Raising The Jolly Roger: Neverett Adds Voice To Pittsburgh Baseball Crew

At the end of yet another long season of unfulfilled hopes and dreams, Pittsburgh Pirates fans took another shot in the gut.

Longtime broadcaster Lanny Frattare was retiring from the team's radio and TV booth after 33 years on the mic.

Immediately, Pittsburgh Pirates diehards became worried that Frattare's departure coupled with Steve Blass's retirement from road games a few years earlier would spell doom for the Pirates best feature: their announcing crew.

Fans' hopes weren't raised much when it was announced that relatively unknown Tim Neverett would be assuming Frattare's hallowed spot in the booth next to fellow play-by-play man Greg Brown and color analysts, and former Pirates, Steve Blass, Bob Walk, and John Wehner.

How would Neverett handle the Pirates games, so often ending in doom?

How would he handle Wehner and his all-to-often comically obvious comments?

How would he handle the friendly ribbing so often a part of the crew's broadcasts?

Could he even answer the Aflac Trivia Questions in the fifth inning?

Many fans, myself included, held our collective breath as Neverett took to the airwaves on opening day from St. Louis.

My initial impression was that his voice wasn't that much different from Lanny Frattare's.  My second impression was that he wasn't anything particularly special.

Then the game got interesting and Neverett got every bit as excited about a late inning rally as Mike Lange would about a meaningless third period goal in a 5-1 Penguins loss.

Then, as Matt Capps nailed down the Pirates first win of 2009, Neverett added his simple, yet effective exclamation point: "BALLGAME!"

It's no "Raise the Jolly Roger" or "There was no doubt about it," but it'll do for now.

Since that first game, Neverett has become more and more comfortable and has settled in with the rest of Pittsburgh's always-stellar baseball crew. 

Sure Wehner's comments often trend toward the blindingly obvious.  He's part of the culture now, from his sometimes insightful, sometimes bumbling comments, to his penchant for sitting in the all-you-can-eat outfield seats on his days off from the booth.

Brown is the other half of the play-by-play team, adding a calming, yet excitable voice to the crew.  Brown's voice is now nearly as recognizable as Frattare's or even Lange's. 

Blass and Walk, like Wehner, are former players now manning the booth.  Both are excellent color commentators.  Both provide great insight into the game.

Perhaps most importantly, all five of Pittsburgh's radio and TV rotation instill hope in fans that the Pirates will win each night's game. 

They hold out hope until the last out regardless of the score.  For a team still seeking its first winning season since Sid Bream slid into home plate for the Atlanta Braves in late 1992, that might make all the difference.

Either way, Tim Neverett will be just fine in the booth.  Not quite a month into the season, he's already one of the guys.

He's not too bad at those trivia questions either.