ILLUSTRATION BY HUCK BEARD

Bob Walk arrived in Pittsburgh in 1984 and decided to stick around. The right-handed ace played 10 seasons for the Pirates, including a 1988 campaign in which he posted a 2.71 ERA and was sent to the All-Star Game. He earned 105 wins in his career before retiring at the end of the 1993 season. His days as a Bucco were far from over, however; since leaving the mound, Walk has been a fixture in the broadcast booth as a color commentator and an analyst for AT&T SportsNet. We wanted to know: What is Bob Walk’s Best of the ’Burgh?

What’s your Pittsburgh “hidden gem,” a place that you love that doesn’t get the attention it deserves?
“There’s a little breakfast place that I like to eat [in the North Hills] … Totin’s Diner. I really like going there for breakfast.”

If you could only eat one local meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Chicken wings at the Franklin Inn

If Pittsburgh had a theme song, what would it be?
“Renegade” by Styx. “That’s what I think 99% of people would say. Anyone that’s sports-minded … Everybody gets up and stands and moves and sings.”

What’s the annual tradition that you wait for every year?
“Fourth of July weekend has really started to be a lot of fun for me — but I have to say baseball opening day. My life revolves around it.”

Favorite Pittsburgh appearance in a movie or on television?
“Jack Reacher”

What’s your unpopular Pittsburgh opinion? What is something you think about the city (or a famous aspect of it) that won’t win you any friends?
“I don’t think people who haven’t spent much time in the Allegheny County area have any appreciation for what a great place this is.” Despite Pittsburgh’s charms, we haven’t yet convinced outsiders that the steel era is over. “When I first moved here, all my friends and family were under the impression that I had moved to someplace that looked like an apocalypse — dark clouds, covered in gray ash, huge steel mills,” even though today, “It’s a tremendous place to raise a family.”

Where’s the first place you take out-of-town guests?
A cruise on the Gateway Clipper

If you could bring back one Pittsburgh place or restaurant that’s no longer there, which would you pick?
Pitt Basketball games at the Fitzgerald Field House. “It was like going to a big high-school gym, except it was a Big East school. Big-time college basketball in a quaint little fieldhouse.”

You get one Incline ride with any Pittsburgher, living or dead. Who is it?
Andrew Carnegie