BRADENTON - According to members of the Bradenton Boosters, the volunteer senior citizens group that services McKechnie Field during the Pittsburgh Pirates' spring training games, every March the ballpark resembles a scene from Cecille B. DeMille's Ten Commandments where the heartless Egyptians work the Jewish slaves to near-death and then drag them to the side of the road to die. "The Pirates are killing these old people, pure and simple," said Bradenton Booster Charlene Finelli, who asked not to be idenitified in this story. "It's hot down here, and most of these poor old people are not in the best of health. But the Pirates force them to run around carrying bolders, rocks and other heavy objects, sometimes for days on end without sleep, and for no rhyme or reason -- just to carry them back and forth. We lose an average of 40 senior citizens every March in this ballpark."
According to Finelli, security guards at the ballpark carry the fallen boosters to picnic tables where they are left to die without medical attention. "The Pirates put them [at the picnic tables] so that the fans will think they're just resting. The fact is, they're either dead, or they're about to die."
Pirates General Manager Dave Littlefield was indignant when questioned about the team's treatment of the boosters, but he did not deny it. "Look, I'm here to win a division title," he explained. "So, yes, I need everyone to pull their weight, and that includes [the boosters]." Littlefield walked away, then stopped and smiled: "Besides, if I wanted to kill these people, I wouldn't bother with picnic tables. I'd force them to watch Vogelsong pitch."
