What is it with Chicago??

The Pirates continued their futility against Chicago teams with an embarrassing 16-5 loss in Chi-town to the White Sox.
Ian Snell was chased after 5 innings and 7 runs in falling to 3-7,but his bullpen "help" was even worse.
Franquelis Osoria and Marino Salas combined to allow eight runs in just two and a third and Sean Burnett allowed 1 run in an outing (1 and two thirds of an inning) that epitomized the term-"Mop Up".
As hard as it must be to believe from a 16-5 loss,there was a point that this looked like a good night for the visitors from Pennsylvania.
After the Chi-Sox scored a first inning run,the Buccos roared back with 4 runs in the visitors half of the second.
Jason Michaels doubled home both Adam LaRoche and Ryan Doumit and shortly thereafter was singled home by Doug Mientkiewicz for a 3-1 lead.
Mientkiewicz would score to conclude the Pirate runs at 4 as he tagged and trotted home on a Nate McLouth sac fly.
The White Sox tied the game in the third off Snell,but the Pirates tied the game again in their next at bat on Jose Bautista's long homer to left (6).
The game was all downhill after the Pittsburgh fifth,as Chicago would score runs in each at bat from the fifth until the games end and when that happens you have a lopsided game.
Once more,this showed the Pirates glaring weakness in long and middle relief.
Pittsburgh simply has to rely on mediocrities like Osoria far more than an average team should and that is how nightmares like tonight happen.
Don't get me wrong,I am not advocating making trades yet to improve middle relief,but trying to get the point across that bad teams have some really bad pitching and this team has to bank on bad pitchers performing better than their abilities.
The series continues tomorrow at 8:11,lets hope the game is better than this.

Pitching Matchup
Pittsburgh:Tom Gorzelanny (5-5, 6.65 ERA) at Chicago White Sox:Mark Buerhle (3-6, 4.47 ERA) 8:11

Bullpen Notes

The Pirates brought their third and fourth rounders into the fold with the signing of shortstops Jordy Mercer and Chase D'Arnaud.
This combined with the previous days signing of their eighth and ninth rounders-Jeremy Farrell
and Matthew Hague could comprise the starting infield at State College.
Either Mercer or D'Arnaud could see time at second for the Spikes and a fast start for either could make them Hickory bound to reduce the logjam,while time at first base for Hague would not be a surprise to me to avoid splitting time with Farrell at third.

The Spikes lost their season opener to Jamestown,but 12th round pick Calvin Anderson did blast a three run homer in his pro debut.
The 6'7 Anderson should be the main first baseman,but Matthew Hague could see time there as well.

The Cleveland Indians quickly signed their top pick,Lonnie Chisenhall,to the bottom line and assigned the former Pirate draftee to Mahoning Valley.
Chisenhall received a 1.1 million dollar bonus and will be the Scrappers starting shortstop,but will be moved to the hot corner in instructional league play.

The Indians also signed a name from the past in former All-Star Morgan Ensberg and sent him to Buffalo.
Ensberg was recently released from the Yankees.
It is hard to believe how fast a player can fall-just three years ago Ensberg hit 36 homers for the Houston Astros.

Former Devil Igor Larionov finally got his deserved election to the Hockey Hall of Fame today.
If you went strictly by NHL numbers,Larionov would have been a borderline selection,but when you consider his prime years were spent in international play-he is a slam dunk entry.

Wish I could say the same for the other inductee-Glenn Anderson.
Sorry,but I do not think Anderson measures up.
His stats look impressive,but he played in the highest offensive era in the history of the sport and was playing with arguably the greatest forward ever in Wayne Gretzky for most of his strong seasons and when Gretzky left Anderson-Anderson's stats went with him.

The Hockey Hall simply has too many good players in it.
The Hall should be for great players.

Look for a Devils related post sometime this week with off season advice.
Until next time!

Photo Credits
Snell-Brian Kersey-AP Photo
Larionov-Unknown

Tim Russert

The coverage of the passing of NBC News Bureau Chief Tim Russert was both stunningly complimentary of him and difficult to explain as why one reporter was glorified as such a deity at the same time.

