Beaver County Times, December 15, 2013

Dan Bylsma had a day off last week, but he didn't get a break from coaching.
Bylsma used the day to cram for his high-profile moonlighting job as coach of Team USA in the upcoming Olympic games.
Bylsma is among the many who will be heading across the globe to Russia in February while the NHL shuts down for two and a half weeks.
In order to clear that much time, the NHL has compressed its 82-game regular season. That creates clusters like the Penguins recently had with 15 games in 25 days.
That kind of breakneck pace isn't good for the players or the quality of play, but that's the price the NHL is willing to pay to be in the Olympics.
It's just another reason why the NHL's participation in the Olympics is a mistake.
The prospect excites the players. Sidney Crosby scored the game-winning goal for Team Canada in the last competition, and he counts it among his biggest thrills.
That's great for him, but how good is it for the Penguins, who pay Crosby close to $9 million a season? He's as well-conditioned as any NHL player, but how much of a burden is it to play a busy NHL schedule, then travel more than 11,000 miles for two weeks of high-intensity hockey, then come back to finish the regular season and prepare for a playoff run that might last another two months?
Do Penguins fans, who pay a premium for tickets, really have a vested interest in rooting against Crosby or Evgeni Malkin if they face Team USA? If you're spending thousands to watch the Penguins, you want to see Crosby with the Stanley Cup, not a gold medal. With a nine-hour time difference between here and Russia, how much of a TV audience will there be for hockey games?
And if this sentiment isn't too hopelessly corny and naive, how about the Olympic ideal of having amateurs compete? That went out the window when we started assembling NBA dream teams to stomp the likes of Cuba and Venezuela.
The reason people remember the 1980 "Miracle On Ice" USA hockey team so fondly is the players were underdogs. They were college kids who went up against Russia's pro-laden squad and beat immense odds.
Most of them weren't prime NHL prospects, and it didn't matter.
Mike Eruzione, the 1980 Olympic captain, never spent a day in an NHL camp. Yet he's still probably better known than two-thirds of the current NHL players.
Maybe Crosby wins another gold medal. Maybe Malkin or Bylsma gets that prize.
No matter what, a lot of people are going to be more interested in seeing if they can beat the Bruins this spring when they return to their real jobs.
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--STICKER SHOCK
When it costs $5 million just to gamble on a 30-year-old reclamation project like Edinson Volquez, it's alarming evidence of the way MLB salaries are trending.
More than ever, the Pirates need a first-rate development system to pump out players who will be affordable for a while.
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--MEDIA EVENT
Andrew McCutchen said his televised marriage proposal wasn't about the publicity.
The person seated next to his fiance in the "Ellen" audience was the personal publicist McCutchen employs.

