Pitt needs major fundraiser to replace Heather Lyke? | Believe Pirates' Ben Cherington?

good morning everybody and welcome to Jason Mackey's first 10 a short version podcast talking all things Pittsburgh sports today is Thursday September 13th and we have a few things going on as usual the Pirates swept the Miami Marlins pretty strong performance from them we'll get into that a little bit uh Steelers somewhat quiet in the middle of the week as they prepare for the Denver Broncos couple days out from the Backyard Brawl plenty to discuss there and that's actually where well I want to start today's episode talk a little bit about pit not so much the Backyard Brawl although it's plenty important make sure you read Steven Thompson's story in today's paper about sort of what Pat Nardi is preaching what this game means significance wise to pit there have been plenty where the focus was the Rivalry but I think for this one it's pit continuing a a non-conference slate that I didn't even realize this until reading reading it in Steven's story Pitt been just three and 0 once in Pat ard's nine Seasons Panthers haven't started 4 and0 since 2000 so don't want to get too far down the road but I think the point being that West Virginia is a very good football team I think pit has some obvious aspirations they can match last year's win total with a win on Saturday but this has uh very meaningful football implications as well um so looking forward to that again I'll be over there on Saturday you probably saw on our Sports Front my column about Heather Lake uh not so much about Heather Lake I guess but about Heather L's position I and how pit might go about filling that I think it's a unique job I tried to get some different perspectives in there um couple of national writers even a pit donor that I ended up interacting with on Twitter and um you know getting his perspective Gavin Williams and thank you to all of them but I think this is a unique job uh because of the market that we're in and also where pit is expected to compete at the same time you know if you look at Penn State Ohio State West Virginia and then pit these these are different schools and I'm not talking about academically or geographically I'm talking about what the fan the the the base of people around them how they're looked at you know West Virginia this is a school for the entire State everybody's involved you know it's unifying even if you look at Pennsylvania like you're largely split pit Penn State right but I mean obviously you're going to have people like me went to Westminster maybe you went to Temple I have no idea maybe you went out of state um but you know you look at the immediate area and it's not blank get pit fans and that's something that Gavin Williams brought up and say you know well they all brought it up I should say that but I mean it's a challenge for the next athletic director to come in there and raise the requisite amount of money to compete with nil and that's really what it's become Ron Higgins was somebody whose perspective I really valued in that story and how much the job of an athletic director has changed and so I go back to what Chancellor Joan Gable did when she did it why pit has made this move now um and it's it's a heck of a statement right it's a heck of a statement to say right now the week of the pit Hall of Fame induction volleyball teams doing great Backyard Brawl we're gonna make this statement now and you're allowed to make whatever you want and if you feel like and I think we can all kind of re between the lines that they didn't feel that Heather like was going to navigate the future of college sports well enough well navigating the future of college sports right now means probably bringing more money into the athletic department doing a better job harnessing leveraging nil um you know and and raising the entire profile of the athletic department I think Heather like did some very good things I don't think anybody should be you know saying that she was a bad athletic director or didn't you know make good hires or change the culture whatever and I I don't I don't think that perception's out there but you need somebody to pick up the ball and keep the drive going and hopefully score touchdowns um think that metaphor works but it's not an easy gig it's not an easy gig it's a unique Market it's a pro sports town I I hate hearing that because I I've really come to love college sports writing about them from this angle and I think they're extremely important but and being realistic the the loyalties you know paid to the Steelers the Penguins the Pirates like they're they're sizable we know so it's going to be interesting who they bring in um again in that piece I sort of outlined the challenges and and what that job looks like so I hope you will give that a read we're going to take a short break and we'll be back on the other side I want to talk a little penguins in our preview series as well as the Pirates and another victory over there but first a message from the Bradon Area Convention and visitors bureau embrace the laidback charm of Island life while sinking your toes in the sand and discovering real authentic Florida in the Bradenton Area unspoiled Beauty and pristine beaches a vibrant waterfront downtown energized by local arts and culture fresh floran Cuisine with a flourish of Rich history and friendly locals ready to welcome you to this preserved Paradise on Florida's Gulf Coast plan your visit today at Bradenton islands.com and welcome back to first 10 we're here every day usually published around midm morning go about 10 minutes and we talk about all things Pittsburgh sports thanks for finding us the Pirates really good one honestly and they've been playing pretty good ball lately they got a a really strong outing from bayy falter yesterday against the Marlins seven and a third no runs carried a no hitter into the seventh inning it was his longest outing since June 18th and frankly I thought it was pretty important for bayy falter with what he represents to the Pirates rotation you could look at them obviously you're going to sketch them out for next year skines Jones Keller those are given probably gonna have Luis Ortiz in there right at least for now and you've got some guys coming up what happens with Thomas Harrington Bubba Chandler Braxton Ashcraft Mike Burrows Etc Johan oo is going to be in the mix I mean honestly the Pirates have some really good young pitching uh and and right at that tweener stage the upper levels of the minors very beginning stages of their Major League career they're all right-handed so bayy falter pitching the way he did yesterday which and and you know what like the Pirates organization has gotten ripped a lot for some things and they deserve to be ripped a lot for some things I'm not defending it but bayy falter is one of those stories almost maybe like Dennis sanana Joey Bart it's one of those small but important wins that I didn't see you probably didn't see I'm going to knock my headphones out of here um and it it's really been a big thing for them I mean he was not good in spring training nobody expected him to make the club and he's become a viable member of the starting rotation giving them a lefty look which I think they need and I thought yesterday's outing was important just because of how he's pitched recently had allowed 18 earn runs over his last 25 and 23s Innings ra had gotten up to four and a half basically um the highest it had been since mid April maybe you can look at you know bayy falter and say it was a mirage he's not really that good I'm buying it I buying it you need a lefty in your rotation I've had people pause it to me that maybe they should look to trade biley falter this offseason sell while your stock is high and I'd almost understand it but I'd like to have a lefty in the rotation so if you end up trading falter try to get something back which maybe an extreme measure maybe just keep Bailey and that's fine um but I I would like to have a southpaw in there somewhere before the game there was some news Ben shington said that he expected Derek Shelton to return in 2025 made me think a lot of 2019 to be honest with you with Clint Hurdle saying he's got assurances and he plans on managing and he expects to manage and all this stuff and then whoop last day of the Season Bob nning has different ideas I chased all of that I was in the middle of all of that and one of the things that I was told consistently that is that Bob's process is to evaluate thoroughly evaluate wanting to see where things land you know not rush to any decisions this that and the other five years later why would that change why would Bob not want to evaluate why would Bob not want to see where things land and if you look at the Pirates right now they have really underachieved now maybe they play better ball the rest of the year they have 16 games left maybe they finish 10 and six if you do that I think you could probably look at the to totality of things and be largely okay with it but what if they go six and 10 I'm 16 Games should not decide a guy's tenure but I I do think there's some value in just letting it get to the end talking to people hearing more letting it breathe and then you make your decision they've made it this far I don't really see any point in doing anything now but it surprises me while you're saying definitively that we're going to keep the guy because if you look at their season I broke this down in here I didn't to toally understand this or I shouldn't say understand it but um I didn't totally know what that looked like until I went through the dates yesterday the Pirates were 14 and 14 on April 27th they didn't get back to 500 until the day before the allstar break on July 14th they were 48 and 48 more than two and a half months later so if you look at their season you go from the All-Star break to win things fell apart which is in early early August I mean it's basically 26% of the season they were at 500 or better that's that's not contending you know that was Bob ning's goal that is not contending and so you're automatically on September 11th going to say we're bringing the guy back that's it decisions made like just the Optics of that don't look good even if that's what it's going to be don't don't say it um and and so I wrote that column and I just you know some of the stuff that they've said and done hasn't really had a lot of staying power like Henry Davis was the catcher until he wasn't then he was a right Fielder he was a right fielder until he wasn't then he was a catcher and all of a sudden he's in the opening day lineup huh it's a lot you know Neil Cruz the shortstop nine days later he's moved the center field permanently huh it's a little surprising and if I'm Bob nutting and I'm looking at this regime which again talked about it earlier Joey Bart Dennis Santana bayy fault they've done some things well it's it's not a blank of criticism it's not trying to make anything personal but I'd be asking questions too you know I spent $36 million this offseason free agency science trade ways to improve the team what has that gotten me basically two War Andrew McCutchen's been responsible for 1.3 of it now that wasn't any player that this group went out and found if you look at the trades I've written that talked about that a lot you I don't know the exact things but it's like 13 War coming back 56 going out now you're trading major league players so that that 56 number is going to be a lot higher the number of of wins above play and that's since the trade going out but you'd expect the 13 back to be a little bit more you haven't gotten nearly enough back for trades anyway that's a long-winded way of saying that I don't think anybody here should just be allowed to do whatever the heck they want to do um without review rubber stamping from ownership and I don't see how Bob nning has already done that because of the time in the calendar and how he consistently operates so please check that out uh once again did not get the penguin stuff we have an ongoing series of penguins previews I wanted to delve into that a little bit I will do that the early part of Friday show and then take questions for the usual uh Q&A format make sure you check that out thanks for watching first 10 again I lied to you I said it was only 10 minutes but uh we're going on 12 so I'm sorry for that be back here same time same place make sure to like And subscribe you get this and a lot of other content from our post cazette writers and columnists talk to you tomorrow thanks for watching first 10 thank you for checking out this content from Post cazette sports if you watch this video on YouTube please like the video and subscribe to our channel for all of the sports covered the Post Gazette has to offer visit postgazette.com [Music]