Flyers Fans > Penguins Fans

Every now and then, I like to apologize to you, the reader. I know this blog covers all Pittsburgh sports, but I find myself focusing on the biggest/funniest/most interesting topics of the time. I'd love to break down the Pirates' recent 6-game winning streak (which was just snapped in the nightcap of last night's double-header), but my schedule is so jammed that I rarely have time to offer more than one sports story a day. Please accept my apologies if you only care about the Pirates. Not just because my coverage of them has been spotty so far this season, but because the Pirates suck, and any Buccos fan deserves an apology.

So if you're a regular PSaMP reader, you've probably noticed that the Penguins have pretty much dominated the majority of my recent writing. Same thing happens during football season with the Steelers, and once hockey season is over, you can bet on a number of Pirates posts.

But hockey season isn't over. Last year, I had just started PSaMP, and the playoffs were over as quickly as they began. Being two short wins from the Cup finals this season hopefully justifies my plentiful Penguins posts. And Game 3 in Philly is tonight. Its impossible to NOT get caught up in the emotion, whether you're a fan or some dumb blogger.

Home-ice advantage is huge. That might be a generic-ass statement, but it needs to be reinforced in light of the series switching to Philly ice tonight. The Rangers only win of the series came at home, and we'd be foolish to expect anything more than a split of the next two games in Philly. Fans have a way of pumping up the home team, creating momentum or absolutely deflating the visiting team's collective psyche. Why do you think the white-out worked in both Game 1s against the Rangers and Flyers? The fans were excited, and transferred that emotion to the players. It was a genius move by the organization, knowing that in spite of the immense talent on the team, the pre-series layoffs would sap the players of that game-ready attitude. The fans helped bring the Pens back from that early 3-0 deficit in Game 1 against New York. As soon as that 3rd New York goal was scored, you could hear "Let's go, Pens" resonating throughout the entire arena. It resulted in two quick goals that ultimately decided which team was going to keep momentum.

Expecting a win tonight isn't wrong, since we're Pens fans, but we need to understand that the home team is counted on to hold serve. I don't care what seed we are compared to the seed Philly is, we're the underdog on the road. Whatever those fans throw at the Pens, orange shirts, collective chants, its going to give Philly a boost not seen in Games 1 and 2.

Unless this video captures exactly how lonely Flyers fans are pumped Flyers fans are for the game (h/t to the MYFO crew at Deadspin today):



Holla atchur boy, indeed.

This game is huge, and I fully expect that these two guys will provide the inspiration needed for the Flyers to tighten up this series.

Let's go Fly-ers!

Go Pens.

The Flyers Suck

Are you pumped for the Pens/Flyers series? You should be.

I figured that Flyers fans (much like Patriots, Browns, Rangers or any other Pittsburgh rival fanbase) would be trolling Google to find instances where their team is mentioned in a negative light, so I plan on exercising my right to bash, should any Flyers fans (pictured below. Nice Hollister bag, douche) find this.



Philly sucks and is stupid.

The Flyers are idiots, and I think several players are having relationships with each other.

Your city can't win shit.

Go boo Santa.

Go throw batteries.

We hate you.

Daniel Briere sucks and has a dumb face.

You signed the lesser of the two Sabres free agents, and we just dispatched of Drury in 5.

Pittsburgh rules.

Ben Franklin sucks.

Our mascot skates faster than Derian Hatcher.

Rocky uses steroids.

MAF > Biron.

Ryan Malone > R.J. Umberger

Marvin Harrison tries to shoot people in your city.

I'd probably punch a Mummer.

Tigger (pictured at the top of this post) is your biggest fan.



BethRawks, what is your take on the Flyers?



Done and done.

Bucs Win in 16, Fully Endorse Adderall

Who knew that ADD Laroche's attention span could last 16 innings? I sure as hell didn't.

Salomon Torres, who opened the season with some "lights-out stuff" but has struggled since, blew a save in the 9th again. After a well-pitched game by Zach Duke (Dude allowed a run in the 1st again and the Bucs still had a chance to win it before Torres came out), the offense added 3 runs in the 5th and 6th to help Duke out. Big Country hit a solo shot to dead center in the 6th and the game was all but won. Until the 9th.

