Everybody in PNC Park last night was desperately seeking Mark Cuban. Not just the television cameras: KDKA, WPGH, WTAE with Andrew Stockey, WPXI with a rare ballpark appearance by John Fedko and Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh. Lots of fans also were searching for the billionaire boy owner in the crowd of 17,590, which his Dallas Mavericks attract on an off night, of which they have few.
There was the guy with the rubber Baseball Head mask and the "Vote 4 Cuban" banner on the left-field rotunda. There were the Section 140 folks with the white-cardboard sign pleading "Mr. Cuban, Please Buy Our Bucs!," and small print wishing, "On Sale Now." And there were the fellas from the Homer City High baseball team standing in the last row of a right-field section with "Let's Go Bucs!" painted on their chests and "Where's Cuban" on their backs.
Alas, the South Hills savior didn't buy the team last night, nor might he anytime in the near future. His weekend-long mantra maintained that he would come to the fiscal rescue only if the club was in danger of moving or being sold. Neither of those are in the offing, Pirates managing general partner Kevin McClatchy stated. Thus, for Cuban and his entourage of old Mt. Lebanon High School buddies, last night was simply an evening to take in a ballgame, shake a few hands, sign some autographs and leave before the top of the ninth of a 11-1 loss to the Houston Astros.