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Not quite Veterans’ Day
Posted by pblackwell | 03/05/07
Once we get out of this wild winter, traverse through a rocky spring and reach the bliss of summer, it will soon be the time for the baseball world to again gather in that lovely little village by Lake Otsego and celebrate the best of itself.
Long in advance, Cooperstown has been booked solid. Cal Ripken’s entry into the Hall of Fame was an event penciled in by the populace of Baltimore the moment he retired, and they intend to take over the festivities.
Hopefully, the Iron Man’s followers will lend enough time to praise Tony Gwynn, too. The greatest pure hitter of his generation deserves that kind of love, even thousands of miles from his San Diego home base.
In that ceremony down the road from the actual museum, thousands will gather...
Show some steel
Posted by pblackwell | 03/11/07
A mere 15 years ago, a young man from Quebec, in his late 20s, had transcended various Steelers and Pirates to become western Pennsylvania’s biggest sports hero.
Few could have imagined, when Mario Lemieux skated around the ice at Chicago Stadium with the Pittsburgh Penguins’ second consecutive Stanley Cup, that he would be a central figure in the team’s questionable future.
For months now, a high drama has played out in the Steel City, as well as other parts of this country, over whether these Penguins will abandon Pittsburgh and its aging Mellon Arena after 40 years of service.
And make no mistake – Lemieux is the central figure. He has been for more than half the franchise’s existence, constantly saving the Penguins from oblivion...
Orange heartache
Posted by pblackwell | 03/19/07
The night of March 11, round about 6:45. Even days later, to write about that moment of extreme mental pain is a chore.
All day long – and for two weeks before that – we had been tricked into thinking that Syracuse would have one of those precious 65 spots in the NCAA party.
Experts thought so. Fans thought so. A preponderance of so-called “bracketologists”, a title that screams of importance (but they’re just guessing like everyone else), had the Orange dancing.
So when those brackets went up, and the word “Syracuse” was not included anywhere, the sound you might have heard was Jim Boeheim and the Central New York sports community taking a collective punch in the gut – or someplace lower.
The outrage soon followed, and it wasn’t confined to those clad in Orange...
Diamond doings
Posted by pblackwell | 03/26/07
Wow, baseball really is suffering. All of that payroll and competitive disparity, all of those steroid allegations, a guarantee of a strike or lockout every few years – why would anyone bother caring about this game?
Except look at the facts. Attendance has never been better. Seven different teams have won the last seven World Series. Drug policies with some teeth (50 games for a first offense) appear to be taking hold. And a labor agreement was quietly reached in 2006, assuring peace for a while.
So quit your tears (no crying in baseball, remember), don’t forget to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s historic integration, and feast on these observations as the 2007 season starts.
AL East - Okay, so maybe some things remain stagnant...
A chance to Slam
Posted by pblackwell | 03/31/07
All right, it’s getting to be a pointless exercise.
We could spend a lot of time and space analyzing that little golf gathering in the pines of Georgia this weekend, but you know the particulars.
It’s the Masters. It’s important. They drive up Magnolia Lane, gawk at the azaleas, play a par-3 tournament on Wednesday, start the tournament a day later, yada yada yada, someone puts on a green jacket Sunday night.
But at this particular moment in golf history, it’s tempting to look past the “tradition unlike any other” (do I have to pay CBS for using that?), and instead hone in on whether a player unlike any other could pull off a feat unlike any other in the game’s annals...
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Random ThoughtsYou can listen to Phil Blackwell, Eagle Newspapers' sports editor, at 10 a.m. every Saturday on WHEN, AM620
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