Frattare is ready for football

attending Ithaca College, he broadcasted swim meets and did school-wide public address announcements.

“I had a great deal of practice before I jumped into the business,” Frattare said.

For Frattare, juggling jobs is nothing new. While working as the radio broadcaster for the Charleston (W.Va.) Charlies, then the Pirates’ Class AAA affiliate, in the 1970s, he also spent six months of every year as the play-by-play man for the Rochester Americans, a minor league hockey team. If baseball didn’t work out, Frattare figured he could be a hockey broadcaster.

When the Pirates brought in Frattare to work alongside Milo Hamilton after the 1975 season, Frattare recalled, Bob Prince, who had just been fired, told him, “Your responsibility is to go out and connect with Pirates fans.” So he did. He does. Even after retirement, Frattare often makes appearances and is quick to share stories of his more than three decades with the Pirates.

In 2009, team president Frank Coonelly approached Frattare about having a day to honor him at the ballpark. Frattare declined, saying he wasn’t sure he was yet mentally ready for that. Eight years later, Frattare is hopeful there is a way to reconnect with the ball club. From a selfish standpoint, he admitted, to call a couple more innings someday would be “really gratifying.”

“I don’t know if that’ll ever be a reality,” he said. “I certainly think a lot about it.”

In the classroom and in the summer, when Waynesburg hosts an annual sports announcing camp for high school students, Frattare preaches that 85 percent of a broadcast’s success is determined before it goes on the air. That’s why before WPIAL games he scans the grandstands and sidelines looking for players to greet and hear their stories. They may not know him as the former Pirates broadcaster, but they’ll know him as a true pro.

“The one thing I didn’t want to have happen,” Frattare said, “was I didn’t want anybody to say, while they were listening to my high school broadcast, ‘You know, Lanny was a well-prepared Major League broadcaster but he’s not as a high school announcer.’ I really think the essence of covering high school sports is to be able to tell stories about the kids. I love it.”