Hairston homer bounces Buccos to basement

Pittsburgh was one pitch away from finally getting a victory over Chris Young,but Matt Capps threw ball four on a full count pitch to Kevin Kouzmanoff and that was followed by a three run blast off the bat of San Diego's Scott Hairston to give the Padres a stunning 5-3 victory and leave the Pirates needing a win tomorrow to avoid a 4 game sweep by the surf.
Capps was the losing pitcher and his record falls to 4-7 on the year.
Hairston is a guy that I have liked for a while and it always made me wonder why the Diamondbacks never gave him much of a chance and then traded him to a division rival.
Sometimes all that it takes is for someone in power to decide that you aren't any good and that pretty much ends your opportunities.
But that happens in many regular jobs too,doesn't it?
In any case,I am hoping that the new Pirates management team takes a closer look at guys like Hairston and maybe find a diamond somewhere.
Nate McLouth had a nice night in left with a double,a triple and 2 RBI.
Freddy Sanchez had the other Pittsburgh RBI on a sacrifice fly.
The failure by Capps wasted a solid effort by Ian Snell,as he allowed 2 runs on 4 hits in 7 innings and looked like he is rounding back into form.
Former Buc Chris Young allowed 3 runs in 6 innings of work to give the Pirates a chance to finally defeat him,but it was not meant to be.
Series concludes later today at 3;35

Pitching Matchup

Pittsburgh: Matt Morris (9-10) at San Diego: Brett Tomko (3-11) 3:35

Bullpen Notes

Slow news day.

The Blackhawks Jonathan Towes broke a finger in last night's exhibition game vs Columbus.
It appears that he will miss most of the remainder of camp,but could be back for the season opener vs Minnesota.

I enjoyed the beginning of C-Span's 12 week series on Presidential Libraries a few days ago.
The series travels to the libraries and looks around,discusses the President of the week and takes phone calls.
The series is well-done as most C-Span programs are and even if you aren't a history buff, some of the bozos that call in are simply hilarious!

Finally,thanks to Scott Matthews for sending me some cards from Wilmington and a few from Harrisburg.
Dee Brown of Harrisburg is someone that always seemed to elude me,as he seems to get moved up every time I was close to going to a game and Scott was able to get two of Brown signed.
Other nice catches were Harrisburg closer Zech Zinicola and some of the Wilmington pitchers,most notably Danny Cortes and Julio Pimentel.
Pimentel,I was told,was gotten by Scott's wife Miranda (as in Shakespeare),so thanks to her as well for her efforts.
I had the opportunity to meet Scott and Miranda here at "Historic Municipal Stadium" late in the season.
Very nice meeting them and thanks again for the help.

Back later today with the scoop on the afternoon game.

Photo Credit
Hairston-Lenny Ignelei-AP Photo

Pirates fall again and We make some moves

First to get started,we made some changes tonight that should not affect the page too much,but could get us more exposure in the blog-o-sphere.
We hooked up with Feedburner to have additional readers find out about us and in addition-we are now available to be placed on your My Yahoo and/or Google home page.
We are very excited to be able to be placed on these heavyweight champions of the internet and if this move helps any one of you out there to have easier access to our home-that is great!
The Feedburner move will not affect any of the current readers that come here and honestly the page on blogger will look better than the Feedburner page,but I am still learning this as I go,so perhaps I can improve that down the road.
I think adding us to the above homepages below is as simple as clicking on one or both of the icons below the archived posts and links.
I have decided for now to not use the Feedburner email service and stick to doing that myself.
So for the readers that have been here,little should change for you except adding easier access for you.
If you have any questions,shoot me a mail or post a comment.
Please also feel free to pass us along to anyone interested,our readership/hit count seems to increase a little each day and with the winter coming,my time here should increase and that means more content.
Here's hoping that tonight's move adds even more to what we do!

