Blass Personifies Loyalty to Pirates

One phone call with Steve Blass can brighten your day.

Last week, I called Blass, the former Pittsburgh Pirates pitching ace who led the club to a World Series championship in 1971, to learn more about his involvement with the recent fantasy camp held in Bradenton.

He had just attempted to get a golf game in, but Mother Nature had other plans for Manatee County in January. When Blass returned my call, it was game on. Fifteen minutes of baseball bliss. The man who had won over 100 games with the Pirates during a decade in the National League was every bit as classy as I had imagined.

During the recent Pirates Fantasy Camp held at Pirate City and LECOM Park on two separate days, I observed Blass, back in uniform, coach his squad at Field 1 – Roberto Clemente Field.

From the start of the games, it was obvious that Blass was one of the team. With all his baseball pedigree including winning Game 7 by pitching a 4-hit complete 2-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on the road in 1971, Blass fit easily in with the “common fan.”

There’s nothing aloof about him. Blass remains a throwback to when professional athletes played for their annual salary, then went off to work in the off-season.

Having thrown his last pitch in 1974, Blass has remained the quintessential ambassador for the Pirates organization for generations of baseball fans in the Pittsburgh stratosphere. He represents all that is good about cheering on the successful and not-so-successful Pirate squads through the different eras the game has undergone.

Being part of the camp, each winter is something that Blass circles on his calendar. Each morning, before hearing “play ball”, it’s Blass who oversees baseball law and order; the camp’s “Kangaroo Court”.
“There are fines for everything,” says Judge Blass who charges $1.00 for each offense. “There’s a fine for breathing. Nobody is safe. It’s a great, fun start to the morning. All 90 campers were present. By 9 a.m.,10 to 15 campers are fined.”

It’s sometimes difficult to figure out who was having more fun during camp week, Blass, or those who flew into SRQ and temporarily escaped the wintery conditions of western Pennsylvania.

This is what a sports fantasy camp is about. Everyone is having a good time.

For Blass, who lives in Manatee County a few months out of the year, his voice says his love of the game has never gone away. It’s not word salad. He genuinely looks forward to seeing some of his former teammates and other Pirate alumni in each camp.

The fans, being on the same Pirates fields that he played on during his years of spring training, for Blass, the fraternity, the reunion, it never gets old.

Before making his daily appearances with campers, a highlight for Blass is getting together in the coaches' room early each morning.

“We tell stories. We have guys going back to the ’60s. Steve Nicosia, Jim Rooker, John Candelaria, and Mike Easler, and more. This time with the guys means a lot to me.”

Retiring from the Pirates broadcast booth after the 2019 season, his 34th year, and 60 years at the time with the Pirates’ organization, was a huge move for baseball fans to come to terms with. He endured the gradual stages of retirement. Today, Blass remains on the Pittsburgh payroll, making speeches and spreading the joy of Pirates baseball near and far.

“When I was 18, they (Pirates) gave me a chance to live out my dream,” said Blass, an inaugural member of the Pirates Hall of Fame at PNC Park (Class of 2022).

Polite, a smooth voice, honesty in each syllable spoken, I was in awe, in the moment, to be speaking with a bona fide baseball legend. Over my career, I have been standing before, with pad and pen at the ready, some of the greatest the game has produced – Bench, Musial, Berra, Brett, Banks, and now I’m officially adding Steve Blass to my list.

It sure was good to see Blass in a Pirates uniform once again. It is even better to know that the guy filling out the uniform is the pro I had always imagined.