If Mike Tomlin sticks to his plan, Martavis Bryant will stay on the sideline tonight in Detroit, somewhere between the table full of Gatorade cups and the kicker's practice screen.
(They're letting him make the trip, which makes sense. Imagine what trouble he could get into home alone).
That's his penalty for popping off on social media about being unhappy with a role in the Steelers offense that's smaller than he envisioned.
Bryant really hasn't expressed any remorse over what he did, but he doesn't seem to understand much about this.
ESPN's Josina Anderson apparently had a detailed but unrecorded conversation with Bryant during the week. She said he told her he was concerned about providing for his family.
He had no income last year because he didn't stay compliant with the NFL's substance abuse policy and was suspended. Did that concern him, especially coming after he lost a quarter season's pay for the same infraction?
The Steelers are penalizing Bryant today with the idea it will keep him on the straight and narrow through this season. Then they can get rid of him.
Bryant is a talent, but he's also a headache. They can't get rid of him now because they might need him. An NFL team's fortunes can change dramatically on one play. Just ask the Green Bay Packers, who lost Aaron Rodgers to a broken collarbone.
One awkward tackle and the Steelers might be looking for a No. 1 target to replace Antonio Brown. Bryant is the only one on the current roster who might be able to fill that assignment.
So while the Steelers are playing the Lions, Bryant will have time to think about things.
Perhaps for the first time.
---
--PROTECTIVE INTEREST
One of the biggest mistakes Bryant made was disparaging rookie receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster in an online post.
It's always bad form to rip a teammate, and he picked an especially sensitive target. Smith-Schuster is 20 years old, the youngest player in the league. Teammates have come to look at him as a little brother. Bryant's harsh words upset his teammates as well as his bosses.
---
--BRAIN CRAMPS
There was plenty of stupid to go around last week, so Bryant's headlines didn't last long outside of Pittsburgh.
--Houston Texans owner Bob McNair said "We can't have inmates running the prison," in reference to the national anthem protests.
McNair, 79, will probably spent the rest of the his life trying to back off that statement, and it will still be part of his legacy.
Very wealthy guy let the employees know what he thinks of them.
--Houston Astros outfielder Yuli Gurriel celebrated his World Series home run by making a racially insensitive gesture that seemed to slur Japanese-born Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish.
Hitting a home run in the World Series isn't its own reward? Now a hitter needs to mock the pitcher, too?
---
--MORE CHOPPING
It was reported last week that ESPN is a month or so away from another round of personnel cuts.
This slashing is projected to claim 40 to 60 jobs, split among on-air performers and support staff.
You may recall that ESPN had a massive staff reduction over the summer that eliminated a number of familiar names and faces including NFL guru John Clayton, a Pittsburgh native.
When it's all said and done, will we get even more low budget shows that feature people screaming at each other?
---
--THE VERY LATEST
KDKA-TV had the recovery of JuJu Smith-Schuster's stolen bicycle as "Breaking News."
When it comes to the Steelers, we're Mayberry.
(John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com)
Sunday, October 29, 2017
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Altoona Mirror, October 22, 2017
We're still a month or so away from ski season, but I'm going to head down this particular slippery slope anyway.
Official disclaimer: This is not a political statement or column. This is still the sports section, and let's give thanks for that.
But...
Before Donald J. Trump became this great nation's 45th President, he was a businessman and entrepreneur who cultivated and enjoyed a high profile. One of his investments was a franchise in the United States Football League, which started operating in the spring of 1983.
The USFL was designed to cash in on the popularity of pro football without competing directly with the established NFL. The USFL season started in March and ran through early July, filling the months of the NFL's offseason.
Pittsburgh got a franchise in 1984 when the DeBartolo family invested in the Maulers.
The USFL may have continued as an adjunct to the NFL, but some of the USFL owners had the flawed idea to compete more directly with the NFL. The planned to run a fall schedule, which would go head-to-head with the NFL.
That was undoubtedly a suicide mission, but there may have been a hidden motive. Most upstart leagues are created with the idea of forcing a merger with the established league. It worked for the AFL (football), for the ABA (basketball) and to a limited degree for the WHA (hockey).
It's a chance for the investors in the new league to get admission to the big league at a bargain price.
The USFL sued the NFL on antitrust grounds, claiming that its contracts for TV rights and stadium leases represented a monopoly. The USFL won the case on principle, but the judgment was for a token $1. Yes, that's $1 as in the four quarters you have in your pocket. (It was actually tripled to $3 under antitrust regulations).
The USFL had been aiming for $567 million, which would have been tripled to $1.7 billion. The award they got wouldn't even cover the cost of seeing a movie matinee. The USFL went under instantly.
One of the owners who was most bullish about aggressively taking on the NFL was Donald J. Trump of the New Jersey Generals.
That's the same President Trump, who won't let go of the national anthem protest issue and takes every opportunity to blast the NFL. Critics argue the 45th President has problems staying on point, but he seems to be pretty well centered on this issue. The anthem protest controversy had faded away until Trump made incendiary comments about it in September.
Does the whole matter have its roots in an embarrassing defeat in the courts decades ago? Is this really based on a battle between competing pro football leagues? Is this a grudge that he won't let go?
His zeal for this issue makes you wonder.
---
--CHEERLEADERS
Baseball has changed in a lot of ways, and one of them has been on display in the postseason.
Players feel comfortable jumping the rail in front of the dugout to spill on the field and celebrate good things. They're out there dancing and fist pumping, blatant actions that would have gotten somebody knocked down in a different era.
Then again, players on the bench used to wear classy-looking satin jackets. Now they're in hoodies, so the manager looks less like the guy in charge and more like someone headed to Home Depot on a Saturday morning.
---
--IS THAT IT?
Le'Veon Bell had the whole offseason to plan a touchdown celebration. And all he could come up with was turning the goal post padding into a punching bag?
Weak.
---
--SAFE BET
The Cincinnati Bengals are in town for this afternoon's game against the Steelers.
What is the over/under on Vontaze Burfict's penalty yardage?
(John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com)
Official disclaimer: This is not a political statement or column. This is still the sports section, and let's give thanks for that.
But...
Before Donald J. Trump became this great nation's 45th President, he was a businessman and entrepreneur who cultivated and enjoyed a high profile. One of his investments was a franchise in the United States Football League, which started operating in the spring of 1983.
The USFL was designed to cash in on the popularity of pro football without competing directly with the established NFL. The USFL season started in March and ran through early July, filling the months of the NFL's offseason.
Pittsburgh got a franchise in 1984 when the DeBartolo family invested in the Maulers.
The USFL may have continued as an adjunct to the NFL, but some of the USFL owners had the flawed idea to compete more directly with the NFL. The planned to run a fall schedule, which would go head-to-head with the NFL.
That was undoubtedly a suicide mission, but there may have been a hidden motive. Most upstart leagues are created with the idea of forcing a merger with the established league. It worked for the AFL (football), for the ABA (basketball) and to a limited degree for the WHA (hockey).
It's a chance for the investors in the new league to get admission to the big league at a bargain price.
The USFL sued the NFL on antitrust grounds, claiming that its contracts for TV rights and stadium leases represented a monopoly. The USFL won the case on principle, but the judgment was for a token $1. Yes, that's $1 as in the four quarters you have in your pocket. (It was actually tripled to $3 under antitrust regulations).
The USFL had been aiming for $567 million, which would have been tripled to $1.7 billion. The award they got wouldn't even cover the cost of seeing a movie matinee. The USFL went under instantly.
One of the owners who was most bullish about aggressively taking on the NFL was Donald J. Trump of the New Jersey Generals.
That's the same President Trump, who won't let go of the national anthem protest issue and takes every opportunity to blast the NFL. Critics argue the 45th President has problems staying on point, but he seems to be pretty well centered on this issue. The anthem protest controversy had faded away until Trump made incendiary comments about it in September.
Does the whole matter have its roots in an embarrassing defeat in the courts decades ago? Is this really based on a battle between competing pro football leagues? Is this a grudge that he won't let go?
His zeal for this issue makes you wonder.
---
--CHEERLEADERS
Baseball has changed in a lot of ways, and one of them has been on display in the postseason.
Players feel comfortable jumping the rail in front of the dugout to spill on the field and celebrate good things. They're out there dancing and fist pumping, blatant actions that would have gotten somebody knocked down in a different era.
Then again, players on the bench used to wear classy-looking satin jackets. Now they're in hoodies, so the manager looks less like the guy in charge and more like someone headed to Home Depot on a Saturday morning.
---
--IS THAT IT?
Le'Veon Bell had the whole offseason to plan a touchdown celebration. And all he could come up with was turning the goal post padding into a punching bag?
