Penn State plays Pitt at Heinz Field this Saturday, and it's more than the revival of a storied rivalry.
It's a referendum on Pitt football.
Pitt athletic director Scott Barnes hasn't been on the job that long. On Saturday he'll get a first-hand look at how the Panthers' football program fits into the Pittsburgh sports scene.
The game is sold out, and it's rare that Heinz Field is packed for a Saturday game. That usually depends on the opponent, never more so than it will this week.
Pitt has two basic problems in trying to sell its football program to fans. The first is the Steelers own the town. The No. 2 area of football interest might be the high schools.
Pitt had too many years of mediocrity and too much turmoil to either build or maintain a large fan base.
The other battle has been the large number of Penn State and West Virginia alumni who live in western Pennsylvania. Not only are they not Pitt fans, they delight in seeing Pitt on the wrong end of something like a 48-14 score whenever possible.
That brings us to this game. The stadium will be full, but what will the percentage of allegiance be? There are reports some Penn State fans bought a full Pitt season ticket just to get this game.
Will it be 70-30 in Pitt's favor? Is 60-40 a more realistic ratio? Could it be 50-50?
Scott Barnes will take the pulse this Saturday.
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--WALKER'S WOES
The timing couldn't have been worse for Neil Walker.
He's on the verge of free agency, and he'll head into the market after having back surgery that ended his season prematurely.
That's not the strongest negotiating position for a 31-year-old second baseman whose defensive range is already limited.
Walker had solid numbers with the Mets -- a career-best .823 OPS, a .282 average, second-best in his career, while matching his high for home runs with 23.
But his status is clouded by the surgery. He's expected to make a full recovery, but how much is a team willing to guarantee a player over 30 who's coming off surgery?
Instead of hitting the jackpot, Walker may have to settle for a one-year deal somewhere that's loaded with incentives based on how much he can play and how productive he is.
Walker has been paid around $28 million so far in his major league career. Had he stayed healthy, there's a good chance he would have exceeded that total with a three-year deal somewhere.
Now he'll likely have to wait until he can convince teams that he's healthy enough for a multi-year commitment.
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--BACK TOGETHER AGAIN
All reunions have a degree of wistfulness about them, and that was certainly the case when some of the 1971 World Series champion Pirates gathered this weekend.
Eight of the players from the 25-man World Series have died. A few others were unable to travel.
The hair is gray among those who still have some. When the former teammates gather, they're as likely to talk about their grandchildren as they are to recall stories from the old days.
There's another reason to feel some pangs of nostalgia. The 1971 team was the Pirates' last championship team in the era before the baseball landscape changed radically.
Salary arbitration didn't go into effect until 1974. Free agency followed two years later. Fans who followed the Pirates in 1971 never had a worry about service time, years of control or players opting to leave or becoming too expensive to keep.
Under the current system, maybe the Pirates would have been forced to choose among Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell and Al Oliver rather than having them play in the same outfield.
Nobody left the team until the team decided it was time for them to go. The system wasn't fair for the players, and that's why it changed.
But it was a great time to be a fan.
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