2009 Pittsburgh Pirates season
| 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates | |
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| Major League affiliations | |
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| Location | |
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| Results | |
| Record | 62–99 (.385) |
| Divisional place | 6th |
| Other information | |
| Owner(s) | Robert Nutting |
| General manager(s) | Neal Huntington |
| Manager(s) | John Russell |
| Local television | FSN Pittsburgh |
| Local radio |
WPGB-FM (Steve Blass, Greg Brown, Tim Neverett, Bob Walk, John Wehner) |
| < Previous season Next season > | |
The 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates season is the 128th season of the franchise; the 123rd in the National League. The season is the franchise's second season under the management of John Russell. With this season, the Pirates became the first franchise in professional sports to have a losing record in 17 consecutive seasons, passing the Philadelphia Phillies of 1933–1948 with 16. The Pirates finished sixth and last in the National League Central with a record of 62–99.
The organization fired pitching coach Jeff Andrews and first-base coach Lou Frazier the day after the 2008 season concluded, but are expected to retain the rest of the staff through 2009. In October 2008, Joe Kerrigan—previously of the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies—was hired as the new pitching coach, while Perry Hill became the first base coach. On November 24, the Pirates signed Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh of India. The pair participated in the Million Dollar Arm, a contest held in their home country to discover who out of the 30,000 contestants had the strongest, most accurate arm. Having never heard of baseball prior to 2007, both Patel and Singh can throw over 90 mph. The pair will participate at spring training. Management plans to keep closer observations of players' off-season workouts.
Pirates' radio announcer of 33 years, Lanny Frattare, retired prior to the season. Tim Neverett, formerly of Fox Sports Rocky Mountain, was selected to replace him after a search of approximately 200 candidates. In January 2009, the team held its sixth PirateFest at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. The three-day event was attended by 15,127 people, and increased the number of season ticket packages purchased from the 2008 season. President Frank Coonelly stated that the team had fallen behind the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Penguins from a "marketing and business perspective", but are "...working hard to get ourselves back up to where we belong both in Major League Baseball and Pittsburgh." The Pirates added sleeves to their uniform, and added an alternate uniform with a gold-colored P on the chest which will be worn during select games.
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