Beating Brewers would be cool

By Dejan Kovacevic, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Friday, August 12, 2011

MILWAUKEE — There's no Eiffel Tower, Golden Gate Bridge or Statue of Liberty. No, the monument of note in this city's center is a bronze statue of "The Fonz," commemorating the iconic sitcom "Happy Days" that was set here. The hair is greased back, the leather jacket loose, both thumbs up in a permanent state of cool.

The Brewers have some of that, too, considering they're one of baseball's hottest teams.

Nyjer Morgan, the former Pirates center fielder who uses the alias "Tony Plush" for no good reason, told me Thursday that he's "cooler than a polar bear's toenail." Prince Fielder, the megaslugging first baseman, accepted my thanks for an interview at the All-Star Game last month by replying, "Cool, baby." Even mustachioed mascot Bernie Brewer, with his 12,432 Twitter followers, is a little cool.

The Pirates?

Eh.

They begin a three-game series Friday night at Miller Park, and I'm sure they would love to douse first-place Milwaukee on the heels of taking two of three in San Francisco from the defending World Series champions.

But, wow, this could have been so much more.

"Aw, man, are you kidding?" Morgan said. "Buccos and Brew Crew with the whole baseball world looking on? It's just kind of a shame what happened over there."

No kidding. If it seems like only a couple of weeks have passed since the Pirates were looking down on Milwaukee in the Central Division, rather than 10 1/2 games upward, that's because, hey, it was! Then the Pirates plunged further and faster out of first place than any team in history and thus arrive in Milwaukee yet again in the role of patsy.

Or is that Potsie?

For those needing a refresher:

» The Pirates have lost 33 of their past 36 at Miller Park, dating to the start of 2007. That includes a 22-game losing streak that was the longest between any teams in baseball since 1969.

» In those 36 games, Pirates pitchers have a 6.61 ERA and have allowed 59 home runs.

» That run would be even worse if not for Ryan Doumit belting ninth-inning home runs on back-to-back days off all-time saves leader Trevor Hoffman last season. What were the odds?

» Overall in the past five years, the Pirates are 17-51 against the Brewers, including 0-5 this season.

» The 20-0 loss to the Brewers on April 22, 2010, at PNC Park was the worst in the Pirates' century-plus of existence, and it was part of a four-game run in which Milwaukee outscored them, 53-4.

Whatever you do, don't call this a rivalry. A rivalry takes two.

And maybe that underscores what the Pirates realistically could accomplish this weekend.

Already, Clint Hurdle and his players have blown through obstacles that hadn't been approached in 18 years. They were above .500 for 39 days. They were in first place for a week. They had three All-Stars. They packed people into PNC Park, and they drew enough national attention that poor Fox is now stuck airing the matinee here Saturday.

Time was, the only national press the Pirates could get in Milwaukee was for clubbing human sausages.

This is still different.

This is still a chance to check another item off the Pirates' list, maybe one of the most imposing they face. Let's remember how the Pirates of the 1980s didn't find their stride until they started beating the mouthy New York Mets. Or how the Penguins needed to end that epic 42-game, 15-year drought in Philadelphia. Or how the Steelers' dynasty took off after reversing a 9-32 history with the Cleveland Browns.

Few things are more therapeutic for a perpetual loser than to vanquish a nemesis, especially one that's disliked as much as the Brewers are — hello, Ryan Braun — by many in the Pirates' clubhouse.

Look at it emotionally, courtesy of Doumit: "Yeah, it would be nice to do well against that team. That's an understatement."

Or analytically, courtesy of general manager Neal Huntington: "It's tough to be one of those very good teams if there's anybody taking it to you. If you're 10 games under against one team, you're going to have a hard time being 10 games over .500 overall. I want to see it on the flip side, where we're taking it to somebody instead of them taking it to us."

Yeah, these Pirates would be a game over .500 if they were 5-0 against the Brewers.

Maybe someone can thump that jukebox back to life this weekend

Ravens determined to finally solve their Pittsburgh problem

By Don Banks
Inside the NFL
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/
August 10, 2011

OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- You wouldn't think you could show up at Baltimore's team complex, notebook in hand, and find a bunch of folks eager to talk about the "P'' word, but I'm happy to report there's no running from the truth going on here at Ravens training camp. Baltimore knows it must confront and conquer its Pittsburgh problem. And soon.

When the NFL's 2011 schedule came out in April, there were the Ravens and Steelers matched up once again in Week 1, an immediate renewal of what many consider the league's fiercest rivalry going. So Baltimore's season will begin the same way last year's ended, facing hated Pittsburgh, the team that it can't seem to beat when it matters most. The Ravens are fully aware that the only thing standing between them and where they want to go is that team in black and gold.

"This is all or nothing this year,'' said Ravens outside linebacker Terrell Suggs after a Tuesday afternoon practice. "When this journey first started, a lot of us were young men. I'm still a young man. I'm only 28. But I'm in my ninth year, so I feel like a window of opportunity is closing. There have been plenty of years that we let championship teams walk up outta here because of that team to the northwest of us. They've been the reason for that. So if we don't get over this hump this year, I don't know what else to say.''

Suggs is rarely, if ever, at a loss for words, so you know he's serious when it comes to the frustration level in the Baltimore locker room. The Ravens in the three-year John Harbaugh coaching era are a sterling 32-16 (.667), and the only team in the NFL to win at least one playoff game in each of the past three seasons. They're both accomplished and respected throughout the league, and they're known as one of the league's most resilient and resourceful franchises, with a quality coaching staff and a superb front office.

But the Ravens haven't figured out how to win their division yet and really go places in the playoffs, because they can't get past Pittsburgh. They're just 2-6 in the Harbaugh era against the Steelers, with two of the past three seasons ending with painful postseason losses at Heinz Field (in the 2008 AFC title game, and in the 2010 AFC divisional round). And they were only in the position of needing to again go the wild card route in the playoffs last season due to a season-turning Week 13 loss at home to Pittsburgh, when the Steelers rallied for a 13-10 win on the strength of Troy Polamalu's strip sack of Joe Flacco in the game's final minutes. Both teams finished 12-4, but Pittsburgh won the division via tiebreaker.

That play by Polamalu not only changed the arc of the Ravens' season, it very likely helped get Baltimore offensive line coach John Matsko fired in January. When Polamalu came clean into the backfield and forced Flacco to fumble, highlighting an obvious missed blocking assignment, Steelers linebacker LaMarr Woodley scooped up the loose ball and returned it to the Ravens 9, setting up Pittsburgh's winning touchdown. Seemingly that's how consequential every play in the Ravens-Steelers blood feud has become.

"They've won the games that matter, and you have to respect them for it,'' said Ravens running back Ray Rice, entering his fourth NFL season. "They're a great organization. They play hard, and they're everything people say they are. We're toe and toe and there with them, but obviously we've got to win the big games to get acknowledged with them. It's one of those situations where they know how to win. You have to give it to them. They know how to win. I think we know how to win as well, just not against them.''

If anything, the Ravens' 31-24 divisional round loss at Pittsburgh was even more inexplicable, with Baltimore building a commanding 21-7 halftime lead and silencing the hostile Heinz Field crowd, but then disintegrating beneath a steady stream of turnovers and dropped passes as Pittsburgh stormed back. It is plenty noted in the Ravens locker room that both years they've lost to the Steelers in the playoffs, Pittsburgh has gone on to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl (after the 2008 and 2010 seasons).

"All of them hurt,'' said Suggs, of the losses to the Steelers. "They all leave a bitter taste in your mouth. They've done it to us a few times now. And the thing is, in some of those games we've had 'em. We pretty much beat ourselves. If you go back and look at some of those last seven or eight games, at some point in the game you thought, Oh my God, Baltimore's going to win this game.

"It's the way we're losing to them. If we lose and flat out get beat, we get beat. But to give up plays and have them come back on us, it just stings even more. Our season was decided on a couple plays last year. They made the plays and we've hurt ourselves.''

For longtime Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome, the mistakes made by Baltimore in the playoff loss had plenty to do with how Pittsburgh imposes its will on an opponent as a game goes on. For more than 30 years now, first as a Hall of Fame Browns tight end, and now as the respected front office boss of the Ravens, Newsome has been watching teams self-destruct against the Steelers.

