A region bound together
McKees Rocks and Mt. Lebanon are very different communities. So, for that matter, are Wilkinsburg and Waynesburg, Lawrence and Lawrenceville, and East Washington and Mt. Washington.
One thing that binds the disparate Pittsburgh region together, however, is its no-holds-barred affection for the city’s big-league sports teams. Pittsburgh is not a place like Atlanta, where even a playoff run by the Braves is greeted with yawns and empty seats, or Jacksonville, Fla., where the mediocre Jaguars typically generate the kind of excitement and devotion one associates with a television series canceled at midseason. When the Pirates are hitting on all four cylinders, just about every seat at PNC Park is filled. When the Steelers have a Sunday home game in the fall, most business comes to a halt. This fact was recently noted on social media by a newcomer to this area from New Jersey, who pointed to the region’s rich sports history, and marveled how 16,000 fans paid $10 apiece to watch the sixth game in the Stanley Cup finals at Consol Energy Center Sunday, “as if the game was being played there.” They got more than their money’s worth, of course, when the Penguins defeated the San Jose Sharks, marking the fourth time in the club’s history it has won a Stanley Cup (the three other times were in 1991, 1992 and 2009).
A parade is happening in Pittsburgh today to celebrate the victory. Whether or not you are a fan of hockey – it remains a niche obsession for most Americans – it’s worth commemorating the Penguins’ triumph for the glory it brings to the region and how it brings people of all stripes together. Business executives who inhabit the upper levels of downtown skyscrapers will be rubbing shoulders with the folks who clean their offices as the Penguins and the Stanley Cup pass by on the parade route.
Now, as the newcomer from New Jersey noted, “if the Pirates can just get their pitching together …”