Welcome to Pittsburgh Baseball Now

Pittsburgh Sports Now is excited to announce the launching of Pittsburgh Baseball Now.

Since we launched Steelers Now in 2019, there has been one very notable absence in the PSN presence in the Pittsburgh market. We’ve covered the Penguins at Pittsburgh Hockey Now; Pitt, Duquesne, Robert Morris and high schools at PSN; the Riverhounds and collegiate, high school and club soccer at Pittsburgh Soccer Now; and local connections in auto racing at Pittsburgh Racing Now and golf at Pittsburgh Golf Now. We’ve also expanded to cover other local colleges with West Virginia Sports Now and Nittany Sports Now.

For Mike Vukovcan and myself, there has always been a desire to cover the Pirates, but baseball’s daunting schedule and the team’s lack of success kept it from being a priority.

Honestly, we couldn’t do it alone. Despite our continued growth, we are not a large company and covering a Major League Baseball team and its entire network of minor league teams would be impossible for us.

So we’re partnering with one of the best companies currently in that space. Pittsburgh Baseball Now will be a joint venture along with Pirates Prospects to form what I think will be the best coverage of the entire system, from Pittsburgh to Bradenton.

No one covers the Pirates minor-league system better than Pirates Prospects, and now we’ll lean on that knowledge and years expertise from Tim Williams, John Dreker, Ethan Hullihen and the gang to help us hit the ground running covering a big league team full of former prospects.

In that way, the timing for a new venture on this beat couldn’t better, as we’ll essentially be starting with a clean slate and a brand-new Pirates team.

You’ll see myself and Mike here on the site, and I doubt we’ll be able to keep PGN editor Matt Gajtka totally away, but the day-to-day operations will be handled by two new additions to our staff, Cody Potanko and Danny Demilio.

Demilio is an Upper St. Clair and Duquesne grad that interned with the Pirates’ media relations department in 2019. Potanko has covered the Pirates for several outlets, including FanSided.

I’ll let Cody give his own intro below. For now, I’d like to express my excitement about another new venture, how awesome it is to be working with Tim again, and thanks to all the hard work from the entire PSN network that makes growth like this possible.

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Hello everyone, for those of you that don’t know me, my name is Cody Potanko, and before I came to this site, I was known as the “prospect guy.” I’ve been writing for about four and a half years now and have been writing Pirates baseball for about three. Baseball has been my first true love since I was five years old, and even though it’s a “dying sport,” baseball will always have a special place in my heart.

I can remember my dad’s anger towards the Pirates and hearing phrases like “screw Bob Nutting,” or “this Pirates team will never compete again!” I grew up in that environment, and as my writing career started to mature, I noticed the same sentiment with most Pirates fans. The majority of the fan base seems either uninformed, devoid of hope, or so scarred from years of disappointment they can’t feel the same hope someone like me feels.

Folks, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and I think most of you are afraid to look after years of being told not to look into the light. GM Ben Cherington has boosted the club’s future into one of the best farm systems in the majors. You also have reason to be excited for guys like, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Bryan Reynolds, Hoy Park, Bryse Wilson, and a plethora of prospects just waiting to get that call.

I know some of you reading this will say, “Hayes and Reynolds will be traded once their contracts are up!” I will give you that, this is a fair point and maybe one of them will. This becomes a matter of faith, faith that an extension can get done, faith that GMBC can go out and sign a “Burnett or Liriano, faith that they will get it right this time.

Ladies and gentlemen, I know this was a long introduction piece, but just like a rebuilding process, it takes time.