"There was something about that 21-7 lead that I wasn't comfortable with,'' Newsome said. "There was something about it. There are times when you get a lead and you think you're one play away from it being a blowout. But I just didn't feel that way that day, because I know how they play and how they feed off one big play.

"We made mistakes and we don't normally do that. But they cause a lot of that to happen. We gave them some things, but they were forcing us to do some of those things. That's how good they are. They have a resolve about themselves, and if you're not willing to play them for four quarters, then you can lose the game. You can't play for just one half.''

In some ways, it has come to this: The annual showdowns with Pittsburgh are the only games on the Ravens' schedule that really matter. Newsome even acknowledged it somewhat when I asked him if he puts his roster together every year with the thought of how to beat the Steelers in the front of his mind. He doesn't do that with AFC North rivals Cincinnati and Cleveland.

"Always Pittsburgh,'' Newsome said. "When I talk to most of the players at the [scouting] combine, I talk to them about 'How are you going to react when we go to Pittsburgh and play at Heinz Field?' I want to get a reaction, and the ones that are timid, I tell them I have a tough time thinking you could go to Heinz Field and help me win a football game. So yeah, it's there.''

It's there all right. The dominance of the Steelers is a topic that's never far from the brains of the Ravens and their fans, and some players know the battles with Pittsburgh have become at least partly mental. To pretend the Steelers aren't in the Ravens' heads at this point, after all the recent history, would be ludicrous.

"I'm sure there is some of that,'' Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco told me. "I don't know if I like admitting that, but sports is so mental. No matter what you say, a lot of it comes down to the mental side of it. These guys have beat us. When it comes down to it, they've figured out a way to win the game. And as much we don't want to admit that, it probably has a lot to do with the mental side of it.

"They've continued to push through. Things have not gone their way, but they've still fought through and gotten it done. We've bounced back, too, but we just haven't done it throughout the full 60 minutes. That's something that wins these games, and while both really are good teams, that mental aspect is the extra edge you get.''

The margin between the Steelers and Ravens remains razor slight. No game has been decided by more than nine points in the past three years, and six of their past eight meetings have been decided by four or fewer. Baltimore has yet to beat Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in the Flacco/Harbaugh era, winning at home in 2009 when Dennis Dixon started for an injured Big Ben, and winning at Pittsburgh in Week 4 of last season, when Roethlisberger was still suspended and Charlie Batch started for the Steelers.

Despite three strong seasons to begin his NFL career, Flacco will likely never get his due as one of the game's elite quarterbacks until he and his Ravens get over their Pittsburgh problem and start to regularly beat the Steelers. Newsome and others in the organization point out that once upon a time the Pistons owned Michael Jordan and the Bulls, but then the worm finally turned and a string of NBA titles ensued for Chicago.

"That's the hurdle we've got to clear, and that's the history we're going to have to overcome,'' Rice said. "Maybe when we beat them, we won't just beat them. A win is a win. But if we make a statement, and beat them in a way that they know they were really beaten, I think that leaves a taste.''

Week 1 in Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium, the Ravens will once again start pushing that rock back up that hill, trying to get past those same familiar Steelers and back into the AFC playoff field. Hopefully as a higher seed and in a position of strength this time. In Week 9, the two rivals will meet again in Pittsburgh, on NBC's Sunday Night Football. I think I like Baltimore's chances to finally flip the script on the Steelers this year, and Flacco to me is the key for the Ravens putting together a run of their own in this lopsided series.

"I agree, and I think we're building a team around here that's going to be good for a while,'' Flacco said, echoing the conventional wisdom on Baltimore's roster. "When we finally jell and get over that hump, I think we're going to be able to take it to the next level and be a team that's around for a while and win some Super Bowls.''

But it's not that long haul that Suggs and some other Ravens veterans are focused on like a laser. Linebacker Ray Lewis recently told CBSSports.com that "I feel like now we have enough pieces in place to make a good run at the Super Bowl," and that he'll retire if the Ravens do indeed win the big one. He, Suggs and Ed Reed want to beat the Steelers right now, and start rewriting a story line that has grown bitter and impossibly tired in Baltimore: Good Ravens team loses to a better Steelers team, and watches Pittsburgh move on in the playoffs.

"It's like a rerun,'' Suggs said. "Everybody knows how this story ends, with us and the Steelers. It's about time we changed it, and give people something new. Right now, it's kind of like we pride ourselves on being a bully, but they're the ones that keep knocking us out of the playoffs. So they're the bully. One day you just got to say '[screw] it' and punch the bully totally in his mouth. Then they won't bully you any more.''

See. They're not sugar-coating the truth in Baltimore these days. The Ravens have some work to do this season, and once again, it figures to both start and end with the task of getting past Pittsburgh.

Out of Left Field

By Dan Epstein
http://www.bighairplasticgrass.com/
August 10, 2011

While doing the research for Big Hair & Plastic Grass, I combed through hundreds of books and periodicals from the era, but one book somehow eluded me — Bob Adelman and Susan Hall's Out Of Left Field: Willie Stargell and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Long out of print, I recently found a used hardcover copy of the 1976 first edition via Amazon; and while there isn't much in there that would have appreciably changed the content of my book, it is a really fascinating read, and one I highly recommend to fans of the era, if you can find it.

Adelman and Hall had the sort of access to Stargell and the Pirates that you would never imagine today, especially considering that they were working on an "unauthorized" book. They followed the team for the entire '73 season, a tumultuous and frustrating campaign that saw the Bucs struggling to adjust to the sudden loss of their leader, Roberto Clemente, and to the equally sudden meltdown of former ace Steve Blass. Manager Bill Virdon was eventually fired with a month left to go in the season, but all new/old manager Danny Murtaugh could coax out of the team was a .500 September and a disappointing third-place finish behind the Mets and the Cardinals.

Out of Left Field paints a surprisingly intimate portrait of this lost season, with many of the players (Stargell, Richie Zisk, Manny Sanguillen, Richie Hebner, Al Oliver, Dock Ellis) offering surprisingly frank assessments of their lives and their team that go well beyond the usual clichés and platitudes. While Adelman and Hall offer little in the way of historical context, and many of their photos are frustratingly un-captioned — and if my lack of SABR-style number-crunching in BH&PG pissed you off, you're really gonna hate this book — they do a great job of getting out of the way and let the players tell their story.

The book includes groupie tales and other snapshots of life on the road, as well as an ongoing discussion of racism, both in the game and within the context of the team. Most interesting to me is the assertion from several players that racism played a role in the team's attempted move of Sanguillen — a highly respected catcher — to right field in the wake of Clemente's death. The black and Latin players interviewed, for the most part, seem to think that the move was motivated by the front office's desire to add more white players to the lineup: therefore, instead of putting the speedy Gene Clines in right field, Pirates management put Sangy out there and brought (the white) Milt May in to catch, because white Pittsburgh fans aren't down with a mostly-minority lineup. Management, of course, denies that this is remotely the case... but eventually, Sangy's ineptitude in right (and his potent bat) will help him reclaim his rightful position behind the plate. Even so, Clines will lose the right field position to a young Polish slugger named Richie Zisk...

Of course, Bob Adelman's photos tell a story all their own. The book contains over a hundred beautiful black and white shots of the players on and off the field, and I've scanned a few of my favorites:

Here's pitcher Nelson Briles, who led the team's starters that year with 14 victories and a 2.85 ERA — and who talks in the book about pursuing a full-time entertainment career once his playing days are over — working on a song in the clubhouse.

Here's Al Oliver and his wife, lookin' fly and preparing for a night on the town.

Here's Dock Ellis, lookin' cool as he heckles an umpire from the dugout.

Here's Pops himself, gettin' down with some funky friends during a party at his house.

And my personal favorite: A fantastic Dock-in-curlers shot that I'd never seen before...

Somewhat controversial in its day — "Passages about some team-mates might make Ball Four read like a nursery rhyme," commented the New York Times at the time — Out of Left Field isn't so shocking now, but it is a beautifully-observed time capsule from a complex era. It would be lovely to see it come back into print again.

Order Big Hair & Plastic Grass!

