Beaver County Times, June 28, 2015

Coming to a ballpark (sort of) near you: Baseball's all time hit king.
Also coming: The game's most famous outcast.
It's actually a 2-for-1 on Tuesday, when Pete Rose stops by the Washington Wild Things game at Consol Energy Park. The town once known as "Little Washington" will never seem smaller than it will on Tuesday.
Rose is making a promotional stop, something he's allowed to do since the Wild Things are an independent league not affiliated with Major League Baseball. He'll spend a little time on the field, serving an inning as an "honorary coach" for the Wild Things, who play the Lake Erie Crushers.
The Wild Things are the lowest rung of professional baseball, a catch-all for guys who have washed out of affiliated baseball but still harbor some hope of getting back. That happens, but not often.
Ticket prices at that level are low, but the Wild Things are offering a $100 VIP package that includes a meet and greet with Rose and a photo opportunity with him. That seems like a pretty expensive selfie, but the customer will decide that.
This booking is a publicity bonanza for the Wild Things, who usually don't get a lot of attention. Rose signed a document agreeing to a lifetime ban from MLB 26 years ago, and he was back in the headlines again last week.
ESPN came into possession of a notebook that documented Rose's $2,000 per game bets on MLB. It's not news that he bet on baseball -- he admitted to that after 11 years of denials because it was his hook to sell a confessional book.
The new angle here is that Rose was betting in 1986, when he was still an active player. He has always denied that he wagered on games when he was playing. Somehow he thinks his gambling is less of a violation if it was done while he was a manager.
The evidence seems to show that Rose never bet on his team to lose, and some people have the misguided notion that lessens his sin. It doesn't. Gambling on baseball games is prohibited, and one of the reasons is spelled out in his trail of losses.
It's possible for the bettor to wind up in significant debt to bookies who are tied to organized crime. That's a scary scenario for any sports league.
It's probably no coincidence this news came out just when it seemed possible there was the slightest chance MLB might relent at least a little on Rose's penalty. There's a new commissioner, Rob Manfred. The All-Star game is in Cincinnati. Public sentiment has long been in Rose's favor, more so after the steroid users shredded the record book.
But it appears now the door is slammed again, and Rose has used up his last chance to have any relationship with MLB.
No doubt someone will take kids to the Wild Things game on Tuesday and tell them how Rose's Reds and Phillies were bitter rivals of the Pirates a generation ago. The confused kids will only see a 74-year-old man wobbling on bad knees and wearing a cap to cover his bald spot.
The Hit King is an indy league touring attraction now, the role that Max Patkin and the San Diego Chicken used to fill. It's a one-nighter designed to help a struggling franchise pop a crowd on a slow weeknight. If all goes well, increased concession sales will make it pay off.
The Wild Things advise that autograph tickets are available (no price listed), but that Rose will only sign Wild Things merchandise. The news release warns: "No Cincinnati Reds or other MLB licensed merchandise will be permitted for the autograph session."
So if you've always wanted Rose's signature on a Frontier League baseball, here's your chance.
There's a caveat for coverage, too, per the release: "Wild Things officials are currently working with Pete Rose's representatives regarding how and when he will be available to media.  It is our understanding he will not discuss MLB, the Cincinnati Reds, or any of the information that has been in the news recently."
So what that does leave for discussion? Bruce Jenner's transition to Caitlyn? The NHL draft? The weather?
The Wild Things report tickets are still available.
That's Tuesday night. Step right up. It's the saddest story you'll ever see.

