Blogs

BRADENTON, Fla. — Some of you may flee snowy Pittsburgh in the next few weeks to catch some spring training games here in Flordia. Bully for you! Some advice: • Never apply the sunscreen to your face immediately after shaving. You’d think this one would be self-evident, but I made the mistake yesterday. • Bring [...]

BRADENTON, Fla — It’s no secret Byung-Hyun Kim is about to join the Pirates. That news broke three days ago, when terms were struck for an $850,000 major league contact. Kim is here in town and has passed his physical. There is a fully-stocked locker bearing his nameplate in the clubhouse. So, where is Kim? [...]

BRADENTON, Fla — Over the past few days, I’ve tried in my stories from spring training to sort of take the temperature of the Pirates and give you a sense of what the mood is like as the team prepares for its 127th season. I’ve spoken with owner Bob Nutting and the new front-office team, [...]

BRADENTON, Fla — In my feature story in today’s Trib, I touched on some of the reasons the Pirates did not make many offseason roster moves. The new front office team says it wants to give the players it inherited a chance to perform up to their proper levels and win. It also hopes certain [...]

BRADENTON, Fla — Photographer Chris Horner is stationed with me here at the Trib’s Bradenton bureau (a six-room condo on 59th Avenue). He provides all the photos of workouts and games that you see in the paper and on the Website. He’s also taping the video snippets on the Web (check out the latest here). [...]

BRADENTON, Fla — Two days into spring training, and already I’m eager for the season to get under way. I don’t mind being able to slip into shorts every day and going to work under sunny skies. And there are plenty worse jobs out there than lobbing questions at ballplayers. And yet … It won’t [...]