Thoughts on Oneil Cruz and "Three True Outcomes" From A Special Guest Blogger

Dave Jones is a long time friend of mine of going on forty years now.  He is a frequent golf partner, fellow degenerate sports better, and has served for God only knows how long as the commissioner of the North Park League (NPL) fantasy baseball league, of which I am a retired member and two time champion (ahem!).   As a member emeritus of the NPL, Dave keeps me on the mailing list, and today he sent out a most interesting email about baseball's "Three True Outcomes" and how they relate to Pirates outfielder Oneil Cruz.  I thought it was pretty interesting, and I asked Dave if I could reproduce it here for your reading pleasure while giving him full credit as a Special Guest Blogger here in The Grandstand.

He said OK, so take it away, Dave.....

I mentioned this baseball term in the Monday morning NPL e-mail.  It was brought to the attention of the baseball stat geek world by Christina Kahri of BaseballProspectus.  But here is what piqued my curiosity to take a look at it.  Or should I say I say who?   Answer: Oneil Cruz.

 

When watching the Pirates on TV lately (and they are hard to watch) I found myself thinking that geez - Cruz seems like he strikes out an awful lot.   Currently he's 3rd in MLB striking out with 89 K's, behind Riley Greene of Detroit with 93 and Austin Riley of Atlanta with 90.  HOWEVER, Cruz has only 275 Plate Appearances while Austin Riley and Riley Greene have more PA's - 310 and 296 for their K total. 

 

But the Three True Outcomes (TTO) then factors in strikeouts along with Walks and Home Runs.  In other words, a type of player that in a high percentage of plate appearances will have one of those three outcomes.  Just think Adam Dunn.

 

Dunn had 8,329 plate appearances and had the TTO in 49.9 percent of the time he came to the plate, basically half of every time up one of those three things were the result in a 14-year career.  So just for fun I looked up on Baseball Reference some random guys that I recalled being this type of player.  Such as Ryan Howard, Rob Deer, Miguel Sano.  They all had percentages in the 40's, but the King of TTO at least of the dozen or so guys I checked was Joey Gallo.  Joey Had 3,403 Plate Appearances, 208 HR, 497 BB, 1,292 K's for a TTO percentage of 58.6 of the time he did one of the three.  Guys like Bonds (38.5) and McGwire (45.6) were looked at and I thought Bonds would be higher, but he actually did not have a high K total.  Current players in this mold are Schwarber (48.7) and Judge (51.0) for their careers.  

 

Of course, this doesn't make them bad players or bad fantasy picks. On the contrary some of the best.  But okay, what's the story with Oneil Cruz?   It seems he's turning into at TTO guy.   Prior to this 2025 season and granted he's only in year 5 of his career, his TTO percentage was 44.1.   But in this 2025 season Oneil is cruising at a 52.0 TTO percent.  The King of Exit Velocity is Striking out in 38.8% of every time he bats, which inflates his TTO number.

But hey, not trying to knock the guy (at least too much!), he's still a good fantasy asset.  In our fantasy points scoring format he has 241 points in official at bats of 229 (and 275 plate appearances) as the LOCKHORNS 2nd leading batter behind Corbin Carroll and drafted by Harv in round 5 (#48 overall).  He's a better player for our points format over Rotisserie, as in Roto the .227 batting average would probably hurt that category.

 

It's just frustrating watching him wave at a ball in the dirt or look at one right down the middle for strike 3 when watching them on TV.

 

So, maybe I should stop watching if I'm so annoyed.   And another thing that annoys me in these TV broadcasts..... How many times can Greg Brown keep saying the Pirates are playing "Donnie Ball."   Yep, grabbing the remote.....CLICK!

Thanks, Dave, and thanks also for the shot taken at Pirates Chief Propaganda Minister Greg Brown and his frequent references to "Donnie Ball", or any reference to the Pirates skipper as Donnie.  The only people who should be calling a 45 year old man "Donnie" are his mother and his old classmates from whatever Mt. Lebanon Middle School he attended.

Here is a photo of our Guest Blogger and me taken last year when it was "Hawaiian Shirt Day" for our Tuesday Retiree Golf Group.  Obviously, neither Dave nor I owned a Hawaiian shirt so we both scurried to Amazon to buy one.  Thank God we didn't pick the same color!

