I Am Burning

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Yesterday, my post about Hines Ward and his gift of Crown Royal premium whiskey made it all the way from the dregs of the Internet to ESPN. A producer for Jim Rome is Burning asked permission to use the image and my website's url on the show. Rome used the pic and story as his Final Burn.

I give ESPN a lot of flak, but sometimes, they do the right thing. It woulda been way easy (and it has happened) for someone with their kinda pull to just rip something straight off the Internet and claim it was theirs, but the producer and show were classy enough to give credit where credit was due. When I started this site almost 2 years ago, there wasn't nearly this kind of communication between the blogosphere and major entities like ESPN.

Much love goes out to my buddy Brian at Awful Announcing for preserving the clip and sending it to me. Also, thanks to Cotter for getting a backup file of the clip. I owe you both majorly.

So yeah, this post is a bit self-serving, but it's nice to get recognized. So back off.

BREAKING NEWS: Don Cherry Continues Beef With Sidney Crosby, Rest of World Yawns

From the Globe and Mail, via my buddy BP at Awful Announcing, comes news that Don Cherry snubbed Sidney Crosby.

Wow. I didn't see that coming.

Anyone who knows Sid and knows Don Cherry were not taken by surprise at this. Cherry is unique to listen to, and must be respected for all he's done for the game. However, he's had a history of berating Sid, mostly stemming from Cherry despising the now-famous lacrosse-style goal Sid scored in juniors.

So after the Game 3 win, Cherry gave tons of love to most of the Pens, including Gary Roberts (not that there's anything wrong with that), but seemed to miss Sid's contributions. I mean, its gotta be easy to forget the guy who scored the first two Penguins goals. Especially right after the game.

Here's the money quote:


When Cherry did his postgame spot for ESPN, he continued to ignore Crosby and wax lyrical about Roberts. Finally, ESPN commentator Barry Melrose said, “What about the Crosby kid?”

“Oh,” Cherry said. “I forgot. Yeah, he played a great game.”


Typical Cherry. I'd be more pissed if it was someone other than Don Cherry. I've come to expect nothing less, although he did wear Penguins colors earlier in the playoffs (above picture taken from that link).

Whatever. Drop the puck for Game 4, already.

Go Pens.

Sean Taylor Was Human, The MSM Wasn't Aware

(Pic ripped from the dominating BP at AA. Read his take on this as well.)

I briefly mentioned my distaste for the mainstream media's handling of the Sean Taylor tragedy in my MMCNY post (its at the very bottom). Before I ever got a chance to follow up my comment, Will at Deadspin beat me to the punch. He's right on with the argument. Read and learn.

I'm absolutely sick over the way the MSM is constantly bringing up every past wrong in Taylor's life, as if all his problems contributed to his death. Do we really need to be talking about his prior DUI, or his legal battles?

Here's an excerpt from ESPN's report about Taylor's passing:

[Taylor] had a drunken driving charge that was later dismissed. He skipped part of the NFL's mandatory rookie symposium. He fired two agents. He didn't like his contract. He refused to return Gibbs' calls during the offseason. And he was fined at least seven times for late hits, uniform violations and other on-field infractions.

In 2005, he was accused of pointing a gun during a fight over all-terrain vehicles near his Miami home, a legal battle that ended a year later when he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors and was sentenced to probation.

Why the need to mention this? If something tragic happened to anyone of us, I'm sure our families would be devastated if the local newspapers peppered our obituaries with a bulleted list of every traffic ticket, college-party infraction or minor squabbles with the law. This is a time to reflect on Taylor's life, not a vehicle to point out that he wasn't perfect.

However, kudos to Jeff Chadiha for only briefly mentioning Taylor's early immaturity as a way to show how much he grew in the past few years. Articles like this show that you can mention Taylor's problems without reading off a laundry list of offenses and altercations.

And I'm not just picking at ESPN. Every news source felt the need to mention every run-in with the law or questionable decision.

Taylor wasn't perfect. I challenge anyone to prove that they are.

The MSM handled this poorly. To say the very least.

R.I.P. to Sean Taylor, the human.

