Speaking of Sports: Early September Stretch

If the Pittsburgh Pirates don't make it to the playoffs, they'll probably look back at their last series with St. Louis.  The Cards are hot and swept the 3 games--the last one by the score of 1-0 in the last of the ninth.  Combined with the collapse of the Brewers, the Cards have taken over first place.  The Bucs and Cards don't play again this year.  The Cards go into a series right away with the Brewers, and all the Pirates can do is hope that the Brewers reassert themselves.  But as things are shaping up, the Pirates may have to win the division to get into the playoffs, and at the moment they are 5 back.  They have about the same number of home and away games left.

The Giants meanwhile are better positioned by their situation if not their play.  Only two games behind the Dodgers, they play Los Angeles six more times.  That gives them more control over their fate.  Plus they are in pretty good shape for a wild card even if they don't overtake the Dodgers.  But they are such an inconsistent team it's still a crap shoot.  When they are going good, they are great and fun to follow.

However the true wild card might be the games the Giants and Pirates play against American League teams.  Those are always hard to predict.  The Giants begin a series in Detroit, and they've had some trouble with AL teams.  The Pirates play the Red Sox, and it's hard to know which Sox team will show up.

Meanwhile, I've watched the 2004 Western Conference Finals.  The Minnesota Timberwolves won game 2 and their first elimination game in 5, and were playing a close game in 6.  Kevin Garnett was mesmerizing at times, all his moves before the shot, and the shots that he made.  Kobe and Shaq had their moments, as did Malone, but the Lakers were behind by 1 point at the end of the third quarter.  Then the Lakers took over in the fourth, with the key shots made by two of the newer and least known Lakers,  Slava Medvedenko and especially Kareem Rush, who hit 6 three pointers.  The Lakers won the game at home and the series, but it was clear at the conference trophy presentation that they considered this a minor moment on the way to the NBA championship.  Instead it would turn out to be the last championship of any kind that this particular team would win.

This 6th game would also turn out to be the high point of the careers of Medvedenko and Rush.  Injuries would short circuit both of them.  Rush would have some successful moments in the NBA and even taste stardom in Europe, but at this point he seemed to have the skills to become a Kobe-like NBA star.  It just wasn't to be.

Doug Collins was doing color commentary and he highlighted how coach Phil Jackson had prepared these two young players for playoff success during the season.  Particularly he built Kareem Rush's confidence by giving him playing time.  As Collins also noted, Jackson orchestrated this fourth quarter perfectly by putting sharpshooters Rush and Derek Fisher on the court with Shaq, Kobe and Malone (subbed for awhile by Medvedenko.)  Rush in particular got open shots and he hit them.

After the game Collins suggested the Lakers might have trouble with the defense of Detroit in the finals, and that certainly proved to be true. They shut down those "role players" and the heavily favored Lakers won only one game.   I'm not sure how much of the finals I'm going to watch.  I recall the fifth game as a bitter and pitiful loss, a surrender.  I recall there was dissension, and I remember Malone's injury being catastrophic.   I don't know if my curiosity is strong enough to check these impression by watching.

It was a one year experiment that was considered a failure, despite how far they got.  The end was just about total: Phil Jackson resigned as coach; Shaq and Gary Payton were traded, Derek Fisher left, Karl Malone and Rick Fox retired.  Malone never got his championship, though Payton did, with Shaq on the Miami Heat.  It would be several years before Kobe and the Lakers, with Jackson back as coach, won another championship.  My viewing so far has shown a lot of fun basketball, so even if this was hubris etc.  I don't think this experiment was doomed from the start or a complete failure.  There were games when this team was as good as it gets.

Now ten years later, Derek Fisher is starting his first coaching job, of the Knicks for Phil Jackson.  Steve Kerr, who played for the Bulls under Jackson and did color commentary for some of these games, is starting his first year of coaching Golden State, and Doc Rivers, also broadcasting some of these games, is back coaching the LA Clippers.  Kobie is still a Lakers star, after winning two more championships with coach Phil Jackson, but even one more in his future seems increasingly unlikely.  The oddest thing for me is that the core of the Spurs that lost four straight to the Lakers in the 2004 playoffs is still intact (Duncan, Parker, Genobli) and the Spurs are the reigning 2014 NBA champs.

Speaking of Sports: Giants Pitching, Kobe's Satori

After the pitching debacle Sunday, the San Francisco Giants have had an unexpectedly stellar week of starting pitching.  Madison Bumgarner came within one batter of a perfect game.  Tim Hudson came within one batter of a no-hitter.  Then in a start replacing the erratic Tim Lincecum,  Yusmiero Petit set a major league record by retiring 46 consecutive batters (though he did so mostly as a reliever over many games) and gave up only a single run.  The Giants won these three games against a club they should beat that was nevertheless a nemesis this year, the Colorado Rockies.  It took a walk-off homer to win one of them, after again losing the lead in the late innings.

Update: And the incredible starting pitching continued.  A day after Ryan Vogelsong pitched 7 strong innings in a 13-2 laugher, Jake Peavy took a no-hitter into the eighth inning, and wound up with a 1 hitter and the victory--both of these games against the NL Central leading Milwaukee Brewers.

Position players were at last getting some timely hits. If nothing else, this year's adversity has given some rookies a chance, and so the Giants have some young players proving themselves in what had been an aging lineup.  One of the Giants' announcers made a good point after their 13-2 victory: with rookie Joe Panik hitting second after a reasonably healthy Angel Pagan, the Giants have a pretty solid lineup (even absent Brandon Belt.)

Meanwhile, the Pirates took 2 of 3 from St. Louis, so winning the second series in a row against the two teams ahead of them in their division.  Then two straight over the Reds.

In my tape review of the 2004 Lakers playoffs, I'm now on the 5th game of the second round, with San Antonio.  After defeats in the first two games, the Lakers blew out the Spurs in the third, and in the fourth they eventually won handily propelled by a remarkable game by Kobe Bryant, scoring 40 points and dominating the action.  They won the 5th on the miracle shot of all miracle shots--Derek Fisher's swish as the ball was inbounded with .4 seconds on the clock.

