More on Mehno

The recent death of John Mehno, noted in this space six days ago, prompted me to head to my book shelves and retrieve this little volume:

This book was written by John and was published in 2007.  It is great book chock full of fun little argument starters like.....

• What were the Steelers five most memorable games?
• Jack Ham or Jack Lambert?
• Were the 1979 Pirates really a "family"?
• How did the Pirates go from powerhouse to laughingstock?
• Do Al Oliver and Dave Parker deserve to be in the Hall of Fame? (Die hard Bucco fans might not like his answer to this one,)
• What were the Pirates worst signings?
• Was Barry Bonds really that bad a guy?
• Who was the Penguins best player before Mario Lemieux?
• Was Forbes Field really that great?
• Was Three Rivers Stadium really that bad?
• Who were the best Pittsburgh teams that didn't win championships?

You get the idea, and there are 100 of these little gems in this book.  I'm not even sure if this book is still in print, but it really is a must for Pittsburgh sports fans.  Like I said, it is now a twelve year old book.  How great it would have been to have had John write a second volume that would include topics that have popped up on the 'Burgh Sports Scene since 2007.  He could probably have done whole thirty or forty questions on Neal Huntington and Pitt football coaches alone!

I treasure my copy of this book, which I got John to sign for me when he spoke to the Pittsburgh SABR Chapter back in 2012.

To Absent Friends - John Mehno

John Mehno

Sad news was delivered today with the death of Pittsburgh area sportswriter John Mehno.  He was 64 years old.

Mehno wrote for various organizations over the years - Beaver County Times, Altoona Mirror, Associated Press, Sporting News.  In recent years he would do twice weekly columns that would appear online.  They were among the more trenchant and humorous pieces of sports writing that you would find here in the tri-state area.

I first became aware of John Mehno when he would sometimes substitute for various sports talk show hosts on the old WTAE 1250.  Many years ago, I asked him to speak at one of the Pittsburgh SABR meetings, and he gave a most informative and entertaining summary of his history with the Pittsburgh Pirates.  I ran into him on several occasions over the years since then and he was always a friendly a gracious guy with whom to have a conversation.

He was also a Facebook friend, and would always respond to your comments and posts.  I can say with great pride that he once referred me by name when quoting from "The Grandstander" in one of his columns a few years back.  Coming from a REAL sportswriter, that was a real compliment.  His observations on the Pittsburgh sports scene will be greatly missed.

RIP John Mehno.