Pittsburgh Penguins With A Baseball Bat!

"Haven't we suffered enough?" It burns me a little to say this - but Ron Cook said it best in today's Post Gazette.

I mean, really, how did this happen? The season started off like a freight train; slow but gaining power. And ended like a train wreck. Every fan shielding their eyes from a potentially horrific scene, yet still peering through their fingers to catch a glimpse of either heads hung in defeat or the hope of a possibility of some sort of immaculate reception moment on ice.

Unfortunately it was the former that occurred, and now here we are approaching the first game of the Stanley Cup Championship series, still scratching our heads, kicking the dirt, saying "what the puck?!" Oh, and watching our beloved Igloo make its descent from sky to ground. (Please explain why we have to tear it down again?) Not only are we in awe and denial - over the fact that our beloved black and gold slipped, fell and couldn't get up to get past the Habs, but how in the world did Philly manage to bowl right over them right after us with such ease?

So here we are, hockey fans, in disarray over the fact that not only did WE not make it into the championship series for Lord Stanley, but the dreaded Philthy Flyers are going up against arch nemeses Mr. Maryanne-Pantie-Hose-Hossa. *Begin booing now*

What I don't want to hear - or see - though, while we shift into offseason all-business mode, is any more finger pointing. Since our season came to an abrupt halt, most conversation has revolved around who's to blame. And way too many people are throwing Fleury under the bus. (Guilty.)

Don't.

It takes a team to win, it takes a team to lose.

There were a couple of moments when I wanted to throw myself through the TV to mutilate Fleury with my bare hands because of a silly five-hole or dancing outside of the blue type of goal. But those moments were rare and usually sizzled away quickly after he would redeem himself with a handful of spectacular saves.

But there were far too many defensive mistakes, allowing too many break aways and open shots on goal. There was a sickening amount of turnovers between the blue lines. I think the final game of the season, the turnover numbers were something like 20-1. Not good boys. Just like I say for the Steelers - Field goals don't win games - well, turnovers don't either.

Sloppy. Sloppy is a word I like to use when I am at the lake with my friends. Not when I am talking about the march of the Pens.

Let's shift gears though before I get too carried away pretending like I know what I am talking about.

Who do we cheer for in the coming weekend? I don't care how good they claim their cheese steaks are, I certainly can not see myself getting vamped up to root on that other city on the other side of the state. Besides, who needs a cheese steak from there, when we've got Primantis here. (Booyah!) But on the other hand, there's no way I can back Hossa and hope that he finds his way to getting his name etched onto the Glory Cup. No way, uh-uh.

So I thought about it, vacillated over it, read about it, and I can't believe I am saying this twice in one post but Cook has a valid point, again, that has ultimately swayed my decision. The tipping point, if you will:

"Many here still haven't recovered from that pain even though the Penguins foiled Hossa's plans by beating the Red Wings in seven games last season to win the Cup. In a perverse way, Penguins fans should thank him for leaving. He cleared cap room for the team to do new deals with goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and defenseman Brooks Orpik, among others, and bring in veteran winger Bill Guerin at the '09 trade deadline. Then, he had a miserable final with no goals."

So, here I am, not totally caring who wins to be honest, but if I truly had to pick a side, I have to say Go Hawks! Ugh,I said it.Word Vomit.Yuck.Plah!

"When I looked at it, I wanted to have the best chance to win the Stanley Cup, and I felt Detroit is that team," Sorry, Hossa, you loser now!

Forget, it there's no reason to cheer for either time. I hope they both lose. Ha! Take that Hossa and Hartnell! There, I feel much better. Let's go Bucs?

Oh my.

Pittsburgh Pirates: Breeding the Best

There's the Golden Glover that we know and love. Look's about right Nate McLouth.

King of the Rings

Sorry, Larry. But the resemblance is irrefutable.

Song of the day: B.o.B. ~ Airplanes

Don't Blame Russia

Russia suspends all adoptions to US families. The first sentence of the article begins as follows: "Russia has suspended all adoptions to U.S. families until the two countries can agree on procedures...." Here's a thought, how about a no-return policy? This is a kid we are talking about here, not a shirt you bought at Old Navy that you still have the receipt and tags for.