PSaMP's Halfie Birthday Extravaganza: Awful Announcing

(To commemorate the 6 month anniversary of PSaMP, I invited some of my favorite bloggers to take over PSaMP for a week. I'm calling it, PSaMP's Halfie Birthday Extravaganza. Well, its been extended to an obnoxiously long two week blogapalooza, per se. Several kickass local and national blogs agreed to share their feelings on Pittsburgh sports. Hopefully, some will also provide a Mini Pony of the Day. In my mind, it will rule. I hope you enjoy it. Thursday's blogger is BP, the creative voice behind Awful Announcing. AA is one of the best all-around sportsblogs out there on the interwebs. If you don't read it everyday, you are stupid. BP is here to let you Pens fans know why the team lost to the Caps in 1994 in the playoffs. Unbelievable stuff.)
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I wanted to take this space to bash everything that is the Steelers, but really what is there to bash as of late? They have a pretty great team, and now that Joey Porter is gone (BEEYAH!) you can't really make fun of them anymore. Well at least until I see their fans come out of the coal mines to make the trip down to Baltimore in December and experience yet another clash of Puke Yellow versus Purple Camo.

But no, I'd like to share another story that few have heard me tell. The year was 1994 and the Pittsburgh Penguins were staying in the hotel I was working at because they were in a heated playoff tilt with the Washington Capitals. The Caps were up 3-2 in the series and had a chance to close out the Pens the next night in a game I was going to. The Penguins had an entire floor and I was in charge of Room Service for the night. I had about 60 or so trays to deliver throughout the night and ended up meeting just about everyone on the team, but Mario Lemieux. Most of the guys were foreign and I couldn't remember who any of them were, but the last room I delivered to at around 9pm I recognized the players right away.

The very last room on the hall had three of the Penguins' best players in it just hanging out. Tom Barasso, Kevin Stevens, and in full mullet...Jaromir Jagr. Stevens told me to come in and roll the cart with the tray on it into the corner. As I did I noticed that they looked like they were getting ready for a night on the town. I asked where in Annapolis (MD) they were thinking about heading to thinking they'd grab a cab and make the 10 minute trip. Stevens relayed that they weren't allowed to leave the hotel room because they had a game the next day and that they were going to hang out in the hotel bar Secrets.

Now what you have to understand about Secrets was that it was single guy heaven. Before the term "Cougar" was invented this was their den. I bid adieu to the guys and as they took the elevator down to the lobby, I headed back to the Kitchen. My Manager (a 40 something year-old woman from New York) and the Assistant Manager (a gorgeous 30 something year-old woman from L.A.) were there to ask me how it went. I said fine and that some of the players were going to be hanging out in the bar. For some reason the two of them just started giggling and asked who was in there partying. I relayed that it was Stevens, Jagr, and Barasso and within seconds they were posted up at the bar with the trio.

I was only 15 at the time, but I was in good with the bartenders so they let me sit next to the bar and watch whatever sporting event was on at the time while I waited for my Mom to pick me up (it's actually where I saw Joe Carter's walk-off homer against the Phillies in the WS). I had never seen my two Managers act like this and at about 10pm I left to one of them sitting on Kevin Stevens' lap.

Fast Forward to the next day Thursday, April 28th. My mom was taking me to the game that day and I told her that I needed to stop by work to pick up a paycheck to cash so I could get some garb at the game. I walk through the empty bar at around 3pm and in to the Kitchen to find my boss telling a story to two other female employees. I asked her for my check and she tells me to hang on for a second. I make small talk with the dishwashers, but quickly grow impatient as she's whispering this story across the room. I walk behind her to hear her say the funniest and most shocking thing my 15-year old ears had ever heard.

"Kevin and I were up until 5am at my place just going at it. I've never been that wet in my life."- Manager Lady

She spun around to see me standing there, and immediately did the "you didn't hear anything" routine and to "never repeat what I had heard". I was a late-bloomer so I really didn't even know what she was referring to anyway. Well to make a long-story short it turned out that she and the assistant manager took all three players to her house and had an all-nighter that only her, the Penguins, and God know the details of.

Of course the Capitals won the game that night and eliminated the favorites to win the Stanley Cup from the playoffs. I don't know what they did to him but somehow Tom Barasso gave up six goals (one empty netter) in defeat. And I saw it all go down. It's moments like that I wish I had started my blog in the early 90s.

- BP, Awful Announcing