the better bet to me in terms of being worth the cash. But at least they agreed on a shorter-term, two-year deal for $13.5 million, which is a step in the right direction.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published before the Pirates’ deal with Reynolds was announced late Thursday morning.

Sure. Hayes is always going to be a plus player defensively. But after his recent struggles with injuries and his offensive regression in 2021 (his OPS dipped from 1.124 in 2020 to .689 last year), why did the Pirates go out of their comfort zone and lock him up long term when they’ve been so willing to trade young talent with plenty of good years left?

A lot of it is strange. Not bad in this case. Just, kinda odd.

But then again, so was the whole press conference to announce the deal. With owner Bob Nutting fumbling through Hayes’ baseball biography that he had clearly never read. He and Ben Cherington stumbling over who should speak at what point.

And, my goodness, the pageantry of it all. I mean, the entire Pirates roster and management in the room to announce the deal? I don’t think there was that much pomp and circumstance when the Steelers announced their contract extension with Ben Roethlisberger in 2015.

Maybe there was when the Penguins first brought Sidney Crosby to Pittsburgh after he was drafted in 2005.

Maybe.

It was oddly over the top. But, I get it. When you may only get 55 or 60 wins on the year, make a big win out of something off the field, right? Those victories are even more scarce for the Pirates than “W’s” on it.

Once the press conference started, however, as weird as things may have felt previously, they just got more awkward. Like when Hayes alluded to the Pirates’ “rebuild” while sitting on the stage with Nutting and Cherington when they have been so loathe to use that phrase in public.

“One thing (manager Derek Shelton) told us in spring is, ‘We might be in a so-so, rebuild — or whatever they want to call it — but every day we are going out there to win every single game,’” Hayes said.

It was also interesting how pitcher Wil Crowe rejected that phrase, too, following the Pirates’ 6-2 win a day later over the Chicago Cubs.

“Our key is to win. That ‘rebuild’ crap is annoying to hear. No one wants to hear it. We’re trying to win,” Crowe said.

Let’s not make this all about Hayes’ contract and the front office, though. How about a near-capacity crowd of 34,458 nearly packing PNC Park, despite yet another offseason of every black-and-gold bleeding Yinzer from Washington to Wampum saying they’d never attend another game again?

Only to see attendance plummet to 9,122 on Wednesday. Frankly, I’m stunned it was that many.

Based on the vitriol from the fanbase this offseason, if you had told me in advance that 9,122 was going to be the Opening Day crowd, I would’ve believed you.

I suppose, in a unique way, going to Opening Day in Pittsburgh has almost become a protest vote.

It’s like the collective of the fans base saying, “We’re not showing up the first day to support ownership. We’re only coming on the first day to remind you that we are all still here, but you aren’t going to see us again until next April. Now, take our $150 in tickets, parking and concessions and cram it. We’ll show you!”

It was also bizarre being on the field for batting practice with a handful of my other media peers, looking at the players, with many of us turning to each other and saying, “Do you recognize any of these guys?”

That might happen on Day 1 of Steelers rookie minicamp. That’s not supposed to happen on Day 1 of a Major League Baseball season.

Especially coming out of the pandemic and not being in the locker room for two years, I could only point out a handful. I am ashamed to admit that.

Then again, I’m not.

Even by Pirates standards, a lot of this is strange. Not “Randall-Simon-hitting-a-sausage-on-the-head” kind of strange. But … slightly askew.

Yet, so is giving a damn about a franchise that — for 30 years — has clearly stated through its actions that it only cares about winning if it stumbles into it by accident.

So what kind of hypocrite would I be to cast aspersions? See you at the ballpark with 9,100 of our closest friends sometime soon! I’ll take Oliver Onion in the pierogi race.

At least I know who he is without having to look him up.