Beaver County Times, June 21, 2015

After all the overkill coverage of deflated footballs, it's easy to be dismissive of another sports cheating scandal.
But the computer hacking investigation in MLB is no trivial matter, as demonstrated by the FBI's involvement.
There are allegations that employees of the Cardinals breached the Astros' computer system and had access to all their files.
Fox commentator Tom Verducci was on TV the other day shrugging this off as silly because the Cardinals are good and the Astros haven't been. Therefore, he concluded, what interest would the Cardinals have in stealing intelligence from the Astros?
Plenty, actually. Any knowledge is helpful, and access to scouting reports and e-mails regarding trades would have value.
There's no proof at this point that anyone in a position of authority at the Cardinals authorized the hacking or had any knowledge of it. There's no proof that information was even taken.
But just the idea that it could happen is enough to shake up MLB, and it should have the same chilling effect in other sports as well.
Time to tighten up the cyber security -- if it's not already too late.
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--BUILT ON A BUDGET
For unknown reasons, some people don't have much regard for Neal Huntington.
Yet what he's done with the Pirates is bordering on miraculous. He's not only improved the major league team to postseason level, he's also supervised the building of an organization. These Pirates are constructed to be able to sustain success, and not fall off a cliff the way the 1990-92 teams did when the stars got too expensive and left.
That's tough to do, and it's even more difficult with budget restraints that a lot of organizations don't have.
Huntington made some big mistakes after he took over, but he's also learned from them.
Every time Mark Melancon saves a game, remember that he was acquired in a pre-emptive trade that sent Joel Hanrahan to the Red Sox after he had saved 36 games in 2012. The Pirates sent Brock Holt to Boston in the same deal and while he's proven to be a useful player, the key was upgrading the closer position.
Since leaving the Pirates, Hanrahan has pitched in nine major league games and recently had his second Tommy John surgery.
It was a classic example of selling high on a player, finding a replacement who had been undervalued and coming away with a substantial improvement at a much lower price.
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--TRUMPED
Now that Donald Trump has officially thrown his hair into the ring as a Presidential candidate, he has to answer tough questions.
Here's one for him: Why did he kill the Pittsburgh Maulers?
Trump was one of the organizers of the USFL, which the Maulers joined for the league's second season, 1984. Trump was also the leading advocate of switching the USFL to a fall schedule to go head-to-head with the NFL.
That insistence led to the demise of the Maulers after that lone season. The DeBartolos owned the Maulers and they also owned the 49ers. They weren't about to compete with the NFL.
The goal of any upstart league is to force a merger with the established league. That happened when the NFL took in the old AFL in 1970. It happened on a limited scale with the NBA (ABA) and NHL (WHA).
The takeaway from that alphabet soup is the owners of teams in a competing league get to join the "real" league at a bargain price. That was Trump's goal in pushing for the USFL to go directly against the NFL.
It never happened, of course, and the Maulers didn't get a do-over on their 3-15 season.
We'll never know what coach Hank Bullough might have done with an '85 Maulers squad.
Candidate Trump should be made to answer for that.
---
--LACKING SUPPORT
Sometimes the details obscure the long view.
The Penguins' problem is they can't assemble a supporting cast to go with their stars. Seems like finding complementary players -- the Bob Errey, Phil Bourque and Troy Loney types -- should be the easier part.
Yet this is the sixth year Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury and Kris Letang have watched other teams play in the Stanley Cup Final.
---
--IN THE ROUGH
Poor Tiger Woods. If he didn't have 100 bazillion dollars in the bank, you'd feel sorry for him.

Beaver County Times, June 14, 2015

Oh, it's complicated, this relationship between Pittsburgh and Cleveland.
A lot of the animus comes from the fact the cities are so similar and carry the same kind of well-developed inferiority complex.
There's hostility, and almost all of it comes from the annual home-and-home series between the Steelers and Browns. When the Steelers agreed to move to the AFC in 1970 -- a big move at the time -- they wouldn't make the switch without the Browns.
Storied though it may be, the Steelers-Browns rivalry hasn't always been all that great. Cleveland had championship contending teams in the 1960s; the Steelers had Kent Nix at quarterback.
When the Steelers were winning Super Bowls in the 1970s, their hot rivalries were with Oakland and Houston. Cleveland wasn't a big obstacle.
Since the Browns came back as an expansion team after the original Browns became the Ravens, Cleveland has mostly been a pushover for the Steelers.
There's still passion and drunken parking lot showdowns, but the Steelers have mostly been gunning for the playoffs while the Browns have been auditioning a succession of awful quarterbacks.
Baseball doesn't matter because the Pirates and Indians rarely meet. MLB has decided the Tigers are the Pirates' "natural" rival.
Cleveland plays in the NBA, while Pittsburgh is in the NHL.
But some of the rivalry has apparently spilled over to the Cavaliers' NBA Finals series against Golden State. Reports say the Cavs have a gimmick where the scoreboard displays images designed to make people boo vociferously.
Apparently nothing gets a reaction like showing the Steelers logo and a photo of Ben Roethlisberger (a loyal son of Ohio, by the way).
The guy in charge of the Cavaliers is Len Komoroski, a Pittsburgh native and Duquesne graduate who got his start working for the now-defunct Spirit indoor soccer team.
It's probably all in good fun, but it seems cheap and serves as a reminder that overbearing "in-game entertainment" departments are probably one of the most loathsome sports trends of the last 20 years.
Could Pittsburgh reciprocate? Why bother?
Scoreboard images of the Browns logo and Johnny Manziel would just draw laughter, not boos.
---
--HAIR TODAY....
There was a tempest in a shaving mug last week when an executive from NBC suggested that playoff beards interfere with the marketing of NHL players.
His position was widely decried, but the point was legitimate. Players are already bundled in unflattering Michelin Man armor, and they all wear helmets that often have visors attached. You get a better look at some bank robbers.
Having a six-week growth of facial hair only adds to the inadvertent camouflage effect.
Fighting the beards is a losing battle, though. Hockey players have changed in a lot of ways -- today's players are bigger, stronger, better conditioned and smarter than their predecessors. The thing that hasn't changed is their devotion to superstition.
Another constant is the denial of superstition. So putting fresh tape on a stick every period, chewing two pieces of gum and tapping a certain teammate three times on the shin pads is a "routine," not superstition.
Has anyone noticed the playoff beard thing hasn't worked so well for the Penguins over the last six seasons?
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--NICE TOUCH
Root Sports does so many dumb things on game coverage, it's a relief to mention something well done.
On the 30th anniversary of Bob Prince's death, Wednesday's game was dotted with reminiscences of his 28 years as The Voice of the Pirates. Greg Brown and Steve Blass both knew Prince, and could speak of their experiences with him.
When a replay of Pedro Alvarez's towering home run was shown, it was accompanied by a tape of Prince's classic, "Kiss It Goodbye" call. It was a perfect fit in the context of the evening.
By the way, colleges that offer sports marketing classes should make a case study of the monumental mistake the Pirates made in 1975 when they signed off on KDKA's decision to fire Prince and Nellie King.
The station didn't suffer, but the Pirates did. It was a huge blunder at a time when the Steelers were taking over the town anyway.
---
--START HIM UP
The Rolling Stones play Heinz Field on Saturday night.
It's expected to be a wild time. There are even rumors that Art Rooney II might leave the top button of his shirt open.

