In baseball, there are things that managers do without hesitation. When setting the lineup card, you want to have your best hitter bat third and your most powerful hitter hit cleanup. When you have a pitcher up with a runner on first with less than two outs, you have him sacrifice bunt. If there is a runner on first with two outs on a 3-2 count, you start the runner. All of these are things that every manager will do day in and day out. All are understandable and all things I agree with. There ... Read More
The DMV handled the Crosby situation the right way
Trust me, I really wanted to avoid talking about this, but it's the talk of the town. Here's a scenario for you: You get a text from your friend telling you that Milas Kunis (or Channing Tatum for the women readers) is waiting to get his car fixed at the local mechanic. What do you do? You take to Twitter and Facebook (because it makes total sense) and let everyone else know he/she is there, too. You leave your house to head over and you see the mob that's there because this celebrity had ... Read More
Pittsburgh Pirates Roundtable Episode 5
Pittsburgh Sporting News' Pirates beat writer Michael Waterloo joins James Santelli (Pirates Prospects), Ed Giles, Pat Lackey (whygavs.com) Corey (ThreeRiversBurghBlog.com) and Travis Sawchik from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review to discuss the latest topics surrounding the Pittsburgh Pirates. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKReKTewz78&feature=youtu.be ... Read More
When we were kids: The journey to the big leagues
When you look at the success the 2013 Pittsburgh Pirates have had, you might think about the veteran presence that is in the clubhouse. I mean, that is why Manager Clint Hurdle had Brandon Inge stick around all of the time, isn't it? Ingle excluded, the veterans haven't just had their presence felt in the clubhouse, but also on the field of play. Guys like A.J. Burnett, Francisco Liriano, Jason Grilli, Andrew McCutchen and even guys like Pedro Alvarez and Mark Melancon have all contributed ... Read More
No one deserves to win as much as Jeff Banister
There are guys on their respective teams in their respective sports that deserve to win a championship for the work they’ve put in. Todd Helton in Colorado comes to mind, as does Shane Doan of the Phoenix Coyotes. For the Pirates, it’s the city that deserves the championship the most after the 20 years of losing. But the one person on the Pirates that deserves a ring more than anyone may just be Jeff Banister. Pirates’ Director of Media Relations Jim Trdinich joked with Banister that I ... Read More
It hit me. The Pirates are for real
Has it even hit you yet? I mean really, really hit you. You can look at the standings all you want and see 69-34. No matter how many times you refresh the page, it will say the Pirates are leading the National League Central and are up there as the best team in baseball.But have you actually grasped that yet? I didn't, well, at least until yesterday. On my way home from the newspaper, I was listening to my good pal Dan Zangrilli and Kevin Orrie do the Pirates postgame show on 93.7 The Fan. ... Read More
Steelers record is reason for live-tackling drills
After seven straight days of practice in Latrobe, the Steelers are enjoying a day off today. Perhaps more than ever before, they need it. Head Coach Mike Tomlin has introduced something not seen at training camp since, well, maybe ever. Tomlin is having the players go 11-0n-11 in full-contact, tackling drills. So what you're telling me is that Tomlin is having players like Antonio Brown, Le'Veon Bell, Emmanuel Sanders and Brett Keisel actually hit each other during training camp? The reasoning ... Read More
Burnett Goes The Distance In 5 – 1 Victory
(Photo Credit: Justin K. Aller/Getty Images) PNC Park – A.J. Burnett pitched his best game of the season (so far) as he went the distance in a Pirates 5 – 1 victory on Sunday afternoon. His battery mate, Russell Martin, provided most of the offense with a three run homer in the fifth inning to break things open. “They threw me a lot of breaking balls today and talking to Jay (Bell), the guy throws a lot of sliders so I decided to wait for one and he threw the first pitch right where I ... Read More
Currently, the Steelers are the worst pro team in Pittsburgh
Okay, stop me if you've heard this one before. The Pittsburgh Steelers are the worst professional team in Pittsburgh. Wait, what? Trust me, as weird as it is for you to read that, it felt just as weird typing it. I know it won't sit well and it's a cardinal rule in the Steel City to write anything bad about the Steelers, but there's no denying the truth. In the past year, the Steelers have been the worst professional team. Now, let me save you the trouble. When I say professional team, I'm not ... Read More
Pirates acquire Robert Andino from Mariners for PTBNL
Although the deadline passed, news of a trade broke through in the middle of the Pirates-Cardinals game. #Mariners complete Minor League trade of infielder Robert Andino to Pirates for player to be named.— Greg Johns (@GregJohnsMLB) August 1, 2013 Greg Johns, Mariners reporter for MLB.com, first broke the news that the Pirates and Mariners have agreed on a trade that would send the 29-year-old Andino to the Pirates. Andino has a slash line of .184/.253/.237 in 29 games this year, ... Read More