I liked Tim Russert.
He seemed like a guy that was a lot like myself, with a great interest in sports and politics along with being a strong family person and his work was excellent.
Russert's Meet the Press was a must see for the political junkie and the casual observer of the scene.
His weekend program on MSNBC and earlier on CNBC was a must tape every weekend for me and in many ways,I enjoyed it even more than Meet the Press.
His questioning of guests was tough,but fair and those questions came to those from both sides of the batters box unlike some from the left (Olbermann) that refuses to have right leaning opinions on their programs or from the right (O'Reilly),who invites opposing views only to not allow them to speak or to belittle any opinions that are not similar to theirs.
Tim Russert was not a screamer and certainly did not come off as shrill by any means,again unlike many of the political commentators of today.
His love for the Rust Belt town of his youth (Buffalo) mirrored that of my own and his support of the city of Buffalo was very laudable.
I have always held those that had not forgotten where they came from in high regard,it is so easy for anyone to forget humble beginnings when one is enjoying the crest of success.
So before you read the following,keep in mind that what you read is not about Tim Russert.

The coverage by MSNBC was over the top,overdone and frankly not always in the best of taste.
I watched some of the programming that was shown,but in fairness-I had seen much of it before.
I find it incredibly difficult to believe that the only thing newsworthy in the world for a 72 hour period was the passing of a newsman.
An incredibly talented newsman and well liked newsman,but again there are so many other stories and events out there that seemed to be put on hold by the NBC family while NBC saluted Russert leaving those that were looking for more than a look back at the life of Tim Russert from their news network of choice.
Since the weekend was looming,a proper decision could have been made by running a crawl on all NBC and MSNBC coverage that CNBC (since the stock market closes for the weekend) would be showing Russert related programming as a tribute to their fallen comrade.
That move could have satisfied all viewers looking for all things.

I understand that the loss of Russert was a huge shot to the department of news at NBC both as a business and personally to his co-workers,but was it necessary for the war,the presidential election,oil issues among many to placed on hold for the weekend to hear what seemed to be everyone from Tom Brokaw on down to the guy that filled the water cooler pay tribute?
As a MSNBC viewer,it seemed to be too much and that is before the canonization of Russert.
Russert loved his son and both were an important part of each others lives,but was it newsworthy to hear this 25 times an hour?
Funny,how it was never mentioned that Russert pulled strings to earn Luke his weekend radio show on XM (satellite) radio talking about sports with James Carville.
Unless of course,you really believe that Luke "Smith" would have been given a national radio show while still in college with no radio experience and would be able to get a nationally known person to sit in and co-host..................
I don't bring this up to disparage Russert,he did what most of us would do-anything to help the people that we care about,but he was flawed.
Just like everyone else.

I grow more and more disenchanted with the news networks.
Too much celebrity,(CNN),too far on the left (MSNBC) and too far on the right (Fox).
Why cant we just talk about what happened and let us read what we think into it.
I have no problems with opinion based shows,but it seems that we are falling into the trap of biases leeching into the news portion of the programs and that is not a good sign.
I would love to see Brian Lamb and C-Span jump into this with a Joe Friday style of news-Just the facts and figures without an agenda to set.

Tim Russert was a large loss to NBC and the news industry in general,but the passing of Russert may have done something else.
He may have shown the power of celebrity outweighs the duty of informing.
Somehow,I don't think that is what Tim Russert stood for in life.

For a look at Bag of Health's take on this-click here.
Back later with the Pirates visit to Chicago and other news.

