When Pittsburgh team president Frank Cooley and GM Neal Harrington chairman promise mental toughness from their charges going forward, who dares doubt the organization’s solid background in that department? From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Bill Brink :

Within the first 10 minutes of the question-and-answer session with Pirates management at PirateFest Friday night David L. Lawrence Convention Center, a season ticket-holder reached brass tacks.

“After the fiasco of the last two Augusts and Septembers, what can you say that would encourage people, fans, to invest our time, our hearts and our money in this franchise that has now failed for 20 years?” the man asked, drawing applause from the crowd.

Team president Frank Coonelly responded: “We’re going to learn from the good times We’re going to learn from being 16 games over .500. We’re also going to learn from the fact that we have failed over the end of the season and we’re going to figure out how to finish. We’re going to figure out how to be not only physically tough enough to make it through that grind for an entire year, but to be mentally tough enough as well.

Asked about how to prevent another second-half drop in 2013, general manager Neal Huntington stressed physical and mental toughness to play through an entire season.