Cleaning Out The Mental In-Box, Sports Division

A whirl around the wide, wide world of sports.....

Perhaps the most stunning news in sports this past week was the surprise announcement that Indy Colts QB Andrew Luck was retiring at the age of 29.  Yet another injury and the facing of yet another long and laborious rehab process caused Luck to reach this decision.  Equally stunning were the reactions of both the fans of the Colts and of the (too) numerous ex-jock talking heads that populate the (too) many sports networks that have too much time to fill.  How dare Luck do such a thing?  Everything from his dedication, his courage, and his very manhood was questioned by these neanderthals.  It was kind of distressing, actually.

From what I know and have read about Andrew Luck, he is an intelligent guy, and he would not have come to this decision lightly.  I hope he does well in whatever his future endeavors are, and that he can take every opportunity possible to tell the Steve Beuerleins of the world to go pound salt.

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When the circus that comprised much of the Steelers off-season came to a merciful end this past winter with the free agent signing of a former RB by the New York Jets and the trade of one of their WR's to the Oakland Raiders I made comments in this space to the effect that I won't ever have to write about the two guys again, and I have pretty much kept to that.  Events over this training camp season and reports out of the Raiders camp have only reaffirmed that decision of mine, and it seems that everyone surrounding the Steelers would be well served to do the same.  In fairness, the Steelers themselves have pretty much adopted that stance.  That changed this past Sunday night when Ben Roethlisberger was interviewed by Michelle Tofoya on NBC and the subject of said wide out was mentioned.  I thought Ben took a high road and handled it well, but, of course, it brought up the idiotic tweets out of Oakland, and some idiotic comments by, among others, Shannon Sharpe.

Enough already.  That should be the last time anyone connected to the Steelers agrees to have anything to say about the guy who was last seen in Pittsburgh walking out and quitting on his team during the last game of the season.

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How about those "Players Weekend" uniforms worn by all MLB teams last weekend?  Without doubt, the ugliest and most stupid idea ever.  Whomever in the high echelons of MLB came up with the idea for those monochromatic monstrosities should be fired immediately.

Earlier in the week, I made a post on Facebook and asked if anybody, anybody at all, actually liked them.  All I got were more comments saying how much everyone detested them.

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Earlier in the year, Steve Blass got into a bit of a jam when he made an old-man-yelling-at-the-clouds comment about the excess amount of jewelry being worn by some opposing player.  The comment was seized upon by some as being racist and Blass was branded as such.  Now, you can say that Steve Blass is many things, a cranky old guy being one of them, but one thing that he is definitely NOT is racist.  His entire body of work in his sixty year association with the Pirates and MLB makes such a notion absurd.  Blass is also smart, or he certainly was in this case, because he chose to ignore the entire kerfuffle.  Never responded to any of the changes, and inside of a week, the entire story deservedly went away.

I mention this only to suggest a path for those associated with the Pittsburgh Steelers to follow whenever the subject of a certain Oakland Raider comes up for discussion.

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One of the more distressing bits of news amidst the crashing and burning of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the second half of the 2019 season was the news that Jameson Taillon underwent Tommy John surgery for the second time in his career, and that he would be lost not only for the rest of 2019 but for the entire 2020 season as well.

Taillon was the second player selected overall in the amateur draft in 2010, and it hasn't been an easy road for him.  Tommy John surgery and surgery for a sports hernia cost him parts of two seasons in the minor leagues and delayed his debut in Pittsburgh.  He also was a cancer victim a few seasons back.  He seemed to turn a corner in 2018 and it looked like he was going to become the ace of the staff that the Pirates expected him to be when they used that high draft slot to select him.  This second TJ surgery on his pitching arm certainly throws his future and career in doubt.

Of course, shortly after his surgery, Taillon tweeted out the above photo of himself with the message that he knows what lies ahead, and that he will do the work necessary to get back to where he belongs.  Nobody really knows what our sports heroes are really like in real life, but Jameson Taillon has given every impression that he is as he seems:  hard working, strong, and, mainly, a good guy.

Here's wishing him nothing but the best as he heads down the long path of rehab.

Steelers 51 - Colts 34; Ben Breaks All the Records

I know, I know.  In my post this morning I said that I did not feel optimistic about the Steelers chances against the Colts today and even used the word "thrashing" as a possible result in today's contest.

This guy had other ideas.

• 522 passing yards, a new Steelers records
• 6 TD passes, a new Steelers record
• No interceptions
• His second career 500+ yards passing game, a new NFL record
• His 100th win in 150 starts, the fourth QB to ever do that

Remember two years ago when rookie QB Robert Griffin III was the talk of the NFL, and Washington came into Heinz Field and Ben and the Steelers thoroughly whipped both Griffin and his team?  I said at the time that it seemed that Ben Roethlisberger had decided before that game to remind everyone just exactly who the best QB on the field really was that day.  I think that the same thing happened today.

Not to take anything away from Andrew Luck. He had over 400 years in passing today as well, but he also threw two critical interceptions, and committed a really stupid grounding penalty that resulted in a safety for the Steelers in the fourth quarter when the game was, conceivably, still up for grabs.

