Big Lead Sports Bar

1/20/2009

THE NEWS

REMINDER:

Get your Steeler Party Stories in by 6 PM tonight and have a shot at a $250 Pepsi Prize Pack to be awarded on Friday. Unless you have no good Steeler Party stories?



PHOTO OF THE DAY
I've seen a lot of Terrible Towel pics, but this one from Nic in Pittsburgh ranks among the best.

VIDEO OF THE DAY:
THE 2008-09 HERE WE GO VIDEO


MYSTERY SOLVED
A question I asked nearly a year ago about this picture finally gets answered:



"The man with the crowbar is actually a distant relative of mine. His name was Michael "Red" Cipa, and it's not a crowbar, but a folding Army field issue shovel. He used it to dig up home plate after the crowd chased Maz back to the Pirates dugout. Unfortunately, it's whereabouts are unknown, since Red died in the 70's" -- Reader Nick Cipa

STEELERS/SUPER BOWL:

--The Steelers are on the cover of SI...again. That's a hat trick for the '08-09 season. I'd say there's room for one more. [Kiss 96.1]



--Don't miss DVE's Super Bowl Pep Rally Thursday the 22nd at Diesel. Doors open at 6:30, and real, live Steelers should be in the house. [WDVE]

--The Game Ball from the AFC Championship went to...Barack Obama. And it was personally delivered by Dan Rooney. Now that's a collectible. [PG]

--Pittsburgh food is being shipped all over the country for Super Bowl parties, so you can now get Isaly's chipped ham anywhere in America for the big game. Whew! [Trib]

--Big article on Limas Sweed and his federal bailout of Goat status by Kevin Gorman. Say what you want, but Steeler fans will not forget that anytime soon. Ask Plaxico Burress, who spiked a live football years ago, if Steeler fans forget plays. [Trib]

--Mike Tomlin's saving a spot on the bus for Hines Ward. And by bus I mean actual bus and not Jerome Bettis. [WTAE]

--Like a beautiful bride, the Steelers will wear white for their big day. [PG]

--Some Steeler players hated Mike Tomlin at first. Luckily, they were able to find it in their schedule to give their new coach a chance, and it seems to have paid off. [Fanhouse]

--Suddenly, ESPN Steeler whistleblower Matt Fish has gone silent. [PFT]

--John Clayton talks about his first 10 questions for SB43. Nowhere does he address the issue everyone is really talking about (well, at least on DVE) - the volume of strip clubs in Tampa. [ESPN]

--Says Michael Wilbon: "You want to know what quarterbacks in modern history (since 1950) have been better than Roethlisberger through five seasons? None. Nobody. Not Joe Willie Namath, not Joe Montana, nobody. Big Ben is the only quarterback to win 51 games his first five seasons. That's three victories better than Otto Graham, Dan Marino, Tom Brady and John Elway. If I had to win a game to save my own life I'd take Roethlisberger over everybody who played in the NFL this season, and that includes everybody named Manning. It's difficult to understand why the praise is so grudging." [Washington Post]

Personal Sidenotes: 1. That's an example of why I've always loved Wilbon. 2. Despite a second trip to the Super Bowl, there's still an awful lot of anti-Ben sentiment in Pittsburgh. Can anyone answer my question of WHY????

--Who wants to talk Super Bowl prop bets? Me, me! [Stock Lemon]

--Kurt Warner's wife no longer looks like Ivan Drago. That can only be a good thing. [Busted Coverage]

--Parallels between the Inauguration and the Cardinals' Super Bowl berth are discussed. If you can shoehorn William Ayers and David Boston in the same article, that deserves a link. [HHR]

PENS/NHL:

--Update your bookmarks: The Pensblog has a new home on the Bloguin Blog Network. [The Pensblog]



--Speaking of the Pens, Cam Ward allowed just one goal and pretty much stonewalled the Pens in a 2-1 Carolina victory on Tuesday night. MAF stopped 38 shots, and Geno had our only goal. Rough way to go into the All-Star break, but hopefully the time off will do their health well.

