PITTSBURGH — "It's been a crap storm," Steve Blass was saying early Wednesday evening. "I'll call you right back."

Turns out Blass had just stepped foot back in Pittsburgh, returning from his winter home in Tampa, Fla., and had locked himself out of his South Hills apartment on his way to an event at the Roberto Clemente Museum in Lawrenceville.

In other words, I didn't sense the man slowing down much, a few weeks shy of his 82nd birthday.

Sure enough, Blass called right back — and the stress lifted when I brought up two of his favorite topics: the Pirates and the Baltimore Orioles, who meet Friday in the Pirates' home opener. Blass will be on the field before the game, signing autographs and supporting newly elected Hall of Famer Jim Leyland, who is throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.

Blass might be the Pirates' all-time greatest ambassador. He has been affiliated with the organization since signing his first contract for $4,000 on June 2, 1960.

"I will never turn my back on the Pirates," Blass once said. "It's limitless. It's there forever."

His greatest contribution, of course, was beating the vaunted Orioles in Baltimore in Game 7 of the 1971 World Series. Well, that and beating them in Game 3 at Three Rivers Stadium. That's the game nobody ever mentions, but it was nearly as much a do-or-die affair as Game 7.

The Orioles, featuring four 20-game winners, had won 14 consecutive games entering Game 3, including two convincing wins to open the series. A 3-0 deficit would have been insurmountable. Blass shut them down on a complete-game three-hitter, after which his father jumped a fence over the Pirates' dugout and crashed Blass' postgame interview with NBC's Tony Kubek.

"My dad, this plumber from Falls Village, Connecticut — population eleven-hundred — wasn't going to be denied," Blass recalled, laughing. "I'll never forget that the rest of my life."

Indeed, the mere mention of the Orioles stirs all kinds of pleasant memories.

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