The first meeting was a media panel where three Pittsburgh Pirate broadcasters discussed their experiences in covering a team from the broadcast booth. The speakers were:
- Curt Smith - Moderator
- Greg Brown - long time Pirate play-by-play announcer
- Steve Blass - color commentator and former player
- Lanny Frattare - retired Pirate broadcaster
- Joe Block - Pirate play-by-play announcer
From there I attended a talk titled; The Warhol Triple Play Maris Seaver and Rose
The speakers showed drawings that Warhol did of those three baseball stars. One of them worked at the nearby Andy Warhol Museum. I wish I had the time to visit, but I'll have to make another trip to Pittsburgh to see it.
Th next talk was: In Harmony the National Anthem for the National Pastime
Joseph Price described a cross-country trip where he sang the Star Spangled Banner at 104 minor league ballparks. He even wrote a book about this trip.
At 12 noon I attended the SABR Awards luncheon. From there we walked from the hotel across the Roberto Clemente Bridge tp PNC Park. The SABR group was greeted by Pirate manager Clint Hurdle. Three Pirate employees spoke to the group about analytics that is used by teams to evaluate players and make decisions during the game.
This session ended at 4 PM so we had to wait 3 hours for the game between the Diamondbacks and the Pirates to begin. It was a long evening as in 13 innings the Pirates lost 2-1.