The schedule resumes on the 28th against the Rangers. [ESPN]

PIRATES/MLB:

--If I'm reading this correctly, Indian Pirates Rinku and Dinesh are going to Barry Bonds' house. That sounds promising. [Million Dollar Arm]

COLLEGE BASKETBALL


--It's from last week, but here's a must-read update on former Mountaineer sharpshooter Kevin Pittsnogle. [NY Times]

--Clemson fan tackles Wake Forest player - with video! [Yahoo!]

PITT

--The Wannstache lands a verbal from New Jersey DE Bernando Nunez, who also had offers from Oklahoma, Michigan State, Rutgers and Maryland. [PSI]

MISCELLANY:

--Darren Rovell has a 64-entry bracket of The Best As Seen on TV products. Yes, Girls Gone Wild is a #1 seed. [CNBC]

--Those gambling grids can get you in real trouble. [PennLive]

--Two Westminster football coaches were wrestling with each other and fell out a hotel window. Yikes. [WYTV]



--Joaquin Phoenix is now a rapper. Come on man, you were Johnny Cash! [Daily Stab]

--It's the craziest Robert Downey Jr. moments - video included! Yeah, Iron Man's had a few ups and downs to say the least. [Screen Junkies]

MEDIA

--There's been a shake-up at ESPN Radio: more Colin Cowherd, less Scott Van Pelt. Try to deal with it. [The Big Lead]

--TV Power Rankings? Yes, please. [Bullz-eye]

--The Travel Channel's Man vs. Food takes on Pittsburgh, and in this video, Primanti's:

RANDOM THOUGHTS FROM MY INBOX WORTH MENTIONING

I get lots of email, and there's only so many hours in the day to try and tackle it. Some of the better ones will be featured here.

--"Simple request for ya. Can you take that UPS douche off your page? I visit here daily and every time I visit lately, the first thing I see is that guys face and his stupid hair. Plus, he's using a dry erase marker and your logo appears to be chalk, pastel or paint." -- J. Tate

[note: Whiteboard guy stays till the end of the season. He's a good luck charm.]

--"At the beginning of the season, ESPN ranked the best fans in the country, and as you might remember, Steelers fans were ranked first (though it's completely ridiculous that they didn't give us the highest rating on willingness to travel).

What you might not remember is the team that came 32nd in their rankings... that's right, our Superbowl opponents, the Arizona Cardinals." -- Sheel M.

--"It’s been a few years since the hire, and maybe I have taken too many blows to the head, but didn’t Ken Whisenhunt take the Arizona job before the Steelers made their decision? Every article I’ve read seems to want to rewrite history to spice up the game. Take the article on nfl.com: “Steelers players always assumed that Whisenhunt was the head coach in waiting. But Rooney passed over Whisenhunt for then Minnesota defensive coordinator Mike Tomlin.” Am I wrong here?" -- Jason B.

--"In just another example of The Worldwide Leader's anti-Pittsburgh bias, take a look at this graphic that ESPN ran on its telecast of the Wake Forest-Clemson game that is currently taking place on ABC. They wanted to show that 2 of the 3 unbeatens in Divsion I College Basketball were in that game, while also mentioning the #1 ranked Panthers as the other team with no losses so far this season. Mind you that this is before Pitt's 6 PM tip-off at Louisville. I guess this is just wishful thinking on the part of the folks from Bristol." -- DJ P.

[note: I guess they got their wish]


--"There are about 7 or 8 of us displaced Pennsylvanians going to Tampa, so I was digging around on the Tampa craigslist for lodging options when I cam across this gem. As you can imagine, none of the ladies thought that this would be a good way for them to spend the weekend." -- Jared in Charlotte

UPDATE:

Apparently the ad was taken down by Craigslist, but fear not, we have it in its original state:

female driver wanted for superbowl weekend - $1500


Reply to: sale-1000268114@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2009-01-20, 11:30AM EST

a group of four guys from out of town looking for a female driver for the weekend. if interested please email what type of car you have, a picture of yourself and what price you would charge for the weekend (friday night - monday morning). we are just looking for somebody fun to drive us for the weekend, nothing creepy, just don't want a stuffy old man that we have to hang out with all weekend.

