Monday Morning Ramblings 2005, Issue XXIX

What a glorious week for hockey in Western Pennsylvania!

The Johnstown Chiefs named a new head coach, the president of the Tampa Bay Lightning was in town and really seems to be committed to making the partnership with Johnstown work, Toby is back were he is better suited (GM), season tickets sales appear to be up and people in the area are just generally excited about the upcoming ECHL season and getting the Chiefs back in the playoffs.

But that excitement is nothing compared to the buzz in the burgh. Only days after the new NHL plan had been laid out (new rules, CBA, etc.) it was revealed that the Penguins won the NHL Draft Lottery, sewing up the rights to phenom Sidney Crosby. This guy is supposed to be the next great thing out of Canada. Let's hope he's more like Lemieux and less like Lindros! The Pens look to really come out of this thing a winner.

See Pirates, sometimes you should sit out to get a better chance at being competitive.

I can only imagine the ticket requests and pro shop requests for #87 Crosby jerseys over this past weekend!

Well, it is almost upon us, NFL Training Camp, or as we say in Pittsburgh "The Official End to Baseball Season.". Here is some information on the Steelers training camp, including a schedule.

Motorsports wrapup: Kimi blew an engine, Danica looked more like Sarah Fisher, rainy day for MotoGP, caution laden Pennsylvania 500. One thing I do want to mention is that I have been watching more NHRA this year as I'm anticipating my first trip to an event. I'd like to be up to speed on all the goings on in Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and the bikes for my September trip. The staging battle in last week's Denver Pro Stock final was classic. Next weekend is Sonoma, the final stop on the western swing.

Let me put myself in the clear minority. I am so sick of Lance Armstrong, I'm glad the tour is over and it's his last one and that I can now move on. This is ethnocentric behavior at its best as no one in America cared about this event even though it is a huge deal in Europe, that is of course until Lance came along. People didn't even care that much when Greg LeMond won. Look, I'm not being insensitive about his battle with cancer. To say it's heroic is an understatement. That being said, I think he's a whiny baby. He was quick to call out his team earlier in the tour but I didn't hear him praising them after the win.

Is OLN really going to cover the entire event next year sans Lance?

So resident loudtalker Stephen A. Smith is getting his own weeknight show on the worldwide leader come August. I think my brother-in-law put it best when he said that ESPN is becoming a parody of itself. I'm just surprised it's not going to be called AT THE END OF THE DAY. That has to be the worst overused cliche in business, sports, entertainment, etc. I just hope he has one segment a night where he blasts Michael Olawankandi... 'cause quite frankly, it's not a show until he does!

Carl Krauser is coming back to Pitt for his senior season and as a Pitt fan I couldn't be happier. I was surprised last night while watching the #1 Cochran Sunday Sports Showdown on KDKA the stupidity of the comments on said subject by Sports Radio 970's Stan Savran. He states that even though Krauser will be the best player on the floor for the Panthers, his return will retard the growth of players like Ronald Ramon and Antonio Graves. That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. When has that EVER been a valid point when discussing whether or not a player should leave early.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I just don't get the Pittsburgh media's disdain for Carl. He's everything someone in the media should want. He's outgoing, a great quote, charismatic, etc, etc. They should be salivating at the opportunity to cover this cat one more season. Instead all you hear about is "he's a selfish player" or "that streetball mentality". Just shows you how much the burgh has to grow if it wants to consider itself a college hoops hotbed.

REALITY CHECK: Normally, I hate the genre, but you if you have to watch one reality show this year, make it Bravo's "Being Bobby Brown". Two words: ghetto fabolous!

I normally like to get somewhat learned in a topic before I blast but I hope there is a "Scientology for Dummies" book. I checked Dianetics out at my local library and I cannot make heads or tails of it!

Monday Morning Ramblings 2005, Issue XXVIII

What's up everyone? Not too eventful of a weekend. Watched a lot of bad Pirates baseball as they lost 3 of 4 at Wrigley Field to the Cubs. I guess the saving grace is that I have Derek Lee on my fantasy baseball team this year!

A lot of controversy is brewing over the Montour football program's involvement in an upcoming ESPN reality show starring Dick Butkus. After Seton LaSalle's Lou Cerro was brought in to rebuild the program, the school board has essentially undermined him by making Butkus the head coach. The almighty dollar was at work here as the school will get new uniforms, equipment and a new scoreboard. Not that I think it can't be a positive thing for the school, I wish not as much control would be going to a has-been with ZERO coaching experience.

But hey, when your program is 13-45 in the last six seasons I guess any publicity is good publicity.

Look for updates on the SW PA Sports Blog sometime this week. I've been on hiatus but I'm going to get things back up and running there.

Pirates @ Nats 6/29/05 Pics

This is a view of RFK from out in the parking lot after Greg and I arrived in The District













Here's a view from our seats on Wednesday night. The grounds crew is at work on the field. They would have much more work to do later in the evening!











The Pirates at bat early in the game. RFK isn't the most beautiful stadium in MLB by a long shot. Although it doesn't matchup with the new ballparks like Camden, Jacobs and PNC, I must say the sightlines were great. Far better than any seat I ever had at Three Rivers Stadium.









Here's a shot of the rather old-school scoreboard in effect at RFK.












You can vaguely make out the Washington Wall of Stars that honors the best of sports contributors from our nation's capital.












This guy was our Celebrity Look-Alike Superstar Challenge winner for the night. LOOK! Elian Gonzalez is all grown up!!! You be the judge.













The scowl of Mike says it all! GO NATS!


















