Jerry DiPaola stories, Page 129

Through their love of hockey and golf, Mike Eruzione has become close friends with Mario Lemieux over the years. One night not long ago, Eruzione, his wife, Donna, and their 6-year-old grandson, Michael, attended a Boston University game with Lemieux, his wife, Nathalie, and their daughters. Lemieux’s son, Austin, was...

Jeff Capel makes all the tough calls during a Pitt game. Zone or man-to-man? Don’t forget to box out. Shoot the 3. Pull it back and run the weave. Those are basketball-related matters he has employed as a player and designed and taught as a coach for most of his...

The question didn’t require an immediate answer, but Derek Shelton had one ready. “Who’s your opening day starter?” the Pittsburgh Pirates’ first-year manager was asked at PiratesFest, two months and two days before the season begins March 26 in Tampa. Shelton’s answer: “You got an opinion?” Everyone does, of course,...

Jeff Capel has been a winner on a variety of levels. He won a North Carolina high school championship as a player. As a coach, he came home from international competition, including the 2016 Rio Olympics, with gold medals around his neck. On Mike Krzyzewski’s staff at Duke, he was...

Two seasons ago, the Pittsburgh Pirates had an outfield of Corey Dickerson, Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco — all on the under side of 30 with specific, serviceable skill sets. • Dickerson, the left fielder, was on his way to a .300 season. • Marte ended 2018 with an impressive...

All you need to know about Ben Cherington’s and Derek Shelton’s expectations for the Pittsburgh Pirates is the team’s second-most-productive run producer doesn’t have a lock on his job. Chances are, Colin Moran will be difficult to unseat at third base (at least early in the season). He hit .277...

When news of the coaching vacancy at Michigan State reached Heather Lyke’s office in Petersen Events Center, she made the most logical, reasonable and — as it turns out — crucial move possible. She called Pat Narduzzi. “I wanted to make sure he knew we wanted him to be at...

Pat Narduzzi has lived, worked and fretted through several national signing days during a college coaching career that spans three decades. Now, under NCAA rules adopted three years ago, he gets to do it twice per year. But the 53-year-old Pitt coach rolls with the times and said, “Sometimes, you...

Kicker Ben Sauls, who gave Iowa State a verbal commitment last week, now identifies himself on his Twitter account as a “Pitt football commit.” He can make his Pitt commitment official Wednesday by signing a binding letter of intent. Sauls, who attends Tippecanoe High School in Tipp City, Ohio, committed...

The reality Pitt must contend with Wednesday night when it visits Notre Dame is the simple fact the Irish can score. They are second in the ACC with an average of 76.8 points per game. But Pitt has been good at keeping opponents’ point totals at a reasonable level. The...

If Kevin Kramer was a shallow thinker without much ambition, he might have welcomed MLB’s roster expansion from 25 to 26 players. He might have seen it as an easier way to sneak onto the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 2020 roster. But Kramer, 26, responded to a question about 26-man rosters with...

After Notre Dame lost to Syracuse, 84-82, last month, Irish coach Mike Brey was looking for help anywhere he could find it. It was one day after Brey’s high school coach, the legendary Morgan Wootten, died at age 88. Brey played for and coached with Wootten at DeMatha Catholic in...

The question facing Pitt as it ventures into the second half of its ACC schedule is this: Can the Panthers win 10 conference games? Never mind Pitt has done that only once in six previous seasons (11-7 in 2014), and the Panthers have averaged fewer than five in the others....

In a season where the displaced Duquesne basketball team is playing so-called home games in three different venues around Allegheny County, a crowd of 7,001 showed up Wednesday night at PPG Paints Arena. It was loud. It was engaged. And many of those in attendance made the four-hour drive from...

During the football season, David Girardi doesn’t see much sun. He arrives at work in morning darkness and leaves well after the sun goes down. Tough duty, sure, but he embraces it like found gold. This week, however, the sun is out — literally and figuratively. Girardi and his employers,...

Chris Doleman, one of the NFL’s most feared pass rushers of all-time and one of nine former Pitt players to earn induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, died Tuesday night after a prolonged battle with brain cancer. Doleman was 58. Doleman, a defensive end and outside linebacker, was...