Beaver County Times, June 7, 2015

The Penguins aren't going anywhere. Mario Lemieux might be headed elsewhere, though.
The news last week that the team's current ownership has hired Morgan Stanley to explore its options could be the first step to another twist in this franchise's fascinating history.
Theories abound. Canadian media reports suggest the partnership of Ron Burkle and Lemieux has become less harmonious in recent years. This claims there have been disagreements over how to run the Penguins.
The issue there is why Burkle, who made his fortune in the grocery business, would not defer to Lemieux on hockey decisions.
Conflicting reports claim that either partner is the one pushing the decision to explore a sale.
The idea is that Burkle, who initially invested $20 million, is simply anxious to take his profit and move on to other adventures.
At the same time, it's believed that as Lemieux faces turning 50 in October, he'd rather cash out and enjoy a leisurely life free of the pressures of running a pro sports franchise.
Lemieux's four children are out of the house (so is Sidney Crosby, for that matter), and there's little else to tether him to western Pennsylvania and his Sewickley mansion. Canadian outlets have reported that Lemieux spent $20 million to build a 20-room/10 bathroom castle in the ski resort town of Mont Tremblant, north of Montreal.
Forbes magazine has pegged the Penguins' value at just short of $600 million. Those figures are always theoretical until real market value is established by actual bidding, but that's probably the correct neighborhood.
Lemieux could walk away with a sum that's easily into nine figures. That could make for a lot of enjoyable sunny afternoons on the golf course, a much more peaceful existence than fretting about the team's power play problems.
Lemieux has become such a mythical figure that it's easy to lose track of how he came to be involved in ownership. Taking equity in the franchise was his best chance to recover the money the previous owners owed him after declaring bankruptcy.
Burkle, who had no connection to Pittsburgh or any known affinity for hockey, became involved because some additional cash was needed. As an investor, he's worked out better than Roger Marino.
It's been suggested the Penguins are seeking something similar to the restructuring of ownership that the Steelers undertook a few years ago. That's incorrect. The Steelers changes were at the insistence of the NFL, and the Rooneys were careful to set things up so that they retained control of the franchise and its day-to-day operations.
Dan Rooney and Art Rooney II are in the office every day, and they still call the shots.
Although the statement from Lemieux and Burkle said both would like to maintain some stake in ownership, it's doubtful that would amount to more than a token presence. Old timers might remember when Bing Crosby (he was an entertainer, kids) owned a small piece of the Pirates.
If the franchise is sold, someone else will be running the Penguins, and that opens up some interesting possibilities.
The NHL has traditionally done a lousy job of vetting owners. Bruce McNall (Kings), John Spano (Islanders), Paul Greenwood (Islanders) and John Rigas (Sabres) have all served prison time for financial misdeeds. William "Boots" Del Biaggio, who had an agreement to purchase the Penguins in 2005, was sentenced to eight years in prison for bilking investors.
Howard Baldwin, whose personal cash investment in the Penguins was $1,000, took the team to bankruptcy.
There is absolutely no interest in moving the franchise. Pittsburgh is a strong market for a league that has real problems in too many other places. There's a long-term arena lease tilted so heavily in the Penguins' favor that former Gov. Ed Rendell should have sealed it with a kiss.
Don't worry about the Penguins' zip code. They're staying put.
But with last week's announcement, just about everything else is potentially up for grabs.
---
--MUST-HAVE ITEM
Giveaways at baseball games have evolved from the early days of bats, baseballs and caps.
Sunday will be Andrew McCutchen Compression Sleeve Day at PNC Park.
Just a heads-up before the kids start nagging.
---
--HERE WE GO, STONES
Commerce makes strange bedfellows sometimes.
For proof, just look at the giant banners hanging from the side of Heinz Field: They display the Rolling Stones' famous tongue logo done in black and gold.

