PITTSBURGH--Over the next several months, you'll read a lot of stories about the Stanley Cup.
The Penguins have possession of it, and it will be touring more than Metallica this summer.
Every player gets a day with the Cup, and so do many staff members. A lot of the visits are tied to fund-raisers that allow people to take photos with the Cup. It rides on fire trucks in small-town parades. It visits the old schools of some players. It shows up at golf courses.
It attends a lot of backyard barbecues and pool parties. Once it ended up at the bottom of Mario Lemieux's pool, sporting a fresh dent that had to be pounded out.
Babies sit in it. Dogs and horses have eaten from it. So have people. Other things have happened that can't be recounted here.
The NHL guardians are now always nearby to ensure the safety of the trophy whose fame outmeasures that of the sport it represents.
It gets hired out for commercial ventures, too. At last count, there were fewer than 400 people in western Pennsylvania who didn't have a picture of themselves with the Cup.
So it's another summer of adventure for Stanley Cup, which will be photographed as much as a Kardashian.
For all the stories that will come from this experience, probably none will be better than the one that unfolded at PNC Park the other night.
The Penguins brought the Cup to the Pirates' game and Sidney Crosby threw out the first pitch.
After the pre-game ceremony, Crosby was lugging the Cup toward an exit when he spotted a Pirates' guest relations employee who has required a wheelchair since he was nine years old.
What happened next was reported on Facebook by Rich Morgan:
He said that Crosby walked over to the man and said, "How about if we take a picture of you and me and the Cup?" Crosby suggested that the man could hold the Cup.
The man told him, "I can't" because he has limited use of his right arm.
To that Crosby said, "Well then I'll hold it and you just smile."
The picture was taken, and the man in the wheelchair is indeed smiling.
Even if you don't give a hoot about hockey, there's reason to be a Sidney Crosby fan.
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--SELF CONTROL
On the other hand, some of the players embarrassed themselves and the organization by chugging beer during Wednesday's parade through downtown Pittsburgh.
Reportedly some of them were impaired to the point that front office types were worried about having them anywhere near a live microphone.
OK, it was a party. It was also 11 a.m.
Other than a beer sponsor, who is served by having players weaving down the street drinking beer? (By the way, they could have been cited under the city's open container laws).
Boys will be boys and all that, but they're also supposed to be professionals. This wasn't the morning after the Cup-clinching win, it was three days later. A lot of players had their families with them.
It wasn't the time or place to make a big show of drinking. The whole event took about two hours. They couldn't wait?
The same kind of behavior would get fans booted out of the PPG Paints Center on game nights.
If the Penguins are fortunate enough to have another victory parade, maybe the organization can issue a few guidelines.
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--TOUGH CHOICE
There's been a popular theory that managers make a mistake when they save their closer exclusively for the ninth inning.
The idea is the closer -- presumably the best relief pitcher -- should be used if there's a critical need in an earlier inning.
That's fine. But what if there's a critical need again in the ninth? Now the manager is stuck with that pitcher he didn't trust to escape the jam in an earlier inning.
(John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com)
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