DK'S GRIND

Kovacevic: Why true home games will matter

Dejan Kovacevic
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PNC Park, from the Clemente Bridge. - DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS

It isn't true, not in the slightest, that fans won't be able to watch the Pirates at PNC Park this summer.

As a good many folks who've made a casual stroll across the Clemente Bridge can attest, there's a segment of the western walkway, barely a slab of cement, where one can see through the sliver of space between the big batter's eye and the small metal-topped security building to see ... baseball.

Most prominently, it's where fans perched en masse in 2013, on the night of the Blackout, unable to get inside but eager for a peek. And several hours after Johnny Cueto dropped the ball, it's also where one of those same fans famously took a celebratory plunge into the Allegheny River below.

Hey, who wouldn't follow that guy now, right?

As the safer corners of our society gradually reopen from the coronavirus shutdown -- maybe even Pittsburgh someday, barring the further movement of goalposts in Harrisburg -- sports will return, too. They really will. There are all kinds of plans being leaked, willfully or otherwise, by the NHL, Major League Baseball and NBA, and almost all of them point toward an initial stirring near the end of this month, a revving up through June, and a full restart in July. That's no coincidence. They're working off the same information, the same directives.

Within that, just as gradually but also not coincidentally, those plans have morphed from single-city biospheres to allowing teams to play in their home venues. Which means, for us, the Penguins will compete for the Stanley Cup at PPG Paints Arena and the Pirates will open their 2020 season right where they belong, as well.

Man, that makes me smile.

Unsettling as all this has been, I'd dreaded as much as anything that the Penguins and Pirates would've been marooned for weeks or months way out in Phoenix or North Dakota or Saskatoon or wherever. Not for myself and not for our business, since we'll always go wherever we need to go. But rather, for our city itself.

Conversely, imagine later this summer passing Centre Avenue while seeing the marquee showing 'PENGUINS VS. FLYERS TONIGHT,' and knowing there's hockey happening in there. Or driving on the 10th Street Bypass, right by the water's edge on the Downtown side, glancing over at PNC Park with the toothbrush lights aglow, the scoreboard flickering, and knowing there's baseball happening in there.

See what I mean?

I'm neither an epidemiologist nor a sociologist to discern when exactly we'll cross over from the virus being a bigger danger to us than the economic/emotional damage of seemingly endless seclusion. But I'm betting, from no perspective beyond my own, that it won't be a hell of a lot longer.

On one hand, in addition to the coronavirus scene improving, from the curve finally flattening in New York, to more innovative and sweeping research, to more effective distribution of medical equipment, to the first credible emergence of a treatment, to the first credible sign of a vaccine, to the first credible expansion of testing ... it's far from over, but it's better now than at any stage yet. Even those who are paranoid about speaking an upbeat syllable on this subject would concede that much.

On the other hand, people are suffering terribly from those economic/emotional side effects. And it's worsening with each passing week. More companies, large and small, are closing. Yesterday alone, the retail giant J. Crew set up bankruptcy. The same happened, on an infinitely smaller level, at the Colony Cafe in our own Downtown, a place that my entire family and Taylor Haase loved visiting. Mostly to pet the cats but also for a pretty good cup of coffee:

Typically, in our politically intoxicated climate, few seem willing to consider both sides, and anyone who dares is seen as siding with one extreme or the other. But the truth, as ever, lies somewhere in the middle.

We need to take precautions for coronavirus. We need to assault with a full-barreled approach what's besieged our nation's nursing homes, where nearly two-thirds of all deaths have confirmed. We need to be aware that it's not over. We need to not be idiots about it.

We also need to find a way to function. To at least feel normal.

In my world and probably most of yours, since you're here reading, sports are part of that. The Steelers, Penguins, Pirates and our colleges are part of that. And the closer they are to home, the more home feels like a place we'd want to be rather than a place we're told to be.