Beaver County Times, December 8, 2013

Bill Cowher last coached the Steelers in 2006, but his popularity has only increased since then.
Cowher is getting the same kind of retroactive love that enveloped Terry Bradshaw as the years passed following his 1983 departure from Pittsburgh.
Those misty water-colored memories become warmer and fuzzier as fans grow more disenchanted with the people currently occupying their old jobs.
Cowher was never this popular when he was actually coaching the Steelers. Then he was just a guy who lost too many big games and hired the wrong offensive coordinators (some things never change). People spread vicious rumors about him.
Bradshaw wasn't that beloved even when the Steelers were winning four Super Bowls. A lot of people thought they won a couple in spite of him and wondered what might have happened if the Steelers would have had installed Terry Hanratty at quarterback.
Bradshaw started looking better and better when the Steelers cranked up that Cliff Stoudt-Mark Malone-Bubby Brister medley after he left.
A lot of people don't like Mike Tomlin. Sure, he won a Super Bowl, but the complaint is he did it with Cowher's players. (Never mind that Cowher went 8-8 and missed the playoffs with those players in his last season).
Thanks to the dissatisfaction with Tomlin, a lot of people would endorse putting Cowher's granite jaw on a Mt. Washington version of Mount Rushmore, right alongside Chuck Noll.
Never mind those four losses in AFC Championship games.
The good part of this is the current Steelers should know that some day they'll be beloved, too. It just won't happen while they're actually playing.
When Ben Roethlisberger is 50, he won't be the guy who held the ball too long. He'll be fondly remembered as the guy who could extend a play better than anyone.
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CRAZY MONEY
Oh, those evil Seattle Mariners and their open checkbook.
Nobody expected Lloyd McClendon's new team to make the biggest splash in free agency by signing Robinson Cano to a contract that makes no sense on any level.
Cano has a 10-year contract, which will keep him on the Mariners' payroll until age 41. Ever since baseball cracked down on steroids, the idea of senior citizen superstars has diminished, so it's highly likely Cano will be a major burden to the Mariners in 2023.
In fact, if baseball's actuary tables are accurate, it's likely the Mariners are buying far more of Cano's declining years than his peak seasons.
The deal is worth $240 million. Perspective: It cost $216 million to build PNC Park. That translates into $285 million in 2013 dollars, but you get the point.
Contracts have been tilting toward the insane this offseason since teams all have some extra money from national TV rights. When Jacob Ellsbury gets $153 million for seven years, you realize how fortunate the Pirates were to lock up six years of Andrew McCutchen for $51.5 million.
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HAPPY HOURS
Prohibition ended in 1933, the same year the Steelers were founded.
The timing is no doubt coincidental, but could you imagine Steelers game days without alcoholic beverages? A lot of people can't.
You're just not going to have that same here-we-go-Steelers swagger chugging a Dr. Pepper.

Beaver County Times, December 1, 2013

Turns out the Steelers' win at Cleveland was just a mirage.
The return of the old defense -- the one with the sacks and takeaways and pressure -- was a one-game wonder against an inferior opponent.
Faced with better competition in Baltimore, the other "old" defense reappeared. This one is old in the sense that too many people are on the wrong side of 30.
So now the Steelers are 5-7. They're not out of the playoff hunt, but the chances are slim. It's far more likely they'll finish 8-8 again and watch the playoffs on TV.
This, of course, is the worst of all worlds. They miss the postseason, but they're not bad enough to claim a prime drafting position.
A top 10 pick would be a huge help in an offseason of big changes.
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--JUST FOR KICKS
Too bad the Steelers weren't wearing their silly jailbreak throwback uniforms in Baltimore.
Shaun Suisham's misdirection play on the ill-fated onside kick at the end looked like something Curly would have done in one of the old Three Stooges shorts.
He put so much effort into the weaving reverse approach to the ball that he neglected the most important part -- making sure the ball went 10 yards so the Steelers could legally recover it.
It was the worst play since Suisham broke the monotony of the snap/hold/kick sequence earlier in the game by running up to kick a ball that hadn't arrived yet.
Suisham has been money for the Steelers, so the intent isn't to pick on him or blame him for the loss.
It's just that those two plays brought back bad memories of when Booth Lusteg was kicking for the Steelers.
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--HOMETOWN ADVANTAGE
Selection of the three stars is a hockey tradition, but nothing that should be taken seriously.
The picks are usually made by the home team's PR staff, and often reflect that bias.
That was illustrated by the Penguins' game at Tampa Bay on Friday. The Lightning's J.T. Brown was named the game's No. 2 star. His team lost 3-0.
There was no recognition of Sidney Crosby, who had three assists, or Chris Kunitz, who scored two goals.
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--ABANDONING SHIP
There was a big celebration last month when 93.7 The Fan (KDKA-FM) topped the local radio ratings in October.
The November results might make for a blue Christmas at CBS Radio headquarters.
The Fan's huge numbers for October were influenced greatly by the Pirates' first postseason appearance in 20 years. The Fan had six postseason games, plus all the discussion.
A decline was inevitable in November, but it turned out to be much larger than anyone probably projected. The Fan's audience share for November was less than half of what the station had in October. Not quite first-to-worst, but close.
It's a stunning drop, and it may be unprecedented for a station to lose so much audience in one month without making a format change.
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--FIRE AWAY
Good luck to all the hunters who head to the woods looking for a deer. Stay safe.
Might not be legal or sporting, but wouldn't it be better to hunt cows instead? They move slower, and they're better eating.

