Pirates Make Mincemeat of Pierogi Portrayer for Unflattering Facebook Post

It’s a tale as old as time: Dancing dumpling mascot disapproves of team’s direction, posts to Facebook, gets fired. C’mon, you haven’t heard this one a thousand times?

⇥⇥PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Pirates are down a pierogi.⇥⇥⇥⇥The team fired one of the people who races in the dumpling-shaped costumes because he criticized the contract extensions given to general manager Neal Huntington and manager John Russell on his Facebook page.⇥⇥

⇥⇥⇥⇥⇥Andrew Kurtz of New Brighton participated in the Pirates’ in-game pierogi race - a knockoff of the Milwaukee Brewers’ racing sausages - about four times a month.⇥⇥

What could the frustrated foodstuff have possibly written to incur such treatment? According to The Angry Pittsburgh Fan:⇥⇥“Coonelly extended the contracts of Russell and Huntington through the 2011 season. That means a 19-straight losing streak. Way to go Pirates.” Oh, man! Snap! He really burned one of the most moribund franchises in baseball, which apparently needs even its mascots to be house organs for the slow return to respectability! I can see why Pittsburgh wanted to get rid of this social media scourge!At some point, I believe that sports teams and other public figures will figure out that criticism and dissent are usually good things, when they are treated with the proper level of respect. Clearly, the Pirates aren’t quite there yet.

(HT: The wonderfully named Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke?)

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