For the Pirates in 2016, the infield was a series of moving parts with many different players playing many different positions. Whether it was because of injury or a platoon situation, the Pirates had multiple infielders play in 2016. The four we will look at for our 2017 grade are Jung Ho Kang, Jordy Mercer, Josh Harrison and John Jaso.
Jung Ho Kang was back for his second season with the Pittsburgh Pirates and built off of an impressive rookie campaign, in which he fell short of the Rookie of the Year Award. He finished the season hitting .255 with 21 home runs and 68 RBI. While the average dropped for Kang, the run-production increased and Kang fit in quite nicely in the clean-up spot for the Pirates. Continue reading “Pittsburgh Pirates Infield Grades”
The Cleveland Indians had a great year making it to the World Series. Along with losing the World Series, they could and should lose something else: the Chief Wahoo logo.
Chief Wahoo was born in 1947 at the suggestion of the Indians’ owner Bill Veeck. Veeck was known for outrageous antics, promotions and stunts in promotion of his teams. The Indians went on to win the title in 1948, which is their only series win in franchise history.
The team altered the logo from a white-skinned Indian to a red-skinned Indian with a smaller nose in 1951. Native American groups protested its use, but the logo remained.
In 2014, the Indians made a move to the red block C logo you see today. The chief Wahoo logo was prominent in Indians spring training uniforms and stadium until 2009. This was when Cleveland moved from Florida to Arizona. Arizona has a 5.3 percent population of Native Americans, while Florida has a 0.5 percent native population.
This was most likely a move toward being politically correct, but didn’t entirely remove the logo. Today you can still buy merchandise with the Chief Wahoo logo.
Chief Wahoo also played a prominent role in the movie Major League with the team sporting the Wahoo caps. Chief Wahoo was the face of Cleveland like it, or not. That doesn’t mean it needs to stay. Continue reading “Chief Wahoo Needs To Go”
Every year, Sporting News releases its All-Star teams featuring the best players from each league including all nine position players, a starting pitcher, and a closer. The National League All-Star team was released in late October and the Pittsburgh Pirates got some good news along with the announcement.
One thing the Pittsburgh Pirates have had secured on their team over the last couple years is a dynamite closer at the end of the ball game. Ever since Matt Capps took over the role before the 2007 season, there has always been someone reliable for the ninth inning. In that time, we have seen Octavio Dotel, Joel Hanrahan and Mark Melancon occupy that role.
Those four closers combined to save 293 games in 333 chances, which is an 88 percent save rate over the last 10 seasons.
Melancon set the the all-time saves record in a season for the Pirates with his 51 saves during the 2015 season. However, Melancon is gone, and the Pirates are dealing with an issue they haven’t had to worry about in a long time and that’s inconsistency at the back end of the bullpen.
Elimination Match: Raw (Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Nia Jax and Alica Fox vs. SmackDown (Carmella, Becky Lynch, Alexia Bliss, Naomi, and Natalya)
This was a solid opener. The growth that we have seen in the women’s division over the past few years has been impressive, and every worker in here got a least some time to shine.
Nia Jax had some spurts of dominance but did not take away from others in the match who, frankly, are more interesting. Charlotte and Sasha Banks both did what we have come to expect of them, and Charlotte did a fantastic job of playing the heel, which is somewhat of a lost art in pro wrestling today.
Bayley was able to be one of the two remaining survivors in the match, and even Alicia Fox had some moments of impressive athleticism. As for SmackDown, Natalya was a late substitute, as Niki Bella was attacked backstage before the match, and she was fantastic. Although Charlotte eliminated her, she did pin Sasha Banks and looked pretty good throughout the match.
The tension on team Raw was evident, as Bayley, Sasha and Charlotte were all at each other’s throats. On SmackDown, things weren’t quite as impressive. However, the thought that Natalya might pick up the win in her home country was intriguing, but it was to be cut short by Becky Lynch. Overall, the match had some interesting storytelling elements to go along with the in-ring work.