Beaver County Times, November 24, 2013

Here's the funny thing about the Ben Roethlisberger rumors that have been persistent for the past few weeks:
They're coming from Ian Rapoport, who works for the NFL Network, which is owned and operated by the NFL.
So while sports teams are fond of demonizing the media as outside enemies who want to undermine their operations, this is actually something of an inside job. (Bill Parcells used to refer to Giants beat writers as "communists.")
If the NFL Network has total editorial independence, it's enjoying freedom that isn't all that common.
Teams generally try to control the message whenever they can.
Once the Pirates were on the road when the opposing shortstop inexplicably dropped the most basic pop-up. Incredulous at the misplay of a chance so easy, Greg Brown exclaimed that a Little Leaguer could have made the play.
At the next commercial break, the man then in charge of the Pirates' marketing was on the phone to the booth, angrily complaining that Brown's candid assessment somehow downgraded the product the team was trying to sell.
When Myron Cope called attention to the "Steelers Streaker" in the 1970s, no less an authority than franchise founder Art Rooney scolded Cope for making a miscreant a folk hero.
Penguins general manager Craig Patrick was once watching a late night telecast from the west coast at home. He grew impatient with Mike Lange's words of praise for the opposing team and phoned the production truck to relay the message he'd like to hear some good things about the Penguins.
Lange's response was to call the rest of the game without his usual expressions to adorn Penguins goals. No drinks for Sam or his dog, no messages to Arnold Slick in Turtle Creek, just straight calls of the plays.
The online mlb.com, which purports to cover all 30 MLB teams with some independence, reportedly doesn't allow its writers to use the word "fail" in stories.
If NFL Network staffers are free from that kind of interference, good for them, even though it's proven to be inconvenient for the Steelers and Roethlisberger.
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--DOCTOR'S APPOINTMENT
Anna Benson, the scary ex-wife of former Pirates pitcher Kris Benson, has been interviewed by TV's Dr. Phil.
The show is scheduled to air on Wednesday.
Anna Benson refers to herself as the most famous sports wife since Marilyn Monroe, a claim Gisele Bundchen or Victoria Beckham might dispute.
Anna is a former exotic dancer who improbably married one of the quietest people on the planet, then used his fame to create her own notoriety. When Benson pitched for the Mets, she famously did some interviews on Howard Stern's radio show. She operated a personal website, where she offered racy photos and profanity-filled insults of those who didn't agree with her conservative political views.
Benson last pitched in the major leagues in 2010, and Anna has also faded away. She returned to the headlines in July when she showed up at Kris' home with a gun, hatchet, knives and a bulletproof vest.
Maybe Dr. Phil can write her a prescription.
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--SCRAMBLED MESSAGE
Spell check always flags Dan Bylsma's last name and suggests "abysmal" as a replacement.
Everyone's a critic.

Beaver County Times, November 17, 2013

Stay calm. It's a long season.
The Penguins just had a stretch of three games, all losses, in which they failed to score an even-strength goal.
This brought back memories from the spring, when the Penguins' high-powered offense sputtered and conked out in the playoff loss to Boston.
When Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are healthy and the Penguins can't score 5-on-5, something is wrong.
It's up to the coaching staff to make the necessary strategic corrections.
But there shouldn't be any doubt that the problems are correctable. Maybe it's as simple as getting more traffic in front of the net.
The Penguins have long had a tendency to value the pretty play over the gritty one. With their skill level, they always think they're just one no-look pass from scoring.
But when goals are hard to come by, back to basics almost always works.
Crowd the net and take advantage of deflections and easy rebounds. People call them garbage goals, but there's no premium for style points. One that glances off a skate counts as much as a breakaway.
The return to the full 82-game schedule requires a perspective adjustment.
The lockout limited last season to 48 games. Points were at a premium. A long losing streak could be devastating.
The 82-game schedule is more forgiving. A team can have a bad month and still recover.
All things considered, the Penguins aren't in bad shape, even with the losing streak. There's plenty of time to get things right and maximize this team's considerable talent.
It's only November.
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--SELLING OUT
Bill Mazeroski's champagne-stained jersey from the 1960 World Series brought $632,500 at auction.
That's probably close to the amount of money Mazeroski was paid for his 17-year career with the Pirates.
The items he put up for bids sold for about $1.7 million. Good for him. At 77, he's established a nice trust fund for his sons and grandchildren, and it's more likely the items sold will now be on public display.
If you spend $632,500 on a shirt, you probably want to show it off.
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--SIGNING OFF?
There are persistent rumors that 93.7 The Fan (KDKA-FM) will be breaking up one of its most dysfunctional on-air teams soon.
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--BALLOT BLUNDERS
Some people are upset that Andrew McCutchen was listed as low as fourth on one of the MVP ballots cast from St. Louis.
The bigger injustice is that Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina was ninth on one of the ballots from Pittsburgh.
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--IF YOU BUILD IT AGAIN...
As much as everyone likes PNC Park, it was a huge waste of money when Three Rivers Stadium was demolished after 30 years of use.
It was ugly, but it was still functional. The Steelers doomed Three Rivers when they jumped on the stadium-financing bandwagon and insisted on a new venue packed with luxury boxes.
That's how we got Heinz Field, which is ugly but functional.
Every elected official who's ever caved in to the stadium shakedown must have been chilled by the news that the Braves will seek a new ballpark, hoping to abandon Turner Field, which opened in 1997.
Three Rivers lasted half as long as Forbes Field did. Has the shelf life of publicly-financed sports palaces grown even shorter?

Beaver County Times, November 10, 2013

Richie Incognito? Are they kidding?
The villain in this bizarre story has a name right out of "The Sopranos?"
The Miami Dolphins' bullying controversy will drastically affect several careers. Incognito, accused of intimidating and harassing teammate Jonathan Martin, will probably be unemployable.
Based on the way some NFL players have closed ranks and argued, "People just don't understand..." it's hard to believe Martin will find an NFL locker room that's a comfortable fit.
Joe Philbin is unlikely to get another head coaching job once he's fired in Miami.
The intent here is not to excuse the peculiar behavior that's been described, but to point out that some players genuinely don't see a lot of this as anything terribly unusual.
They've been brought up in a locker room culture from high school. They don't understand how strange this all looks to the real world.
The rookie dinner, where the team gathers at a high-end restaurant, runs up a five-figure tab and sticks the rookies with the bill? The Penguins were doing that as of a few years ago.
In a different generation, it was hockey tradition to pin a rookie down and cut his hair, or crudely shave his body hair. The Penguins banned that a while ago, but Mario Lemieux got an involuntary haircut in his rookie season.
That isn't how the corporate world does things, but the IBM guys don't shower together at the end of the work day, either.
In football, favorable impressions aren't made by someone's wit or intelligence, but are often based on how much weight someone can lift, how much pain they can tolerate and how much beer they can drink.
A long time ago, quarterback Bobby Layne would demand Steelers rookies join him for an extended night of drinking that didn't stop until the new players were physically ill. To skip that rite of passage was to risk the scorn of teammates.
The Pirates had a tradition where veterans would sneak into the clubhouse during a game and steal the rookies' clothes. They'd substitute a weird outfit the players would have to wear on a travel day, and they'd kick the rookies off the bus before it reached the hotel. Jason Bay walked those final blocks in Chicago wearing a bright yellow chicken suit in his rookie season.
Theirs is a different world. If anything good comes out of the Dolphins story, it will be showing players just how grossly distorted that world is sometimes.
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--Mayor Mucker
Bill Peduto, who won election last week, is the Pittsburgh's first hockey-playing mayor. He has a passion for the game, and was part of a celebrity team that played charity games in the area.
Predecessor Luke Ravenstahl played on the Washington & Jefferson football team.
Ravenstahl was a kicker, which could explain some of his Jeff Reed-like behavior during his time in office.
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--The Other Kid
Nice story by KDKA-TV's Bob Pompeani last week on Taylor Crosby, who is a goaltender at prep school in Minnesota.
Sid's 17-year-old sister hopes to represent Canada in the 2018 Olympics.
The Crosby parents provided some vintage family photos. There was one of Sid -- when he really was a kid -- holding his baby sister.
It was the kind of story that even connected with viewers who aren't hardcore sports fans.

