Times are tough for racing pierogi mascots

If life was not hard enough for a guy whose job it is to put on a gigantic pierogi costume and run around a baseball field – the near heatstroke suffered during day games, the taunts, the awkward questions at cocktail parties (“So, what do you do for a living?” “I’m a racing pierogi”) – it just got worse for one of them: Andrew Kurtz, a 24-year-old man from New Brighton, Pennsylvania who is one of eighteen men who take part in the fan-favorite “Great Pittsburgh Pierogi Race N’at” after the 5th inning at every home game at PNC Park, has just been fired by the Pittsburgh Pirates for comments made on his Facebook account which were critical of the much-maligned, much-losing major league ball club.

Kurtz, a self-described lifelong, die-hard Pirates fan (poor fella) who, according to his mother, “took pride in being a pierogi runner,” is paid $25 per race but participates in only about four races per month, has been left shocked and disappointed by the fact that a relatively innocuous comment on a social media site resulted in his unceremonious dismissal. Here’s how the horrible situation played out (via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette):

Thursday, at 4:30 p.m., he posted a message aimed at team president Frank Coonelly, general manager Neal Huntington and manager John Russell. It read: “Coonelly extended the contracts of Russell and Huntington through the 2011 season. That means a 19-straight losing streak. Way to go Pirates.”

Within four hours, he received a call from Dan Millar, the Pirates’ mascot coordinator.
“He called as the game was going on,” Mr. Kurtz said. “He wanted to know what was up with my Facebook message. I told him I didn’t mean anything by it, and he was like, ‘Well, why’d you put it up?’ I said, it was just an opinion. But he took it negative and talked to his boss. And then they wanted me to turn my uniform in.”

The Pirates, because they are, well, the Pirates, are turning this seemingly harmless situation into a public relations nightmare. Instead of simply asking Kurtz to take down the post, the team is taking a hard-line stance on the issue by attempting to portray Kurtz as some sort of malcontent and a problem employee:

Pirates spokesman Brian Warecki on Friday night said, “While we cannot discuss the specifics of the dismissal, we can say that a part-time employee serving a suspension for a previous violation of company policy was terminated for committing yet another violation of company policy.”

So there you have it. The Pirates, in their infinite wisdom, continue to screw up even the most benign issues related to the management of the team. By taking a personnel issue and allowing it to become what it is now, the Pirates made a mountain out of molehill and turned a man who dresses up as a delicious potato-stuffed pastry into some kind of martyr and rallying point for a disgruntled fan base. I mean, what kind of team can turn a dismissal of a non-essential employee into the scandal of the summer?
I’ll tell you what kind of team: the Pittsburgh Pirates. That’s who. At least no one is paying attention to the substandard product the franchise continues to throw out onto the field, I guess.
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Out at the plate: Pirates dump outspoken pierogi [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]