PITTSBURGH _ There was an interesting array of scouts sitting behind home plate at PNC Park during various points of the six-game homestand that ended Sunday with the Pirates’ 11-4 win over the Colorado Rockies.

There were the last two Pirates’ general managers, Cam Bonifay and Dave Littlefield. Bonifay is now a scout with Cincinnati and Littlefield has the same job with the Chicago Cubs.

Also in attendance was Roy Smith, who was the assistant GM to both Bonifay and Littlefield. Smith scouts for Toronto.

Bonifay and Littlefield have been justifiably beaten up in the media for their integral roles in the Pirates having gone 16 straight seasons with a losing record, a stretch that ties the 1933-48 Philadelphia Phillies for the longest run of futility in major American professional sports history. Bonifay was generally considered the worst GM in Pirates’ history until Littlefield came along and blew him out of the water.

Smith’s role in the Pirates’ run of losing can’t be discounted, though. It was Smith who believed first baseman/left fielder Brant Brown could play center field and encouraged Bonifay to trade right-hander Jon Lieber to the Cubs for him. Lieber went on to a 20-win season in Chicago and Brown proved about two innings into his one-year tenure with the Pirates in 1999 that he was lost in center.

Smith also recommended that Bonifay sign fading free-agent outfielder Derek Bell to a two-year contract worth more than $9million prior to the 2001 season. Bell and his Operation Shutdown act stands as one of the signature moments in recent Pirates’ history.

And it was Smith who believed Matt Morris still had something left in his right arm two years ago. Littlefield acquired Morris from San Francisco in a trade and he won three games for the Pirates in 16 starts before released early last season. The Morris deal cost the Pirates more than $13 million in absorbed salary and buyouts.

I have a strong suspicion that if you or I made mistakes that cost our employer millions of dollars that we’d be out the door immediately and never hold a job in said profession again. Bonifay, Littlefield and Smith, though, are still gainfully employed.

It could only happen in baseball.