Monday, September 19, 2011

It's a Steelers Monday ... "God Bless America"

Rest assured, we will offer more blithering gibberish on the Steelers' win yesterday, the Ravens' loss to Tennessee, the state of the NFL in general, and maybe even Warren Sapp.

It's a Steelers Monday, yes, but we just can't let the Pirates fly under the radar today.  Their "performance" yesterday and really since mid-July, just begs for attention, and we've already written the Steelers-Seahawks game recap, so here goes ...

Following the Steelers' win over a woeful Seattle squad yesterday, Joey Porter's Pit Bulls turned on the radio broadcast of the Pirates game in the fifth inning yesterday, and the always-electric Bob Walk and Greg Brown sounded like they were in excruciating agony.  

The late, great Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Prince, "The Gunner"
Seriously, the Pirates' broadcast team sounded like they were in pain. The game had already gone on for about two-and-half-hours, the Dodgers led 12-1, and "Walky" in his typically lugubrious manner was saying things like, "Well, what do we have to look forward to here? ... the seventh-inning stretch?  Yeah.  God Bless America."

And with that in mind, we can ponder the following:  With yesterday's 15-1 shellacking in Los Angeles -- certainly the low point of the season -- the Pirates sank to a record of 68-85 (still one game ahead of the Cubs! in a "battle" for fourth place).

Sufferin' Catfish!
After going 53-47 through the season's first 100 games, the Bucs have gone 15-38 since.  As noted by beat writer John Perrotto of the Beaver County Times, since moving into first place on July 19, when they went seven games over .500, the Pirates have won back-to-back games just twice.

They must win five of their remaining nine games to avoid 90 losses for the season.  If they lose 90 games this year, it will be their seventh consecutive season of 90 or more losses.