BEAVER TOWNSHIP — In a little over a week, Pittsburgh Pirates pitchers and catchers will report for spring training in Bradenton, Florida, to begin preparations for the upcoming Major League Baseball season.

Greg Brown, a fixture in the catbird seat for the team the past four decades, will begin his 32nd season behind the microphone when he broadcasts their first game of the spring. That will come on Feb. 22, when they travel to Sarasota to take on the Baltimore Orioles.

The Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania native, who is just one year shy of Lanny Frattare (33 years) in terms of service with the club, still approaches each year with a youthful enthusiasm despite the nearly 4,500 games he has called.

“I always look forward to every year,” Brown told the Curbstone Coaches during Monday’s meeting at Avion Banquet Center. “The 31 have been great, but I always look forward to the next year regardless of the previous season. For me, it has been a blast and I believe that No. 32 will be even better. Steve Blass always used to say this is a great job when the team wins and when the team loses, it’s still a great job.”

There is quiet optimism since the Pirates’ pitching staff is considered one of the best in the National League.

“I don’t know if it’s anything the team has done over the winter that will make fans rush to the ballpark. What will make them rush to the ballpark is what made them rush there the first half of last year and that was when Paul Skenes arrived,” Brown said. “That’s when the team started to gel and they started winning games. Fans were rushing to the ticket office or going online to grab their tickets and I think that still holds true.

“They just have to kind of figure out a way to take the next step together. Right now, the big add-on has been first baseman Spencer Horowitz from Toronto. Unless you are a hardcore baseball fan and have watched Spencer over his career, average fans don’t know a lot about him so that won’t make them rush to buy tickets, but I think it won’t be long before they see that, along with the other players and some of the tweaks they have made with the bullpen. Endy Rodriguez is coming back after being out an entire year while Johan Oviedo will be returning at some point to either the rotation or bullpen.

“What makes me excited, which should make fans excited, is our rotation. I listen to other broadcasts, whether it is MLB radio or what I read around the league, pundits talking about how this rotation may be the best in baseball and certainly one that opponents don’t want to face in a short series. That’s the goal, to get to the postseason and let those guys shine, because they will play a significant role in getting them beyond the regular season.

Brown has made many memorable calls, but several stick out to the veteran play-caller.

“I always tell people that probably my favorite baseball broadcasting moment was when John Wehner hit the last home run ever at Three Rivers Stadium,” he said. “Just because of our friendship, my knowledge of his amazing background, his climb to the big leagues, where he came from, the fact that he was not a home run hitter and was barely in the starting lineup over parts of 10 years.

“The fact that Gene Lamont, our manager at the time, had the wherewithal, the knowledge, the sense and the class to insert this part-time player and Pittsburgh-native into the starting line-up, then for Wehner to hit the last home run ever at Three Rivers Stadium, that stands out as my top broadcasting moment. Then there’s the wild-card game, the three-year playoff run, the postseasons and those are special, too.

“There have been individual moments, like when Pedro Alvarez hit a walk-off home run against the Colorado Rockies. Steve Blass and I were in the radio booth together and we both kind of went nuts, even though the Pirates weren’t going anywhere. The last out of the wild-card game with Neil Walker throwing it to first base and the Pirates advancing to the division series, those are just some moments that stand out.”

Brown is one of four sports announcers with Major League ties that honed their craft locally at WFMJ-TV, Channel 21.

He joins current Colorado Rockies announcer Jack Corrigan, former Major League manager Chuck Tanner and recently retired Joe Castiglione of the Boston Red Sox.

“Joe is just an iconic voice,” Brown said. “When people associate the Red Sox with broadcasters, it’s Joe and that will live on. Now he’s in Cooperstown and deservedly so. He’s one of those guys, kind of like with Bob Uecker in Milwaukee who recently passed away. The press boxes in Boston and Milwaukee just won’t be the same this year and I will miss those visits.”

Brown doesn’t shy away from predicting the Pirates’ outcome this season.

“I always predict a championship and people will sometimes chuckle at it, but one of these years I am going to be right, then they will say Greg Brown told me that and I laughed at him, so I am going to predict another championship this year,” he said. “If you were to ask every Pirates player going into spring training, honestly, what is your goal? What do you want the Pirates to do? Well, it is to win a championship, so I know that’s how each and every one of them feels.

“We are going to try to win a championship. As a broadcaster, I will take a page out of their book and say the same thing. I believe in these guys, I believe that they sincerely believe they are going to win a championship, and it’s not such a pie in the sky idea with this rotation because it is a cliche that in order to win championships in baseball, you have to win by pitching. With most teams, or at least the vast majority over the years, that is true. The Pirates have the starting pitching now, so they can build off that and it can become a reality. They actually can win a championship with this pitching and that is not so far-fetched.”

On Monday, Robb Schmidt, YSU associate athletic director and Penguins’ basketball play-by-play broadcaster will serve as guest speaker.