Bob Smizik: For Pirates, ridiculous is always possible

Would Ryan Howard have won the Home Run Derby in his "home park" in 2006 if not for Brad Eldred?

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Sunday, August 19, 2007

We open today with an apology. To the readers who told us via e-mail over the past couple of years that the Pirates turned down an opportunity to acquire Ryan Howard in exchange for Kris Benson, we're sorry. We deeply regret that we told you this information was incorrect based on our belief it was too ridiculous to be true.

We should have known better. We should have known that in terms of evaluation of player talent nothing is too ridiculous for the Dave Littlefield regime.

Based on a scenario documented by Dejan Kovacevic, the Post-Gazette's Pirates beat writer, there is ample reason to believe in 2004 the Pirates could have had Howard, arguably the best player in baseball today, but turned down the deal because they felt that in Brad Eldred they had a similar player.

Howard hit 58 homers and drove in 149 runs last season when he was the National League Most Valuable Player. This season, despite spending time on the disabled list, he has 33 homers, second in the National League. Going into the weekend, Eldred has 15 homers, two with the Pirates and 13 with Indianapolis, where he is batting .215. In his brief time with the Pirates he batted .109.

There is a good chance Eldred, 27, will not make it back to the majors. Howard, who will be 28 in November, has the look of an elite, dominating player for the next decade.

There's no smoking gun to prove this scenario conclusively. The Phillies aren't stupid enough to admit they made such an offer, and the Pirates aren't stupid enough to admit they rejected it. But, based on the evidence at hand, it is entirely believable.

That evidence would be the information provided by Kovacevic and the history of Littlefield as general manager of the Pirates. When you sit back and consider all the incredibly bad player personnel decisions made by Littlefield and his advisers, rejecting Howard isn't that far-fetched.

After all, this is the organization that was blind to the talent of Chris Young, who today might be the best starting pitcher in baseball, and traded him for a journeyman reliever. That being the case, why wouldn't Littlefield and his lieutenants take a look at Howard, who might be the best hitter in baseball, and pronounce themselves not interested because they thought they had a player just as good?

Here are some of Littlefield's more startling player personnel decisions.

In December 2002, he traded Young to Montreal for Matt Herges. Forget that Herges was cut in spring training. Young, who is 9-4 with the San Diego Padres and outpitching his celebrated teammate Jake Peavy, leads the majors in earned run average, opponent's batting average, opponent's on-base percentage, opponent's slugging percentage and walks and hits per inning. In most categories he leads by a wide margin.

In November 2003, Littlefield removed from the 40-man roster Duaner Sanchez and Matt Guerrier and allowed them to be claimed on waivers. As a setup man for the New York Mets last season, Sanchez was 5-1 with a 2.60 ERA. He has missed all of this season with an injury. Guerrier is in his third season as a dependable reliever for the Minnesota Twins. This year, he truly has blossomed. His ERA is 1.77. Opponents are batting .193 against him. While not protecting Sanchez and Guerrier, Littlefield did protect the futureless Carlos Rivera, Tony Alvarez, Jason Boyd and Mark Corey.

In December 2004, he traded hard-throwing prospect Leo Nunez to Kansas City for washed-up catcher Benito Santiago. Santiago was released a month into the season and never played again in the majors. Nunez, who turned 24 last week, is 2-0 in five games and four starts with the Royals. His ERA is 1.96. Opponents are batting .207 against him.

In December 2005 (December is not a good month for Littlefield), Ty Wigginton was dropped from the 40-man roster while Yurendell DeCaster and Javier Guzman were kept. Wigginton has 17 home runs this season. Last year, he hit 24.

Clearly, this is an organization that has no eye for talent. It routinely makes the kinds of decisions we have documented above.

So could it have passed on Ryan Howard? Absolutely.

Again, my sincere apologies to those people who recognized that in terms of player evaluation anything is possible with the Pirates.

Could Toronto be a future port of call for Pirates' Bay?

Toronto Star
August 16, 2007

PITTSBURGH

If professional athletes whine and think they're underexposed in Canada, they clearly haven't been paying attention to the plight of the Pirates. Mainstream America does not know these guys exist. Which allows Canadian outfielder Jason Bay to play out the early portion of his career in obscurity on the banks of the Allegheny River.

"I actually enjoy being out of the public eye," the 29-year-old native of Trail, B.C. said. "I like the market here. It's just a little under the radar. That would all change if we started winning a little bit."

Therein lies the small-market Catch-22. In order for the Pirates to win more games, management needs a major influx of fan dollars to invest in payroll. But, in order to receive an influx of dollars from turned-on Pirates fans, they need to win more games.

"It is definitely frustrating," Bay admitted. "It wears on you after a while. You can only hear, `We're looking forward to next year,' so many times. The fans get agitated and it starts up in here. No one in here enjoys losing and that's the thing."

Bay is having an off year, judged against the standard he set for himself in his first three seasons in the majors. He entered last night's game with a .251 average, 18 homers and 73 RBIs. He has two more seasons after this before he is eligible for free agency.

"I like it here," Bay shrugged. "I like the direction. I like the guys and all that, but time will tell. I would definitely not be reluctant to sign a long-term deal. I'm a big fan of Pittsburgh, but it also boils down to getting the ship pointed in the right direction.

"Some people are looking for the quick fix, pull the switch and boom you're a contender. The reality is that doesn't happen for a team in our (financial) situation. ... I like it here. It's really beautiful. At some point it's definitely going to be about winning ballgames, not just putting on the uniform."

Meanwhile, Bay is proud of the progress Canadian players have made even since his own rookie season in 2004, when, with Larry Walker's career winding down, he was the beacon for Canadian baseball development. Now, it's at the point where there are Canadians everywhere and the need to label Justin Morneau, Russell Martin, Jeff Francis and Bay by country no longer seems necessary.

"People always ask what does it mean for baseball in Canada?" Bay said. "It's a lot better for Canadian baseball when you have 20 guys and you have a choice rather than, `Hey, there's two. Pick one.' It helps branch out a little bit and touch more people."

Bay credits the World Baseball Classic in March of '06 for the camaraderie that permeates the Canadians around the majors. More than ever, Canadians search out other Canadians as they forge ahead through the daily grind.

"It's kind of like an English-speaking guy playing (Caribbean) winter ball," Bay explained. "Whether you know the guy or not, you go over and say hi. There's a lot of guys that are Canadian that I've never met, but it's the one thing you have in common."

In the winter of 2009-10, if the Pirates do not turn things around, Bay will have a decision to make on free agency and his tranquil existence of peaceful anonymity may be shattered forever. With Troy Glaus and Frank Thomas's deals expiring that winter, would the Jays ever be interested in a star Canadian outfielder? Hmm.

A place that touches all the bases

Friday, August 17, 2007

By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Gushing isn't the most becoming attribute for a writer.

That's too bad.

You're going to get some gushing.

No rants.

No nitpicking.

Nothing negative, except for this admonishment: If you haven't discovered the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, you've been missing out.

No matter your age, you can find something that moves you to laugh, think or remember. Or even learn.

That might be a display on Doug Opperman, a 1940 national marbles champion. Bet you didn't know Western Pennsylvania has a well-rounded marbles history.

Or it might be watching rare color footage of Bill Mazeroski's 1960 World Series-winning home run at Forbes Field. That will change the moment in your mind's eye.

There's the miniature golf hole you can play featuring a scaled-down version of Oakmont's famous church pew bunkers.

There's the chance to step between a life-size cutout of goaltender Tom Barrasso and a net in front of a mural of the Mellon Arena end zone and perhaps pretend to stop that David Volek shot.

And who can pass up the chance to watch the implosion of Three Rivers Stadium on a large screen as many times as you want?

Not to mention things related to Pittsburgh's beloved Steelers.

A first visit to the museum, which is housed on the second and third floors of the Heinz History Center in the Strip District, will easily surpass your expectations, even if, ahem, it takes nearly three years since the place opened in November 2004 to get around to visiting.

If you're really lucky, you'll get a guided tour with curator Anne Madarasz.

Madarasz has been on staff at the history center for 15 years, the first several of which she spent longing for the time she could put together a sports museum.

She started with nothing and began collecting from teams, celebrities and fans. Now there are rooms and rooms of artifacts, displays and interactive attractions, all well placed and thoughtfully organized.

Even if Madarasz isn't beside you, you're getting the benefit of her passion and hard work.

The sports museum will draw you in whether you're a trivia buff who notices all the little things, or a nostalgia nut who admires the information on the four Olympians who came out of the pool in the basement of the Carnegie Library branch in Homestead between 1928-36, or a history nut who appreciates the roots of sports going back to fox hunting and lawn tennis, or an academic who soaks in the advances in sports medicine made in this region, or simply a blue-collar fan of the big moments that include World Series, Super Bowls and Stanley Cups.

