…the words spoken by Mike Lange after Gonchar’s game-winning goal.

The crazy thing about this game was not only the comeback from three goals down, but the fact that it was exactly a year ago that I was sitting in Mellon Arena watching the Pens…get this…come back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Rangers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals!

I could watch a game like this over and over…

Let’s Go Pens!!!

The following article really annoyed me, so I thought I’d direct a blog entry at Randy Levine…that he’d never know existed…

You’re so amazing. I mean, you get to go to work every day for one of the wealthiest sports organizations in the world…in one of the largest markets in the world. You have no salary cap to restrict your pathetic spending on your overrated, under-performing, Yankees. You’ve got that shiny new stadium that caters to your elite bandwagon fans, and you’ve won more championships than any team in baseball, but you sir, are an ass. Thank you for giving me just one more reason to dislike your franchise. First, there’s the Jeffrey Maier incident…now there’s you.

I find it amusing that a remark by MLS Commissioner, Don Garber, which discusses how a reeling economy can even leave seats empty as Yankees Stadium, would incite such a comeback as, “We draw more people in a year than his entire league does in a year. If he ever gets Major League Soccer into the same time zone as the Yankees, we might take him seriously.”

Oooooh. Listen to that fiery insult from a man with no monetary limits. You want to impress me, you prototypically egomaniacal stump of a human? Go work for New York’s MLS franchise, and see how tough you talk when you’re not gifted the easiest job in the world. When you got the gig, I’m sure the conversation was something like this:

“Here Randy…all you have to do is show up, make sure enough jerseys are made this year for the rabid fans to scoop up without caring about anything other than that trendy NY logo plastered all over it. You can use this giant vault of money to buy every star player in the league, but if you don’t get your man, make sure you drive the prices so high, that the small market teams don’t have a shot – we want to make sure the competition is limited. Try to sell some of these overpriced seats in our brand new state-of-the-art stadium, but that should be easy in the land of the pretentious. Oh…and did we mention that since baseball is America’s sport, you’re going to get to feed off of the tradition of the game’s history to make your life easy, so don’t sweat the little stuff. Mm’kay…thanks!”

You’re like the meathead jock – gifted with the good looks and physical tools to land any woman and win prom king – wasting his energy picking on the bookworm for making him look stupid in math class. Your feeble attempt at making the MLS look bad with comments like, “Hey Don, worry about Beckham, not the Yankees. Even he wants out of your league”, leaves you looking like a classless jerk.

The MLS doesn’t pretend to be in the same world as the EPL or Serie A. Beckham wanting to go play for Milan is like Hideki Matsui wanting to play for the Yankees. Every player wants to play in the best league for one of the most-storied teams in the game. Milan has been around since 1899…Yankees since 1913. The championships between the teams are insane, too, but I’m sure when both of those sports/teams were in their infancy, they didn’t draw anywhere near the same numbers as today, so get some perspective. The MLS started in 1996…come back in 86 years and then you’ve got a valid argument.

Hop out of your little New York bubble…walk away from the tainted American past time…and put down the checkbook for a few years. Hop over to Europe…visit a place like St. James Park, where a team facing relegation is still selling out every game. Where fans cheer and pay attention to what’s happening in the worst of times and the best of times. Take notes, and realize that while the MLS currently isn’t anything for your pompous attitude to pay attention to, the game of soccer surely is. Go to a game in Toronto or Seattle…and you’ll see what power the MLS and the game of soccer can have. Those teams are making noise, and their crowds are bringing real passion. The MLS – with their soccer-specific stadiums that will eventually seat between 18,000-30,000 spectators, 15 teams, and only 210 total regular season games – may never compare to the Yankee’s 81-game regular season, 52,325 seat stadium, but I’m sure Don Garber is never going to make a comment about the attendance at PBA competitions to make himself feel better about his league’s shortcomings.

Get over yourself. Oh, and I’d like to ask…how did it feel to watch the Rays go to the Series last year on the back of their tiny payroll? Maybe you should be joining the hundreds of thousands in the unemployment lines if you’re getting shown up like that…

Well…the Pens played like crap last night on their way to a 3-0 loss to the Flyers…damn.

Fortunately, our bowling team was a little more convincing than that. We took 2 of 3 games while improving our team average by 8 pins. With all three games above 650 (650, 651, 656), our team average is now 622, and should help us in the playoff hunt with four weeks to go.

Our team bowled really well, with everyone bowling above average. While we lost game two by only 3 pins, I’m still happy with our performance. Despite finishing this week with two opens and a 183, I ended up with a 214 average for the night – keeping my 211 intact and actually edging close to 212. Megan (+5), Sam (+2), and Meadows (+1) all improved their averages as well, and I think that trend should continue. If I can stay consistent and everyone else continues to improve, we should find ourselves in the playoffs four weeks from now…I hope my optimism doesn’t let me down!