Beaver County Times, May 31, 2015

One of the great things about being a sports fan is being able to practice selective amnesia.
The Pirates have been in the playoffs for the last two seasons, and they're seen as contenders again this year. That makes it easy to forget those 20 years when they couldn't even finish .500. Therefore it becomes convenient to speak dismissively of the "bad" teams they dispatched last week, the Mets and Marlins.
It remains to be see how good or bad those teams are, but there's no doubt the Marlins were a team in turmoil when they came to PNC Park to lose three straight.
They were fairly fresh from a managerial change, dumping Mike Redmond and promoting general manager Dan Jennings, who had never managed at any level. That's a step or two above pulling someone out of the stands, which might be a decent promotion.
That decision raised so many questions: Can Jennings handle the job? Does he have cool sunglasses to wear with the uniform? Does he know all the dugout spitting rituals? Can he do the foot-on-the-top-step-man-in-charge pose? Do the Marlins not have a current number for Jim Tracy?
If you want to lose players instantly, give them a manager who has never managed. Former star players can pull that off with the help of a sharp bench coach, but it's not going to play otherwise. The "who is this guy?" vibe will resonate every time a decision backfires.
The late Paul Owens twice took over as manager during his time as the Phillies' GM. Once was to get a closer look at his profoundly awful 1972 team. The other came in 1983, when he wound up leading them to the World Series.
The difference was that Owens had managed in the minor leagues, and his legendary drinking prowess carried a certain cachet with a previous generation of players.
So the Marlins are doomed to more failure, which can happen to an organization. But they bought this with a profoundly dumb decision. How bad could Redmond have been to be replaced by a complete novice?
You can take all the mistakes the Pirates made over 20 years (count John Russell twice because he got a contract extension) and you'd be challenged to find one as big as the Marlins have made.
But it could have been fun if Syd Thrift had squeezed into a pair of double knits and ambled onto to the field to make pitching changes or -- better yet -- have an animated argument with an umpire.
---
--SHUFFLING OFF
Dan Bylsma has a new job, and the first transaction of the offseason is a big win for the Penguins.
They wiped the last two years of Bylsma's contract off their books while getting a third-round draft pick as compensation. This might actually be the best deal Jim Rutherford has made so far.
Bylsma is off to Buffalo on a five-year deal to revive the moribund Sabres. Despite that franchise's recent failings, some things are in his favor.
Buffalo is a good hockey market. People care. It gives them something to look at besides snow drifts. The ownership group is solid and willing to spend. Previous Sabres owner John Rigas is in federal prison, which is rarely a good sign for a business.
The Sabres missed on Mike Babcock, so they settled for Bylsma. Of course they didn't spin it that way, instead emphasizing Bylsma's accomplishments with the Penguins, which included the 2009 Stanley Cup.
He took over in February that year, inheriting a team that had been in the Final the year before. Some of his success was based on being a welcome alternative to Michel Therrien's hard-driving style, which had reached its expiration date.
Having Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin will make any coach better. Failing to seriously compete for championships with Crosby and Malkin will get any coach in trouble, no matter how glossy his regular season success is.
Bylsma has gone from an environment where expectations were almost unreasonable to one where they're exceedingly modest. If the Sabres are just in the hunt for the eighth playoff spot next season, that will represent progress.
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--HOT PROMOTION
The Pirates are having a WVU Night on July 8.
Does this mean couches will be set ablaze on Federal Street?