I never thought I would ever take sides with Russia on an issue, ever. Let alone an issue involving something an American did wrong, and that Russia is reacting correctly over. Now, if this boy has "psychological problems" as the ex-mother states in her little return letter she sent back with him, okay. It still does not justify in any way why she felt it appropriate to return him.

What in the world is happening to the family complex these days? Did this woman from Tennessee plan to return this little boy all along if he just wasn't quite the perfect child? Every day millions of children are born with disabilities, problems, birth defects, illnesses, etc. If this was a child of her own DNA with "psychological problems, " what would she have done? You can't "return" that. This just absolutely amazes me. The person with psychological issues is the woman from Tennessee. If she was not ready to accept the possibility that her new son would need a lot of TLC, she had no business bringing him here to be under her watch, love and care.

Close family friends adopted a son about three or four years ago from Mexico. They met Jorge while on a mission trip with their church. They had already gone through the difficult tug-of-war challenge of raising two girls. They were done with parenting so to speak. The house now to themselves, they were a little more "free," if you will. He could barely speak English. No one could figure out his real age. He had problems with one of his arms. They were starting all over, unconditionally. Deciding to take on the challenge of raising another child, a Spanish speaking teen, was like a one-step-up, two-steps-back sort of decision. They were making a decision to put a halt on their own free time in order to offer a better life for someone else.

They could have easily given up and sent him back to the orphanage and said forget this, it is too tough. But they are not as heartless or irresponsible as this Tennessee woman. I don't know her whole story so it's hard to try and not pass a world of judgement onto this lady. But as far as I know, somebody did not love her enough as a child.

Go out and give somebody a hug today.

And Boom Goes the Dynamite

It's Friday. It's sunny. It's warm. Oh, yah...and Pitt plays!

Dick Vitale's voice has been ringing in my head all day.

"It's awesome baby!"

Well, my bracket isn't, but I am almost certain a lot of other people across the nation are up in arms over the upsets as well. And here is the best part: There have only been 8 games so far. We still have 48 teams to go to wrap up the first round alone. Think any of the #1 seeds will get sent home early? Kansas and Kentucky prevailed last night as everyone basically knew that they would. But what about Syracuse and Duke?


Keep in mind there has only been one occasion when all four #1 seeds have made it to the Final Four (2008 - North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas and UCLA). I hope you chose wisely this year.


After yesterdays games everybody is reminded of one simple thing - Impossible is nothing. Thank you Adidas.



We had #14 seeds upending #3's. We had #9's waving goodbye to #8's. 11's over 6's and 13's over 4's. We almost had an extremely dramatic upset in the #15 RMU-#2 'Nova game. Shame on you Jay Wright.

THAT'S WHY THEY CALL IT MARCH MADNESS!

Quiet the critics Pitt.

Smiling faces. That's what I like to see. Keep me smiling Jamie Dixon. Happy Friday!

LET'S GO PITT!!!

Some Food For Thought

1. Marky Mark McGwire came clean this weekend, admitting to the world, or whoever really gives a rats patoot that, yes, he did steroids in the 90's, including in '98 when he shattered Roger Maris' single season home run record.

Shocking. Jaw dropping.

Next thing you know Tiger Woods will get off his boat and tell everyone that yes, he really did sleep with 20+ women, Michael Vick will admit that he condoned and participated in dog fighting, Clay Aiken will tell everyone that yes, he is gay.

And before you know it, people will start telling other people that yes, goodness gracious, water is wet!

Mercy me. Be still my heart.

The only reason he decided to clean up the dust from under the rug is probably because he has been hired as the new hitting coach for St. Louis. Oh, to be a fly on the field during that first day of training camp....

Maris' name ought to be restored and McGwire's name fully removed from the records. The only thing that he can potentially hold credit for is when in 1987 he broke Frank Robinson and Wally Berger's record by hitting the most home runs in a single season as a rookie, with 49. Allegedly the juice did not start flowing until the 90's. So, chalk that record up, wipe away all that follows. You have to give credit where credit is due and there is nada due here.

2. Speaking of baseball, Pirate fans did you hear the good news? We hired a mental conditioning coordinator! And get this, he is from the Army to boot. If we can't play well, well then, at the very least, we might as well think right, dag on it. We may be the worst team in baseball history, but my goodness do we know how to think. We may lose games 20-0, but hey, we "outhunk"the other team. I don't care what anyone else has to say, you go Bernie Holiday, you make this team think! One thing's for certain, no more Ian Snell moments this season. Fingers crossed.