I was pleasantly surprised that Bayley was booked to pick up the winning pin. Did Charlotte’s post- match assault take away from Bayley’s moment? A little bit, but nonetheless, Charlotte was made to look like a great heel, so the purpose was served well. I thought the finish was the best part of the match and could build up Bayley for a run at the Women’s title. Continue reading “Recap of Every Survivor Series Match”
Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott have taken the National Football League by storm this season. Two exciting, young rookies that have the Dallas Cowboys looked at as the best team in the NFL with a 9-1 record heading into Thanksgiving.
However, don’t let the flashiness of these young guns fool you, the secret to the Dallas Cowboys’ success will hit you square in the chest. A group compiled from left to right including Tyron Smith, Ronald Leary, Travis Frederick, Zach Martin and Doug Free are the reason for the Dallas Cowboys winning ways in 2016. Continue reading “Dallas’ Offensive Line Is the Reason the Cowboys Are Good”
Event pits strong competitors in winner-take-all matches
Photo credit: Daily DDT
By Donny Chedrick
The week of Thanksgiving every year since 1987 has featured one of the big four pay-per-view events that World Wrestling Entertainment has offered since that time – Survivor Series.
The event is remembered for memorable matches, moments and debuts. The Rock and The Undertaker both made their respective debuts at Survivor Series. Shawn Michaels won the first ever elimination chamber match at Survivor Series. And we can’t forget about the Montreal Screwjob – a match between Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart that is one of the most controversial in history. If you haven’t seen it, look it up sometime.
This year’s version of the event doesn’t feature a match for a major title (WWE Heavyweight/WWE Universal), nor does it include a women’s championship match. Fans will see all of the big names in traditional elimination style Survivor Series matches. Tonight also touts a rematch 12 years in the making between Bill Goldberg and Brock Lesnar. WWE is in Toronto and Survivor Series is expected to wow the crowd. Continue reading “Survivor Series Preview”
Big news from the minor-league baseball world comes off the field in the offseason. Teams change affiliations when player development contracts come up for renewal.
Often times with the switches come relocations and name changes. So far this offseason, three squads have rebranded with very results. I’ll take a look at which one’s work and which don’t.
Photo credit: Sports Illustrated
The New Orleans Zephyrs also rebranded, announcing it Tuesday night. They have adopted the moniker, the Baby Cakes.
No, that is not a typo. Their name is actually the Baby Cakes.
Olli Maatta has had a lot of bad luck in his short career thus far, but the baby-faced 22-year-old blonde has always shown nothing but determination and perseverance. After suffering from shoulder injuries, mumps, concussion, and even cancer, the young defenseman has always found his way back to the ice.
On February 26, 2016, Maatta was rewarded for his efforts with a six-year contract extension.
According to Spotrac, the contract is worth $24.5 million, with an average salary of about $4 million a year.
In his first campaign with the Penguins in the 2013-2014 season, Maatta proved himself to be a force to be reckoned with ending the season as the team’s rookie of the year, with a total of nine goals and 20 assists.
Things went south, though, as Maata’s second season with the Pens was limited to a mere 20 games. The 20-year-old was diagnosed with a cancerous thyroid tumor that had to be surgically removed. Removing the tumor did not require any chemotherapy or radiation treatment and, he was projected to have a full recovery. Continue reading “Olli Maatta’s Pittsburgh Career Up in the Air”
Pittsburgh media has started to get on the coaching staff of the Steelers, and rightfully so.
Coming off their bye week, the Steelers laid an egg in a battle for first-place in the AFC North in Baltimore Sunday, Nov. 6.
It’s the third straight loss for the Steelers, who may have been worse against the Baltimore Ravens than the first loss in the string, a road loss in Miami to a Dolphins team that at the time of the game in Week Six was 1-4 with the only win coming against the winless Cleveland Browns.
Scrunched between those two losses was a loss to New England without starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who had surgery for a torn meniscus the Monday following the loss to Miami, before being on bye in Week Eight.
Then this loss happened.
Roethlisberger returned in the loss to Baltimore and was abysmal before the fourth quarter.
The Steelers were favored entering the game against a team under .500 and on the road, a situation in which Mike Tomlin teams have not exceled in during his tenure as head coach.
It’s time for the Mike Tomlin era to end, whether now or at season’s end.
After all, “the standard is the standard,” and the standard for Steeler football is to beat the teams they should beat and compete for championships year in and year out.
By S. Samek
By Rachel Mangan
Hammer Down Sports Blog 
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