Kevin S. McClatchy (born January 13, 1963) is the chairman of

McClatchy The McClatchy Company, commonly referred to as simply McClatchy, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law and based in Sacramento, California. It operates 29 daily newspapers in fourteen states and ...

and former owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. He led a group of investors that purchased the team in 1996, and served as the team's CEO and lead owner until 2007, when

Bob Nutting Robert Nutting (born March 29, 1962) is a businessman and sports team owner. He is currently the principal owner and chairman of the board of the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball. His other business activities include serving as presi ...

took over as lead owner, and McClatchy and Nutting hired Frank Coonelly to become CEO.

Early life

McClatchy was born in

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, the grandson of two eminent figures,

George F. Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly hist ...

and Charles Kenny McClatchy. Prior to purchasing the Pirates, he owned the minor-league Modesto A's. In addition to his baseball work, he is a director of

The McClatchy Company The McClatchy Company, commonly referred to as simply McClatchy, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law and based in Sacramento, California. It operates 29 daily newspapers in fourteen states an ...

, a newspaper publisher owned by his family (he succeeded Gary B. Pruitt as chairman of the board of the company in April 2012). McClatchy is an alumnus of the

Sigma Alpha Epsilon Sigma Alpha Epsilon (), commonly known as SAE, is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity. It was founded at the University of Alabama on March 9, 1856. Of all existing national social fraternities today, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is t ...

fraternity. Kevin is an alumnus of the

Trinity-Pawling School Trinity-Pawling School, founded in 1907, is an independent college and preparatory boarding school for boys from 7th grade to 12th grade. The 230 acre campus is situated in Pawling, New York, a small hamlet in southern Dutchess County. It is lo ...

Pawling, New York Pawling may refer to: *Pawling (town), New York, in Dutchess County ** Pawling (village), New York, in the town of Pawling *** Pawling (Metro-North station), train station for the village ** Pawling Nature Reserve, in the northern section of the ...

Time with Pirates

McClatchy was the leader and plurality investor in a group that paid $95 million ($ today) for the Pittsburgh Pirates in February 1996. McClatchy immediately assumed the posts of managing general partner and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

, becoming the public face of the ownership group. McClatchy was a member of Major League Baseball's executive council and the labor and international committees. At some point after 2005, which is not entirely known because the Pirates are a private corporation,

Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is a city in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Located almost entirely in Ohio County, of which it is the county seat, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and also contains a tiny portion extending ...

newspaper publisher G. Ogden Nutting and his family became the plurality and then majority owners in the franchise.

, Ogden's son, had already served as chairman of the board since 2002. The Nuttings, however, mostly shied from the spotlight and allowed McClatchy to continue serving as the main or even sole voice of the ownership group. In 2006, McClatchy speculated openly about resigning, possibly even selling the team, if the Pirates did not improve. He affirmed that he was frustrated with his own team, referencing popular and political complaints about the "promise" he made that the publicly funded

PNC Park PNC Park is a baseball stadium on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the fifth home of the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball (MLB). It was opened during the 2001 MLB season, after the controlled implosion of the Pira ...

would provide the owners with all the resources they needed to field a winning team. On October 4, 2006, however, McClatchy announced that despite another losing season, he would remain in his offices, and made only a few minor personnel changes. On January 12, 2007, the Pirates announced that Bob Nutting would replace McClatchy as the Pirates principal owner, though McClatchy stayed on as CEO and operating head of the franchise. During McClatchy's reign as owner, the Pirates never achieved a winning season. The closest they came was in 1997, when they finished 79-83–which was also the only time they finished higher than third in their division. On July 6, 2007, it was announced that McClatchy would step down as CEO after the 2007 MLB season. On September 8, 2007, Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported that baseball executive Frank Coonelly will be hired by the Pirates to replace McClatchy as CEO. This report came just one day after the Pirates fired General Manager Dave Littlefield. The hiring of Coonelly was announced September 13.

Personal life

On September 22, 2012, McClatchy came out as

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

in an interview with Frank Bruni of

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

. As of 2013, McClatchy continues to live in the Pittsburgh suburb of Ligonier, Pennsylvania.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:McClatchy, Kevin 1963 births Living people LGBT businesspeople from the United States American LGBT sportspeople LGBT people from California LGBT people from Pennsylvania Major League Baseball executives Major League Baseball owners Major League Baseball team presidents Pittsburgh Pirates executives Pittsburgh Pirates owners Businesspeople from Sacramento, California University of California, Santa Barbara alumni McClatchy people American chief executives of professional sports organizations Gay sportsmen