{"id":127045,"date":"2025-07-16T11:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T11:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/127045\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T11:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T11:12:10","slug":"sidney-crosby-and-paul-skenes-describe-meeting-each-other-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/127045\/","title":{"rendered":"Sidney Crosby and Paul Skenes describe meeting each other for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the time of writing, Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a> ace pitcher Paul Skenes, 23, is starting in his second consecutive MLB All-Star Game<\/a>, doing so after representing the Pittsburgh ball club the first time during his sensational, National League Rookie of the Year-winning campaign last season.<\/p>\n

Not many professional athletes, let alone average Joes, know the pressure that comes with the label of being a first overall draft pick.<\/p>\n

Luckily for Skenes, he landed in a city where the pro hockey team also drafted a generational superstar with the No. 1 overall pick of the draft.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> captain Sidney Crosby finally got the chance to meet<\/a> the pitcher who has taken Major League Baseball by storm at Pat McAfee\u2019s \u201cBig Night Aht\u201d event at PPG Paints Arena earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been following him,\u201d said Crosby.<\/p>\n

Crosby is listed at 5-foot-11 and 200 pounds, whereas Skenes is a hulking brute of an athlete at 6-foot-6 and 260 pounds. And Skenes\u2019 size was the first thing Crosby took note of.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst thing that stands out, he\u2019s a big guy,\u201d Crosby said. \u201cIf he\u2019s pitching from the mound, I mean, the ball is coming out of his hand like, 10 feet closer. He\u2019s that tall. And he already throws it super hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, seeing how mature he is, you can tell he takes it really serious, he has a lot of pride in his game. You see the highlights of him getting ready for games, all the different stuff he does, and then his performances speak for themselves. But I think you don\u2019t get to that level without putting in a lot of hard work and having a mature approach. I think he\u2019s got that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being that the No. 1 overall pick and presumptive face of the franchise can bring many mental hurdles for athletes to overcome. Crosby believes Skenes has the intangibles to accomplish what\u2019s in front of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably challenging, but at the same time, I think it\u2019s a good challenge. He\u2019s the right guy to want that challenge, invites that challenge,\u201d Crosby said. \u201cI think the coolest thing is just how much pride he has in being part of Pittsburgh. He\u2019s a guy that wants to win, and I think between him and Andrew McCutchen, I don\u2019t think you could have two better guys to try to build a team around. Those two guys, that\u2019s pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skenes also recognized Crosby\u2019s 20 years of greatness as the face of the NHL and the modern face of the Penguins, adding that he will look to Crosby as something of a role model moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a guy that kind of transcends the sport, I think. It\u2019s such a huge honor to be able to have a city know you, and for you to be beloved by the city,\u201d Skenes said. \u201cSo, being here forever and winning and doing all that, but also just the type of person he is \u2013 that wouldn\u2019t happen unless you\u2019re just an A-plus person.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sets an example for people that are in my position and all of our positions to hopefully follow, just because he\u2019s such a unique person, and the city of Pittsburgh has embraced him that way. So, definitely looking up to him now, I\u2019m going to be looking up to him for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as Skenes remains in the infancy of his professional career, while Sidney Crosby is on the back nine, both players seemingly share a mutual respect for one another, being in a select brotherhood of No. 1 overall picks who can create magic and carry an unmistakable aura in their respective sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the time of writing, Pittsburgh Pirates ace pitcher Paul Skenes, 23, is starting in his second consecutive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5113],"tags":[206,2593,22543,22545,904,1074,121,5,22544,4,4451,5196,118,120,1469,100,5216,5381,22542,117,1860],"class_list":{"0":"post-127045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-penguins","8":"tag-and","9":"tag-crosby","10":"tag-describe","11":"tag-each","12":"tag-first","13":"tag-for","14":"tag-front-page","15":"tag-hockey","16":"tag-meeting","17":"tag-nhl","18":"tag-other","19":"tag-paul","20":"tag-penguins","21":"tag-pensburgh","22":"tag-pittsburgh","23":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","24":"tag-pittsburghpenguins","25":"tag-sidney","26":"tag-skenes","27":"tag-the","28":"tag-time"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/114862617012482300","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}