Very much have been enjoying watching and listening to the Pirates so far this season. Not only is first-year broadcaster Tim Neverett a pleasure to listen to, but the Buccos’ pitching hasn’t been too hard on the eyes either.
Monday night it was Ross Ohlendorf who threw the Pirates’ fourth shutout of the young season, twice the number the Bucs had all last season, holding the red-hot Marlins to two singles over seven innings in an 8-0 victory, getting Pittsburgh off to a 7-6 start.
No, we’re not ordering champagne just yet. The Orioles, after all, have to get much better, apparently, since the Pirates can’t seem to win a World Series unless the O’s are there, but the first 13 games of this season have given Bucs fans some hope. For as long as your starting pitching keeps you in games, everything else — defense, bullpen and hitting — becomes a lot less taxed, and a whole lot better.
(The Pirates, however, will be taxed for the next eight to 10 weeks without the services of catcher Ryan Doumit, who must undergo surgery on his wrist. Catcher seems to be Pittsburgh’s thinnest position, and Doumit led National League catchers in hitting last year.)
As for Neverett, I swear I have turned on the Pirates three times this season, and when I initially heard his voice thought it was the late Skip Caray, one of the all-time greats. But as Duane McMinn also pointed out, during the course of a game you can also hear traces of the great Bob Uecker in Neverett’s voice. The guy really seems to know what he’s talking about, and whether it’s radio or TV, he makes it easy to listen, which is something we can’t say when his partner Greg Brown starts screaming as though he’s at a high school pep rally.
So far, though, the Pirates have hit it big with their starting pitching and with the hiring of broadcaster Tim Neverett. It’s been a combination that has made it a pleasure to watch and listen.
Then there is that ballclub in Washington, the Nationals, who, as an organization, seem to have problems hitting anything squarely, other than perhaps the ground. Although locking up third baseman Ryan Zimmerman for five years was just what the doctor ordered, not to mention the major-league debut of Jordan Zimmermann, who pitched well beyond his years and experience in gaining his first big-league win in the Nats’ 3-2 victory over the Braves on Monday.
Nats fans have to hope the team has hit bottom, and with the revamping of the bullpen, and with the demotion of a player or two the organization didn’t feel wanted to play by its rules, don’t be surprised if the Nationals establish some sort of traction and have close to if not the same record as the Orioles soon enough.
Don’t understand how much lower the Nats can fall, given all that’s happened the past year: the poor attendance at a second-year ballpark, the poor play, the signing of a top Dominican prospect who was four years older than he led them to believe he was, not to mention somebody other than the person he said he was, which has been at the center of a federal investigation and led to the club forcing out former GM Jim Bowden, and gutting its Dominican player-development system and starting again from scratch.
Then on Saturday, Nats manager Manny Acta fined outfielder Elijah Dukes $500 for being five minutes late for a game. Dukes’ sin? He was making an appearance at a Virginia little league’s season-opening gathering. But before we give Acta a W.C. Fields Kids-Hater Award, understand that Dukes, who earns $415,500 a year, charged the little league $500 for the personal appearance, which was not set up through the Nationals. Thus, the $500 fine, which the little league in question, after just paying Dukes $500, says it will raise to cover Dukes’ penalty.
Of course, the public-relations nadir for the Nats likely occurred the day before on Friday night when the team’s two best players, third baseman Zimmerman and slugger Adam Dunn, somehow were able to take the field with the team name spelled “Natinals” streaming across the front of their jerseys. Take it from somebody who has misspelled his share of words for public consumption, it’s no fun when it happens, and it’s never done by design. But when you’re down, people are going to keep kicking you to make sure you stay down.
Just ask the Detroit Lions how it feels to have screwed up the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft, which doesn’t even take place for another four days.
Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.
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Bucs provide some hope; Nats can only ask for it
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Somewhere over the rainbow starts here
During a break in the program Sunday night, former Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Bob Robertson sat at a table backstage sharing some stories from the day when he played some of the finest defensive first base and hit some of the longest home runs in the major leagues in helping the Bucs to the 1971 world championship.
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Ronnie Cage’s life was deeds, not words
It was right they observed a moment of silence at the Allegany-Fort Hill basketball game. And I hope they observed a moment of silence at all of the games this week — boys and girls, men’s and women’s — in all the area gyms — Maryland and West Virginia.
That’s because Ronnie Cage worked them all. And before that he played them all. -
No plus-one would have come out of this Orange
Having never been what one would call a big West Virginia fan, I nevertheless find myself entertained by Mountaineers head football coach Dana Holgorsen whenever I take in a WVU game.
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Daumie No. 51
It’s difficult and it’s unsettling — something we’re not ready to come to terms with, really — when we lose Larger than Life.
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At Fort Hill, they’re all in it together
They still decorate their homes and neighborhoods with red and white streamers and signs. They hang football helmets with jersey numbers on telephone poles and trees, and they leave them there until it’s pretty much time to decorate for Christmas.
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Let’s keep lips zipped and just go about our business
The worst part about snow, other than shoveling it, of course, is being surrounded by all the moaning and groaning about how much it’s going to snow before a flake even touches earth and then having to put up with the same moaning and groaning once it begins to snow.
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There are no queens on the sports page
Some high school football seasons it is easier to tell when big things have happened and when big things are ahead by some of the phone calls and letters we receive here in the Times-News sports department. There just seems to be more of a chippiness some years than in others, and this year has been one of those years.
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K.C. latest Laffey Tour over America destination
As of now it appears Aaron Laffey will be wearing royal blue again — Kansas City Royals blue, that is — as the Royals acquired the former Allegany High School left-hander from the New York Yankees in a waivers claim on Tuesday.
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In America ...
Of course you remember where you were when you heard.
What you really remember is how you felt when you realized it wasn’t just a bad pilot or an airplane malfunction when you saw the second plane go into the second tower.
Until the day we are no longer here, the realization that we had just been attacked — somehow, by somebody — will stay with us and move us. -
Keyser, Fort Hill clash tonight
Fort Hill and Keyser, both coming off lopsided season-opening victories, will square off at Greenway Avenue Stadium, while Frankfort entertains Grafton in the Falcons’ home opener in two of seven high school football games featuring nine area teams taking place tonight.
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