Starting tonight, ESPN Films starts a new series of documentaries in the style of their award-winning ‘30 For 30’ series. After tonight’s “Catching Hell” (a film about Steve Bartman and scapegoats in general), the network will air a new film every Tuesday through November 8. Here’s the full schedule:
September 27 - “Catching Hell” October 4 - “Renee” October 11 - “The Dotted Line” October 18 - “Unguarded” October 25 - “The Real Rocky” November 1 - “Charismatic” November 8 - “Roll Tide/War Eagle”
As a Pittsburgh sports fan, I’m still recovering from the Steelers loss in Super Bowl XLV. The Packers totally outplayed them in the game, but the score was still close enough that I’m left thinking “if only ____, they could have won the game”. Fortunately I have a few other places to turn.
The Penguins have played pretty well despite having lots of injuries. I just wonder if at some point, the injuries will become too much to overcome. Hopefully they can make another deep run in the playoffs.
Most of my hopes are pinned on the Pitt Panthers basketball team. I’ve been a season ticket holder for a few years now and I really love the team. I hope they are able to finally make the Final Four, but college basketball can be so crazy at times.
If I’m able to survive the NCAA Tournament and the Stanley Cup playoffs, I should be in good shape for another expectation-free baseball season.
GOALIE FIGHT!!!!
At the end of last night’s Penguins game, goalie Brent Johnson and Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro got into a fight. Goalie fights are pretty rare, but this one was quite awesome. I love Marc Andre Fleury’s smile after the fight.
My aunt recently bought a Steelers scratch-off lottery ticket, and although it was not a winner, she sent it in for a chance at some other prizes. She ended up winning an invitation for 2 people to attend yesterday’s Mike Tomlin Press Conference. She was unable to go, so Jessica and I went instead. We got a brief tour of the Steelers offices at the practice facility including getting to see the actual Lombardi trophies (the ones at Heinz Field are apparently replicas). We sat in for the press conference where Tomlin talked about last week’s game against Cincinnati and next week’s game against the New York Jets. We had lunch there and they gave us each a bag with Steelers merchandise. All told, it was a lot of fun.
I forgot to set my DVR before we went so I’m not sure if we were on TV. During the press conference, when someone would ask a question, the camera would find that person in the audience so there’s a good chance we were shown at some point. For anyone in the Pittsburgh area, the press conference will air again on FSN-Pittsburgh in its entirety on Thursday evening at 5 and in edited format on Saturday morning at 10:30.
Every year around this time, I fill out several NCAA Tournament brackets on ESPN.com and on one of them, I always pick Pitt to win the national championship. Last year, it wasn’t that absurd a thought, but most years, it’s a little ridiculous. I do it anyways, because I guess I just like seeing the screen say ‘National Champion: Pittsburgh’ even if it’s not true. Go Panthers!
It may be a ridiculous thing to say, but I think PTI has jumped the shark. I have watched the show almost every day for a few years now, and it simply isn’t what it used to be. I used to like watching the show to hear about any big stories in the world of sports and I found Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon to be entertaining. At this point, I think they’ve just lost their minds.
