Rocco DeMaro, host of the Pirates post-game show Extra Innings for the past four seasons, revealed some unfortunate news on his Twitter feed this afternoon.
I was fired from Clear Channel today.
…
I sit here, heartbroken, at the thought that I may never be able to connect with the great Pirates fans of Pittsburgh the way I did over the past four years of my life.
But on the other hand, many people work their entire lives without ever loving what they do. In that respect, I feel extraordinarily lucky to have been given the last four years.
Clear Channel left DeMaro’s farewell post on the web for about 15 minutes, before removing all of his content from their website. DeMaro re-posted the message on Facebook, and Brian McElhinny of Raise the Jolly Roger posted it here as well.
This is disappointing to hear, as DeMaro is one of the most knowledgeable people in Pittsburgh sports talk radio when it comes to the Pirates. He has been a voice of reason, providing actual analysis when most prefer to stick with tired one-liners about cheap ownership. The airwaves are worse off without his presence.
I doubt that DeMaro will be out of a job long. He built up a strong following on Extra Innings, which makes me think his departure is mostly due to budgetary concerns. He wrote in his farewell post that Extra Innings actually drew better ratings than the games themselves, which is pretty amazing. That sort of success was surely noticed by someone out there. I believe Clear Channel’s contract with the Pirates ends after the 2011 season, so maybe we will even be fortunate enough to hear him on the team’s post-game show again someday.
I will leave you with a few of my favorite clips from Extra Innings. Best of luck, Rocco.