Beaver County Times, November 3, 2013

If the Steelers have a rotten season (and aren't they building quite a foundation?) no one important will get fired.
We know that because it's not the Steelers way.
But is that still true?
Just because the person in charge is named Rooney doesn't mean that things are done the same way.
Current team president Art Rooney II shares his father's placid mien, but he's not necessarily the same guy.
Considerable circumstantial evidence points to Art Rooney II as the person behind the ouster of offensive coordinator Bruce Arians following the 2011 season.
You can argue that Dan Rooney once ordered Chuck Noll to fire several assistants, but that came after a 5-11 season in 1988, the Steelers' third losing season in four years. It was clear by then that the franchise had made the sad, slow slide into mediocrity.
Arians was banished after the Steelers finished 12-4 for the second consecutive year. Given that, and Art Rooney II's suggestions for changes in offensive philosophy, it's logical to conclude that he's more hands-on than his father was.
(Former GM Tom Donahoe was fired, but that was after his relationship with Bill Cowher had deteriorated to the point that one of them had to go).
If the Steelers have a losing season, veterans like Ryan Clark and Brett Keisel are likely gone. Troy Polamalu's future would be in doubt, too. Potentially they could have three more starters to replace on defense, something that a single draft wouldn't accomplish.
The Steelers could have a $102 million quarterback and not much else. It could be a full-scale rebuilding.
In that case, the question would be whether Mike Tomlin and Kevin Colbert are the people to trust with that project.
Are the Steelers inevitable victims of a salary cap system? Or have they blundered their way into this spot?
If the losing continues, those are the tough questions that ownership has to confront.
There's no guarantee the patience that characterized the organization in the past will continue.
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--Getting acquainted
KDKA-TV had a genuinely odd feature on Penguins rookie Olli Maatta last week.
Jory Rand interviewed the 19-year-old defenseman as the two toured the city. Their walk-and-talk included coffee in Market Square, then shifted to an observation deck on Mt. Washington. You were waiting for them to ride a tandem bicycle through Schenley Park.
It looked like something that been brokered by eHarmony.com rather than a hockey team's PR department.
It wasn't bad. Just peculiar.
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--They're No. 1
These are happy days at 93.7 The Fan (KDKA-FM), which topped the local radio ratings for October.
This surge was influenced primarily by the Pirates' first postseason games since 1992.
The Fan not only has a large audience at the moment, it also hits the demographics advertisers want. Programming remains spotty. After nearly four years in the format, there still isn't a signature destination show.
But they're printing money. Clear Channel, the other big radio operator in town, should be getting itchy to grab some of that action by starting an FM sports station of its own. Clear Channel to this point has spread its sports content over WDVE, WXDX and ESPN 970 AM, which has as many listeners as the police scanner.
Clear Channel's inaction is allowing CBS-owned The Fan to feast on the whole pie.
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