Just Watch the Game

Stories, opinions and insults from a veteran journalist in America's best sports town

By: John Steigerwald

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Just Watch the Game, a 'memoir' about Pittsburgh and its sports teams by veteran sportscaster John Steigerwald is especially aimed at Pittsburghers and ex-Pittsburghers. But fans of the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates everywhere will be pleased by John's stories, dry humor and no-nonsense opinions about what is wrong and right with a sports world that has forgotten that the games themselves are what matters most, not the hype and hoopla surrounding them. Steigerwald has been covering Pittsburgh's sports as a TV and radio reporter, newspaper columnist and talk show host since 1977. Steigerwald was raised in the suburbs on a steady diet of sports iin the 1950s and 1960s. He was going to Pirates games at Forbes Field when Roberto Clemente was a rookie and to Steelers games when the team was the laughing stock of the NFL. During his long career on Pittsburgh's top TV stations he had up-close encounters with Pittsburgh superstars Terry Bradshaw, Mario Lemieux, Barry Bonds and Arnold Palmer, not to mention the late Chuck Noll, heavyweight champion Michael Moorer and Howard Cosell. An eclectic collection of short stories and essays, Just Watch the Game is the unique, funny and unflinchingly critical memoir of a veteran sports journalist who has enjoyed his life playing, watching and critiquing sports. He reflects on riding the buses in minor league baseball, experiencing the rise and fall of local TV news, pinch-hitting for Dale Berra and “starring” in a movie with Michael Keaton. Against the background of the inexorable dumbing down of the American sports fan and the tragic feminization of the American male, Steigerwald offers radical but sensible thoughts on everything from the disappearance of the pickup game to the Super Bowl. This is not a collection of famous or big-time sporting events Steigerwald has covered since the 1970s. It's a book about people -- including a day spent in a car with Satchel Paige -- and he takes on icons, including Mister Rogers, PNC Park and women sportscasters. .... "If you don't like opinions, especially if they don't mirror yours, don't read the book. It's irreverent, politically incorrect and as fun to read as any 'sports' book you'll pick up. -- Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette