Listening to the Pittsburgh Pirates game this afternoon.
And on the radio comes Pirates second baseman Neil Walker promoting a fishing tournament sponsored by the Marcellus Shale Coalition.
The Marcellus Shale Coalition?
That would be the giant corporations that are threatening the drinking water of millions of residents by using hydraulic fracturing — aka fracking — to get to natural gas embedded in the Marcellus Shale region.
The fishing tournament is called the Marcellus Shale Coalition Three Rivers Challenge.
It’s not much more than a glorified way to whitewash a dirty industry.
Now, why would Neil Walker and the Pittsburgh Pirates put their good names on this dirty enterprise?
Don’t know, but ever since the Pirates joined the frackers, they haven’t won a game.
They’ve lost seven in a row.
Serves them right.
Fracking is a dirty business. It threatens the livelihood of millions in listening range of Pirates nation.
Baker has lived all of her life in Weztel County, West Virginia — just 100 miles south of Pittsburgh.
She says that fracking by Chesapeake Energy and other companies in the Marcellus Shale Coalition has turned her county from a quiet rural area into an industrial zone.
Baker says her quality of life has gone from a 10 to a 3.
The reasons?
Fracking increased big truck traffic, noise pollution, air pollution, night sky pollution and polluted the local drinking water supplies.
I’m an Orioles fan.
But in the National League, I like the Pirates.
They have the best designed ball cap in all of baseball.
I wear it all the time — to hide my balding head and to protect it from the sun.
Almost every Pirates game I’ve been to over the last three years, they’ve won.
So, why would they do this to me?
Why would they do this to their fans?
Walker is a hometown boy.
He should know better.
So should the Pirates.