 Once again, the tragic dimensions hover.  Not just that again Karl Malone is identified as the key player, or that the rumbles of discontent among the Lakers threaten to intrude.  Kobe played this game hours after flying back from Colorado where he entered a not guilty plea on the charge of sexual assault.  After the game he talked about playing basketball since he was three, and how great it feels to be on the basketball court.  He said the key to the Lakers success was playing every possession as if it might be their last.  Clearly he was talking about himself.  He was facing the possibility of jail, and the end of his basketball career.  Every moment on the court was probably heightened, and precious.

Speaking of Sports: late August

Because I follow the fortunes of the SF Giants and Pittsburgh Pirates, I've noticed what seems an inordinate number of times that they've won or lost on the same day, even by identical scores.  It's probably an illusion, but still...On Monday they both lost home games by the score of 3-2, and both had the tying run on base in the bottom of the ninth.

If it means anything it may be that these are two teams going nowhere this year, both about 5 games out of first and both looking for the same second Wild Card.  I've written before that the Pirates are more likely to be in it than the Giants, and I'll stick with that.  The Pirates are at least nearer full strength, and their valiant two wins against the division leading Brewers in Milwaukee suggest they can't be counted out.  I suspect they're the more exciting team to watch, with at least a little objectivity.

The Giants however appear to be falling apart.  Their tired bullpen got blown out on Sunday, they committed multiple errors in losing to Colorado at home--again--on Monday.  Tim Lincecum has been such a misadventure on the mound since the All Star break that he's been demoted, losing his spot in the starting rotation to a pitcher who has had much more success as a reliever than a starter.  They've definitely lost Scutaro for the season (he may well retire) which thanks to Joe Panik taking over at second hasn't been fatal, but Brandon Belt is still at least a couple of weeks away from returning, and their lineup misses his bat badly for timely hits (though they have been hitting better lately.)

  I've even begun to wonder whether Bruce Bochy is managing too much by the analytics and not enough by who is playing or pitching well on the day.  Lefty/righty percentages work out in the long run, not necessarily in a given game.  Monday in the ninth he pinch hit for a batter who'd hit a home run earlier in the game, and got nothing.

Meanwhile, I've been watching my tapes from the 2003-04 LA Lakers season.  My memory was colored by how it ended--I had forgotten what an amazing team they were at times, when everyone was healthy, including Carl Malone.  Even Gary Peyton, who I never liked, was a major asset in how he pushed the ball and gave the team speed and excitement.  Early in the year and then at the end of the season when everybody was at least back (if not fully healed) they just demolished the best teams in the league.

But knowing how they fell apart in the finals, a lot of this is like watching some NBA version of a Greek tragedy.  Announcers like Bill Walton confidently predicted this team would rule for several seasons to come.  They noted how important Karl Malone was to them, and how Shaq and Kobie adjusted to new roles, and how for all the talk of rivalry, the player who got the most assists for passing to Shaq when he scored was Kobie.

But the season played out with Kobie's legal and personal drama as an ongoing feature.  He seemed superhuman in flying back from court in Colorado to the game and playing extremely well.  But how long could that last without emotions showing up elsewhere?  Then just before the finals started, Malone got hurt again and didn't play.  I'm just getting into the second round of the playoffs, as the Lakers annihilate San Antonio, but I know what's coming.  Which was ignominious and acrimonious losses in the finals, and the subsequent dismantling of the team, losing Shaq,  Peyton, Malone (who retired without playing again), Rick Fox and (for awhile) Derek Fisher and coach Phil Jackson.

Finally, congratulations to Chicago's Jackie Robinson West, the Illinois/Great Lakes Region team, now the US Little League World Series champs. They lost the world title to South Korea. It's been fun and inspiring to watch some of this year's Little League WS. This all-black team of inner city Chicago kids that has their city rooting them on in watch parties across Chicago, as well as the Girl of Summer, Mo'ne Davis, are the prominent stories. But for all the attention (and the incredible mental and well as physical baseball skills of Davis, for instance) this is still Little League. Kids get scared and upset when they screw up, they cry when they lose. Their emotions are part of the game. But it does seem that coaches and officials take a lot of care to recognize they are kids and respond to their needs.

Sporting the Zeitgeist

"But this suggests that there is some future in which the sport can return to its earlier cultural dominance—some series of decisions that will rewire the contemporary American fan’s brain to prefer its intermittent grace to football’s dynamic cruelty."  So writes Ian Crouch in the New Yorker, as MLB gets a new commissioner.  Good piece, but that sentence in particular (and I'm even more a fan of sentences than of baseball) really describes the difference : baseball's "intermittent grace" versus football's "dynamic cruelty," at least as it is played today.  This popular preference in turns says a lot about the American Zeitgeist.

Which reminds me, may as well add to this blog a link to the best basketball piece I've read in awhile, by Bill Simmons on the occasion of LeBron James returning to Cleveland, but it's about basketball genius, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird etc. as well as James.  Haven't read a better piece about basketball since one I flagged here several years ago, about Phil Jackson.  It's also by Bill Simmons.

Speaking of Sports: The Injuries of August

Well, hello again.  I'm back here to post for two reasons.  First, I want to keep this blog active because of its back list--there are some post of real interest from the Bush years here.  I don't want them to disappear if google/blogger decides to purge old blogs.

Second I'm going to write about sports, which I've been doing lately at one of my other blogs, Dreaming Up Daily, but it's a bit embarrassing because I doubt that anybody is actually interested.  I'm doing this for myself mostly.  I mean, I'm following a fairly unique set of teams: namely the Pgh Pirates and SF Giants in baseball, with some interest in the NBA, following the gloomy fortunes of the Lakers for instance.  I note that the last post here was kind of down on following the NFL and the Steelers, but the Steelers are such a part of my backstory that I'll have to follow them, even from afar.  And again, I am in far northern CA now, and there's the Niners.

