Sports & Outdoors Archives - Pittsburgh Quarterly

Ralph Kiner, Frank Thomas and Greenberg Gardens Read More »

At the end of the 1946 season, the Detroit Tigers placed Hank Greenberg on waivers. That season, he had led the American League in home runs and RBIs, but the Tigers they felt they couldn’t afford Greenberg’s $75,000 salary. The 35-year-old Greenberg cleared waivers in the American League, and the Pittsburgh Pirates, under new ownership, …

Sports

When Wampum High School was Small Yet Big

by Bruce Zewe

In the well-trod regions of the sportswriting firmament, there is a progression in cliches used to describe successful coaches. It starts with “winning” and escalates to “renowned” and culminates with — ultima gloria — “legendary.” With justification, sportswriters in Lawrence County, which borders Pennsylvania and Ohio about 40 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, reflexively apply the …

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Our Football Fascination: Here’s The Thing Read More »

Our Football Fascination: Here’s The Thing

by Jerry Thompson

As the Chiefs and Eagles prepare to battle in the next Super Bowl, with all the attendant passion, pain and pageantry, let’s take a time out for a moment of reflection. Not on the game’s socio-political or human health dynamics, or other impositions on the fans’ enjoyment, but with a dive to the heart of …

Sports

To Run or Not to Run in the Pittsburgh Marathon

To Run or Not to Run in the Pittsburgh Marathon Read More »

When I was growing up in Pittsburgh, there were four movie houses on my working-class South Side, so I saw plenty of movies. I loved then all — the war movies, the romantic adventures, the musical comedies, the biblical epics, the baseball biographies, the hour-long oaters starring Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, but my favorites, …

Less Lawn, More Native Plants Read More »

Less Lawn, More Native Plants

by Daryln Brewer Hoffstot

When my mother-in-law was ill 28 years ago, my husband began to build a stone wall on our front lawn. Each rock he handled three, maybe four times: plucked from the woods, thrown into the back of a pickup, dropped onto the grass to decide placement, or set directly atop a dry wall. One stone …

Whites Creek Valley Natural Area Read More »

Whites Creek Valley Natural Area

by Thomas Saunders

South of confluence in southern Somerset County is a beautiful and remote destination known as the Whites Creek Valley Natural Area. The Whites Creek watershed drains part of the southern slope of Mount Davis, and the creek flows northwest to the Casselman River. Preserved by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, the 85-acre parcel is one mile …

Remembering Roberto Clemente Read More »

Remembering Roberto Clemente

by Michael Lowenstein

When you are seven, everyone on your team is a hero. Some may be greater than others, but they all are heroes. And not just the players. I do not know if the Pirates have a traveling secretary today. If they do, I do not know who it is. I do not know what a …

People Sports

A Final Chat with Franco

by Douglas Heuck

My wife and I were at a party Friday night at the History Center, and after a cocktail, chit chat and getting our picture taken with Santa, we were going to check out the John Kane painting exhibit before the seated dinner. As we were making our escape from the crowd, however, I saw Franco …

A Final Chat with Franco Read More »

Is Pittsburgh Still a Baseball Town?

Is Pittsburgh Still a Baseball Town? Read More »

There has been a great deal written about the demise of baseball as America’s game. After the excitement of last season’s NFL playoff games and the drama of the Super Bowl, sports commentators, lamenting painfully slow and dull baseball games dominated by batters swinging with uppercuts and striking out at a record pace, decided to …

Riding the GAP Trail Read More »

Riding the GAP Trail

by John Beale

Rob and Nikki Fleming came with friends from Tarpon Springs, Florida. Tom and Carolyn Cassell made the trip from Tucson. And Jeremy Cline travelled from Connecticut. Each year, bicyclists come to Pittsburgh from across the country and beyond to ride the 150-mile Great Allegheny Passage (GAP). Last year, that number reached 1.4 million, according to …

When Jim Thorpe Almost Became a Pittsburgh Pirate

When Jim Thorpe Almost Became a Pittsburgh Pirate Read More »

In the 1912 summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, Jim Thorpe won the demanding five-event pentathlon and the grueling ten-event decathlon and was roundly declared the greatest athlete in the world. He added to his stature that fall by becoming a football All-American after leading Carlisle to a stunning upset over a powerful Army team that …

Streaming Views

by John Beale

Surviving Summit Mountain Read More »

Surviving Summit Mountain

by Ben Moyer

Snowbound residents of Pittsburgh’s hilly neighborhoods may not share this view, but part of the appeal of being a Western Pennsylvanian is that our natural geography still imposes influence on daily life. Not all regions enjoy, or endure, that dash of topographic spice, but it’s inescapable on my travels over and atop Summit Mountain, looming …

Birds

This Fall, Look for the Red-Shouldered Hawk

by David Liebmann

Our raptors are ubiquitous but easily confused with one another. In western Pennsylvania, with its thick forests, sloping mountains, and suburban regrowth, we regularly can see sharp-shinned hawks, Cooper’s hawks, red-tailed hawks, broad-winged hawks, and the occasional rough-legged hawk, northern harrier, and northern goshawk. Add in the red-shouldered hawk, and we have some eight species …

This Fall, Look for the Red-Shouldered Hawk Read More »

Enjoy Hiking the Improved Trails in the Laurel Highlands Read More »

Enjoy Hiking the Improved Trails in the Laurel Highlands

by Thomas Saunders

People in Western Pennsylvania are fortunate to have the beautiful Laurel Highlands nearby as a destination for hiking, fishing, hunting, boating and all kinds of exploring. One of the many great places in the Laurel Highlands to escape and explore is Bear Run Nature Reserve, a 5,100-acre natural area owned and managed by the Western …

How Baseball Saved My Life Read More »

How Baseball Saved My Life

by Ray Werner

He dove into a garbage dump exploding with flies to avoid shrapnel from a Commie mortar bomb, lobbed just over the hill in North Korea. Diving into that dump may have saved his life. But what really saved his life was diving after a long fly ball and making an impossible catch. Well, not impossible …

Birds

The Fledgling Wren that Wouldn’t Budge

by Daryln Brewer Hoffstot

What must it feel like for a baby bird to fledge? To take a leap (of faith?) and fly for the first time? I couldn’t help but wonder one warm day when I watched a clutch of birds fly off our front porch. I feared, however, that if I wrote about birds’ feelings, I’d be …

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Sports & Outdoors

Bill Virdon: He Made Everything Look Easy

Bill Virdon: He Made Everything Look Easy Read More »

In the spring of 1956, I was a senior at Pittsburgh’s South High and the starting center fielder for the school baseball team. For aspiring high school center fielders, the decade of the 1950s was a great time to be playing baseball and dreaming of a big league career. In the National League, there were …

Stewards of the Stream Read More »

Stewards of the Stream

by Deborah Weisberg

Monty Murty casts a tiny fly — a Parachute Adams — from his bamboo rod to the surface of a stream in Linn Run State Park, instantly tempting a wild brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) to bite. He brings the feisty fish to hand, pausing to admire its vibrant, speckled skin before removing the barbless hook …

Birds Sports & Outdoors

A Lesser-Known Pittsburgh Raptor: the American Kestrel

by David Liebmann

As far as shopping plazas go, the Waterworks Mall in Fox Chapel is pretty typical. A Five Guys and a Chipotle. Party City. A Barnes & Noble that still carries… books! A Giant Eagle, the kind that sells groceries, not the feathered kind that have begun to nest again just up the river in Harmarville. …

A Lesser-Known Pittsburgh Raptor: the American Kestrel Read More »