Lowdown on Steel City’s professional teams

This has been an eventful summer in Pittsburgh, full of outrageous comments, indoor football,… This has been an eventful summer in Pittsburgh, full of outrageous comments, indoor football, superb dancing and, yes, competitive baseball. In case you’ve been hiding under a rock all summer — or worse, in Philadelphia — I’ll recap what’s been going on in the Steel City.

The Pirates

The Buccos are having a season for the ages this summer, and even with the struggles after the All-Star break, they’re still defying expectations by hovering around .500. And for a good part of the summer, the Bucs even reached the top of the National League Central standings.

For the first time since 1992, the Pirates found themselves in first place in the division. Manager Clint Hurdle, in his first season with the Pirates, has brought a fiery intensity and a never-say-die attitude to the club that it hadn’t seen in quite some time.

You can tell the difference just by watching the team play. In games where the Pirates find themselves in a hole early, they battle back. When they give up a lead, they often retake it next inning. Past Pirates teams would just roll over and die at the first sign of trouble. Not this one.

The only downside to Hurdle’s performance so far has been his affinity to take risks and call unorthodox plays that get the team in trouble.

He loves the infield shift, for example, and calls for the defensive realignment in order to specifically protect one side of the field in strange situations — like when the Phillies have the bases loaded and Ryan Howard at the plate. Or when he called a suicide squeeze, a sacrifice bunt with a runner on third base — which failed miserably — in the 19-inning, 4-3 loss to Atlanta on July 26 (if the umpire hadn’t botched the call to end that game, it might still be going on).

But Hurdle’s attitude more than makes up for his gambles and sparing managerial mistakes.

Even with half of the team off the field (at one point in July, the starting left fielder, third baseman, shortstop and both catchers were all on the disabled list), the ability to continue to fight and claw for victories — no matter who’s actually playing — has come to define this season’s Pirates. That, and phenomenal pitching.

The team earned run average of 3.70 ranks the Pirates ninth in the majors this season. It’s down from 5.00 last season, which ranked them dead last.

Jeff Karstens, who wasn’t even in the starting rotation at the beginning of the year, is near the top of the NL in ERA. Charlie Morton, who was statistically the worst pitcher in the league last season, made a complete turnaround into a great groundball pitcher.

Paul Maholm, who sports an ugly 10 losses due to miserable run support early in the season, has the team’s second-lowest ERA and is pitching the best he has in his career.

Kevin Correia, a great free-agent pickup — when is the last time you could say that for the Pirates? — is likewise battling for the NL lead in wins. Correia, Joel Hanrahan — who transformed himself into one of the most reliable firemen in the game — and center fielder Andrew McCutchen all made the All-Star team.

The Buccos bullpen is one of the best in the league, even without last year’s All-Star Evan Meek, who has been hurt for the majority of this year.

Although the Pirates’ pitching has occasionally struggled this season, for the most part it’s been solid. The Bucs’ bats, however, often leave the pitchers with a lack of run support and lead to a loss.

McCutchen is having a great year and is proving that he’s one of the best young players in the game, but he still strikes out too often.

Second baseman Neil Walker is one of the best batters with runners in scoring position in the league, but doesn’t do so well when the bases are empty. Third baseman Pedro Alvarez did not progress into the middle of the lineup force as was expected before his injury, but he’s still developing.

The addition of Derrek Lee and Ryan Ludwick could help the Pirates’ offense for the rest of this season. Whether or not the Pirates manage to climb back to the top of the National League Central, they certainly gave fans plenty to cheer about during the first half of the season. If they can finish .500 of above this year, it looks like the future of baseball might be bright in Pittsburgh.

Steelers

Even with the NFL lockout casting a cloud of foreboding over the majority of the summer, the Steelers players have been very busy — and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

During the lockout, wide receiver Hines Ward became a household name for non-football fans  everywhere when he won “Dancing with the Stars.”

With newfound fame comes newfound opportunity for losing it, and shortly after Ward was done wowing the country with his charisma and moves on the dance floor he was arrested for a DUI. He is scheduled for a court hearing on Oct. 6.

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has seemingly shed his bad reputation with one bold move — marriage. Roethlisberger, who announced the engagement right after last season’s Super Bowl, wedded Ashley Harlan on July 23.

