Thursday, August 28, 2008

My Fantasy Football Team

I think these are the men that will win it all:
  • Ben Roethlisberger
  • Terell Owens
  • Santonio Holmes
  • Frank Gore
  • Ricky Williams
  • Vernon Davis
  • Laveranues Coles
  • Ted Ginn Jr.
  • Rashard Mendenhall
  • Jeff Reed
  • Pittsburgh
  • James Harrison
  • Lamar Woodley
  • Troy Polamalu

The great part was I didn't even have to take reach picks on any of the Steelers. I think I got them all right where they deserved to be taken. Feel free to post your team in the comments or discussion on this one.

The Face of Greed

This makes me sick. Reactions from around the Sports Burghosphere:

I might do a post with reaction after the arbitrator rules, but for now I feel it's adequate to say Scott Boras has done everything in his power to ruin baseball.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Ministry

I don't talk about my faith often on this blog and for the most part try to stay away from the topic of church and churches. I believe faith is a very personal thing, but today I want to briefly discuss Christ Community Church of the South Hills' decision to build a Community Center in Mt. Lebanon. Before I do, I should mention that I believe that being judgemental is one of the most frequently abused sins. Even more objectionable, many Christians (I believe sinfully) judge one another in the name of God. For this reason, I question the building of the CCSH's Community Center, I don't judge the decision nor those who made it.

That being said, does Mt. Lebanon need a community center? Is God best served through a ministry inside Mt. Lebanon (or as we used to like to call it growing up, "the bubble")? The new community center will have no less then 5 churches within a mile or two on the same road, so it would seem the community's spiritual needs are being met. Lebo is also one of Pittsburgh's centers of affluence, certainly not in need of a community center to serve its poor.

The pastor's blog lays out his hopes for the community center:
Our intention is to join in the work that God is already doing in this neighborhood and by faith, contribute what we can to the promotion of flourishing in this community. And by the grace of God and the empowerment of the Spirit, perhaps God will use us in some way in the work that God is doing to bring all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe together again in Christ.
I challenge whether they could not have found a more broken and dislocated piece of the universe to unite in Christ.

Sour Kraut

Tasty tidbits from the last week:
  • I'm an ardent Obama supporter and THIS seems totally fair to me. Just remember that I said so when I post a picture of McCain lighting a bomb before Bush throws it.
  • Pittsburgh Ventures has a new home and (hopefully) new life.
  • An interesting review of Propel Pittsburgh so far. Yours truly applied but was not offered a seat on the board.
  • Duquesne rated a top tier school. A good catch by Matt.
  • Want to see my homeroom teacher and tennis coach's mug shot? That's right, I had that guy for class.
  • Pittsburgh Today reports another strong month for Burgh jobs and good news for the Burgh's bargenomics. I wonder how exactly this should be interpreted.
  • The Burgh Blog highlighted a picture of the gold medal ceremony for women's beach volleyball in Beijing. But I thought she wrote about Pittsburgh, why would she show a medal ceremony halfway around the world you might ask. Because of the Terrible Towel in the background, of course.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

The Worst Players Ever

The guys over at ESPN's Page 2 made a list of the "Unfranchise Players," guys that the organization would be better without. They made the evaluation based on a particular season. They came up with Bill Virdon (1962), Marvell Wayne (1985) and Kevin Young (1993). Three very mediocre selections. Here are some better choices:
  • Raul Mondesi (2004) - 99 AB, 28 H, 2 HR. In addition to his bad numbers he quit the team a month in to the season.
  • Derek Bell (2001) - 5HR, 13 RBI, .173 AVG in 46 games. Why only 46 games? Because we sent him down to the minors where he quit the team. Leaving with $10M in Pirate loot for the numbers above.
  • Ryan Vogelsong - He spent too much time in the minors to find one season. So I'll give you career statistics: 10-22 with a 5.86 ERA. Keep in mind he was half of what we got for future Cy Young Award Runner-Up Jason Schmidt.

That's just off the top of my head people. Seriously? Bill Virdon? He had a bad season, but he'll always be a beloved bucco.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The Coolest Thing I've Seen All Day

The Post-Gazette has the story of a picture of Pittsburgh. A photo that is old, but no one is exactly sure how old. They are taking comments from anyone who can link something in the picture to a date or even an era. They've already considered that the Wabash terminal and the Horne's sign are visible and the picture is obviously before the first renaissance, but that seems to be about all they have. I think it would be AWESOME to be an expert in Pittsburgh History capable of figuring out this puzzle, something to aspire to. Ya, I'm that kind of nerd.