Two things had me excited about going to the Kings of Leon show at Duquesne’s AJ Palumbo Center last night. First, they rocked at Lollapalooza a few years ago before My Morning Jacket and Pearl Jam took the stage, so I knew that they could put on a good show. The opportunity to see them in a small venue only added to that appeal. Second, unlike some of the so-called KoL “purists”, I thought their latest album was pretty damn good, so the hopes of hearing a song like “closer” had me really pumped.

We got there shortly after the opening band, The Walkmen, took the stage. They weren’t bad, but really didn’t do much to get the crowd going. The singer’s David Grey-esque vocals were solid, but they just didn’t have the energy I’ve come to expect from opening rock bands. Their sound was good…they just need to kill the boring it’s-cool-to-look-and-act-lame-as-hell stage presence.

Kings came out rocking, and I was pleasantly surprised by the variety in their set. Their willingness to stray away from their latest offerings and break out high-energy older stuff was awesome. Only By The Night is a solid album, but it probably couldn’t carry a show on its own legs. By playing fast, raw rockers from their first two albums, the show flew by and brought the perfect energy level for the younger college crowd. The hour-and-a-half setlist that delved into past records probably left newer fans feeling shorted, but the awesome set should have convinced those only listening to “Sex on Fire” on repeat to dig deeper, as some of their best live material comes from their previous albums.

Check ‘em out…

Sunday was our second week of PSL flag football, and our second straight week of doubleheaders. Again, I can’t tell you how much fun it is to play – win or lose. We actually got to play in the rain, too, which always makes it more interesting. A little mud…a little rain…a little football…sort of what Sundays are supposed to consist of.

We went 1-1 for the day, but we really should’ve won both games. We thought that we had game one wrapped up in the second half as were about 5 yards out from the endzone with what seemed like a comfortable 7-point lead, but TJ tossed a really unfortunate pick in the end zone, which the dude Ed Reeded all the way back for 6 points. Their successful conversion tied the game, but our luck (or lack of skill, not sure which) wasn’t done laughing at us. On the first play of the next drive, with Nate at QB, we surrendered another pick-6. With the other team up 7 on us, I decided I would give it a go at QB. The other team sent the blitz…which I avoided…but instead of just playing it simple and running for some yardage, I saw one of our players break across the middle. The duck I threw had no wings and was picked off. While my pass wasn’t returned for another TD, it did basically signal the end of the game for us. After we held the other team on the subsequent drive, we had one play to try to score from deep in our end. Kromer and I had practiced the hook-and-ladder during the week, and it almost worked, but after trucking one dude, I was only able to get to about the 10 or 15 yard line. Hopefully the guy I injured after running over him and the girl who seemed to sprain her ankle after my Barry Sanders moves (rolls eyes) are okay. If it’s any consolation to them, my shirt did get ripped on that play.

That game was sort of a bummer, too, since we had played really well aside from those 3 consecutive picks. TJ had a long TD reception from Nate, and I was able to catch my first TD pass (which after hitting the ground hard left me with a sweet welt on my shin that still hurts to the touch). Meadows was able to snatch what, at the time, seemed like a decisive INT, too. Everyone was getting involved and doing well…it’s just a shame we gave us those 3 picks on 3 consecutive offensive downs.

Fortunately, we had another game immediately after to try to make up for our mistakes. Game two signaled our first victory of the season, and while we almost gave up a 3 TD lead to win 20-19, we finally played a pretty complete game. We protected the ball, and used everyone on our team perfectly. We scored on our first drive when TJ launched a ball which hit me in the hands almost immediately after turning around downfield. Meadows caught a conversion. I was able to avoid a two-man rush to connect with a wide-open Chelsea for a TD pass as well. Heck, if Nate could hold onto the damn ball, we would’ve had a 4 TD lead. Ha ha. All-in-all, it was a good game. It’s a shame that I’ll be missing this Sunday, because I feel like we’re all finally starting to figure it out.

There were a number of anomalies on Saturday.

First, the weather in Pittsburgh was amazing. 80-degrees, clear skies…you know, the stuff places like San Diego get to experience the majority of the time.

Second, there’s the fact that it was the first Saturday day game at PNC Park since 2005. It’s sort of hard to believe because I’ve been to so many Buccos day games, but I guess most were during the week or on Sundays.

Then there’s the biggest one of all – the anomaly that that consists of many micro rarities – the Pirates won! Not only did they win, but a) Ian Snell pitched 7 innings, allowing no runs and only 4 hits, b) the Pirates offense was explosive and drove in runs on multiple occasions with 2 outs, c) there were ZERO Pirate fielding errors despite Andy LaRoche starting at 3B, and d) they got the shutout – a 10-0 shutout to be precise!