Torres, who blew his 3rd save in the past 5 outings, hardly looked like a legitimate closer. 4 singles in the 9th, along with a throwing error by Jose Castillo (Maybe he needs the Adderall) helped the Astros back in it

After managing only 3 hits since the 8th inning, an intentional walk to Jason Bay in the bottom of the 16th loaded the pillows for ADD. With a home-opening start of 0-18 at the plate, and a game long enough for his Adderall to wear out, Laroche wasn't really expected to do much. Actually, the guy had 318 career RBIs, the most for any active player without a walk-off hit in his career. To prove everyone wrong, ADD hit a walk-off single, and the Buccos prevailed 4-3.

John Wasdin, who pitched the scoreless 15th and 16th, collected his first win of the season.

The Pirates are on a 3 game win streak, and have now opened the season with 5 straight wins against the 'Stros. During the start of the season, I mentioned how the Pirates' early season success against Houston was kinda like the Penguins' season success against the Flyers this past year. 5 straight wins against Houston will do nothing to change that. Hopefully that equals a playoff run for the Bucs (That would be crazy) this year.

The 2007 Pirates: Holding Company With John Smiley and Doug Drabek

aided by a four-run 5th inning, the pirates prevailed 5-4 over the astros, and swept the first series of the season. considering that the buccos havent swept the astros in houston since 1991, at the astrodome, i consider this sweep a massive positive to build on for the rest of the season. in 1991, the pirates ruled, so equalling a feat by the buccos of my childhood is commendable. the pirates started 0-6 last year. right about the time of the 4th or 5th consectutive loss, i actually wondered if it was possible to go winless! thats not even a possibility this year.

sweeping the astros in the opening series between the two teams got me thinking. this reminds me of the pens sweeping the flyers in philly this hockey season. the pens were a young group of guys, playing in an arena where wins have been hard to come by, against a divisional foe that the pens have struggled against in the past. crosby and company ended up exercising some demons and making a run to the playoffs. the pens beat the flyers 8-2, 5-3, 5-3 and 5-4 in philly. the pirates are a young group of guys, playing in a ballpark where wins have been hard to come by in the past, against a divisional foe that the pirates have struggled against in the past. hopefully, this means bay and company can make a meaningful run to the playoffs, and not a bs run like the one by the 1997 "freak show" pirates (although that pitching staff was pretty sweet).

i think the pirates can make some waves in the national league this year, and although ive said that every year since that other sid crushed my dreams in 92, i honestly think these buccos can be legit.

more later...

Could Any Other "Expert" Show Some Love?

according to espn.com's "the talk" (whatever that is), the topic of knowledgeable sports fans came up. not surprisingly, two of the four "experts" (i use that term lightly because i am about to use the words john, clayton, joe, theismann, and experts in the same sentence) picked pittsburgh steelers fans at the front of the list. those two, of course, were john clayton and joe theismann. eric allen picked chiefs fans, presumably because more than one person from kansas city turned on a television when lamar hunt passed away. len pasquarelli picked the eagles, i guess because philly gave him a lifetime supply of cheesesteaks and victory beer that len is trying to consume in one day. however, mr. pasquarelli did give the steelers a sort of honorable mention, yet disrespected this pick by placing steelers fans and browns fans together. i guess when he thought about knowledge in cleveland, he felt it meant strapping a dog mask to your face to watch your (second attempt at a) team constantly lose.
if a survey was taken, id be willing to bet that each person in the picture abve knows more about sports than any cleveland fan, let alone philly and kc.

i was happy to see that steelers fans got some attention. a friend of mine is from boston, and is a diehard pats/bosox fan. there were times that me n him almost got into fisticuffs (i always wanted to use that in a sentence) in discussing the pats and the steelers. at least this article in espn will give a little more credibility to my claim that the steelers rule.

thats all for now. just wanted to show that steeler fans are correct in assuming that we might not know everything, but we sure know a lot.