Also, those receivers other than Antonio Brown who looked so bad for the first six weeks, seemed to have caught on to the NFL game in the last two weeks.  Also, Mike Tomlin, who everyone wanted fired a few weeks ago, seems to have gotten pretty good in the last two weeks.  Same for Todd Haley, and although I am still not a fan of his, that fourth down and inches call of the roll out pass from Ben to Heath Miller from the Colts ten yard line for a TD was brilliant!

And lo and behold, the Steelers are back in the hunt in the AFC Central, with games against the Ravens next week and two with the Bengals late in the season.  I guess we really need to see how an entire sixteen game schedule plays out, and I include myself in that because I sure as hell didn't see coming what I saw this afternoon.

Here we go.....

Speaking of Sports

Everyone knows of the struggles the Pirates have been having of late.  You know the numbers, 19-17 since the All-Star break, 4-7 on the last home stand, and on and on, BUT as of this morning, they are still 13 games over .500, in second place in the NL Central, and hold the second wild card spot in the National League, albeit by a slim one game margin.  I think that we can almost safely say that the disastrous total collapse that took place last season, will not happen again this season.  I think that we can comfortably assume that the 19 year losing season streak will end, and that the team will be in the hunt for a post-season spot until well after Labor Day.

Now, all that said, how about that 19 inning win in St. Louis yesterday?  Our Parish Picnic took place yesterday afternoon, so I figured that I would not see any of the game, and thus  would not agonize over it at all.  I would come home from the picnic and learn that they either won or lost.  You know what happened.  People with their smart phones at the picnic kept giving the updates: tied after eight...tied after nine...game's now in the 11th...the 12th...the 15th...and so it went.  (By the way, how long has it been since updates of Pirates games were of any interest at events such as church picnics in August?)  While driving home, I heard them go ahead in the top of the 17th, only to get home and see the Cardinals tie it in the bottom of the 17th.  Then came the 19th.  A loss could have been devastating, but a win felt positively euphoric.

The Jerry Meals demons have been exorcised!  Raise the Jolly Roger!!

Time to take care of business in San Diego.  The Pirates owe a little payback to the padres from events of last week, it seems to me.

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In other sports news, the Steelers had their second practice game of the summer last night, a come from behind win over the Colts.   

Here are my impressions so far:

• I do not feel real good about the running back situation.
• In last night's game and in last week's game with the Eagles, the Steelers had first and goal opportunities, whereupon they resorted to good old fashioned "Steelers football" and ran the ball, as Steelers Nation and Art III have been wanting, and in both instances, ended up losing yardage and settling for field goals.  I know, they're exhibition games, so who cares, but there are going to be times, many times, in the course of the season when the Steelers will need to score touchdowns in those situations.  So far, it hasn't worked out too well.
• Maybe Art III can find a clone of Fran Rogel and sign him to "run the ball".  
• I've already had my fill of the incessant navel gazing by the talking heads over the "new Todd Hailey-led Steelers offense".
• Oh, and Andrew Luck looked pretty good for the Colts last night.  He much have a pretty sharp offensive coordinator coaching him.

Maybe the best part of the game was the commercial with Eli and Peyton Manning where Eli shoves Peyton into a closet and Peyton yells "I'm telling Dad!". 

Football Bowl Thoughts

As halftime of the Fiesta Bowl approaches with the score now tied at 21, a few thoughts on what has transpired today.

Full disclosure: I watched most of the Penn State game, the fourth quarter of the Rose Bowl (The Grandaddy of Them All), and have been watching the Fiesta Bowl while reading a book.

Didn't watch any of the other games.

So, here are my thoughts.

**How did Penn State manage to win nine games this year? They looked slow, plodding and unimaginative against Houston today.

**I can't imagine any team to be as glad that a season is over as Penn State must be tonight.

**I found myself feeling bad for Tom Bradley today. The guy's life dream has no doubt been to be the head coach at Penn State. He gets the job this year under the most unimaginable of circumstances and because of those circumstances, he will no doubt soon be dismissed by PSU, and find himself almost unhireable by any other school.

**Apparently, I should have watched all of the Rose Bowl (The Grandaddy of Them All) because that was quite an offensive show the Badgers and Ducks put on. However, did anybody else have trouble actually SEEING the Oregon players in the green uniforms against the green grass?

**Stanford and Oklahoma State are putting on quite a show. Am enjoying watching the presumptive #1 draft pick Andrew Luck playing. He looks pretty good. Now, we will spend the next three months hearing the draft geeks saying what is wrong with him. Poor arm angle, slow feet, bad vertical leap...all the crap that you always hear from the people who said that Jeff George was going to be a Hall of Famer and that Ryan Leaf was a better pick than Peyton Manning.

**As for that beard that Luck wears, it's pretty scraggly. If you can't grow a good beard, the don't grow one at all, Andy.

Not sure if I'll be up until the end of this one or not, but I'll give it a shot and see where it leads.