POST SCRIPT:  One guy who popped into my head as possible prime TTO guy was retired Cubs and Mets outfielder Dave Kingman, so I looked it up.  In a sixteen year career, Kingman a .236 lifetime hitter, accumulated 6.677 at bats, hit 442 home runs, struck out 1,816 times and drew 608 bases on balls.  Pro-rated on a "per 162 game" basis, that would give you 37 HR, 51 BB, and a whopping 152 K's.  His career TTO percentage was 38.4%, lower than I would have expected.  He remains, however, the worst defensive outfielder that I have ever seen.

 

To Absent Friends - Martha Shanley

I don't often make Absent Friends posts that involve personal acquaintances, and I did make this post on Facebook on Saturday evening, but I just decided that I wanted this one to become a permanent part of The Grandstander archives.

My Facebook post of June 14, 2025:

I was saddened to learn of the death today of my Godmother, Martha Cordic Shanley at the grand age of 94. The Cordic family lived across the street from the Sproule family on Saline Street in Squirrel Hill. Martha was a frequent babysitter for my older sister and brothers, and when I came along my parents asked Martha and her brother Rege (yes, THE Rege Cordic of Pittsburgh radio fame) to be my godparents. My own mother would often refer to Martha as her "sixth kid". Martha more than lived up to her role of godmother. Always wanted to know what my grade was in Religion when report cards came out, and I was well into my fifties and still getting a "Godson" birthday card from her. Martha lived a long and wonderful life. She volunteered at a soup kitchen well into her eighties. We should celebrate her life more than we should mourn her passing. My deepest sympathies go out to her kids, John. Mike, Claire, Pete, and Tom.

Rest in peace indeed.

Martha's son Mike posted this picture of hs Mom on facebook when he announced her death because "This photo kind of captures the enthusiasm she often displayed, which if you knew her from Girl Scouts/Cub Scouts, or as a teacher or a music fan, you knew."

How true, Mike. How true.

To Absent Friends - Frederick Forsyth

INFORMATION  FOR LIFE DEPARTMENT

How To Secure a Passport Under a New Identity

• Go to a remote cemetery, preferably in a small out of the way village churchyard cemetery
• Find a headstone for a child who died within two years of his/her birth
• Said deceased child should have been born within a year or two of you own year of birth
• Go to local county/village registry and request a copy of the birth certificate of the deceased child; such things are public record and are available upon request
• Using "your" newly acquired birth certificate, go to the appropriate  government registry office and request a passport using your photo and the name of the long ago deceased child
• Vwah-LAH!  You now have a new and legitimate passport and a new identity, something like "Paul Oliver Duggan", born in the Village of Sambourn-Fishley, somewhere in England

How do I know this, you may ask?  I learned it from reading the terrific 1971 Edgar Award winning and best selling novel, "The Day of The Jackal" by Frederick Forsyth.  The novel was also made into a terrific Fred Zinnemann directed movie in 1973. 

Frederick Forsyth

1938-2025

Forsyth died this past week at the age of 82.   In addition to "The Day of the Jackal", Forsyth wrote a number of other novels of the political thriller genre, the best of which was his second one, "The Odessa File" about a journalist hunting down Nazis who are attempting to restore the Third Reich (it was set in 1963).  None, though, ever topped "The Day of the Jackal" for sheer can't-put-it-down thrills and readability.

The English born Forsyth was an international journalist by trade, and his obituaries describe a guy who just may have lived the life of, or at least been exposed to, many of the types of people about whom he wrote in his career as a thriller novelist.

Do yourself a favor. Find a copy of "The Day of the Jackal" and read it.  You won't regret it.  Then watch the movie.  You won't regret that, either  Oh, and "The Odessa File" is pretty damn good read as well.

RIP Frederick Forsyth.

Post Script.  In the 21st Century world of terrorism in which we now live, I'm not sure if the method of obtaining a new passport under a new identity can still be pulled off as it was in the 1960's world of Forsyth's masterpiece.  If there is now a more difficult way to go about the process, I am sure that Frederick Forsyth would have been able to describe it for us.

To Absent Friends - Brian Wilson

 

If there is a Mount Rushmore of American Popular Music and Rick & Roll, then Brian Wilson, who died two days ago at age 82 surely sits prominently upon it.  Wilson, the California Boy who founded the Beach Boys, was and will always remain an authentic musical genius.  Tributes to him from a Who's Who of musical greats have abounded across the news (his death was a featured story on the national network news programs) and social media.  What could I possibly add to what people like Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and others have already said?  Therefore, my own tribute to this Absent Friend will be a reprinting of what I wrote on August 26, 2016 when I saw Brian Wilson perform, live and in person (and has it really been nine years ago already?).

Here you go, and RIP Brian Wilson.

