Kevin McClatchy to throw first pitch today

Rob Biertempfel:

Kevin McClatchy to throw out first pitch today at NLDS3. A good guy who wanted #pirates to win, but was short on cash and know-how.

What a bizarre decision. The Pirates presumably have plenty of players from the 1960s and 1970s, when they were good, who would love to throw out a first pitch on a day like this. If they wanted to involve someone from the streak, I'm sure they could call Jason Kendall or Jack Wilson or ... someone else who wasn't the primary architect of it.

And doing this in some random home game in May would be one thing, but in the NLDS? This is one of the biggest Pirates home games of the past two decades, so it's beyond strange that they'd call on someone whose reputation among Pirates fans is deservedly terrible. One wonders why the Pirates would want to dampen the electric atmosphere of the one-game playoff by reminding people that Kevin McClatchy exists. I'm sure the fans will be divided, too, between fans who think the best response is to be polite and fans who want to boo. On a day like this, they should be unified. Weird.