Big Lead Sports Bar

5/23/2010

TODAY'S HEADLINES


Lots to catch up on, including the Czech Republic/Russia championship game, the possible end of the road for Jack Wilson, Peter Gammons talkin' Bucs, and a trio of bizarre local arrests, along with much more...


Former Penguins Michal Rozsival and Jaromir Jagr helped the Czech Republic to a 2-1 win over Russia in the 2010 IIHF World Championship title game at Cologne, Germany on Sunday. It snapped a streak of 27 consecutive World Championship games won by the Russians dating back to 2008, as the disappointing 2010 hockey calendar (Olympics, NHL Playoffs, IIHF Championships) continued for Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar.

Jakub Klepis scored just 20 seconds into the game for the Czech Republic, while captain Tomas Rolinek made it 2-0 towards the end of the second period. Pavel Datsyuk scored with 35 seconds left in the game on a pass from Ilya Kovalchuk to pull the Russians within one, but it was ultimately not to be. Czech goalie Tomas Vokoun was simply too good, stopping 35 of 36 shots and outdueling Russia/Washington goalie Semyon Varlamov.

Jaromir Jagr left the game after being clipped by Russian defenseman Alexei Emelin midway through the third, a move that earned Emelin a major penalty and a misconduct. 

There was speculation that this could've been the last international game for Jagr, who had this to say on the topic: "I hope it wasn't my last game [with the national team]. I love the game, and want to play as long as possible." [NHL.com]

SS Jack Wilson, who broke into the majors with the Pirates in 2001, may be nearing the end of the road, according to none other than Jack Wilson:

"This is when you actually look at your career and if it's going to last too much longer. In reality, there's nothing more that I can do. If it ends up pulling, there's nothing you can do about it. You're out two weeks every time you do it." 

Wilson, who was traded to Seattle last season, signed two-year, $10 million contract extension with the Mariners last November. According to Baseball-reference.com, Wilson has earned over $35 million in his career thus far, so he should be pretty financially secure if the end is truly near. [Sporting News]

Peter Gammons of the MLB Network recently appeared with Seibel and Starkey [audio] and he thinks that the Pirates' plan will eventually lift the team to respectability. Of course, Gammons also predicted that Kris Benson would win the NL Cy Young Award in 2000, so take his picks for what they're worth.  [93.7 The Fan]

Michael Sanserino penned a fantastic article for the Sunday PG about potential Big Ten expansion and the domino effect it could have on college sports, including the case for and against Pitt joining the conference. 

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but it gets a little tiresome to continually hear about such enormous sums of money being discussed against the fictitious backdrop of amateur athletics. I realize this is just business, and I can accept that...BUT...can we drop the part where schools pretend that these athletes are anything but cash cows for the universities? 

I think it was this comment that turned me off the most:
Academic concerns have prevented the Big Ten from expanding in the past, but those issues likely will not hinder Big Ten expansion anymore.

"The landscape has changed," the [unnamed] Big Ten university administrator said. "I don't think presidents care a great deal about academic standings. They're looking at the dollars."
Mark Madden unveils a major potential scoop regarding the Pittsburgh Pirates and where those millions in revenue-sharing bucks have been going. It sure hasn't been on the 2010 roster. [Mark Madden/WXDX]

Joe Starkey has had it with the Ben Roethlisberger stories, making the unique yet spot-on comparison to the "Band Camp" stories from American Pie. As I've said before, I  totally agree. We've heard enough of them for a lifetime. He's been a jerk off the field for a long time. I get it. Time to move on. [Trib]

Three men from various locations across the country were arrested after attempting to climb a fence near Gate B at Heinz Field. Trying to get an early jump on a good seat for the Steelers' preseason opener, guys? I doubt it.
Adil Minocherhomjee, 22, of California, Neville Medhora, 27, of Texas, and Shazad Mehta, 28, of Illinois were jailed, charged with criminal trespassing and criminal conspiracy. [WPXI]

Robert Strohmeyer, 42, of Columbus, Ohio, is being charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of children after leaving his six-year-old daughter at the Jerome Bettis Grille 36 while he left to go to the Pirate game.