Friday, August 26, 2016

Brian Wilson and "Pet Sounds"

This much anticipated concert date finally rolled around last night and what a night it was.  An authentic musical genius, Brian Wilson, founder of The Beach Boys, performing in it's entirety, one of the greatest rock and roll albums of all time, "Pet Sounds", to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of it's release.  Throw in the accompaniment of fellow Beach Boy Al Jardine, and a terrific ten piece band, and what you got was an evening that far exceeded every expectation that I had when I walked into the Benedum last night.

Brian Wilson's story is well known.  A founder and the musical master behind The Beach Boys, Wilson withdrew from touring with the band when he had an anxiety attack when traveling on an airplane.  He then went into the studio to create the masterpiece, Pet Sounds.  No one knew it at the time that it was masterpiece.  It was only a modest, if that, commercial success when it was released, but as the years went by, it became elevated in the pantheon of rock and roll albums.  (No less than Paul McCartney has called it perhaps the greatest album of all time.)  Wilson continued to withdraw, had artistic disagreements with his band mates, became drug dependent and paranoid, fell under the influence of a Svengali-like doctor, and became pretty much of a mess.  His story did have a happy ending and was well told in the 2015 movie, "Love and Mercy", which I highly recommend.

Anyway, the concert last night was tremendous.  Can Wilson sing like he did in his Beach Boys hey-day?  No, of course he can't, what seventy-four year old singer can?  Yet his singing of the entire Pet Sounds album last night was mesmerizing.  He would sing the songs, and when it came time for the trademark Beach Boys high notes and falsettos, those portions of the song were sung by vocalist  Matt Jardine, Al's son.  These trade offs were done seamlessly, and they contributed to the magic of the performance.  It was beautiful.

The night began with a one hour set that mixed some Beach Boys standards as well as some of the "Smile" songs, and featured a number of the individual band members.  Highlights included Matt Jardine singing "Don't Worry Baby", and Wilson singing "God Only Knows", which led to a mid-set standing ovation.  

The second set was the Pet Sounds performance, which, as I have stated, was simply amazing.

(Photo courtesy of Dan Bonk)

It was the encore, featuring Wilson and Jardine, that shook the rafters of the Benedum and had the crowd on its feet the entire time.  "Good Vibrations", "Help Me, Rhonda", "Surfin' USA", "Barbara Ann", and "Fun, Fun, Fun".  I mean, how could it get much better than that?

At the risk of sounding like a total fanboy, I don't think that I can overstate what it felt like to actually see and hear Brian Wilson perform live and person.  The term "genius" is passed around too easily and too often, but I think that it is totally appropriate to use it when speaking of Brian Wilson.  He has led a tortured life, and much of that is evident in his somewhat wooden stage presence.  He shuffles when he walks, and he talks very little between songs, but when the music plays and he begins to sing, even at the age of 74, the magic is there.  I feel very fortunate that I am now able to say that "Yeah, I saw Brian Wilson."

In The Area Of Critical Commentary.....

Some brief comments on four recent offerings.

So, this is a case of where I did judge a book by its cover.  I saw this at a newsstand in JFK Airport when I was there earleir this month.   The cover copy offers up classical setting: a book fair with six mystery writers isolated on a train in th Australian Outback.  Somebody dies under mysterious circumstances.  Who better to solve it than these "expert" authors?  It had all the trappings of a classic Golden Age detective story right out of Agatha Christie's playbook.   Alas, it didn't deliver, and I ended up slogging through it only to see how the author ended it.  I remember a literature teacher I had in high school say something along the lines of "reading a novel just to see how it ends is just about the worst possible reason the read a book."  This was perfect example.

One and One-half Stars from The Grandstander.

 

A movie about the Mob, starring Robert De Niro, and directed by A-List, Oscar winning director Barry Levinson.  What's not to like, right?

"The Alto Knights" tells the story of 1950's and -60's era New York City gang bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, and the big gimmick in this one is that De Niro plays both Costello and Genovese in a duel role.

The movie was entertaining, but if you are reasonably knowledgeable about the Mob of that era, it didn't tell you anything new. As for De Niro, he's played Mob wise guys so many times that he can do the roles in his sleep, and that is pretty much what he did with this one, but, hey, he's always good even when he phones one in.

Two and One-half Stars from The Grandstander.

