News and Notes

Today's links include another dramatic Pirate loss, Altoona vs. Pettitte, a former Pirate finding a new team (and the Pirates signing another pitcher from the waiver wire), an update on Max Starks, Big Ben's Hampton HS experience, and much more.

TODAY'S HEADLINES

ESPN's Brian Bennett has 10 predictions for the Big East in the next decade. Let's skip 1-9 and go straight to 10:

10. Pitt and Penn State resume playing: The biggest obstacle to the resumption of the Pittsburgh-Penn State rivalry is Joe Paterno. While I wouldn't put it past Paterno to coach into in his 90s, odds are that he will retire at some point soon. After that, expect the Panthers and Nittany Lions to start up their in-state rivalry again. It makes too much sense not to happen.

We can only hope, Mr. Bennett. We can only hope.

Steelers make it official: Well-traveled Al Everest is officially your new Pittsburgh Steeler special teams coach, having recently been cast off by Mike Singletary and the San Francisco 49ers. Let's just say Everest has a very favorable entry point for his new job, because anything less than four kick return touchdowns allowed will be viewed as improvement. [Times Online]

RIP, Bobby Bragan: The manager of the Pirates in 1956-57 has passed away in Fort Worth, Texas, at the age of 92. Bragan was a big league manager for seven years, and a player for seven seasons with the Phillies and Dodgers.

As the Bucco skipper, Bragan went 66-88 in 1956 and 36-67 in 1957 before being replaced by Danny Murtaugh, who led the Pirates to a relatively remarkable 26-25 record the rest of the way. [PennLive.com]

Mets slowly become home for old Pirates: Wildly overpaid outfielder Gary Matthews Jr. will be joining Jason Bay and Oliver Perez today as a member of the New York Mets, coming over from the LA Angels, who will be eating a large part of his salary.

If there's one recipe for success in the majors, it's assembling a Pirate throwback squad. Heck, it nearly won the 2003 Cubs the World Series. [SI.com]

PA cell phone users, listen up: State legislators in Pennsylvania are trying once again to make talking on hand-held cell phones or sending text messages an illegal practice in our state. Surely everyone must realize the bigger issue of how this could have a crippling effect on local sports talk radio. [PG]

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TODAY'S HEADLINES, PART DEUX

As expected, Bruce Arians has divided the readers: As of this writing, there are 1,028 votes in yesterday's "Would you keep Bruce Arians" poll question, and it's currently 50.2-49.8 in favor of bringing him back. [Vizu Poll Results]

Adam The Penn State Fan....takes on the "Sour Old Men" of the Pittsburgh sports media. Say what you want, this guy generates a debate. [BSD]

Leavitt out at South Florida: Longtime USF football coach Jim Leavitt became the most recent coach to lose his job in the wake of player abuse claims, as he was let go today.

Leavitt, who built the program from scratch, had just completed the second season of a seven-year, $12.6 million contract. He leaves with a record of 95-57, including 3-2 in bowl games. Under his tenure, USF peaked at #2 in the BCS poll in 2007. [Fox Sports]

Steve Miller to distract you from bad baseball: If you want to watch Pirates-Padres, hear "Fly Like an Eagle" live, and get "a nice night out at the ballpark", mark your calendar for July 24. [TimesOnline.com]

Pirates' Lukewarm Stove Update: The Buccos have zeroed in on Octavio Dotel as a closer, and have also shown interest in reliver D.J. Carrasco, who spent 2009 with the White Sox. The 32-year-old Carrasco, a Pirate farmhand from 1999-2002, had a 3.76 ERA in 49 appearances last season.

The Bucs appear to be backing off of free agent OF Rick Ankiel, who is represented by Scott Boras. Their plan right now is to have an outfield of Lastings Milledge, Andrew McCutchen and Garrett Jones, and therefore they are not promising any full-time gigs to any free agents. [PG]

Hire Bill Cowher: The Billboard: If there's one thing that could sway Bill Cowher to Buffalo, I can guarantee you that it's a billboard. How do you think the Steelers got Mike Tomlin? [PFT]

Jason Bay, New York Met: Here's the video the Mets sent to their ticket-buying mailing list (preceded by a 30-second ad, of course). Hey, they've gotta get that money some way. [MLB.com]

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JASON BAY JUST GOT MUCH, MUCH RICHER

Former Pirate OF Jason Bay has reached agreement on a four-year, guaranteed $66 million contract with the New York Mets, with a vesting option year that could increase Bay's overall payout to slightly more than $80 million over five years, says ESPN. Not bad for a 22nd-round draft pick.

