Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
All right, back to where we began. Happy New Year. It's the last day of the year, and it was a year of dissatisfaction in Pittsburgh sports.
Chapter 2: What were the major disappointments in Pittsburgh sports during 2025?
It truly was. Things came to a head. You basically yelled like the famous line from whatever movie it is, and I forget what it was, when the guy opens the window and yells, I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. You couldn't take it anymore. Not with the Pirates.
Where there were a plane flying overhead before the home opener saying sell the team and booing the manager and chanting sell the team. You had it with the Pirates. You had it with the Steelers and that manifested in the Bills game when Steeler fans booed Renegade and chanted fire Tomlin. You had it with the Penguins. More in an apathetic way with that franchise than the others.
There was no fan insurrection at those places, at their games. More just people not showing up anymore. With two of our teams, the dissatisfaction, whether it's directly related or not, also then came with change. The Penguins fired Mike Sullivan. They've changed. For better or worse, I guess we'll find out. The Pirates have done things differently. They fired their manager.
Now they've acquired two All-Stars in a week. What will the Steelers do, I wonder? And what will that stadium look like on Sunday if they lose, especially if they lose by a wide margin? This was a fan year in Pittsburgh sports, meaning the fans finally let it be known that they couldn't take this anymore.
It's been nearly a decade since there was a title in this town, but that's not really the story. The story is just, I would imagine for people out there who love sports, wanting to yell out your window, can somebody do something? Yes, that guy. Because this became like a horrible version of Groundhog Day, Groundhog Year, Groundhog Decade. Well, the Penguins do the same thing every year.
It's the exact same season over again. The Pirates do the same thing every year. Nothing different. It's the exact same season over again. This is the point you reached out there. And the Steelers, even though a little bit more high end, it's the same thing every year with the same result. Nothing in the postseason. Literally nothing. Don't even come close to ever winning a playoff game.
And you lost your minds and I don't blame you. You went crazy and I don't blame you. That's what happened this year in Pittsburgh sports. That was the story. You couldn't take it anymore. I have a headache, Nellie from yelling. Um, So let's go. Let's get a little more in depth on the year in Pittsburgh sports. I asked my wonderful colleagues here.
And by the way, some of them didn't even bother to answer. Pony's one of them. Couldn't even answer a text for God's sakes. Where all I said was I went on the same texting group as we sent around when we won the Marconi. Do you remember that?
The text fan that I wasn't on or the Marconi that we won?
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Chapter 3: How did fan dissatisfaction manifest in Pittsburgh sports this year?
Why doesn't he ever follow directions, Bob?
Why is that? Because he's Bob Pompiani. He doesn't need to follow directions. Directions follow him.
That's true. Play of the year for limits. The Gainwell catch. The Sid Pat. Come on. Don't we have a variety of things here? We're supposed to be free thinkers. Worst moment is Dennis Santana and DK Metcalf both fight fans in Detroit. I'd forgotten that Santana's fight was also in Detroit. This is incorrigible. Can I play you my favorite play of the year? End in crinculant.
Your play of the year, please. Yeah.
One out in the ninth in the pitch. Swung on, hit high and deep out the left. Brenton Doyle has won it for the Rockies. If you thought it was impossible to lose this game when the Pirates led 9-0 before the Rockies batted, well, welcome to Coors Field. Final score, Rockies 17, Pirates 16.
That's the worst moment of the year. No, that's the best moment of the year. Okay. Oh, my car's done, and now they're calling me right now, and I'm not going to answer because I'm on the air?
Why don't you answer it on the air?
I can't. I'm not allowed to do that. And then when I try to call back the car place, like so many places, I'll never be able to get the guy. So I'm staring at my demise on my phone right now. If I picked up and I said, hello, is the car ready? Can I pick it up? They might say yes or no or tell me what was needed.
I'm not going to pick up and then I'm going to spend the rest of my day chasing down this person.
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Chapter 4: What were the standout moments and worst incidents in Pittsburgh sports?
And we lived in a crummy little, tiny little apartment on Holden Street in Shadyside with orange indoor carpeting, indoor outdoor carpeting, I should say, in the apartment. And I rolled out a little What do you call the thing you sleep on that's not a bed? Futon. Slept on a futon. Worked at Fifth Avenue Place with a purple hat on at a place called Everything Yogurt.
Took the 71C bus down Fifth Avenue from Shadyside to... what I guess is now the Highmark Fifth Avenue place, right? And on the second floor, I'd be there at 6 a.m. On the second floor was everything yogurt. So I put on my purple hat, got my first resentment either against my boss or the customers within 15 minutes of being there and served yogurt. And that's how it all began way back when.
I kind of had a, I mean, have you served yogurt since or have you been able to look at yogurt since?
I don't know if that would be your question. I mean, yeah, we used to get nice breaks and it was really good and healthy food. Sure, I even stole yogurt, you could say. Ate it when I wasn't supposed to eat it. And then I worked at the first Brugger's, Squirrel Hill, 1992, circa 1992. What was your first media job?
First media job, this is interesting, was I was working at Duquesne at the Duquesne Duke with a guy named Frank Bodani, who now works, covers Penn State for the York Dispatch. And him and his buddy Denny Callahan were down in the offices of the Duquesne Duke talking about how they're making a little extra money at the Post-Gazette. getting high school football scores over the phone.
Like the Post-Gazette needed people in their office, freelancers, to pick up the phone when the coach called with the stats, right, from the game and the final score. So from my little apartment in Shadyside with the orange indoor-outdoor carpeting and the tiny black-and-white TV in my futon, I called a man named Mike White.
Hallowed scribe, Mike White.
And I said, Mike... My name is Joe Starkey. I go to Duquesne with Frank Bodani. I think he does the Friday night football stuff with you. Is there any way I could come in and make some money? I think he said, it won't be much money, but sure you can. And off I went. And that's how it all started.
That morphed into covering high school football games, doing little high school stories for their zone additions, they called them, to make a long story longer. I didn't have my first full-time job till I was 29, Nellie. That's what I tell college kids, high school kids all the time. You might not know what you want to do, And it might take a while.
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