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!!!