• I've taken two stances above all others through this crisis:

1. Pittsburgh would be anchored to Philadelphia.

Uh, yep:

People here have every right to be furious at being restricted indefinitely because Gov. Tom Wolf was worried how Philadelphia, where most of his roots are, might react to seeing Pittsburgh set free.

Even since Allegheny County met the governor's own stated benchmark, while Philadelphia ... oh, just check out this graphic from the Philadelphia Inquirer itself:

[caption id="attachment_983030" align="aligncenter" width="640"] PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER[/caption]

It was as predictable as a Sidney Crosby vs. Claude Giroux career forecast.

2. No one will decide this but us.

That's not some hokey cry for freedom. Part of government's mandate at all levels is to protect citizens from very real threats, including those that are health-related, and this is undeniably that. It's literally ignorant to suggest otherwise.

No, this is only about reality. People will decide when they want to return to work. People will decide when they want to open businesses. People will decide when they want to return to shopping, eating and getting around the way they want. There are way more people than there are authorities, as has been the case since the dawn of civilization, and the people will ultimately do what they want.

Again, that's not a rallying cry. It's an observation. And it's not wrong.

• The NFL, as ever, is leading the way for sports, simply forging ahead. The 2020 schedule will still be released by this coming Saturday, as had long been the expectation, and everything else -- Steelers vs. Cowboys in the Hall of Fame Game Aug. 6, the season opener Sept. 10, the Super Bowl next Feb. 7 -- is staying put.

Subject to change and all that, but no hemming, no hawing, no leaking and retracting, like we're seeing from all the other leagues.

One of about a billion reasons football's No. 1 in this country.

• While the NFL leads, others follow. Which isn't all bad.

The NHL Draft, originally set for June 26-27 in Montreal, now looks like a good bet to be bumped ahead to early June, albeit in virtual form. The league and the member TV networks both loved what they saw of the NFL version, no doubt especially the record ratings, and the Board of Governors is expected to approve the change this week.

More sports, more smiles. And where hockey's concerned specifically, a chance to whet the whistle before the playoffs.

• We can shrug off sports in the current context, but real people work in sports, too.

ESPN research produced some staggering figures, for example, that a cancellation of the coming NFL and college football seasons would make for a cumulative $12 billion loss and cost hundreds of thousands of jobs. And mind you, that's the impact only on the teams, coaches, players, staff and so forth. Not on other businesses that rely on sports, such as the hospitality industry, the travel industry and tiny companies like this one.

The actual sports industry employs roughly 3 million people in our country, or 1 percent. I'd never heard that before, and I was blown away by it.

• Quick reminder: Sports have already restarted in other countries, notably the baseball in Taiwan and South Korea. Zero problems reported on either front to date.

[caption id="attachment_982898" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Oneil Cruz, Feb. 24 in Tampa, Fla. - GETTY[/caption]

• Optimistic as I've become about the big leagues returning, that's also how pessimistic I've become about the minors. There's just no way the Altoona and Morgantown types can withstand games without fans, and I'd say the same for Indianapolis, because they've all got the same thing in common: Zero revenue. Unlike the bigs, there are no TV deals, no persisting sponsorships, little else to weather such a storm while paying people to manage their ballparks.

As such, the Pirates and other teams risk losing invaluable development time with their better prospects, rare as they are.

As such, further, I'd love to see Ben Cherington prioritize keeping Cole Tucker, Ke'Bryan Hayes, maybe even Class AA shortstop Oneil Cruz on the big-league roster, since it'll be expanded, anyway. The only loss beyond the obvious lack of experienced depth would be a burned year of service time for each player, but is that worth it compared to the organizational edge of building those guys up?

It's worth a thought. Weird situation.

• Looking forward to hearing from both Derek Shelton and the Penguins' Matt Murray this afternoon on calls.

• You'll see nothing the rest of your day that's more amazing than this:

We'll get there. Not to Lithuania, but to the end of all this ongoing garbage. We will.

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