Pirates Put Fired Pierogi Back in the Game

On Sunday, when I wrote about the Pittsburgh Pirates firing a man who played their pierogi mascot, I wrote: “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.” I may have been a bit premature.

⇥Andrew Kurtz, one of the men who perform as a racing pierogi during Pirates’ home games, has been rehired by the team after management determined that “he should not have been fired” for posting a disparaging remark about the team on the Internet.⇥⇥“The employee has been rehired because he was not terminated in accordance with company [human resources] procedures,” Brian Warecki, the team’s communications director, said in an e-mail Tuesday night. “While his conduct was in violation of our company policy (and many other companies), it was not subject to termination at this time.”⇥

Score a point for employees’ freedom of speech extending to their online presences! Woo, rights!In seriousness, Kurtz’ original post wasn’t as egregious as the Philadelphia Eagles employee who blasted that team last year, but the Pirates deserve some praise—and a rollback of some of the rhetoric directed at them—because it seems like they understand their mistake was taking any action at all. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Kurtz was actually rehired on Saturday morning, and that the PR firestorm had no effect on the decision.

It’s a nice thing to know that the Pirates aren’t as shortsighted as initially thought. But now that Kurtz has his job back, he might want the Pirates to start getting good again, like he wanted when he posted that status. It would be an appropriate coda to this saga.

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