• Buy From Barnes & Noble
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Another Look: Lanny Frattare

By Bob Barrickman
Beaver County Times
http://www.timesonline.com/sports/
August 9, 2011

Pirates play-by-play man Lanny Frattare (right) shares the booth in 2003 with color commentator and former Pirates pitcher Steve Blass.(Tribune-Review file)

Three years after stepping aside as the voice of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Lanny Frattare is ready to begin his second year calling high school sports for the MSA Sports Network.

"I just love broadcasting high school sports," Frattare, 63, said.

Frattare recalled a conversation he had two years ago with Don Rebel, the operations manager for MSA Sports, an internet outlet that primarily broadcasts sports in the WPIAL.

"Don asked me if I'd be interested in working for MSA. I said, yes," Frattare said. "He asked me the same question months later because I wasn't sure if he thought I was serious. I told Don I really was and I started doing games last year. When I broadcasted a (WPIAL football) playoff game last November, it was the first playoff game of any kind that I did since Sid Bream touched home plate."

That was in 1992 when Frattare saw Bream score the winning run for the Atlanta Braves against the Pirates in Game 7 of the NLCS. Shortly after Frattare left the Pirates booth, he became the assistant professor of communications at Waynesburg University. He teaches four courses in sports announcing and public speaking and also serves as faculty advisor for the campus radio station.

A native of Rochester, N.Y., Frattare broadcasted games for the Pirates AAA affiliate in Charleston, W. Va., in the early 1970's. When the legendary Bob Prince and broadcast partner Nellie King were let go after the 1975 season, Frattare and Milo Hamilton (pictured below) were hired to replace them calling Pirates broadcasts.

The Bucs won the World Series in 1979 but since the Pirates didn't control the local broadcast rights at the time, Frattare and Hamilton were shut out of calling the Series that year. Hamilton left after '79 and a couple years later, Frattare, having called the basketball game in 1985 on ESPN when Indiana coach Bobby Knight threw a chair across the court, assumed the lead role on Pirate broadcasts.

Frattare announced more than 5,000 Pirate games in 33 years, both being highest in the history of team broadcasters. There were two games in 1990 that stood out above all for Frattare.

"When Doug Drabek came within one out of a perfect game against the Phillies was probably the best call of a game I ever did," he said. "The other game was when the Pirates clinched the NL East title in St. Louis. I was so happy for (manager) Jim Leyland."

With the local broadcast rights changed, Frattare came within an out of calling his first World Series. But, the Bucs couldn't hold a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game 7 as Bream's run gave Atlanta a 3-2 victory.

"I wasn't so disappointed for myself as I was for Jim Leyland," said Frattare, twice divorced and now living in Collier Township. He has a son, David, 37 and a daughter, Megan, 29. Frattare's catch phrase was "No doubt about it" following a Pirate win. Frattare didn't get to say that phrase too often in his final 16 years.

"I should have left the booth three years before I did," he said. "I lost my zeal and enthusiasm and I wasn't doing a good job. I would never use the play of the team as a cop out."

Frattare said it was solely his decision to leave the booth after discussions with Pirate president Frank Coonelly. He hasn't been to a Pirate game since he left the booth.

"I don't watch or listen," he said. "I want the ball club to do well, but my father once told me that you have to know when it's time to move on. I want to care about something else."


Related:

Lanny Frattare's voice has become synonymous with Pirates baseball -
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/focus/s_523760.html

The Education of Lanny Frattare -
http://www.pghsports.com/PSR/node/284

Rookie Heyward finding his way with Steelers

By WILL GRAVES, AP Sports Writer
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/
August 8, 2011

Pittsburgh Steelers first round draft choice Cameron Heyward(notes), a defensive lineman from Ohio State, stretches during NFL football training camp Saturday, July 30, 2011, in Latrobe, Pa. (AP)

LATROBE, Pa. (AP)—Ziggy Hood(notes) heard the name, knew the pedigree and wondered exactly what the Pittsburgh Steelers were getting into when they chose defensive lineman Cameron Heyward(notes) with the 31st pick in the NFL draft.

A first-round pick from Ohio State whose father Craig is a Steel City legend following his career at Pitt? That could lead to a combustible mix of ego and privilege, right?

“It’s the recipe for it,” Hood said.

Just not with Heyward.

The rookie doesn’t really do ego. He doesn’t do privilege either. Instead, you’ll find him doing the things that rookies—even first-round picks—are supposed to do during a first training camp. If he’s not carrying the pads of a veteran teammate off the field following practice then he’s picking up the tab for the defensive line’s late-night snacks.

“He’s a rookie, and he acts like a rookie,” said defensive tackle Casey Hampton(notes). “That’s a major thing. You kind of probably wouldn’t think that from his background but obviously his father and his mama did a great job of keeping him grounded.”

Heyward didn’t really have a choice. His father, Craig, mother Charlotte and older brothers Craig Jr. and Corey made sure Heyward knew his place.

It proved to be good preparation for life in the NFL. While confident in his abilities, Heyward doesn’t carry himself with a sense of entitlement. Good thing, because that wouldn’t go over well on a line littered with Pro Bowlers in a city where work ethic is the only currency that matters.

“He came in here, has put his hand in the dirt and was ready to work,”said defensive end Brett Keisel(notes).

Playing in defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau’s intricate 3-4 defense is tough for a newcomer. Hood struggled with it. So did Keisel, Chris Hoke(notes) andAaron Smith(notes).

Yet Heyward has hung in there. Hood believes the 6-foot-5, 288-pound Heyward is farther along than Hood was as a rookie two years ago despite not having the luxury of going through mini-camp and Organized Team Activities due to the NFL lockout.

Heyward swears there’s no secret to his relatively quick adaptation. He stayed in shape waiting for the lockout to end and has immersed himself in the weight and video rooms trying to get up to speed.

“He’s not believing his own hype, that’s the main thing,” Hood said.“He’s a first rounder. He knows it. Everybody knows it but he’s not into that. He’s a young guy coming here trying to learn. He’s hanging around us older guys, we’re trying to show him correct ways on how to do things.”

It helps to be as athletic as Heyward. Where his father—who starred at Pitt in the 1980s before carving out an 11-year NFL career playing for five teams—was short (5-11) and thick (260 pounds), Heyward is nimble and light on his feet for his size.

While he’s hardly small, Heyward just laughs when asked if it’s as big as his father’s, who was dubbed “Ironhead” because of his head’s massive size and his penchant for lowering it into a defender’s chest.

Still, his teammates have been impressed with what’s going on between Heyward’s ears. His intelligence is one of the reasons the Steelers grabbed him at the end of the first round as one of the building blocks for the future.

“He’s got all the skills,” Hoke said. “He’s big, he’s tall. He’s got those long arms like you need in a 3-4 defensive end. He has talent. It’s just a matter of getting comfortable with the schemes.”

Heyward isn’t quite there yet. That’s fine by him. While eager to contribute he has no visions of playing on the first-team this year, not while playing behind the likes of Keisel and Smith, who have a combined 19 years and two Pro Bowls between them.

“I’m not going to step on anybody’s toes,” Heyward said. “I’ve got a lot to learn. I’m a young guy and I don’t have any room to talk.”

But plenty of room to listen. Most days you can find Heyward heading to the locker room nodding quietly as his older teammates break down what just happened in practice.

Though he’s reluctant to talk about the future, he’s well aware of what he and Hood represent. On a defense littered with 30-somethings, Heyward and Hood represent the next generation.

Hoke called the duo the gatekeepers to a legacy that stretches back to the Steel Curtain defense of the 1970s. Hoke saw the two youngsters chatting intently during a meeting the other day and told them what lay ahead.

“I said `You two are going to be the Brett Keisel and the Aaron Smith’s here in about five, six years,”’ Hoke said. “Ten years from now they’ll still be here and they’ll be the old vets teaching the young guys coming in.”

Heyward knows it. So does Hood.

“When it’s time for (the veterans) to sit back and enjoy their families, me and Cam got to step in and be able to play hard and be able to do what they did as if they haven’t left,” Hood said.

Just not yet. Heyward understands his job is to soak up as much knowledge as he can and be ready when his time comes.

“My expectations is (we’re) the best defensive line (in the NFL),” he said. “I just get to be a complimentary player. It’s an honor to play with those guys.”

Steelers must spell Mendenhall

By Dejan Kovacevic, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Wednesday, August 10, 2011

LATROBE, PA - JULY 29: Rashard Mendenhall(notes) #34 of the Pittsburgh Steelers puts his helmet on during training camp on July 29, 2011 at St Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

Flash forward to Baltimore on the 11th of September: Rashard Mendenhall bursts through a hole in the Steelers' line but is barreled backward by the Ravens' Ray Lewis. His ankle bends awkwardly. He is carted off the field, cringing in pain.

Mike Tomlin looks down his sideline and sends in ...

No easy answer, is there?

Well, the Steelers had better find one, sooner rather than later.

Mendenhall has been one part force, two parts workhorse the past two seasons, with 627 carries and 2,611 yards, including playoffs. That's the third-most carries in the NFL in that span. Yeah, he's 24 years young, tough, durable, and he holds onto the football more often than James Harrison thinks. But this is a grind not even Earl Campbell could sustain.

Not that anyone concerned will acknowledge it.

I asked Mendenhall about his workload yesterday at St. Vincent College, and he came back flatly: "That's part of the game, part of your job as a running back. I'm preparing to carry whatever load I'm given."

Kirby Wilson, the Steelers' running backs coach, shrugged it off, too: "He's fine. He's a young man. He's built for it, and we feel like he's a special runner. Why take him off the field?"

Why?

Where do I start?

In an era in which most teams have running back tandems — Baltimore, for instance, just added Ricky Williams to back up Ray Rice — Mendenhall has accounted for an alarming 62.7 percent of the Steelers' carries the past two seasons. Of the league's top 15 rushing teams last season, the Steelers, who ranked 10th, had the lowest-ranking No. 2 rusher in Isaac Redman with 247 yards.

Moreover, Mendenhall isn't exactly the tiptoeing type. His 1,273 yards last season ranked seventh in the league, but his average of 3.9 yards per carry was the 11th-lowest of the top 50 in total rushing yardage. And remember how the goal line was supposed to be Redman's specialty after his spectacular showing in last year's camp?

Mendenhall was just too good down there and finished with 13 rushing touchdowns to Redman's zero.

The Steelers are going to run more than most seem to think. They did so 47.4 percent of the time last season, they've got uncertainty at wide receiver, and they now have run-blocking ace Willie Colon back at right tackle as part of an offense that loves to run to the right.

Somehow, someone else needs to get involved at running back.

But again, who?

Wilson answered "probably Mewelde Moore," and that's understandable to an extent: Moore, 29, is in his eighth season, he was Tomlin's choice for four starts in 2008 to replace injured Willie Parker, and he isn't far off when he calls himself "one of the best third-down backs in the game." But first and second down count, too. Moore is far from a feature back.

Baron Batch, the seventh-round draft pick, has been the buzz of camp, barreling through defenders as easily as he sprints around end. Kid looks like a keeper. But he's bound for special teams for now.

Of the rest of the backs, the only one who entered camp with a realistic chance, Jonathan Dwyer, has shown up out of shape and deserves to be among the first cuts.

So let's see more of Redman.

The pedigree looks suspect, I'll admit. He was an undrafted free agent two years ago out of Division II Bowie State, spent 2009 on the Steelers' practice squad, then made just 52 carries last season. But he's a bullish 230 pounds, he picks up blitzes and, even though he's just an average receiver, it's hard to forget that touchdown catch in Baltimore last season after Troy Polamalu's brilliant strip of Joe Flacco.

The Steelers at least sound open-minded about using Redman more.

"That's why we have him here," Wilson said. "Isaac is someone who's made exciting plays for us when he's been out there, someone who has another level. We think highly of him."

Redman is markedly more blunt on the subject.

"Rashard had a lot of carries, and a man's body can only take so much. Hopefully they'll send some of those my way," Redman said with a smile. "Hey, this has turned into a two-back league. We all know that. I'm trying to step up and make this a tandem."

It's a step worth taking.

Batch is a rookie on the field but not in life

Sunday, August 07, 2011
By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

In this photo from Sunday, July 31, 2011, Pittsburgh Steelers running back Baron Batch(notes) (35) runs the ball during training camp at the NFL football team's practice facility in Latrobe, Pa. Steelers' veteran running back Mewelde Moore(notes) and rookies Baron Batch and John Clay(notes) are fighting for playing time behind starter Rashard Mendenhall(notes). (AP)

Mike Tomlin reacts with the same simple, flat, declarative sentence every time somebody asks him about Baron Batch.

"He's a rookie."

Which is a truth self-evident, but sometimes, we hold these truths to be wholly inadequate.

"Until he does something in a stadium," Tomlin said again here the other day, "I'm sticking with that statement."

Batch might never play a game in an NFL stadium, as seventh-round draft picks out of Texas Tech or anywhere else with the dimensions of a fairly standard human (5-10, 210) don't automatically assimilate to a professional roster, but you don't even have to ask Batch if that matters.

"Whether I play a down in the NFL or not," he wrote recently, "I am proud to say I am very much OK without football."

Batch's young life is an open book, or rather an open blog, so when you see the kind of move he put on an approaching linebacker here at Saint Vincent the other day, the kind of quick-twitch reflexive genius that sends young players and old observers alike into hoots of astonishment, you don't have to wonder where a person could have learned to run like that.

You just go to the blog.

And the blog is a wonder. It's called "Baron Batch, the Life and Happenings of Me. Enjoy."

Turns out he could have learned moves like that playing tag with four siblings on the roof of the West Texas trailer they grew up in.

Tag on the roof? Dangerous?

That's how little they had to lose.

Or he could have learned moves like that running the halls of that hospital where his mom died from multiple sclerosis when he was 15, when he ran in them all night, not knowing where, just running through the tears until he vomited and went to sleep.

How Baron Batch went from the torment of those halls, from the abandonment by his father and the agonizing decline of his mother, to the 23-year-old who gets email like the one that follows has to be one of the most compelling stories anyone has ever lugged to Latrobe for a Steelers summer.

"Dear Baron, Thank you for taking the time to read this email. I have a few questions and am asking for advice. How have you become so successful? How have you achieved what you have? I envy you, but you are also my hero. My family doesn't have much. I don't have the perfect life and the talents or skills that you have. I feel like the world is against me sometimes. My parents are divorced and my mom is sick. I have brothers and a sister that I have to take care of like I am a parent. I don't think it's fair. I feel like I will rot in this town that I'm in. I feel like there is no way out. I feel like my life isn't that important.

"I would like to hear any advice that you could give."

Batch's response ran hard and passionate toward 3,000 words, about childhood, repressed memory, faith, the heart, the soul, the spirit, temperament, grinding poverty, disease, anger, grief, life, death, bad hair days, and hope. Mostly hope.

So the demands of training camp on the clueless rookies aren't about to intimidate Baron Batch. In fact, some of the loudest, fiercest collisions of Saint Vincent's first full week have come from Batch's rattling blocks. He lit up free agent cornerback Donovan Warren on Thursday and held his own multiple times against James Harrison.

"I'm just trying to get better," he said on the field the other day. "I'm not aware of any particular reaction to what I'm doing. One or two things aren't going to make the team for me. The whole thing has just been an enormous learning experience, and the other running backs are doing a tremendous job helping me out."

Batch said he hasn't had time to update the blog in awhile, so we'll just have to content ourselves with its standing components, the evocative writing, the gorgeous photography, the soothing songs he chooses as the audio backdrop (forced to sing in the cafeteria to fulfill a rookie ritual, he went Four Tops -- "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch"), and the haunting pictures of the Haitian children he took on an Operation Hope mission in January. They're selling for $150, with the proceeds enabling those kids to attend school. Batch was hoping to sell 15 of them. More than 100 have been purchased, and his goal is to raise nearly a quarter of a million dollars.

That might happen whether or not he forces Tomlin to say something more expansive about him come September.

For now, he's just a rookie, one who appears to run with fluidity, block earnestly and catch if necessary.

But in a league that's been forced to establish its own little side industry in the redemption and reclamation business, rehabilitating dog abusers and gun toters and DUI cowboys and quarterbacks who go bump in the night, the question probably isn't whether Baron Batch is good enough for the NFL. It might be the reverse.

