Pirate fans shouldn’t get too excited about Reggie Sanders
PITTSBURGH – One of the things about being around forever is you wind up with a backlog of annoying stories that fit almost any occasion. Like this one, which came to mind after the Pirates signed free agent outfielder Reggie Sanders: There was a day when the Steelers had a signing of their own: Earnest Jackson, a running back who had briefly been a big name with the Philadelphia Eagles. It was in that gloomy post-championship era when the Steelers were springing a lot of leaks, so it was thought that Jackson was the tonic for a weak running game.
Steelers founder Art Rooney, Sr., the beloved Chief, stopped by the Three Rivers Stadium pressroom that day, as he often did. (The Chief actually enjoyed the company of sportswriters, which was one of his few character flaws).
The media types said quick hellos or waved but they were preoccupied with the day’s news. They were making phone calls or otherwise tracking down information on Jackson’s career.
The Chief watched the hubbub for a minute, then smiled and said quietly, “You know, this isn’t Gale Sayers that we signed.”
Back to today: It’s nice that people have a reason to get excited about the Pirates that doesn’t include fireworks. Sanders is surely an upgrade over what the Pirates had, which was the grim prospect of playing Rob Mackowiak regularly at a challenging position where his experience totals 37 games.
But Sanders is with his sixth team in six years, a free agent who was unsigned until spring training opened and is now playing for two-thirds of what he made last season.
In other words? While Sanders is certainly better than what the Pirates had, this isn’t Gale Sayers that they signed.
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The Dapper Dan Club should give Chuck Noll a lifetime award for sportsmanship.
Noll endured the soap opera of Terry Bradshaw’s public reconciliation at the club’s annual charity banquet. Bradshaw imagined and perpetuated a one-sided feud with his old coach, then decided to end it in the very public forum of the city’s big annual sports banquet.
While it was presumably cathartic for Bradshaw, it had to be either embarrassing or at least uncomfortable for Noll, who never held any ill feelings toward Bradshaw and generally prefers not to be the center of attention.
In fact, it’s doubtful Noll has even thought much about Bradshaw, except perhaps for the times when he’s reached for the mute button after stumbling upon Fox’s NFL pre-game show.
It was a typical Bradshaw production, overblown to the absolute maximum. Noll, who deserved better, was a prop in the big show that, as always, was all about Terry.
Noll devotes much of his time to fund-raising for a variety of causes. He ought to put the arm on Bradshaw to do some autograph signings for his charities.
Might be one way to balance accounts for what he endured at the banquet.
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Mario Lemieux is playing a lot of games with strangers on his line these days.
His general demeanor suggests this is reminding him a lot of his early days with the Penguins, where the latest waiver wire find would immediately get a shot on his line.
Those wouldn’t be good memories for Lemieux.
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People in the sports media who think legalized gambling is the ideal answer to funding a new arena forget one thing: There are a lot of other priorities more deserving of any money that might be realized from gambling. Property tax reform would be just one. Even if gambling is on the horizon, it doesn’t mean the money raised would go to more sports projects.
Nor should it.
And while myopia in sports media shouldn’t surprise, it’s amazing how many people think a new arena is a sure thing.
It’s a different world, one that now requires constant investment in homeland security. There may be a war effort to fund shortly.
Closer to home, the fate of beleaguered USAirways could have an enormous impact on the local economy.
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Mike Tyson got a tattoo on his face last week.
He had no choice, given the commanding lead Michael Jackson had taken in the Freak Show derby.
Sports correspondent John Mehno can be reached online at: begin johnmehno@lycos.com johnmehno@lycos.com end
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