Case Study: The End Of The Longest Losing Streak

The End of the Longest Losing Streak : 1993-2012

Originally named the Alleghenys, the Pittsburgh Pirates have been a baseball team that were finical compensated since 1876. The Pittsburgh Pirates became a professional baseball team in the MLB (Major League Baseball) around 1887. They are very in rich history with five World Series championships, numerous Hall of Famers, and thousands of memories in the 125 plus seasons of baseball. (Trdinich) The Pirates do have some of the most memorable records and high points in Major League history but also some of the lowest and unwanted records as well. The Pirates most recent claim to fame was not there impressive
The team decided to start with a youth movement in 1994, as many players and prospects would brought up to field a team that could grow into a championship caliber team. The strike shorter seasons of 1994- 95, not only hampered the development of its core players but also hurt fanbase as many people were starting to bail of the Pirates. Coupled with the success of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the attendance of the Pirates and interest became almost non existent. (Brink) The losing coupled with vanning interested prompted the management to unload most of the veteran players and try to acquire and replenish a depleted farm system. The team decided to rebuild the minors and and the entire roster through these trades. Bonifay was known for his talent evaluations in the minors and amateur ranks. He traded virtually all the veterans and had MLB low payroll of only nine million dollars to start the 1997 season. The team had giant opportunity to rebuild completely from the ground up, known as the 5 year plan. The team also had the number one draft pick in the 1996 amateur draft and selected Kris Benson, a pitcher that his wife became more popular than he ever did and never fully achieved his potential through bad luck and injuries that set him
The 105 losses in 2010 were the second most losses in franchise history. The team was losing many games in these years but a rebuild plan was put in place and Huntington was very driven to continue and not take short cuts to just a couple wins to a each year. He visioned building a team through the draft and and development of homegrown players. With an added emphasis through development and drafting, Nutting invested millions and allotted more money into draft and rebuild the infrastructure of the teams facilitates. Fans were very critical as they heard this rebuilding plan before without seeing a winning season, as the losing streak was entering 16 years in 2008. Going with a total youth movement and once again trading away all or most veteran talent to acquire young