Now back to the Pirates,who dropped another decision to the Padres in San Diego 5-3.
Tom Gorzelanny failed again in his attempt to win his 15th game and was the losing pitcher now
14-8 on the season.
Tom didn't seem to be on tonight and seemed to have a bit off his fastball and as a result had trouble locating his pitches and the numbers seem to show that as he walked 4 Padres in his short 5 inning night.
The 4 runs didn't look terrific either,but this is a young man that likely is hitting the wall as he has thrown more innings than he has since turning professional.
These things happen to young pitchers,hopefully Tom can recover enough to grab that number 15.
Xavier Nady homered for Pittsburgh and it was a doozy.
A smash into the second deck in left field off Greg Maddux and hitting it at the notoriously power-unfriendly Petco Park made it even more impressive.
Catch it on Sports Center,if you can!
The bomb was Xavier's 18th of the year and he singled home another run in the first for a 2 RBI night.
Jason Bay had the other Buc RBI on the night.
Game 3 against the Padres later today as the Pirates face former Farmhand Chris Young......
Ut-oh.....................

Pitching Matchup

Pittsburgh: Ian Snell (9-12) at San Diego: Chris Young (9-7) 10:05

Bullpen Notes

The Post-Gazette is reporting that Ruben Amaro is close to accepting the Astros GM job and that the Pirates could be interested in talking to the Dodgers Logan White.
White is the guy that I would really like to have serious consideration and maybe even hired.
I like White much better than the other candidates that have been mentioned.
As for Amaro?
Congratulations on the job and I cannot say that I am disappointed about Amaro not coming to Steeltown anyway.

I have to laugh this week watching the Browns shows and listening to the same callers that a week ago wanted Brady Quinn to start and now are talking playoffs with Derek Anderson.
We stated before the season that we preferred Anderson to Charlie Frye,but neither were going to scorch the earth this season.
I enjoyed the win over the Bengals as much as anyone,but lets still keep some perspective.
It was the Bengals defense that they did this against after all!
If the Browns can be 3-1 going into New England in week 5,maybe we will let some of those thoughts creep in-not before!

Staying with the Browns,Dave Zastidil must be severely hampered by injury as the Browns released Paul Ernster and signed former Cardinal booter Scott Player as a temp punter.
Player is the punter that wears the old one bar helmet.
Wonder if the Browns are trying to find one of the those now for Player???

Former Devil Sean Burke retired at the age of 40.
Burke played for several teams,but is most noted here for his stellar work for the Devils in the late 1980's.
Burke was the goalie for the 1st Devil team to make the playoffs in 1988 and came within one game of reaching the Stanley Cup finals.
Best wishes to Burke on a fine career.

More hockey news as the NHL appears to be schedule tweaking again for the 2008-09 season.
Not sure how this will play out,but the unbalanced divisional schedule looks to be finished for sure.
I kinda liked things the way they were,but it seems to be a high priority to have Sidney Crosby play in every city in a season.
The NHL is never happy.
They want to build rivalries,so they want to play divisional games more.
After a few years,they decide that divisional teams play too much...
Seems like they change everything for the sake of change except for the one thing that needs to be changed and has not been.
Removing Gary Bettman as Commissioner.

In the world of Boxing-Madison Square Garden has donated its 82 year old ring to the Boxing Hall of Fame and will have a new ring for its WBC Heavyweight title fight between Champion Oleg Maskaev and challenger Samuel Peter.
Class move in sending the historic ring to the hallowed Hall where fans can see it in its glory.

Finally,I am beginning a small side project.
I know everyone likes different foods and I would like to add each readers favorite recipe to a project that I am working on.
So,please help me out and send me your favorite recipe to my email.
And If you are not on the mailing list and want to help,post a comment and I will get it to you!

Photo Credits
Nady-Lenny Ignelei-AP Photo
Player-Dallas Morning News
Burke-Topps Cards

Pirates shut out in San Diego

John Van Benschoten was rumored to have his back against the wall.
If this start was a poor one,he could lose the remainder of his scheduled starts,but the answer is cloudy.
JVB allowed 3 runs,5 hits,walked 3 and struck out 2 in 5 innings and lost (0-6),but didn't seem to pitch that badly.
Not sure whether he will get another start or not.
In any event,Jack Cassell won his first major league game and three Padre bullpenners fired a scoreless inning each as the Bucs fell 3-0.
Pittsburgh rapped out ten hits,but only threatened once in the 5th after a JVB double and Nyjer Morgan infield single put runners at 2nd and 1st with no outs.
But a Jose Bautista double play and a Freddy Sanchez tap back to the mound ended the threat quickly.
Same two tonight in San Diego.

