Pirates Appear To Have Ditched Sign Honoring Roberto Clemente For Ad

Things are not going too well for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the early going of the 2025 MLB season.

They're 3-7 to start the season, and fans are already fed up after years of inactivity when it comes to signing and keeping talent to build a winning team, with hearty "sell the team" chants directed towards owner Bob Nutting breaking out on opening day.

SIGN UP for The Daily OutKick. New Look, Same Attitude.

So, how did the club ingratiate themselves to these frustrated fans?

If you guessed, "Get rid of a sign honoring one of the most revered players in franchise and baseball history and replace it with an ad," then congratulations because you're correct.

Before this season, the Pirates had a sign in right field that had legendary Pirate Roberto Clemente's name and iconic No. 21 on it as an homage to the late Hall of Fame right fielder who was killed in a plane crash in 1972.

Seems like the kind of thing you wouldn't get rid of to make room for more ad space, but that's what the Pirates appear to have done as seen in some photos going around social media, and in its place on the 21-foot-high fence at PNC Park — which is also a tribute to Clemente — is a can of Surfside Iced Tea + Vodka.

Oh, come on.

I get that the Pirates, like any other professional sports team, are a business and exist to make money.

However, you can't tell me that there wasn't some other way to make some advertising revenue that didn't involve taking down a sign honoring an iconic player.

A lot of fans weren't particularly jazzed about it.

There were others who noted that there are other tributes to Clemente at the Stadium, including a statue out front, but the optics of getting rid of one of those tributes and replacing it with an ad by a team that isn't known for spending money to field a successful team, is not a recipe for good optics.

The team realized that too because after the team released a statement on the matter especially after members of the Clemente family expressed surprise at the decision. 

"Roberto Clemente is more than a Hall-of-Fame player to us," the team said, per The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "His legacy helps define who we are as an organization. One would be hard-pressed to find a franchise that pays tribute to one of their historically great players more than the Pittsburgh Pirates do of Roberto Clemente, and rightfully so. Each and every day, we proudly honor and celebrate Roberto Clemente, the person, the player, and the humanitarian in and around our ballpark, as well as through our charitable endeavors.

"The 21-foot-high wall that officially bears Roberto Clemente’s name continues to, and will forever, display his No. 21 in two separate locations. The temporary wall sign in question was put in place prior to the 2022 season and was never meant to be a permanent tribute, simply another cap tip to "The Great One." We apologize that we didn’t directly communicate that fact to the Clemente family and our fans."