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Pittsburgh Pirates Pierogi Punished Over Problematic Facebook Post

by Caleb Johnson on June 22, 2010 at 02:47 PM

Pittsburgh Pirates fire mascot for Facebook comment.It won't help the Pittsburgh Pirates win any baseball games, but, in an effort to quiet one critic, the team fired a pierogi. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Andrew Kurtz, who dons a pierogi costume and races other Eastern European dumplings around PNC Park during Pirates home games, was fired last week by Pirates brass for a disparaging comment he made about the team on his Facebook page.

Last Thursday, Kurtz posted a comment on his Wall criticizing team president Frank Coonelly for extending the contracts of general manager Neal Huntington and manager John Russell. "Coonelly extended the contracts of Russell and Huntington through the 2011 season. That means a 19-straight losing streak. Way to go Pirates," the part-time pierogi wrote. Coonelly called Kurtz during a Pirates game and asked why he wrote the critical comment. Kurtz apologized, but the damage was done. "[He] took it negative and talked to his boss. And then they wanted me to turn my uniform in," Kurtz told the Post-Gazette.

Mascot races are one of our favorite parts about spending an afternoon at the ballpark, so we pity this poor Pittsburgh pierogi. What's the world coming to when a man dressed like a stuffed dumpling who races other ethnic treats can't even speak his mind about his employer's questionable decisions? [From: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, via: New York Daily News]

Tags: baseball, facebook, fired, major league baseball, MajorLeagueBaseball, mascots, MLB, pierogi, pierogies, PittsburghPirates, SocialNetworking, sports, top, web

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