Big Lead Sports Bar

5/17/2010

TODAY'S HEADLINES



The Duquesne Dukes played their last home baseball game ever on Sunday, an 8-3 loss to Temple

The school announced in January that it was dropping the program due to financial reasons.  Duquesne has had a baseball team since 1888 and has seen the likes of "The Chief", Art Rooney, and former big-leaguers Joe Beimel and brothers Dick and Dave Ricketts wear the Dukes uniform. Their season concludes with a weekend series at  Fordham. [PG]

Rob Rossi, the man who once said the Penguins should trade Sidney Crosby, is now banging the drum for the team to deal Evgeni Malkin. But blowing up the nucleus of this team in some form or another seems to be everyone's answer to the Pens' early exit, so I can't say he's the only one making this argument. [Trib]

Charlie Morton (1-6, 9.19) and Kyle Kendrick (1-1, 5.89) take the mound tonight in Philly as the Pirates take on the defending NL Champs.

The 23-13 Phillies have won 11 of their last 14 and could active Jimmy Rollins from the DL prior to the game. Philadelphia swept Milwaukee in a three-game series over the weekend. [PittsburghPirates.com]

Ron Burkle, secretive money man behind the Pittsburgh Penguins was profiled in depth by the PG on Sunday despite his not agreeing to be interviewed for the article - further proving their point that he's a pretty under-the radar guy for a billionaire. [PG]

Ray Shero has been hearing his share of criticism in the wake of the Pens' disappointing conclusion to their season, and here's a brief history of his moves while at the helm. [KDKA]

Dancing with the Celebrities of Pittsburgh happened this weekend, and if you ever wanted to watch Peggy Finnegan do the foxtrot, Channel 11's website has just the gallery for you. [WPXI]

Email your feedback, questions, and tips Mondesishouse@gmail.com
 

14 comments:

expectingrain said...

Why stop at Malkin? We can trade Crosby, Fleury and Staal for draft picks and really build up our farm system so we can be good in 5 years. Then trade those players when they reach the NHL. And rebuild again! Perhaps we can even work in a dollar dog night or an All You Can Eat Section in th Consol Energy Center!

Matt M. said...

I haven't read Rossi's article and I don't need to. Why is it inherent in every fanbase to blatantly overreact when a team has a disappointing loss? Last I checked, the guy won the Conn Smythe this time last year. What's the saying; two is a trend? Let's wait until the Pens go belly-up a second straight year before we crucify their franchise players, and Cup-winning front office.

BurressWithButterflywings said...

Fear mongering is part of the job description of a journalist.

That and anit-Blogger sentiment.

HomeRunFromBehindTheMeatballs said...

I read Rossi's article. I'm not defending the guy, but his stance was 'listen to offers' and only trade Malking is someone is willing to give up the world! That being said, trading the incredible Malk is just an awful awful idea.

Rossi also suggested letting Gonchar go, and i second that thought!

What?!? No talk of Charlie Morton trying to lower his ERA below 9.00 tonight? LET'S GO BUCS!!

Dirty Sanchez said...

Yes, it's always a good idea to sell low on world class talent. Rossi doesn't address how the Pens would fit the "top line winger, top pairing defenseman, and two roster players" in under their slim cap space either.

The Pens lost in 7 to a goalie that was in the midst of an out of body experience, then got blown up by the Flyers last night. Maybe we should trade Malkin for Hartnell and Pronger.

Steve said...

What's funny is the stuff Rossi usually spews would normally be considered the ramblings of a hard-core Penguins fan, yet he -- like all the other sports reporters and writers like to do -- will quickly pull out the: "I'm not a fan, it's just my job" line of BS when called out on it.

Any "professional" reporter who will air opinions on who should get traded or not is nothing more than a fan with a press ID.

The fact that he writes for the Trib, who has a sponsership deal with the Pens, isn't going to do him any favors with the Pens either and he may find himself working the Pirates beat if he doesn't stop saying things that rock the boat.

The Pens don't want to hear about personnel decisions it should make through a locker room pest and newspaper that has it's logo plastered on the outside jumbotron and everything else they print out.

Anonymous said...

"It must include a top-line wing, a top-pairing defenseman, two roster players and either two top prospects or two first-round picks."

If any team was willing to do that trade him. But no team would do that.

The diea of trading Geno to give Staal more ice time is a dumb argument. Staal had the 3rd most ice time for forwards. He's getting on the ice as much as he should. Plus until he works on that shot I don't know how great he'd be as a 2nd liner.

Anonymous said...

I haven't read any of Rossi's stuff in a year. I'd rather take the insight of a Jory Rand than Rossi.
Speaking of Jory, anybody notice how 2 years ago he's leading the charge for why Shero should listen to offers for Crosby? And now when people bring up the very same reasoning for trading Malkin he says how ridiculous an idea it is and shouldn't be considered. I guess that cup last year made him realize just how stupid it sounded.

Steve said...

Who's Jory Rand? Seriously, I never heard of him.

Dirty Sanchez said...

Staal is an ideal 3rd line center, but that doesn't make him a good scoring line center.

BURGH08 said...

I can't believe the opinions of Rob Rossi and Jory Rand are even being discussed.

What's next? Tracking down Thor Tolo and getting his expertise?

okel dokel said...

Do not trade Geno. Rossi is an idiot and so is the Putz who does KDKA's blog.

Shero certainly misfired on Poni but he has done pretty well up to now. Trading away a second round pick means nothing.

The only second round pick who ever did anything for the Pens was Doug Bodger. Some other top performers drafted in that slot, Noah Welch, Matt Murley and Richard Park.

Anyone remember Pavel Skrebek, Alexander Zevakhin or Ondrej Nemec? They played a total of 12 games in the NHL thanks to Pavel.

Brian said...

The Penguins have historically wasted their 2nd round picks on nobodies, so trading one to the Sharks for a roster player and a goalie prospect was actually a decent move, one that ended up not working out obviously, but those two guys probably contributed more than the guy they would've drafted. Shero's record so far looks a lot better than Patrick's, the GM called a genius for making two deals any idiot could have made, but not doing much else during his tenure: didn't acquire a #1 defenseman, didn't get a goalie to replace Barrasso and Wregget, didn't do much at the deadlines except acquire nobodies like Dan Kesa.

Sportswriters are on their last legs, thankfully. Unlike bloggers, the best of whom put out good content every day, sportswriters don't seem to deal well with having to write several articles or columns a week, and just write whatever gets them to 600 words, even if it makes no sense or contradicts what they've written before.

Anonymous said...

If Malkin posts a number short of 35 in the goal column next season, then I say the Penguins look for a deal.