A Former World Series Champion Offered To be the Pirates Batting Coach. They Said No.

In 2022, Mike Easler, a member of the 1979 World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates, contacted them about becoming their batting coach. He looked at their stats and saw they had nobody hitting above .275. (The Pirates would finish 2022 with Kevin Newman as their leader at .274, excluding a pair of minor league recalls who had a handful of at-bats.) “That’s unacceptable,” Easler told interviewer Joe Shuta. The Pirates never returned his call. “That’s their loss, not mine,” said Easler disgustedly. This story was unknown and unreported in any Pittsburgh media at the time or since. “The Hit Man” lamented...