Jerry DiPaola stories

I guess my love for the written word began on the living room floor at 326 Elizabeth Ave. I was nuts for the Pirates and Pirates box scores, and I used to spread out the Pittsburgh Press newspaper on the floor and devour every detail from the previous day’s game....

Kenny Pickett stood alone Saturday in a corner of Acrisure Stadium, familiar turf to the former Pitt and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback. While Pitt players — wearing the colors he used to wear — warmed up for the Blue-Gold Game that signifies the end of spring drills, Pickett was thinking about...

Hours before Pitt’s Blue-Gold Game on Saturday at Acrisure Stadium, coach Pat Narduzzi named wide receiver Kenny Johnson and cornerback Shadarian Harrison winners of the Ed Conway Award, emblematic of the most improved players during spring drills. Johnson, a junior, is the first wide receiver so honored since Tre Tipton...

The first of Pitt basketball’s transfer portal additions became official Friday when coach Jeff Capel announced the signing of former Iowa State center Dishon Jackson. Jackson (6-foot-11, 270 pounds) made a verbal commitment to the Panthers on April 4. He has one season of eligibility remaining. “Dishon is an aggressive...

Spring football sounds a little like an oxymoron, two words that just don’t fit perfectly into each other. Purists believe football is meant to be played in the fall. Coaches love spring ball, however, for the foundation it lays for summer training camp and how it reveals players with potential...

Kade Bell can’t sit down with his father, Kerwin, to talk ball as often as he would like, but when they do, the ideas likely fly almost as fast as their offenses move from one play to the next. Often, the subject is quarterbacks, a given considering Kade is Pitt’s...

Only three scholarship players from this season’s team remain on Pitt’s men’s basketball roster after forward Papa Amadou Kante entered the transfer portal Wednesday, a source confirmed to TribLive. Kante, a redshirt freshman from Dakar, Senegal, missed 2023-24 with a knee injury and played sparingly this season. He joins five...

If you’re planning to attend Pitt’s Blue-Gold Game on Saturday — admission at Acrisure Stadium is free — you might want to see how and if the offensive line has improved. In Pitt’s spring quest to get ready for summer training camp and set up the team for success in...

One look at Pitt’s Julian Dugger immediately tells you he is seriously unlike many of his teammates. And not just because he plays quarterback, the most important position on the field. He stands 6-foot-3 and is 205 pounds, and he is blessed with those long legs built for striding that...

The process of rebuilding Pitt’s roster continued to go through Ames, Iowa, on Monday when former Iowa State freshman Nojus Indrusaitis committed to coach Jeff Capel. Indrusaitis, a 6-foot-5, 200-pound guard from Lithuania, will join Iowa State teammate and center Dishon Jackson, who pledged Friday to enroll at Pitt. ????...

Only hours after getting some good news from the transfer portal, Pitt coach Jeff Capel received the worst news Saturday morning when Jaland Lowe, the team’s point guard and best player, committed to Kentucky. A source confirmed the news, originally reported by ESPN, 247Sports.com and On3.com. NEWS: Pitt transfer Jaland...

Pitt coach Jeff Capel began the big job of rebuilding his roster Friday when former Iowa State center Dishon Jackson pledged to join the team next season, a source confirmed to TribLive. Jackson (6-foot-11, 274 pounds) started 33 of his 35 games for the Cyclones this season, averaging 8.5 points...

Mitch Keller’s shoulders remain strong in his seventh big-league season, but they don’t need to carry all the weight of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 2-6 start. Nonetheless, he was willing Friday night to admit the truth after he allowed seven runs and couldn’t finish the fourth inning in the Pirates’ 9-4...

The names Kyle Louis, Rasheem Biles and Braylan Lovelace are familiar to Pitt fans as linebackers who made an impact last season as sophomores. But spring football practice is intended to lay a foundation of depth, and that’s where younger linebackers such as sophomore Jeremiah Marcelin and redshirt freshman Cam...

The offense committed only one turnover among about 130 plays. Backup quarterback Julian Dugger ran 69 yards for a touchdown. Wide receivers Deuce Spann and Zion Fowler-El made big plays in the passing game. The running game was “solid,” according to Pat Narduzzi. The coach’s overall assessment of Pitt’s closed...

From Madison Square Garden to Civic Arena to UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, Ray Goss has been a fixture at Duquesne men’s basketball calling play-by-play for 57 seasons. The grand total of games comes to nearly 2,700, more than half of those played in the program’s 109-year history. This offseason will offer...

A bad piece of offseason news struck Pitt basketball Tuesday morning when sophomore point guard Jaland Lowe announced his intention to enter the NCAA transfer portal, a source told TribLive. If he leaves the program, Lowe would be the fifth scholarship player to announce plans to transfer since the end...

The inability to perform one of baseball’s most basic and important tasks — hitting safely with runners in scoring position — haunted the Pittsburgh Pirates throughout all four games of their season-opening series in Miami. The Pirates lost three of the four in one-run, walk-off fashion, including 3-2 to the...

Nick Gonzales, who has a non-displaced ankle fracture, will have a CT scan Monday in Pittsburgh, general manager Ben Cherington said Sunday on his radio show on 93.7 The Fan. “We’ll know a little bit more there, don’t expect that we’re going to learn a lot more,” Cherington said. Gonzales...

Catcher Henry Davis started his fifth season in professional baseball in Triple-A Indianapolis, but Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington still believes in Davis, the first player selected in the 2021 MLB Draft. Especially his ability behind the plate. “We really believe in where Henry’s headed,” Cherington said Sunday on...

When Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton reviews the video of his team’s 5-4 loss to the Miami Marlins on Saturday, a variety of problems will jump off the screen. • Two of his runners were thrown out at home plate. • Oneil Cruz failed to hit the cutoff man again,...

The ninth inning of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 4-3 victory against the Miami Marlins on Friday night lasted 18 pitches and barely seven minutes. Long enough for David Bednar to record his first save of the season and, perhaps, inject the two-time All-Star closer with the swagger and confidence he’ll need...

Guard D.J. Smith made it a clean sweep Friday when he became the fifth member of the Robert Morris starting lineup to announce plans to enter the transfer portal, verbalcommits.com reported. Smith joins former RMU teammates Kam Woods, Alvaro Folgueiras, Amarion Dickerson and Josh Omojafo, all of whom have decided...

The Pittsburgh Pirates placed second baseman Nick Gonzales on the 10-day injured list Friday with a non-displaced fracture in his left ankle. Gonzales, who hit a home run Thursday in the loss to the Miami Marlins, originally injured the ankle Sunday when he hit a foul ball off his ankle...

The Pittsburgh Pirates showed Friday night what can happen when the baseball lands where it’s supposed to go — in the fielders’ gloves. After two passed balls, an error and a fly ball that should have been caught turned into the decisive run in an Opening Day loss, the Pirates...