Catching up........

My apologies for missing the last two days.
Work has been a real pain and I was either busy,tired or just ticked off at work to feel like writing.
In any event instead of giving game catchups,I figured I would give a brief update and then a regular blog.
I know that as of this writing,the Pirates and Indians are finished their games,but I will review their games in tomorrow's blog.
I also hope to start the series on how I would repair the Pirates as the GM tomorrow.

The Pirates split the two missed days with the Cubs, winning on Friday 8-4 and losing on Saturday
7-1.
On Friday,Paul Maholm continued to pitch well and improved to 5-11.
Starting to feel better about Maholm with every outing!
Xavier Nady hit his 14th HR and knocked in 3 runs,while Freddy Sanchez hit his 2nd long ball in the win.

John Van Benschoten struggled with his control and the Cubs made him pay on Saturday,chasing him after just 2 and 2/3rds innings.
JVB allowed 5 runs and 7 hits in his short stint,clearly his worst effort since his recall from Indianapolis.
Van Benschoten falls to 0-3 on the year.

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats still do not have a touchdown this season.
The Cats lost their home opener to the rival Toronto Argonauts 30-5.
Only a field goal and a botched snap to the Argos punter for a safety avoided the shutout.
Jason Maas was horrible in the first half and was benched for Timmy Chang in the second.
Chang was an improvement,but was unable to move the Cats into the end zone.
The Cats next game is vs the Montreal Alouettes in Hamilton next Saturday night.

Pirates CEO Kevin McClatchy will be replaced at season's end.
Nickels Nutting is looking for a replacement..
Do not be shocked if after a Cheney-like search that the winning candidate is...........
Nickels Nutting!
Give McClatchy credit for keeping the team in Pittsburgh and getting PNC Park built.
Outside of that....................

Now the next question is this-Does Nickels fire Captain Dave and his crony Jim Tracy??
It would go a LONG way to showing Pirate fans that he actually wants to win.

The New Jersey Devils signed exactly the kind of player I was hoping for in Kevin Weekes.
Weekes is a perfect fit to play 15 to 25 games a year to be able to rest Martin Brodeur.
Marty had a great season last year,but was out of petrol at seasons end.
Weekes should be able to help that situation.

Great interview by Charlie over at Bucs Dugout with former Pirate CJ Nitkowski.
C.J. comments on his career,life in Japan with the Fukuoka Hawks and some recent comments on his dealing with the Pirates and the ever lovable Captain Dave!
Nice job,Charlie!

Zach Duke does not need surgery,but he will not be throwing for a while.
Duke will do his rehab work in Florida.
If the Pirates are smart,Duke will pitch sparingly,if at all for the remainder of the year.

Battlin Bob sends me a rumor that Dan Patrick has been fired by ESPN.
If true,another one of the rare quality guys at SportsCenter goes by the wayside.

Another great article on a favorite mine-Baltimore's Jeremy Guthrie.
The Indians seemed to screw up Guthrie's development at every turn and now the Orioles(yuck) are reaping the benefits.

Finally the poll wound up at 5 votes for no high school and 4 votes for Ashland.
Since the voting was so close,I have decided to do a small post game score etc for Ashland,but nothing expansive.

Back tomorrow with more and hopefully part 1!