Jason Mackey wanted to be a high school math teacher. His mother owned a tutoring center in Brentwood while he was growing up, and math was always a focal point in his life. However, when he went to Westminster College and began taking classes like calculus 3 and discrete mathematics analysis, he had a change of heart. Mackey admits, “I got to a point where I was thinking, ‘I don’t want to do this, I’m not having fun. I want to do something in my life that’s fun.'” That’s when he turned to journalism.

Mackey did some on-air work on high school and college football games at Westminster, but said, “An internship opened my eyes to a different path; I got a job on a weekly newspaper in northern Virginia, and that started a very long path to where I am today.” Today, he is a columnist at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

In addition to his work as a columnist, Mackey regularly appears as a guest on Audacy (93.7 The Fan), iHeart (Mark Madden on 105.9 the X and Fox Sports 970 AM), MLB Network and KDKA-TV.

“I graduated from college wanting to pursue more of an on-air role, so it’s also a way for me to scratch that itch. And those folks have become good friends.”

Mackey’s internship occurred during a winter break at school, and he was assigned to cover the former Washington Redskins, now the Washington Commanders.

“I would see writers covering the Redskins and how they went about their jobs,” he recalled. “These were the men and women unearthing the story lines that the TV and radio people followed.  I wanted to be that, the one with my ear to the ground.”

A series of job moves brought him back to Pittsburgh, where he was hired by the Washington Observer Reporter. The Tribune Review then hired him and in 2014 promoted him to the Penguins beat. “That was my first big break.”

Following a stint at DK Pittsburgh Sports, Mackey joined the Post-Gazette, where he began covering the Penguins in 2016. He said his desire to transfer from the Penguins to the Pirate beat was met with disbelief. “People thought I was insane. ‘You want to cover baseball?’ they’d ask.  But I love baseball and I’ve played it all my life. I think it was one of the smartest moves I’ve ever made in my career.”

The Pirates’ success during the 2013-15 seasons helped to contribute to his enthusiasm. “I saw what the Pirates were when they won; (Pittsburgh) is such a sneaky good baseball town and I wanted to be a part of that. I told my wife, when the Pirates are in the thick of things, I want to establish myself as the source for Pirates information in this city.”

He had been doing that until just before the current baseball season, when Mackey transferred to the role of columnist for the Post-Gazette, following the retirement of Ron Cook. In doing so, he is fulfilling his career goal. He explained, “When I got to the PG in 2016, my editor asked me what my career goals were. I said I want to be a columnist, it’s always been my dream job.”

He said he accepted the new position in large part because it was offered. “I didn’t think it was going to become available for a while. I thought the Pirates were going to be good and I anticipated having that job and me covering them, but I didn’t want to pass on this opportunity.”

Mackey said the appeal of writing a column is “having total creative freedom. I’ve said for a long time it’s my ultimate goal, I want to be able to write about whatever I want, wherever I want, however I want.  That’s what a columnist gets to do.” He added that he likes the idea of following the seasons – the Steelers in the fall, Pirates in the summer, Penguins in the winter. “I can bounce around, I love the autonomy.”

He acknowledged Cook, and current columnists Gene Collier and Joe Starkey, and said he wants to continue their legacy and follow in their footsteps. “In my mind that’s going to take a lot of work and it’s not going to be immediate, but the opportunity happened sooner than I thought.”

While covering the Pirates, Mackey during spring training would spend as many as seven weeks in Bradenton, a city he loves. As a columnist, his travel has been cut, but he will still be packing his suitcase on occasion. Because of that, Mackey appreciates living in Mt. Lebanon. He and his wife, Abby, and their two sons Teddy, 5, and Rider, 10, live on Cedar Boulevard. “I spend a lot of time on the road so it’s nice knowing my wife and kids are safe at home in a good community, that people care about them.”

After having previously lived in Lebo, the Mackeys decided to return in 2018. He said when he and his wife discussed where to go, Lebo “was a slam dunk. We like that we live down the street from Bird Park, and our boys are going to have every educational, athletic, artistic opportunity they want.”