So last year, we put together a little FAQ about our site, Cardiac Hill. We always pick up a lot of new readers in August and September, so I think we're due for another one. While I'd love to do nothing more than bring you another music video from the 1950s, I'm postponing the weekly link dump/music in lieu of this. Rest assured, Tex Ritter, Chuck Berry, the Beatles, and company will be back next week.
I didn't change a few of the answers from last year, but did update it quite a bit. We've also got some new writers over that time so if you ever wanted to know a little bit more about us, here you go.
What is Cardiac Hill?
If you're from outside of Pittsburgh, Cardiac Hill is the hill one would climb to get to the Petersen Events Center (the old site of Pitt Stadium).
Why would you name your site after a stupid hill?
Boredom or lack of creativity. Pick one.
What are you, an idiot?
...
Who is Cardiac Hill?
We're a group of guys made up of alumni and fans. Anson (SB Nation user: CardiacHill) started this blog under the former name, Eye of A Panther, back in late 2008. The site's name changed to Cardiac Hill and the blog was shortly thereafter picked up by SB Nation in the fall of 2010. It was a one-man operation until 2011. Mike, our first contributor (mikeo90), is still with us. We merged with the old PittScriptBlog in 2012 and Bryan (FeartheStache) represents that group. In addition, other guys that have been added recently include Adam (Adam Bittner), Chris (Pitt13to9), Jim (FloodCityPanther), and Pat (Pat O'Mahony). You can read more about us here if you're so inclined.
One notable is thing is that we're all regular guys with full-time jobs or students. For most of us, this isn't how we make a living and while we get to things pretty quickly, there will be times when real-life circumstances prevent that.
Why are we here?
World domination, of course. Okay, besides that, we mostly give our opinions on the world of Pitt athletics. We're not a traditional news site, so breaking news isn't a priority of ours, though we may do it on a local level from time to time. Among Pittsburgh media, I believe we had the story of Trey Anderson coming to Pitt at the last minute and Tino Sunseri signing with a CFL team first, as well as a few others. But we generally focus more on giving opinions instead of breaking news. In addition, we hope you'll join in on the conversation. In 2013 so far, we've averaged just under 200,000 page views a month and the more of us that participate, the better.
What makes you guys so different?
One thing we've always tried to do with this blog is avoid being homers. Pitt gets plenty of criticism here and, when they deserve it, plenty of praise. We also have a good deal of discussion with fans of opposing teams and as long as they can avoid the oh so popular, 'My team rules, Pitt sucks' argument, they're welcome here. Trolls will be dealt with as they have in the past, but all are welcome here for reasonable discussion.
Also, all kinds of opinions are respected and that other commenters are, as a whole, pretty civil people. That's not to say we don't have knuckleheads or disagreements - opposing views happen more often than not. But things are generally kept under control and arguments are hashed out a bit more reasonably than your standard message board.
In addition, we try to bring you some opinions from outside of Pitt-type folk. ESPN (yes, that ESPN) has been gracious enough to give us Q&A opportunities over the years with some of their broadcasters including Jay Bilas and Seth Greenberg. In addition, we've had Q&As with beat writers of opposing teams, and opposing bloggers as well. We'll be continuing that and you can look for those during the football and basketball seasons.
Lastly, we delve a bit more into the minor sports a bit more than most places (see below).
Do you cover only football and basketball?
Not at all. This past season, we were the first site to really cover the baseball team from start to finish that I'm aware of. When the site first began, I used to do brief women's basketball game recaps and we previously did recap pieces of Olympic sports updates. Those have since ceased, but we still touch on the other sports fairly reguarly. Don't expect regular match posts on soccer or tennis just yet, but we do cover the bigger stories- recent ones include Bubbles Anderson coming to Pitt, Matt Wilps being hired as a wrestling assistant, and Agnus Berenato being fired. Coverage of the other sports will increase even more with Pitt's move into the ACC.
Do you guys do any other sports-related stuff?
Anson writes a weekly column for the official blog of Fathead (yes, the sports wall graphics company) and also covers MLB/NFL/NBA for another sports website, XN Sports. Adam is a real-life journalist and writes for the Trib and the Pittsburgh Sports Report. Chris operates a Pitt blog, Pitt 13 to 9. Jim writes for a high school sports site, the D6 Sports Network.
Are you on Twitter?
You can follow the site on Twitter @PittPantherBlog. You can also follow everyone else on Twitter (Anson @AnsonWhaley, Adam @fugimaster24, Bryan @FearTheStache, Chris, @BrunoPittsburgh, Jim @jimhammett, Mike @mikeo90, and Pat @The_Incline).
How about Facebook?
Yep, our site is here. Like us, or something.
Does Cardiac Hill cover games or news conferences?
Starting last year, we were invited by Pitt's awesome athletics department to start covering games, practices, and events. Last year, we attended nearly every training camp practice and football game as members of the media. We also attended several basketball games as well and plan to attend some games of both sports again this season - assuming we're not thrown out of the press area.
So now that you know a little more about us, here's how you can get involved in the site.
1. Join us for the Open Gamethreads - For every football and basketball game, we create an open gamethread post for live discussion - here's the one from last year's combined Rutgers basketball game and Ole Miss bowl game. We open these up before the games usually and they stay up on the page after the games are over. Stop in and leave your prediction before the game. Check in during the game (we'll be in there commenting as well) and stay after the game to either explain how Pitt is going to win it all or how they're the worst team ever.
2. Comment away - SB Nation is all about communities and we hope you'll join in not only by reading, but by commenting . Feel free to rip us - we're not sensitive (much) and we appreciate your feedback. If you like a post, tell us about it. If you hate it, tell us about it. The blog isn't merely six guys giving random, misguided opinions, it's about you sharing your thoughts as well.
3. Contribute to the Monthly Open Threads - We set one of these up every month and you can find it in the upper part of our page with our featured articles. Drop in miscellaneous links, news, rumors, etc.
4. Write a Fanshot - You can do that here. Fanshots are basically 'quick hitters' and easy ways to participate. Have a photo you took at a game? Post it in a Fanshot. Find an interesting quote? Fanshot. Have a good link to something we should all read? Fanshot. All Fanshots will show up in the Fanshot section over to the right of the page, but most of the time, we'll publish it in the main stream in the middle.
5. Write a Fanpost - Ever want to write an article for a blog, but didn't know where to start? The Fanposts are perfect for that and here's the link to create one (it's also over to the right). You can make them as long as you want and, most of the time we publish those to the main stream on the front page as well. Mike and Greg also got their start in this blog through posting Fanposts.
6. Game Watches - We're setting our first Game Watch up for this year's Virginia Tech game. Time and place are TBD, but stop by and say hello while enjoying some good food, drink, and a Pitt football game.
We hope you'll stick around and join us regularly. Generally, we almost always have at least 3-5 posts up a day and sometimes, more than that. Stop back early and often and thanks for checking out the site. Feel free to chime in with other questions if you've got them.