Police say Strohmeyer was found at a tailgate party, and then taken to the Allegheny County Jail. You can probably count him out of the running for 2010 Father of the Year. [KDKA]

Anthony Dodson, 35, of Uniontown, has been jailed on charges that he threatened his girlfriend with a meat cleaver while they argued about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

According to the criminal complaint obtained by Channel 11 News reporter Dave Bondy, at one point during the argument Dodson admitted to holding a meat cleaver near the victim, telling her "I’ll show you how crazy I am."

Oh, Fayette County. Don't you ever change. [WPXI]

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12 comments:

Adam said...

To be fair to the Big Ten, the only serious candidate not in the AAU is Notre Dame.

Missouri, Nebraska, Texas, Texas A&M, Pitt, Syracuse, and Rutgers are all AAU members, so no, academics aren't playing a role, because most all of the candidates are good academic options.

Chip said...

Oh pleasepleaseplease let that blowhard Madden be right about something for once.

The Pirates finally have an exciting young talented core that's right on the cusp of turning the corner. But it'll only be six years of Tabata, Alvarez, Lincoln, and Cutch before they have to start all over again. There merry-go-round will never end because Nutting won't pay to keep anybody.

Lemieux/Burkle won't turn us into the BoSox or Yanks but they'll at least spend enough to keep us in line with the St. Louis's and Milwaukee's of the world.

JeremyT said...

The three guys that broke into Heinz? On was a Browns fan, one was a Bengals fan and the other was an Eagles fan. Anyone want to guess what they were looking for?

amamamama said...

Did anyone else notice the guys (at least two of them) have very muslim sounding names?

HomeRunFromBehindTheMeatballs said...

Way to bust out the racism mama! I'm sure they were there to start a jihad or shoe bomb someone? Get outta here

Big ten expansion, big ten expansion, big ten expansion!!! Isn't the big ten already expanded, being that it's really the big tenleven? Isn't there already a big 12 conference? Why don't we just blow it up and have 24 teams in the conference like big east hoops?

Anonymous said...

I guess the 6 year old girl just did not want that Garrett Jones collectible figurine. Either that or she's not impressed with Charlie Morton's "stuff."

Steve said...

Yeah, the girl was better off stranded at the Grille with complete strangers than with that fat loser drinking and pissing in a parking lot. No mention of whether she's still waiting there after hauling away pops to the lockup? That would be typical of the Pittsburgh police.

God let it be true that there is finally some hard evidence that the Pirates have been using revenue sharing and TV income to finance its newspapers and resorts. Hopefully whoever has the goods is simply taking the time to dot I's and cross T's so there can be "Noooo doubt about it!"

I mean, we know it's true, we just need it in black and white so the stoning of Nutting can officially commence. I've been holding this brick for years now and it's time to heave it.

Ed Tracy said...

I agree. Jihad at Heinz Field. Who invited the terrorists to their wedding? Must have been those peace loving muslims

Anonymous said...

Haha..........The Uniontown newspaper actually states that the guy took the meat cleaver that was hanging from his LIVING ROOM WALL.

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=12FD88CD0136E5D8&p_docnum=2

Mathias said...

They were looking for their wallets they lost back in December at a game. I think Holmes found them when he was doing his community service trashing out the seats the next day.

Steve said...

Makes sense. No where else to keep the cleaver anyway since the drawers are full of guns. Good Morning Fayette-Nam!

Jonny Van Mundegaarde said...

I love the fact that in this day and age, the (i'm assuming) facebook pics are available to put names to faces in local criminal buffoonery.

And I never really was that mad at Hossa for not signing here. We most likely wouldn't have been able to afford a couple or all of the following: Orpik, Letang, Fleury, Staal. That Chicago franchise was nearly run into the ground by its' former owner. Good on them if they win it this year...