Dunlap: This Is Just A Sports Town
Some of you listen to my radio show.
Some of you don't.
If you fall into the latter group, trust me, I won't lose any sleep --- I'll just keep doing what I do until they tell me not to come to work anymore.
But you know something you won't find on my radio show on 93.7 The Fan? Beaten-to-death, formulaic and mechanical sports talk wherein I would (hypothetically) throw out a question and you would (hypothetically) call 412-928-9370 and respond with your answer.
Ugh.
How drab.
I get paid to be much more imaginative.
But something that I have noticed in that realm recently --- and an old standby for some --- is that "what kind of sports town is Pittsburgh?" question.
You know the one, the question where callers are to respond with their most well-constructed argument documenting how Pittsburgh is a Steelers town.
Or, how people reply using some sort of metric --- often a recent surge in television ratings and attendance --- put together an argument how this is a Pirates town.
There are those who lean heavy towards hockey and would insist, with their final dying syllable, that our fair City of Steel is a Penguins town and, well, feel the need to loudly have that opinion heard.
I have never understood this necessity for a forced divide.
I have never understood what drives anyone to try to push a definition.
I have never understood what's to gain by marginalizing one group in order to boost your own.
Simply, Pittsburgh is a sports town.
A great one.
One of --- if not the --- best in this country.
But it is high time for that "what kind of sports town is Pittsburgh" question because the sports calendar dictates it.
The Steelers have played a few games, the Pirates are in the throes of a pennant chase and the Penguins began their preseason on Monday night lending this particular time of year to that particular argument.
Again, I insist: Can't we all just get along?
I have friends who are into the Pirates; who have an excitement level that his risen over the past couple of seasons as Clint Hurdle has directed those merry Buccaneers to a bunch of wins.
However, just after explaining how they are back into baseball --- to some degree --- more than they had been over the past few decades, know what invariably comes out of the mouth of a few of my friends?
It habitually goes like this, "I mean, the Pirates success is great, but they will never be as popular as the Steelers."
Why? Why the need for that qualifier?
Can't we just all be on the same page, on the same team (in a sense) in this city?
I have other friends who stayed true to the Pirates through all the losing, were with them through all the thin and are now reveling in the thick.
Know what their overriding thought is? They are, in some way, territorial and feel a deeper connection than the fans who have just jumped aboard over the past couple seasons. In short, they hate the bandwagoners. I couldn't care less --- a fan is a fan. The more the merrier, come on out and yell your faces off.
Then there are the Penguins fans. They seem to be most protective of their game, the most provincial and defensive of the lot, insisting that their sport is the most beautifully played and the participants are, by far, the toughest. They also like to tell you how the Penguins have cultivated the younger crowd making our city an unquestioned Penguins town.
It's all so forced; it's all so nonsensically absurd.
But with all three teams now in action, this is the time you hear such a debate.
Do what you wish, but I have an idea … just enjoy our town as a sports town.
There's no need to divide and define. We would all be better for it if we bonded together.
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