Your Daily Sports Breakfast Buffet: the Return of Pig Ben, Benedict Hossa

For the first time since Goodell’s suspension, Ben Roethlisberger will rejoin his teammates at the South Side complex for OTA’s today. What will be interesting is whether or not Ben will talk to the media. He has been very silent since Goodell’s suspension, even asking Coach Tomlin to take over his football camp for children. Clearly, Ben has been very careful to stay out of the public eye, lying as low as humanly possible. Perhaps he has finally been humbled, perhaps he’s just trying to save his ass. Only Ben knows that at this point. This story has still got a long way to go.

Most Pens fans rejoiced as Chicago took a 2-0 series lead over Philadelphia, beating the Flyers 2-1. Given the ridiculous action of Game One, the puck must have looked like a deep-dish pizza to goalies Antti Niemi and Michael Leighton in Game 2. Last night was a “hockey purist” game, with few mistakes, good physical play and some solid goaltending. The scary part about all of this for the Flyers? They’re down 2-0 with nary a peep from Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. If those two get hot, this series could be over very quickly.


Hossa Watch: 1 Goal, 0 Assists- still a tool.



The Pirates awoke from their week-long slumber to come back and beat the Chicago Cubs 2-1. Before Sunday’s game, GM Neal Huntington attempted to quell the rumors that a youthful infusion was on the way this month. He was quoted as saying pitcher Brad Lincoln was still “a ways away” from being called up. He also stated that Jose Tabata and Pedro Alvarez had work remaining in Indianapolis. However, for unknown reasons, Jose Tabata was not in the lineup for Indianapolis yesterday. Maybe he’s on a plane to Pittsburgh? We’ll find out soon enough.

The Pirates will play the Cubs at 7:05 tonight at PNC Park. Tonight marks the return of Jeff Karstens to the rotation. Does anyone know why on God’s green Earth Ryan Doumit continues to hit 6th? Here, John Russell, if you’re reading this, this should be your lineup tonight:

1. Andrew McCutchen
2. Neil Walker
3. Ryan Doumit
4. Garrett Jones
5. Delwyn Young (screw Ryan Church)
6. Andy LaRoche
7. Jeff Clement
8. Ronny Cedeno
9. Jeff Karstens

See? It’s easy!



Why are the hockey and football seasons so far away?

A Wonderful Memorial Day in Sports. Watch it.

In what would have been Pittsburgh Pirates news 2 years ago, it is now Memorial Day (wishing you and yours a happy one), and Jose Bautista is currently leading the majors in home runs.

No, I haven’t been drinking.



Bautista currently has 16 home runs. His previous career high? You guessed it, 16. At this pace, he’d hit 50 homers this year. And if that doesn’t make you want to blow your brains out, Pirates third baseman this year have hit a total of 4 home runs. Four big ones. That’s just sickening.

The Stanley Cup Final continues tonight with two teams that aren’t the Penguins. The summer of bummer continues. Should at least be an entertaining game, though. The Flyers will stick with Michael Leighton in net, and Antti Niemi will remain in goal for the Blackhawks.



Hossa watch: Game 1: 0 Goals, 2 Assists

Shutdown Corner over on Yahoo had a great story on Cincinnati Bengals star Chad Ochocinco. Chad had received a letter from a young, homeless fan who wrote about how Ochocinco was his favorite player, and his dream was to attend a football camp. Make the jump over to Shutdown Corner to read the rest and see the video. A kind gesture from what seems to be a good guy.

Happy Memorial Day, folks.

Nothing going on, but updating anyways.

For Pittsburgh sports, it’s a quiet Memorial Day weekend.

The Pirates lost their 387th straight game. The kids will be called up in a couple of days, should be a lot of fun to watch them.

The Blackhawks beat the Flyers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. The inexperience and nerves of both young goalies were on display, as a total of 11 goals were allowed. If Game 1 were to be an indicator for the rest of the series, it’s going to be a damn entertaining one.

Unfortunately, continuing with sports news on the other side of the state, Phillies star Roy Halladay hurled a perfect game yesterday against the Florida Marlins. Perhaps even more amazingly, yesterday marked Halladay’s FIFTH complete game of the year. Oh, and by the way, it was just his 11th start of the year. Unreal. To put that into even more perspective, in 2010, Halladay now has pitched more complete games than any pitcher did in 2009, with the lone exceptions being Zach Grienke (6) and Halladay himself (9).

In other baseball news, Angels star Kendry Morales shows how quickly one can go from winning to losing.



Hope you get better soon, Kendry.

Black Hawk Down. The state of the 2010-11 Chicago Blackhawks

Marian Hossa is a major league screw-job. After losing in the Stanley Cup Finals in the past two season, Hossa is hoping the third time is a charm. Even if Hossa were to raise Lord Stanley this year, at what cost does it come to the Blackhawks, who gave Hossa a 12-year, $60+ million deal. I’m sure that Hossa’s whopping goal total this playoff run- which currently stands at two- was not what Chicago had in mind when Hossa laid his pen to paper.



The Hossa contract, coupled with the contracts they gave Brian Campbell and Duncan Keith (Raise your hand if you knew that Campbell and Keith had more lucrative deals than Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews), helps put the Blackhawks in one of the worst positions in relation to the salary cap that I have ever seen. The Hawks are nearly a million dollars OVER next years salary cap, and they still have to re-sign 6 guys! With a salary cap that is unlikely to drastically change next year, here is a list of Blackhawks that have over a $5 million cap hit for 2010-11:

Brian Campbell ($7.1 mil.) – who ranked 27th among defenseman in scoring. Woof.
Jonathan Toews ($6.3 mil.)
Patrick Kane ($6.3 mil.)
Cristobal Huet ($5.6 mil.)
Duncan Keith ($5.5 mil.)
Marian Hossa ($5.3 mil.)


An image of a Blackhawks fan come July.

Mind you, the current starting goaltender, Antti Niemi is NOT under contract for next year, not to mention the 3 forwards and two other D-men. And who knows whether any team will want backup goalie Cristobal Huet and his massive contract here in the off-season.

And people around here thought the Pens salary cap was in bad shape after last season.

If you’ve gotten down to this point in the post and are wondering “What the hell does this have to do with Pittsburgh?” Well…

At least we know who we WON’T be playing in the Cup finals next year.

To end, I will leave you all with my reaction to the Pirates getting shut out last night.

A Walk to Remember. Game 7, Pens v. Habs

Best of luck to all who attempt to concentrate on work/school/unemployment today. It will probably be a futile effort.

Not many people expected the series to get this far. The Habs deserve a tremendous amount of credit. On paper it should have been a 4 or 5 game series, then again, so should have been their series with Washington. But nonetheless, we’re here today.

Putting personal biases aside, it’s a beautiful thing, one that will always be remembered regardless of the outcome. We’re fans because we crave memories. They bond us all, through commiseration or celebration. We don’t all know each other on a personal level, but it gives us something very tangible to hold on to. You may not know the person walking down the street next to you, but could talk for an hour about Darius Kasparaitis’ goal to beat Buffalo, or Fleury’s last second save against Detroit. Somewhere in there lies the greatest gift of sport, to unify us all in a common love.

Tonight will be another one of those moments. Be thankful for it.

I make no predictions as to what will happen. I don’t know if we’ll see Fedotenko or McKee, and I can’t say that I care. Given the ebb and flow of this series, the only thing that has proved predictable is its unpredictability. Let’s just leave it all on the ice.

You will surely have something to talk about with the stranger next to you tomorrow.

Let’s go Pens.