Thanks for the memories

Monday, August 08, 2011

By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

PITTSBURGH - AUGUST 05: Pedro Alvarez(notes) #24 of the Pittsburgh Pirates bare hands a ground ball against the San Diego Padres during the game on August 5, 2011 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

Children ran the bases Sunday at PNC Park, as always, hordes of 'em rounding third, three and four abreast, or was that still the Padres?

There are plenty of statistical snapshots out there trying to illustrate the underside of a 10-game Pirates losing streak, but two stand out.

First, consider that Aug. 7, San Diego fielded a lineup that included no player with as many as seven homers, no player with as many as 30 RBIs, but against this Pirates pitching staff, still had scored a franchise-record 28 runs in the two previous games.

Second, the weekend series started with the Pirates slashing 15 hits Friday night and still losing by 10 runs.

"The results aren't what anybody wants, but I'm very confident this staff is growing up before our eyes," manager Clint Hurdle offered after the Pirates finally held 'em to a touchdown in the finale of a lost homestand. "It's all part of the experience. I still believe in our staff. It's through these kinds of challenges that it's gonna make them better, and better quicker."

Hurdle has done an admirable job of keeping his composure even as a staff most expected to fade in the second half instead just sailed off the edge of the earth. Hurdle has described his pitchers as a pitch-to-contact outfit, but no one has pitched to contact like this since the kamikaze pilots.

National media darlings for about 48 hours there at one point, the Pirates now take it back to the road tonight in San Francisco, with an appointment schedule that includes nothing but world champions, Brewers, Cardinals and Reds between now and Aug. 29. Those teams probably will notice the new improved slogan: Your 2011 Pirates, same awful hitting, now with terrible pitching.

Wasn't it just July 28 when actor Michael Keaton was gushing all over the section front in USA Today about how revved up he and Pirates fans coast-to-coast were about this team?

"It doesn't get better than this," said Keaton, a Coraopolis native.

Keaton is now 2 for 2 on conspicuous Pirates observations. He said famously after throwing out an opening day first pitch once that at some point, "somebody's gotta write a check," and now, having identified the season's high point, he's right again. The club is 1-11 since he made that statement.

It was only a week ago this team returned from Philadelphia after a predictably damaging road trip that started in Atlanta, but it took a weeklong nosedive against dysfunctional National League teams Chicago and San Diego to end this season fairly definitively.

"I never thought we'd throw up a donut at home," Hurdle said.

I like the verb choice.

But candidly, now that it's over, I would like to thank the Pirates for a refreshingly interesting summer. Thanks to Frank Coonelly and Neal Huntington for taking a shot at the trade deadline by adding major league bats without yanking the rug from the project as a whole. Thanks to Hurdle and his coaching staff, particularly Ray Searage, for keeping a demonstrably dreadful pitching staff competitive for almost two-thirds of a season.

Even with a 10-game losing streak that's more likely to elongate than snap, the Pirates are 54-59. At this point a year ago, they were 39-74.

And obviously, thanks to the players for approaching every game as though they intended to win it despite massive empirical evidence that they likely wouldn't. It was they who made possible the near-unimaginable experience of watching a ballgame on the North Side of Pittsburgh determine who was in first place in late July and having it turn out to be the home team.

That actually happened. We weren't all on acid.

My own exceedingly marginal contribution was in urging the recall of Pedro Alvarez from Indianapolis July 25, and ever since, he has been the worst player on the field, if not the worst in the big leagues.

No need to thank me.

Through Sunday, he had 62 strikeouts and 37 hits and was hitting .206. The three double-plays he hit into Friday night were the main component in the answer to the question "How do you get 15 hits and lose by 10 runs?"

At the same time, a lot of Pirates actually have hit too well and pitched too well to be associated with this 10-game framework in which they have been outscored, 82-37.

"Nobody feels sorry for professional athletes when they deal with adversity; I don't," Hurdle said pointedly Sunday before the game. "You can feel embarrassed, you can feel humiliated, you can feel a lot of things. We are afforded an opportunity to have a lifestyle that's pretty comfortable. To have to deal with on-field adversity, like [playing] 20 games in a row, I got no time for that. I don't.

"Drive around the neighborhood around here Sunday morning, six o'clock, 12 o'clock at night. You want to talk about a game bein' hard vs. life bein' hard? That's the mental toughness part of it that everybody can improve upon as they get older."

Mental toughness is still on the to-do list for this recovering franchise. So is finding better players. But for 95 games, much deeper in the season than anyone could have dreamed, this team had a place among the better teams in baseball.

For people who remember that as the norm, it was darn near wonderful.

Analysis: What happened to Pirates' pitching?

By Dejan Kovacevic, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Monday, August 8, 2011

PITTSBURGH - AUGUST 07: Kevin Correia(notes) #29 of the Pittsburgh Pirates is pulled by manager Clint Hurdle #13 in front of teammate Ryan Doumit(notes) #41 during the game against the San Diego Padres on August 7, 2011 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

So, what went wrong?

The obvious culprit in the Pirates' epic collapse, including the 7-3 loss to San Diego yesterday at PNC Park that extended a losing streak to 10 games, is the pitching that led to their stunning ascent to the top of the Central Division.

And the equally obvious explanation would appear to be fatigue, even if those taking the mound disagree.

"I wouldn't say that at all," Charlie Morton said. "I mean, you always get tired. Baseball's a game of peaks and valleys. But being tired as an excuse? No."

"Hey, I felt like Nolan Ryan last time I went out," Jeff Karstens said of his nine-run blow-up Friday.

Still, the results have been as cruel as the clear correlation: On July 25, the Pirates were 53-47 and in first place, the pitchers owning a 3.17 ERA. Since then, they are 1-12 and 10 games out of the race, the ERA at 6.19 for that span.

Some of that simply must be fatigue, as others in the organization will attest. But dig deeper with some advanced metrics, and it's easy to see there is an element of the Pirates' pitchers having been due some serious comeuppance:

• Through July 25, opponents had a .289 batting average on all balls put in play (BABIP), a statistic that distinguishes how much help a pitcher gets from his defense or from mere good luck. That figure was below the National League median of .295. Since July 25, it's a whopping .349.

• Some aren't even staying in the park. Through July 25, opponents homered on 9.2 percent of all fly balls, right around league average. Since then, they have homered on 15.2 percent, by far the worst such total in the past two weeks.

• The Pirates' pitch-to-contact staff averages just 6.3 strikeouts per nine innings, second lowest in the majors, which puts heavy pressure on the defense and on the pitchers to keep the ball in the ballpark.

• The Pirates have stranded 76 percent of their runners, second-best rate in the league, and that tends to be unsustainable.

"They'd all been so good for so long." general manger Neal Huntington said. "A variety of factors came together at one time and ... well, we've gotten our heads handed to us more often than we'd like."

About a month ago, management met to prepare for this possibility, based on the numbers.

"Our organization deals in a lot of those metrics, and we talked about how we'd pitched for three or four months and the expectancy as we moved forward," manager Clint Hurdle said. "Especially with a pitch-to-contact staff, you expect more contact, so you could anticipate more offense from the opponents. But, to the degree we've seen lately, it's been way more."

It has been 15 home runs in the past six games, one into the Allegheny River and several other moon shots. And even the weak-hitting Padres scored 28 times Friday and Saturday.

"Water finds its own level, as they say," Hurdle said. "If the water is really high, it's going to dip."

Although the pitchers are reluctant to acknowledge fatigue, pitching coach Ray Searage is not. But he doesn't point to arm fatigue.

"What I'm seeing is that our legs are a little bit tired, and that's going to relate to your arm," Searage said. "That's why they call these the dog days of August. We basically laid it all out there for the first three or four months, and you're starting to see that now."

Karstens has been the Pirates' best starter, but he also has stranded an incredible 85 percent of runners, and 17 of his 21 home runs were solo shots. All that boomeranged Friday, when nine of his 10 runners touched home plate and Chase Headley belted a grand slam. Karstens already has exceeded his innings total from last season, though not his pitch count, and he will need to show he can handle a full season.

"That's not an issue at all," Karstens said. "We'll all show that."

Maholm has been next best, but the Padres lit him up for seven runs in 6 2/3 innings Saturday, and his ERA swelled from 3.17 to 3.54. Kevin Correia, after a strong two months won him an All-Star invitation, now has a 4.78 ERA. Morton lost his dynamite sinker sometime in late May and didn't rediscover it until this past Wednesday. And James McDonald has been inconsistent and inefficient.

