Random Saturdays

Waking up on Saturday to see that somehow I've moved up in my NCAA pool standings despite a shredded bracket (Clemson, d'oh!!)

• Some Pitt players show support for Obama: First, Bobby Knight. Now Barack Obama. The Democratic presidential hopeful received the support of some Pitt players after his NCAA Tournament bracket, revealed online Thursday, predicted they would reach the Final Four. Obama has the Panthers losing to UCLA in the Final Four. He has North Carolina winning it all and Kansas also in the Final Four, but his spokesman said the brackets have nothing to do with upcoming primaries in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
• Fire that spokesman. For us to believe that is akin to us believing that Hillary is a "monster" or that Reverend Wright didn't have any influence on you.
• For the record, Hillary didn't want to fill out a bracket without doing more homework. Doesn't she realize that nobody does any homework when filling out brackets?
  
• At least neither picked Kentucky and Oregon, two other states with upcoming primaries but are already out of the tourney.
• I keep seeing it mentioned more and more. Today it's in the PG, but the 'Stuff White People Like' blog is hilarious. "Hating Their Parents" checks in at #17; "Manhattan (Now Brooklyn too!) is #26; and #28 i "Not having a TV". So funny but so true.
• Couple of big tilts tonight, rivaling the nght in December when the Steelers, Panthers and Pens all played on the same night. No Stillers tonight, but the stakes are raised for the Pens and Pitt. What to do? Since the Pens game starts about two hours before the Pitt game, I think the strategy is to watch the Pens and devils battle for first in the Atlantic and tivo the Pitt/Michigan St game. You'll be able to quickly catch up on the hoops by FFing through the timeouts and commercials. Just hope that Steiggy doesn't ruin it by announcing the Pitt score during the Pens game.
• The Leafs are out of it so maybe we can understand a little insanity on the part of Toronto scribes. And Damien Cox is never one of the more balanced writers anyway. But his argument for the Hart borders on the edge. Lidstrom is his pick because the Wings almost fell apart when he was out. Now Lidstrom could probably win this award every year he's so good, but the Wings were really struggling even before he went down so this reasoning is flawed (Detroit was 0-6-1 in its last seven games before Lidstrom got hurt, but without him in the lineup, including the game he was injured and played just three minutes, the Red Wings went 3-3-1). Cox taps Brodeur as his 1A pick. Goalies are the most important players on any hockey team, but if you really want a goalie who has been most valuable, you have to look beyond Marty. Nabokov in San Jose, Giguere in Anaheim, and is you want to extend the Lidstrom argument, Conklin in the Burgh for how the team didn't disintegrate with Sid, should get consideration ahead of Brodeur. As for Cox not voting for AO if the Caps don't make the playoffs, that's another joke. AO should win unless Malkin tops him in the points race. Then it's 71's award. But here's another one to consider as well: Alexei Kovalev.
  

Random N' @

-Finally someone takes this overused and stale phrase to task:
Who’s to Blame for ‘Under the Bus'?

-Ron Cook with one of his typically cliched article. This Pitt team is nowhere near as tough as previous teams. I hope they prove me wrong and make a long run but the thing that hurt them in the regular season, not playing tough defense, will likely come back and haunt them at some point in the tourney.:
If you want to talk about tough, talk Pitt basketball

-The University of Pittsburgh at New York Panthers? The New York Post jumps on the Pitt bandwagon.

-Gus Johnson will be doing the Pitt game and all games from Denver this weekend. He'll can make anything exciting.

-Speaking of Pitt, the school came in at #6 in the ranking of the Top Ten Drunk College foods. The problem here is that the food chosen to represent Pitt is one of Fathead's sandwiches. Nothing against Fathead's, I love the place, but two things here:

• it's not on the Pitt campus and enjoying this great drunk food would require driving to the South Side drunk.
• Of course, there are two spots that are actually on the Pitt campus are clearly superior to Fathead's. The O offers fries you can't find anywhere else and are a great late night meal. And legendary (maybe popularized a bit too much by non-Burghers) Primanti's has their sandwiches that are a justifiable reason to get drunk just so you can truly enjoy one.
  

The Burgh as Symbol of Unity

It's over three years old and is written after one of the worst days as a Steeler fan, yet DK at the PG's Pirate Q&A links to this article by Burgh native and Newsweek writer Howard Fineman:

Fineman: Lessons in unity from Pittsburgh

There is a lot of schmaltzy stuff written about everything and a lot written about Pittsburgh and some of it seeps into this article. It's also funny to read what fans thought at the time about their Coach and rookie QB. But Fineman gets a couple of things right: people from the Burgh are always from there no matter where they are and they are invariably as proud of it as anyone from anywhere else is; there is less class and racial division than elsewhere; and there is nothing like a Steeler game, either a big win or a devastating loss, to bring the citizens together. I doubt there is any other event in our country that galvanizes a city in such a way.

Fineman is a good writer, I'll be watching for him on MSNBC and Newsweek where he'll have lots of time and space as the elections get closer.

Steelers release Wilson

Steelers release Wilson

The Steelers have released veteran wide receiver Cedrick Wilson, the team announced this morning.

Wilson, who was entering his eighth NFL season, was arrested Wednesday night for hitting his former girlfriend in a Pine restaurant, and was charged by police with simple assault, harrassment and disorderly conduct.

In January, the woman, Lindsey Paulat, 26, of Fawn, was involved in a lengthy armed standoff at Wilson's home, police said.

Wilson signed with the Steelers in March 2005 as an unrestricted free agent from the San Francisco 49ers. In three seasons with the Steelers Wilson caught 81 passes for 1,162 yards and two touchdowns.