Pitching Matchup

Pittsburgh:Tom Gorzelanny (14-7) at San Diego:Greg Maddux (12-10) 10:05

Bullpen Notes

Listened to the game at work via XM and had the Padre announcers.
Not good at all as Jerry Coleman called JVB "Van Schoten" all night while the other guy (didn't catch his name) sounded like a bad Paul Harvey impersonator.

Boise State is exploring a possible move to the Mountain West conference from the WAC.
This would be a move up the ladder for Boise State and would add a solid program for the Mountain West.

A terrific post by our good friends over at Wooden's World of Baseball.
Good Stuff!

If you haven't voted in the poll,do so soon as I am planning a new poll soon.

And finally thanks to David Akers of Philadelphia for drilling his late field goal in the waning minutes of the Eagles loss and allowing us to win the office NFL pool for Week 2!
Thanks David!

Photo Credit
JVB-Lenny Ignelei-AP Photo

Browns win the Ohio Air show,Seahawks fumble away win

In our top story from the gridiron,our teams had a win and a loss and that is what we predicted would happen.
However,we had the winners mixed up,as the Browns shocked the Cincinnati Bengals 51-45,while later in the day,the Seahawks seemed to be marching to a comeback win over the Arizona Cardinals before a late miscue and allowed the desert dwellers to escape with a 23-20 duke.

In Cleveland,the maligned Derek Anderson tossed 5 touchdown passes and threw for over 300 yards and Jamal Lewis must have thought the guys in the orange helmets were the Browns of a few years back as he pounded the team from Southern Ohio for 200+ yards on the ground.
We wont duck the prediction,we thought the Browns would lose and big,but we did get something right.
The prediction was that the Bengals would score 40 points and they exceeded that.
That certainly makes one worry about the defense as the season goes on,but with hindsight being 20/20 allow me to add this.
The Cleveland media had been talking all week above the improved Bengal defense and how well they played against Baltimore.
I didn't see that,I saw a team that allowed over 20 pts to a offensively challenged team that at the offensive skill positions weren't much better than the Browns.
All that said,I never saw that onslaught from Lake Erie coming today.
Don't get used to it,just enjoy it for today!!!
I was shocked to see such things as Braylon Edwards fighting for the ball and going over the middle and Lewis running away from defenders.
Have to give these two plenty of credit for great games and Kellen Winslow was solid as usual.
Next weeks games is in Oakland vs the Raiders.
This is a winnable game against a team that has a better defense than the Bengals.
Should be a good test to see which is the actual Browns team-Week 1 or Week 2.

Meanwhile,the Seahawks were overwhelmed early in Arizona as the Cardinals raced to a 17-0 lead before a late touchdown before halftime cut the lead to 17-7.
The Seahawks dominated the second half and eventually took a 20-17 lead.
Following a Neil Rackers field goal that tied the game at 20,the Seahawks marched down the field and seemed to be setting up the inevitable win.
Funny,how football seems to change quickly.
Matt Hasselbeck botched the snap at the Cardinal 35 and the Cardinals were the team to march down the field and kick the game winner for themselves.
Deion Branch was the big offensive weapon as he had 7 catches for 122 yds receiving.
It really was a tale of two games and the loss hurts especially because it was one of those games that you are in a position to win even though you don't deserve to.
If you can win one or two of them a year,it helps somewhere down the road.
Sometimes,it could mean home field,or a division title or even whether or not you get into the playoffs or not.
The Seahawks return home next week to play the Bengals.
Fantasy owners take note-a Seahawk wideout might be a nice waiver wire pickup.

