Big Lead Sports Bar

3/06/2007

Deadspin Pirates Preview

Today's an exciting day in Mondesi's House history. I'm proud to announce that I was recently asked to write the Pittsburgh Pirates 2007 season preview for Deadspin.com, and I just got the word that my article will run on their site at some point today. I'll post the link as soon as it is live.
Deadspin reaches hundreds of thousands of readers per day, so I was thrilled at the opportunity to write for the gold standard of sports blogs. I was truly honored to be asked, considering there are so many great Pirates websites and blogs out there.
This is a great chance to introduce new readers to the site, as "the House" experienced a major, permanent bump in traffic after the 2006 Steeler preview I wrote for Deadspin. The Pirate article is written in the "list" style that people seem to love, complete with plenty of pictures and links. I hope you enjoy it!
UPDATE:

15 comments:

Unknown said...

An epic work, nothing more needs to be said...

Steeltown Mike said...

Outstanding. I forgot about many of the players that have come through since the '79 Series.

I shouldn't be surprised that people would bitch about the length, even though it is clarity. Randall Simon, Kevin Young's Contract... excellent.

Meadowbrookalum1 said...

I remember being an opening day at Three Rivers Stadium when they gave out promotional calendars. Bad idea. The 'rats lost to San Fran (their starting pitcher only gave up 1 hit on opening day). At about the 5th inning mark, disgruntled fans began littering the field with months of paper airplanes. Considering the season outlooks since then, I really don't think that there has been a calendar promotion again.

save the steagles said...

Great work, although it wasn't exactly an uplifting piece, I still can't wait to make my trip to PNC Park this summer.

AJ said...

Brilliant!

I also love the list of complaints in the comment section about how long the post was. Try sitting through 15 years of crap baseball. Must be Yankee fans.

I am also glad that Me First & The Gimme Gimmes made the list. I was really hoping for Foghat at Sky Blast this year....

Dark-Haired Buffoon said...

That was an awesome post. But, you should have mentioned the former Pirate Mascot who was fired because he was busted having sex after hours in a public pool. The headline in the USA Today was...Buc Naked. Tremendous

ts said...

Outstanding article Don.

Joe said...

that was a magnificent article. i've even convinced my friends (most of whom live in ohio) that 'chico, where are your pants?' is a funny thing to say.

and operation shutdown....good glory that just brings a smile to the face every time :)

The Duke from Dukes Court said...

As always a great article. I really appreciate the pictures, they always put your posts a little bit above the rest.

My only piece of constructive criticism: no mention of Sam Khalifa or Al Pedrique.

Or all of the wonderful first names of players on our teams in the 80s, some noteable ones:

Trench
Onix
Mackey
Butch
Junior
Houston
Hipolito

and thats just from the 1987 roster.

Just kidding, i love the post and your site, keep up the good work.

Matt said...

Speaking of opening day giveaways gone awry, how about the '95 opener? First game back from the strike, the Pirates used two errors to turn a pop-up to 3B (or maybe it was a bunt, oh well what's the difference?) into a homerun. Spontaneously, every person in the stadium launched the roll-up Pirate flags given away before the game onto the field. And that was the best 11th birthday celebration of my life.

Matt
Wait 'Til Next Year

Russell Lucas said...

"every person in the stadium launched the roll-up Pirate flags"

Everybody but me. It's a crown jewel in my worthless junk collection, along with the awesome promo poster I got at a Pens game in '92, which shows Kevin Stevens celebrating a goal under the caption "REACH YOUR GOALS WITHOUT DRUGS."

Matt said...

Yeah I guess I used the phrase "every person" without putting much thought into it, especially considering the fact that I still have my own flag somewhere at home as well.

Matt
Wait 'Til Next Year

Russell Lucas said...

Well, as you know, it was a tough call. On one hand, you could join in the fantastic melee. On the other hand, you could see the things becoming more rare with each one that was tossed, and it's not like throwing mine would make the mess that much larger.

All I remember is that the Pens had a puck giveaway a week or so later and they gave them out when you exited the building.

Jonny Van Mundegaarde said...

I honor Mr. Khalifa by naming my fantasy teams after him. He is the crown jewel of my fantasydom...And I still have my Kevin Stevens "drugs" poster, and a jar of Jaromir Jagr peanut butter. The shit that we collect, huh?

Russell Lucas said...

The Arab Jackie Robinson!