Photo Credit
Russert-NBC

Bucs power surge not enough to overcome bad bullpen

The Pittsburgh Pirates did it again in being unable to hold two different leads in the final two innings and as a result dropped another game to the Orioles in Baltimore 8-7.
The Bucs received early homers from Xavier Nady (10) and Freddy Sanchez (3) to keep the team in the game,but Jose Bautista's three run shot in the seventh (5) turned a two run deficit into a one run lead.
John Grabow then allowed two runs in the Oriole seventh to allow them to regain the lead.
After a super start to the season,Grabow has recently begun to revert to "Matches" form.
But in the 9th,Adam LaRoche ,of all people,slammed a two run bomb into the seats (7) off Baltimore closer George Sherrill to give the Pirates the lead and just three outs away from a win.
But Matt Capps (0-2) could not hold things together either as someone named Oscar Salazar took Capps over the wall and as the inning progressed,Ramon Hernandez finished the game with a shot to the gap to score Freddy Bynum.
This loss really hurts and not just because it was another loss to the Orioles.
I could marginally understand the Friday loss,this team has real problems in long and middle relief,but last night-2 of your three best guys got you beat and that is a knife to the heart.
Zach Duke pitched passably in the start,well enough to keep things close anyway.
Things actually got worse for Pittsburgh in the ninth as Xavier Nady looked to have injured his leg on a foul hit by Hernandez shortly before the Baltimore backstop ended the game.
Nady was forced to leave the game and was replaced in right by Jason Michaels.
Do not look for Nady to play today and if so as the DH.
The Buccos look to avoid the sweep today at 1:35.

Pitching Matchup
Pittburgh:Paul Maholm (4-5 4.55 ERA) at Baltimore:Daniel Cabrera (5-2 4.35 ERA) 1:35

Bullpen Notes

I am not sure if there will be a post tomorrow as I have to work my regular shift and then do 4 hours of medication classes before I get to bed in order to then work Monday night.
Just a heads up.

An interesting read from the Post-Gazette on the attendance problems of both the Pirates and the Indians.
Pittsburgh's problems are pretty simple.
They are a losing franchise and losing teams will struggle at the gate especially in a town that has two other franchises that are winning ones.
The Indians are a bit different as they have been a solid team for most of the last decade plus.
To me,the Indians issue is this-even though they are a good team,their stars lack personality and the team comes off as dull.
This is a big problem for a team in a city with LeBron James in it.

A quick bit of Fathers Day wishes to my dad and all of the fathers out there.
Have fun today!

And finally,if you have a few minutes to kill,this will help me out.
Ryan and Battlin Bob have gotten me into a sim football league,where you create players and they play games etc.
You build your players abilities with points earned through performance,but I can also gain them through referrals.
So even if this looks to be something totally uninteresting to you,if you have a few minutes-sign up and help me out making my beginning players better-I would appreciate it!
Here is the link and you must cut and paste it into your browser and you have to use the URL listed or I will not gain points.
http://goallineblitz.com/game/signup.pl?ref=13777385

Thanks for any help!

Photo Credits
Capps:Gail Burton-AP Photo
PNC Fan:Peter Diana-Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Pirates trip over .500 line again in losing big lead

The Pittsburgh Pirates looked to be finally approaching the level of mediocre (.500) that seems to be such an obsession to Pirate fans (not me),the organization and the Pittsburgh media with a 6-1 lead against the awful Orioles,but then the clock hit midnight.
Phil Dumatrait started walking batters,as he is prone to do, and allowed the Orioles to get back into the game and Franquelis Osoria finished the job (3-2) by relinquishing the lead.
Sean Burnett then added the final toppings in a 9-6 loss in Charm (Ha!) City.
Dumatrait avoided taking the loss although he certainly gave put a team that was flat on their back back into the game and put the middle relievers in a position to have this game not end well.
Bad team usually have poor long and middle relief and the Pirates have those in abundance.
When this team finally turns the corner,one underrated reason will be that they will not have to continue to hand the ball to the Franquelis Osorias of the world and expect them to pitch well when the track record indicates that they will not do so.
After the Orioles scratched out a first inning run off Battlin Bob's favorite lefty,Pittsburgh took the lead in the second on a two run single by Jack Wilson.
In the next inning,Doug Mientkiewicz singled Jason Bay home and that set the stage for Jason Michaels to clout a three run shot (3) and a 6-1 lead.
Things were looking good to the point that the MASN announcers (Creature Feature Thorne and Comatose Palmer) were talking to the members of the 79 Orioles that were there instead of worrying about the game.
I swear I saw more of Doug DeCinces than the playing field one inning!
But then Dumatrait started walking people and walks turn into runs very quickly as results from walks turned into runs in both the fourth and fifth leaving Dumatrait staggering from the game after 5 innings with a less than impressive line-5 innings,5 runs,5 hits and 5 walks.
Only in the strikeout column was Dumatrait short of 5 with just three.
Osoria then allowed 2 runs in the sixth to give Baltimore the lead and Sean Burnett allowed a run in each of his two innings for the final score.
A disappointing night and one that the Bucs gave away.
The series continues tonight at 7 by the Inner Harbor.