It would take several trips to drink it all in, and there are always new arrivals, including a recent display honoring Pitt Heisman Trophy winner Tony Dorsett.

The videos shown in the entry theater and the displays in the hockey area will have to be updated to include Sidney Crosby and the rest of the new generation of Penguins.

"One of our biggest comments is we don't have enough hockey stuff," Madarasz said. "We're working on it."

The Steelers display doesn't yet reflect their fifth Super Bowl win, in 2006, or much of the Ben Roethlisberger and Mike Tomlin era.

Speaking of the Steelers, they're at least halfway through your journey. You first must navigate through the theater, an historical hall, a large room dedicated to all types of racing, the golf area, the baseball area and, once up on the third floor, the high school, college and even women's football area.

"I put football in the middle so people would have to work for it a little bit," Madarasz said with a smile.

Smart lady.

In addition to what you will see at the museum, you never know who you might see.

Roethlisberger has been there with a date.

Former Pitt coach Johnny Majors has shown off the place to his buddies many times.

A tournament of past marbles champions was staged there recently.

You could turn a corner and find Franco Harris filming a commercial, perhaps just a ricochet away from the case displaying his Immaculate Conception shoes.

Pirates announcer Steve Blass, who is involved with the museum, could be walking through.

The Penguins and public officials picked the main lobby of the building to hold a news conference and announce a deal for a new arena that will keep the team in town.

Fittingly, an exhibit celebrating the Steelers' 75th anniversary opens later this year.

There's something wrong if this doesn't become a well-known focal point and gathering spot for area sports, a place where everyone affiliated with sports feels connected.

The most amazing thing about the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum is that it took so long for an area this steeped in its games to have a place like this.


Shelly Anderson can be reached at sanderson@post-gazette.com.

LaRoche-Bay duo finally delivers for Pirates

Six hits, five RBIs overcome five-run deficit to topple Mets, 10-7

Friday, August 17, 2007

By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

For one steamy but sizzling night at PNC Park, everything was as the Pirates must have envisioned it would be in 2007.

Packed house.

Competing with a contender.



Matt Freed, Post-Gazette,
Freddy Sanchez scores in front of Mets catcher Mike DeFelice on a hit by Adam LaRoche in the eighth inning last night.

And Adam LaRoche and Jason Bay coming through as the team's big bats in the middle of the order.

"You know what? I think that's how things will be," LaRoche would say after a 10-7 toppling of the New York Mets tickled an overflow crowd of 36,447 last night. "I know there's a lot of disappointment with how things have gone so far, and I know nobody wants to hear about next year. But I think this is what you're going to see."

So, for one night, never mind the standings.

Never mind that the season's third sellout was lured largely by a fireworks show and Styx concert.

And never mind that LaRoche and Bay had matching .255 averages even after each had three hits. That marked only the seventh time both had multiple hits in the same game, perhaps the most remarkable statistic of the season.

All that mattered for these few hours was that each had a run-scoring single to snap an eighth-inning tie, Bay finishing with three RBIs and LaRoche two to account for half the offense.

Oh, and LaRoche hit a ball out of the stadium, too.

"What a difference it makes when we have those guys going, huh?" manager Jim Tracy said. "Everything about us takes on a different look."

To be sure, this ending had a different look.

The score was 7-7 entering the eighth, and the stage seemed set for the Pirates to fall short again, as they had in losing the first two games of this series.

New York reliever Aaron Heilman got two quick outs, and Freddy Sanchez grounded meekly to third baseman David Wright. But Wright's throw to first sailed into right field, and the uh-oh factor was in play for the Mets.

LaRoche rapped the first pitch he saw into right, and a potentially close play at the plate with Sanchez sprinting home was nullified when catcher Mike DiFelice dropped Marlon Anderson's one-hop throw. DiFelice was charged with an error.

Then, Bay and Jose Bautista delivered RBI singles to left to make it 10-7.

Closer Matt Capps finally recorded his 11th save, his first since July 5, with a scoreless ninth in which he looked determined to throw the ball through Paulino's mitt.

"Lots of fastballs," Capps said, grinning.

Tony Armas spotted New York a 5-0 lead before getting the hook through 2 2/3 innings, a start reminiscent of his miserable first half. The Mets tagged him for six hits, five walks and a two-run home run by Carlos Beltran as his command was nowhere to be found.

"I struggled," Armas said. "But my teammates battled back."



Matt Freed, Post-Gazette,
First baseman Adam LaRoche drives in Freddy Sanchez in the eighth as Pirates rally for a win against the Mets last night before third sellout crowd of season at PNC Park.

LaRoche started that with a monster two-run shot in the fourth, a 431-footer off a flat Brian Lawrence fastball that settled in the landscaping by the Allegheny River's edge. Ronny Paulino's RBI double later that inning cut the Pirates' deficit to 5-3.

"We're not lying down," LaRoche said. "We're not quitting, and you can see it in everybody's eyes."

In the fifth, Bay's two-out single pulled the Pirates within 7-4.

In the sixth, back-to-back doubles by Nate McLouth and Paulino made it 7-5.

They tied it in the seventh on Bay's RBI single and, after Bautista's bunt loaded the bases, Jose Castillo looped a single over shortstop Jose Reyes to bring one of the loudest roars of the year at the Pirates' usually dormant home.

"Great crowd," LaRoche said. "That makes a difference."

Not nearly as much as LaRoche and Bay, the Pirates' only two proven power-hitters, performing to their capabilities.

"It's no secret that we've struggled, both of us, a lot longer than we would have liked," Bay said. "Look at me and what I've gone through these two months. But you know, I think that's true of our whole team. You've seen glimpses, but we've never really put it all together. Hopefully, we can see some more of this as we go along."

Shortstop Jack Wilson exited in the fourth inning because of asthma symptoms. Tracy said it was possible that Wilson had some heat exhaustion, too, as the first-pitch temperature was 82 degrees.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@post-gazette.com

Tomlin's first camp was tough on the players

Tomlin has a good feeling and plenty of questions to answer as he closes out his first camp at Saint Vincent

Friday, August 17, 2007

By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Mike Tomlin wrapped up the final practice of his first training camp yesterday afternoon with many questions remaining about his football team, but with more insight about what he has.


Peter Diana, Post-Gazette

First-year Steelers coach Mike Tomlin says training camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe was everything he hoped it would be.
Click photo for larger version

"It's been as good as could be expected," the Steelers new coach said. "You always come in prepared for the worst and hopeful for the best. I think it's been more toward my hopes; it's been awesome."

Tomlin leaves Saint Vincent College believing he has a team that can compete for a Super Bowl. Like many NFL teams, injuries or the lack of them will decide how serious a bid the Steelers make.

That was the good news coming from his first training camp: No serious injuries. Halfback Willie Parker, perhaps the player the Steelers least can afford to lose, missed a few weeks and two games with what was called slight inflammation of his left knee, but he returned to practice and will start tomorrow night against the Washington Redskins in the third preseason game.

"We have to get Willie P going," Tomlin said.

Tomlin still has not determined the backs he will keep behind Parker and whether he will go young with Carey Davis and Gary Russell, keep veterans Verron Haynes and Dan Kreider or go with a mix.

Decisions must be made everywhere, particularly along the starting offensive line. Tomlin has to decide how many wide receivers/tight ends to keep, which backup defensive linemen after Chris Hoke to maintain, who will fill two starting spots in the defensive backfield and what backup outside linebackers will stay.

Yet, three preseason games remain and the first cutdown does not happen until Aug. 28, when teams reduce their rosters to 75. The tougher cut happens Sept. 1, when teams get down to 53. Teams can add eight practice squad players Sept. 2, after they clear waivers.

Tomlin often used a phrase for the work that took place at camp the past 3 1/2 weeks, and the work that's left before the regular-season opener Sept. 9 in Cleveland. He calls it "team building."

"It's an ongoing process," he said. "I like where we are. I like our skill development. I don't think we're a finished product in that area, but that's why we're here."

Players groaned a little when they first saw Tomlin's training camp schedule, which included no days off the first two weeks and 15 scheduled two-a-day practices. He canceled several of those, however, and some others were rained out.

Still, players considered it a tougher training camp than they have had before.

"He put us through a hard camp," defensive end Brett Keisel said. "I think coming in as a first-year coach you kind of need to do that and see which guys you have on board and which guys are going to fall by the wayside. It was a tough camp, but we made it."