The most Bay ever earned in a season with the Buccos? That would be $6 million, in 2008. Since pricing himself out of the Pirates' league, Bay has been acquired by Boston and the Mets, and I'm sure he will be a Yankee at some point before his career concludes. Oh, Major League Baseball, you're so predictable. Don't ever change.

How have the Pirates fared since dumping Bay in 2008? If you'll remember, they acquired four pieces to their puzzle at the time: pitchers Bryan Morris and Craig Hansen, OF Brandon Moss, and 3B Andy LaRoche. Hansen was designated for assignment by the team recently, so he's off the 40-man roster. LaRoche hit .258/.330/.401 with the Pirates in 2009, with 12 HR and 64 RBI in 150 games. Moss hit .236/.304/.364 with 7 HR and 41 RBI in 133 big league games in 2009. And Morris went 4-9 with a 5.57 ERA for Lynchburg of the advanced single-A Carolina League. So to answer my question at the beginning of the paragraph, it's still a work in progress.

It will be fascinating to see how Bay fares under the bright lights of New York and the expectations - some of them surely unrealistic - that come with a contract like this. I've always seen Bay as more of an extremely gifted complimentary piece rather than a centerpiece, as he was in Pittsburgh. But even with players around him making more money (e.g., Carlos Beltran, Johan Santana), Mets fans will be counting on big things from their most recent off-season splurge.

On paper, this team has some serious offensive firepower, with Beltran, David Wright, Jose Reyes, etc., but the one thing none of those players can do is pitch. The Mets had one starting pitcher with an ERA under 4.00 last season, Johan Santana, and he was lost for the remainder of the 2009 season in August with surgery on his elbow. So a gaping hole remains. And besides, even if they had good pitching...they're the Mets. You and I both know that they'll find some way to screw things up.

Source: Bay agrees with Mets [ESPN]

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BEING SWEPT BY THE PIRATES IS EMBARRASSING

"We have to find a way to play better, there's no doubt. Overall. I'm not pointing fingers at anybody. Offense, defense, pitching -- we have to find a way to play better. The reality of this is, coming here to Pittsburgh and being swept -- personally, I feel embarrassed." --

Mets OF Carlos Beltran,
after being swept by the 16 years-and-counting Pittsburgh Pirates

BELTRAN 'EMBARRASSED' AS PIRATES SWEEP METS [NY Post]

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NEWS AND NOTES

--Soak in this sentence for a minute:

"Prized prospect Andrew McCutchen made a splashy major-league debut with a 3-for-5 showing that included three runs, an RBI and a stolen base as a leadoff batter."

Pirates 11, Mets 6. Nate McWho?

--After tweaking his knee yesterday, Large Ben returned to practice today. You can get down from the ledge. [Trib]

--A Pens fan got an octopus in the mail from a Wings fan, then promptly sent it back after giving it an official Primanti's treatment. Because as you know, Primanti's sandwiches are the only thing we eat in Pittsburgh. [WPXI]

--Hopefully Dan Byslma will eat a lucky burrito from Qdoba today [96.1 Kiss Freak Show]

--Here's your chance to buy a true piece of baseball history: it's an auction for the ball thrown by Baba Booey at his infamous first-pitch disaster against the Pirates. And you get his worn jersey too! [Charity Buzz]

--Bob Smizik calls the McLouth trade a "bold gamble worth taking". This follows yesterday's column, "Pirates give up on present by trading McLouth". I'm confused. [Bob Smizik Blog]

--ESPN 1250's next Lunch with a Legend has been announced: you can dine in the presence of James Farrior and Deshea Townsend at Morton's on June 10. [ESPN 1250]

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BREAKING: THE PIRATES STINK AGAIN

METS 8
PIRATES 4

Lost in a sea of championship-level hockey and Steeler draft picks with awe-inspiring YouTube clips, the declining play of the 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates has greatly slid underneath the radar of a preoccupied Pittsburgh fan base.

On Sunday, the Pirates had a chance to reverse their fortunes, in the third of a three-game set with the New York Mets. Unfortunately, the status quo of nausea-inducing baseball remained the same.

The Buccos dropped this one by an 8-4 count, their eighth loss in a row and 12th in the past 13 games, putting them a mere 1.5 behind Cleveland for the worst record in all of Major League Baseball. It's gotten so bad that 1-5 Ian Snell was reduced to accusing the Mets of stealing signs on Sunday. Ugh.

