Some Thoughts On A Crazy Week

It's been a crazy week. Not just for me, but in the sports world too. I can't blog like I want to, since I work 60 hours a week, but this is a chance I can mention some stuff, so here it goes....

• How about the Buccos? A pretty solid start for a team that isn't supposed to do much this year. I hope they continue to play this way for the entire season. Could this be the year? Maholm looks like the ace the Pirates need him to be. The Buccos are hitting well too. Home opener is on Monday against the Astros at 1:30pm. They finish up the weekend against the Reds tomorrow.


• Penguins won tonight meaning they will play the Flyers in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs! If Philly loses on Sunday, then the Pens will have home ice in the series. Malkin also won the Art Ross trophy (scoring title). He now joins Mario Lemieux (6), Jaromir Jagr (5), and Sidney Crosby (1) as the only Penguins to win the Art Ross trophy. Some early keys to the Flyers/Penguins playoff series will be the Penguins ability to score on the Power Play and Fleury's ability to shut down the Flyers. Also the physical factor always is important with the Flyers, but I think the Pens can give it right back if they need to. I think they can win the series. I say Pens in 6.


• Tiger Woods is four under par at the Masters. We never talk golf on here, but everyone wants to know about Tiger. It doesn't look good since the leaders are at 11 under par, but ya never know with old Tiger in the hunt going into the final day. I'd watch but I have to work.


• On a sad note, Nick Adenhart, a pitcher with the Los Angeles Angels was killed by a drunk driver on April 9 (my birthday for those that care). But needless to say I felt so horrible when I found out about this. Its really sad to hear about such a great young player with such talent being taken away by someone so careless. It really makes me realize how important it is to enjoy life and take advantage of every opportunity. Adenhart was only 22 and had his entire career and life ahead of him. Just a very sad incident that should have never happened. R.I.P, Nick

The Bucco's Are Coming...

Don't look now Pirate fans, but the season is just around the corner. In fact, the Pirates first spring training game is set for early next week against the Minnesota Twins, so gear up for another season of baseball in the burgh!

This isn't really a season preview, but I like to give my opinion about the old Bucs. As most know, just like Bice, I am very pessimisstic when it comes to the Buccos. Don't get me wrong, I like going to games, I like the team, and I really, really hope they do well. But I am somewhat of a realist when it comes to the Pirates and I like others, realize that the direction of this team will not change until ownership changes. And when I say change, I don't mean Bob Nutting wakes up one day and isn't a greedy bastard and decides the good people of Pittsburgh deserve a winner. I mean a new owner must take over the reigns of the club. I do feel like their is a little bit of hope with Frank Coonely and Neal Huntington running the operations though. It's just a wait and see situation.

Now on to this season. I think the Buccos will do worse than last year. With two LaRoche's on your team, you are almost asking for a loser. The pitching staff/bullpen are still very questionable. The only positive is that the position players coming back; Nasty Nate, Freddy, Doumit and Jack Flash are a positive. I say they win 65 games this year. Even if they prove me wrong, I don't think they win any more than 70 games. With this type of lineup I just don't see it any other way.

Also....I was thinking that since the Buccos are so horrible and haven't won in so long, what is it that keeps the fans interested? Individual performances from our star players? We don't have many, but it does keep fans interested. Don't tell me for one second that you didn't pull for Freddy when he was chasing a batting title in 2006 or that you didn't want Nate to have a career year last season, which he did. I always hoped Jason Bay would be closing in on 40 homers at the end of the season so you had some interest in the club. I guess we can only hope that Nate wins another Gold Glove and somehow Freddy manages to win another batting title. I can only hope.

The Problem With The Post-season

Hi friends. Remember me, you're old pal Stein? I want to talk about postseason baseball. Actually all postseason sports in general, but we'll get to that. I would like to vent about it. Here is the problem that I see. The season is just too darn long. I mean, if you love baseball this is the best time of year. The playoffs of any sport are the best time of the year because you get to see the best teams compete for the opportunity to play for a championship. I enjoy watching baseball, but if the World Series goes to a game 7 this year, it is going to be in November (I think). The bottom line is that we should have had the World Series decided this week, maybe this weekend at the latest. There is aboslutely no reason that that could happen. All sports are this way. Football, hockey, baseball, basketball, nascar, golf, cricket and even chess all have seasons that go on too long. OK, maybe not cricket and chess, but all the others do.

First of all the NFL season is too long. I like the current 17 week format, but the season should start a little earlier and then eliminate the week off before the Super Bowl. I know what you are all thinking. "Stein you dumb-fuck. Those teams could use a break before the Super Bowl. It's only fair if they have an injury that the player hurt can heal up." Well I guess that is true, but I don't like waiting for two weeks to watchin the fucking game. I wan't to see it right away, and it won't be unfair at all. These teams play every week and get paid millions to do it, so I don't want to hear that bullshit. I would love for the playoffs to be played around Christmas and New Years. Wouldn't it be great to be able to indulge yourself in a football frenzy? College Football bowls and the Wild Card Playoffs all around Christmas time. What a great idea! I know. You can thank me later, but anyway that would be awesome to me and it should be to you too.