Weak.
---
--SAFE BET
The Cincinnati Bengals are in town for this afternoon's game against the Steelers.
What is the over/under on Vontaze Burfict's penalty yardage?
(John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com)
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Altoona Mirror, October 15, 2017
Replay in baseball became a good idea around the time that Jerry Meals blew an easy home plate call and cost the Pirates a game.
If everyone could see it was the wrong call, why not correct it? Even Meals admitted his mistake the next day, long after it was too late to do anything about it.
So with that call, and others just as egregious, embarrassing the game, MLB decided to do something about it. Instead of endless arguments, go to the video. The umpires get on a headset to New York, where a different crew of umpires reviews a play that's been challenged.
Makes perfect sense. But now the reliance on technology has gone too far, as we saw in the deciding fifth game of the National League Division Series.
Washington was threatening with runners a first and second. Chicago Cubs catcher Willson Contreras snapped a quick pickoff throw to first base, where Washington's Jose Lobaton was ruled safe.
The call looked good. Lobaton clearly beat the throw. With nothing to lose, the Cubs challenged the call, and they won big.
When the video was slowed to a crawl, it showed Lobaton's foot losing contact with the base for a split second. First baseman Anthony Rizzo's tag was still on Lobaton. The call was reversed. Lobaton was called out.
Inning over, rally over, and the series was also essentially over for the Nationals.
By the letter of the law, the reversal was correct. By the spirit of what replay is supposed to be, it was an impossibly nitpicky call.
Lobaton was a fool for getting far enough off the base for there to have been an issue. Bad play on his part.
But he beat the throw back. An expert in physics can explain why his foot became disengaged from the bag for a blink, but that shouldn't have been the deciding factor.
It took a magnifying glass to make the call, and it shouldn't be that way.
Let replay correct the big and obvious mistakes, like the one Meals made against the Pirates.
For the ones that need the most minute technological review to reverse, let the umpire's call stand. It's a baseball game, not a CSI case.
---
--ALUMNI DAY
Santonio Holmes stopped by the Steelers offices last week for a brief ceremony that allowed him to retire as a member of the team.
Holmes last played in the NFL three years ago, and hasn't worn black and gold since 2009. He was part of the second-greatest play in franchise history, the leaping catch in the corner of an end zone to win Super Bowl XLIII.
But he was gone a year later, sacrificed to the New York Jets for a fifth-round draft pick. His game was still fine; he'd had his best statistical year in 2010. Holmes had just become too much of a pain in the neck to keep around.
It was never anything that big -- a couple of marijuana incidents, accusations of a domestic dispute, run-ins with police. But it was enough to lead the Steelers to give away a former No. 1 draft pick.
However, there he was last week, smiling with Art Rooney II and Mike Tomlin, reminiscing about his happiest days in the NFL.
Memories really are selective. Should we now await the Plaxico Burress retirement ceremony?
---
--ULTIMATE WALK OFF
Friday was the anniversary of Bill Mazeroski's home run that won the 1960 World Series for the Pirates.
We still don't know what the exit velocity was, but it counts anyway.
(John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com)
If everyone could see it was the wrong call, why not correct it? Even Meals admitted his mistake the next day, long after it was too late to do anything about it.
So with that call, and others just as egregious, embarrassing the game, MLB decided to do something about it. Instead of endless arguments, go to the video. The umpires get on a headset to New York, where a different crew of umpires reviews a play that's been challenged.
Makes perfect sense. But now the reliance on technology has gone too far, as we saw in the deciding fifth game of the National League Division Series.
Washington was threatening with runners a first and second. Chicago Cubs catcher Willson Contreras snapped a quick pickoff throw to first base, where Washington's Jose Lobaton was ruled safe.
The call looked good. Lobaton clearly beat the throw. With nothing to lose, the Cubs challenged the call, and they won big.
When the video was slowed to a crawl, it showed Lobaton's foot losing contact with the base for a split second. First baseman Anthony Rizzo's tag was still on Lobaton. The call was reversed. Lobaton was called out.
Inning over, rally over, and the series was also essentially over for the Nationals.
By the letter of the law, the reversal was correct. By the spirit of what replay is supposed to be, it was an impossibly nitpicky call.
Lobaton was a fool for getting far enough off the base for there to have been an issue. Bad play on his part.
But he beat the throw back. An expert in physics can explain why his foot became disengaged from the bag for a blink, but that shouldn't have been the deciding factor.
