McClatchy's comments to the Tribune-Review, especially the one about tuning out the criticism of not local people, got me thinking. The notion that the owner can ignore the wishes of non-local fans to better serve local fans - who are often the parents, friends, grandparents or siblings of non-local fans - is too absurd for analysis. He must regret that remark today.
Kevin McClatchy clearly feels the heat of criticism, but he probably does not experience it much first-hand. The rich live in a world of smiling servants and fawning employees. That's just a fact. Remember this story from the USA Today. No doubt McClatchy lives in one of those "Lake Wobegon worlds" where "every dinner or lunch partner," and all the various servants, are "above average in their deference."
Locally, I doubt he gets much else than sympathy. The valet parking boy, returning his keys, does not say, "On my blog, I predicted this Burnitz signing would be a disaster. Who's the moron who suggested it?" And no doubt most employees reassure him, daily, that it's mainly bad luck the Pirates have experienced.
So that would be the "local" world for him. And he concentrates on it now. His immediate circle tells him it's OK, it's not his fault. Maybe he cannot take the heat that he senses outside his bubble. That's lame. Complaints about civility and courtesy are always superficial and self-deluding, especially from men of high station. They fail to address the circumstances which have provoked otherwise good and reasonable people to intemperate language.
Note I'm just speculating. I have no idea what goes on in the world of Kevin McClatchy. Maybe the waitress in his favorite IHOP calls him, daily, a two-faced liar who embezzles the funds of season-ticket holders. I just don't know. But this is one way to make sense of otherwise unreasonable comments from him.
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