I watched the game on tape,as Battlin Bob and I traveled to Frederick to see the first half champions of the Carolina League,the Potomac Nationals battle the Keys.
Potomac walked away with a 5-2 win despite the Keys loading the bases in the ninth to set up an exciting ending to the contest.
The signing was great as I was able to get get every player that I needed on Potomac to sign their cards from the 2008 Disabled Veterans (team giveaway) set and the seven players that were in the Hagerstown set to sign.
We sat beside the family of Potomac pitching coach Randy Tomlin and it was quite enjoyable to sit with knowledgeable fans that root for the opposition (Like us!).
Both of the Tomlin children were into the game with lots of cheering,but not overbearing at all as can happen sometimes.
One can clearly see that the Tomlins have done a excellent job raising their children as they were quite the class act.

Pitching Matchup
Pittsburgh:Zach Duke (4-4 4.10 ERA) at Baltimore:Radhames Liz (1-0 3.48 ERA) 7:05

Bullpen Notes

A Hagerstown note as well from the game-A players wife (or girlfriend.not sure) that sat in front of us told me that she had been telling her Potomac counterparts about how bad Hagerstown was.
She said "not the city,the facilities and that no one comes to games".
I only thought of then that it must be difficult for the players to perform well considering the facilities and the all the other stuff that entails the team and and began to think of the players that were just Ok here and the first time that a player moves up,they play better at the higher level.
Cory Van Allen and Carlos Gomez are just two that jump to mind like that immediately among others.
FTR- I know which player is her significant other,I just don't feel comfortable naming him without permission.

A brief note on the passing of Tim Russert.
I was a loyal watcher of both Meet the Press and his weekend show that started in CNBC and moved to the more logical network MSNBC last year and I have always thought that he was fair minded and was not afraid to ask the tough questions.
Russert will be missed.

Watch for more on Russert on Tuesday when it is looking like a slow day.
I think you will enjoy this one.

Battlin Bob sends us this sad word on the passing of Charlie Jones.
Jones was ,to me, one of the top voices of the AFC games as the play by play voice of NBC's number two team in the 70's and 80's and did other sports as well.
Jones had a real handicap in his last seasons at NBC,he had arguably the worst and most annoying analyst ever in Todd Christensen and had to carry him every week!
I liked Jones for his honesty.
Jones called a race in the 1988 Olympics and called the wrong runner all the way through the race and when that runner won,Jones went into the usual post race Olympic ramble that is always done after any Olympic event.
When the mistake was discovered-Jones quickly announced it,admitted the mistake and threw no one under the bus-"my mistake,Nobody elses".
I have never forgotten that-accountability.
Jones was 77.

I am sure that I will be ranting about the MASN/Orioles team sometime over the next few days,but this time I am going after the Pirates.
Baltimore spent the extra dough to wear 1979 caps and jerseys for the series against Pittsburgh and even though they were ugly it was still pretty cool to do and the Pirates should have matched their efforts and worn their 79 versions for the visit.
C'mon-have some fun!