--"Did you notice that the hypocycloids on Art Rooney's hat during the trophy presentation were upside down? It should be yellow, red, blue but his were blue, red, yellow. I haven't been able to find a great picture of it, but you can kinda see it in this attachment." -- BCC from Pitt


--"Check this out – just looked on NFL.com for their championship gear…and what do I find? I had no idea the economy was this bad. Don’t they usually send stuff like this to Honduras or something? Not sure if they just uploaded the wrong files or what…but I enjoyed it. It’s like drinking the sweet tears of Raven woe all over again." - B. [click on photo for full view of the Flacco Super Bowl jersey]


JERSEY SPOTLIGHT

Featuring the most colorful, strange, and out-of-place jerseys

--"I assure you I was only watching DII women's basketball today because my alma mater, Shippensburg, was featured on the CBS College Sports channel. Anyway, during some crafty concession stand video work by the camera crew at halftime, I couldn't help but notice on the far right side of the screen a fellow Steeler fan sporting his love for the black and gold in none other than.....yup you guessed it.... a #14 jersey." --Jeff K., Carlisle, PA

--"My brothers and I ventured out to Las Vegas for the AFC Championship game. Vegas is a dream if you are looking for strange attire (we saw two guys walking down the strip with snakes around their necks), but I never expected to encounter Steelers fans expressing their love for obscure players.

The first picture is my favorite. We saw this gentleman from the front and assumed that he was an old Steelers fan expressing his love for Rocky Bleier. Needless to say, we were shocked to find the name Pegram stitched to the back of this jersey. That's right, Eric Pegram. Although you can't see from the picture, this Pegram fan was also wearing sweatpants and a fanny pack.

The second guy we ran into was at the Bellagio Sports Book about an hour before the game started. Now I love Steelers role players as much as the next guy (as long as their names aren't Carey Davis or Limas Sweed), but this person likes Travis Kirschke so much that he ordered a personalized, authentic jersey (normally retail at $285) for the back up defensive end. When I stopped to take a picture of him, his wife noticed and came up to ask me if I knew of Travis Kirschke. It turns out that she and Travis were friends that went to high school together. Their group was really nice and seemed pretty excited that other fans knew about her friend Travis." --Josh G. from steezbros.blogspot.com



THE REQUEST LINE

I also get many requests, so if you can help on any of these, feel free to comment or email

--"I was just thinking about that poem that was written when the Steelers went to Super Bowl XXX...any chance you know where you can find it or if there's a copy of the guy reading it online?" - Charlie H., Texas

--"I was watching the Pitt-Cuse game last night, and they made their obligatory screen shots of Santonio and Ben at the Pete. When they got to Big Ben, it appeared to me that he was holding a bowl of chocolate dippin dots. Can you use your powers to either confirm or deny this? Thanks!" -- Mike I., Philly via Upper St. Clair

--"I need your help. I saw your request for motivational videos for the AFC Championship and it caused me to search the internet for the Iron City Beer Commercial with the song - No you can't, no you can't, no you can't keep an Iron Man down, he's the heart, he's the heart, he's the backbone of this town. Any Pittsburgh sports fan of the late 80's/early 90's knows exactly what I'm talking about. Surprisingly, I wasn't able to find it.

In the year 2009 when I can watch anything on Youtube, it is unacceptable that I can't see the greatest piece of advertising, EVER. So, I ask you to send a request out to all your readers, for anyone who may have a copy of this piece of Pittsburghicana. I can only hope that one of you readers can come through." -- Scott F.

UNOFFICIAL SUPER BOWL XLIII POSTER:


Send your news, tips, and links to Mondesishouse@gmail.com.

12 comments:

RedHawks Hockey said...

Limas Sweed Jersey Fever is sweep the nation!

HotDog_Zanzabar said...