There's a link to a large version of the picture from the article.

Sour Kraut

The Bad: I've been away for a couple days because the personal life has been interesting.
The Good: Lots of Juicy Sour Kraut has formed in my absence from the Burghosphere.
  • If the story here about Joe Biden being selected as Obama's veep is true I'll be happy. Not as happy as I would have been with Hagel, but happy.
  • There were a lot of blog posts on Councilman Shield's meltdown, but I only saw one on his apology, so I thought I'd bring it to you courtesy of the Busman. I don't see why Motznik still favors ousting Shields, it's not as if a "more mayor friendly" councilman will replace him.
  • Schultz has a great post about how much of a shame it is that Obama speaks over the head of some. I think that the reason its over the head of some is that they get their "news" (re: Fox News, Quinn and Rose, etc...) from people who intentionally misrepresent him.
  • The Pittsburgh Technology Council has announced the finalists for the Tech 50. Always nice to see a reminder how many good companies make the Burgh home.
  • Harold Miller has an interesting post on the employment numbers in the city from July.
  • I almost did a whole post on the bike issue (Mike Madison, Chad Hermann, Ed Heath), but I decided there were too many posts out there. I think bikers need to show more courtesy then they do (riding paths when they can, stopping at stop signs, etc....), but I think that it is vital that they are protected. I'm glad the city has a "bike czar" I think with a little creative thinking we can make some simple changes downtown that will make everyone happier.
  • An old friend of the family, John Doctor, is having bird park field named after him. I remember watching my brother's baseball games with Dr. and Dr. Doctor, whose kid was on his team.
  • Chris has an update on the burn rate of the pension fund. Not good people.
  • He also points out the proposed changes in Bloomfield. I had occasion to drive by the other day and was saddened to see the "Welcome to Bloomfield" sign gone :-(.

Well wasn't that tasty, maybe tomorrow I'll have a real post for you.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Carbolic Smoke Ball

If you don't read CSB Daily here's why you should. Today's top story:


Georgia Woman Vows to Rebuild Plantation Damaged by Russian Invasion

That's good stuff fellas, keep it up.

Leaving Home?

First, let me say that I have been away from the burgh for the last 11 days, and it is SOOOO good to be home. Just as I pulled in through the Liberty Tubes and turned down McCardle, fireworks erupted from the Allegheny and exploded just above the skyline. I'm generally not one to have his breath taken, but I was overwhelmed. You see, I am currently wrestling with the possibility of leaving Pittsburgh for a few years to pursue an exciting and truly unique job opportunity down south. The little things like our love of fireworks and hiding a bad baseball team behind REO Speedwagon and a HUGE fireworks show are the things I'm going to miss.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Spanish and Chinese

I don't know if anyone noticed but the Spanish Olympic team posed in a picture with their hands squinting their eyes in such a way that they appeared more chinese. For those who need a visual demonstration there is a picture in the link. Needless to say this created quite the hoopla. I wanted to add my two cents:
  1. Who the hell is responsible for this picture? Is there really an advertising company dumb enough to not see this coming? REALLY?
  2. I really wish we lived in a world where this wasn't so offensive. Chinese people, and several other races, have eyes that are different then mine. So what? Is pointing that out by stretching my eyes to resemble theirs offensive? I realize that this is more then a question of their sensitivity, it also has to do with how racist my ancestors have been for years... but I still wish we didn't live in a world where this was so offensive.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Pat Ford Update

So, I'm not really going to dive in to this because it's not my area of expertise (issues that are purely political, not at all issues based). However, it is a big deal so here's the reaction:

Ok, I did my part. Let's get this ugliness over with.

Who the Hell is Jeff Karstens?


I'm a huge Pirates fan. I've been to 15 or 20 games this year (in spite of the fact that I'm only in Pittsburgh 3 days per week). I love the Pirates and I follow them every year until I'm positive they aren't going to make the playoffs (that was the day they traded Nady this year). I know pretty much every player on the 40 man roster and most of the key prospects. Which is why when I hoped over to Buc's Dugout this morning and saw Jeff Karstens pitched a no-hitter in to the eighth yesterday. I was even more surprised to learn that he did it in a Pirates' uniform.