"This is something we're going to have to learn from," Searage said. "Some of these guys are experiencing this for the first time. My job is to stay positive."

In the bullpen, closer Joel Hanrahan has remained strong -- on those rare occasions he pitches, anyway -- but Jose Veras, Chris Resop and Daniel McCutchen have worn down, perhaps not coincidentally beginning with that 19-inning loss July 26 in Atlanta.

But this has been about the starting pitching, for better or worse, as those in the rotation seem to realize.

"It's on us," Maholm said. "We're the ones who go out there and pitch. We're going through a rough stretch. No one is happy, from the fans to anyone who plays the game. We have to turn it back around."

Get a grip on expectations

By Dejan Kovacevic, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Monday, August 8, 2011

PITTSBURGH - AUGUST 07: Garrett Jones(notes) #46 of the Pittsburgh Pirates misplays a ball in right field while avoiding a collision with teammate Neil Walker(notes) #18 during the game the San Diego Padres on August 7, 2011 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

Kevin Correia fell apart after two outs, Daniel McCutchen's wild pitch to a pitcher scored a run, the hitters kept flailing, the infield throws kept sailing, and 35,601 left PNC Park yesterday with long faces.

Add it up, multiply by 10, and that's pretty much the impact of the 7-3 loss to San Diego that carried this mega-meltdown into double digits and capped maybe the most deflating homestand in the franchise's 125 years.

"Honestly, something like this, losing 10 in a row, that's tough under any circumstance," shortstop Brandon Wood told me in another music-free clubhouse. "But to do this after being in first place ... man, that hurts."

It has stung the fan base, too, including the newcomers. And some are outright angry, barking on talk shows, booing rookies, blaming the manager for unsalvageable lineups, calling Jerry Meals' safe call a curse and ... well, maybe this is a good time for everyone to get a grip.

Refocus on 82, I say.

An 82-win season remains in reach at 54-59, and it would be a shame to see this group come this far only to lug that ignominious streak into a 19th year. Eighty-two wins would represent a 25-game improvement over 57-105 last year, matching the greatest in franchise history set in 1891-92.

Here are 10 areas, in order of importance, the Pirates still can address to view this season as a success:

10. Stop the bunts. Now.

Yeah, this is small, but there is something terribly incongruous about an offense with Major League Baseball's fifth-lowest on-base percentage, .245, having the second-most sacrifice bunts (59) and fifth-most caught-stealings (38). And this is to say nothing of other baserunning blunders.

Whatever school taught Clint Hurdle his bunting philosophy was boarded up long ago. Outs are gold.

9. Sign the No. 1 pick.

It's been under the public radar because of the major league team's rise and fall, but the Pirates have until a week from today to sign No. 1 overall pick Gerrit Cole, the flame-throwing right-hander from UCLA. That could cost into eight figures and represent the greatest single expenditure in franchise history.

This isn't optional.

8. Extend Neal Huntington.

I know team president Frank Coonelly has tried to downplay his general manager working deep into a lame-duck season by saying, "I expect Neal will be here for many years to come."

Fine, so grab a pen and get it done. It's starting to get weird.

7. Get rid of Joel Hanrahan.

Or threaten to do so, anyway.

Huntington's first task once he gets extended could be to issue a use-Hanrahan-or-lose-him decree to Hurdle, who inexplicably, indefensibly allowed his All-Star closer to fiddle -- just 41/3 cameo innings out of 125 innings pitched these past 13 games -- while the season burned to the ground.

It's about wins, not saves.

6. Settle the outfield.

When Jose Tabata and Alex Presley return, their performance could help dictate the Pirates' offensive approach for years to come: Should Huntington build an outfield on speed or power?

I know this: I want to see more of Presley, even if Ryan Ludwick sits.

5. Fix Pedro Alvarez.

Even if it means sending him down the rest of this month.

I've maintained from the outset that nothing in 2011 matters more to the Pirates' future than Alvarez, their only power-hitting prospect, making significant strides. Nothing has changed that view, but much more time at the Mendoza Line -- he's at .206 -- could begin to change the outlook.

4. Sustain the starters.

Correia is a shadow of an All-Star, Charlie Morton and James McDonald can't get through six or seven innings, and even Jeff Karstens and Paul Maholm have shown kinks. We'll know before long if the team's most instrumental area was a mirage.

3. Beat the Brewers.

At least once, you know?

Hurdle and his players have blown through a lot of barriers, but this one will be wholly intact when they reach Milwaukee next weekend: The Brewers have won all five meetings this season, 33 of the past 36.

2. Make the playoffs.

This is absurd, of course, with the Pirates now 10 games back. But there's no good reason for this group to shift focus. The next 16 games are against the other three teams atop the Central Division, and a surge would at least restore some of that contending feeling.

Besides, as Hurdle said yesterday when I asked about long-term goals, "Hey, we're not dealing with today's game well."

1. Win 82.

I'll save you the math: They need to go 28-21 the rest of the way.

Ex-Pirate Jackie Hernandez, a captivating champion who made a lasting impression on me

By Joe Capozzi
The Palm Beach Post
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports/
Aug. 7, 2011

MIAMI — The last time I could recall seeing Jackie Hernandez, I was sitting in front of a bulky television set with my family in suburban Pittsburgh. I was 7 years old, but I remember it clearly because it was the moment I became addicted to baseball.

On the TV screen in our living room, Hernandez, the shortstop for the Pirates, glides to his left behind second base. He cuts off a grounder up the middle at the edge of the outfield grass, plants his feet, and fires to first base.

Bob Robertson catches the throw and thrusts his arms into the air. Then, my parents and two brothers and I see something I had never seen before - players jumping for joy and piling on top of each other.

Caught up in the excitement, we grab pots and pans from the kitchen and run into the street to bang them together, our way of celebrating the Pirates' World Series victory over Baltimore on Oct. 17, 1971.

Nearly 40 years later, I'm captivated by Hernandez again.

He's 70 years old and sitting on a folding chair at a batting range five minutes from Sun Life Stadium. A cigarette between his lips, a thermos of Cuban coffee at his feet, he's pulling baseballs from a bucket and flipping them to teenagers swinging aluminum bats.

His hair is gray and a goatee frames his mouth, but he has the same wiry frame I remember in the No. 2 uniform of the '71 Bucs.

"I wanted that ball. I wanted to make that last out. Ain't nothing better than that in baseball," Hernandez shouts from his stool, recalling the last play of Game 7 of the World Series. "That was the best thing that ever happened in my life in baseball.'

Hernandez was never an All-Star or a Gold Glove winner. He batted just .208 over nine seasons, from 1965 through '73.

But he was the kind of scrappy player who made a lasting impression on my childhood in the same way Glenn Beckert did for a kid growing up in Chicago or Bobby Tolan for a kid growing up in Cincinnati or Bud Harrelson for a kid in New York.

"We celebrated for three days in Pittsburgh," Hernandez shouts through a stream of "pings" as his students swat balls into a net. "You know how (the travel time from) the airport to downtown is 40, 45 minutes? Took us five hours to get there, because from the airport to downtown there were cars and cars and people and people.'

Hernandez credits the great Roberto Clemente for getting him to Pittsburgh. After playing together in the Puerto Rican winter league, he says Clemente put in a word with the Pirates front office about a shortstop they should go after.

After Pittsburgh got Hernandez in a trade with the Kansas City Royals before the '71 season, he made an error in one of his first games for the Pirates.

"Ball went right through my legs and we lost the game,' he says. "When I got to the dugout, I was crying. Clemente put his arm over my shoulder and said, 'No, no. You don't need to do that. We back you up here.' After that, my head was up every minute.'

Hernandez returned to Pittsburgh in June for a 40th anniversary celebration when the Pirates hosted an interleague series with the Orioles.

He still sees many of his old teammates and baseball friends in Miami. They often visit the batting range he has operated for 17 years with close friend and Cuban countryman Paul Casanova, a catcher for the Washington Senators and Atlanta Braves from 1965-74.

An hour into his lesson, Hernandez stamps out a cigarette and tells his kids to take a break. It's time for him to pose for a photographer, who instructs him to hold a bat.

