Rich's Sports Beat

For many years, at least going back to the 1970s, the Pittsburgh Steelers have been known for tough, hard nosed football. Smash mouth football. Tough, physical play. Big backs in the backfield rushing the ball and taking it to the defense, wearing it down. Well, who would have thought that the 2011 Pittsburgh Pirates would be playing a similar brand of ball, only on the diamond, after 18 years of futility?! Yes, this year’s Pirates are getting it done by any means necessary, a brand of baseball that manager Clint Hurdle and his staff have implemented since his hiring and during spring training. Hard work, hustle, dig out ground balls, play stellar defense, and manufacture runs. This has been the story of this year’s Pirates. Of course, you need to have pitching and the Pirates have had that thus far this year. The work that the starting staff has done, not to mention the bullpen, has been getting it done. Then again, the starters need to go at least seven innings to save th...

*Your Pittsburgh Pirates were actually in first place for a spell last weekend and have been flirting with the top spot for much of the last week. At press time, they could have been in first place after finishing a weekend series in Houston against the Astros, then returning home to face Cincinnati and St. Louis that will a long way in determining how the Pirates could finish the year and whether they contend for the division or a wild card spot. Now, most of us in the populace were probably not ready for this to happen after the last 18 years; however, at some point, the law of averages said that the streak had to break sometime. As I have mentioned in the past, I had predicted fourth place as a realistic goal this year just to get out of the basement. Besides the obvious, the best thing about this year and this season has been that the Pirates have helped to take our minds off the NFL lockout and given us something else to focus on this summer. Had this been another disastrou...

*First, the good news. As of Sunday, your Pittsburgh Pirates were one game out of first place with a 47 – 43 record after taking two out of three games from the Cubs. That’s right, after 18 years of futility, we have a baseball team in Pittsburgh again! As a friend of mine whom I work with during the summer told me, Pittsburgh has always been a baseball town, they just had to put a product on the field that the city and the region could be proud of. Well, now we have a young, talented team that is exciting to watch. To make matters even better, Andrew McCutchen and Kevin Correia were added along with Joel Hanrahan to the All Star Game in Phoenix that was played on Tuesday. For the first time since 1990, three Pirates made the All Star team and, for the first time since 1992, the Buccos are over .500 at the All Star break. Now, who would have imagined that? I made the prediction that the Pirates would escape the cellar this year and finish fourth. Looks like they might make a ...

*Don’t look now, but your Pittsburgh Pirates are flirting with first place in the National League Central. That’s right, the same team that could not get out of its own way for the last 18 years is now playing with the big boys and is one game out of first as of July 4th. The bad news is that only closer Joel Hanrahan was invited to the All-Star game in Phoenix, leaving Andrew McCutchen out. Things could change by the time you receive this week’s edition. But, that is the price to be paid when your team has been plagued by futility for the last nearly two decades. However, if anyone has been paying attention, this team comes ready to play everyday, hustles, and wants to end this streak that has been affecting the franchise for so long. There is a long way to go. Another half season of baseball after the All-Star break. There are several call ups who have taken the place of injured starters; however, the standard remains the same. Expectations are high, as they should be. Most...

*In case you haven’t been paying attention, your Pittsburgh Pirates took two out of the three from the Boston Red Sox over the weekend and kept their record above .500 at this point of the season. They have been flirting with third place in the National League Central, off and on, throughout the season and were only three games out of first as of the beginning of the week. After 18 years of futility, this team is finally giving the region something to talk about. All three games last weekend were sellouts and Sunday was the largest crowd in PNC Park history. First, you have to have the talent to compete and the Pirates finally have the core young talent in place to start making some noise. It starts with Neil Walker, Andrew McCutcheon, Jose Tabata, and Pedro Alvarez. Thus far, Alvarez has not done much of anything and is on rehab assignment in Bradenton. Tabata pulled up lame on Sunday while running out a base hit to first, a quadriceps injury. The real story, actually, has bee...