Until tomorrow
Photo Credits
Burnett:Gail Burton-AP Photo
Russert:Alex Wong-Getty Images

Simply the best

Marty Brodeur won the Vezina Trophy last night for the fourth time in being recognized as the leagues top goaltender at the award announcement last night in Toronto.
Brodeur's four Vezinas rank second only to the recently retired Dominik Hasek (Six wins) on the Vezina list and this one may be the most deserving one of the four.
Evgeni Nabokov of San Jose was deserving as well,but having watched Brodeur in action all season,this might have been his best year.
The Devils are far from the most talented team and the Devils playoff season (and near Atlantic Division title to a vastly more talented Pittsburgh team) can be accredited to Marty and his play.
Lately the knock on the Devils has been their playoff exits (2 second round and this years opening round),but what the Devil haters just don't realize is the talent gap between New Jersey and many of the teams in the conference-some of which the Devils still finish ahead of!
That difference maker is Marty Brodeur and here is to more great seasons and more Vezinas.
It certainly will be different watching Devils hockey when Brodeur skates off to the Hall of Fame.

The Big League Stew blog is doing a series on each ballpark in baseball and used the best as their first post in Pittsburgh's PNC Park.
PNC got 85 % A grades and the article covers the ballpark,the city and things to do in the area as well.
The picture of PNC from opening day shown here is from the article.
Very interesting and Cleveland's Progressive (Jacobs) Field is the next in the series.

Stumbled on a site filled with pics from the old Richfield Coliseum.
I have been looking for something on the Coliseum this comprehensive for quite a while!
The author does not allow use without permission even if given credit,but it is quite good and I love the background music from the Michael Stanley band!
Now for some pics of my arena haunt-the Capital Centre!

I will be in Frederick tonight to catch the Potomac Nationals against the Keys and On the signing front will cover how things went tomorrow

And finally,the Hamilton Tiger-Cats started their pre-season play with a 12-10 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Timmy Chang (Hawaii) led the Cats to their winning score in the 3rd quarter.
Hard to believe that CFL football is here already!

Photo Credits
Brodeur and PNC-Unknown

Doumit blasts another as Bucs win 7-5

Ryan Doumit hammered another homer in the first inning to stake Pittsburgh to an early lead and the Pirates held on for a 7-5 win over the Washington Nationals on a getaway day at PNC Park.
The blast was the ninth for the lefty swinging catcher and his fourth in the three game set against Washington.
Tom Gorzelanny earned the win and leveled his season record at 5-5,despite his velocity still seeming to be lower than it should.
Gorzelanny allowed 3 runs on 6 hits,struck out 6 and walked three in his term and walked himself in the Pirate 2nd,which resulted in an RBI for the pitcher.
Nate McLouth then added a 4th Bucco run with a sacrifice fly that scored Chris Gomez to result in a 4-0 Pittsburgh lead.
Washington scored a single run in the third,but that was washed away in the Pittsburgh fifth when Jason Bay scored Gorzelanny on a sac fly and Doumit added a third RBI to his total when his single plated Nate McLouth.
Gorzelanny was chased from the game in the 6th as he allowed 2 runs and Sean Burnett allowed a run in his first appearance in what seems to be forever.
The play that may saved the Bucs was an Elijah Dukes single,which scored a run and moved Christian Guzman to third,that Dukes attempted to stretch into a double and was thrown out by a mile by Xavier Nady from right.
If Dukes stays at first or is safe at second,who knows what would have happened,but instead the Pirates held onto a 6-4 lead and each team scored single runs in the eighth for the final score.
Jason Michaels pinch hit double resulted in the final Buc run.
Damaso Marte pitched the ninth in the place of the overworked Matt Capps to click up his first save of the season.
The Pirates travel to Baltimore tomorrow for a three game weekend series against the Orioles in the beginning of the interleague slate.

Pitching Matchup
Pittsburgh:Phil Dumatrait (3-3 3.44 ERA) at Baltimore:Brian Burres (4-5 4.96 ERA) 7:05

Bullpen Notes

Now that the Nationals series is over,only one more opposing team announcers to tolerate.
The downside is that is this weekend vs Baltimore.
The Nationals announcers are quite good as I have always liked Bob Carpenter and Don Sutton is good in the color chair,but for the Pirate series Sutton was not around and was replaced by Mr.Nancy Lopez (Ray Knight) and his work is not favorable in my opinion.
The Orioles commentators are far worse as they have four of the most annoying around with "the screamer" Gary Thorne,smarmy Buck Martinez,catatonic Jim Palmer and funnyman (in his own mind) Jim Hunter.
It looks like a LONG weekend unless I use the mute button.