It took a magnifying glass to make the call, and it shouldn't be that way.
Let replay correct the big and obvious mistakes, like the one Meals made against the Pirates.
For the ones that need the most minute technological review to reverse, let the umpire's call stand. It's a baseball game, not a CSI case.
---
--ALUMNI DAY
Santonio Holmes stopped by the Steelers offices last week for a brief ceremony that allowed him to retire as a member of the team.
Holmes last played in the NFL three years ago, and hasn't worn black and gold since 2009. He was part of the second-greatest play in franchise history, the leaping catch in the corner of an end zone to win Super Bowl XLIII.
But he was gone a year later, sacrificed to the New York Jets for a fifth-round draft pick. His game was still fine; he'd had his best statistical year in 2010. Holmes had just become too much of a pain in the neck to keep around.
It was never anything that big -- a couple of marijuana incidents, accusations of a domestic dispute, run-ins with police. But it was enough to lead the Steelers to give away a former No. 1 draft pick.
However, there he was last week, smiling with Art Rooney II and Mike Tomlin, reminiscing about his happiest days in the NFL.
Memories really are selective. Should we now await the Plaxico Burress retirement ceremony?
---
--ULTIMATE WALK OFF
Friday was the anniversary of Bill Mazeroski's home run that won the 1960 World Series for the Pirates.
We still don't know what the exit velocity was, but it counts anyway.
(John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com)
Saturday, October 7, 2017
Altoona Mirror, October 8, 2017
The tough thing about covering the NFL is that once a week schedule, which means large shovels are often needed to fill all the 24-hour news cycles between games.
From one Sunday to the next, there's a lot more talk than action. That's why you get stuff like "keys to victory," which usually starts with the combination of "establish the running game" and "control the running game." True confession: I haven't read a "keys to victory" filler in decades, so I'm going from memory.
The NFL has its own TV network jammed with shows that fill time until there are actual games to dissect and real-life highlights to show.
That's why people who purvey words were secretly delighted last Sunday when Antonio Brown pitched a fit on the sideline in Baltimore. He flung an empty Gatorade cooler (you try to move one of those when it's full) and then pulled angrily away from offensive coordinator Todd Haley, who tried to cool things down.
Brown was hot because Ben Roethlisberger failed to notice he was wide open for a potential touchdown. His display of temper essentially showed up the quarterback by calling attention to the oversight. It was "Hey, look at the mistake Ben made."
Bad stuff. Bad for morale. Selfish. Depending on your perspective on Brown, it was possibly oh so A.B., a hopelessly me-first guy who tries to keep those traits under wraps as much as possible.
In reality, it was a gift from above for those who have to comment on pro football matters between games. Roethlisberger and coach Mike Tomlin had their say on Tuesday.
The issue got more life because of Brown's totally arbitrary policy of restricting his media availability to Fridays during the season. That kept the flame flickering for an end-of-the-week blowout, which left just one more day for everyone to deduce the keys to victory.
We're told that things are fine now, and that's all well and good. The tempest served its purpose.
It was an annoyance for Roethlisberger, an embarrassment for Brown, a distraction for Tomlin, and a blessing for the people who would otherwise be looking for variations on "establish the running game/control the running game."
---
--BLING IS THE THING
Those massive diamond-crusted Penguins Stanley Cup rings are serious pieces of jewelry.
They are also something no hockey player will ever wear in public. Sidney Crosby will wear that ring on his grocery store run right after he dyes his hair purple.
As the rings get bigger and brighter every year, it also becomes more apparent they'll stay in bank vaults after the initial presentation and photo op.
Seems like it kind of defeats the purpose.
---
--SPECIAL GUEST
Before the Pirates adjourned for the offseason, they got into some mildly hot water with MLB over inviting Wiz Khalifa to throw out the first pitch before a late-season game.
Khalifa is the Pittsburgh-rooted rapper whose career is based largely on the glorification of marijuana use.
He showed up at PNC Park wearing a t-shirt that read, "Legalize It." Before he threw the pitch, he pantomimed a man smoking a joint. Then the artist whose releases include "Rolling Papers," "Weedmixes" and "Wake and Bake" made his cameo appearance.
MLB didn't think much of the Pirates' judgment in extending the invitation, and sent along an official but mild reprimand.
Oh well. At least they offer those all-you-can-eat seats for Wiz followers with a serious case of the munchies.