But I finally did carry through on my "threat" and dumped cable TV.  I was one of the last men in America to get a cell phone, and I'll be one of the last to get a smart phone and their neat sports apps.  So these days I listen to the Giants on radio, and otherwise follow sports online.

So on to baseball...

Right now I'm listening to the Giants first game back home after a so-so road trip, playing a fairly weak team (Philadelphia), and having lost their 3-1 lead in the 8th, the Phillies have scored twice in the 10th.  I can hear the depression in the announcer's voice--they don't believe they can win this one. (And they didn't.) The only bright spot: Michael Morse broke out of his home run slump with a three-run homer, the only scoring the Giants did.

The Giants just haven't bounced back after their disastrous late June and early July.  Once 8 games in first they are 5.5 back to the Dodgers (who fortunately for them lost tonight.)  Injuries have been and remain important.   The ones that hurt were Angel Pagan and Brandon Belt, and Belt is still out.  His hitting has turned out to be crucial. (The top photo is Hunter Pence, who has been one of the bright spots for much of the season, though he's had long dry spells too.)  Losing Matt Cain for the season is probably less important, for the remaining starters are brilliant or terrible for any given game.  But the bullpen exploding started their losing streak in July, and that's recurring.  This game tonight tells the tale.  The Giants are toast.  Unless they unaccountably catch fire immediately, they aren't going to win the division, and it will be a struggle to get a wild card.  (Now I see the SF Chron comes to the same conclusion.)

Right now the Pirates are even more wounded.  They lost Marte for many games, now their best hitter, the MVP Andrew McCutchen is out indefinitely, and Neil Walker has been in and out of the lineup.  They are now losing one run games they used to win.  But they are in better shape than the Giants, and look to remain competitive for at least awhile longer.

So the news isn't good for either team.  That they are both at least theoretically in pennant races makes rooting complicated--for example, that Dodger game tonight with the Brewers.  The Dodgers lead the Giants' division, and the Brewers lead the Pirates' division.  So when it came down to it tonight, I was rooting for the Brewers to lose.  It didn't work out that way, so the Pirates lost a game in the standings tonight.

No news in the NBA except the Clippers ownership seems to be resolved, which means the team and the coach will remain on the job.  I have been following the fortunes of both the Lakers and the Knicks because of the connections to back in the day: Phil Jackson prez of the Knicks with Derek Fisher the new coach,  the Lakers with Kobe and Byron Scott the new coach.  Come to that I guess I'll be checking out Golden State with Steve Kerr the new coach.

I've commented on Dreaming Up Daily on the disastrous decisions the Lakers have made in the years after losing Phil Jackson--one of which was failing to hire him back when they had a chance.  D'Antoni or whoever he was really blew the Dwight Howard possibility.  What a waste, all because Jerry Buss died and his son wanted to make his own mark.  Now he's hired an honored Laker to coach and the season will start with at least the good will of Lakers fans.

What I've actually been watching are tapes of the Shaq and Kobie Lakers of 00-03.  What a team they were!  The last glory game of that era turned out to be the end of the 1st round of the playoffs in 2003, game 6 against Minneapolis.

This was also Michael Jordan's final year as a player, his second for the Washington Wizards.  I was surprised that my memory wasn't quite correct--he was much better than I remembered, and became the oldest player to score 40 pts in a game. I saw the game he did some amazing things, including hitting his chin hard on the floor as he scrambled for the loose ball, only to lose by one point.  And afterwards he went after his team for not playing hard enough.  So when the Wizards dropped back beyond playoff contention, the team abandoned him.  I couldn't watch his last game--I just remember how the rest of the players ignored him, wouldn't pass him the ball, until he took himself out.  And that wasn't the end--he lost his ownership stake and presidency of the team as soon as he quit playing. Painful.

Any good new news?  Well, there's the Little League World Series. The first day gave us the victory of Jackie Robinson West of Chicago in their first game, sparked by three--count 'em, three--home runs (plus a triple) by leadoff batter Pierce Jones. Representing Great Lakes Region as the Illinois state champs, Jackie Robinson West from the South Side of Chicago is the first all-black team to make it to the LLWS in "over a decade" (according to this ESPN report) and the first Chicago team since the 80s. The team is part of the league's urban initiative program begun 15 years ago.  And Chicago is in love with this team.

On the second day of the Little League World Series, Pennsylvania team pitcher Mo'Ne Davis threw a two-hitter to become the first female pitcher to win a LLWS game. She's also black. Apart from the extra-sports significance, these stories are big deals for baseball because the proportion of African American MLB players has been diminishing.  So great sports news and more.

Speaking of Sports, Final Edition?

Talk about storybook: Saints qback Drew Brees broke the record for most yards in single season with a touchdown pass on Monday Night Football in his home stadium, in the city with one of the closest bonds to its football team in the NFL, New Orleans.

It's been a long time since I've posted here, on what had become my sports blog in recent years, since I moved most political etc. content to Dreaming Up Daily.  Partly that's because I'm less and less interested in major league and college sports.  Add up all the bad behavior, the obscene paychecks and money in general, the increasing evidence of physical damage in football, and all the commercials breaking up the rhythm of the games, I'm much less regularly engaged.  Then there's the absence of compelling teams, individuals and stories, at least for me at my age. 

So the whole thing is getting to be a road too much travelled, or, a rut.  The NBA season is starting, and I'm really not interested.  The Lakers are one of the few major teams not to improve themselves with trades, and seem to have gotten worse.  They traded their key sixth man and kept the guy who lost them the playoffs last year because his girlfriend left him.  I don't even look for their scores anymore.  I loathe Miami and although I thought I might find something in the new Bulls, I guess my era is over.  Magic and Kareem.  Michael Jordan.  Shaq and Kobe.  Now it's pale imitations at best. 

It was fun when the Pirates made a little run last season, and the longsuffering hometown fans got to cheer.  The Giants are worth following but not often worth watching on TV.  Nothing much is worth watching on TV, and that's the problem.

The Steelers are in my genes, so I always root for them, but the truth is I can't watch their games, even the few that are available here.  They are just too hard to watch.  From an entertainment perspective, they are simply not fun to watch.  I enjoy watching Drew Brees and the Saints, and I enjoy watching the Packers, and that's about it.  I have a rooting interest in the Niners if they get past the first round of the playoffs, for they seem to have the better chance of making the Bowl.  But I'm about to give up my cable, and my disenchantment with sports viewing is making it easier.    

NBA Degrees

In one of the most ignominious games in history, the LA Lakers defeated themselves out of the playoffs.  It was Phil Jackson's likely last game as a coach, and like Michael Jordan's actual last game as a player, it was a game nobody would want to remember. 

But there's this keeper of a portrait of Phil Jackson in 2011 by Bill Simmons that is the entire excuse for this post.  It's one of the best pieces I've read recently on any topic.

As for the NBA, I'm interested enough to watch the scores and highlights, and I might even watch game 7 of the Bulls-Heat series if it comes to that.  Before it started it seemed to me that the only chance the Bulls had was for the series to go 7, and that's still probably their best chance.  But while winning the first game (as the Bulls did, decisively) is usually important this late in the playoffs, and of course winning the seventh is the decider, the crucial games in how a seven game series goes are usually games 2 and 5.   If the first game winner takes game 2 as well, they will be hard to beat, especially because it means the loser's adjustments didn't work, and that could be fatal.  (Usually in a tight series the loser adjusts for the next game--which is why home court is crucial, and the Bulls have it.)  And especially when the series is tied, the team that wins 5 often wins 7.  So there's a long way to go, and the Heat have the m.o. of looking terrible in losses and unbeatable in wins. 

So just to be clear, I'm rooting for Chicago all the way.  If they can beat the Heat, they can beat the Mavs or the Thunder.  (But what if it's Heat v. Thunder?  The All-Climate Championship?)    

Take That, ESPN

You picked Kentucky, which didn't make it to the finals.  I picked Connecticut.  Connecticut won.

A great college sports story, too: Connecticut's 11 straight post-season wins, including 5 victories in 5 days in the Big East tournament.

But turns out that following conventional wisdom on women's NCAA bball is just as dangerous.  Both the prohibitive favorites, Stanford and UConn, lost in the semi-finals, on the same day.  Now it's Notre Dame v. Texas A&M.  I'm picking Notre Dame.  Also rooting for them.

Those Big Brains at ESPN

I get most of my sports news on TV and online at ESPN, which is at best a mixed blessing.  These guys have so much time to fill and you have to give them their props--though they spend endless hours bloviating, they do seem to work at the details--they seem to know every player in every sport over the age of eight. 

They are obsessed.  March Madness is made for them. But in the end they're like the rest of the cable pack--they're baying wolves.   I happened to be watching when the last four of the 64 teams to be included in the NCAA March Madness college men's basketball tournament were announced.  These guys were apoplectic about several of the choices, made by some NCAA board I don't understand, and don't have long enough to live to care about.  But they were offended by some of the choices--notably a school called VCU---which I think is Virginia Commonwealth University.  They couldn't understand how this team could be picked.

What was fascinating about this was that they were virtually unanimous, all those experts.  At a certain point they seemed to be feeding on each other, each guy getting angrier by the second.  Some questioned the integrity of the process, intimating that prejudice was involved, hinting perhaps that money changed hands.  They were especially offended that not enough basketball experts were involved in the decision.  You know, experts like...them.

So they were angry and offended that VCU even got into the tournament.  They didn't deserve to be among the 64, and it was terrible what this choice meant for the boys who really deserved to be there.

Now those 64 teams are down to four.  Gone are the top teams, the #1 seeds and the usual favorites: Ohio, Kansas, Pitt, Duke, North Carolina, Florida.  So who is left?  VCU.  They've beat a team from just about every conference, and in most cases, beat them handily.  VCU, who the experts at ESPN said didn't even belong in the first 64, is in the Final Four.

Now Kentucky is the only big school left that's a media favorite--so naturally the ESPNers now favor Kentucky to win it all.  It's VCU and another small school, Butler, a team that shocked everybody at ESPN last year.  And UConn.  Now you don't have to be an ESPN expert to expect the women's finals to be UConn vs. Stanford, with UConn winning by six points--although maybe not this time. If Stanford brings its A game, they could pull the upset.  But nobody picked the men's Connecticut team for the Final Four, and personally I think they have a good chance to win it all.

But who am I.  I'm not an expert like those guys at ESPN.      

RIP That Championship Season

Before any more time goes by, I wanted to say a few words about Chuck Tanner, who died a few weeks ago.

From the first time I dimly understood what baseball announcer Bob Prince was talking about on the radio, I was a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, growing up and forevermore (even if I follow the SF Giants a lot more closely these days.) Of all the managers the Pirates had since the 50s, I remember three: Danny Murtaugh, Chuck Tanner and Jim Leyland. Of those three, Chuck Tanner was the only one I met.

I interviewed him in his Pirates office for a piece I was doing for the New York Times Magazine on the relationship of Pittsburgh and its sports teams in the season after that championship year of 1979. I'd been in the clubhouse before and after a game, and it was afterwards I was finally ushered into his office. "Hello, son," Tanner said, with a smile. "What can I do for you?"

I don't remember anything else about the interview except that aura of a really, really nice guy. And so I wasn't surprised to read in Pittsburgh Post Gazette sports writer Ron Cook's memorial column that "Tanner did the right thing as much as any man I've known. He was, simply, the kindest, most decent person I've met in sports."

Tanner was manager of the 1979 "We Are Fam-a-lee" Pirates of Willie Stargell, and other players who projected a positive-feeling image, like Bill Robinson and Tim Foli. That 1979 team had a sense of possibility and even of destiny (I recall an interview on TV with Bill Robinson late in the season when the Pirates were behind Montreal and he said fans shouldn't worry, the Pirates would win the pennant, it was meant to be.) At the same time, the Pirates could be an overpowering team, especially with Stargell and the team's semi-official bad boy--Dave Parker--in the lineup. And Tanner was a wily baseball manager. All of that would come into play in the World Series when the Pirates were down 3 games to 1 to the Baltimore Orioles. They became the first team since 1906 to go on to win the Series, and they did it on the road. Bookended by the Steelers consecutive Super Bowl wins, Pittsburgh was the City of Champions.

There was a dark side to those Pirates that Tanner could be faulted for not seeing, or for overlooking. It was in later years that the players using cocaine were exposed, but the locker room on one of my visits in 1980 showed the signs--particularly (but not only) Dave Parker, who before a game manically threatened to cause me bodily harm if I quoted him, and after the game meekly apologized. But Tanner was still manager when that hit the fan in the 80s, and Cook says he always stood by his 1979 players.

Tanner was the last Pirates manager to win a World Series, and that distinction is likely to remain his. Over a beer in the press mess at Three Rivers Stadium in 1980, Harding Peterson, the Pirates General Manager, layed out for me the Pirates dim future: in a small market in the middle of other small markets, and in an area that wasn't growing in population or wealth, the Pirates ability to compete for players' payrolls with big market teams was dwindling.

The Pirates did manage one more world class team in the early 90s--the fabled Outfield of Dreams team (Bobby Bonilla, Andy Van Slyke and Barry Bonds)--but after winning the division, the Reds and the Atlanta Braves would always break our hearts in the championship series. The worst was in 1992, when the Pirates were one strike away from going to the World Series, only to lose improbably and dramatically, and for the city, tragically. Everyone knew that the team couldn't afford to keep the Outfield of Dreams together. Now the Pirates have been a losing team for 18 straight years, a record for a professional sports franchise.

Chuck Tanner managed in Atlanta for a few years after leaving the Pirates in 1985, but the Pirates were always special--he was a Pittsburgher born and bred. He remained a popular and sunny figure in Pittsburgh and in baseball, and in recent years worked for the Pirates as a consultant to the general manager. He'll always be associated with a special time in Pittsburgh, and he will be remembered as among the best that Pittsburgh had to offer. He died in February at his home in New Castle, PA. May he rest in peace.

Bowled Over

The last time a Steelers quarterback threw two interceptions and lost the Super Bowl, he was gone before the next season began. That would be the still infamous Neil O'Donnell back in the 90s. That's an unlikely fate for Ben R. since this offense is built around him, but his style means that he gets beat up, and he wasn't 100%, nor was Troy P., again whose style of play invites injury.

But I can't comment much on the Super Bowl since I didn't see it. I saw moments of it, but the first few commercials were so disgusting that I just recorded it, and peeked once in awhile (when I did, something disastrous invariably happened for the Steelers, so I gave up). Now I have no plans to look at the recording. I'm observing myself moving away from the game. I didn't watch even much of the playoffs live, mostly fast-forwarding through the recordings. Part of it is the useless expenditure of emotional energy over a bunch of millionaires, whose victories or defeats affect my life very marginally if at all. Yet there is this history of that emotional identification. I remember actual sleepless nights over fumbles or dropped passes, by players whose names I can barely remember, in those long years between Bowl appearances. And I was supposedly an adult by then. The phenomenon of fan identification has fascinated me for decades, and it's been worth exploring, both within myself and especially outside. But if it leads to such a bloated tawdry spectacle as the Super Bowl, I wonder.

So at this point it's less a deliberate decision to back off than something I seem to be doing, despite my interest in the game. Same thing with basketball. They were a fun way to waste time, and learn a few things. Maybe I've learned those few things, I don't know. It's time's winged chariot, too. As I wrote to someone recently--a line I think I'll keep: there aren't too many more floats in this parade.

Super Surprises

The sports pundits are reaching their consensus, which the game may well mock. It often does. What would be the surprises?

For the Packers: if they effectively run the ball.
For the Steelers: if they drop back in coverage more than they come after the quarterback.

Expectations now are for a high scoring game, despite the reputable defenses. So the surprise would be 14-10.

Expectations are that Rodgers will play well indoors. Surprise will be if he doesn't. Perhaps the concentrated Super Bowl dazzle gets in his eyes.

Of course the biggest surprise for the pundits would be: the Steelers win.

Super Bowl Ahead

Judged by the team and player merchandise sold, the Steelers are the most popular NFL team in the world--one writer insists they are the real "America's Team." But a poll claims that most people are rooting for the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl.

That pretty much says it all about two teams that are a lot like each other, and enter this game pretty evenly matched. Even the fans and their towns are similar. The Green Bay coach has a stronger Pittsburgh accent than the Steelers.' He's from a few streets away from where I last lived in the Burgh.

Pittsburgh is relatively small and Green Bay is even smaller, and they both lost a lot of people when industries faded (Pittsburgh more I'd guess.) For this and other reasons, their fans are spread out. There are a lot of Steeler fans who've never even been to Pittsburgh, but there are a lot of ex-Pittsburghers who stay in touch to some important degree through the Steelers. Like me, or this woman.

As for the game itself: when a reporter asked Big Ben how he won the championship game he replied, "luck." He's a smart guy. Luck is going to be important on Sunday. But though the Packers are still favored and have the offense to even run away with this one, I'm still giving the edge to the Steelers because of their Super Bowl experience. You saw it this past week already--while the Packers were publicly fighting among themselves, the Steelers were talking each other up, and otherwise pretty quiet. And with a little luck...

(The photos by the way tell a lot about that Super Bowl legacy--that's Franco and Rocky presenting the league trophy after the Jets game, and the scene after the last Super Bowl win.)

Both teams have particularly devoted fans, which led the New York Times to check with mental health professionals, and found that those in Wisconsin and PA are on high alert:

Therapists in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are prepared. Most have seen plenty of people who suffer from what could be called Football Attention Neurosis (F.A.N.), in their practices, in their living rooms, and sometimes in the mirror.

“The belief that these patients have is that the world will end if the Steelers — uh, I mean, their team loses,” said Mark Hogue, a psychologist at Northshore Psychological Associates in Erie, Pa., who owns a trunkload of Pittsburgh Steelers paraphernalia, including a Snuggie. “As a therapist, you need to take that fear seriously.”

(The rest of the piece is pretty funny.)

But there is a very ugly side to Super Bowl madness. Apart from bad behavior at the games (while on average it may not be worse than before, from what I've heard the worst of it is much worse) there's the dark side of the Super Bowl as an event. And I don't just mean the maddeningly frequent and long commercials (or the fact that they are why some people watch the game at all.) There is growing awareness that trafficking in human slaves, often children, especially for sex is a growing problem, and as the San Antonio Express News put it: "As thousands of fans flock to Texas for America's biggest sporting event, human traffickers are preparing to bring in hundreds of women and children to serve as sex slaves for what is also America's biggest sex trafficking weekend." Another report says that this involves children as young as 11, and that these children have a life expectancy of seven years after they are first trafficked.

The federal government is taking this seriously, as are officials in Texas and in Dallas itself. But some charge that the NFL itself is resisting. Personally I was unaware of this, and I expect a lot of football fans are as well. The NFL and its teams need to talk about this, because theirs are likely to be the most powerful voices to shame it out of existence.

Against All Odds

With the score 24-0 in the first half, it was looking like my kind of game. But of course the Steelers had to make it way too interesting, hanging on to defeat the New York Jets 24-19, aided by a gutsy goal line stand and some brilliant first downs when it counted most to end the game.

Diehard Steeler fans had to be ecstatic with that first half, especially because of all those yards on the ground, watching Rashard Mendenhall run like the reincarnation of Franco Harris (kind of hard since Harris was there, doing the ceremonial coin toss with his running mate Rocky Blier.)

So the Steelers will face the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl. Green Bay has already been installed as the favorite, which continues the theme--it's become a cliche, but few really counted on Pittsburgh to get to the Bowl this year, including me. Meanwhile the Packers weren't very impressive on Sunday. They beat a second and then a third string Chicago quarterback, and the third stringer almost beat them. Rodgers, like Big Ben, had a sub-par game, but both made plays when they most needed to. Even so, I'd give the edge to Ben in quarterback play on Sunday.

I'm also inclined to give the edge to the Steelers in the big game, based on their experience, their team play, and Big Ben. He threw some dumb passes on Sunday, but he never gives up, and he's been tested. Rodgers can be brilliant, but he and this Green Bay team haven't been really tested. The unknowns as usual are injuries and the flow of the game on that day. The Steelers lost their young center Maurice Pouncey, and that probably hurt them in the second half. He says he'll play but nobody will know that yet. Anyway, get ready for the hype.

Congratulations Pittsburgh. I can hear you singing: the Steelers are going to the Super Bowl!

It's Why They Play the Games

So much for that Atlanta-New England Super Bowl. Both #1 teams lost this weekend, convincingly. The closest game of the weekend was the Steelers coming back to win over the Ravens. Since the Jets beat New England, the AFC championship game will be in Pittsburgh, the Steelers v. the Jets.

After a crisp early drive and a touchdown, the Steelers gift-wrapped 14 points for the Ravens and were down 21-7 at the half. But then they cashed in three Ravens turnovers in the third quarter, and drove to a touchdown to win it in the fourth, with a not-soon to be forgotten 3rd and 18 pass to young speedster Antonio Brown. Looking to the future, the Steelers may wind up with the most potent deep threats in the league, with Mike Wallace and Brown.

So it wasn't 40-31 but 31-24 was still beyond most expectations. Still it wasn't really a shootout since most of the scoring on both sides came from turnovers and a shorter field. But here's what was clearly true: Ben Roethlisberger is a better quarterback than Joe Flacco, especially under pressure.

Speaking of pressure, both the Jets and Steelers will try to make that a big factor next weekend. The Jets used coverage and pressure or blitz packages to throw Tom Brady out of rhythm. The Patriots' offense was kind of a puzzle--it was unrelentingly conservative, except for a couple of big risk plays that didn't pay off. Whatever the Jets defense did, the Steelers better understand it and counter it in prep this week. But the weekend also showed that when it comes to dealing with pressure, Big Ben is better. Specifically better than Mark Sanchez of the Jets.

The Steelers are not a lock to win this game, not against a team that have overachieved to beat two of the highest rated quarterbacks in successive weeks. But the Steelers have a very good chance to win it. In contrast to the Baltimore game this weekend, I think next week's will be a low-scoring affair, along the lines of 20-17. What could well be decisive again is Big Ben and especially his playoff and Super Bowl experience. The Steelers were only weakened by injury on special teams so far, and Troy Polamalu had a quiet game against the Ravens. He didn't play last time against the Jets. I expect he'll make his presence known next week. Tight end Heath Miller also didn't play against the Jets, and that probably cost them the winning touchdown as time expired.

The other league matchup will be Green Bay v. Chicago, one of pro football's oldest rivalries. Green Bay looks unbeatable now, but so did New England until today. What's striking is that except for Big Ben, all the surviving quarterbacks are inexperienced in playoff football. The pressure only mounts week to week. You'd have to say at this point that the Steelers have the best shot. Green Bay would be the stronger opponent for them. But they are fully capable of beating these three teams. They'll have to start though with the Jets.

Steelers/Ravens...Again

Wild card weekend was wild but not wild enough: the one clear favorite that actually won was the Baltimore Ravens. Now the Steelers have to face them for the third time this year, for the privilege of being beaten by New England in the championship game, one would expect. But weird things happen.


Anyway, the Steelers at home have the edge but there's really no clear favorite. Anything can happen. The Steelers may be more rested but if they aren't up to speed right at the beginning, a Ravens score early could be the difference in a tight game, as it was with the Jets. Everyone expects a defensive battle. Which means it could wind up being a 41-30 game. Both teams have potentially potent offenses that have occasionally lived up to their potential. That the Ravens had no problem with Kansas City is a confidence boost for them, on both sides of the ball. But the Steelers have put up a lot of points in their recent games.


As for the other Wild Card games, Indianapolis and New Orleans made quick exits on Saturday though both were favored--New Orleans by a lot over the Seattle Seahawks, who still don't have a winning record. By way of explanation, no truer words were ever spoke than these by Colts Qb Payton Manning: "We would have liked to score more points than them." That way they would have won the game, see?

Commentators talk about the Steelers-Ravens game as brutal, more than hinting that the game can hinge on injuries to key players. Both teams are going into the game about as healthy as they've been all year. The question will be how they come out of it. Will the winner still be healthy enough to compete in the next round?

During the week some Steelers players have talked about how their games with the Ravens always come down to the fourth quarter. This is true, but it also may reveal a mindset. The Ravens played on Sunday, the Steelers are rested and are playing at home. They might be thinking that if they can hold off the Ravens for 3 quarters, they can wear them out in the fourth. If the Ravens are worried about their stamina as well, it's more motivation for them to take chances on offense early and try to run up the score in the first half. The Steelers of course would like to score early and often, especially since they know how to defend a lead this year. But just preventing a Ravens score in the first quarter could be a big advantage for them.

Meanwhile, the Patriots know that once they take care of the Jets, they will be facing a tested but probably very beat up opponent--and if it's the Ravens, a pretty tired one as well. But what's interesting for the Steelers and Ravens is that their game is on Saturday, and the Patriots-Jets on Sunday. So when Pittsburgh and Baltimore play, facing the Jets in the championship game is still at least a possibility, more motivation to win, because the Jets are beatable. As long as Brady is standing, it's doubtful that the Patriots are this year. (Still, the Steelers came back against them after looking completely out of their league for the first half, so...but that's really getting ahead of the game.)

Big Ben has never been beaten by the Ravens, and his record in the playoffs is 8-2. You could argue that he's due. But how he plays may be the difference. Though the same may be said of Flacco, or the corners, or... Here's the thing. In many ways, some of them a little eerie, these teams are evenly matched. But that doesn't guarantee a close game. The odds are it will be a heart attack, but a blowout is also possible. It's like very existential, dude.

How about that other league? The winner of the Green Bay-Atlanta game will be in the Super Bowl. I saw some tentativeness in Atlanta against New Orleans, so in a pretty even contest I wouldn't be surprised if Green Bay won. Seattle-Chicago may be the most fun to watch because the game is meaningless. The winner ain't going nowhere past the next round.

Pope Football

Let me waste a little more time so I can pontificate on this week's football. Not the bowl games, that endless embarrassing parade of inflated excuses for commercials. I caught the end of one, when the outcome was determined by an official who penalized the scoring team 15 yards on the extra point (they needed a two point conversion to tie) because of excessive celebration in the end zone on the touchdown--the kid who caught the pass saluted the crowd. What a stupid cheat.

Oh, and one of the announcers used the word "palpable" and the other announcers made fun of him. Then he joined in and made fun of himself for using a word that nobody is supposed to understand who watches football. Stupidity enforced, one of the worst self-destructive as well as generally destructive instincts of sports.

No, the last NFL games of the regular season is my topic of the moment. After the unexpected outcome a couple of weeks ago--the Steelers losing to the Jets (predictable, but not having Troy and Heath Miller really determined it) but the Ravens winning over the Saints (not so predictable)--both the Steelers and the Ravens are in the playoffs, but the North title will be decided Sunday, and with it the by. If the Steelers beat the Browns in Cleveland, the title is theirs. But if they lose and the Ravens beat the Bengals, the Ravens win it, and the Steelers must play an extra game, on the road. Conversely (I think that's right), if the Ravens lose, the Steelers win the North no matter what the outcome with the Browns.

On paper, the Steelers are all but in. But this season especially, it's any given Sunday. The Browns can and probably will play with abandon. They can surprise the Steelers, and the way Pittsburgh has been playing, an early touchdown or two against them can be fatal. The Ravens pretty much gave them the game plan to win by what they did to beat the Browns last week--confuse the young quarterback, Colt McCoy, with deceptive defensive looks, and batter the running back early. But if they can't do both, the Steelers may not find this an easy game.

On paper the Bengals are a better team than the Browns, so they should give the Ravens more trouble. Once again, that's on paper. The Bengals are wilting, depressed at this wreck of a season for them. They might put up a fight, and they might not.

It's probably all for naught anyway. Except for that any given Sunday scenario--very important in the playoffs--the Steelers are very unlikely to get to the Super Bowl. They have to hope that somebody else knocks off the New England Patriots, because they've shown no sign that they can. I doubt that anyone will. The Steelers might not even get that deep in the playoffs. Getting Troy P. back will help. If they get the by, they could make it to the AFC championship. They can beat the Jets, if New York gets that far. They will be hard-pressed to beat the Ravens again.

The Atlanta-New Orleans game last week was interesting. They are closely matched, and it was Atlanta's mistakes that cost them the game. If they play each other again, it could again go either way, although I'm still seeing an Atlanta Falcons-New England Patriots Super Bowl, with New England the victor. I guess by now that's conventional wisdom, but it seems right to me anyway.

I'm not even sure I'm going to see it. I'm about to dump my cable TV. It costs much more than it's worth. Who knows, maybe I'll waste less time this way.

Decisive Sunday

The AFC North could be decided on Sunday. Both the Steelers and the Ravens play their last opponent with a winning record, and both games are at home. But based on where teams are at the moment, the Steelers would seem to have a much better chance of beating the Jets than the Ravens do of beating the New Orleans Saints. If the Ravens lose, that pretty much makes the Steelers the AFC North champs, even if the Steelers lose Sunday. Even if they both win, the Steelers still have the edge, but if the Ravens win and the Steelers lose, the Steelers will have to win out-- two games against inferior teams, including the final game against the Browns.

But with the deck stacked like that, and too many commentators counting the Jets out, and with the Steelers at home and the Jets having never won in Pittsburgh, it's a perfect set up for the Steelers to make things difficult for themselves with a sloppy game and a loss. We'll see if this year's Steelers are that kind of team, as some Steelers teams of the recent past have been.

It could be a tricky game. If the Steelers run game isn't popping, it gets dangerous with the Jets excellent defensive secondary against the pass, and in a close game, Santonio Holmes has plenty of personal motivation to make the decisive catch for the Jets. Plus the Steelers have to shut down the Jets run game early. Jets qback Sanchez has had two poor games in a row, but he's also had games where he's made things happen under pressure.

But the flow is with the favorites so I expect the Steelers to win over the discombulated Jets and the exhausted Ravens to lose to the surging Saints on Sunday.

Update: The news that Troy Polamalu is not expected to play for the Steelers materially alters expectations for this game. Tight end Heath Miller also may not play, which really hurts the Steelers offense against the Jets specifically. The New York sports media is so down on the Jets, their coach and quarterback are under such pressure, that unless they are truly in complete disarray, they have more than enough motivation to win this game. This game could go either way now.

Steelers/Lakers

The Steelers avoided a loss to the Bengals with the deceptively lopsided score of 23-7. But the Steelers offense didn't score a touchdown, and have scored only two in the past three games. Meanwhile, on a snowy windy field in Chicago, the New England Patriots offense tore apart yet another team (da Bears) 36-7. That's too many such games in a row to be a coincidence. And Brady is absolutely merciless--he never lets up. It's looking more and more like a New England-Atlanta Super Bowl--with Atlanta as the bigger question mark: New Orleans is their threat. But right now there isn't a defense in the NFL that can stop Brady.

The Steelers host the Jets next week, who lost a close game Sunday after being taken apart by the Patriots. They'll either be resurging for redemption or completely disoriented. Unless the Steelers offfense starts scoring touchdowns, none of it is going to matter. The defense can't win them all. But then Big Ben is looking like a Monty Python routine out there, getting whacked in the head, the face, the knees, the ankles, the foot--what else does he have? He's getting beat up with hits after plays that get flagged when they happen to other quarterbacks.

Meanwhile, the Lakers vulnerability looked pretty clear in their loss to the Chicago Bulls this week. When Gasol is out, they've got nobody to replace him. Bynum is due back soon, and he's not only their missing piece, he's got to stay healthy and produce in the playoffs especially, or (I believe) this could well be his last year as a Laker.

About the NFL (A lot), NBA (a little)

Watching the New England Patriots dismantle the vaunted New York Jets on Monday Night football made me feel a little better about their dismantling of the Pittsburgh Steelers a few Sunday Nights ago. It also confirmed for me the impression I've had for the past several weeks--that it's New England's year. With their schoolyard victory over Baltimore Sunday, the Steelers got closer to the playoffs. But it's unlikely that they or anyone is going to defeat the Patriots this year, with the usual caveat of injury (to Tom Brady) or just a very stinking bad playoff game.

The Steelers' season is also far from over. Big Ben lurched through Sunday's game on a bad foot, and now he has a broken nose (on a play that as usual didn't even draw a penalty, though today it drew a fine. The week before, Buffalo players beat on his knee and perhaps foot after the whistle, with no penalty. The week before that, an Oakland player sucker-punched him and knocked him to the ground after the play was over, with a fine but no suspension. Moral to Steelers' opponents: Big Ben is fair game.)

The Steelers and the Ravens have pretty much the same schedules remaining. They both play Cinncy and Cleveland, and both have one game against a tough opponent: Steelers play the Jets, the Ravens play the Saints. Neither can let down against or look past the Bengals or especially the Browns, who continue to play pretty well in contrast to how they began the season.

The Steelers probably have a better chance to get past the Jets (depending on how they respond to being thoroughly thrashed by New England) while the Ravens must deal with a New Orleans team that is still getting sharper. (On the other hand, if the Jets rediscover their pass rush--which disappeared against New England--it means another harrowing ordeal for Big Ben.) But even if they both lose these games and get past weaker opponents, the Steelers would now win the division. But in a season like this, and depending on how hurt Ben is, nothing is a given, even this late.

And as goal-driven as even spectating is, getting to the Super Bowl is unlikely for either team. That leaves watching for fun. But these days watching the Steelers is not so much fun. Their defense can be smothering, but they can also look porous and bad, as they did on the Ravens' touchdown drive. While it is dramatic to watch Ben in the malestrom of opposing players, improvising pass plays, it's a far cry from watching Tom Brady dissect the defense and hit receivers with passes breath-taking in their speed and accuracy. Much artier, and more relaxing to watch.

Right now the two teams with the best records are New England and Atlanta, and that's a pretty good bet to be your Super Bowl matchup.

Meanwhile, the NBA season is taking shape. All the preseason hoohaw was about the Lakers vs. the new Miami Heat. While the Celtics and the Magic are giving the Heat the competition that many predicted in the East, I don't recall anybody much forecasting that the Lakers were going to be challenged in the West by at least three teams. Right now their perennial rivals, the San Antonio Spurs, are running away with their division, and the Dallas Mavericks are looking good as well. Some folks like Phoenix. In any case, it doesn't look like a walk in the park for the Lakers by any means, even if you discount their recent four game losing streak. At this point, it's not so certain they'll even get to the finals.