So is Neil O'Donnell jersey fever

Louis Lipps no longer accepts my phone calls... said...

I was the first to call shennanigans on the ESPN article about something that happened 2 years that they pretended was breaking news, suspiciously 3 days before the AFC Championship.


And sadly, after driving around to about 7 different bookstores down here, I discovered that the Holmes/Washington Sports Illustrated from last week was only regional.

Instead, down here in FL, we got a cover dedicated to the momentous occasion of Tim Tebow's decision to stay in college. But... ummm... did anyone think he'd come out to be drafted in the 4th round as an H-back anyways is what I'd like to know???

nuthinhere said...

the volume of strip clubs in Tampa

I lived in Tampa from 93-97. The volume of strip clubs is startling. If you include the sex stores, the volume rises to Himalayan heights! I miss Tampa,,,um,,,because of the,,,,beaches,,,,yea, beaches. I miss Ybor City too.

Steve said...

"It’s been a few years since the hire, and maybe I have taken too many blows to the head, but didn’t Ken Whisenhunt take the Arizona job before the Steelers made their decision?"

Correct. Actually, The Trib (no doubt trying to get the jump on the PG) erroneously reported Grimm to be the new coach moments before the Steelers official announcement of Tomlin. The story even had a quote from Grimm basically saying he was happy the Steelers chose him. I guess he was believing whoever the Trib's bogus source was also, since he obviously didn't hear it directly from the Steelers. You had to catch it quick though, since it only ran online for about 10 minutes before being changed to Tomlin being hired. I felt bad for Grimm to go out that way. Another classic "Dewey Defeats Truman" moment. The next day, the Cardinals announced Grimm would be hired to work with already hired Whisenhunt.

RAWsvc34 said...

To Jason B....and everyone, actually:

Yesterday, Stan and Guy played Whiz' PC from Monday morning (You can listen here: http://stations.espn.go.com/stations/espnradio1250/archive?id=2637200 . The comments start at about the 35 minute mark.)

Allow me to paraphrase: When I was offered the AZ job, the Steelers still had at least a week of interviews to do. So, I had to choose between accepting this one and waiting to see if I was offered the Steelers job….I took the job here on a Saturday. They didn't hire Tomlin until the following weekend.

I shake my head and laugh every time The Worldwide Leader uses the phrase "passed over".

RAWsvc34 said...

Also....Tomlin verifies that Whiz got the AZ job before he was hired at HIS PC (66 minute mark).

Broke But Still Drinking said...

Improved Craigslist Ad:

Hello,

We are four fellas who don't know what a female looks like, nor have we ever touched one, unless magazines count - haha. Your life won't be endangered in any way, until we take out the wine coolers and then it's on.

If the sound of - "Yinz don't get much snow and that around here?" - whispered into your ear makes your knees weak, and the smell of salami and beer turns you on, we are the perfect crew for you. We promise not to stare while you change into the Jeff Reed shirt provided for you.

If this sounds like fun, and you're looking for a potential lawsuit, please give us a call at 412-pit-burg

AJ said...

The Iron City commercials that I need to see are the one with the yinzer fireman point at his biceps and saying "You don't get a set of these sittin' rauhn pettin' kitty cats"

Followed by the guy in the bowling alley saying "Hey loser, hit the reset button"

Both of those were from the same Iron City campaign that ran back in the early to mid 90s and are still oft quoted amongst my friends. If anybody could throw those on youtube, it would be a comedic goldmine.

mondesishouse said...

FYI:

Updated the Pittsnogle link in The News - it was sending people to a photo gallery and not the actual story. Check it out, it's really an interesting piece.

BurressWithButterflywings said...

@AJ,

That is the same thing I was thinking, that commercial was money.

Iron City needs to bring those backs for the Road to the Six Pack

jmarinara said...

Without a DOUBT, the WORST part about being a Steeler fan is enduring those stupid 'Here We Go' songs.

They are awful!!

Seriously, the third verse, the one about the defense, it's just really really bad. And, for this team, you're going to write two verses about the offense, and one about the defense. Good grief.