Archive for April, 2009

What an incredible day for Pittsburgh fans.  It’s been a long time since this happened in our city.  The Pens, Steelers, and Bucs all had wins today.  Well, I know I am stretching it with the Steelers… I am just a fan of their pick in the NFL Draft along with the decision to sign Hines Ward to an extension that will allow him to retire a Steeler. The Padres put on their expansion jerseys for the first time in 40 years.  A retro chocolate brown and mustard.  The stirrups were especially groovy.  The only disappointment for the sold out [...]

The key person behind the preparation for the Pittsburgh Steelers Draft today is Director of Football Operations Kevin Colbert. Probably never heard of him have you? Recently, he was talking to a small group of people at an event in Pittsburgh. A person introduced himself and Colbert replied. “Oh, my name is Kevin Colbert, I am a scout for the Steelers.” Ahem. “That’s Bullshit” I wanted to cough under my breath. But that isn’t Kevin. The Steelers don’t really care about credit. They prefer to focus their time on more important things like buying hardware polish for their trophies. The Pittsburgh Steelers [...]

The San Diego Padres make America’s pastime interesting don’t they?  When you sit down tonight to check out our beloved Pittsburgh Pirates visit sunny California, be grateful that our 9-6 ballclub doesn’t provide headlines like you will read below, well, unless your a fan of:  Former Pirate PlatoonPlayer Opens CitiField with Homer Former Pirate Hits Girlfriend   Several current Pirates are from Southern California.  What a great place, one of the finest on the planet in my opinion.  Most of my career in the military was spent inside the great state of California.  The sunshine of Carmel I do miss.  I [...]

“This is a partnership and relationship whose time has come,” Under Armour CEO Kevin A. Plank, flanked by Cal and Billy Ripken, said at a press conference at Baltimore’s Sports Legends Museum.  Of the sponsorship deals Under Armour currently has in place, “the affiliation with Ripken Baseball is probably as big as it gets.” Psssst…Someone might want to let the ‘giant’ know, uh, fellas, it’s official.  The readers of Rumbunter know one thing: we love sports business.  And now this landmark deal joins the original, and our favorite, performance apparel company, Under Armour, with two of the hardest working men in sports, [...]

The Pedro Alvarez show continues in Lynchburg.  OPS over .900.  Boy this slow start he is on stinks.  Yeh.  Andrew McCutchen is showing that he can do a little bit of everything.  He led off the game with his first homerun and also added a triple, his fourth of the season, yes fourth.  He was 3-4 as the Indians won 13-10.  Brian Bixler also had a nice game going 1-3 with a double, two walks, two runs scored and two RBI. Tom Gorzelany pitched 5.2 innings.  He was rolling along until that dreaded sixth inning.  With temperatures in the 40′s and a [...]

Freddy Sanchez and Jeff Karstens had a Fish fry last night as the Pirates beat the Marlins 3-2.  A single, double (he leads the league in this category), and a game winning home run lifted a dejected Pirates club that found out Ryan Doumit will be out of action for 8-10 weeks with a fractured wrist that will require surgery. Karstens made his second start of the season. In his first outing this year, he walked five batters, and gave up three runs in 4IP.  He also had a rough spring going 0-2 with a 6.17ERA over three starts and six [...]

  Much was made of the Florida Marlins hot start they were winners of seven in a row, but the Pirates had little trouble cooling them off with an 8-0, two hit shutout.  **Ross Ohlendorf, Tyler Yates and Jesse Chavez put up the goose egg for the Pirates.  Each was impressive in their own way, lowering the team ERA well, good enough for second in Major League Baseball. **The Fish beat the teams they should have beat including six against the team from DC.  I have done my fair share of mispellings on this blog, it is not a strength of our [...]

I had waited a long time to take my boy to his first baseball game.   I wish my father and I would have been able to attend a game together.    I remember how much he enjoyed listening to the games on the radio.  He would put the radio on our back porch, crank the volume and we would play in the yard.  It is hard to even imagine how great it would have been to take my Dad along with us today. Our family packed up and headed to Pittsburgh this morning.  Our son, Brody, is not very keen on professional [...]

*Enter No this isn’t an April Fool’s Joke.  Cael Sanderson has left Iowa State.  His alma mater.  The same Iowa State team poised to win the NCAA title.  He is now the coach at Penn State University. Cael is all everything.  Four time NCAA Champion (three at 184 pounds and one at 197) and all four times he was named outstanding wrestler. In 2004 at Athens he was an  Olympic Gold Medalist.  “He believes winning a national championship will be easier at Penn State,” said Athletic Director Jamie Pollard. “He also said the high school talent in Pennsylvania and surrounding [...]

The Pirates won in impressive fashion today at PNC Park.  Under sunny skies, the team answered questions on many levels.  Starting pitching took another step forward, key members of the team that were acquired in the past year played well, and one got a curtain call.  Yes, all of that happened in nine innings. *Go ahead, I know you want to feel good about your Pittsburgh Pirates.  It’s ok.  *Pirate Ian Snell was his old self today. Seven innings of great baseball. Snell allowed four hits and three walks.  A Brave reached third base, once. I am still trying to get [...]