My good friend Bill Beutler gave me an ingenious idea tonight as I was watching the Detroit Red Wings advance to the Stanley Cup finals over the Dallas Stars. With the computer on my lap and Twitterrific spitting out updates, I began typing a note on Twitter about my hopes that the NHL’s Western Conference finals would go to a seventh game. Then it occurred to me to search for Detroit Red Wings and Dallas Stars on Twitter. Sure enough, @detroitredwings and @dallasstars were both on Twitter.

But when I searched for my favorite sports teams, the Penguins, Pirates, Panthers and Steelers, I found nothing. Given the high intensity of Pittsburgh sports fans, it left me somewhat surprised. But I also saw an opportunity to fill the void.

You see, just yesterday Bill wrote about a couple of popular blogs, Glenn Reynolds’ Instapundit and Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish, that he was following via Twitter. Like Bill, I too find that my online-reading habits have changed over the past few years. I’m now more inclined to follow people’s work on Twitter than I am from their blog directly.

That’s one of the reasons I created @Heritage on Twitter for those who wanted to follow the many products of The Heritage Foundation — from our research papers and blog posts to video clips and event notifications. It’s also why I created @UticaNY. Just a few years ago, I would read the Observer-Dispatch, WKTV and local blogs every day. Now, I just don’t have the time. Twitter offers a great solution to give me the news in pieces as it’s happening.

The same goes for my favorite Pittsburgh teams. Rarely do I visit the sports pages of Post-Gazette or Tribune-Review, but I haven’t lost interest. In fact, I’m more excited about the Penguins now than at any time since the championship seasons of 1991 and 1992. Again, Twitter offers a solution.

Starting tonight I’m using Twitterfeed to pull in news stories from each team’s website as well as headlines from Yahoo! Sports and the Post-Gazette. For the Panthers, I’ve even tapped in to Rivals.com feed for college football and basketball news. If you’re a Pittsburgh sports fan, I hope you’ll enjoy a new way to follow your team.

Pittsburgh Penguins (@Pittsburgh_Pens)

Pittsburgh Pirates (@LetsGoBucs)

Pittsburgh Steelers (@Stillers)

Pittsburgh Panthers (@PittPanthers)

Once again, thanks to Bill for idea. I hope these turn into more than just automatic updates. I’d love to offer the same kind of personalized updates as the people behind @detroitredwings and @dallasstars.