(John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com)
From one Sunday to the next, there's a lot more talk than action. That's why you get stuff like "keys to victory," which usually starts with the combination of "establish the running game" and "control the running game." True confession: I haven't read a "keys to victory" filler in decades, so I'm going from memory.
The NFL has its own TV network jammed with shows that fill time until there are actual games to dissect and real-life highlights to show.
That's why people who purvey words were secretly delighted last Sunday when Antonio Brown pitched a fit on the sideline in Baltimore. He flung an empty Gatorade cooler (you try to move one of those when it's full) and then pulled angrily away from offensive coordinator Todd Haley, who tried to cool things down.
Brown was hot because Ben Roethlisberger failed to notice he was wide open for a potential touchdown. His display of temper essentially showed up the quarterback by calling attention to the oversight. It was "Hey, look at the mistake Ben made."
Bad stuff. Bad for morale. Selfish. Depending on your perspective on Brown, it was possibly oh so A.B., a hopelessly me-first guy who tries to keep those traits under wraps as much as possible.
In reality, it was a gift from above for those who have to comment on pro football matters between games. Roethlisberger and coach Mike Tomlin had their say on Tuesday.
The issue got more life because of Brown's totally arbitrary policy of restricting his media availability to Fridays during the season. That kept the flame flickering for an end-of-the-week blowout, which left just one more day for everyone to deduce the keys to victory.
We're told that things are fine now, and that's all well and good. The tempest served its purpose.
It was an annoyance for Roethlisberger, an embarrassment for Brown, a distraction for Tomlin, and a blessing for the people who would otherwise be looking for variations on "establish the running game/control the running game."
---
--BLING IS THE THING
Those massive diamond-crusted Penguins Stanley Cup rings are serious pieces of jewelry.
They are also something no hockey player will ever wear in public. Sidney Crosby will wear that ring on his grocery store run right after he dyes his hair purple.
As the rings get bigger and brighter every year, it also becomes more apparent they'll stay in bank vaults after the initial presentation and photo op.
Seems like it kind of defeats the purpose.
---
--SPECIAL GUEST
Before the Pirates adjourned for the offseason, they got into some mildly hot water with MLB over inviting Wiz Khalifa to throw out the first pitch before a late-season game.
Khalifa is the Pittsburgh-rooted rapper whose career is based largely on the glorification of marijuana use.
He showed up at PNC Park wearing a t-shirt that read, "Legalize It." Before he threw the pitch, he pantomimed a man smoking a joint. Then the artist whose releases include "Rolling Papers," "Weedmixes" and "Wake and Bake" made his cameo appearance.
MLB didn't think much of the Pirates' judgment in extending the invitation, and sent along an official but mild reprimand.
Oh well. At least they offer those all-you-can-eat seats for Wiz followers with a serious case of the munchies.
(John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com)
Saturday, September 30, 2017
Altoona Mirror, October 1, 2017
The Pirates drop the curtain on a second straight disappointing season today, one that keeps them south of .500 again.
Culprits abound, but the biggest reason the Pirates were a non-factor was their offense.
Some of the young starting pitchers sputtered on fumes at the end, but they weren't the problem. In fact, they offered hope.
The bullpen had to be rebuilt with significant changes made on the fly, but that settled down, too.
Truth be told, though, the young pitching is a significant asset, both for trying to build a contender and to have as trading stock to fill other holes.
As noted here previously in detail, the Pirates got no better than 50 percent production from the projected 2-3-4-5 spots in their batting order. That's going to lead to a lot of dreary nights, and the Pirates had them in abundance.
Starling Marte will be better. Gregory Polanco had better be. There's still some life in Andrew McCutchen, and there's still a year on his contract. If Jung Ho Kang can't make it, the Pirates need to find a legitimate replacement.
This is not a "blow it up and start all over" proposition.
---
--THREE THOUGHTS ON THE PIRATES
Three other things on the Pirates:
--Two questions (with answers provided):
1. Should the Pirates pick up McCutchen's 2018 option at $14.5 million?
Yes.
2. Should they sign McCutchen beyond 2018? No.
--Here's how long a baseball season is: Remember when Gift Ngoepe reaching the major leagues was a big deal?
--As AT&T SportsNet searches for a new analyst to replace the retiring Kent Tekulve on Pirates broadcasts, there's one contemporary name who might be interested.
