While driving to the office Sunday afternoon, I listened to the last few innings of the Pirates/Padres game on the radio with Joe Block and Steve Blass on the call.

At the time, I was caught up in the drama of the game. Twice the Pirates came back from three runs down, once to force extra innings and then again to pull out an improbable 11-10 win.

Afterwards, I thought about how much I'm going to miss Blass' color commentary. Now 77, he announced last winter that the 2019 season will be his last in the broadcast booth.

Both announcers of a game, whether for television or radio, have a specific job and for me, Blass is the model for a color commentator. He knows the game inside and out and has a very subtle way of teaching fans things about the game without sounding like a professor of baseball.

He's also a link to Pirate teams of the 1960s and 70s, pitching for the team for 10 seasons.

Anyone who has listened to Blass long enough has heard his funny quips and interesting recollections of former teammates. Willie Stargell, Al Oliver, Manny Sanguillen, Jose Pagan, Nellie Briles, Dave Giusti .... just a few of the players who still hold a strong place in his memory and he often relays this to fans tuning in to Pirate games.

And of course, there was his relationship with Pirate legend and Hall-of-Famer Roberto Clemente. The two became close friends and Blass delivered the eulogy at Clemente's funeral in 1973. To hear Blass talk about Clemente now, after all these years, the former's admiration for his friend's abilities and his sense of loss following his death are still very apparent.

Any color commentator has to be careful when to reference something from the past. His main focus must remain on the action in front of him and he normally has just a moment here and there to get his point across. I believe Blass does this effectively without taking too much attention away from the current play and he always seems to relate his anecdote to what is happening on the field.

Blass began working Pirate games on both radio and television in 1983. Over the last decade, he has done games at PNC Park while leaving road games to John Wehner. Along with Bob Walk, they give the Pirates an excellent trio of color commentators.

I started following the Pirates in the 1980s and a lot of the knowledge I soaked in about baseball in Pittsburgh came from Blass.

The voices describing the dramatics involved in both wins and losses were part of the Pirate experience for me.

I have not heard how the Pirates will fill the void once he leaves. Maybe Wehner will do games full-time. Again, if he does, I will still enjoy listening to the broadcasts because he and Walk are very knowledgeable.

But I will listen to games over the next few months knowing what Blass' departure signifies.

The end of an era.

Derek Pyda is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle