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My 2015 Pittsburgh and Pro-Sports Wishlist

Baseball, Football, Hockey, Pro-Football Comments Off

Dec 312014

I consider myself a lucky sports fan. At least I’m not a Cleveland sports fan. I can find hope without looking too hard. BUT! C’mon, everyone wants some of their teams to do better. So here’s a short wishlist for my pro teams and pro-sports in general in 2015 (in no particular order).

Steelers

Upgraded Secondary. The defensive secondary has played particularly well the past couple weeks but there’s no doubt that these guys aren’t suited to being long-term front-line players. Will Allen, William Gay, Brice McCain and Antwon Blake have played above their pay grade. It is highly, highly unlikely though perhaps not impossible that McCain and Blake could become front-line players. Still, with the withering of Ike Taylor and the failures of extending Cortez Allen and signing Mike Mitchell, the secondary needs a huge infusion of new talent.
A Dignified Exit for Troy Polamalu. There was significant debate on 93.7 The Fan last night as to whether Troy should even play at the expense of a roster spot for a special teams player, let alone start against Baltimore. Troy’s jersey was the first I ever bought so I don’t like the thought of the end of his career. I would give him a spot for the Baltimore game, not start him, and substitute him into certain packages. And then I hope he retires at the end of the season (mmm… hopefully after holding aloft another Vince Lombardi Trophy?).
The Return of Linebacker Nation. A 3-4 defense is not supposed to have an Defensive End tie or lead the team in sacks. Cam Heyward has fast become an exceptional player and the emergence of Stephon Tuitt bodes well for the future as well but this defense is predicated on getting pressure from its linebackers. Jason Worilds is almost certainly gone after the season; his price tag will be too high after recording a ~~colossal~~ 7.5 regular season sacks. Vince Williams and Arthur Moats are good depth guys but Ryan Shazier and Jarvis Jones absolutely must pick up the slack in seasons to come.

Penguins

Health. Every team suffers injuries but between career and life threatening injuries, cancer and the mumps, this team has had way too many kids called up from the Baby Penguins farm team this season.
Earn that Cash. Franchise players are paid the big bucks to show up in critical high-pressure situations. Management did a good job of adding toughness and grit to the team this off-season. But Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury cannot go another playoffs without playing to their potential in the highest pressure games. If Fleury plays well, so too must Sid & Geno. If Geno plays well, so too must Fleury and Sid. This isn’t the most stacked team the Penguins have had but they are a team that can win a Stanley Cup.
More Noise!! It’s been said that Penguins crowds haven’t been as animated since the move to the Consol Energy Center as they were in the old Civic/Mellon Arena. Part of that may be to do with the new building’s acoustics and part of that may be more expensive tickets pricing out the (increasingly eviscerated) proletariat. In England, the landed gentry who can afford futbol games and aren’t loud or involved are called the Prawn Sandwich Brigade. I tend to think the CEC crowds still do get pretty loud but not for as long as they might have done in the olden years. Or perhaps I’m getting old and you should stay the hillel off my lawn.

No Sympathy for Cleveland

Basketball, Pro-Basketball, The Bigger Picture No Responses »

May 252010

In the analysis of whether Lebron James should or shouldn’t leave Cleveland, those who say he should stay make the point that he has a good chance of winning a title there. I may disagree but my point is that their position is mostly analytical and contains relatively little trace of emotion, in contrast to other similar cases.

Once upon a time, Cleveland lost Manny Ramirez. George Steinbrenner actually hails from Cleveland as well. Right Red 88, The Fumble, The Drive, Jordan over Ehlo, blowing the World Series and so on. It’s safe to say that Cleveland is the most tortured sports city in the country. And now they may lose Lebron.

Joe Posnanski made an excellent point in his article a couple days ago that almost no one outside of Cleveland is saying Lebron James should stay because he belongs in Cleveland, in the same way that Joe Mauer seems to belong in Minnesota or Derek Jeter in NY or Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh.

Lebron seems bigger than his hometown and so goes the line of thought that he should leave. Whether to pursue worldwide Jordan-esque dominance on or off the court. With some exceptions, most stars are bigger than their cities. Especially those not in large markets. Kevin Durant in Oklahoma City, KG when he was in Minnesota as well as Ken Griffey Jr in Seattle and Brett Favre in Green Bay.

However, there is/was at some point sentiment for those big dawgs to stay, to make some reciprocal attachment (however anachronistic it may seem) to the city that embraced them. Not so in Cleveland. Lebron James needs to get out screams everyone, including the President.

I can quite fairly be accused of disliking (to put it mildly) Cleveland. They hate us and we hate them. And the world keeps on spinnin’.

Still, I wonder why Cleveland seems to be such an unsympathetic city. Truth be told, outside of the sporting context, it’s not that dis-similar from Pittsburgh or Kansas City… an old town, trying to make good in a service sector economy. It has its faults, its hopes and its fair share of tragedies. However, even Detroit seems to have more defenders than Cleveland.

