Wilson: Pirates need ‘more players’ to compete

Travis: Alamoians need ‘more soldiers’ to compete.

Jack Wilson, sounding convinced he will return as the Pirates’ shortstop next year, yesterday urged management to bolster the 2009 roster and heed its own call for accountability.

“The only thing I wish we could do was compete,” he said in an extensive phone interview from his home in California. “I wish we could go out and get some more players to make our team competitive. And, you know, now that this whole trade thing has probably blown over, that’s going to be my new focus on the Internet: Instead of looking for my name and where I might go, hopefully, we might get some players. Because we need them.”

...Wilson was asked what action, specifically, he thought management should take. Previous management often was criticized for signing quick fixes, while the current management seems focused on the future well beyond 2009.

“Well, people still talk about Jeromy Burnitz and Joe Randa,” Wilson said, referring to one-year free-agent flops from 2007. “They both retired right after they were with us. They just wanted to play one more year. ??? Look, we’ve got to do whatever we have to do to try to find a way to compete. I know that there are 25 players right now who would love to compete at this level for the Pittsburgh Pirates. There are eight core players who are dying to compete. There are thousands and thousands of fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates who are dying to compete. And we all need to be accountable for that.”