Four snaps into the shoot, Hernandez suddenly drops down to bunt, momentarily startling the photographer the same way he used to surprise Bob Gibson or Tom Seaver.

"This was my specialty,' Hernandez says, grinning between hunched shoulders.

And for a moment, it's 1971 again.

Steelers must sustain fear factor

By Dejan Kovacevic, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Friday, August 5, 2011

LATROBE, PA - JULY 29: Troy Polamalu(notes) #43 of the Pittsburgh Steelers watches his teammates during training camp on July 29, 2011 at St Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

Troy Polamalu isn't about to pull aside some rookie here at St. Vincent College, grit his teeth and grill the kid on how the Steelers' defense instills fear in opponents.

"I don't think it's something that's ever talked about," Polamalu told me before practice the other day. "I think that when people come here ... you just see right away that they don't fit in. Like, we don't have raw cover corners here. I've seen great cover corners in these camps who just didn't make our team."

So, I came back, how does one fit in?

"I just think we play football in its purest form," he said, "and that's hitting and tackling, regardless of what the rules may say."

Polamalu laughed, but this topic isn't shaping up to be a joke this season. Ask me, and there is no more pressing priority for the Steelers in 2011 and beyond than retaining that fear factor within the NFL's new guidelines for hitting.

We're talking about the very foundation of a half-century of football excellence, from the drafting of "Mean" Joe Greene to the toothless snarl of Jack Lambert, the fury of Mel Blount, the dark disposition of Greg Lloyd, the hot-headed rants of Joey Porter and, yeah, even those fans' hoagie sales last year aimed at paying James Harrison's fines.

Is it any wonder the Steelers griped more about Roger Goodell than the other 31 teams combined in advance of the labor agreement, not least of which was their team-wide rejection of the pact yesterday?

They're defending their identity.

"The Steelers do have that mystique, but you've got to keep that through your play," said Ryan Clark, the hard-hitting safety and union rep who is by far the loudest of those protesting mouths. "It's very important for teams to know that you can't come across the middle and not be hit, for teams to know you can't run away from James Harrison because he'll seek you out. That's who we are."

As only he can, Clark digressed deftly into a boxing analogy.

"It's kind of like that Mike Tyson mystique. Before Buster Douglas beat him, nobody even wanted to step into the ring with him. But once Tyson lost, then people felt like there was a blueprint. They wanted to get into that ring. That's why you can't let go of what you've got."

He's right. At the veteran level, the hardest hitters must maintain the same approach, even as they adjust away from the head, away from opponents deemed vulnerable. They still need to hit to hurt.

Harrison, of all people, provided the best example late last season. He hated the fines to the point of threatening retirement, but he didn't tone down his aggression even as he picked up no further punishment despite all eyes watching.

Funny thing is, the man won't admit that he or the Steelers changed a thing. Nor that they should.

"That's just our defense," Harrison said. "We're going to play the game within the rules, whatever the changes may be or even if they make any more. We're going to go out and hit people in the mouth. Every year, it's a different thing they're saying you can or can't do. It's no different than any other year."

Hey, whatever works. If Harrison takes a pay-to-play mindset into the game but still keeps the new guidelines in the back of his mind, he'll remain a dangerous — and feared —player. Sounds like it might be workable for all of the team's hardest hitters, actually.

"We've just got to go out there and play," Clark said. "Let them worry about what's legal or not."

The earliest stages of camp have set the tone, judging by coach Mike Tomlin's terrific assessment of one session this week: "Some licks were passed. In some instances, the hits were high technically. In others, we weren't violent enough." Lawrence Timmons leveled Rashard Mendenhall in one drill. Harrison was banging shoulders with rookie running back Baron Batch in another.

The latter might have been one of those silent indoctrinations Polamalu described.

"Oh, we all know as rookies, believe me," said Cam Heyward, the first-round pick and iron-headed defensive end. "If you want to play for this team, you've got to be aggressive. It's almost like a rite of passage: Show no mercy."

When the Steelers do, you can kiss that half-century of excellence goodbye.

Just ask the guy who started it all.

"This 'D' needs to be who they are," said Greene, observing in camp as a special assistant. "This isn't tennis. This isn't golf. It's a rough, tough game. You need to make guys afraid to line up against you. These players will do that, and they'll adjust. You'll see. They just need to think out there."



The new rules

The NFL's new safety guidelines, approved in May, prohibit "forcibly hitting the neck or head area" of any player. They also prohibit hits against a player in a "defenseless posture," which was redefined as the following:

>> A player in the act or just after throwing a pass

>> A receiver attempting to catch a pass or one who has not completed a catch and hasn't had time to protect himself or hasn't clearly become a runner

>> A runner whose forward progress has been stopped

>> A kickoff or punt returner attempting to field a kick in the air

>> A player on the ground at the end of a play

>> A kicker/punter during a return

>> A quarterback any time after a turnover

>> A player who receives a blindside block when the blocker is moving toward his own end-line and approaches the opponent from behind or the side

Source: NFL

Too early for Pirates' epitaph

By Joe Starkey, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Thursday, August 4, 2011

PITTSBURGH - AUGUST 03: Ryan Doumit(notes) (R) #41 of the Pittsburgh Pirates, fresh off of the disabled list, and teammate Chris Resop(notes) #30 sit in the dugout while watching the game against the Chicago Cubs during the game on August 3, 2011 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

A colleague wondered if I'd come to PNC Park on Wednesday night to bury the Pirates.

"No," I said. "They still have 54 games left."

Earlier, a radio caller had asked the following question: "What makes you think the Pirates are a contender?"

Me: "The standings."

It was, after all, only Aug. 3. And there was, after all, still 33 percent of the season remaining. And the standings, after all, looked like this:

Central


Team: Record (games back)


Milwaukee: 62-50 (—)


St. Louis: 58-53 (3.5)


Pirates: 54-54 (6.0)

Sorry, but no matter how those teams arrived at those respective slots, the Pirates were, and are, by virtue of their position in the standings, a contender. That does not mean I'm planning my October weekends around baseball at PNC Park, especially in light of the team's sixth consecutive loss, which dropped it 6.5 games back. The situation has grown infinitely more bleak since the moment umpire Jerry Meals went blind in Atlanta. I don't think the Pirates are going to win the division.

In fact, I'm pretty sure they won't.

But I was pretty sure they'd lose 95-105 games this season, too. Weren't you?

Why so quick to bury the living? That caller wasn't the only one. As our perceptive civic observer @JanePitt tweeted the other day, I believe at some point during the shelling of Kevin Correia: "I can hear the bodies falling to the road as they fling themselves from my bandwagon. Tuck and roll, people. Tuck and roll."

Divorce yourself, mentally, from the five-game losing streak the Pirates carried into last night's game against the Chicago Cubs and ask yourself: Would you have signed up for this in April?

Of course you would have.

There is yet some entertaining, pressurized baseball to be played. Last night's game was a perfect example — a tense pitching duel between Chicago's Matt Garza and Charlie Morton, who might have been fighting to preserve his spot in the Pirates' rotation.

A decent weeknight crowd (19,106) — particularly on a rainy night — erupted in the top of the fifth when home-plate umpire Bob Davidson ejected Chicago's Tyler Colvin for arguing a called third strike. Davidson then tossed manager Mike Quade. Morton battled his way to seven shutout innings only to see reliever Chris Resop come down with a mild case of Correia in the eighth. Resop gave up what proved to be the game-losing home run to Starlin Castro.

Plenty of fans remain emotionally invested in this season, but it seems as if others have taken perverse pleasure in the club's recent slide. Still others are calling for the Pirates to suddenly become sellers and jettison players such as pitcher Paul Maholm.

Really? With nearly a third of the season left, including 20 in a row against divisional foes to end August? I'd prefer to see Maholm and his 3.27 ERA make the next scheduled start, thank you. He's the kind of player the Pirates need to keep, perhaps by tearing up that $9.5 million club option for next season and signing him to a multi-year deal.

Or they could deal Maholm for minor leaguers and thereby appease the prospect junkies out there — the ones who were so elated when the Pirates didn't "mortgage the future" at the nonwaiver trade deadline, the ones who begin their day with prayer readings straight out of "Baseball America."

The group that really gets me is the "I told you so" crowd. They no doubt feel validated by the recent spate of losses. They knew it would happen. They were telling you all along. They're bound and determined to prove that these are the same old Pirates.