Keisel also saw Tomlin evolve the past month.

"I think he's getting more comfortable. This was his first time up here and when you come up here it's different. He did a good job. We made it through camp without any severe injuries, which is great."

Tomlin's camp may have been different from those run the previous 15 summers by Bill Cowher, yet most NFL training camps look alike. Tomlin held practices at the same time in the afternoon as in previous camps, and for all the talk about there being more hitting, there really was not. He often cut afternoon practices shorter than the scheduled two hours, sometimes by as much as 30 minutes. Cowher often went the entire two hours in the afternoon.

Tomlin held more one-hour special teams practices in the morning, along with the occasional two-hour morning practice. But the morning special-teams drills were more laid back and most of the starters were dismissed from them early.

Curfew was still set at 11 p.m., there was family night and a night off, and movie day, just as there were under Cowher. Camp also lasted about the same length, although they reported earlier because of the extra preseason game.

Still, "they resisted the change," Tomlin said. "But I think they did a nice job of dealing with it and not letting it affect their quality of play.

"It's funny, we're all creatures of habit, particularly the guys that have been here a long time. Guys who were drafted here, they know one way. When you know what's going on, you never have to look at the schedule. You can kind of get on autopilot. That's what we crave. We like to be on autopilot and know what lies ahead.

"But sometimes it's good to get out of your comfort zone a little bit and have to read an itinerary, have to keep up with the schedule and don't really know what's going on next. That's how this process has been for some people."

"It's been as good as could be expected. You always come in prepared for the worst and hopeful for the best. I think it's been more toward my hopes; IT'S BEEN AWESOME."

-- Mike Tomlin


Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com.

Bonds takes a curtain call

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Matt Freed, Post-Gazette
Barry Bonds, the newly crowned home run king who might be the most reviled athlete in Pittsburgh sports history, gets a classy reception from most of the 25,434 fans at PNC Park yesterday.

There were no signs of asterisks, syringes or steroids at PNC Park last night, only a solitary banner in the left-field bleachers that somehow seemed appropriate on this surprisingly feel-good summer evening of baseball.

PITTSBURGH STILL BACKS BARRY.

Honest.

Pirates fans, perhaps following the lead of sporting icons Henry Aaron, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and Muhammad Ali, paid tribute to the new home run king, Barry Bonds, with standing ovations when he took the field with the San Francisco Giants for the first game of a doubleheader, then again when Pirates management honored him with a brief scoreboard video tribute between games that brought a grateful Mr. Bonds out of the dugout to tip his cap and wave to the paying customers.

Classy gestures all around considering that Mr. Bonds has been, arguably, the most reviled athlete in Pittsburgh sports history, going back to his postseason failures with the Pirates in the early 1990s, long before he was linked to the BALCO scandal and baseball's steroids controversy. The few, inevitable boos from the crowd of 25,434 couldn't come close to drowning out the night's overriding message: Steroids or not, 758 home runs are a lot of home runs.

"It was nice," Mr. Bonds said of the tribute after going 1 for 3 with a single in the first game, a 3-1 Pirates win, in what could have been his final appearance as a player in Pittsburgh. "That just goes to show Pittsburgh people understand the game."

Mr. Bonds won two National League MVP awards during his days with the Pirates from 1986-92 and led the team to three consecutive division championships from 1990-92. Not coincidentally, the franchise has not had a winning season since he left for the Giants as a free agent after the '92 playoffs.

The scoreboard tribute highlighted a couple of Mr. Bonds' marvelous accomplishments with the Pirates. It's probably just as well that it lasted only 90 seconds. There was no time to show Mr. Bonds' infamous spring training run-in with Pirates manager Jim Leyland in '91 or his throw from left field to the plate, too late to get the Atlanta Braves' Sid Bream, in Game 7 of the '92 National League Championship Series. Pirates fans forgave him for his petulance with Mr. Leyland, but many never will forgive him for that throw after watching Mr. Bream score the winning run to send the Braves, not the Pirates, to the World Series.

"I had to come over toward my left, then cross-fire it," Mr. Bonds said yesterday, shrugging.

On this night, Pirates management wisely stuck to the positives. A younger, much leaner Mr. Bonds was shown hitting his first big-league home run off Atlanta's Craig McMurtry on June 4, 1986. There also were snippets from his MVP season in '90 when he became baseball's second 30-home-run, 50-stolen-base man. An interview with Mr. Bonds after that monstrous season was replayed with him looking into the camera and saying he didn't feel "complete" as a player, that he still had bigger goals to accomplish.

Pretty prophetic, huh?

Would you believe five more MVP awards with the Giants for a career total of seven, four more than anyone in baseball history? His record 73 home runs in the '01 season? And, of course, his record 756th career home run last week, an astonishing number he pushed to 758 with a home run Friday night off the Pirates' Matt Morris?

It was after Mr. Bonds hit No. 756 off the Washington Nationals' Mike Bacsik Tuesday night that Mr. Jordan, Mr. Gretzky, Mr. Ali and, most significantly, Mr. Aaron, whose 33-year-old home run record was eclipsed, appeared on tape on the AT&T Park scoreboard in San Francisco to offer their congratulations. Asked yesterday if he ever dreamed of being the home run champ, Mr. Bonds shook his head and said, "No, never. Never in a lifetime. You never think of those things. You try to just do the best you can. You reach for the stars, knowing you can't jump that high, but you just keep going."

It's fair to wonder how much different the past 15 seasons would have been for the Pirates if Mr. Bonds had stayed with the organization. He says not to waste your time thinking about it. There never was any chance.

"There was never even an offer," Mr. Bonds said. "It was the same situation with Bobby [Bonilla] and Dougie [Drabek]. The great thing is the way [Leyland] handled it. He said, 'It's not going to happen here for you guys. It's time you guys just move on. I want the best for you.' He's the one who made it easy for us because he said, 'Your talent is just exceeding what they actually want to do here. Good luck to you guys. It was an honor for me to have the opportunity to manage you guys.' "

Mr. Bonds, 43, said he plans on playing one more season, then retiring. "I need to win a championship, get 3,000 hits." He has 2,919 after his single last night.

Mr. Bonds could be back with the Giants next season, although that seems unlikely now that he has broken the home run record. It's more likely he'll be with an American League club as a designated hitter.

Only one thing is certain:

Mr. Bonds won't be playing for the Pirates.

"No," he said, quietly, "my days here are gone. I had fun, but ..."


Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.

Parker says he's willing and able to get back into action

Monday, August 13, 2007

By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Willie Parker itches to return to the flow of the Steelers' offense and it could happen this week. Or not.

Parker resumed practice Thursday when thunderstorms forced the Steelers indoors on the South Side. He says he's ready to take his position at halfback Saturday in Washington against the Redskins in the team's third preseason game. He's just not sure if the coaches are ready to put him in.

"I'm going to give it a little more [today]," Parker said. "I'm all right now."



Matt Freed, Post-Gazette
Steelers running back Willie Parker jokes on the sideline before the Hall of Fame game against the Saints.
Click photo for larger image.

Parker was held out for two weeks of practices at Saint Vincent College after coach Mike Tomlin said he had slight swelling and pain in his left knee.

Parker said the swelling isn't the issue as much as something else. He was vague on what that might be.

"That wasn't really the main thing. It was something else. That wasn't the main thing, inflammation. I was just hurting a little bit. I needed some rest, basically."

Parker said he does not think he'll need to have surgery on his knee after the season.

Parker rushed for 1,494 yards last season, third most in franchise history. His 337 carries were fourth most by a Steelers back. He and the coaches talked about using him even more this season, particularly on third downs. Parker said he not only wanted to be like LaDainian Tomlinson, the league MVP last season, but even better.

Then came the injury and everything has been on hold.

On one hand, Parker said the way he feels now "there's a good chance I'll play" against the Redskins. However, he believes the coaches might hold him back another game, with two left in the preseason after Saturday.

"I don't think they'll play me next week, in my opinion from talking to them and stuff," Parker said.

Sitting out the preseason did not hurt Tomlinson last year. He did not play in an exhibition game after a slight neck injury in early August. He then carried 31 times in the regular-season opener for 131 yards on his way to 1,815 yards rushing last season.

Parker said he does not feel a real need to play in the preseason, but that it's frustrating to watch teammates play while he's dressed in street clothes on the sideline.

"The only reason why I need to is because my teammates are out there, they're busting their [behinds], they're out there playing. That's why I need to be out there playing.

"I know that I'm no one-man army. I'm a team player and I know that's my goal. If they're playing, I'm playing."