Jason Grilli bought a house in the leafy green northern suburbs with the idea of landing some broadcast work here after his pitching career ended.
---
--OFFENSIVE PENALTY
Because there are 800 or so college football games being broadcast by someone every Saturday, the depth of the announcer pool gets tested.
Former NFL player Takeo Spikes was the analyst on the ACC Network's Rice at Pitt. Spikes may not be the biggest name, but he's not as anonymous as some of the guys working the games from the lower part of the barrel.
Thanks to technology, any announcer willing to make the effort can pretty well get caught up on whatever team he might be covering. Then there are those late-week meetings with the coaching staffs, which get constantly referenced throughout the broadcast.
But in one cringe-inducing click-by caught on Saturday, football wasn't the issue with Spikes. English was.
He managed to combine a "has ran" and "have went," a 1-2 that should have gotten him detention in the classroom instead of a job in broadcasting.
---
--STEELERS STUMBLE
A lot of people (including my cousin Mike in Texas) took last Sunday's loss in Chicago as more evidence of a Mike Tomlin-coached Steelers team losing to an inferior opponent.
Could be. But three games in, Le'Veon Bell, Martavis Bryant and Ben Roethlisberger have not been playing at levels less than expected from them.
---
--SO LONG, TEKE
Enjoy your new life, Kent Tekulve.
When a guy is 70 and a transplanted heart is giving him a precious second chance, he doesn't need to be sitting around a TV studio at midnight waiting out the rain-delayed finish of an 11-2 game that everyone else has abandoned.
(John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com)
Culprits abound, but the biggest reason the Pirates were a non-factor was their offense.
Some of the young starting pitchers sputtered on fumes at the end, but they weren't the problem. In fact, they offered hope.
The bullpen had to be rebuilt with significant changes made on the fly, but that settled down, too.
Truth be told, though, the young pitching is a significant asset, both for trying to build a contender and to have as trading stock to fill other holes.
As noted here previously in detail, the Pirates got no better than 50 percent production from the projected 2-3-4-5 spots in their batting order. That's going to lead to a lot of dreary nights, and the Pirates had them in abundance.
Starling Marte will be better. Gregory Polanco had better be. There's still some life in Andrew McCutchen, and there's still a year on his contract. If Jung Ho Kang can't make it, the Pirates need to find a legitimate replacement.
This is not a "blow it up and start all over" proposition.
---
--THREE THOUGHTS ON THE PIRATES
Three other things on the Pirates:
--Two questions (with answers provided):
1. Should the Pirates pick up McCutchen's 2018 option at $14.5 million?
Yes.
2. Should they sign McCutchen beyond 2018? No.
--Here's how long a baseball season is: Remember when Gift Ngoepe reaching the major leagues was a big deal?
--As AT&T SportsNet searches for a new analyst to replace the retiring Kent Tekulve on Pirates broadcasts, there's one contemporary name who might be interested.
Jason Grilli bought a house in the leafy green northern suburbs with the idea of landing some broadcast work here after his pitching career ended.
---
--OFFENSIVE PENALTY
Because there are 800 or so college football games being broadcast by someone every Saturday, the depth of the announcer pool gets tested.
Former NFL player Takeo Spikes was the analyst on the ACC Network's Rice at Pitt. Spikes may not be the biggest name, but he's not as anonymous as some of the guys working the games from the lower part of the barrel.
Thanks to technology, any announcer willing to make the effort can pretty well get caught up on whatever team he might be covering. Then there are those late-week meetings with the coaching staffs, which get constantly referenced throughout the broadcast.
But in one cringe-inducing click-by caught on Saturday, football wasn't the issue with Spikes. English was.
He managed to combine a "has ran" and "have went," a 1-2 that should have gotten him detention in the classroom instead of a job in broadcasting.
---
--STEELERS STUMBLE
A lot of people (including my cousin Mike in Texas) took last Sunday's loss in Chicago as more evidence of a Mike Tomlin-coached Steelers team losing to an inferior opponent.
Could be. But three games in, Le'Veon Bell, Martavis Bryant and Ben Roethlisberger have not been playing at levels less than expected from them.
---
--SO LONG, TEKE
Enjoy your new life, Kent Tekulve.
When a guy is 70 and a transplanted heart is giving him a precious second chance, he doesn't need to be sitting around a TV studio at midnight waiting out the rain-delayed finish of an 11-2 game that everyone else has abandoned.
