Early Season Beat Writer Change at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette?

EDIT: Colin Dunlap is leaving the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for family reasons, as he detailed below.

colin_dunlap
Sportswriting, you've been great. But today I decided I'm going to chase other things -- and more important, spend more time w/ my twins.

Should be interesting to see how the PG handles it. Do they try and make do with the current staff, since the Pirates are expected to eventually tank here and lose close to 90 games? I would assume if they go that route that they'd open the gig in the winter.

Or do they try and poach someone like John Perrotto to fill in for the time being? Considering trades are always a possibility, I would imagine finding someone with connections would be a major priority.

Also, how often do major paper beat changes occur mid-season? I can only think of Chico Harlan at the Washington Post, but maybe others have gone more quietly in the last few years.

 

This is surprising. I'm wondering if he was offered a radio job.

 

That sucks for us. Best of luck to him though.

 

Expected to tank? That's still up in the air?

 

Second half of the season, the Pirates manager calls the games in and the desk puts together a story.

 

Eh, they're hovering around .500 with a pretty young core. It's a little out of the ordinary. Usually this time of the year, they're hanging around .500 with a bunch of castoffs. So there's some hope within the city that they might stay around this level and take a step forward.

Of course, there's also hope that a magic ray will turn all of the Pittsburgh women into Perfect 10s...

 

"I got 'em but I don't have the players' names, just their numbers..."

 

"We play the Giants tomorrow...if you guys can send someone, that'd be great."

 

They never have the score of the JV game either.

EDIT: Oh, it's the Pirates ... they are the JV game.

 

"By not covering us you're costing our guys scholarships to the Yankees and Red Sox!"

 

The thread title put an image in my head of the sports editor glumly looking toward the preps writers, sighing once, then tapping his keyboard to signal for the change.