WASHINGTON, Pa. -- We cover sports. Back when I worked in newspapers, the sports department was often referred to as the toy department.
The derisive thought was that the people covering sports for a living aren't really working, that they're playing at being journalists. Hopefully, those of you who follow our talented staff here realize that's not the case. You don't look down your nose at sports coverage when compared to news coverage.
But we do enjoy what we do, so much so, in fact, that it becomes an all-consuming thing. And sometimes, life passes us by.
We were all reminded of that this week with the passing of Dejan's mother, Vlatka Zgonc.
Covering sports, you miss things. Heck, a few years ago, the Steelers played on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Day. To make matters worse that year, they also played a game on my birthday. So much for spending the holidays with the family. Plenty of people talk about the athletes being asked to work on those days. Seldom does anyone ever think about the people who cover those events. And trust me, the athletes are paid much, much more to do what they do.
But our families understand. They might not like it. But they understand.
My own mother has taken to -- at least in non-COVID years -- holding Christmas in July. She knows that scheduling any family events in the fall and early winter won't include me. She learned this by seeing me miss weddings, funerals and other events over the past 28 years. If you weren't immediate family, there's a good chance I wasn't going to be able to make it.
That's why we sometimes have to make time to be with our loved ones, as I did two years ago when I coached a Mustang team in Washington with my two sons, Noah and Tanner. It gave us a chance to spend some time together -- a chance we wouldn't normally have gotten.
But that was all done while still being capable of doing the job. Baseball happens in the offseason for me.
In the instance that we've seen this week, the job sometimes have to take a back seat. We love the work. We love our families more.
Dejan will be back to work next week after burying his mother Monday. It won't be easy. Maybe a little bit of the joy he takes in doing his job won't be there -- at least not at first.
But life goes on. He'll always miss his mother. She'll always be a part of him. The loss will always hurt.
The job, however, can help you get through that.
BASEBALL NEARLY BACK
To the point made above, we're now less than 10 days away from the start of spring training in Bradenton, Fla.
Dejan will be flying to Florida -- his favorite place -- next weekend to cover the opening of the Pirates' spring training. The first full-squad workout is slated to be held Mon., Feb. 22.
Alex Stumpf will be following Dejan down a few days after that as the Grapefruit games -- hopefully -- begin Feb. 28.
Baseball will be back. That means spring is right around the corner. That might be difficult for people in Pittsburgh, where we've had snow covering the ground for the past two weeks, to believe. But it's here.
LUNCHTIME PODCAST DELAY
This past Monday, Feb. 8, Dejan was going to add to his DK Sports Radio programming with a lunch-time show that encourages you to participate but, given the week's circumstances, we had to put that on hold. When it finally happens -- sooner rather than later -- it will roll out live at 12:30 p.m. in our new studio, and you can contribute questions, comments, whatever through any means you choose.
WEEKLY APP TIP
Sharing ways to make your app experience even better:
• When you open comments, check the big blue horizontal bar across the top. The first word on the left is TRENDING. When you tap that, you'll see our current most-read, most-discussed stories on the site and, if you're intrigued by any of those headlines, just tap away.
Our previous three app tips:
• We now have RSS feeds. Insert this as your URL for reader -- https://www.dkpittsburghsports.com/feed -- and you'll have headlines sent your way.
• Use the blue horizontal bar that straddles across the home page with the buttons HOME, TODAY, VIDEOS and PODCASTS. We designed this as a way for you to have easy access from the home page to three additional key areas: TODAY is where we house a full schedule of that day's activities, including our coverage plan and multimedia appearances, as well as the What's Brewing feature. VIDEOS is where we house Morning Java, WPXI-TV shows and more. And PODCASTS is where ... oh, you know. Our numbers indicate this isn't getting much use, and that's disappointing. It's really smooth and efficient.
• We've unfurled the first of our statistical packages, that being for the Penguins, the one team that's currently in season. You can check it out right here, then tap on STANDINGS, STATISTICS and SCHEDULE on the big blue bar near the top of the page.
BACK TO BUSINESS
• Our page views for the past week were 408,221, and our most-read original piece was Taylor Haase's coverage of Brian Burke's comments about the Penguins' window being closed at 20,953. Broken down by team, the Penguins brought 30.1% of our traffic, the Steelers 17.3% and the Pirates 6.0%.
• Our podcast downloads for the past week were a yet-another-record 86,717. This thing just keeps growing.
• We're at 39,464 (+97) followers on Twitter, we're at 37,059 (-39) followers on Facebook, we're at 14,475 (-1) followers on Instagram, and we're at 972 (+7) followers on YouTube. These figures are just for our official company account on each platform, not for us as individuals.
• We make mistakes. If you see one, email: Typos@DKPittsburghSports.com
• Anything you need, including lost/forgotten passwords, email: Help@DKPittsburghSports.com
• Oh, and we had 1 active user of our app in the Faroe Islands this week. Where are the Faroe Islands, all but one of you might ask? It is a self-governing archipelago, part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It comprises 18 rocky, volcanic islands between Iceland and Norway in the North Atlantic Ocean, connected by road tunnels, ferries, causeways and bridges. It even has its own language, Faroese, which is Germanic, handed down from old Norse. For our visitor from the Faroe Islands, Vælkomin! (Welcome!)
