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Pirates' new play-by-play man followed long road here

Joe Block, the Pirates’ new play-by-play man, can’t get enough baseball. In 2010, when he worked as a radio studio host for the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets, Block called the general manager of the Billings Mustangs, the Cincinnati Reds’ rookie-level minor league affiliate.

Block had summers off, so he spent the season in Billings, Mont., calling some of the more than 1,400 professional games he has worked in a career that included nine seasons broadcasting in the minor leagues. His latest stop: Pittsburgh, where, the team announced Saturday, he joins the Pirates broadcasting team as a play-by-play announcer.