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The subject of John Challis came up in the chat yesterday, and I had little information to the question posed about whether the Pirates were going to have him as a guest at PNC Park.

Upon further review ...

The Pirates learned of John's diagnosis back in late 2006 and began working with Freedom High School's baseball program to see what they could do for him, given his passion for baseball. From there, John and his family were invited to PNC Park to sit in the dugout during batting practice, meet the players, and throw out the ceremonial first pitch to Josh Sharpless, also from Freedom.

This year, late in April, he and John Russell together delivered the lineup card to the umpires before a game against Philadelphia.

Then, on Saturday, he and his friends were given tickets to the game against Atlanta, and Frank Coonelly stopped by their seats for a couple of innings to talk.

There also are plans to have John get his own stall in the clubhouse with a full batting practice uniform, as well as plans for his family to be guests in the owner's suite.

The Pirates, as is fairly common in much of their charitable work, elected not to publicize any of the above. But they did respond when seeing that a reader asked about it in the chat.

On to other subjects ...

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Q: Dejan, do you think it's a coincidence that, after the Pirates let go of Matt Morris, the starting pitching has improved?

Maybe the actions, as opposed to the words, hit home: Produce, or we'll find somebody who will.

Keith Munshower of Johnstown, Pa.

KOVACEVIC: If you mean symbolically or motivationally, I think the answer to your question is no, Keith. The only one of the remaining starters who could realistically feel as if his job is tenuous is Phil Dumatrait.

But, if you mean in terms of performance, well, let me throw this number at you: If you take away Morris, John Van Benschoten and Evan Meek and just go with the pitchers currently on the staff, their cumulative numbers before last night were 18-13 with a 4.34 ERA, as opposed to the all-inclusive 18-20 with a 4.90 ERA.

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Q: Hi, Dejan. Anything that motivates our pitching rotation is all right by me. But the truth is, the numbers Jeff Andrews cited recently in his talk with the starting five were not remarkable, but just a statistical truism: The team that scores more runs by the end of the game is usually the team that scored first. The numbers that you gave at the end of the article -- 13-5 and 4-14 -- combine to show that scoring first in Pirates games was a predictor of victory 75 percent of the time.

I looked back over the last week of box scores in MLB and found that, in 68 of 97 games, or 70 percent the team that scored first won the game. If you just look at scores at the end of full innings, which is more sensible, the percentage was 78.

Will Zavala of Friendship, Pittsburgh

KOVACEVIC: Andrews' point, from the way he explained it to me, Will, was much more symbolic than statistical in nature. He was, as the article stated, letting the pitchers know that the burden was on them. He could have achieved that any number of ways, obviously, but he chose a route, clearly, that was based on the team's success or failure.

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Q: No soup for you, Dejan! Your inclusion of Matt Wieters' showing against Lynchburg in the daily minor-league report was an open invitation for anti-Danny Moskos mail. I'll resist the temptation. Your inbox will be full enough, I think.

Ray Jena of Cleveland

KOVACEVIC: You were not the only reader displeased by my mentioning Wieters in those reports. One went so far as to call me "bitter," as if the bypassing of Wieters somehow affected my job.

The reasoning was simple and twofold: One, Wieters was having a monster series. Two, the people who follow the team, from what I gather, are going to remain deeply interested in how he does for many years to come. Are they "bitter?" That is not for me to characterize, but an enormous percentage of my job is to write about what interests the readers.

Oh, and not one reader wrote a solitary derisive word about Moskos. And that does not surprise me in the least. How is the bypassing of Wieters his fault?

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Q: Dejan, I think it is time that I eat that crow that has been simmering for a month or so. Zach Duke may not go to the All-Star Game, but he is doing a competent job as a member of the Bucco rotation. Obviously, better than I thought he would when I sent you that rant after his first spring start.

Sometimes, it is good to be wrong. This is definitely one of those occasions.

Let me grab some ketchup.

Steve Duncan of Tucson, Ariz.

KOVACEVIC: There would be plenty to go around, Steve.

What I have found most interesting about Duke's work in the early going -- which, by the way, gives him the best ERA of any of the five guys to start the season in the rotation -- is that he looks exactly like what Jeff Andrews had told me way back in January he had hoped Duke would be: Ordinary.

I often write that the Pirates need to walk before they can run, and that can be true of some individuals, too. No one gave up more hits in the majors than Duke the past two seasons, so it surely was unrealistic that he could make the quantum leap from that to the 2005 phenom. There had to be another stop along the way. Or, even if that were to be the only stop, it would be better than keeping things the way they were.

Well, Duke still gives up a lot of baserunners, but he also seems to find a way to manage them even as he gradually gains confidence in his stuff.

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Q: Dejan, concerning Saturday's attendance, it's great to see this happening, and I'm glad you included it at the end of your game story: "... included a day-of-game sale that exceeded 5,000, and this with no significant giveaway."

Attendance has been quite horrible this season, but I am uplifted to know that enough people still follow the PBC that attendance gets an obvious, immediate boost once the team starts winning. Plus, you mentioned that not only was the crowd large, but they seemed to be a more excited than usual.

Among this group of people that buy tickets on game day is where you might find a lot of young adult types who follow the club passionately but normally aren't willing to spend $20 to watch their team get destroyed. Young, caring Pirates fans, myself included, do still exist, and the continued play of the Pirates at their current pace will bring more out of the baseball closet, where they've been hiding all their lives. (Or at least 15 losing years of their lives.) These numbers show in them the great potential that any well run Pittsburgh sports franchise can have. Hopefully, Frank Coonelly will recognize this. If a simple streak like that one can generate enough interest to pull in 5,000 in game-day sales, imagine what a winning season could do.

Ryan Kok of Lawrenceville, Pittsburgh

KOVACEVIC: I have said and written for years that there is a latent fan base for the Pirates that will stun people someday. That stance has not changed.

And, as you point out, the bar for what it will take to draw them out is tragically low.

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Thing No. 93 that makes Pittsburgh great, by Rich Campbell of Coraopolis: Schenley Plaza in Oakland.

Up until two or three years ago, Schenley Plaza was a totally drab, lifeless slab of asphalt. I was down there the other day, and the lawn was filled with people. The tent is now up, the carousel is up and running. What a perfect place to go to a day sunny day!

They have free wireless Internet and free music six days a week. I eat at the Chinese place all the time, but there are a variety of food vendors to buy a meal or snack. At the Chinese place last week, my first time there since they reopened for the season, I didn't even have to tell them what I wanted. Guy looked at me and said, "General Tso's Chicken, fried rice, no vegetable!"

As I said, just a perfect place to spend a beautiful day in the Burgh.

KOVACEVIC: In a much more general sense, we seem, as a city, to be taking greater umbrage at huge swaths of asphalt in our midst, and the benefits of that are apparent not only with that terrific little space -- been there myself a couple times in the past year -- but also in greater-scope projects such as Point Park University's takeover of much of Downtown.

There is plenty enough space for parking in garages, if the garages are done right. But open asphalt, especially in vital corridors such as Downtown and Oakland, make little sense.

By the way, for anyone thinking about seeing this place Rich describes for the first time, know that it is no more than a Jose Guillen throw from the various Forbes Field relics, including the remaining wall, as well as the marked space on the sidewalk where the home run actually cleared.

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Until tomorrow ...