To Give Credit or Not To Give Credit

Football, Hockey, Pro-Football, The Bigger Picture No Responses »

Mar 042010

It is easy in the wake of monumental sports events to assign too much credit to a particular individual. It is even easier, in hindsight, to assign too little credit. To nitpick over effort given, a missed coverage, a turnover here, or a blown breakaway there. Yet sports isn’t played in hindsight. Nor should it be judged solely out of its immediate context. Balance is the key.

The Pittsburgh Steelers won Superbowl XL, in large part, despite the efforts of their sophomore QB, Ben Roethlisberger. Yet the Steelers reached the Superbowl, in large part, because of Ben’s outstanding play in three road playoff victories at Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Denver, to say nothing of the Immaculate Tackle on Nick Harper. The Steelers reached Superbowl XLIII, in large part, because of their defense. They won it, in large part, because of Roethlisberger’s last minute heroics.

Evgeni Malkin won the 2009 Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s regular season scoring leader. He led the Stanley Cup Playoffs in scoring, edging out teammate Sidney Crosby by five points and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Playoffs MVP. Yet it was Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby who first lifted the venerable Stanley Cup during the trophy presentation. And it is Sidney Crosby who is consistently seen as the most important player on the Penguins.

Crosby had a ho-hum ride during much of the 2010 Olympic hockey tournament. Until he scored the game winning shootout goal against Sweden in the preliminaries. And then again when he scored the Gold-medal clinching overtime goal against the USA. Despite setting up him brilliantly, it is Crosby, not Jarome Iginla, who is hailed as the conquering hero.

There will be, as always, those who downplay the contributions of players such as Roethlisberger and Crosby if they fail to dominate play at all times. Who will call them overrated and over-hyped and a product of the system. In other sports lifetimes, the same hyperbole was used on Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw. Lucky and overrated. Surrounded by great players. The team won, not the individual player. No shit, Shirlock.

Yet it can’t be coincidence that such players are the ones who just happen to keep coming up on the winning side, that are practically omnipresent in the biggest moments in sports*.

It won’t always show up on the stat sheet but what do we really mean when we say that a player wills his team to victory. The best players do that. They.show.up., clichéd as that sounds. No one should be defined solely by titles won. However, it is fair to judge them by the moments they own within the circumstances presented to them and the moments they create for their teams of their volition and will to succeed.

So if you want to talk about Willie Parker’s run in Superbowl XL or James Harrison’s romp in Superbowl XLIII, fine. Or highlight Iginla’s or Roberto Luongo’s work for the Canadians, by all means, do so. But their work does not diminish the driving forces and players behind such triumphs. The ones that actually put the puck in the net.

——————
* Dan Marino. A great player, who never won a Superbowl, cursed to play for an overrated buffoon of a coach. I can’t claim to be completely objective on Marino, a Pitt alum, but that’s a post for another day.

Club vs Country, Country vs Club

Futbol/Soccer, Hockey, The Bigger Picture No Responses »

Mar 012010

… or Emigration vs Immigration

It is, I think, endemic to the constitution of the USA that the issue of Club vs Country/Émigré vs Immigrant can sometimes be a difficult one, as concerned with sports. Ours is fundamentally an immigrant nation even if much of the populace is several generations removed from crossing the pond (or jumping the fence). What do you do when the country of your ancestry or childhood lines up opposite the one whose passport you hold.

That more FIFA World Cup tickets were purchased by denizens of the USA than any other nation is not necessarily a strong show of support for USA Soccer. It is as much an indication of the old-world loyalties that many Americans still carry. To Italy or Spain or Greece or England. To Nigeria or Ghana or Cameroon. To Mexico or South Korea or Brasil or Argentina.

For those who don’t have an ancestral horse in a particular race, they may develop an affinity for a country whose style (or women) they like or whose players ply their trade for the person’s chosen domestic club. Fernando Torres of Spain for Scousers. Didier Drogba of Côte d’Ivoire for Chelski’s. Kaka and Ronaldinho of Brasil for Real Madrid and AC Milan, respectively.

In a similar parallel, it was a bittersweet moment for many Penguins fans when Canadian Sidney Crosby flung the puck past USA goaltender Ryan Miller in overtime of the Olympic hockey gold medal game on Sunday. “At least it was Sid,” texted a friend of mine. But still others supported the Canadians outright to the exclusion of Team USA because of Sid, Jordan Staal and Marc-André Fleury. For my part, I supported Team USA but I’m not crushed that it was our Sid who delivered the hammer stroke. (And that once again Alex Ovagkin proved he is not clutch nor as great as Sid).

Though not particularly conflicted in ice hockey, I will admit to it in national team futbol. I’ll root for the USA but the Super Eagles of Nigeria truly claim my futboling heart even though I was only six years old when the family left west Africa. I don’t really know what I would do if the twain should meet in a match.

Does this make me less of an American or must I always root for the USA in such a trivial pursuit as sports? While political dissent is not automatically a show of dis-loyalty to one’s nation, we are taught that sports loyalties are more black and white. Yet, nationality isn’t so cut and dried an issue anymore.