Hockey is another sport that has a season that goes too long, but it would face a much harder battle trying to shorten it. It begins in October and doesn't end until June. What a season! I will admit that hockey is my favorite sport, and I love it very much, but I hate watching it when it's 75 degrees out. It also causes problems for the ice that time of year. mid to late May is when it should be decided at the latest. But with so many teams in the playoffs, it would be a tall order to shorten the season and with such a physical playoff to begin with, I think it can't be changed unless the NHL elminates two teams from each conference making it six teams each. That would be the smart thing to do.

Basketball I don't care enough about to analyze, so we'll move on to Baseball. I would like to think that baseball can change, but it never will. Acutally none of these sports ever will, but for the fun of it lets analyze away! Baseball was alot better when they had the season end and then played the LCS. I think that baseball should elminate the divisions they have and divide the teams in each league into two divisions. At seasons end give two days off and then have the best team in each division battle in the LCS, a best of seven. then on to the world series. With this theory the World Series would have been decided about a week or two ago. If baseball wants to stay the same at least play more games in one day than usual. I love the double and even triple headers that were on at the beginning of the playoffs. There is no shame in day games and it give the the games a bit of nostalgia anyway. I like that better. The fact it however that no change is on the way. TV dominates everything and it will only get worse. I'd say the Pirates have a better chance of winning the World Series this year, than any change occuring with these season and playoff formats.

Here is an ESPN.com article written by Jayson Stark that explains the lack of excitement in the World Series...its a good one!

Yankees Blow Dong

So, I went to the Buccos game last night against the penis eating Yankees. Nasty Nate took one deep in the 7th for a two run shot which gave us the W. I have been saying Nate was a hero for years. I know some people can back me on this. I have been saying it because I hate Chris Duffy with a passion. I would always say "why is Shits Duffy starting? Nate McClouth should be in there at center, he's better than that head case Duffy." Most people would tell me that I was crazy and Duffy was awesome. Well, Chris Duffy is in AA Altoona and Nate is on the All-Star team. So suck my sack bitches. Anyways, I came up with an awesome idea to get a blown up picture of Madonna's and hold it up at the game to heckle A-rod with it. Me and my buddy Sam, who got the tickets and kindly invited me to the game, ended up getting two of these blown up pictures and proceeded to yell things like "Hey A-Rod, I got your girl" and "I love you A-rod, when's the divorce gonna be finalized?" Regardless of if he saw us or not, all of the Yankees fans hung their heads in shame and the Pirates fans cheered as we walked down to third base and heckled Mr. Rodriguez. The glory only lasted a matter of seconds as the dick head that was manning the section forced us to leave his sector. PNC Park should fire this man as he is not a Pirates fan and a communist. Still, I feel the plan was a success as A-rod went 0-4 and more importantly the Bucco's get the win. We take the series from the team that represents all that is evil about professional sports and all is right in the world. Now all the Buccos need to do is get to .500. If they do, my weener will be erect for months.


JASON: I totally agree about the weener thing. We should make mention of how awesome Paul Maholm has been this year. He's gone 16 innings his past two games giving up only 3 runs in that time. He's also been fantastic since the end of May. I guess striking out Billy Crystal gave him that extra boost of confidence he needed to take it to the next level. Bob Smizik wrote an article about how he may want to avoid becoming the Pirates Ace.

http://postgazette.com/pg/08193/896382-194.stm

AsStro Kicking

I just finished eating a great homemade meal by my mommy and I thought it would be a good idea to sit down and enjoy a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game. I was wrong. As I sit here, the top of the first inning has ended and the Buccos are already losing 3 to 0. "Funky" Phil Dumatrait gave up 4 hits in the first. Looks like I better find somthing else to do this evening, like building with lego's or somthing. Maybe I'll find a pussy to play with. Yeah, a nice pussy. I know what you perverts are thinking, but I mean a nice little kitten. MORONS!

UPDATE: I can't stop watching. I feel like that kid that can't stop wacking it even after his parents have caught him in the act, but thats another story for another day. The Bucco's have once again proved me wrong. The Pirates now lead the Astros 4 to 3 after one inning of play. Maybe I should stick this one out and leave the pussy...I mean kittens alone.

UPDATE: Nate The Great has just hit his 16th Home Run of the season to give the Buccos a 5 to 3 lead over the Astros.

UPDATE: The X-man (Xavier Nady) drives in J-Bay (Jason Bay) with a double. Buccos lead 6 to 3.

UPDATE: My mom keeps yelling at me to do somthing, so I guess I'll wrap this up. Right now the Buccos lead 6 to 3 with a runner on first and two outs in the top of the 3rd inning. I decided just now that it would be cool to do a post with older sports uniforms. Starting sometime this week I'll make a sweet list of the "classic" sports uniforms that aren't around anymore. It will be super sweet, so don't miss it! By the way leave a comment if you think this chipmunk that the Astros chose as their mascot is a complete faggot.

FINAL: Buccos Win! Buccos Win! The Buccos won this game 10 to 7 over the Houston Astros and their gay mascot. This is a big win for the Buccos considering they got the shit kicked out of them against The Brew Crew. Big win. Lets Go Bucs!