Catching Up with.....

...the Movies.

Finally got to see "Moneyball" this week. Very good movie, and not just for the baseball. The Oscar buzz for Brad Pitt is well deserved (although I still would put him behind George Clooney, but ahead of Leonardo DiCaprio, if I were handicapping the race), and Jonah Hill was quite good, too. Funny seeing Hill in a role like this when you usually see him the R-rated comedies.

Also, rented "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." I am not a sci-fi guy, but I do kind of like these movies. This one was pretty good, even if it did take a long time to get to the good part - that is, when the apes go ape and over run San Francisco. Entertaining escapism, and they left it wide open for a sequel.

....the Pirates.

Paul Maholm made his departure from the Pirates official this week by signing with the Cubs. It's easy to say "so what" about losing a guy with a 53-73, 4.36 career record, and a career that, save for a six game 3-1 rookie season, never included a winning record, but I still hate to see him go. He was a former #1 draft pick and he never complained about the lack of support behind him (and he sure had every right to do so), never missed his turn, and was a good and decent guy who did a lot of charitable work in the area. I hope that he can have a successful career going forward, although the Cubs may not be all that much better than the Pirates team he is leaving.

Maholm, by the way, was the longest tenured Pirate, a title that now falls to Evan Meek, and I sure would not have guessed that had I not read it in Dejan's blog earlier in the week.

.....the Pirates, again.

You can go to the Pirates website and vote on the "Most Memorable Moment" of the 2011 season. They give you five choices, including the infamous 19 inning loss in the "Jerry Meals Game" in Atlanta. My vote went to the "Mike McKenry Home Run" game against the Cubs. As of last night, anyway, that game was leading in the early voting.

.....the Steelers.

Coming off a season in 2010 where they went to the Super Bowl, the Steelers opted to keep the team together for 2011, including some ageing players, in an effort to take one more shot at getting to the Super Bowl. It made sense, and they can be applauded for loyalty, but, as we all know, that effort fell short in Denver last week. There will need to be some very hard, or maybe not so hard, decisions made in light of that loss. The team needs to get younger, and look for a lot of familiar faces to be gone when the team convenes at St. Vincent's in July.