As all the football was going on,Paul Maholm returned to the mound in Houston.
It was not a happy return as Maholm was routed to the tune of 10 runs and 11 hits in just 2 and two-third innings as the Astros crushed the Pirates 15-3.
Maholm drops to 10-15 on the season.
Not much else to note in this rear-kicking besides three Pirate solo homers from Jason Bay (21),Jack Wilson (12) and Carlos Maldonado(1).
Carlos Maldonado?
Now you KNOW it was an odd day in sports!
The Pirates travel to San Diego for 4 games starting today with John Van Benschoten's return to the rotation in the place of Tony Armas,as has been dictated by new management.
I know Armas has been pitching well lately,but I agree with this move.
The Pirates need to see Van Benschoten and Bryan Bullington as much as possible before the season ends.

Pitching Matchup

Pittsburgh:John Van Benschoten (0-5) at San Diego: Jack Cassell (0-0) 10:05

Bullpen Notes

Chad Johnson is a talented receiver,but his classless stunts that seem to get a pass from the media baffles me.
I dislike Terrell Owens as well,but it seems to me that the two pull the same attention grabs,but Owens gets criticized while Johnson seems to get laughs.
If I was Marvin Lewis,I would be all over Johnson for his leap into the Dawg Pound yesterday.
One would think that diving into drunken fans that arent all that crazy about you could result in injury.
Just think how easy it would have been for one of those guys to grab a finger and twist
or poke a finger into the eyes through the helmet.

Smart move by the Tennessee Titans by extending the contract of Jeff Fisher for 4 years.
No coach does more with less than the Buddy Ryan protege'.

Watched two DVD's last night for the first time.
One was a loan from my brother and the other was a gift.
Both were very interesting.
The Watts family has begun to release DVD's of the old Mid-South Wrestling promotion and I have considered buying it,but since Shane offered to let me watch it,I was able to check it out for free.
Suffice it to say,I will eventually buy it.
The content could have been better and it was a bit too edited for my tastes,but the quality was great for 20+ year old tapes.
No insider terms and not a lot of angles,but lots of solid match action.
Two notes that I made as I watched.
Here in this area,we sure missed Ted DiBiase at his peak,
What a great talent for the business.
The other was on a favorite of mine in Steve"Dr.Death" Williams,his early matches shows such how much he improved over the years and how much DiBiase was able to teach him the ropes.
This shows that very clearly.
If you love wrestling,the way it used to be,I highly recommend it.

The other was the NESN program on the 1967 Red Sox.
Excellent and well done as most NESN stuff is,but they came up with video from 1967 that I had never seen,.
The best part for me was those as you got to see game footage from 1967 from Cleveland Municipal Stadium,pre-renovation Yankee Stadium,Baltimore Memorial and more.
I really liked those clips.
Plus bonus features of the original "Impossible Dream" highlight film are included.
The downside-Not a lot of talking to the players today and hearing their thoughts looking back.
As I watched,I made notes for two future Forgotten Superstars.
I'll let you try to figure out who they are.

I also used a gift card from work to purchase the documentary on the revolutionary radical group-The Weather Underground.
I will post here after I get a chance to watch it.

Until later or tomorrow~!

Photo Credits
Anderson-Tony Dejak-AP Photo
Hasselbeck-Matt York-AP Photo
Dawg Pound-Gregory Shamus-Getty Images

Pirates fall in Houston,Buckeyes win in Seattle!

Jack Wilson hit two homers(10 &11)!
Ronny Paulino had a homer(11) and 4 RBI!
One would think this was a night that everything went right for the Pirates and a win was clicked up,right?
Wrong.
The Astros got to Matt Morris in a seven run 4th inning and the home team in Houston walked away with a 9-7 win.
Morris allowed 7 runs and 9 hits in a pitiful 3 and a third innings performance and fell under .500 to 9-10 on the season.
Zach Duke made his first appearance since June and allowed 2 runs (which turned out to be the difference) in 3 innings of work from the bullpen.
Nice to see Duke back on the mound,but I would caution him to take it easy and not put too much stress on his ailing elbow in essentially meaningless games.
The Pirates will need a healthy Zach Duke from day 1 next year and given the history of the Pirates medical staff,it only makes sense to wonder if Duke really should be out there right now.
Only time will tell.
The Bucs finish up in Houston today with the return of Paul Maholm.

