When the Pirates announced that they would be at full-fan capacity July 1 at PNC Park when they host the Milwaukee Brewers, my radio partner Kevin Battle had a brilliant idea! Why not have an opening day 2.0?
The more I thought about it and the more we talked about it the more it makes sense.
We “pitched” the idea Pirates broadcaster Joe Block, who we have on every Friday morning after our 8: 30 a.m. news and he loved it. He said it gave him goosebumps.
So I did a random survey of our staff here, limited as it may be at KDKA Radio as we roll out of the gradually pandemic and everyone else thought it was a great idea.
Since our brother radio station 93.7 The Fan is the flag ship station for the Team and we air occasional games too, it fits like a baseball in a catcher’s glove. Especially when you consider that July 1st is the Thursday before the July 4th holiday weekend. We could help sell PNC Park out and make the players and the team feel truly welcomed after not having a real opening day for two years.
Additionally, we could have the KDKA Radio cook out set up grills all over the north shore and find some bands who would be willing to share in the excitement of the day. What do you think?
By the way I have other ideas for the Pirates including utilizing the batters-eye shrubbery in centerfield that spells out Pirates… let’s put a replica of the tree stump from Gobblers Knob from Punxsutawney Pennsylvania and have Phil the groundhog come out every time a Pirate hits a homerun! If he’s not available we can use ‘Gus”, the second most famous groundhog from the PA Lottery, have him pop out with a scratch off ticket.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, maybe will save that for next season.