To see what a burden that can be, just look across town at the Penguins. They're finishing the season with a stretch-run stumble that has talk show chatter focused on what changes will be made if (when?) they falter again in the playoffs.
People want to know who will be fired if they again fall short of the Stanley Cup Final, never mind that the general manager, the coaching staff and about 50 percent of the roster have been replaced in the last 10 months.
The Pirates are no longer the cute story of the little engine that could, the low-budget upstart that elbowed its way into the postseason as a wild card.
They're being seen as a legitimate contender, nothing less than a potential World Series champion, according to respected ESPN analyst Buster Olney. Of course, if projections from well-known cable analysts mattered that much, Kris Benson would have won the Cy Young Award, as Peter Gammons predicted in 1996.
Instead, Benson wound up being famous for marrying a former pole dancer who livened up Howard Stern's show with her lack of inhibitions.
But clearly this is a different kind of Pirates team, with potential horse Gerrit Cole primed to establish himself as a No. 1 starter. There are veterans lined up behind him in the rotation so that perennial question mark Charlie Morton can be pushed to No. 5.
The everyday lineup has an interesting mix of speed and power, especially if Pedro Alvarez is back on track after a lost season. The Pirates have never won without an MVP-caliber talent in the middle of the order, and Andrew McCutchen fits that description.
Some of this is pinned on more hope than hard evidence. Was Josh Harrison's breakthrough season truly the start of something big? Can Francisco Cervelli stay healthy and replace the many qualities that Russell Martin provided? Can Gregory Polanco benefit from last year's hard lessons and significantly improve? Can Cole overcome the shoulder issues that limited him to 22 starts last year? Can Alvarez play first base?
It wasn't that long ago when people were trying to figure out if the Pirates had enough to win 82 games and break that ugly streak of losing seasons.
Budgeting for World Series tickets is a lot more fun, but those expectations can be a heavy weight, too.
Just ask Ray Shero and Dan Bylsma.
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--FANTASY FOOTBALL
Mike Tomlin stopped by Pirates camp while he was in Florida on business and proved that football coaches never really stop thinking about football.
Tomlin repeated his idea that 6-foot-7 reliever Jared Hughes would make a formidable tight end and said that McCutchen would look good settling under a punt.
McCutchen played football in high school until he injured a knee and turned to baseball exclusively. He made the right decision.
Given the huge financial commitments teams make to players, we probably won't see multi-sport pro athletes like Deion Sanders and Brian Jordan again.
But wouldn't it be fun to see McCutchen wearing black and gold at Heinz Field as a kick returner?
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--WRONG NUMBERS
The "Nightly Sports Call" on WPCW has been a consistent low-cost profit center for KDKA-TV.
The 10:35 p.m. show uses a KDKA staffer and producer, who are already on duty, along with a sidekick from the Post-Gazette who is paid by the paper.
The set and production values look like "Wayne's World," but the show fills time and makes money.
It's also notorious as a playground for prank callers, who are now in the habit of posting their work on the Internet.
Things hit a breaking point recently when a caller, who was censored, used a racial slur and was followed by another caller also looking to cause trouble. With the end of the show looming, an exasperated Gene Collier disconnected and walked off the set at host Bob Pompeani's urging.
Apparently thinking they were off the air, Collier asked Pompeani, "Can't we do something about this (crap)," except he used a different word that got on the air.
In a world where caller ID is readily available, it would seem basic to either block or identify problem callers, yet that doesn't seem to be happening.
But that's "Nightly Sports Call:" Come for the discussion, stay for the train wreck.
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