I hope that you all were able to catch CNN's live telecast of the Broadway performance of George Clooney's "Good Night and Good Luck" this past Saturday night.   Clooney adapted this play from his 2005 movie of the same title and took it to Broadway for limited run this year.  It tells the story of CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow and his reporting on Senator Joseph McCarthy and the "red scare" era of the 1950's.  It is an era in American history that was frightening and has always been fascinating to me. This play is also, sadly and frighteningly relevant today in 2025, as another demagogue who traffics in fear and hate presides over our government in Washington.

I do not know if CNN will stream this telecast so it can be seen again.  If they do, please check it out.  If the telecast does not become available, then please check out thew 2005 movie of the same name.

Four Stars from The Grandstander.

Finally, we took in a production of "Beautiful, The Carole King Musical", this past Sunday in Zelionople.  This was a professional production, albeit, one the was scaled back a bit from touring productions that have played in Pittsburgh over the years, and from the Broadway production that I was fortunate to see in 2017.  It's a great show with great music, and it's one that you should always see if you ever get the chance to do so.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

He's Here!

 

To paraphrase our 38th President  and Michigan Wolverine standout O-lineman, Jerry Ford, Pittsburgh's long national nightmare came to an end over this last weekend when future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers signed a one year deal to be the QB of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  The media frenzy that this dance  has generated over the last three months will reach its zenith later this afternoon as the Steelers open their mandatory mini-camp and Rodgers puts on a Steelers helmet for the first time.  I heard on the radio at 8:00 this morning that ESPN was already camped outside ot Steelers HQ on the South Side to get a glimpse, and possibly hear from, Rodgers himself sometime aroung 1:00 this afternoon.

Perhaps the best analysis from any local media person was THIS COLUMN by the Post-Gazette's Paul Ziese from June 5.  It says it better than I can.

As I see it, I had little or, at least, very low expectations for the Steelers season in 2025.  Now those expectations have risen a bit.  Rodgers, even  a Rodgers diminished from his four time MVP prime, gives the Steelers a much better chance to compete in the ACC North, make the Playoffs, and possibly win a Playoff game for the first time inine years. (Oh, how our expectations have diminished over the last few years!)

Of course,  it is also not beyond the realm of possibility that Rodgers' 41 years will have caught up with him and he will play football in the NFL in 2025 as a washed up 41 year old man, in which case, the reigns get turned over to Mason Rudolph, the Steelers end up with a mediocre to lousy season, and we then anxiously see what quarterback the Steelers select in the 2026 Draft to become the "Next Terry and/or Big Ben".

If nothing else, the presence of Aaron Rodgers and all the weirdness that surrounds him is gong to make the '25 Steelers season....interesting.

To Absent Friends - Loretta Swit

 

Loretta Swit

1937-2025

When I heard the news last week that actress Loretta Swit had died last week at the age of 87, I wasn't inclined to give her an Absent Friends designation, but upon reading her Washington Post obituary and further reflecting upon it, I changed my mind.  Swit's passing must be noted if for no other reason than she was the only female cast member on one of television's great shows. M*A*S*H.  The show ran from 1972 to 1983, and Swit appeared in 251 episodes as the uptight Army nurse Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan who demanded by-the-book behavior from everyone all while having an affair with the married by-the-book surgeon Major Frank Burns.  Hence, the nickname "Hot Lips".

In an interview that was quoted in the Post obit, Swit remarked how that producers of the show, largely at her urging, changed Margaret's character from the sex obsessed Hot Lips to a more rounded professional woman.  This was helped when the Frank Burns character was written out of the series.  The comic features for Margaret Houlihan were still there, but she was on more equal footing with Hawkeye, Trapper, and BJ than she ever was when she was the one dimensional Hot Lips.

IMDB lists 62 acting credits for Loretta Swit, the first one being a 1967 episode of Mannix, along with appearances on such shows as Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-0, Mission: Impossible, and, of course, five separate appearances on The Love Boat.  It was also interesting to learn that she filmed the pilot for the series Cagney & Lacey, was going to get the part of Detective Chris Cagney, but the honchos at CBS would not allow her to leave M*A*S*H.  Actress Sharon Gless was forever grateful for that, no doubt.

In a bit of coincidental serendipity, as I was looking up something else last week in The Grandstander Archives, I came across THIS POST, the Absent Friends post I did in 2022 for actress Sally Kellerman, the original Hot Lips Houlihan. The next day, the news of Loretta Swit's passing came.

RIP Loretta Swit.