Nothing gained, nothing lost here. Just hope Madden's recent articles about the Steelers being as loaded with criminals as the Bengals didn't have any impact on this.

Red Sox Seem More Like Yankees Everyday

Red Sox vote not to board plane for Japan, play final spring game

The Boston Red Sox refused to take the field for their final spring training game in Florida on Wednesday and threatened to boycott their flight to Japan for their season openers unless their coaches and other staff are paid for the trip.

A couple of thoughts about this:

• $40,000 per coach is pocket change considering all the other costs for this trip. This could scuttle the whole trip? There have been grumblings from the Red Sox about this whole trip for a while. Seems like this is one issue that they could put up a fight over, even if it makes them look like petty whiners.
• $40,000 per player to go to Japan to play games? For how many days? In addition to being paid their regular salaries? That players ARE receiving this money is absurd. To protest someone not getting it is beyond absurd.
• These are millionaires we're talking about. If it's such an issue, why don't they pass the hat around the locker room and ask the players to pitch in for the coaches?
  
• What about Oakland? Why haven't we heard from them if this is such an issue? Maybe it's because the Sox feel as though they, as defending champs and object of the Red Sox Nation's desire, can act like the Yankees, er spoiled brats, er "representatives of what is right" and hijack something that has been planned for months.
  
• With all the planning and coordination needed for this, why did it only come to light on the day the Red Sox were to fly to Japan?
• Great offseason for baseball eh?
  
• Sadly, the players have all the leverage in this and will likely get their way.
  

UPDATE: the "crisis" has been resolved and the Sox will fly to Japan as planned. And word is that coaches were initially supposed to be paid and then MLB reneged on that plan. Which makes what the players did a bit more understandable but really just throws MLB into the shameful pit as well.

Steelers find replacement for Mahan

Steelers agree to contract with ex-Panthers center Hartwig

With their offensive line in transition with the departure of Alan Faneca, the Pittsburgh Steelers found a new anchor to their line by reaching a two-year, $4 million deal with former Carolina Panthers center Justin Hartwig.

Included in the deal is a $975,000 signing bonus.

Hartwig was released by the Panthers a week ago in order to give Ryan Kalil the chance to start at center. The Panthers considered moving him to guard but decided it was better to part ways.

Over the past two years, the Steelers have lost a Pro Bowl guard, Faneca, to free agency and lost a former Pro Bowl center, Jeff Hartings, to retirement. Acquiring Hartwig gives the interior of the Steelers line more versatility.

With Hartwig on board, he could start at center and allow Sean Mahan to move to one of the guard spots.

Bucci's back

ESPN - Time to Zamboni the brain cells, prepare for late-season stretch

It's mid-March and Easter is early this year, so let's spring forward by resurfacing the brain and starting anew.

It's time to flush out all the winter sludge, Zamboni the brain cells and clear out our heads for the final weeks of the regular season and the start of the playoffs.

Pryor to announce college choice Wednesday

Jeannette High School football star Terrelle Pryor will finally make his college decision Wednesday. Pryor, a senior quarterback, will announce his decision at noon in Jeannette's auditorium.

Do you understand the magnitude of it?

Gene Collier at the PG: Woods adventures are far more impressive

"What he's doing right now, I mean, you can't even hardly fathom it," Bart Bryant said after becoming the closest human to Woods in stroke-play this year. "You can't explain it. It's just incredible. I think true golf fans who understand the game, understand the magnitude of it. I think the golf public in general doesn't get it, to be honest."

Amazing as it sounds, Bryant may be understating things. Tiger has a combination we have never seen before: he physically beats opponents with great shots like Sunday, but he has also pulled the Jedi mind trick, beating them down mentally. His domination is more complete than Jordan's ever was. Bryant's reaction to Tiger's winning putt on Sunday was to shrug and laugh as if he knew it was coming. Truly at this point, it is bigger news if Tiger loses than if he wins; think about that in an individual sport. And what is equally amazing, people love watching him win even if he has a huge lead. Where else does that happen? If he wins his next tournament, the buildup to the Masters and the TV ratings for it will be the highest ever. And they will only go higher if he dominates. It's a strange phenomenon, but Tiger has taken us to a whole new universe.

Mario Nets 7 pts vs Oilers

Great gem from Empty Netters, just another night in Edmonton in 1989 for 66. He racks up 7 points vs the Oilers, extending a streak of factoring in on at least 12 straight Pens goals.

Big East Champs TipOff Thursday at 3:00pm EDT

The first round schedule for the NCAA's is out and Pitt will be the second game schedule in Denver Thursday afternoon. Michigan St and Oregon will start at 12:30 EDT and Pitt/Oral Roberts will start 30 minutes after the end of that game. Barring OT, the Pitt game will begin around 3:00 EDT.

Snell named opening day starter

From the PPG:
Ian Snell will start for the Pirates on opening day in Atlanta March 31, manager John Russell said today.

Tom Gorzelanny will start the second game in Atlanta, which puts him on track to start the Pirates' home opener against Chicago April 7.

Russell said starting Snell in the first game followed by Gorzelanny sets up the rotation well.

"It gives us a different look each night,'' Russell said.

Zach Duke continued an impressive spring today, pitching five scoreless innings in the Pirates' 4-1 victory against Toronto. Duke walked none and got seven ground-ball outs.

"I thought he was great,'' Russell said. "This season is a fresh start for him. We just expect Zach to be what he's capable of.''

Nate McLouth tripled, walked, stole a base, scored a run and drove in a run and might not be competing against Nyjer Morgan for the center field job anymore.

"I'd like to keep them both,'' Russell said. "We'll see how it plays out.''