Random sports thoughts

Well, I had planned on doing a similar entry last night, but a power outage put the kibosh on that. So, I ended up at Angelia's Pizza over in Kennedy (best pizza in town by far) watching the first period of the Pens game while having a few adult beverages.

So, without further ado...

- It was amazingly cool to see all of the players who came back for the last regular season game at Mellon Arena. It's hard to imagine that once upon a time, the Pens couldn't draw files, and now they sell out every game. Pittsburgh has truly become a hockey town, and I really think the Pens have surpassed the Pirates to become the number two team in town in terms of popularity. The Steelers are clearly number one, but a large portion of the 30 and under crowd all but worship the Pens.

Though the Pens pretty much romped over the Islanders last night, there were still way too many defensive breakdowns for my liking. Crap like that has got to stop once the playoffs get underway next week. It just kills me that if the Pens had been able to beat the Devils twice (or even once), they'd be in the driver's seat for the number two seed in the East. As it is, if the Pens and Devils tie, the Devils will win the tiebreaker based on head-to-head games. So, the Pens need the Devils to lose one or both of their next two games while the Pens win both. It can happen, but losing is not really an option if the Pens want to finish second and avoid the Caps until the conference finals. Oh yeah, they also have to make sure Sid gets his 50th goal, too.

- As many of you probably know by now, the D.A. in the Ben Roethlisberger sexual assault case will be having a press conference on Monday to announce what's going to happen. What's going to happen is one of three things: 1) Ben will be charged with sexual assault or something similar; 2) Ben will be cleared of any wrongdoing or 3) the case will go before a grand jury. If Ben gets charged, then I think he'll surely be suspended by the NFL for probably 2-4 games depending on how severe the charges are. And you know what? Ben's got no one to blame but himself.

I mean, come on! You're Ben Freakin' Roethisberger. You can have any woman you want (despite the fact that you're not the least bit good looking). Why in god's name do you have to go to some night club in Hickville, Georgia, and invite a bunch of underage girls to party with you in the VIP area, (allegedly) getting one of them drunk and then (allegedly) taking her into the girls' bathroom so she can (allegedly) give you a hummer? Seriously, Ben, WTF? Would it have been so hard to not do that or have a private party somewhere or just not leave your house at all?

There are hundreds and hundreds of pro athletes who manage to enjoy their lives without getting in a lick of trouble. Sidney Crosby is one of the two biggest names in hockey, and I'd be flabbergasted if he ever got in an ounce of trouble. Of course, that's probably because Mario would crosscheck him upside the head if he did, but that's beside the point.

Ben already had a lawsuit hanging over him, so common sense should have told him that what he was (or was not) doing with that girl (that underage girl) was stupid. Raise your hand if you wanted to smack him when you heard about all of this when it broke. Yeah, that's what I thought.

And then recently, Santonio Holmes goes and gets himself in an (alleged) altercation with some (allegedly) crazy chick in a bar. Tone may or may not have thrown a glass at this woman. Y'know what? Even if he didn't do it, he still put himself in a situation like it, and that's just dumb. Of course, this is the same guy who got pulled over for smoking a joint in his car during the season and the same guy who recently Tweeted it was "time to wake n bake."

Confession time: I have never smoked a joint in my life, and I never plan to if I can help it. Yet, even I know what it means when Tone says it's time to wake and bake. I don't care if he was kidding. You just don't put stuff like that on your Twitter page. God! How stupid are these athletes, anyway? Oh, just you wait... I plan on doing a big blog on this subject soon, but for now, I'm just gonna shake my head and roll my eyes at Ben and Tone for being colossal idiots.

- Well, the Buccos came back to earth yesterday after being routed by the Dodgers 10-2. These are the Pirates I expected - lousy pitching, no hitting, bad defense. Yeah, I know 2 out of 3 ain't bad (as Meatloaf so eloquently put it), but the starting pitching has to be better, otherwise the bullpen is going to be completely wiped out by May. Memo to Andy Laroche - you are not your brother, so it's okay to get a hit in the first month of the season. Memo to John Russell - please stop hitting the pitcher 8th.

- Not much to say about this past Monday's RAW. It was pretty much a filler show with the biggest development being the setting up of the main event for the next PPV - Cena vs. Batista - Last Man Standing. Since Big Dave is supposed to be taking some time off soon, I'd have to guess Cena will win.

- One other piece of wrestling news to share - the last Monday Night RAW at Mellon Arena will be held on May 10th. Now, the Arena has had more than its fair share of great wrestling moments. Probably the best known moment is the Mankind/Undertaker Hell in a Cell match during King of the Ring back in 1998 when Mankind got tossed off the top of the cell by Taker and then later fell through the roof of the cage to the mat below. Pittsburgh native Bruno Sammartino (who still looks like a million bucks) wrestled in front of packed houses at the Arena many, many times. I attended my first ever wrestling event at the Arena, back when I still thought it was real.

So, that all said, I hope WWE does something to pay tribute to one of its best venues in one of its best cities on that night. Of course, if I were running WWE, I would have moved heaven and earth to get Bruno to be guest host that night, but since he and Vince don't really see eye to eye, we're stuck with... Flavor Flav. Yes, you read that right - Flavor Flav. I'll have to make sure I have my closed captioning on that night because I can't understand a word Flav says.

Anyway, that's all for tonight. Have a good weekend, folks. See yinz Sunday!

JD