Granted, the Pirates got shellacked yesterday 11-1, but at least they’re 2-0 this year when I’m there and both were shutouts! Ha ha.

It was also Ryan Doumit bobblehead day at the ball park, so I’ve now collected my 13th Pirate bobblehead. I’ll never catch up to Meadows’ insane collection, but my desk is going to look awesome if a really minor earthquake ever hits the area!

I was fortunate enough to go to game two of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals last night. I felt even more fortunate to be sitting in section D8. It was a blast. The crowd in that section is absolutely rowdy, but in a fun way that forces you to cheer…and cheer loudly…a lot. It was awesome. I’m sort of bummed that I’m not on the season ticket waiting list for section D because I would love to sit with those hardcore fans every game.

The fact that the Pens game ended up being an exciting, overtime, victory made the night that much sweeter. The Pens got the right bounces at the right times and the Flyers’ lack of discipline helped give the game away…again. This series isn’t going to be a sweep, but I’m optimistic that the Pens can get it done.

Let’s go Pens!!!

The best thing involving bowling yesterday was probably the creation of team icons and a logo:

As a team, we started out pretty well. I bowled two clean games to start the night, and everyone bowled pretty well to give our team wins in the first two games, but we all fell apart in the last game. Every person on our team bowled their worst game of the night – highlighted by my 51-pin underachievement. For a night that had me pondering the personal glory of my first clean series, the last game brought me back down to the average bowler ground I should be standing on.

After 23 straight clean frames, something went awry as I began leaven pins on the left side of the lane. Aside from the 4-9 split that I picked up in game two, all of my spares through those first 23 frames were right side. Frames 4-9 were a bit of a nightmare for me. I made my first two left side spares, then missed and easy one. Then on the 9th frame, I left the “Greek Church”. It was a disastrous end to what should’ve been a great night. I left two opens and ended with a 165.

From the optimist point-of-view, our team did pick up two wins, leaving us with a 3-3 record going into next week, and we’re only 7 pins shy of the league high team average. With us already in the hole record-wise, we’re going to have to focus on team average to get us into the playoffs while slowly picking up wins along the way.

The NHL is awesome…and it only gets better when the playoffs come around – especially when you happen to live in a city with a competitive hockey team like the Penguins. The fact that I happened to move here at the perfect time to watch this organization get itself back in order after a few down years helps me get past the whole Steelers thing. Ha ha.

Last night was game one of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the Pens, and they started the same way they finished against the Flyers last year in the Eastern Conference Final…with a convincing win. The two things coming in that seemed to play in the favor of the Pens winning a series with the Flyers was A) home ice, and B) discipline. Last night was a perfect exhibit of how both factors played a part. The Flyers spent a lot of time in the box, and while the Pens only managed to score one time on the power play, the penalties kept the Flyers from establishing any offensive rhythm. I expect to see that a lot in this series. Morons like Scotty Hartnell are going to basically give the series to the Pens with his antics…and I welcome his further idiocy, or as he calls it, “brain cramps”.

As far as home ice goes…Mellon becomes a whole different beast during the playoffs. This is the third straight season that the Pens have made it, and the third straight year that I was able to go to at least one game. Each year, as the hype builds up, the crowds have gotten louder and more intense. Last night, the Igloo was rockin’, and I expect an even more insane crowd this Friday. The Pens were skating really hard and clearly played at another level last night. Blame it on the crowd, blame it on the circumstances, but the Flyers just don’t win in Pittsburgh like they do at home. Blowing their chance to lock up home ice on Sunday may have changed their postseason drastically.

I can’t wait until I go again Friday to game 2. I’m hoping for another white out like last year. LET’S GO PENS!!!

er…well…at least it sort of felt like it after dropping 2 of 3 games last night. I don’t really think the team we were playing were good enough to sandbag, and I’m guessing that their scores are going to fluctuate wildly all season, but it definitely sucks when you get whooped by guys bowling 40 pins over average. Maybe we just met them on their good night…or maybe they did sandbag. Regardless, our team was going to have an uphill battle all night with the amount of pins we were giving the other team. On a night like that, everyone just needs to focus on bowling well and keeping our team average high enough to make the playoffs on that alone.

Our team is bowling pretty well, with everyone improving his or her average (other than me). While I felt like I couldn’t find a shot to save my life, I was able to finish with three 200 games and keep my average at the top of the kingpin list. It’s going to be really difficult to stay up there, but if I can maintain my current consistency, I should finish top 5. With the easiest shot in PA existing at Arsenal, I’m pretty sure that’s a realistic goal, but I’m still a bit pessimistic.

I’m already looking forward to next week. Sam rolled off and bowled really well. Her average is going to jump to 141 after next week, so I hope our team takes advantage of her solid effort.