And believe it or not, that's got zip to do with how brutal the Pirates' bats have been.
Rather, it's just that there's such a long spring training, all of it conducted several states away. And 162 games. And all else that comes with that.
Most of the latter comes, inconveniently enough, in the next few days:
• All-Star week: Chris Halicke's in Atlanta to cover Paul Skenes in the main event, Oneil Cruz in the Home Run Derby, plus Konnor Griffin and Esmerlyn Valdez in the Futures Game. It's a handful. I've done a few.
• Actual games: The Pirates have three real games this weekend in Minneapolis, and José Negron's up at Target Field taking care of those one stomach-turning loss at a time.
• MLB Draft: The geniuses in New York think it's intelligent to bury this amid all the rest of this, but hey. Greg Macafee has a preview up, and he'll follow through the whole thing, beginning with the Pirates picking at No. 6 overall.
Add to this pool Anthony Murphy carrying the minor leagues for us, Eric Bowser supporting the staff on home games, and all of my various rants, and it's easy to see ... it takes a lot, both in human and financial resources.
Lucky for us, the readership rewards this coverage. Always has. And oddly, that seems almost doubly true when the team stinks, like it does now. Because, I'd like to think, we can be trusted to cover the bad with the same diligence as the good.
The Pirates are still No. 3 in our world, and they'll probably always be that. But, as I'm often saying, that's more a reflection on how popular the Steelers and Penguins are here than it is on baseball or this woebegone franchise. That's just the framework in which they function.
SPECIAL-WORKER DRIVE: WE DID IT!
For anyone who missed the announcement earlier this week, we did achieve our goal of building a fund of 1,000 discounted subscriptions for teachers, police, fire, nurses, other emergency workers and, of course, anyone who volunteers in any capacity ... and we did so by blowing through that goal to finish at 1,281!
Thanks to everyone! I say this all the time, but it really does take the big ones and the small ones on drives like these, so it's kind of perfect, actually, that this ended with one of each!
Soon enough, we'll start up our annual Military Drive that we've done forever!
INSIDE THE WORKS
• With my Serbian trip canceled by the civil unrest there, I'm instead under orders here by the Boss to try to take a bit of a break right here for the next few days. That won't succeed, if only because we're not really in a position to bury the multimedia -- too much of that depends on continuity -- but I'm going to limit a lot of the coverage stuff I'd usually do. Hope it's understood. Once we're in Latrobe, then in Cranberry, any and all rest goes poof.
• I'll still end up making at least one trip to Europe this fall, obviously, since Chris Halicke and I'll both be in Ireland for Steelers vs. Vikings. I might also join Taylor Haase in Sweden for Penguins vs. Predators, but that'll depend on how the football team's faring vs. how the hockey team's faring. I've never been anywhere in Scandinavia, so that'd be cool. But I won't go if it doesn't make sense from the news perspective, since the Steelers and Bengals will be playing that same weekend just across the river.
• Dali's massive annual shipment of Steelers/Penguins merch for the fall and winter arrived at the HQ/shop this week in a mass of boxes and, once it was all placed on the shelves ... yeah, let's just say the new stuff was a hit. Dali does all buying, through our NFL-licensed and NHL-licensed partners at the 47 brand, and her touch really shows in this group.
• If you're not ad-free, it's only for paying subscribers. If you aren't subscribed yet or if your subscription's expired: This is our subscribe page. From there, make sure you're logged in, tap on the link, and thumb down to the bottom for the SUBSCRIBE button to buy/restart at the monthly or annual level. We also offer mega-discounts for students and seniors.
• Feel free to add a generous review on our Google business listing, our Appleand Spotify podcast channels and, arguably most important, our own official app pages, whether it's the Apple or Android version. It really makes a difference.
BACK TO BUSINESS
• Our page-view numbers were 764,249, with 31,867 unique users over the most recent full seven-day span, July 5-11. Our most-read original piece was Taylor Haase'snews on the Penguins acquiring Mathew Dumba from Dallas, at 14,003.
• Our video views for the past week were at 203,588. I'm going to pause putting out the podcast numbers until we can get figures that are far firmer than what we have.
• Thanks for reading and, as ever, for your support of this proud independent venture.
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Become a member, and enjoy premium benefits! Make your voice heard on the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates, and hear right back from tens of thousands of fellow Pittsburgh sports fans worldwide! Plus, access all our premium content, including Dejan Kovacevic columns, Friday Insider, daily Live Qs with the staff, more! And yeah, that's right, no ads at all!
THE ASYLUM
Site Stuff: All ... this ... baseball
Baseball's a bear to cover. Really is.
And believe it or not, that's got zip to do with how brutal the Pirates' bats have been.
Rather, it's just that there's such a long spring training, all of it conducted several states away. And 162 games. And all else that comes with that.
