When I wrote my rant about the Pittsburgh Penguins' and the Los Angeles Lakers' parades last issue, I never imagined I would have so many responses telling me that my facts were wrong. Headlines on ESPN.com read that tens of thousands of fans flooded the streets of Pittsburgh. I will always see ESPN as a highly credible source in the world of sports news until they do something outrageously wrong and fail to admit it. I admit that I did not verify the numbers with the city of Pittsburgh or their newspapers, feeling that I would not have to research any further than ESPN.com.

I have nothing against the city of Pittsburgh itself. I think it’s a beautiful city. I also know that Detroit has almost three times the population as Pittsburgh – roughly 917,000 versus 317,000 according to the 2008 and 2006 census respectively.

That being said, the foundation of my column still stands strong: the parade did not bring out as many fans as past Detroit parades. Population and unemployment rates set aside; there are countless amounts of people who call in sick the day of parades to celebrate the teams they love dearly. I do believe there are still some die-hard Lions fans somewhere out there. I also know that the Steelers have some of the greatest fans in all of the NFL. They have their fan Web sites that talk smack about us and we do the same. It’s part of what makes professional sports so much fun for the fans to be a part of.

It seems that a lot of people stopped reading after a particular sentence. My column went on to mention the Los Angeles Lakers parade as well. Did anyone notice that?

Am I instigating a budding rivalry between the Motor City and Steel City? Well, what fun are professional sports without a little rivalry? Yes, Detroit and Pittsburgh are a lot alike, which I think makes the rivalry even better.

Like many sports writers, I do my absolute best to look at the wide world of sports in a fair and balanced way. The Tigers and Pistons are actually not my favorite MLB and NBA teams. Shocking, right? Yes, I am a die-hard Red Wings fan, but that’s not to say that even if I were a Boston Bruins or Vancouver Canucks fan, I wouldn’t look at the 2008 and 2009 parades and feel the same way.

I will say this about the Pittsburgh parade: You never once considered not having a parade due to economic problems. Kudos to you for that.

I’m not saying the Pittsburgh doesn’t have great fans. I know it does. Their fans kept the Penguins in Pittsburgh. I’m sure Detroit would do the same if confronted with the same dilemma. I’m saying that if they really want to be considered as much of a Hockeytown as Detroit is, they need to be able to compete with the parades. Maybe next year, Pittsburgh, we can have this showdown again.

 

 

Editor's note:

The Michigan Times acknowledges the fact that the column "Pittsburgh and LA's Tens of Thousands of Fans??? That's all??" stated there were "tens of thousands" of fans at the Pittsburgh Penguins' and Los Angeles Lakers' parades. Though this figure was taken from a reliable source, it was not necessarily a correct figure and The Michigan Times should have looked into this matter before publishing the column. All necessary steps will be taken in the future so a similar error does not happen again.

 

 

- Jennifer Profitt, editor-in-chief