Major Margaret Houlihan, RN

4077 MASH Unit

United States Army

Our Viking Journey - Part 2

Last week when I wrote of our recent vacation cruise, I wrote mainly of what we experienced when we were off of the ship exploring the various ports of call visited by the Viking Neptune.  Today, I would like to talk about what the experience was like aboard the ship itself.  Please know that this blog, in addition to me reviewing books and movies, blowing off steam about the Pittsburgh Pirates, and highlighting celebrity obituaries, it also serves as a personal journal and historical recored for me.  So, if hearing about and seeing photos of someone else's vacation bores you, please feel free to ignore it.  No offense taken.

As many of you know, I had previously experienced a Viking river cruise back in 2018.  The experience was a wonderful one, so I had no doubt that a Viking ocean cruise would be equally as wonderful, and I was not let down.  Relative to other cruise lines, the Viking liners are small with a capacity for 900 passengers, and they carry a crew of approximately 450 people, crew to passenger ratio the assures excellent service throughout the journey.  Viking liners are also limited to adults only, so no kids makes for a quieter cruise experience.

The service, as I said, was impeccable.  We would leave the room for breakfast, and return an hour later to see the room completely made up.  Same at dinner time when you would return to see that the nightly turn down service had taken place.  The room itself, including the bathroom, was quite roomy.  Never once felt like we were shoehorned into it, and every room had a balcony.  

The food was excellent.  Two fancy-shmancy restaurants for special dinners, another sit-down restaurant (called, appropriately, The Restaurant) available, and a "World Cafe", which was a cafeteria-type place open all day (and trust me "cafeteria" is way to pedestrian a word to describe the food offerings there), and room service available 24/7, of which we availed ourselves for a couple of breakfasts and one dinner when we had a seasick day during the cruise.  

The common areas of the ship were amazing. 

• A 'living room" which was  multi-story atrium that had a bar, comfortable sitting areas to meet and converse, and a baby grand piano, and a rotating group of musicians, that provided classical style musical background featuring everything from Bach and Beethoven to Lennon and McCartney to the Everly Brothers.
• A pool area on the top deck with a retractable glass roof.
• A spa that included a heated jetted pool, a steam room, and a snow room.  Yes, I said snow.  We availed ourselves of the spa services and each got an 80 minute massage one day. They weren't inexpensive, but, trust me, they were worth every penny.
• Entertainment like you wouldn't believe.  On separate evenings we saw four very talented young singers, two guys, two ladies, "The Viking Vocalists", backed by an amazing four piece band, do a Motown show, an ABBA show, and a Beatles show.
• Enrichment Lectures.  We attended one about V-E Day, and two of series given by a woman who served as Head of the White House Visitors Office during all eight years of the Clinton Administration.  
• We participated in three separate Name That Tune Trivia Contests, and finished second each time (drat!).
• A separate late night cocktail lounge with musical stylings by two other young singers, a guy and a lady, who were also amazing.

However, perhaps the most interesting and perhaps the best part of traveling like this are the people that you meet from all over the world.  

We ran into three separate people from Louisiana who, once we told them we were from Pittsburgh, each told us that they either grew up with, went to the same school as, or was a high school classmate of TERRY BRADSHAW! When I asked the one lady if Terry took her to their Senior Prom, she said no, he did not, and I said, well you ought to say that he did, because at this point, who's going to fact check her on it.

Members of the crew were literally from all over the world.   Europe, Asia, Africa.  It was fascinating to talk with them and hear their stories, and EVERYONE has a story.

On our very first night of the cruise, I see a gent sitting in the "Living Room" wearing a Rutgers quarter zip.  I will pare all the details, but that sparked a conversation that led to a friendship between Linda and I and Patti and Barry Rowe from Massachusetts. We would meet up with them just about every evening to review our days, share dinner, and (especially) have a drink or two or three, while just truly enjoying each other's company.  In the two weeks since we all returned home, we have remained in touch, and we have tentative plans to meet up with them in Massachusetts when the Steelers play the Patriots in Foxboro in September.  Fingers crossed.

I will leave you now with some photos taken aboard the Neptune.

The Sproules and the Rowes

Our stateroom

The Living Room Atrium

The Explorers Lounge

Top deck, front of the ship

Great Spot!

Kickin' back!

We had our share of these over thirteen days!

The Pool Deck with both closed and open roof.

Too cold to keep the roof open

The Lounge Singers

The ABBA Show

The pool area in the Spa

Linda made it into the Snow Room at the Spa!

Dance Party Night

Not allowed to post the video I took of Patti and Linda dancing

Did I mention the food?

Gelato with EVERY meal

 at the World Cafe

The Beatles Show.

I will close with this picture that a fellow passenger took of us one day in the Explorers Lounge.  Might be our favorite picture of the two of us from the entire trip.