(John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com)
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Altoona Mirror, September 24, 2017
Sports statistics are everywhere. The explosion is so profound, we're all lucky decimal points are round and less dangerous as shrapnel.
When Bob Prince called the Pirates games a million years ago, he wouldn't even give a batting average for the first six weeks of the season. Instead, he'd offer a speech about how the averages jumped around so much that they were meaningless that early in the season.
He was espousing the idea of "small sample size" without ever meaning to. The Old Gunner's idea of small sample size was a shot glass only half filled with vodka, but forgive the digression.
Given Prince's minimalist approach, it's easy to understand why the audience was so jolted when Milo Hamilton replaced him. Milo loved numbers like a CPA, and had a compulsion to share them.
He would not only tell listeners what Phil Garner was hitting on April 14, he would break it down into lefthander-righthander, home-road, starter-reliever and whatever other categories were handy.
Computers and independent researchers made the numbers expand. If there wasn't a stat to illustrate the point, they would create one. Welcome, WAR, OPS, WHIP and all their upper case brethren.
Some of them have fallen into common use while others remain arcane.
NFL broadcasts now bombard viewers even though the sport is more of a collaborative effort than baseball and doesn't have the constant one-on-one drumbeat that establishes a context.
The Steelers play in Chicago today and one of the local TV guys somberly noted that the Bears hold a 12-1 edge in those games, "all-time." It really is "all time," a time when George Halas prowled the sideline, when Gale Sayers galloped through a lousy Steelers defense and Dick Butkus frightened Steelers linemen with his savage approach to the game.
None of that will have any relevance today, considering that Halas died in 1993, Sayers retired because of hopelessly wrecked knees almost 50 years ago and Butkus is still mean but wobbly as his 75th birthday approaches.
If the Steelers have any problems with the Bears today, dusty ghosts from old ledgers won't be among them.
---
--ON THE MEND AGAIN
When you have one of those seasons where very little goes right, even the smallest details work against you.
The health care giant that partners with the Prates has been running commercials for a lot of the season. They brag about how the group's superior care is helping to keep injured players like Francisco Cervelli and Josh Harrison on the field.
Both Cervelli and Harrison are finishing the season on the disabled list.
---
--SIMPLY THE BEST
Nobody does PR like Sidney Crosby.
Every year, he drives to the home of some Penguins season ticket buyer to deliver the tickets. He says hello to everybody, he signs autographs, he poses for pictures, he goes out in the driveway and plays street hockey with the kids.
He would probably edge the lawn if someone asked. He just does it. He never tells the Penguins, "Aw, Kris Letang can do it this year."
For all of the marvelous things he's done on the ice, his most amazing feat is getting through 12 years of a very public life without one behavioral misstep.
Credit to him, obviously, and to his parents, Troy and Trina Crosby.
(John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com)
Sunday, September 17, 2017
Altoona Mirror, September 17, 2017
There's no way to spin anything good out of being on the wrong end of 59-21 score, as Pitt was against Oklahoma State on Saturday.
--Pitt apparently has two quarterbacks, senior transfer Max Browne and redshirt freshman Ben DiNucci. It's true what they say: Teams with two quarterbacks really don't have a quarterback.
If Browne can't get the job done, it doesn't make much sense to play him given that he won't be around after this season.
--It doesn't matter who the quarterback is if the Panthers miss as many tackles as they did in staking Oklahoma State to a 21-0 lead.
--Nobody seems to know what Jordan Whitehead did to earn a suspension from the first three games. Like most schools, Pitt didn't stray from the standard "violation of team rules," which can cover anything from being late for a meeting to grand theft auto.
But it must have been significant for coach Pat Narduzzi to sacrifice one of his best players for three games, including Penn State.
Whitehead can't get back soon enough, considering that Pitt allowed 516 yards of offense in Saturday -- in the first half.
--By the way, 516 yards was the distance some fans could walk to a restaurant and enjoy a good meal while they skipped the second half of Saturday's debacle.
---
Three thoughts on the Pirates:
--Offseason attention will be focused on whether the Pirates decide to trade Andrew McCutchen and forgo the last year of his contract.
But the more appealing trade chip the Pirates hold is Josh Harrison. He's more attractive because of the versatility that makes him a great fit for a contender.
He is scheduled to make $10.5 million next year, the same amount he's guaranteed for 2019. Then there's a final year where he will be paid $11.5 million at age 33.