Most of the latter comes, inconveniently enough, in the next few days:
• All-Star week: Chris Halicke's in Atlanta to cover Paul Skenes in the main event, Oneil Cruz in the Home Run Derby, plus Konnor Griffin and Esmerlyn Valdez in the Futures Game. It's a handful. I've done a few.
• Actual games: The Pirates have three real games this weekend in Minneapolis, and José Negron's up at Target Field taking care of those one stomach-turning loss at a time.
• MLB Draft: The geniuses in New York think it's intelligent to bury this amid all the rest of this, but hey. Greg Macafee has a preview up, and he'll follow through the whole thing, beginning with the Pirates picking at No. 6 overall.
Add to this pool Anthony Murphy carrying the minor leagues for us, Eric Bowser supporting the staff on home games, and all of my various rants, and it's easy to see ... it takes a lot, both in human and financial resources.
Lucky for us, the readership rewards this coverage. Always has. And oddly, that seems almost doubly true when the team stinks, like it does now. Because, I'd like to think, we can be trusted to cover the bad with the same diligence as the good.
The Pirates are still No. 3 in our world, and they'll probably always be that. But, as I'm often saying, that's more a reflection on how popular the Steelers and Penguins are here than it is on baseball or this woebegone franchise. That's just the framework in which they function.
SPECIAL-WORKER DRIVE: WE DID IT!
For anyone who missed the announcement earlier this week, we did achieve our goal of building a fund of 1,000 discounted subscriptions for teachers, police, fire, nurses, other emergency workers and, of course, anyone who volunteers in any capacity ... and we did so by blowing through that goal to finish at 1,281!
Thanks to everyone! I say this all the time, but it really does take the big ones and the small ones on drives like these, so it's kind of perfect, actually, that this ended with one of each!
Soon enough, we'll start up our annual Military Drive that we've done forever!
INSIDE THE WORKS
• With my Serbian trip canceled by the civil unrest there, I'm instead under orders here by the Boss to try to take a bit of a break right here for the next few days. That won't succeed, if only because we're not really in a position to bury the multimedia -- too much of that depends on continuity -- but I'm going to limit a lot of the coverage stuff I'd usually do. Hope it's understood. Once we're in Latrobe, then in Cranberry, any and all rest goes poof.
• I'll still end up making at least one trip to Europe this fall, obviously, since Chris Halicke and I'll both be in Ireland for Steelers vs. Vikings. I might also join Taylor Haase in Sweden for Penguins vs. Predators, but that'll depend on how the football team's faring vs. how the hockey team's faring. I've never been anywhere in Scandinavia, so that'd be cool. But I won't go if it doesn't make sense from the news perspective, since the Steelers and Bengals will be playing that same weekend just across the river.
• Dali's massive annual shipment of Steelers/Penguins merch for the fall and winter arrived at the HQ/shop this week in a mass of boxes and, once it was all placed on the shelves ... yeah, let's just say the new stuff was a hit. Dali does all buying, through our NFL-licensed and NHL-licensed partners at the 47 brand, and her touch really shows in this group.
• If you're not ad-free, it's only for paying subscribers. If you aren't subscribed yet or if your subscription's expired: This is our subscribe page. From there, make sure you're logged in, tap on the link, and thumb down to the bottom for the SUBSCRIBE button to buy/restart at the monthly or annual level. We also offer mega-discounts for students and seniors.
• Feel free to add a generous review on our Google business listing, our Apple and Spotify podcast channels and, arguably most important, our own official app pages, whether it's the Apple or Android version. It really makes a difference.
BACK TO BUSINESS
• Our page-view numbers were 764,249, with 31,867 unique users over the most recent full seven-day span, July 5-11. Our most-read original piece was Taylor Haase's news on the Penguins acquiring Mathew Dumba from Dallas, at 14,003.
• Our video views for the past week were at 203,588. I'm going to pause putting out the podcast numbers until we can get figures that are far firmer than what we have.
• Our company social media: 62,457 followers on Facebook, 58,185 on X, 51,461 on YouTube, 16,854 on Instagram, 6,153 on Threads, 5,846 on TikTok, 2,711 on Bluesky
• We make mistakes. If you see one, email: Typos@DKPittsburghSports.com
• The Downtown HQ/shop's open Tuesday-Saturday, 12-6 p.m., and our company merch can all be had in our online store.
• Anything you need, email: Help@DKPittsburghSports.com
• Thanks for reading and, as ever, for your support of this proud independent venture.
Want to participate in our comments?
Want an ad-free experience?
Become a member, and enjoy premium benefits! Make your voice heard on the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates, and hear right back from tens of thousands of fellow Pittsburgh sports fans worldwide! Plus, access all our premium content, including Dejan Kovacevic columns, Friday Insider, daily Live Qs with the staff, more! And yeah, that's right, no ads at all!
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