Archive for category sports
Protests
Here is a amusing cartoon that was in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette when the G-20 was in Pittsburgh last summer.
Nattering Nabobs of Negativity
It’s Sunday, I’m back from San Jose and spring training starts about in a little more than a month. That means it’s time for me to take up defense of the Pirates that can do no research and complain about them. This time it’s the New York Daily News and their grupmy columnist, Bill Madden. Madden hasn’t liked the Pirates since Mazeroski got elected into the hall of fame by the veteran’s committee many years ago. This is mainly because he is a good friend of Yogi Berra and Maz caused the Yankees not to win a world series.
But back to the present. Madden seems to be of the opinion that MLB will be cracking down on the Pirates to spend more money on the major league roster. His logic is that since the Marlins were told to spend more money the Pirates will be forced to do the same.
That’s all well and good but if he had bothered to read any of the excellent work that Post Gazette Pirates’ beat writer Dejan Kovacevic. This past week he reported from sources outside of the Pirates organization that they were not going to be a target. This is something that he was also told by the commissioner of Major League Baseball. (Dejan also has a nice take down of Madden’s article, citing the real 2009 salary of the Pirates).
Yeah, we’ve sucked for 17 years and are a laughing stock for most of the league and press. But having fools like Madden not even bothering doing any research into the situation is just lazy journalism.
It’s bad enough that there are fans who feel that if we just spend more money we’d have won a world series by now. That is just not the case.
Faces and Heels
I’ll let you in on a little secret. I like to watch professional wrestling. Yes, I know that the winner is predetermined. I watch it more for the athletic display that the wrestlers show and for the “soap opera” qualities that go on leading up to matches or hyping for the upcoming pay-per-view event.
I was watching WWE’s Smackdown via Hulu this week and I realized something. There are a few wrestlers out there that are able to perform and get the crowd involved as both a face (good guy) or a heel (bad guy).
One of those people is Chris Jericho. His wrestling ability is unquestioned, but it’s his work on the microphone that really sets him apart from the rest. It doesn’t matter what side of the line he happens to be, he is always entertaining. The phrases that he uses are tremendous and the tone/inflection in his voice makes it really worth it.
There are only two other current wrestlers that I would put into Jericho’s class and one that is getting there. The first one is Kurt Angle (a Pittsburgh native – of course he’s talented) and the other is Booker T. The one guy that is up and coming I think is CM Punk. I was watching his promo from the New Year’s edition of Smackdown and was impressed at how much of a heel he had become. I would have thought that he would always be a baby face, but that promo impressed me. Maybe it’s just the gimmick he has right now but I like the direction he’s heading.
This our bed. We’re going to lay in it
Reason #10,183 why I love Steelers’ coach Mike Tomlin
We created this situation. What we are going to do is control what we can control, and that’s our preparation of play for the game. We’re not going to cry over spilled milk. If there’s any level of disappointment in terms of how this thing unfolds, it’s going to be on us.
Steeler Thoughts
Wow. The Steelers sure don’t make it easy on their us do they? They played another game that went down to the wire and unlike the ones in the past, they were able to pull this one out. They have now won 2 games in a row and are still in the playoff hunt although they need some help. They first need to win their game and then help can happen (the Jets or Ravens lose).
I have said several times that it’s amazing how different the defense plays with Troy Polamalu out of the line up. I know that is not the most profound commentary but it’s true. What I think gets overlooked is that the Steelers also lost a major cog in the defensive machine who is overlooked. That is Defensive End Aaron Smith.
Smith is someone that made a major impact along the defensive line and because of the 3-4 scheme the Steelers play the linemen usually go unnoticed. I think that his injury, along with losing Troy really put the defense on its heels. Not only that but the replacements for Smith didn’t really seem to step up all that much.
Hopefully the Steelers will win in Miami on Sunday and make it into the playoffs. If they make it in then it’s a whole new season.
Another MLB record
It’s well known that the Pittsburgh Pirates set a new record for inepitude last season with 17 seasons in a row with a losing record. While I believe that this will turn around shortly, what I didn’t learn until recently is that the Pirates have another streak that is a Major League Baseball record which may seem more unreal to most people. They have kept their ticket prices the same for the past 8 years. This is the take away from Frank Coonley, the Pirate’s President
“We haven’t performed over the last eight years, but we can’t keep it there forever,” he said in a phone interview from Indianapolis, where the league’s winter meetings are being held. “While fans appreciate the tremendous value they get now, I’m sure they’d love us to be in a position for us to raise prices because that would mean we’re improving.”
I’m glad to see that the Pirates are doing this. It doesn’t seem that they would be winning over more fans by raising their prices during this streak of ignominy.
Just don’t mention it!
I’m on vacation this week and it’s leaving me a lot of time to listen to the radio while driving around taking care of errands. While I’m listening to the radio I like to listen to sports radio and in New York City that means WFAN. The afternoon drive guy has been talking about the whole Tiger Woods situation (I’m not linking to it because I really don’t care what’s going on in his personal life if you want to know what’s going on please google it.).
A lot of callers are calling in and saying something along the lines of “I’m not going to dignify the Tiger Woods story with talking about it…” well guess what you fool, you just did talk about it!
Yes, I realize the irony of me talking about it but I’m not gong to add this to my tags so I’m sure that I won’t get a lot of views from this post.
A night at the ball game
While I was in Pittsburgh last month I was able to get away one night and watch the Pirates play the Milwaukee Brewers. In spite of the rain delay it was a good game and the Pirates came out on top (which is a very rare thing). Here are some pictures of the game:
Statue of Willie Stargell
Rain Delay
View of Right Field
The Clemente Bridge
The Pirate Parrot
A Perogie Race
The Benches Clear
Random thoughts
I have not posted anything of substance up here recently because I’ve been pretty busy. It’s not that I have not wanted to but it always seems to be low on my priority list. Sad, but true. Here are some random things that have been on my mind as of late.
- This weather has really been messing up my riding. Last week was really frustrating since I was only able to ride Sunday and Monday. This week I’m out of town and (obviously) not able to ride. I can’t wait for next week where I’ll should be in the office the whole week.
- Congratulations to the Penguins! Nobody gave them the chance to win that game 7 in Detroit and yet, they did. It was a great series all the way through (aside from game 5) and it’s series like this and games like game 7 that make sports fun to follow.
- If you follow me on twitter or are a friend of mine on facebook you may have seen the postings after my bike rides. I have been doing that with an iPhone application called iMapMyRide. It’s been working OK, but the major issue with it, with the iPhone OS actually, is that I can’t multitask and so when I receive a phone call my ride stops being tracked even when I am still moving. This getting a little long so I’ll try and break what I’m looking for into another post.
- I’ve been really happy with the way that the Pirates have been playing especially after the McLouth trade. I don’t know if they will keep it up this year but there is light at the end of the tunnel and it’s not an oncoming train.
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