I will also close by saying that this was probably not our last adventure aboard a Viking vessel.

And From The White House This Week.....

So the Current Occupant of the White House (I can't bring myself to even write his name) had this to offer from the Oval Office the week:

I now pose three questions to you:

1. Has your life been touched by cancer?
2. Have you lost some that you love to cancer?
3. Did you vote for this guy in any of the last three Presidential elections?

If your answer to either or both of the first two questions and the third question is "Yes", I will now pose another question to you:

    4. How do you like him now?

Some Pirates and Steelers Thoughts

(Editor's Note: Knowing that I was going to be doing a post with thoughts on both the Pirates and the Steelers, I searched for a photo that would combine both teams, maybe duel logos. However, it's hard to find such an image that didn't also feature the Penguins logo, so none of them work.  Instead, I found this photo of an old Sports Illustrated cover that embodies the halcyon days of both franchises.)

Ahhh, the good old days!

Let's start with the Pirates.

At the Old Guy Breakfast this past Thursday, pal Brian O'Neill, a certified baseball geek, postulated that the Pirates seem to be playing better since Don "Donnie" Kelly became manager.  Objectively, this can be said to be true.  Not sure of the exact date that Derek Shelton was cashiered, but since May 9, the Pirates are 10-11 under Kelly.  Like I said, improvement, albeit in a small sample size.

Anyway, Brian went on to say that even certain things that have happened over the last three weeks (Henry Davis starting to hit, Tommy Pham getting banished to the bench, and the continued Good to Very Good to Excellent starting pitching) Brian postulated that it might be feasible that that the Pirates could go the rest of the season playing at or very close to .500 ball, give or take a few games.  Since we are close enough to the exact one-third mark of the season, I have decided to track Brian's assertion, and I am going to begin with that 54 game mark, the exact one-third pole of the season.  

• At that point, the team's record was 19-35, on pace for a 57-105 season. Lousy.
• Should the Pirates play .500 baseball over the final two-thirds of the season, that would mean that they would go 54-54 in those games, and finish the season with a record of 73-89.  Still lousy and three games worse than last season, but quite a turnaround since Sheltie was pink-slipped.
• For what it is worth, in games 55 through 59, the team is 3-2 and today sits at 22-37, a percentage that would produce a 60-102 record over the course of the season.

All due respect to Brother O'Neill, but I don't think that this team as it is currently constituted will come close to playing at a .500 level, but I am going to track how they do perform over the course of these final 108 games of the season.  If nothing else, tracking such a pursuit will provide some level of interest in following the Pirates through the remainder of this woebegone season.

Oh, and speaking of the team as it is "currently constituted", we keep hearing about the wonderful things Bubba Chandler, the Pirates Number One Prospect and the "Number Four Overall Prospect in all of MLB", is doing at Triple-A Indianapolis this season, so why in the Hell isn't he pitching in Pittsburgh RIGHT NOW?

********

Now to the Steelers, and that means discussing the matter that has made this franchise the laughingstock of the pro football world this off season: the so far fruitless pursuit of Aaron Rogers to be their stop gap quarterback in 2025.  This weird dance has lasted through the initial rush of free agency, through the Draft, through voluntary mini-camps, and OTA's and Rodgers remains unsigned and the Steelers look more and more like the pathetic school nerd trying to get up the nerve to ask the pretty girl, or any girl for that matter, to the spring dance.

I can't help but believe that were Dan Rooney still alive and running the team, Rodgers would have been told to shit or get off the pot long ago.  As it stands now, if Rodgers decides NOT to sign with the Steelers, or even play at all, the Steelers are going to look like bumbling fools for having danced this dance so long.

According to those who purport to be in the know, the Steelers long game here is to build up "draft capital" so as to be able to put themselves into  the position to draft a franchise quarterback  -  the Next Bradshaw or the Next Big Ben - in 2026, when more such athletes will be available in the draft class.  That's fine, but you have a season to play in 2025, and right now Mason Rudolph is sitting in the #1 spot on the depth chart.  Would the team be better with a 41 year old Rodgers at the helm than Rudoplph?  Probably, but only marginally so in my opinion, and given the circus atmosphere and Rodgers' general weirdness that would surround the team with Aaron Rogers here, well, I think that I would rather go 7-10 or 8-9 with Rudolph than 9-8 or 10-7 with A-a-ron. 

I'm with Terry Bradshaw on this one.  Let Rodgers go to California and chew on bark, and that is my.....