3. I watched the American Idol premiere last night. (Stop laughing.) It only took about five seconds for Ryan Seacrest to push my buttons and really tick me off. The premiere kicked off in Boston. In his introduction, Seacrest referred to Baahhston as, are you ready Pittsburgh? The City of Champions!

Um. No.

Nuh, Nuh, Noooooo.

This is the very reason why he is the host of American Idol, a mindless pop show, where some talent shines through and others just embarrass the hell out of themselves. His job is just to stand there and look short, he should never ever ever ever everrrrr make another sports related comment ever again. EVER.

Ok, fine, I have to admit, Boston is pretty dominating when it comes to championships. Like I said, have to give credit where credit is due. But coming off of a year of puck slappen, TD toe-tappen, sixburghen, city of champion-ness, I do not like to hear that term coined to any other city but Pittsburgh.

Bias? Yup! But can you blame me?

4. Can I get a round of applause for the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA)? For more than 13,000 Burghers who use water, (um, who doesn't?) this months bill jumped up a small fortune thanks to the fact that, for reasons unbeknown to me, they have decided to use Malaysia now for their billing system. Unbeknown to them, (PWSA) Malaysia's decimal system is different than ours. Which goes to show that, sorry Lindsey Lohan but, against what you claim in Mean Girls math is NOT the same in every country...but that is beside the point. Anyhow, basically for those 13,000 some peeps, if your water bill was usually $45.00 a month, this most recent bill is telling you to pay $4,500. Round. Of. A. pplause.

Now, this minor quandry affects me in no way shape or form. However, it still makes me wonder - Why Malaysia? Doesn't the PWSA know that we need jobs here, in America, in Pennsylvania, in Pittsburgh! I went to a job fair a few weeks ago and it was like a cattle call, with lines out the door for each table. People are looking for jobs and I can about bet that a large handful would be willing to accept, at a lower pay than, say, five years ago, to handle the billing department of Pittsburgh Water. I can also about bet that this minor blip would have never happened.

5. I am all about helping other countries, we are much better off than a lot of other places in this world. But c'mon, sometimes we have to look out for our own before dishing out potential jobs across the globe. Haiti is an entirely different topic, however. What happened there is horrible.

Arguably, if it were not for Haiti, then St. Dominigue, Napoleon Bonaparte and Toussaint Louverture, in the late 1700's, America would be a very different place. What am I talking about? Haiti's slave revolt. As a result of which came the Louisiana Purchase and the American Civil War. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the United States in size, and has been compared in historic importance to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. With the Purchase, birthed the heartland, while the U.S. began to establish itself as a country that would be able to withstand outside forces on its own. It also allowed the country to acquire the Mississippi River, as well as gain full access to the ports of New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. It opened a door of opportunity. A vast amount of Europeans saw it as a window of opportunity to travel to the states and explore the nation of opportunity. Thus growing the population, shaping the structural and cultural diversity. Life in America flourished because of the Haiti Revolution.

With the acquisition of New Orleans, the United States was able to lift the trade barrier that the French had on the port. It made it possible for Americans to ship goods now. Relying on England and France was no longer necessary. America would begin to focus on establishing itself as a country, while not having to worry about relying on others.

With that in mind, and as a result, the American Civil War occurred. Because of the desire to flourish and establish more states outside of Louisiana, each state was to decide whether or not slaves were free. Thus dividing the North and South.

Are you still awake? Just yawning? This is fascinating stuff. Seriously.

One good thing, if there is anything "good" post a 7.0 quake, is that the Port-Au-Prince's main airport is operating fine and is open and prepared for relief flights to land. Let's get flying people. They scratched our back over 200 years ago, now it's time to scratch theirs.

6. Quick wrap - 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver start in 30 days (Feb. 12th). Wahoo!

Penguins, more specifically, Malkin, better step it up.

Pitt Panther hoops are quieting the critics so to speak. Without Blair, Young and Fields, most thought this season would be nothing short of a struggle and a rebuilding year. Currently sitting pretty at 13-2, 3-0 and ranked 16th, the Panthers will take on #15 rivals UConn this evening. Good looking out for Ashton Gibbs, Gilbert Brown, Jermaine Dixon and Dante Taylor. Let's see what they can do. Game starts at 7:00.

Whoop whoop! Alley-Oop!