Needless to say my brother and I went home pretty disappointed Pirate fans. Especially as both games we attended really could have gone either way. We will do our best to try and make this an annual visit.

Monday Morning Ramblings 2005, Issue XXVII

Only one day off this week. I really need to get committed and on a schedule with this thing huh? Actually, I'm not too concerned as I don't think too many people are reading right now. That's OK, I hope to pic some traffic up here come football season when more traffic is at the new and improved Trojan Nation website.

Right now I want to talk about racing, racing and more racing. First off, congrads to Dale Jr for getting of the schnide of this terrible year he's having. The win at Chicagoland was his amazingly his first this season. I must say, this was the most NASCAR I've watched all year and I don't plan on catching much more until the Bud at the Glen. I just can't get in to this boring oval crap.

Open wheeled world had a full plate as Juan Pablo Montoya won at Sliverstone. The McLaren Mercedes' of both him and Finnish teammate Kimi Raikonnen looked very tough. Fernando Alonso and the Renault were right there in second and FA remains in the World Championship Lead and Renault remains in the constructor's title lead.

I couldn't believe the misfortune of Canadian Paul Tracy experienced at the Molson Indy in Toronto. First he got in to what I'll describe as a "racing deal" with Sebastian Bourdais leaving the pits. Unbelievably he raced several laps with half a front wing only to run out of gas! He'll get a chance for redemption in his home country though as the circuit travels across our neighbor to the north for the GP of Edmonton next Sunday.

Great win for Brit Justin Wilson, emotions had to be running high after the turmoil of the terrorist bombings of our allies across the Atlantic earlier in the week.

Last but not least in the motor sports world was the return of MotoGP to Laguna Seca and the win for American Nicky Hayden. I have just started following this racing this season and it is without a doubt the most exciting pure racing you could ask for as a fan. Valentino Rossi still has a stranglehold on the points lead and will most likely repeat as champ.

Although I felt bad for Jason Bay having to follow the amazing round one performance of Bobby Abrieu in last night's Home Run Derby and then subsequently not hitting a single ball out of the park, it was nice to see the Pirates represented. Maybe he can help out the NL cause tonight in the game. That way he can say he helped St. Louis or Washington get home field advantage in the World Series!

Trojan Nation News

This started as an email, but when it got to be too long I decided to
simply put a link out on the Trojan Nation website itself for everyone to
look at their own convenience.

So here it is: http://www.trojannation.net/id150.html.

In addition to what is mentioned on that page there are also two other
additions that may make it to the website. First, I am putting together
an alumni database. So if you're a JHS grad you can email me and I can
add your name and email to the list. Also, I am thinking of setting up a
sponsorship/advertisement link. This way, if local businesses would like
some exposure on the site they would get it there. I will be crunching
some numbers and trying to get a pricing structure together so more to
come on this aspect.

For now, enjoy the enhancements to the site. I hope to see everyone in
the fall but for now, enjoy the rest of the summer!

--
Doug Keklak
Information Director, Writer
Trojan Nation
www.trojannation.net
412-860-6146

Thursday Morning Blues

also known as Monday Morning Ramblings 2005, Volume XXVI! (I just couldn't bring myself to title this post that way being that we're way past Monday!)

F1 is back to normal although the French GP was quite an uneventful race. Fernando Alonso took the win for Renault in their home grand prix. Off to Silverstone.

The 4th of July was fantastic. I absolutely love fireworks and I did my share of watching and setting them off over the extended weekend that's for sure!

Although the Pirates continue to slide it was nice to see Canada's native son Jason Bay not only get named as a National League reserve but as a participant in the home run derby contest. In doing so, he will be the first Bucco since Barry Bonds to participate in the event. Hopefully he'll do good and get the repeat invite next summer when the game is at PNC Park.

As for the Pirates, I was in DC last week to catch two of the three games against the Nationals. Although they were swept, the games I saw were at least close. As far as RFK goes, look it's an old venue. All the great things about the newer parks are absent however, I will say this: it is a much better park to watch a ballgame at than Three Rivers EVER was. The sightlines were fantastic. I will post some pics I took tonight so come back and look for them later.

I wore Pirates gear both games, including my unique Jim Leyland jersey which got many, many compliments, and was pretty much left along. Truth be told there was a lot of black and gold in the District for those two games. Not sure if they were transplants or people making the voyage from western PA.

MotoGP makes its return to the states this weekend and Speed not only will have their normal race coverage but qualifying coverage as well. I cannot see anyone stopping Valentino Rossi this year.

I have gotten a lot of new music lately although many of it isn't exactly new. I did pick up the new System of a Down and it is pretty good. I got the latest Chemical Brothers with the track "Galvanize" which features Q-Tip. Good track and good disc. I have been using BMG and Columbia House to build my selection of remasters of the old Van Halen and AC/DC albums. So far I have Van Halen II, Diver Down and 1984 as well as High Voltage, The Razor's Edge, Back in Black and For Those About to Rock. I also got the Johnny Cash 16 Biggest Hits Volume II. Even if you're not a country fan (which I really am not, in fact I HATE country music today, it's just glorified pop music with a twang, but I like the old stuff like Cash, Marty Robbins, Charlie Pride, etc.) every CD collection needs to have Johnny Cash's 16 Biggest Hits Volumes I and II as well as Carryin' On with Johnny Cash and June Carter. If possible, pick up the Folsom Prison recording and Live at Madison Square Garden as well but that's just for hardcore fans.

Well, enough of this, I'm back to work. Look tonight for pics from DC.