Mavericks owner Mark Cuban still loves his home state of Pennsylvania and would not mind owning the Pirates or joining the ownership group if there was a chance the team would leave Pittsburgh.

Pirates owner Kevin McClatchy didn't return a phone call last night, but he did say in a statement, "There's no chance of the Pirates moving away, so it's really a nonissue."

"I look at the Pirates kind of like the Mavericks," he said. "People didn't have a lot of expectations when I bought them. All of a sudden, the switch flipped and things have been going great ever since. That's because we had a great young nucleus, and I think the Pirates have that opportunity as well."