Pittsburg ? Pittsburgh’s steel-and-glass skyline is so close, it appears to hover over the right fielder’s shoulder. There are three major rivers located about the length of a Jason Bay home run from the ballpark’s boundaries.

The Roberto Clemente bridge offers a meaningful backdrop in left field, not far from the imposing statue of Hall of Famer Willie Stargell. Large passenger boats toot out “hello” in steam-filled blasts as they meander by, their occupants rushing to the railings to wave to fans watching baseball.

“It’s gorgeous,” said Tigers manager Jim Leyland, an offseason resident of Pittsburgh who admittedly is biased on the subject of PNC Park. “With the rivers and the boats, it’s just tremendous. I think it’s the best ballpark in America.”

The All-Star game has visited many stadiums during its 78-game history, but Pittsburgh’s five-year-old limestone-faced riverside park may be as picturesque as any. It’s difficult to find anything negative to say about a venue that is the smallest in the majors (smaller now by a few hundred seats than Boston’s Fenway Park) and incorporates the best of the back-to-the-old-days baseball parks.

Except, of course, for the ballclub that plays inside it.

The Pirates are the perfect example of a team that does everything right when building a ballpark, and everything wrong when building a team.

Consider this: The Pirates, stuck in the longest losing rut in the franchise’s lengthy and oft-successful 120-season history, are playing host to an All-Star game for the second time in a dozen years. Yet they haven’t had a winning season since 1992, made a playoff appearance or staged many significant games during that time, except for the All-Star games.

Consider this, too: When Barry Bonds took off for the Giants, shortly after Francisco Cabrera, Sid Bream and the 1992 Atlanta Braves kept the Pirates out of the World Series, Bonds had all of 176 home runs. Any talk of him challenging Hank Aaron’s record would have been dismissed as laughable.

PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, is the site for this year's All-Star game, to be played Tuesday night.

About the only thing the Pirates have done right since 1992 is build PNC Park.

Two ownership groups, three general managers, four managers and almost countless veteran retreads and failed prospects have failed to get the Pirates above .500. Every scheme they’ve tried – going with the kids, bringing in reasonably priced free agents, building around pitching, building around hitting – has failed.

With the Pirates losing nearly two of every three games this season, they are well on pace for a 14th consecutive losing season – two off the Phillies’ major league record of 16 in a row in 1933-48.

Moments after yet another recent Pirates loss, reliever Roberto Hernandez gave a succinct answer when asked to sum up the team’s problems: “We stunk.”

The answer could apply to almost any season in the last 14.

The Pirates aren’t the worst team in major pro sports since 1992: The NBA Los Angeles Clippers’ .358 winning percentage is much worse than the Pirates’ .439, and so is the NFL Arizona Cardinals’ .362.

However, the Clippers are coming off a trip to the NBA’s Western Conference semifinals and have made three playoff appearances since the 1992-93 season. The Cardinals have had one winning season, one .500 season and made one playoff appearance during that period, and the Pirates have had none of the above.

And while the crosstown NHL Penguins are coming off four consecutive last-place seasons, they’ve been to the postseason nine times since the Pirates last qualified – and Mario Lemieux has retired twice.

With their solid young pitching (Zach Duke, Mike Gonzalez, Ian Snell) and a mostly youthful lineup led by All-Stars Bay and Freddy Sanchez, the Pirates are confounding others in the game with their inability to win this season.

Of course, money is an issue – the Pirates lack the deep-pocket owners some big-

market clubs possess. Yet there is every indication the club is making money, since their payroll of approximately $48 million nearly is covered by TV revenue and revenue-sharing money alone. The club’s primary owners, small-town newspaper publisher G. Ogden Nutting and his family of Wheeling,

W. Va., are plopping down nearly $90 million to buy a ski resort east of Pittsburgh.

There’s a fitting analogy: A ballclub that’s gone downhill for years owned by a ski resort operator.