In a globalized age, with so much movement of peoples to and fro, there is a certain malleability to our sporting and national identities, especially given the very founding of this country as a refuge for the “the wretched refuse of your teeming shore… the homeless, tempest-tossed.” To pledge allegiance to the USA does not mean, in my mind, to discard one’s past heritage because I believe I must find an America that is true for me. It is a fluid motion and a conversation that must needs continue through time.

Still, if you’re not gonna put a boot up my arse, I’ll gladly share some gari or fufu and goat stew with you this summer. Bring your own Yuengling or Malbec if you choose.

An Upset (Almost) for the Ages

Hockey No Responses »

Jun 152009

I think Penguins’ victory over the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Finals is one of the most underrated upsets in recent memory. For all the skills of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal and Marc-Andre Fleury (and apparently Max Talbot as well), the Red Wings were so much deeper and more experienced than the Penguins.

Let’s compare the players by position for Detroit to those of Pittsburgh.

Red Wings	Penguins

Centers
Pavel Datsyuk	Sidney Crosby
Henrik Zetterberg	Evgeni Malkin
Valtteri Filppula	Jordan Staal
Darren Helm	Tyler Kennedy
Kris Draper	Max Talbot

Left Wingers
Johan Franzen	Ruslan Fedotenko
Jiri Hudler	Chris Kunitz
Tomas Kopecky	Matt Cooke
Ville Leino	Pascal Dupuis

Right Wingers
Dan Cleary	Bill Guerin
Marian Hossa	Miroslav Satan
Mikael Samuelsson	Petr Sykora
Tomas Holmstrom	Craig Adams
Kirk Maltby	Eric Godard

Defensemen
Nicklas Lidstrom	Sergei Gonchar
Niklas Kronwall	Kris Letang
Brian Rafalaski	Brook Orpik
Brad Stuart	Rob Scuderi
Jonathan Ericcson	Mark Eaton
Brett Lebda	Hall Gill
Andreas Lilja	Philippe Boucher

Goalies
Chris Osgood	Marc-Andre Fleury

To me, it’s evident that the Red Wings are deeper and have greater overall skill than the Penguins. I don’t believe for a second that Pittsburgh wanted it more than Detroit. Perhaps age had to do with something to do with it but Detroit surely didn’t look old in winning 3 games at home.

I’m searching for some type of comparison to fully highly the magnitude of this upset. It’s not quite Giants over Patriots in the Superbowl but it’s not far off. While the Red Wings weren’t as dominant as that Patriots team, they have been the class of the NHL for the better part of the past decade. They have won in all aspects of the game – execution, timing, skill, talent, depth, money, coaching and scouting. And unlike New England – class as well.

pens_celebration

The Penguins chipped the puck in behind the goal continuously. They played possession as much as possible. They threw the puck at Chris Osgood at every chance. They stood toe-to-toe with one of the top 2-3 finest organizations in sports and didn’t back down.

Bottomline: The Penguins outworked a team with superior depth of talent.

Red Wings	Penguins

Pavel Datsyuk	Sidney Crosby
Henrik Zetterberg	Evgeni Malkin
Valtteri Filppula	Jordan Staal
Darren Helm	Tyler Kennedy
Kris Draper	Max Talbot

Johan Franzen	Ruslan Fedotenko
Jiri Hudler	Chris Kunitz
Tomas Kopecky	Matt Cooke
Ville Leino	Pascal Dupuis

Dan Cleary	Bill Guerin
Marian Hossa	Miroslav Satan
Mikael Samuelsson	Petr Sykora
Tomas Holmstrom	Craig Adams
Kirk Maltby	Eric Godard

Nicklas Lidstrom	Sergei Gonchar
Niklas Kronwall	Kris Letang
Brian Rafalaski	Brook Orpik
Brad Stuart	Rob Scuderi
Jonathan Ericcson	Mark Eaton
Brett Lebda	Hall Gill
Andreas Lilja	Philippe Boucher

Chris Osgood	Marc-Andre Fleury

Flightless Vindication

Hockey 1 Response »

Jun 132009

Vindication for Sidney Crosby. Don’t question his heart, his tenacity, his drive, his unselfishness and his will to WIN.

Vindication for Marc-Andre Fleury. Championship goalie. ’nuff said.

Vindication for Evgeni Malkin. The Conn Smythe Trophy after running into a wall last year in the Finals.

Vindication for Jordan Staal. If anyone doubts that this guy is a top-2 centerman, you can’t doubt it now.

Vindication for Max Talbot, Tyler Kennedy, Matt Cooke, Rob Scuderi and all the muckers and grinders. What you do ain’t pretty, it’s just necessary.

Vindication for Dan Bylsma.What an inspired coaching effort. Flawless.

Vindication for Ray Shero and the front-office. Bold moves to remake the franchise, knowing exactly how to re-shape this team.

Vindication for Pittsburgh and Penguins fans. City of Champions.

Vindication for Mario Lemieux. Our hockey savior.