Coming into the spring there is always a buzz in the media world. Journalists and broadcasters all around the MLB are speculating about the best players, who the next big hit will be, who has the best chance of winning The World Series, and so much more. On February 12, 2025, the Pittsburgh Pirates started their spring training in Bradenton, Florida.
The Pirates have more speculations than that of most teams, simply because of the young talent that they possess. Some people may say the team is “old” but they have an average age of 28.2 years old, which is younger than the league average of 28.88 years old. With the Pirates being on the uphill trend in terms of future success, they are creating a lot of attention with star players in the bullpen like Paul Skenes, Jared Jones, and Bubba Chandler. The Buccos also have young firepower behind the bat in Nick Gonzales and Isiah Kiner-Falefa.
Baseball is known as “America’s Pastime” because it attracts all ages. Baseball is a very complex and diverse sport that one needs to have a love for to follow it. Once it sucks someone in, it’s like a vacuum and won’t let them leave. One of the beauties of baseball attracting all ages and demographics is the people there are to meet. The Pittsburgh Pirates spring training allows media and broadcasters to talk about the love they have for the sport and work side-by-side with each other. Whether it is a beat writer, a TV broadcaster, or a producer behind-the- scenes, the media shares knowledge and is always willing to lend a helping hand.
Noah Hiles, an aspiring beat writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who covers the Pirates, is a passionate journalist and enjoys the game of baseball more than most. Hiles said, “I grew up a huge Pirates fan, but now I get to do my job as a baseball fan. I get to tell the story of baseball. I get to let other people become fans of baseball and maybe even Pirate fans through my stories.” Doing a job one loves makes it so much more desirable to go to work every day. When working within the sport that a person genuinely enjoys, it’s easy to cover ,and there is always something to learn, and it makes that person want to come to work. “You should always be a fan of the sport that you cover. You don’t always get to cheer for a specific team, but you can cheer for the action of the sport throughout the course of the journey. You should absolutely love doing this, you are not going to be a millionaire doing this work but getting to go to the games for free and build relationships with the players is what makes the job so special,” said Hiles.
Becoming a journalist can be a tall task, especially in the baseball world. Journalists have a job to do when interviewing players, building relationships, or even watching key performances. Hiles is able to read the atmosphere of the locker room and learn how to communicate with the players and staff.
Hiles said, “The energy for the team differs day to day, you know some days it’s 7:30 am and they just played a night game the day prior. You wouldn’t want to talk to me, would you? I don’t want to talk to them, quite frankly, I’m tired too. It’s a touch and feel thing,” said Hiles.
It’s important to understand how players are going to react based on their performances. Hiles said, “When you build relationships with guys, you know when to talk to them and when not to talk to them. There are guys on this team who, after they had a bad game they are not going to be fun to talk to, and there are other guys who whether they played good or bad they will give you the same quality of answers. Showing up every day and building relationships with the guys will allow you to be able to read the room and not fall victim to the highs and lows of such a long season.”
Becoming a beat writer for a team and a sport that someone deeply cherishes has its pros and cons but Hiles has strategically learned how to deal with them and make the best of every opportunity.
On the other side of the journalism world that the viewers of the sport see the most, are TV commentators. Greg Brown, a renowned play-by-play commentator for SportsNet Pittsburgh, has been a prominent voice of the Pirates for 31 years. Brown loves his job to extreme lengths. Doing this job for over 30 years is an outstanding accomplishment, especially with his excitement. Being a commentator can be tricky at times. Brown must keep the fans informed and entertained at the same time for 9 or more innings straight, especially with baseball being sluggish at times.
Brown shared his career insight, his tricks of the trade. He said, “As an announcer, the best thing you can do is be prepared. Have stories ready to talk about during the downtimes of the game. Being 29 other teams in the MLB there are games every night. Have stories about other games or teams prepared as well.”
The MLB has made changes in the past three years to speed up the game and make it more entertaining by making the bases slightly bigger and adding a 20-second pitch clock to speed up each at bat. “When they put the pitch clock in a couple years ago, it changed the dynamics of the sport. There used to be a lot of downtime during a game, but they have limited that, and those lulls do not happen quite as much as they used to,” said Brown.
Similar to Hiles, Brown has an extremely interesting job. While his job can be tiring, it also has its perks to attend the games and work with phenomenal people. Brown must always be prepared for on-the-spot changes throughout the game. “I enjoy preparing for the lulls in the game or even just preparing for that night. Looking into the stories that each player has or that the team has. Every player has a different story to tell, on how they got to the major leagues. I’ve always looked at baseball as a great novel, and each game is a chapter. You’ll never know what the outcome of that game will be unless you read the pages of that chapter. I believe that those pages are the stories within the game,” said Brown.
Brown also enjoys getting to watch the game and having to always put out a good product for the viewers at home. Brown knows it is important to finish strong whether the home team is winning 10-0 or losing 10-0. Brown concluded with saying, “I love just being a fan of the game and the sport. The challenge of presenting a good game, whether it’s on radio or television. As well as getting to announce these games with people I consider friends, so really it’s just like sitting down to watch a game with your buddies.”
Overall, people like Noah Hiles and Greg Brown thoroughly enjoy the broadcasting and journalism industry. Creating relationships with players, staff, and co-workers, like 2016 Greater Latrobe Graduate Hannah Mears is second to none. When waking up everyday and knowing they get to do something they love, alongside watching a sport that never gets old, is a cherishable opportunity that many people do not realize. Although it comes with long days and tiring work, it all pays off in the end, and you go home with a smile on your face.
