Tim Benz: Travis Williams needs more than Penguins pixie dust to fix Pirates

“Welcome back, Travis!

Now how long before you fix everything? It’s been 40 years since the Pirates’ last World Series. I’m starting to get a little antsy.”

Of course, I’m exaggerating about how some Pittsburgh sports fans are reacting to the hire of Travis Williams as the new team president of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

But not by much.

I mean, my gosh. The poor guy is just moving back to town after his stint as president of business operations with the New York Islanders. Give him a chance to figure out the new traffic patterns around the North Shore before we start asking him his plan to rebuild the tattered pitching staff.

A week ago, nine out of 10 Pittsburghers couldn’t have told you who Williams was if their lives depended on it, even though he was in the Pittsburgh Penguins front office for 11 seasons — eight as chief operating officer.

Now, because we’ve been informed that he has been touched by the hand of Saint Mario, the assumption is he’ll sprinkle some Penguins pixie dust over PNC Park and we’ll all be singing “We Are Family” at the victory parade in two or three years.

If only it were that simple.

Hype is something rarely associated with the hire of a business-related, off-field, non-talent-related, management-level guy on an MLB team’s masthead.

Yet some hype has indeed come with the Pirates’ addition of Williams because some assume that he’ll bring some Penguins magic across the river to the Pirates and cure everything.

That’s a long way from the truth for now, though.

So are a few other myths that should be busted about Williams and his new gig.

1. Williams has to fire general manager Neal Huntington: No. He doesn’t.

And he probably won’t. At least not quickly.

Pirates owner Bob Nutting likes Huntington. And if he wanted to fire Huntington, he would’ve done so by now.

Don’t get me wrong. On a few occasions, I’ve written that if changes are to come to the organization, Huntington should be a part of them. But if the manager (Clint Hurdle) under Huntington was canned and Williams’ predecessor (Frank Coonelly) was pushed out, what does that tell you?

Right or wrong, Nutting seems to be on board with how Huntington has assembled the on-field baseball employees. If Williams has been hired to further evaluate that notion, he should take some time to do it.

Williams has spent his career in the NHL, not MLB. Firing Huntington would be easy for Williams. Making an informed decision about his replacement immediately upon his entry into baseball circles would be difficult.

Let Williams get his feet wet and familiarize himself with the league before finding a replacement for a guy the owner may not want to fire anyway.

Furthermore, I get the impression that Williams hasn’t been brought in to make baseball decisions. His job is to increase revenue via improving ticket sales, corporate partnerships and community outreach.

God bless him if he can pull it off.

2. Pirates = New Penguins: Look, I know Sidney Crosby hit that homer at PNC Park back in 2010. But let’s not get crazy.

That’s about where the Penguins comparisons should end.

Between 2002 and 2005, the Penguins were the Pirates. Every bit as forlorn. Every bit as dejected.

Actually, worse.

Full marks to Williams for whatever influence he had in helping the Penguins resurgence from those dark days. But it never would’ve happened if it weren’t for two things: Winning the Crosby lottery and getting a salary cap instituted in the NHL.

Unless a Crosby-in-cleats is on the horizon and a cap is coming out of the clear blue sky, Williams’ tasks will prove to be much more difficult in his new sports headquarters.

3. Replacing Coonelly with Williams will screw up the managerial search: Especially if Huntington stays put.

I mean, do you really think anyone who may be sniffing around at a managerial job is weighing the Pirates versus the Royals, Giants or Mets based on who the team president is?

Please!

Eight managerial jobs opened this offseason. Of the eight, the Pirates were the least appealing whether Coonelly, Williams, Iceburgh, the Pirate Parrot or one of the pierogis was installed as the team’s president.

4. Williams is going to initiate a sale of the Pirates to Mario Lemieux and Rob Burkle: Yeah. Remember those rumors? That the Penguins ownership group made a play to buy the baseball team back in 2010?

Some have never wanted to give up that hope.

If it was ever true — back then or now — Williams wouldn’t need to act as a Lemieux-Burkle sleeper cell within the Pirates front office.

They’d just have to offer more money.

But I’m going to let you dream on this one.