The Cleveland Browns released center LeCharles Bentley after two practice sessions.
Bentley asked for his release as he believed he would have a better chance to play elsewhere after his two seasons off after his devastating knee injury in 2006 training camp.
From the way that the press release read it looks to be a amiable parting from both sides.

Here is another article on the best play by play man in Hockey-the Devils own Mike"Doc" Emrick.
Last week Emrick threw out the first pitch before a game at PNC Park and the diehard Pirate fan talks about both hockey and his Pirates obsession in the review.

Until tomorrow when I have no idea what I will write about,so likely will be a theme post of some kind.

Photo Credit

Doumit:Gene Puskar-AP Photo

Doumit strikes again in 3-1 win!

Jason Bay's first inning double gave Pittsburgh a lead that they would not surrender,but the bigger stories in the Pirates 3-1 win over Washington belonged to Ryan Doumit and Ian Snell.
Doumit followed up his 4 for 4 day on Tuesday with a 3 for 4 night in this game including a homer (8) that was crushed to deep left center,which is the deepest part of beautiful PNC Park.
Doumit continues to show the abilities that could eventually make him the elite catcher (Batting wise) in the league.
Snell,on the other hand,won his first game in 11 starts with a 6+ inning outing that saw the Nationals score just one run off the righthander and that in his last inning of the evening.
Snell walked three,but did strike out six and has now fanned 15 in his last two starts and that bodes well for a possible return to form.
Matt Capps added a 16th save to his season total in his 4th appearance in four days-With today being a day game,I would doubt on that streak reaching five.
The Buccos go for the series triumph in a half hour (or 12:35 ) before beginning Inter-league play tomorrow. :(

I watched the game on MASN replay (one advantage to them playing Washington) because I went to the Hagerstown-Lakewood game.
The Blue Claws took a 7-3 win behind Julian Sampson's excellent start allowing one run in six innings in his second start since a stint on the disabled list.
Some of you may remember Sampson as a pick of our in last years shadow draft.
The Suns play the next four games on the road to end the first half before the all star break and then starting the second half home schedule the way they ended it-vs Lakewood.

Pitching Matchup
Washington:Jason Bergmann (1-3 5.23 ERA) at Pittsburgh:Tom Gorzelanny (4-5 6.83 ERA) 12:35

Bullpen Notes

Hagerstown also released their 2008 team set last night and I was pleasantly surprised by the look of the set.
I liked it quite a bit and a massive improvement over the 2007 version.

The Pirates signed 4 more draftees and the quartet includes the highest pick to sign thus far and one of the most intriguing (to me at least).
7th rounder Benjamin Gonzalez is a shortstop from Puerto Rico and is the highest pick to sign,while 15th rounder Chris Aure is a pitcher from Alaska!
Not a large amount of Alaskan pros,so I am looking forward to Aure in the future.
Both players passed on college commitments to sign-Gonzalez with Oklahoma State,while Aure turned down a JUCO offer from a school in Arizona.

If you click on the links for Gonzalez and Aure,they will take you to the top notch site of Wilbur Miller and Wilbur has already looked at the 2008 draft.
I wholeheartedly encourage you to do so!
I have talked to Wilbur about an interview here and he agreed,now all I have to do is get off my rump and get it done!

The move has not made yet,but Marino Salas is expected to be recalled from Indy and Bryan Bullington returned to the Brickyard.
Bullington was brought up 2 weeks ago and has yet to make an appearance.
The Post-Gazette reports that John Russell is reluctant to use Bullington or Sean Burnett in tight situations.
Seems to me that he is reluctant to use them in ANY situation.

Back later with the matinee game report!

Photo Credits
Doumit:Gene Puskar-AP Photo