As fan angst bubbles up, the struggling Pirates are trying to stay the course

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Andrew McCutchen jogged out to the Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park and tipped his cap to the fans who rose to their feet to greet the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise icon before the home opener Friday against the New York Yankees.

It marked a rare moment of grace during an otherwise tense afternoon in which the feel-good vibes of baseball's return were overshadowed by the reality of the home team's rocky start.

A day that began with a plane carrying a banner urging owner Bob Nutting to sell the team circling overhead and included manager Derek Shelton being booed during pregame introductions ended with the Pirates making all-too-familiar mistakes in a 9-4 loss that dropped them to 2-6.

It's hardly the first stretch of rough baseball McCutchen has endured during his 12 years in Pittsburgh. It is the first time, however, that chants of “sell the team” broke out during a day that's supposed to be a celebration, never louder than during back-to-back fielding miscues in the third inning that helped Aaron Judge and the Yankees quickly pull away.

By the seventh inning stretch, a significant chunk of the nearly 37,000 who showed up were crossing the Clemente Bridge to beat the rain and the traffic.

“They want a winning ball club, and they’re going to voice it, that's part of it,” said McCutchen, who went 3 for 4 and made a nice running grab of a Ben Rice line drive to end the fourth, his 38-year-old legs holding up just fine even though he hadn't even played an inning in the outfield during spring training.

Some have even taken to the skies to vent their frustration.

Nutting was on the field during batting practice when he looked up and saw a plane towing a banner that read “Sell The Team Bob” followed by the address of a website urging fans to find ways to protest his stewardship.

“I really respect and appreciate the passion of our fans,” said Nutting, who took over as owner in January 2007. “I understand their anger and I understand their concern and I understand that they want the team to win. I do too, that’s the most important thing we’re focused on.”

The Pirates have just four winning seasons and three playoff berths since Nutting gained control of the team. The club has finished last or next to last in the NL Central each of the last eight years, and the organization did little in free agency to boost an offense that ranked among the worst in the majors last season or bolster a bullpen that imploded during a late summer swoon.

The early returns have not been encouraging. Pittsburgh is batting just .204 and two-time All-Star closer David Bednar was demoted to Triple-A Indianapolis after getting shelled during the opening week.

The Pirates like to say they have to win on the margins and do the little things right to compete. They're simply not doing them with any sort of regularity. Baserunning miscues are commonplace. Isiah Kiner-Falefa was picked off first in the fifth while trailing by six, something that Shelton said “can't happen.”

The outfield play has been iffy at best. Newly acquired Alexander Canario booted a ball in the third that let Trent Grisham take an extra base. Grisham later scored on a single by Oswaldo Cabrera.

“We have to clean that up,” Shelton said.

Perhaps more than that, the Pirates have to find a way not to let things spiral.

McCutchen, the last active link to a stretch from 2013-15 in which Pittsburgh was a playoff fixture and he was one of the brightest stars in the game, is hoping the season's opening 10 days are a blessing in disguise.

“The last couple of years we’ve had great starts and it ended up not great for us,” he said. “So yeah, we’re going through some bumps in the road right now as a club, but just don’t let it get too far away from us. And we’ll come out on the other end of it.”

Pittsburgh is in the sixth season of a top-to-bottom overhaul that began with the hiring of Shelton and general manager Ben Cherington in the fall of 2019. People throughout the organization have said repeatedly in the run-up to the 2025 season that it's time to win, from Nutting to Cherington to National League Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes.

The angst externally is palpable. McCutchen is trying to help make sure it doesn't bleed into a clubhouse that is still trying to “mesh.”

“When that happens and it will, you just can only hope that the play comes along with it and most times that’s what happens,” the 2013 NL MVP said. “We just need to keep going and grinding through it together (and) not letting the outside noise get to you and affect you.”

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People watch a helicopter flyover of PNC Park before the home-opening baseball game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Yankees in Pittsburgh, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Pirates owner Bob Nutting visits the field for pre-game activities before the team's home-opening baseball game against the New York Yankees in Pittsburgh, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton, bottom, stands in the dugout with bench coach Don Kelly, top, during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees in Pittsburgh, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

An opening day crowd watches a baseball game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Yankees at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

FILE.- Pittsburgh Pirates owner Bob Nutting stands on the field before a baseball game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Miami Marlins, Sept. 10, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Documents related to the 1968 assassinations of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy will soon be made public as more than 100 people have been working “around the clock” to scan them, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said during a Cabinet meeting Thursday.

The documents had been in boxes in storage for decades, Gabbard said.

"I’ve had over 100 people working around the clock to scan the paper around Sen. Robert F Kennedy’s assassination, as well as Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination ... They have never been scanned or seen before,” she said. “We’ll have those ready to release here within the next few days.”

When Kennedy’s son, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who also was at the meeting, was asked by President Donald Trump about the impending release of the documents, he said, “I’m very grateful to you Mr. President.”

Trump asked Gabbard if the health secretary had any concerns about releasing the documents.

“His response is, ‘Put it out. The world needs to know the truth,’” Gabbard said.

Searches were also being done of storage lockers at the FBI, CIA and other agencies to see if other documents can be found, Gabbard said.

“We want to get it all out,” Trump said.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to questions seeking information about the effort to identify records about the MLK or RFK assassinations.

Trump had signed an executive order in January after taking office calling for the release of governmental documents related to the assassinations.

King and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated within two months of each other in 1968.

King was outside a motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, when shots rang out. The civil rights leader, who had been in town to support striking sanitation workers, was set to lead marches and other nonviolent protests there.

James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to assassinating King. He later though renounced that plea and maintained his innocence up until his death.

Robert F. Kennedy, then a New York senator, was fatally shot on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after giving his victory speech for winning California’s Democratic presidential primary. His assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving life in prison.

Earlier this week Gabbard announced the creation of a task force that will consider whether the government should declassify material about several other issues of public interest, including the origins of COVID-19, federal efforts to influence online speech and investigations into mysterious health symptoms reported by some U.S. diplomats and government employees that were once dubbed “ Havana syndrome.” Gabbard’s office did not specify how the task force would be appointed or when it expects to submit its recommendations.

Lozano reported from Houston.

Associated Press writer David Klepper in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

Follow Juan A. Lozano on X at juanlozano70

Elon Musk, center, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, right, attend a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, Thursday, April 10, 2025. (Pool via AP)

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., from left, speaks as Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought and White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz listen during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Washington. (Pool via AP)

FILE - Senator Robert F. Kennedy, D-NY, told reporters, and the nation, that he is a candidate for his party's presidential nomination, March 16, 1968, Washington. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Dr. Martin Luther King speaks March 25, 1967 at the Chicago peace march. (AP Photo/Chick Harrity, File)