No word yet if they booked the honeymoon suite at Saint Vincent College, where Big Ben and the rest of the Steelers needed to report on July 28 for training camp.

Explosive — both on and off the field — linebacker James Harrison made headlines with his interview in the July issue of Men’s Journal.

In the interview, Harrison strove to make sure everybody knows he will not be inviting NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell over for dinner anytime soon. The official has fined Harrison quite a few times for illegal hits this past season.

Among other names (including a homosexual slur), he called the NFL commissioner a “devil” and a “dictator.”

Harrison also targeted his own teammates, blaming the Super Bowl loss on Roethlisberger and running back Rashard Mendenhall.

But now that the lockout is over, the Steelers have gotten down to business.

They just re-signed cornerback Ike Taylor and kicker Shaun Suisham, which puts the team quite a bit over the salary cap for next season. Consequently, the Steelers have already released veterans Max Starks and Antwaan Randle El. Contract restructuring and more player cuts will inevitably follow because of the cap numbers.

Curiously, the Steelers are reportedly interested in receiver Plaxico Burress, who was just released from a two-year prison term for carrying a concealed weapon — a handgun that unceremoniously un-concealed itself by shooting Burress in the leg while he was at a nightclub.

The proven red-zone threat has a good rapport with Big Ben and, teamed with Ward and speedy Mike Wallace, could add a new dimension to the offense. Burress’ final two teams that he’s choosing between  are also his former teams: the Steelers and the New York Giants. However, Giants head coach Tom Coughlin needs to approve the addition of Burress for New York to sign him, and the Steelers need to clear cap room. So the verdict is still out on where he will end up.

Penguins

Next season’s Penguins team will look a bit different from the one that lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the playoffs this year. For one, superstar centers Sidney Crosby (concussion) and Evgeni Malkin (knee) will both return to the ice after long injury absences.

Alex Kovalev — acquired at the deadline to help the Penguins’ hurting offense — was a flop in his return to Pittsburgh and won’t be back with the team. Gritty third- and fourth-line stalwarts Mike Rupp and Max Talbot won’t return either.

Talbot, a hero in the 2009 Stanley Cup victory over the Red Wings, signed with the hated Philadelphia Flyers.

Those same Flyers completed a total roster overhaul by signing former Pen Jaromir Jagr, who is returning to the NHL after three seasons playing in Russia.

Jagr, a moody, high-scoring left winger and virtual lock for the Hall of Fame when he retires, once again left a bad taste in the mouths of Pittsburgh fans.

He left the city very unceremoniously at the end of the 2000-2001 season after playing 11 stellar years for the Pens, and many in Western Pennsylvania expected him to return. But after Jagr missed the contract deadline, the Penguins pulled the deal and he ended up across the Keystone State, sporting the black and orange.

Despite not signing Jagr and losing Rupp and Talbot, Pens head coach Dan Bylsma — who won the Jack Adams Award for coach of the year this past season — will once again have a full team to work with.

Superb penalty killer and young center Jordan Staal missed the first half of the year and was slated to work alongside Malkin to up his offensive production.

But his return coincided with the injuries of Crosby and Malkin and he was ordered to be at the center of the offensive production, which obviously faltered. This season, however, Crosby and Malkin are back, allowing Staal to return to his role as a complimentary player and fans to see the trio on the ice together.

With a healthy core, a consistent Marc-André Fleury and promising up-and-coming players like Eric Tangradi — who missed most of this year with a concussion of his own — the Pens will once again contend

for the Cup next season.

Power

Indoor football arrived in Pittsburgh this year, and the Pittsburgh Power brought in 14,000 spectators — for their first game of the year, against the Philadelphia Soul at the Consol Energy Center.

Although injuries and lineup shuffles plagued the Power throughout the season, their games remained exciting and fast-paced.

The Power missed the playoffs, finishing 9-9 and second in the American Conference Eastern Division — one game behind the Cleveland Gladiators for the division’s playoff spot.

Yet the team managed to avenge its first-game loss to the Soul, defeating them in the last game of the year. Former Pitt quarterback Bill Stull saw time under center for the Power in the season closer.

Although the Power didn’t have a particularly successful season on the field, they received great support off it and proved that Pittsburgh has room for a second football team.