"My only thing with Mark [Cuban] is ... since I've been in sports, it doesn't matter if it's baseball or basketball, there's always been sort of a professional courtesy given to other owners. You all know that what you do is difficult, so you don't criticize each other."

What the ####!!!!!!!!!!!! Cuban is a Pirates fan, you moron. What do you think he would say about your profiteering and mismanagement?

I see this 'interview' was published in Pirates' Pravda. I can imagine how tough the questioning must have been!

Maybe I could try to improve my golf game

I fully expect McClatchy to be shooting in the 140s within six months.

"'I don’t think I’ll own the team in 15 or 20 years,' he said. 'If I did, I think it would kill me.'"

No, see, that's where you're wrong. If you own the team in 15 or 20 years, I'll kill you.

On the other hand, I'd even cut him a check if he were willing to run for office. It'd be worth it ten times over, watching him get splattered by some nobody in the primary. At stump speeches, the best-case scenario would involve rotten vegetables, and the worst- would include pitchforks and torches.

McClatchy believes his role on the MLB executive committee and the labor committee -- which is negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement with the players' union -- is more vital to the Pirates' <strike>long-term viability and competitiveness</strike> short-term, welfare-driven profitability.

Fixed.

My skin's a little thicker when I get criticized by people who don't live in the city of Pittsburgh

Screw you, you bastard.

(a) *You* don't "live" in the city of Pittsburgh, yet you seem to care about what happens to the team.

(b) I spend more on the Pirates in a given year than 95% of the total population of Allegheny, Washington, and Westmoreland counties and I live in another goddam country. Or at least, that's how much I did spend before you made this asinine comment. Now I'll be trying to figure out how I can get in for free, so that you can't make a damn cent off of me.

(c) The Rooneys must look at McClatchy and wonder what kind of a jerk this guy must be... the Steelers have a similar fanbase to the Pirates, in that there is a crapload of people who grew up in Pittsburgh who had to move away because of lack of employment opportunities. The difference is that the Steelers cultivate that kind of long distance relationship with fans and it pays off. I went to a 49ers-Steelers game in the early 00's (can't remember exactly when). Steelers won big and by the end of the rainy game, all that was left in the stands were 10,000 screaming ex-Pittsburghers and the team ate it up. When I go to Pens-Habs games here in Montreal, at least 1/3 of the jerseys are Penguins jerseys.

What kind of f**king idiot tries to alienate a large percentage of his fanbase?

One who figures he isn't making any money off that percentage.

Not to mention one who thinks of his "customerbase" and not his "fanbase."