Apologies Over, Now Back To Blogging

hey hey, the pirates won. i still get excited when the buccos win, mainly because its something i havent seen a whole lot of in my day. by taking the final game of the series with the reds, the buccos avoided being swept, and their record stands at 4-2, which leads the central with the reds. jack wilson homered (see above picture), jason bay homered, and so did big country. i said before, that brad eldred needed to make the pirates opening day roster, instead of starting the season in the minors again. big country proved me right, by homering in his first game this season, and for the first time since 2005. it was eldred's 12 career homer. i saw his 10th career home run, in a game that andy pettitte won in pittsburgh, on september 20, 2005. my buddy evan, who is from boston and looks like joe thornton, as ive pointed out in the past, hung out and talked with pettitte's dad throughout the game. we had seats right behind the astros dugout, and evan, a hardcore pats/bosox fan, kept talking with mr pettitte about boston sports, and mr pettitte kept looking at his friends like, "whos this dude?" dont know why thats important, but it was memorable...and eldred homered.

we are about 50 hours to the drop of the puck in pittsburgh's first playoff game in some time. i cant wait, and im not that worried that the game will be in ottawa. we just won there, so that shouldnt be too much of an obstacle to overcome. scott burnside of espn.com, who has written some pro-penguins pieces in the past, has picked the sens to win in 5 games. boo. he names the lack of experience and the questionable blue line as reasons for his pick. i just think he has the hots for sens coach bryan murray.

zach johnson won the masters. he outlasted tiger, who couldnt seem to hit the right shots. it is impressive, however that tiger played so poorly, yet still put himself in a position to win another green jacket. i was unimpressed by johnson, and i didnt want him to win. he seemed like a tool on the golf course, and he was making me mad by constantly taking the sunglasses off the back of his head in a deliberate fashion, and quickly putting them on his face. it kept distracting me from his putting and short game, which was unbelievable. he laid up on every par 5 the entire weekend, and used short irons to set himself up with makeable puts. pretty smart way to win the masters with the highest score in tournament history (289).

the pirates home opener is currently going on, against the struggling cards. ian "im gonna strike out 11 astros" snell is pitching against braden "im supposed to pitch in the first 5-6 innings?" looper. this will be looper's second start of his career, after spending the past years as a reliever and closer. the cards are up 1-0, and chris duffy has the only pirate hit. UPDATE: jason bay just got pittsburghs second hit, moving adam laroche, who walked, to second. with only 1 out, hopefully x-man nady or paulino will knock in a couple runs. UPDATE: nady hit into an inning-ending double play. that sucks.

more later...