DETROIT - Doc Emrick has built a Hall of Fame reputation behind a hockey microphone, but the baseball side of him has always belonged to the Pirates.
Friday at Comerica Park, before Pittsburgh faced the Tigers, Emrick talked like someone who has carried that fandom for decades. He can even point to the moment it truly took hold: Aug. 9, 1959, when the Pirates beat the Cubs in 10 innings at Wrigley Field and Elroy Face got the win. Emrick, who grew up in Fontaine, Ind., was there.
He had already been drawn in by listening to Bob Prince on the radio. Seeing the team win in person sealed it.
“I was hooked,” Emrick said Friday before the Pirates played the Tigers at Comerica Park. Emrick lives in St. Clair, Mich., about an hour north.
“I got to see three World Series championships, and the last guy who was on the mound when they won a World Series was Kent Tekulve. I’m proud to know him and have been around him down at fantasy camp.”
It had been about five years since Emrick had been to a Major League game, so being back around the action meant plenty to him. He watches every Pirates game at home and will join the SportsNet Pittsburgh broadcast alongside Greg Brown and John Wehner.
Before the game, he was all smiles as he spent time with manager Don Kelly and greeted players, including Spencer Horwitz, who is known as a hockey fan.
“This is a special treat for me,” Emrick said. “The fact that I can see the Rock and Brownie and actually sit in with them [Friday], that’s special to me.”
Emrick also went through Pirates fantasy camp in 2012, and he urged anyone thinking about it to go for it.
On the field, a few players have stood out to him this season. Brandon Lowe and Ryan O’Hearn, starting with their Opening Day homers, have been two of his favorites because of the way they keep showing up in key spots.
On the pitching side, Paul Skenes is the obvious headliner. Mason Montgomery’s rise this season has also caught Emrick’s eye, and it led him into a very Emrick-style Ryne Duren reference.
“I like to see pitches thrown 100 or 101 miles per hour, because I could only imagine that when I was watching back in an earlier era,” Emrick said. “There was a pitcher for the New York Yankees that had Coke bottle glasses named Ryne Duren, and Yogi Berra felt that he probably pitched 90 miles an hour.
“Nobody wanted to bat against him, especially on a cold day. That was 90 [mph] and considered to be off the charts back then. The standard now is so much different.
“But to have confidence in a closer that comes out of the bullpen and you realize he’s probably got this thing, that’s really, really good. … I wish he could pitch every game. But you can’t expect that with that kind of velocity, for somebody to pitch every game.”
As for Skenes, Emrick likes the attention he brings to MLB and sees it as a point of pride for Pittsburgh. He also isn’t bothered that Skenes’ 2026 performance didn’t match what came before.
“The first couple of years, the standard was so high,” Emrick said. “How is a human being going to rise above that for a third year in a row?
Some of these recent outings that he’s had have been spectacular. It’s something to look forward to for the future.”
Emrick retired in October 2020 after 47 years in hockey broadcasting, including calling the Stanley Cup Finals 22 times. During the Penguins’ run of success, he was often around Pittsburgh and worked Pirates references into his hockey broadcasts when he could.
He also has a Pittsburgh connection through Geneva College, where he taught speech and broadcasting, a detail that only adds to his honorary Yinzer status.
For Emrick, though, the appeal of Pittsburgh goes beyond his own ties. It’s the way the city has embraced him, and the way it has kept producing athletes across sports.
“I’m just glad to be around you folks and travel into Pittsburgh now and then,” Emrick said. “I was thinking the other day, the city of Pittsburgh has had so many wonderful athletes in football, baseball and hockey.
It’s easy to get spoiled. Not every city has that many that have been that prominent.
And they tend to stay around there, don’t they?
“There’s not an edge to people in Pittsburgh. There’s just a general feeling that’s good.”
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