In his absence, Parker talked highly of undrafted rookie tailback Gary Russell and fullback-tailback Carey Davis, who is trying to make it with his fifth NFL team.

"Y'all seen them, the boys are out there playing hard," Parker said. "Especially Russell -- Carey too."

Russell and Davis have said Parker is an inspiration to them. Parker said he hasn't forgotten what it was like to try to make the team's roster after he was an undrafted rookie in 2004.

"I'm competing too; I'm always going to have that mind-set," Parker said. "When I stop that, that's when I'm going to be gone. I know how it is and I have to keep that same mentality."



NOTES -- C Chukky Okobi appeared to be OK as he walked the sideline during the game Saturday night. Okobi's lower back was injured in practice Wednesday. ... The Steelers' afternoon practice, from 3-5 p.m., is open to the public.


Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com.

Big Ben's goal: Five Super Bowls

By Joe Starkey
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, August 12, 2007



Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin talks with Ben Roethlisberger during the first quarter of the Packers game.

Ben Roethlisberger doesn't think small. Never has. Never will.
Latest example: In a recent interview with Steelers Digest, the Steelers' fourth-year quarterback said his goal is to win five Super Bowls.

Four's no good. Other guys have done that.

"They asked me my dream," Roethlisberger said, "and I said it would be to get five, because that's one more than (Terry) Bradshaw, and, you know, one more than most other quarterbacks."

Actually, the only other quarterback to win four was Joe Montana. Roethlisberger's smile indicated he knows as much.
His dream, to be sure, is not terribly realistic. To some, it might seem as delusional as Kordell Stewart's long-ago guarantee that he would wind up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

But in Roethlisberger's case, there is nothing wrong with setting the bar at a record height. He has earned the right to do so publicly.

Remember, Roethlisberger already has visited places no quarterback had gone before.

Nobody in the 87-year history of the NFL had a higher rookie completion percentage (66.4).

Nobody had ever gone 13-0 until Roethlisberger did so in 2004.



And only Montana, Phil Simms and Troy Aikman had better three-game playoff passer ratings than the 125.8 mark Roethlisberger posted two years ago, when the Steelers won at Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Denver on their way to Super Bowl XL.

Then, amid a flurry of extenuating circumstances, he had a bad year.

Opinions of him changed.

Sports Illustrated's Peter King, for example, recently ranked Roethlisberger 17th among NFL quarterbacks, behind the likes of Jon Kitna, Jay Cutler, Chad Pennington, Jake Delhomme and 37-year-old Brett Favre, who apparently wants to play longer than George Blanda.

Roethlisberger insists stuff like that doesn't motivate him. The bad year apparently did, though. During the offseason, he added a film room to his house.

"One, it's because I'd like to go home and be in my element, where I can sit down there in the movie room and eat dinner while I watch it; it's always going," Roethlisberger said. "And, two, it doubles as a movie room, so I can watch movies."

The video of Saturday's preseason game against the Green Bay Packers won't make for pleasant viewing. Roethlisberger came out running the no-huddle offense -- the offense he has lobbied for -- and accomplished virtually nothing on two series.

The first ended with a Roethlisberger fumble on the third play, when Packers defensive end Cullen Jenkins beat Marvel Smith and knocked the ball from the quarterback's grasp.

The second ended on the fifth play when Najeh Davenport -- who is built like a short-yardage back but has shown little proclivity for the job -- was stuffed on third-and-1.

That was it for Big Ben. He finished 2 for 2 for 14 yards behind a re-shuffled offensive line that was missing guard Alan Faneca.

Nothing gained. Nothing lost. No need to worry. Remember how well the no-huddle worked in a preseason game against Minnesota last year? That didn't exactly translate.

The Steelers have given Roethlisberger everything he needs to succeed -- continuity, in the form of offensive coordinator Bruce Arians, ample weaponry and the keys to the offense.

The rest is up to him. And at this point in his still-young career, all things remain possible.


Joe Starkey is a sports writer for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He can be reached at jstarkey@tribweb.com

Bob Smizik: King Barry's visit will stir the pot Monday night

Friday, August 10, 2007

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

How appropriate that, in his first venture away from the cozy adulation of San Francisco, the much-detested home run king is coming back to the place where they hated him before it was a national craze.

That's Pittsburgh. Always ahead of the curve.

Barry Bonds, not the greatest Pirate but the greatest player to wear a Pirates uniform, will return Monday to where it all began. It is intriguing to ponder how many will buy tickets for the twi-night doubleheader at PNC Park, which was not on the original schedule and was caused by two postponements in April.

It will be more intriguing to see how he is greeted.

Bonds is now an historic figure, and not because he failed to throw out Sid Bream at home in the seventh game of the 1992 NLCS. His name will live as long as they play baseball. In discussions of the all-time greatest players, his name is near the top of the list. No one denies him that.

It would be nice to say we saw this level of greatness coming. Few, if any, did. When he arrived in Pittsburgh in late May of 1986 after less than a year of minor-league ball, it was with little fanfare. Sure, he was a first-round pick, but back then, as now, the Pirates had miserable luck with such choices. From 1965, the first year of the draft, until Bonds was selected in 1985, the Pirates' only first-round choice to have any kind of major-league career was Richie Hebner, an above-average third baseman. Ten of the picks never made it to the majors. The remainder were bit players.

Why would Bonds be different?

His first start was May 30 against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He led off against Orel Hershiser and popped up to shortstop Mariano Duncan. He would go hitless in five at-bats that day. His first hit came in his first at-bat the next day, a double off Rick Honeycutt. He was 4 for 20 and once had been pinch-hit for by Mike Diaz before a June 4 game against Atlanta. In the fifth inning, he hit his first homer in what was to become a 12-3 Pirates victory.



There barely was any stopping him after that, except, of course, for those postseason flops. That's something Pittsburgh can't get past. But let's take another quick look.

He was awful, no question, in three consecutive playoff series. But, in two of those postseasons, he was facing the Atlanta Braves, which meant there were three future Hall of Famers pitching against him -- Greg Maddox, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. Beyond that, it's such a small sampling. The beloved Willie Stargell was a combined 6 for 54 in the 1971 and 1972 postseasons with no homers and two RBIs.

As for the play on Bream, it was a good one -- not the massive failure his critics suggest. Bonds, a great defensive outfielder, did everything right. He just did not have a strong enough throwing arm. It would have taken a great throw to get Bream. Bonds made a good one.

Combine his failure to hit in the postseason, the misunderstanding of the Bream play and the fact he is not a nice person and what you have locally is an intense dislike of Bonds that manifests itself in loud booing every time he plays here.

Brazenly overlooked in these calculations is the fact he won two Most Valuable Player titles with the Pirates, twice as many as any player in team history, and that there would have been no playoffs -- not a chance -- without him.

Nationally, it is his chemical enhancement that most makes him so unpopular, although his personality is a close second. In breaking Hank Aaron's all-time home run record, he has been excoriated by the national media. That is certainly their right, but it seems a bit off since the 350th win of Roger Clemens, another player who may well have used chemicals to achieve his late-career success, received no such scrutiny or anger.

Nor is Bonds the only player who allegedly has used steroids. There's no way of knowing, but a good estimate would be 30 percent of the major-leaguers were using and maybe some still are.

And, while it is virtually indisputable that the success of the 1970s Steelers and many other NFL teams of that era was aided by steroids, those lapses in judgment are conveniently overlooked.

As for those wishing an asterisk, that is laughable. Bonds has hit the most home runs in major-league history without breaking the rules. Why should there be an asterisk?

If you want an asterisk, consider this: The most prolific home run hitter in history is Mark McGwire, who homered every 10.6 at-bats. Babe Ruth is second at 11.8 and Bonds third at 12.9. Aaron is 36th, homering every 16.4 at-bats. This puts him behind, among others, Jim Gentile (16.3), Jay Buhner (16.2) and, my favorite, Ron Kittle (15.4).

Maybe it's Aaron who should have had the asterisk.

But Aaron is deservedly revered and Bonds greatly despised.

When his name is announced Monday at PNC, you can be sure there will be plenty who will stand and cheer. And you can be just as sure there will be more who sit and boo.

Bonds would not have it any other way.


Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com

Gene Collier: Debate on Bonds has just begun

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Very often, when Barry Bonds steps on home plate to punctuate another of his signature homers, he jabs at the heavens to thank God. Let's now point with him, literally or figuratively, and say together, "Thank God that's over!"

Of Bonds and his now unparalleled home run numbers, of the count up to the countdown, of the inescapable arguments they engendered thanks exclusively to the man himself, the Great Scambino, the Sultan of Stanozolol, the Colossus of the Cream and the Clear, the Terror of Trenbolone, let us agree at the minimum that Henry Aaron's 33-year-old career home run record of 755 has finally and irredeemably been, umm, surpassed.

Broken?

Not sure I can go there.

Wrecked?

Certainly.

This is the point in this essay where a lot of predictors will exit, identifying it as another blossoming screed against poor Barry, just because he is black, just because he does not like the media, just because he is misunderstood, just because he is not as palatable as Aaron to the broader white audience, and just because of whatever other amateur psycho-social palaver in which they care to traffic.

Sorry, I'm not playing defense today, except to point out the following:

Bonds and his numbers have been stripped across the front page of this sports section every single day of the summer, every single day since May 14? Just Barry and his relevant newsworthy numbers. Counting up. Counting down. And it's 100 percent syringe free. No context. No irony. No sarcasm.

Just the man and his numbers.

Maybe you noticed that yesterday, hours after Barry surpassed The Hammer, the front page of this newspaper proclaimed, "Home Run King." Not an asterisk in sight, nor should there have been.

In other words, here and in most media outlets, we're cool with all this on the surface. Because we dig immediate facts, sometimes even at the expense of some larger truth.

So don't be bringing me your bias theory.

But the truth is, alas and again, Greg Anderson is in jail for a third time on contempt charges. He was Bonds' personal trainer. He was Bonds' go-between to the perverse doping underworld that was BALCO, whose founder has been to prison and back for distributing designer (undetectable) steroids and human growth hormone. Anderson, whom Bonds reportedly underpaid, won't talk about it, which is why he is in jail. If Bonds is innocent, why is his head bigger than Mr. Met's and why doesn't Anderson just say so?



And the truth is, alas and again, that Bonds told a grand jury he took the stuff, but did not know what it was. If you believe someone who is making $17 million annually based just about exclusively on his musculature can ingest something without knowing what it is, something from an obscure laboratory, well, I can't help you.

In a sense, we're all at fault for the magnification of things that should be left to trivialists.

Too often we confuse baseball history with real history, mostly because the mileposts of too many lives, including my own, are marked with ball scores and numbers that probably should not matter as much as they do. I remember where I was when the Philadelphia Phillies lost a 12-game lead with 61/2 games left, where I was when Pete Rose punched the daylights out of Bud Harrelson, where I was when Aaron took Al Downing aboard Flight 715, where I was when the ball went between Bill Buckner's legs, where I was when Sid Bream beat Spanky LaValliere's swipe tag to the plate in Fulton County Stadium, even where I was, for God's sake, when Randall Simon whacked Milwaukee's sausage.

When Bonds surpassed Aaron, I was in bed watching "Frazier" with my eyes closed, something I probably would have been capable of forgetting by the end of this column had not my older son come in at 10 past midnight to see if I was awake.

"Did you hear Barry did it?" said the 22-year-old.

"Yeah?"

"You know it's sad," he said. "I'm supposed to love baseball, and I didn't come home early to see it or anything. It's just, so what?"

"Yeah."

"Sherry Niles?"

It is terribly sad, if not so much for us, as in the little understood way in which the highly privileged and the immensely gifted seem to find sadness in spite of themselves. Barry never felt respected enough. Never. No matter the topic.

In the Pirates' dugout at Three Rivers Stadium, circa 1989, I was in a meandering pregame conversation with Bonds, another writer, and some stadium staffers, too long before game time. The conversation bumped up against guns at one point, causing Barry to blurt, "All my friends have Uzis!"

Nobody wants to be framed by reflexive, intemperate things they said when they were 25, but Bonds was so promising in the baseball sense that he already had been grown a sense of entitlement the size of Delaware. When Mark McGwire, himself now a recluse without sympathy, won the nation's adulation through much the same depressing methods in 1998, Bonds simply could not deal with it, despite telling then girlfriend Kimberly Bell, "they're just letting him do it because he's a white boy." It was Bell who told "Game of Shadows" authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams that when a flight delay caused her to be late for a meeting with the eventual Home Run King, Barry said, "If you ever #$%@!pull some #$%@!like that again, I'll kill you, do you understand?"

No one wants to be framed by intemperate things they say when they're 37, but this was long after Bell started taping Barry's phone messages for fear that no one would be able to figure out why she was dead.

But for now, I guess it's long live the king.

Five or six or seven years from now, a Hall of Fame ballot will arrive at my house. On the instructions, it will tell me to base my vote on every candidate's "playing record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to his team."

That's a whole lot more than just the man and his numbers.


Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1283.

Catching up with their competitors, the Steelers christen a mascot

Say hello to Steely McBeam

Thursday, August 09, 2007

By Robert Dvorchak, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The name and the character may take some getting used to. But move over Stevie Steeler and The Terrible Fan: The mascot named yesterday as part of the 75th anniversary season of the Steelers is ... Steely McBeam.



Peter Diana, Post-Gazette
Steely McBeam -- a hard hat and a jutting jaw.
Click photo for larger image.

It almost felt like the football gods were frowning yesterday at the Steelers' training camp on this break from tradition -- What's next? A steel-toed drill team? -- but it turned out to be nothing more than a few raindrops and the rumble of distant afternoon thunder.

In fact, while some disparaging remarks have been heard from a fan base that resists change and doesn't think the Steelers need a mascot -- even though most National Football League teams have one -- Darnell Drewery of Wilkins has warmed to the idea.

"My first reaction was that if they didn't have one for so long, why do it now? But I've come around. I think it's really good for the new generation of fans," Mr. Drewery, 35, said at the announcement of the name following afternoon practice at Saint Vincent College. "I took pride in the fact that the Steelers didn't need anything but their hard-core fans. No cheerleaders or gimmicks. No Hollywood stuff. Pittsburgh is all about old-school. But now I think this is a good idea."

He would, however, have preferred the name Man of Steel.

For the record, Steely McBeam's reaction was steely silence. But that's because the mascot doesn't talk when wearing his costume of a plaid gold shirt, black bib overalls, a hard hat and a jutting jaw.

The winning entry was chosen from a pool of 70,000 suggestions submitted by fans around the world after the contest to name the mascot was announced in April.

The name was submitted by Diane Roles of Valencia, who receives a VIP package for four to the Steelers' Sept. 16 home opener against the Buffalo Bills. She will also get an authentic Steelers throwback helmet and jersey, just like those that will be worn by the team that day.

"We've been ecstatic all day. I am just so thrilled, I don't know what to say," said Mrs. Roles, a grandmother of five.

She said she picked the name because of Pittsburgh's steel history, the Irish name McBeam because of the Rooney family name and "beam" for the city of Pittsburgh.

The mascot, a steel worker who represents Pittsburgh's legacy as an industrial furnace, is a modern version of a logo that the Steelers used during the 1950s and '60s. Mr. McBeam will be visible at all home games and participate in the team's charitable programs and other club-sponsored events.

The continuity of generations is a hallmark of a franchise with such a rich history. When the team changed its name from Pirates to Steelers in 1940 by holding a contest, founder Art Rooney made the announcement. Yesterday, his grandson and namesake, team president Art Rooney II, served as master of ceremonies when the mascot's name was revealed.

"We've had mascots in the past. We just felt it was time to have an official one. We felt it would add some excitement and fun to our 75th season. It was a good way to try and reach out to the young folks a little more," said Mr. Rooney.

Mr. McBeam's jutting jaw conjures up memories of former coach Bill Cowher, he of the steely glare. But any resemblance is purely coincidental.

"It's been mentioned a couple of times that there's somewhat of a resemblance," laughed Mr. Rooney. "There was no effort to replicate Bill."

Debbie Townsend of Avonmore mentioned the resemblance, saying that the "highlight of my life" was getting an autograph from the former coach. She was at training camp yesterday with her husband and two children trying to get the autograph of new coach Mike Tomlin. And it's the new chapter in team history that makes the mascot appealing to her.

"I love it," she said. "I think this is the year to do it. It's a new beginning. A new book."

Longtime fan Pete Ringus, 66, of Arnold, didn't feel hidebound by tradition. While trying to keep track of two grandchildren who were with him at practice, he gave a thumbs-up to the idea.

"I think it's cool. Fans are interested in the Steelers anyway, but it gets them more and more involved, especially the new generation," said Mr. Ringus, a union carpenter for 38 years.

The honor of saying the name for the first time in public fell to Takara Corbett, who made the journey from Hawaii to St. Vincent College to see the Steelers up close. Her father, Kevin, is a native of Monongahela who bought a satellite dish and the $380 NFL TV package to keep up with the Steelers, even if he has to get up at 7 a.m. on Sundays to watch his team.

Miss Corbett, wearing a Willie Parker jersey, carried a hand-made sign that read:

Plane tickets: $5,000

Rental car: $500

Official jersey: $300

Getting an autograph from the Steelers: Priceless.

"I think the mascot is a very good idea," she said. "It's somebody that the kids can go up to when they're at the games. I like it."


Robert Dvorchak can be reached at bdvorchak@post-gazette.com or at 412-263-1959.

Crosby has many accomplishments on his resume

Loses his teenager tag today

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Peter Diana, Post-Gazette
Sidney Crosby is no longer a teenage phenom. As of today, he is 20 years old.
Click photo for larger image.

Late July, early August bring the slowest weeks of the hockey calendar. Players, management and staff take vacations and perhaps begin to think about training camp.

There is one issue facing the Penguins today, however.

Can superstar center Sidney Crosby still be Sid the Kid at age 20?

"Good question," general manager Ray Shero said with a slight laugh yesterday.

"I don't know. It's a nice handle. And 20 years old is still pretty young."

Crosby's whirlwind career so far has been defined not only by what he has accomplished but also by what he has done at such a young age.

As of today, he is no longer a teenage phenom.

Born 8/7/87 -- begetting his uniform No. 87 and the average salary of $8.7 million on his five-year contract extension that kicks in next year -- Crosby wakes up this morning to his 20th birthday.

"It does make me step back a little," Crosby said. "Just to have the opportunity I've had, I feel fortunate.

"I'm not sure [what it means to turn 20], though. I've always been the young guy, even before I got to the NHL. I don't know that being 19 years and 366 days is going to be any different."

Well, perhaps it will be better, considering most athletes are at their prime in their 20s.

During his two seasons in the NHL as a teenager, Crosby became the youngest ...

* To win the Art Ross Trophy, ringing up 120 points in 2006-07, and first teen to win a major pro league's scoring championship.

* Other than Wayne Gretzky to win the Hart Trophy as league MVP.

* To win the Pearson Award that goes to the top player as voted by his fellow players.

* To make the postseason first-team All-Star squad.

* To be voted into the starting lineup for the All-Star Game.

* To reach 100 points in each of his first two seasons.

* To be named team captain.

"Not too many players in any sport can do what he's accomplished already," Shero said. "He's special. Very mature. His greatest days are ahead. It will be interesting following his career on and off the ice over the years."

Crosby has been as low-key off the ice as he has been high-octane on it.

His birthday celebration has been no different.

Saturday, he got together with his extended family in his hometown of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia.

"With my birthday being midweek, I just decided to do it [Saturday]," he said.

Sunday, the party continued with a fishing trip.

And today?

"I'll just relax," Crosby said. "I might have a few friends down."

Although his multi-day birthday bash didn't seem to include much more exertion than it takes to blow out 20 candles on a cake, Crosby hasn't gotten away from his discipline for training.

He has been running, working out off the ice and skating a couple times a week. He said his left foot, which was broken March 16 and he played on until the Penguins were eliminated from the playoffs by Ottawa in the first round, is fine, "but the real test will come when I get hit there, not that I'm going to ask anyone to test it."

Crosby, the first overall pick in the 2005 draft who put up 75 goals and 222 points in his first two NHL seasons, is part of a rebuilt Penguins team that repeatedly has been defined as a young group with tons of potential.

Turning 20 on the heels of a season in which the team improved by 47 points to 105 and challenged for home-ice advantage in the playoffs has compelled Crosby to think of the team a little differently.

With the likelihood of just one teenager, forward Jordan Staal, on the roster for 2007-08 and many core players at or approaching their mid-20s, perhaps it is time to matriculate from being a young team with potential into a solid team ready to hit its stride.

"I think we have to set the standard high with [Staal] being the only teenager, but we are a young team," Crosby said.

NOTES -- Staal, his brother, Eric, and 12 others arrested July 21 when Eric's bachelor party got too loud are scheduled to make their first court appearance tomorrow morning in Grand Marais, Minn. All were charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing the legal process, and Jordan Staal, 18, was additionally charged with underage drinking. Eric Staal plays for the Carolina Hurricanes. ... Shero hasn't decided whether to explore a contract extension for goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who is slated to earn $1.6 million this season, the second of a two-year contract. ... Shero said the Penguins will not exercise their right to sign goaltender Bobby Goepfert before an Aug. 15 deadline for college seniors. Goepfert, who played at St. Cloud State, was a third-round draft pick in 2003.


Shelly Anderson can be reached at shanderson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1721.

Bay's backward step a multi-part mystery

Pirates' franchise player has few explanations for decline

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Lake Fong, Post-Gazette
Jason Bay is hitting .260 this season with 104 hits, 17 home runs and 71 RBIs.
Click photo for larger image.

So, Jason Bay was asked shortly after belting his 17th home run Saturday night against the Cincinnati Reds' Todd Coffey: What was the pitch?

"Slider," he replied.

Really? Pretty impressive, considering it landed in the visitors' bullpen, 420 feet away.

"Yeah. Same pitch I missed by a foot just before that. I was setting him up."

Really?

"No. I wish."

How, then, to explain someone looking so formidable on one swing, so fooled on the one right before it?

The answer to the former is easy: Bay has averaged 33 home runs per full season since joining the Pirates in 2003, and he has a hearty 17 so far this season. This is a power hitter of some pedigree.

But the part about missing so badly?

Hard to say.

And that might be the core explanation for why Bay, a two-time All-Star, a National League rookie of the year and the unquestioned anchor of the Pirates' present and future, has taken such a dispiriting step backward this season:

No one knows.

Yes, his home run total should look fine by summer's end. So will his RBIs, as he has a team-best 71.

But his average, .292 for his career before this year, is at .260. His on-base percentage, .391 for his career, is at .335 thanks to a 20 percent dip in walks. His doubles, averaging 37 for his career, are at 17. He recently went a month without one.

Bay, true to his straight-shooting personality, minces no words when asked to assess it.

"I set the bar pretty high for myself those first three years, and I know that," he said. "Everyone has the down years, too, and I know I haven't been as good offensively as I've been before. Believe me, I know."

He paused.

"But I also take a little bit of solace in that, if I look back at the end of this year and drive in close to 100 runs or more ... hey, if that's my bad year, that might say something, too. I'm not trying to beat myself up too much over it. I just want to finish strong."

Bay answered a host of questions aimed at delving deeper ...


The glove


Start with his health.

All through 2006, Bay concealed an injury to his left knee, never citing any physical reason for why he had stopped trying to steal bases after doing so effortlessly in 2005. In November, he had minor surgery on the knee.

Lately, he has been lugging large packs of ice on his knee again. Only it is his other one.

The Pirates' short-term diagnosis is that it is nothing serious, merely fatigue from the compensating it had to last year.

Again, Bay dismisses it.

"I don't really know what it is but, believe me, it's not hampering me that much."

He added that his surgically repaired knee is fine.

At the same time, he freely acknowledges he has lost a stride or two.

"The bottom line is that I'm not as fast as I was three years ago. That's not an excuse. That's just how it is. There are some balls I'm not getting to in the field, and there isn't that push on the basepaths."

That has been painfully evident, especially in left field.

Bay has been plagued by poor jumps, dubious judgment and a failure to be aggressive, the sum of which has caused some to accuse him of looking tentative or even lacking passion.

Given Bay's history, the latter seems unlikely, as it would represent a stark departure in attitude.

His take, simply, is that he has not performed well.

"I don't feel like I've regressed to the point where I'm some terrible outfielder. But I can say that I know I've played better."

The Pirates' management quietly has taken steps to address Bay's shortcomings. For the past month or so, he has been positioned closer to the left-field line, the better to cut off doubles. He also has been moved a step or two back -- as have other outfielders -- to make it easier to go back on deep balls.

This would explain Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia's assessment in late June that the Pirates' outfield was playing "soft on doubles."



Peter Diana, Post-Gazette
Jason Bay misses a ball hit by the Reds' David Ross on April 24.
Click photo for larger image.

There even has been discussion at upper levels of the Pirates' management that Bay might wind up in right field, which has far less ground to cover than PNC Park's mammoth left-center gap.

Bay sounds amenable.

"A few years ago, I really felt like left field was best suited for me. And I think it still might be, but there are a lot of balls where I'm just a step or two off."


The arm


Bay's nine outfield assists rank fifth in the National League.

Never has a statistic been more misleading.

Beginning in full force with that series in Anaheim, when the Angels turned just about every poke to left field into extra bases, teams have run liberally against Bay. Even a shallow popup to left is cause for tagging up.

Bay never had a strong arm, even before a torn labrum in his right shoulder was repaired in late 2003, a procedure significant enough that it often derails a pitcher's career. But it never seemed so clear a liability until this season.

He has only one explanation there.

"My sister got the arm in the family," he said with a small laugh. "How about that? She's a world-class left-handed pitcher."

Lauren Bay has been a mainstay on the Canadian national softball team.

"Look, I'll be the first to admit I don't have the best arm in the majors," he continued. "I'm sure when teams are in scouting meetings, they're talking about that just like teams talk about Juan Pierre. But different guys have different traits. Pierre is a great player in other ways."

Asked if the shoulder has hindered him, he replied flatly, "It's never been better since the surgery than it is now, actually."


The bat


Most mystifying -- and costly -- to the Pirates has been Bay's diminishing offense. Manager Jim Tracy has confessed to losing sleep over it. Hitting coach Jeff Manto no doubt has done likewise.

Bay, to be sure, is handling it even harder.

"Anyone who knows that young man knows that this hasn't been easy for him," Tracy said. "He's accustomed to performing at an elite level and, even though this happens to the best of them, it doesn't make it any easier to take."

Bay has emerged from that six-week coma at the plate by batting .339 -- 19 for 56 -- his past 15 games. There have been four home runs in that span, too, and there could be more beginning tonight in Phoenix, where Bay traditionally has torn apart Chase Field.

But the lack of confidence, as was clear with the strange sequence of sliders Saturday, still creeps in there.

"It's not like I feel overmatched," Bay said. "It's more like a feeling where you're 0-2 before you get in the box, where there's no rhythm with the count or anything about the at-bat. Even from game to game ... I go out there and get three hits and think, 'Oh, I'm back.' And I go out the next day feeling like I haven't gotten a hit in two months."

Some have tracked a drop in his pull power.

Anything to that?

"No, it's nothing like that. I've just been fighting myself. For me, it's all about that comfort factor. I've had times this year where I went to the plate not thinking about anything other than just making contact. You can't really play that way."

Is it getting better?

"No question. You can see that."


The heart


It has been seen so many times in Pittsburgh: A talented player says all the right things, does all the right things, then wants out when the losing becomes too much. Brian Giles. Jason Kendall. Now, Jack Wilson would eagerly join Detroit.

Bay is entering that tenure territory, so it might be reasonable to ask if he, too, is getting engulfed by a franchise headed for its 15th consecutive losing season.

"There have been times where it's been tough. I'll admit that," he replied. "You endure it, whether you like it or not. All of us weren't here for the first 14 years, but we've inherited it. It's there. I know the fans in Pittsburgh are frustrated, but we are, too."

Last year, Bay universally was recognized as the clubhouse leader, but that role seems to have been assumed more by a few others this season. Given the somewhat spread-out dynamic of that group, it is difficult to detect what that means for Bay.

This much seems certain: He still is longing for success at a team level, something evident in his upbeat body language after Pirates victories.

"I want to turn it around. I'd love to see it happen. But everyone's looking for some overnight answer. How do you do that? How do you just flip the wall switch? That's the tough part. Here we are, after all this time, still trying to find that."


Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@post-gazette.com.

Tomlin Wins Debut

Calmer, with less chin and spittle, Mike Tomlin coaches his first Steeler win

Monday, August 06, 2007

By Chuck Finder, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Peter Diana, Post-Gazette

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin shouts instructions at Hall of Fame game.
Click photo for larger image.

CANTON, Ohio -- The new guy donned his customary mental-warfare black outfit, paced the sidelines with a relatively quiet purpose and failed to spit on any of his players.

So went Mike Tomlin's Steelers head-coaching debut last night, having broken camp in Latrobe -- site of America's first professional football game -- for a first game in the birthplace of the National Football League.

Even if it was only a meaningless exhibition, in the Hall of Fame Game, a new head coach must start somewhere. Inside a high-school stadium next door to pro football's hall, Tomlin watched his starters outplay second-year coach Sean Payton's defending NFC South champions, the New Orleans Saints, when the game mattered at least a whit. Ben Roethlisberger connected twice for 73 yards with Cedrick Wilson, who days earlier publicly complained he wasn't an intended target often enough, and the heavy-pressure Steelers' defense made that 7-0 lead stand for more than a quarter in a 20-7 Steelers triumph.

By the second quarter, Tomlin settled mostly into a midfield lurker at Fawcett Stadium and remained nowhere near as animated, or moisture-imparting, as predecessor Bill Cowher, who resigned in January to become a full-time dad and part-time CBS analyst ... for a year or so anyway.

Easily three-fourths of the roughly 22,302 patrons inside Fawcett Stadium -- more of a Faucet during the two-hour pregame rain -- came garbed in black and gold to watch their favored Steelers. They were intrigued to see the new approach, the new coach.

"A good first step," Tomlin said afterward.

"He'll be good," said Jim Fragasse, a Jack Lambert jersey-wearing Steelers fan from Dover, Ohio, south of the Pro Football Hall and about equidistant from both Cleveland and Pittsburgh. "He's got a good team. We're pulling for him." Son Gabe, 10, on his shoulders and wife Laurie beside him nodded in agreement. But eldest son, Cody, 14, was reserving judgment on the new guy.

Brenda Simmons of Canton, the mother of a Browns son even though she has faithfully followed the Steelers for three decades, talked from underneath her soggy Steelers cap about the legacy of sideline consistency into which Tomlin treads.

She talked about him being the third Steelers head coach since 1969, not about him being the eighth fellow African-American to lead an NFL team onto a field, though she expressed pride in that latter fact. "I think we're going to do well with him," she said.

For pure viewing pleasure, Cowher long was a favorite among a Steelers Nation that foamed at the mouth almost as often as he did on a sideline. This, after all, was a 15-year coach who stuffed a photograph in an official's pocket, nearly tackled a Jacksonville returner, jutted his famed jaw, cried in front of the cameras and otherwise wore his rampant emotions openly.

Like Cowher before him a defensive coordinator named Steelers head coach at age 34, Tomlin is nevertheless a stark sideline contrast.

"You know, I really kind of took myself out of it," Tomlin said of the first-game equation. "I just wanted to create an environment for players and coaches to get what they needed out of it. When you do that, you kind of get your job done in the process."

Tomlin emerged onto the field at 6:57 p.m., harbinger or not, just as the slate skies opened with a sturdy rain once again. The new guy wore a Steelers waterproof jacket and windpants, still in the black he regularly wears on the steamy St. Vincent College fields at training camp (prompting his remark this week relating that to "mental warfare" with his players).

As fate would have it, the Fawcett Stadium videoboards were playing the 2006 Steelers' highlights film. Two minutes after he took the field, Tomlin was sharing a laugh with receivers coach Randy Fichtner and offensive coordinator Bruce Arians because the visage on the big screen was the new guy. There he was as the Minnesota Vikings coordinator. There he was as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers secondary coach.

Coincidence wasn't done with him just yet, either.

For then a fellow former Bucs assistant tapped him on the shoulder, ex-Browns center Jim Pyne.

"We knew he would be a head coach," offered Pyne, out of coaching and living in the Cleveland area. "Good guy. Hard worker. Smart. Intelligent. Great with people. Great teacher."

By game's start, Tomlin had changed into a Steelers sweatshirt -- black, of course -- and took his sideline spot at midfield, strolling back and forth between offense, defense, special teams.

Give the new guy credit: When it came time for the national anthem, he positioned himself, black Steelers ballcap over heart, among the on-field officials.

By the end of the first quarter, after a play in which Wilson appeared to be a victim of interference, he was working those same officials gently. "Nothing new. I did that as an assistant," Tomlin said. But, heretofore, "I had a coach who would tell me to shut up."

As for sideline demeanor, he opened the game walking up and down the bench shaking hands, giving embraces and patting both behinds and helmets. He poked his head into the kickoff-return huddle before that opening kickoff. He pointed in praise at Roethlisberger after that 55-yard pass to Wilson on the exhibition's second play from scrimmage. He rubbed Wilson's helmet in congratulations after the 80-yard drive to the inaugural touchdown, by running back Najeh Davenport. Later, he stayed mostly removed, a manager at work.

"You know what," nose guard Chris Hoke said. "Coach Tomlin is doing a great job. Coach Cowher was an icon. Coach Tomlin, he's his own man. His philosophy is, we're here, we're professional athletes, we can get ourselves ready to play."

Added offensive tackle Max Starks, "Coach Tomlin definitely demands that respect. He's a great guy. We look forward to playing for him."

The debut difference? A pre-kickoff interview with the NFL Network's Deion Sanders.

"That was unique," Tomlin admitted. "That was about the only thing new and exciting that happened to me, giving an interview 30 seconds before kickoff.

"Maybe I'll be more excited next month. I'm sure I will when we open in Cleveland."

In 35 days, he and his Steelers will return to northeast Ohio and start for real.


Chuck Finder can be reached at cfinder@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1724.

Bucs had their reasons for befuddling trade

By John Shea

San Fransisco Chronicle

Sunday, August 5, 2007



Pirates starter Matt Morris pitches during the first inning Saturday night against the Reds at PNC Park.

What makes a team post losing records 15 straight years, the second longest streak in baseball history?

What makes fans organize a one-inning walkout to protest ownership's frugality?

What makes a general manager feel satisfied about trading for Matt Morris and inheriting his $13.7 million contract?

What makes the Pirates the Pirates?

It's suggested that decisions such as Tuesday's Morris trade have buried this team year after year, and it's hard to disagree. The Pirates, in a money-saving move, gift-wrapped future All-Star Aramis Ramirez to the Cubs but also wasted $10.7 million on over-the-hill free agents Jeromy Burnitz and Joe Randa.

The Morris trade raised eyebrows all over baseball because last-place teams just don't take on salary with two months remaining in a lost season. Last-place teams don't buy; they sell. Last-place teams are supposed to dump Morris - as the last-place Giants did - not welcome him.

"I understand the criticism," Pirates GM Dave Littlefield said in a phone interview. "I understand this isn't commonly done. But we believe he's a good fit. We look at it as an opportunity to fill a need."

Littlefield pulled the trigger on Morris, agreeing to inherit his entire contract - minus a $2 million signing bonus owed at contract's end - agreeing to do what two contending teams (believed to be St. Louis and Seattle) wouldn't. The others wanted the Giants to eat some of the contract. Littlefield said he'd take it all.

Here's his explanation:

-- He wanted a veteran starter to lead an otherwise young rotation, a reason the Giants gave when they signed Morris to a three-year, $27 million contract on Dec. 12, 2005.

-- He wanted a pitcher similar to the starters signed in the offseason - the Brewers gave Jeff Suppan four years and $42 million, and the Royals gave Gil Meche five years and $55 million - but wasn't excited about committing for that long.

-- He wanted someone to help the Pirates improve in a division that's not deep. The Pirates went 2-14 after the All-Star break to post the league's worst record at the time of the trade, but they showed life before the break by winning four straight series.

So Littlefield got Morris, who turns 33 Thursday and is signed through 2008 with a club option for 2009. The Giants received Rajai Davis and a player to be named, but the main thing in their rebuilding preparation was shedding the contract.

"The last couple of winters, we wanted to acquire a starting pitcher who's durable and still performing at a solid level, to fill in as the lead guy for our younger starters," Littlefield said. "We have not been able to acquire that guy. No disrespect to clubs who (committed four or more years to a starter), but we're looking at the shorter term. We have to look at what guys will look like in years three and four. Sometimes, the last couple of years get pretty hairy."

It was pretty hairy for Morris in his final eight Giants starts. He went 0-4 with a 7.94 ERA, giving up 80 hits over 451/3 innings. Of course, Littlefield would prefer the Morris who started the season 7-3 with a 2.56 ERA and was considered an All-Star candidate.

If Morris is to be considered a staff leader, he can't pitch as he did the past six weeks. It was hardly an example for Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum and Noah Lowry, and now the Pirates have young pitchers looking for someone other than the pitching coach to lead the way.

The Pirates are the only big-league team to use four homegrown starters in their rotation all season. Tom Gorzelanny (9-6, 3.55 ERA), Ian Snell (7-10, 3.91) and Paul Maholm (7-13, 4.50) haven't missed a start. Zach Duke (3-7, 5.79) was shelved with elbow tendinitis and replaced by Shane Youman (2-3, 4.76), another pitcher who came from Pittsburgh's farm system.

A fifth homegrown starter, John Van Benschoten (0-5, 9.76), was sent to the minors and replaced by Morris.

"Obviously, performance is the key, and consistency is what we're striving to get better at," Littlefield said. "I realize Matt Morris isn't at the peak of his career, but I'm confident with our scouting staff and the things I know about Matt Morris that he'll get back on track."

By agreeing to pick up the $13.7 million due Morris - $3.2 million this year, $9.5 million next year, plus a $1 million buyout on the $9 million club option - the Pirates were able to outbid other teams before Tuesday's trade deadline and can avoid the lunacy of overpaying for a starter in free agency.

"You're in competition," Littlefield said. "There are only so many pitchers in the market. We had to find a way to separate ourselves a little bit."

Morris was the first veteran the Pirates have acquired before the deadline in 10 years, since Shawon Dunston in 1997.

E-mail John Shea at jshea@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Tomlin ready for his much-anticipated debut

Saturday, August 04, 2007

By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

On national television, next to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and its special exhibit in honor of the Steelers' 75th season, 35-year-old Mike Tomlin steps onto the field and into a world he long anticipated.


Peter Diana, Post-Gazette.

Mike Tomlin steps onto the field as a head coach for the first time tomorrow night in the Hall of Fame exhibition game in Ohio.
Click photo for larger image.

Tomorrow night won't count as Tomlin's first official turn as the third Steelers' third head coach in 39 years, but it's not just another first exhibition game, either.

"I've sat in the backseat and passenger seat enough," said Tomlin, an assistant coach at one place or another the previous 11 years, "and you always talk about, 'Boy, I'd like to do that.' We'll see, won't we, on Sunday night?"

Yes, at least those in Pittsburgh and New Orleans and those who can get the NFL Network. Before now, only those who have made the trek to Saint Vincent College have been able to see Tomlin in action.

Like any other NFL coach, he will play his starters for only about a quarter tomorrow, although quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will get less time and rookie outside linebacker LaMarr Woodley and some others more. Unlike most NFL coaches, he will have his two coordinators on the sideline with him.

Traditionally, one or both coordinators are in the press box, usually the offensive coordinator with the Steelers. Defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau has been on the sideline, and new offensive coordinator Bruce Arians will join him there.

"You can't cook from the living room," Tomlin said. "I coordinated from the field. I coached secondary in Tampa from the field. I think there's value to being able to look a man in the face and being able to communicate."

Tomlin said he will let his coaches coach and won't interfere with their play calls.

"No, I believe that my job is to game manage. Once I become a play-caller, I lose a little sense of what's going on with all 53 if we're talking about a regular-season situation. I'm going to game manage. I'm sure there may be instances where I am involved in that, but I'm going in it with the mentality that I'm a game manager."

That's how Tomlin has been at training camp, allowing his coaches to do their thing as he walks around and observes. With a whistle and his room key hanging around his neck, Tomlin walks around to different stations over the various fields at Saint Vincent. If he misses something, either the coaches or videotape will catch him up. A few afternoons ago, he was asked after practice about what he saw in a passing drill.

"I didn't," Tomlin said as he stood on a field away from where that particular drill was held. "I was down here watching the big boys work, because that's where the game is played."

He does not micro-manage and he has not raised his voice. For a franchise and fans used to seeing the emotions pour out of the Steelers' head coach rather evidently for 15 seasons, things might seem a lot calmer on the sideline tomorrow night.

Tomlin cares a lot less about how he looks and acts in his maiden exhibition voyage as Steelers coach than he does about his team, 1 1/2 years removed from a Super Bowl victory and seven months after a disappointing 8-8 season, looks against the Saints.

"I expect them to compete," Tomlin said. "I expect them to play with great energy. I expect them to be very physical because that's what they've shown me thus far.

"But I want to see what this team's about. Again, I try to go in without any preconceived notions like I've said before, so I'm just kind of excited to see what this team really is about."

There is no pressure to win a first preseason game, of course. Chuck Noll lost his first one in 1969 to St. Louis, 27-12, in Norfolk, Va., a short pass from Hampton, where Tomlin was born almost three years later. Noll's teams would go on to win four Super Bowls. Bill Cowher's Steelers lost his first exhibition game, 35-33, to the Philadelphia Eagles in Three Rivers Stadium in 1992, while Tomlin was a sophomore receiver at William & Mary. Cowher's teams went to two Super Bowls and won one of them.

Now it's Mike Tomlin's turn. Even if tomorrow night is one of five dress rehearsals for the real start at Cleveland Sept. 9, it's his first chance to walk the sideline during a game as the boss.

It's not just another preseason game, unless you happen to be part of Tomlin's household. His wife, Kiya, and children won't be in the stands tomorrow.

"My wife's not big on preseason football," Tomlin said. "She has a tough time remembering the names in the second half."


Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com.