Pitching Matchup

Pittsburgh: Paul Maholm (10-14) at Houston:Brandon Backe (0-1) 2:05

The Ohio State Buckeyes were dominant in the second half and pulled away to a 33-14 win over the Washington Huskies in Seattle.
A late touchdown for Washington in the first half gave UW a 7-3 halftime lead,but the Bucks used two scores early in the third to set the tone for the remainder of the game.
Todd Boeckman's 68 yd bomb to Brian Robiskie gave the Buckeyes the lead and after a fumble by Washington on the kickoff,the score quickly became 17-7 as Chris Wells strolled through the Huskie defense on a 14 yard touchdown run.
Wells would finish with 135 yards on the ground for the game
That pretty much put the game away although OSU added 4th quarter points on a Ryan Pretorius field goal and a 36 yard TD strike from Boeckman to Brian Hartline.
Washington scored a mop up touchdown late,but the Buckeyes weren't done yet.
After attempting to run the clock out and Washington coach Tyrone Willingham pulled what is known around here as a "Steve Robinson" by calling unneeded time outs,Brandon Saine swept around end for a 37 yard TD run to make the final 33-14.
James Laurinaitis picked off 2 passes and added a sack.
As much as I loved the play of A.J. Hawk as a Buckeye,Laurinatis may be better and he clearly is the best linebacker in the country in our opinion.
Ohio State returns home next week to defend the Horseshoe against the Northwestern Wildcats.
Northwestern lost to Duke at home yesterday in Duke's first win in 23 games.
Game time 3:30.

Bullpen Notes

Just for those of you that are wondering who Steve Robinson is,Robinson was the former head basketball coach at Florida State.
Robinson seemed to take delight in extending decided games far longer than they ever should have been,just to show that his team "never gave up".
So any time that some nitwit does this in a game that has long been decided,that is pulling a "Steve Robinson".
I cannot tell you how many times I saw that guy pull that stunt.

The Post-Gazette reports that the two players that the Pirates have targeted for contract extensions are Freddy Sanchez and Matt Capps.
If true,then I agree with both deals as long as the terms are right.

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats were humiliated in the debut of new pivot Casey Printers by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 34-4.
This game was so awful that I quit watching midway through the third period.
The Cats are now 1-10 on the year,the only win coming over the 1st place Blue Bombers.

Congrats to Mike Hart and michigan for their big win (right) over Notre Dame.
Looking forward to that battle between Notre Dame and Duke later in the year.

Predictions for today
Browns:LOSS to Cincinnati 40-13
Seahawks:WIN over Arizona 24-14

Photo Credits
Morris-Pat Sullivan-AP Photo
Robiskie-Neal Lauron-Columbus Dispatch

Bautista blast lifts Bucs to win.

Jose Bautista's blast in the 8th off Chad Qualls was the major blow of the Pittsburgh eighth,but Ronny Paulino's follow up single later in the inning proved to be the bigger as the Pirates needed all those runs to defeat the Astros 4-3.
Ian Snell and Roy Oswalt locked up in a pitchers duel for six innings,but Snell's replacement Francisco Osoria allowed the Astros to take a 2-1 lead on a Lance Berkman homer.
But Bautista's homer gave the Pirates a 3-2 margin and Paulino's single scored Steven Pearce to extend the lead.
The Astros cut the lead to 4-3 in the 9th,but Matt Capps came in to slam the door and preserve the win.
It was the 17th save of the year for Capps.
Romulo Sanchez received the victory,his first ever.
Ian Snell allowed just 1 run off 5 hits and whiffed 8 Astros in his six inning no-decision stint.
The play of the game was made by Nyjer Morgan,who made a tremendous catch against the wall in the 3rd inning.
The catch was eventually selected as ESPN's top play of the day.
The 3 game series continues tonight in Houston.

