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Bucs stress anti-bullying to kids
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Pirates pitcher Jared Hughes signs autographs for Campbell fourth graders during the Pirates caravan Wednesday night at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown.
YOUNGSTOWN
Former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher and current broadcaster Steve Blass has been to the Super Bowl, the Stanley Cup finals, the NBA playoffs and the NCAA tournament, but said never in his life had he felt the electricity that was in PNC Park for the October wild-card game against the Cincinnati Reds.
“I was broadcasting the game and I looked across and said ‘I wonder what the weight limit on the Clement Bridge is?,’” Blass said. “It was fabulous. It was like 20 years had been compressed into one night and the crowd, all dressed in black, looked like they had been practicing making noise in unison. It was like a 40,000-person choir.”
The atmosphere at the Butler Institute of American Art wasn’t quite as electric Wednesday night, but the 50 or so Campbell Elementary School students in attendance were happy to spend the evening with members of the Pirates.
Along with Blass, bench coach Jeff Banister, relief pitchers Jared Hughes and Bryan Morris, newly-acquired outfielder Jaff Decker and, of course, the Pirate Parrot were there as part of the organization’s annual CARE-a-Van event.
National League MVP Andrew McCutchen was unable to be there after proposing to his long-time girlfriend, Maria Hansloven, on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” earlier Wednesday.
However Blass said the concept behind the night’s “Steps to Respect” theme was one McCutchen initiated.
“This is a stop we look forward to every year on our caravan,” Blass said. “Youngstown and Dr. [Lou] Zona have been very good to us through the years.”
Zona has been the director of the art institute for the last 32 years and as a life-long Pirates fan, he’s made sure the caravan has had a home in Youngstown for more than 20 years.
“We’ve been spoiled with the Pirates coming here for so long,” Zona said. “They wanted to work with the children, and this fit perfectly with the anti-bullying program in the Campbell schools.”
In the past, the caravan has made its stops open to the public, but this year the organization wanted to use the opportunity to focus on kids with their “Steps to Respect” campaign.
Hughes, who was drafted by the Pirates in 2006, was a hit with the kids. At 6-foot 7, most of the Campbell fourth graders couldn’t get over how tall he was.
During the 2013 season, opposing batters felt the same way. Hughes and the rest of the Pirates bullpen were an instrumental part of the team’s success.
“Just being there, being a part of it, was so special,” Hughes said. “The fans went above and beyond anything you could ever expect.”
The Pirates finished with a 94-68 record, the organization’s first winning season — and playoff berth — since 1992.
“We’ve been waiting for this for 20 years,” Blass said. “The whole city bought into it, the city embraced it and it was so great to see the crowds.”
With how much futility the franchise has experienced the past two decades, its fans were happy to embrace the team with open arms. Down the stretch nearly every home game was a sellout.
Blass said he knew that once they had a ball lub to match the ballpark it would be a circus every night.
“Seeing the kids play catch out in the yards on the way to the ballpark and they have their McCutchen jerseys,” Blass said, “It just really brought back the fact of how good a baseball city Pittsburgh is.”
Hughes said the team took notice of that, too.
The night of Oct. 2, when the Pirates defeated the Reds in front of a packed PNC Park, is a night Hughes said he’ll never forget.
“I mean I’ve never seen anything like that or even heard anything like that,” Hughes said. “The thing a lot of people don’t know is when they passed out the black towels and the fans were going nuts waving them, in the dugout you had this black rain of lint coming down on you from the towels. It was crazy.”