While the Pirates were at least able to make contact at the plate on Sunday with 11 hits, they stranded 11 runners. Timely hitting, something the Pirates have been traditionally reluctant to embrace, is still not an asset of the team's offense. And SS Brian Bixler, once hysterically touted as the eventual long-term replacement for Jack Wilson, was a perfect 3-for-3: three at-bats, three strikeouts, and an error to boot (no pun intended). Over the course of his tenure as Wilson's replacement, Bixler's batted .200 with 15 strikeouts in 22 ABs. In the words of Bart Simpson, "Ay caramba."

The bullpen was equally ineffective, as the struggling John Grabow allowed three hits and four earned runs in just an inning of work, raising his ERA to 6.14 in the process. The reliever has surrendered at least one run in six consecutive outings, dating back to April 27 against Milwaukee.

Conversely, the sign-stealing Mets cruised to victory behind a balanced, Latin-flavored offensive attack led by Luis Castillo, Omir Santos, and Carlos Beltran, who each drove in two runs. Fossilized starting pitcher Livan Hernandez lowered his ERA to 5.08 by allowing two runs over his six innings of work. Basically, it was the perfect way to end a series that featured a team on a seven-game winning streak facing a team on an eight-game losing skid.

After a day off on Monday, the 12-19 Pirates will try to stop the bleeding on Tuesday against first-place St. Louis. Your pitching matchup: Todd Wellemeyer (4.75, 3-2) against Zach Duke (2.79, 3-3). If that's not compelling enough for you, there's always the big Yanni concert as an alternative.

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BABA BOOEY BOTCHES THE FIRST PITCH

If the Pirates' play hasn't been bad enough (losing 12 of 13), now even the ceremonial first pitches have gone south. But at least this one came on enemy turf.

Howard Stern's longtime producer, Gary "Baba Booey" Dell'Abate, was scheduled to throw out the first pitch for Saturday's game between the Buccos and the Mets. For weeks, Dell'Abate was nothing short of terrified about the event, going to the lengths of hiring a pitching coach to practice with. And guess what? He had every reason to fear the worst.

As you can see in the video above, Dell'Abate nearly takes out the home plate umpire, which wouldn't have been so bad except for the fact that he wasn't yet behind home plate. For Dell'Abate, this would definitely qualify as "worst-case scenario". Expect the Booey-razzing to come early and often when the Stern Show resumes on Monday.

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Joe Beimel Can Spin a Tall Tale

Joe Beimel was a nice story a few years ago. He was a product of Duquesne, he grew up in PA, and he was pitching for the Pirates. Unfortunately for Joe, the Pirate years were not insanely productive, as he was shuffled between starting and relieving. From 2001-2003, Beimel compiled a 10-18 record, 5 blown saves, no actual saves, and ERAs of 5.23, 4.64, and 5.05. He was cut loose prior to the 2004 campaign. And when the Pirates cut you, that's not usually a good sign.

Since then, he's bounced around from Minnesota to Tampa Bay to Los Angeles, where he signed for 2006. Beimel seemed to find his niche this year, going 2-1 with a 2.96 ERA and 2 saves in 62 games. He had become the Dodgers' top left-handed reliever. And then he went to New York.

Beimel was removed from the Dodgers' playoff roster on Tuesday after telling the team he'd cut his hand in his hotel room. I can tell you, I've been in many hotel rooms in my life, and this has happened to me probably a dozen times. Ever see those ice buckets? Gideon Bibles? Hotel menus? These are all security risks. Honestly, I can't believe Beimel's gone this long without cutting his hand in his hotel room.

But it turns out that he didn't cut it in a hotel room. He cut it on a broken glass in a New York City bar. Now THAT sounds more reasonable, especially considering Beimel is an athlete, and these are the things athletes do.

His teammates were pretty ticked, most notably Nomar Hamm and Brett "AJ Pierzynski Still Hates Me" Tomko. But their anger is displaced. If I were a Dodger, I would be more upset at other teammates, like the collective group that scored one run against a guy named John Maine in game one. Think about this...they have the luck to face a team without Pedro, they luck out again when avoiding injured playoff legend El Duque, and they still can't pull out a win. I'd also blame Nomar for the untimeliness of achieving the all-sports record for career injuries, passing Ken Griffey Jr. and Grant Hill in the process.

But back to Beimel. It was a silly injury, a silly story, and I'm sure he regrets it, looking back now. I also think if the series really came down to a guy who was let go by the Pirates AND Devil Rays, maybe the Dodgers didn't deserve to advance?