Look, I understand that when you've been abused for 18 years, it's hard to love again. But this team, with the way it has battled through injuries all season, has earned some goodwill. It certainly earned a bunch of new fans. And if even it does fall off the map, it will have proven that Pittsburgh remains a spirited baseball town.

But it's still too early for an epitaph.

Pouncey on way to being Steelers' next legendary center

By Mike Bires
Beaver County Times
http://www.timesonline.com/sports/
August 3, 2011

Pittsburgh Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey, left, goes through drills with Ramon Foster during NFL football training camp Saturday, July 30, 2011, in Latrobe, Pa.(AP)

LATROBE — Watch Maurkice Pouncey go about his business at training camp and there’s no doubt he’s a different man than he was a year ago.

Last summer after reporting to St. Vincent College, he was the second-youngest man on the Steelers’ roster. As a first-round draft pick, there was no doubt he had talent. But he was learning plays at both center and guard and no one knew for sure how and when the soft-spoken kid from Florida would fit it.

But this summer, Pouncey seems like he’s been playing in the NFL for years.

Buoyed by his amazing rookie season in which he earned Pro Bowl honors, he’s bouncing around from drill to drill with so much confidence.

“He’s becoming savvy,” said right guard Ramon Foster. “He’s become a savvy guy right now. He’s becoming more vocal. He’s becoming a leader. And he’s not forcing himself to be this or to be that. He’s just becoming a vet one day at a time.”

And he’s doing that once again the second-youngest player on the Steelers’ 95-man training camp roster.

Pouncey, the former Florida star taken by the Steelers with the 18th pick of last year’s draft, celebrated his 22nd birthday on July 24. The only player in camp younger is running back Jonathan Dwyer, who turned 22 on July 26.

“Maurkice has not changed the way he approaches things,” offensive line coach Sean Kugler said. “He’s a pro. He works hard. He’s a competitor and a finisher on every play. He’s one of those guys who doesn’t want to let anybody down on this team. He plays his heart out. He wants to be the best.

“He’s not the type of kid who will relax because of what he did last year. He’s wants to be better this year.”

Last year when the Steelers reported to camp, Justin Hartwig figured he’d be the opening day center. He had started every game for the Steelers the previous two years, including the 2008 Super Bowl season.

But as camp progressed, Kugler, offensive coordinator Bruce Arians and coach Tom Tomlin came to the conclusion that they were wasting Pouncey’s time by giving him reps at guard. He was playing well at center. So Pouncey moved into the starting role and Hartwig was cut.

Not only did Pouncey start every game last season except the Super Bowl, he was the Steelers’ only offensive player named to the Pro Bowl. He also received two of the 50 votes for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.

Naturally, he’s being hailed as the next great center in Steelers’ history. He’s being mentioned in the same breath as the late Mike Webster, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Dermontti Dawson, a Hall of Fame candidate.

“I don’t know. I don’t think I did as well as everybody thought I did,” Pouncey said. “I mean, I got a lot of work to do. There’s a lot of pressure on me this year to pick up where I left off last year. But I’m ready for it.”

At 6-foot-4 and 304 pounds, Pouncey has size and strength. He’s also extremely quick and agile for a man his size. He’s a master technician who understands leverage. He’s an intelligent player who has a complete understanding of the Pittsburgh offense.

“He wowed everybody last year, and I expect him to be even better this year,” Foster said.

“He knows how to play the game,” said nose tackle Casey Hampton, who goes up against Pouncey every day at practice. “The sky’s the limit for this kid.”

Pouncey, whose twin brother Mike was taken with the 15th overall pick of this year’s draft by Miami, says he’s determined to avoid a second-year slump.

“I’m going to work hard,” he said. “I’m going to do everything I can to be better than I was last year.”

Not blown away by Bucs' trades

By Dejan Kovacevic, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Monday, August 1, 2011

PHILADELPHIA --The visitors' clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park was a bleak place by late Sunday afternoon, with lots of grim faces and nary a voice heard above the rhythmic shuffling of equipment bags. Those bags and the Pirates themselves were bound for Pittsburgh after a week of endless rain delays, extra innings, exemplary opponents' pitching, and even an epic umpiring gaffe.

Good time to go home?

"Got that right," center fielder Andrew McCutchen said.

This 6-5 loss to the Phillies stung on several levels, not least of which was manager Clint Hurdle's continuing, maddening refusal to use Joel Hanrahan in anything but save situations. The Pirates are now 4 1/2 games off the Central Division lead, having been swept here and finishing the trip 2-5. Hard to imagine chins raised after that.

And, to be blunt, I don't think general manager Neal Huntington's haul at the trading deadline yesterday will change any of this much.

Part of that is that these Pirates are showing kinks in the key area - pitching -- that has long looked unsustainable. Sure, Jeff Karstens showed again yesterday why he has richly earned that 2.49 ERA by fending off the mighty Phillies. Paul Maholm is staying strong, too. But the rest of the rotation, plus bombs-away reliever Jose Veras, are fading fast.

No pitching was acquired.

The offense was correctly deemed a priority, but adding no pitching is hard to swallow. Evan Meek doesn't look close to returning, and shuffling Ross Ohlendorf and/or Brad Lincoln into the mix is no solution.

The other part of my sentiment is that Huntington's two moves to bolster the offense were trades for first baseman Derrek Lee and outfielder Ryan Ludwick, both of whom must first bolster their careers.

You have to love the price tags. The Pirates will not part with any top prospect, which would have been a mistake, and they stepped up by taking on $4.8 million in the two veterans' salaries. That's the combination of prudence and commitment that was needed.

Good for owner Bob Nutting, president Frank Coonelly and Huntington for keeping their word on those two fronts.

And I'll buy Huntington's explanation for the return, too: "We kicked the tires just about everywhere you can imagine. Teams felt they had better matches elsewhere."

But I still find myself having the same muted reaction that most players seemed to have yesterday: That's nice.

I do like the addition of Lee.

No, he isn't as sexy an acquisition as Hunter Pence or Carlos Beltran would have been. But Philadelphia is in a far better position to forfeit top prospects for Pence: The Phillies, as was evident here all weekend, have every reason to eye the World Series. And Beltran flat-out didn't want to play for the Pirates.

Lee will be 36 in a month, and he has shown a steep decline from his last Lee-like season, 2009, when he batted .306 with 35 home runs and 111 RBI. His overall average this season with Baltimore was .246 with 12 home runs and 41 RBIs. Nothing sexy about that.

But Lee always has been better as the summer gets longer: Since the All-Star break, he is batting .298 -- 17 for 57 -- including a 4-for-5 output Tuesday in Toronto with an opposite-field home run and five RBI. And the Pirates' scouts saw other traits at the plate they found encouraging.

"We think he's got a lot of ball left in him," Hurdle said yesterday.

So do I.

Lee isn't the big-time power bat many coveted, but he represents a legitimate upgrade at the position where the Pirates had the greatest room to improve. Lyle Overbay lasered a home run yesterday, but his equipment bag should have been sent somewhere other than Pittsburgh.

Ludwick, 33, has had a decline that has been steep and steady. After a monster 2008 in St. Louis -- 37 home runs, .299 average -- those two figures have fallen, year by year, to 22 and .265, 17 and .251 and the 11 and .238 he had with San Diego this season.

There are mitigating factors, notably that the Padres' Petco Park is the hitter's graveyard of baseball. And, maybe because of that, Huntington's statisticians showed him indicators that he should perform better the rest of the way.

Here, too, there could be an upgrade. Ludwick is better than Garrett Jones, Xavier Paul and Matt Diaz as a right field option. Whether he is better than Alex Presley, we'll see. But Presley and his .333 average, .402 on-base percentage and speed shouldn't just be cast aside once he returns.

Second baseman Neil Walker, as eager as any player to welcome reinforcements, remarked of Lee and Ludwick, "Both those guys will help our offense, and they both seem like good guys. I'm pretty happy about it."

Yeah, I guess I am, too.

That's nice.


Photo: Infielder Derrek Lee #25 of the Baltimore Orioles poses for a photo during photo day at Ed Smith Stadium on February 26, 2011 in Sarasota, Florida. (February 25, 2011 - Photo by J. Meric/Getty Images North America)