Those amounts wouldn't make a team like the Boston Red Sox blink, but they're significant in Pittsburgh.
The question is whether the Pirates could trade Harrison and cover second base with a combination of Adam Frazier and Max Moroff. Frazier's defensive shortcomings would be a particular concern.
--If Elias Diaz is going to take a bigger role at catcher next season, he has to get much better at blocking pitches in the dirt. Somehow Diaz has spent nine seasons in the organization without mastering that basic skill.
--General manager Neal Huntington has had a bad year. It got even worse with the decision to drop Drew Hutchison from the 40-man roster, which is the first step toward letting him look for an opportunity elsewhere.
The Pirates paid Hutchison $2.3 million to pitch at Class AAA. They thought he might be the only useful asset in last year's trade that sent Francisco Liriano to Toronto. Instead, to get relief from Liriano's $14 million price tag, they also parted with two non-prime prospects (Reese McGuire and Harold Ramirez) and paid Hutchison about $3.26 million to do nothing over two seasons. Ouch.
---
Because the NFL assigns every team a Thursday night game that most people don't watch, the Houston Texans played at the Cincinnati Bengals on NFL Network last week.
Viewers would have been better off chasing down some "I Love Lucy" reruns if they wanted to be entertained.
The performance was so bad that the Bengals fired their offensive coordinator the next day. It was the first correct call they've made this season.
The worst part? Bengals serial miscreant Vontaze Burfict was suspended, so that lessened the chances an attention-diverting riot might break out on any snap.
(John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com)
--Pitt apparently has two quarterbacks, senior transfer Max Browne and redshirt freshman Ben DiNucci. It's true what they say: Teams with two quarterbacks really don't have a quarterback.
If Browne can't get the job done, it doesn't make much sense to play him given that he won't be around after this season.
--It doesn't matter who the quarterback is if the Panthers miss as many tackles as they did in staking Oklahoma State to a 21-0 lead.
--Nobody seems to know what Jordan Whitehead did to earn a suspension from the first three games. Like most schools, Pitt didn't stray from the standard "violation of team rules," which can cover anything from being late for a meeting to grand theft auto.
But it must have been significant for coach Pat Narduzzi to sacrifice one of his best players for three games, including Penn State.
Whitehead can't get back soon enough, considering that Pitt allowed 516 yards of offense in Saturday -- in the first half.
--By the way, 516 yards was the distance some fans could walk to a restaurant and enjoy a good meal while they skipped the second half of Saturday's debacle.
---
Three thoughts on the Pirates:
--Offseason attention will be focused on whether the Pirates decide to trade Andrew McCutchen and forgo the last year of his contract.
But the more appealing trade chip the Pirates hold is Josh Harrison. He's more attractive because of the versatility that makes him a great fit for a contender.
He is scheduled to make $10.5 million next year, the same amount he's guaranteed for 2019. Then there's a final year where he will be paid $11.5 million at age 33.
Those amounts wouldn't make a team like the Boston Red Sox blink, but they're significant in Pittsburgh.
The question is whether the Pirates could trade Harrison and cover second base with a combination of Adam Frazier and Max Moroff. Frazier's defensive shortcomings would be a particular concern.
--If Elias Diaz is going to take a bigger role at catcher next season, he has to get much better at blocking pitches in the dirt. Somehow Diaz has spent nine seasons in the organization without mastering that basic skill.
--General manager Neal Huntington has had a bad year. It got even worse with the decision to drop Drew Hutchison from the 40-man roster, which is the first step toward letting him look for an opportunity elsewhere.
The Pirates paid Hutchison $2.3 million to pitch at Class AAA. They thought he might be the only useful asset in last year's trade that sent Francisco Liriano to Toronto. Instead, to get relief from Liriano's $14 million price tag, they also parted with two non-prime prospects (Reese McGuire and Harold Ramirez) and paid Hutchison about $3.26 million to do nothing over two seasons. Ouch.
---
Because the NFL assigns every team a Thursday night game that most people don't watch, the Houston Texans played at the Cincinnati Bengals on NFL Network last week.
Viewers would have been better off chasing down some "I Love Lucy" reruns if they wanted to be entertained.
The performance was so bad that the Bengals fired their offensive coordinator the next day. It was the first correct call they've made this season.
The worst part? Bengals serial miscreant Vontaze Burfict was suspended, so that lessened the chances an attention-diverting riot might break out on any snap.
(John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com)
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