Then I continued reading Bucs Dugout and noticed that Charlie also points out that 20 of the players on the 40 man roster are new since the new GM took over (a little less then a year ago). That's crazy. Based on the bargain basement pick-ups of Jason Michaels and PittGirl's Husband Doug Mientkiewicz, I'm going to assume this guy knows how to scout talent. Furthermore I assume we're less then three years from a World Series Title.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Today isn't going to be as slow as I thought...

Pat Ford is no longer under investigation and has applied for reinstatement. It's not really my kind of thing and I have a job that won't allow me to follow it closely all day, but I'll try to post some updates and links to other blogs that have more complete coverage.

  • 9:16am - Post-Gazette Story - Ravenstahl waiting to comment until he hears from the State Ethics Commission.

Vote for Paris

So I don't have too much to say, so I thought I'd take a comedy break. If you haven't seen the add that McCain put out loosely comparing Barack to Paris Hilton you'll need to watch it.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Trenni is in Milwaukee and I'm Bumbed

Trenni Kusnierek weighed in on the Erin Andrew's dress. Pointing out that Andrews may be harming female reporters. The interesting part is when Trenni says, "Erin is a beautiful girl with a body I'd kill for. I know she's hotter than me." That's just not true, Trenni is the best looking and most professional woman in sports journalism (and she, unlike Andrews, really is in sports journalism). I will stand by that opinion, at least until FSN puts another classy woman on the baseball field so I can fall in love with her.

Does anyone know why FSN was unable to retain her and lost her to Milwaukee of all places to do essentially the same job she was doing here?

Also posted on The Pittsburgh Men's Blogging Society

Monday, August 4, 2008

Not Another Post on the Harold Miller's Article

I'm not going to make another post on the Harold Miller article in the post-gazette. What I am going to do is link you to the three places it is currently being discussed. I have commented in each of them and several of them have interesting exchanges going on. So make sure you read the article, the posts AND the comments.
  • Harold Miller's Blog - He posts the article, with graphics. READ COMMENTS
  • Pittsblog - Mike discusses things from a suburbanites point of view. READ COMMENTS
  • Null Space - Chris breaks down the stats. READ COMMENTS

This discussion is good for the city, so go take part.

UPDATE: O weighs in with some excellent insight on how this mythical solution might come about.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Sour Kraut

Not much today, but I wanted to post what I did have:
  • There was an article in the WSJ about the Kalamazoo Promise. It informs the risks and rewards of actually succeeding in implementing the Pittsburgh Promise. (stolen red handed from Chris)
  • It's time to welcome a new blogger to the blog roll. Todd Underwood is a fellow geek in the burgh and he has brought an interesting perspective on such things as the cost of living (including taxes) and learning a new city.

Told you there wasn't much.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Must Watch

If you're a voter in Pittsburgh you must watch Chelsea Wagner's conversation with Bill Toland. She is one of VERY few potential threats to Ravenstahl next year. Tolland gets 17 minutes with her and they discuss nearly every local and state issue outside of billboard-gate. Overall, I have some problems with a few of her opinions but there will be plenty of time to argue when the election heats up. For now, watch and get to know Chelsea Wagner.

Some Great Sports Posts

Normally, you have to be a fan to appreciate a great sports post. I guess that's true even of these posts... but these are great for the inner nerd in fans. The part of us that likes to see things from an angle we haven't thought of and probably never would have.
  • There's been a lot said lately about the behaviour problems at PSU. Many have claimed that the reason for the latest behaviour problems is that Penn State, and particularly Joe Paterno, decided to allow more "troubled" kids in to the program in order to fix the loosing seasons earlier this decade. Kevin over at Black Shoes Diaries points out that the evidence doesn't trend that way. This is interesting because he tries to provide evidence for something that is typically assumed to be subjective.
  • Do you think the Pirates traded Nady, Bay and Marte this year to get 8 players at the deadline? Would it surprise you to learn that we actually traded Ricardo Rincon, Roberto Hernendez and Rob Mackowiak?
  • How do you feel about quoting Phil Taylor's facebook page? Taylor was released by the Lions earlier this week.

This is the kind of thing that makes me get my sporting news from the blogosphere (and burghospher) instead of traditional news outlets.