Andrew McCutchen sat out a bunch of exhibition games with what was described as "lower body soreness."
On his upper body, McCutchen also got a haircut that trimmed the trademark dreadlocks he's sported throughout his major league career.
Believe it or not, the haircut was the bigger story.
There wasn't a lot of information about his injury, and the Pirates even adopted the NHL habit of using the vaguest of terms to describe it. "Lower body soreness" could cover the pinch of breaking in new shoes, after all.
From a great distance away, it looks as though there wasn't much of anything wrong with McCutchen. The goal was probably to conserve his energy, but to do it in a way that didn't blatantly insult the people who buy tickets for exhibition games.
So "lower body soreness" works better than "Keeping him fresh for real games instead of wasting him for six innings in the hot sun against a bunch of Orioles minor leaguers for a meaningless exercise in the middle of March." It's shorter, too.
If exhibition games meant anything, they wouldn't end in ties when the visiting team runs out of pitchers.
Spring training has morphed from quaint little throwback into an adjunct seasonal industry of its own. Teams routinely shake down resort towns for new ballparks and other improvements.
Those who fail to agree lose their teams, and a good chunk of their tourism business. Have you heard of anyone going to Winter Haven lately?
There was a time when pitchers would run sprints across the outfield warning track after they left games. MLB cracked down on that a while back because having extra people on the field kind of gave away the idea that exhibition games weren't to be taken seriously.
But the games are not without meaning. Ticket prices rise, and the concession and souvenir stands operate at regular season levels. Ghost-legged vacationers have credit cards and cash stuffed in the pockets of those baggy Bermuda shorts.
Realistically, the games are a tune-up for the regular players. The pitchers need them more than the position players do. Things kick in a little more during the last 10 days of spring training, but it's all pretty much a half-speed exercise stretched over a schedule that's much longer than it needs to be.
For players like McCutchen, probably half the exhibition schedule is a waste of time.
So in that sense, maybe "lower body soreness" was the perfect explanation: Mid-March exhibition games are a pain in the butt.
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--POLAMALU PROBLEM
Mike Tomlin said he wouldn't talk about Troy Polamalu's future, which lends credence to the conspiracy theory surrounding the Steelers' bunker.
It goes like this: The coaching staff has no interest in having Polamalu return to the team. Ownership is sensitive to what Polamalu has meant to the Steelers and really doesn't want to release him.
The ideal solution would be to have Polamalu retire. According to Ike Taylor, Polamalu is training with the idea of playing somewhere this season.
Since the salary cap was implemented, it's taken some of the emotion out of roster decisions. There simply isn't room to keep players who aren't projected to be productive.
A generation ago, the Steelers kept Joe Greene a couple of years beyond his prime simply because he was Joe Greene, the first building block in the Super Bowl dynasty of the '70s. Keeping Greene meant that the Steelers cut promising rookie Dwaine Board, who went on to a fine 10-year career with the 49ers.
The clear answer here is to do what's right for the team. If the coaches have determined Polamalu can't help the Steelers win games any more, it's time to go.
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--NEW ORDER
They've rearranged things a bit on 93.7 The Fan (KDKA-FM) to try to eliminate those long stretches of commercials.
They've broken up the commercial clusters so they don't play endlessly right before the news updates and interrupt regular programming for as long as eight minutes.
There are still just as many commercials. They're just in different places now.
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--LAY LOW
If West Virginia had things to do over, maybe trash Tweeting Kentucky wasn't the best strategy.
Might have been better to stay quiet and hope to lull the powerful Wildcats into apathy.
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