I have a problem

I love sports and I especially love Pittsburgh sports. But I think I have a problem when I am reading every article about the 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates that i see.
We are going to set a professional sports record for losing seasons in a row, our big signings this year are two indians that have never played baseball in their life (but blog with the best of them) , and our team president seems convinced that adding sleeves to the uniforms will change the culture of losing.

Really makes me question what I am doing with my life.

It is time to go

With A-rod the newest headline name attached to the steroid era, baseball has official lost its footing in the annals of history. If Ken Griffey Jr. turns out to be one of the other 103 names on the formally confidential list, baseball might start fighting with hockey over meaninglessness. Pretty soon the Hall is going to add a section for steroids and all of the numbers that got put up during those years, like its the end of a league of their own.

I don't think Griffey was juicing, his numbers were dropping when others were going up and he was injured all the time (for drugs that are supposed to be producing bigger numbers and faster recovery times it seems unlikely he was)

But for all the big names that have been forever tarnished, the one that seems to stay out of the fray is the commisioner Bud Selig.

Maybe it is time for him to resign, and with his departure cut ties with the steroid era. It would even allow him to get high and mighty and suggest that the new commish, reset the records back to Hank Aaron and Maris. He could even do it himself, or asterisks out seasons or even records.

While some view him as one of the greatest commisioners in baseball, it is more a result of the increased revenue he has brought to the game, and the owners. But lost in the shuffle of expansion, wildcard rounds, revenue sharing, Is the fact that his whole tenure has come during the steriods era.

He may not have ushered it in, but he didn't stop it, and the culture that he promoted led us where we are today.


He has been acting commisioner since 1992, and officially since 1998. In 2008 he extended his contract to 2012, at which point he says he will retire.

So if those names do include more "hall of famers", maybe the media will start to point there fingers not only at the players but the people in charge of baseball that allowed it to go on.

If not the steroids era will end in 2012, when he retires.

I hope Andy Warhol was wrong

I need to stop writing about the Steelers, so I am allowing other blogs that cover it better to do so, at least until the draft.

I just hope that the pics of the day from 2/3/09 don't end up being my 15 minutes of fame

What a game

I took my sister to a hot pot restaurant in Nanjing for our final meal before our vacation was over and we had this exchange. Hoping the whole week that the Football gods and Myron Cope would smile on the effort we were making to find a place to watch the game live at 7 in the morning.

“Her: What’s wrong?”
Me: “I burnt my tongue, but now that you ask I just have this feeling about the game that it is going to come down to the aspect that have defined our whole season. I just have this premonition that we are going to have a 3rd and 1 4th and 1 near their goalline and that Big Ben is going to have to come back to win it in the 4th.”

After the first period of the game when the Steelers had already struggled on 3rd and goal. I looked at her and said that I was going to be right.

I didn’t want to be right. I would have rather the Steelers had blown the Cardinals out, but at least they won, and now I don’t have to spend my future watching Larry Fitzgerald dashing to the endzone with a little under 3 minutes to play and feeling sick about it. And I can laugh about how adamant Cousin Sal from Bill Simmons podcast was about Gary Russell not scoring a TD and how much money he probably lost on that prop bet. So he may not feel this way but...

What a game

I don’t know if I would feel that way had my team lost. (I probably wouldn’t be in a place right now to even begin to discuss it) but imparitially that must have been an incredible game to watch. But to have so many lead changes in the last few minutes that a 100 yard INT and a play that not only caused a 14 point swing but prompted a friend (a steelers fan) to question whether the player was on steroids because it was so unbelievable.

It is easy to get lost in the moment and proclaim that this was the greatest superbowl ever, From my perspective it was because I am a steelers fan, harrison’s play, Ben’s scrambles and comeback, Santonio’s catch. Those plays will live in Steeler lore forever. It just feels like a choice that was made in the moment. That this was the greatest superbowl ever. I believe they were saying that about last years game right after the game as well. But it is hard to argue with a game that delivered the longest play in Superbowl history, a final quarter that made you forget about it, and 2 quarterbacks that solidified a spot for themselves in the Hall of Fame. As well as confirm the greatest WR in the game today, and one of its emerging stars. Its got to be up there if it isn’t the best.

Whatever the case. As a steelers fan I am thrilled, We now have to be considered the 2nd best team of the 00’s behind the Pats, and if we can get some lineman, someone that can return a kickoff that isn’t a fullback, and get our real punter back there is no reason to think more success isn’t in our future.