Pitching Matchup

Pittsburgh: Matt Morris (9-9) at Houston: Wandy Rodriguez (8-13) 7:05

Bullpen Notes

In a disappointing note-Chris Antonetti of the Indians declined an interview for the Pirates GM position.
Too bad,I thought he would have been a nice fit.

It likely is not a big deal overall,but things are starting to fall into place on how Bill Belichick went from clueless putz in Cleveland to genius in New England isn't it?
You cannot know how many Browns fans have written or wondered how this happened after watching Belichick's 5 year run in Cleveland.
Maybe we are seeing a small part of how it happened.............

Thanks for all the kind words on Forgotten Superstars.
It is one of the most fun features that I write,but takes a lot of time,so they usually only get posted on slow days,but look for more in the future!

In political news,I see that Gloria Borger is with CNN now as a political analyst.
I usually watch MSNBC,so I would have preferred to see the insightful Borger go there,but the US News and World Report editors thoughts are interesting,no matter the network.

As I usually do,after breaking down tape of the Browns game,I have been watching some of the Browns shows on Sports Time Ohio and came away very impressed with Mary Kay Cabot.
Cabot,the Browns beat reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer,came off to me as the most knowledgeable of all the Browns media and didn't pull punches either.

On the Cleveland scene,at this time last year I didn't have STO,but did have Fox Ohio.
So this year,I have double the Browns stuff to watch.
In a week or two,I will give some thoughts on which channel is more informative for the Browns fan.
The main battle seems to be at the call-in show spot where STO has "All bets are off" with
Bruce Drennan vs Fox Ohio's "Cleveland Rants" with Les Levine and Kendall Lewis.
I watch both,but tend to watch Drennan here at the world headquarters.
Why?
Cherie cannot STAND Les Levine.............

Worried about today's game for Ohio State,but I will pick them in a close one 20-14.

Photo Credit
Morgan-David Phillip-AP Photo

Forgotten Superstars: Ted Simmons

We return on a down news day with the return of Forgotten Superstars and today the focus is on a player that I always thought was a good player, but upon looking at his stats-I could make a strong case that belongs in the Hall of Fame.
Ted Simmons had the misfortune to be the 2nd best catcher in the National League in the era of Johnny Bench.
Simmons spent most of his career in St.Louis when the Cardinals great stars of the sixties were aging, but before the Whitey Herzog years revitalized the Redbirds.
After splitting time as the backstop in 1970, the switch-hitting Simmons became the full-time catcher in 1971 and began an offensive run that (except for home runs) stacks up favorably vs both Johnny Bench and Carlton Fisk.
During his stint in St.Louis from 1971-80. Simmons hit over.300 six times and never hit below .272 and in that season, he had 103 RBI.
Five times Simmons hit 20 homers or more in the period when 20 HRs were the standard of good power and he played in one of the most notorious parks for sapping long balls in Busch Memorial Stadium before renovations made Busch more power-friendly.
Eight times, Simmons was named to the All-Star game during his career.
A trade to the American League hurt Simmons numbers initially, as his adjustment to the new league was hurt by the lost time to the strike of 1981,but Simmons bounced back with a vengeance with a 23 HR,97 RBI season of the Brewers only trip to the World Series in 1982 and followed it up with a batting average over .300 and over 100 runs batted in in 1983.
Simmons had a poor 1984 and a decent 1985 before finishing his career in Atlanta with a three year run as a part-time catcher and pinch hitter.
Simmons finished his career with the highest batting average for a catcher that played after 1950.
That will change soon as the players from the inflated numbers of the current time retire, but nonetheless.
Here is a look at how Ted Simmons's numbers stack up against catchers in the Hall of Fame.
Ted Simmons is the only player to have the most career hits at his position and not be in the Hall of Fame.
Ted Simmons is also the only player to be 2nd in career RBI at his position and not be in the Hall
of Fame.
In 1993, Ted Simmons only received 17 votes for the Hall of Fame and that paltry amount knocked him off the ballot for good.
Only the Veterans Committee can put Simmons in now.
I, after a closer look at the numbers, firmly believe that Ted Simmons belongs in the Hall of Fame.