John Steigerwald Columns category, Page 4
John Steigerwald: Enjoy Josh Bell before he leaves the Pirates
Enjoy the Josh Bell ride while it lasts. Going into Sunday’s game against the Dodgers, Bell had the second highest batting average in Major League Baseball at .339, he was second in RBIs with 47 and tied for fifth in home runs with 16. Bell is on pace to hit...
John Steigerwald: Future of fandom is almost unrecognizable
Are you a fluid fan? Probably not, considering this has nothing to do with being in favor of drinking a lot of fluids while attending a game. And probably not if you’re older than 17. Fluid Fan is a term created by Sports Innovation Lab to describe fans of the...
John Steigerwald: Attendance finally sinking to level Pirates deserve
This is going to be a bad year for the Pirates. Not exactly a bold prediction, I know, but I’m not just talking about on the field, where they’ve shown every indication, especially with the injuries, of being a team that will struggle to finish at .500. Their attendance is...
John Steigerwald: Steelers have proven they can win without a franchise quarterback, too
Hurry, before the window closes. That seems to be the consensus from fans and many in the media when it comes to the Steelers and Ben Roethlisberger. In the days leading up to him signing a two-year contract extension that will pay him around $35 million a year, most of...
John Steigerwald: Late Pirates GM Pete Peterson might never be matched
You may not live to see anyone else do what Pete Peterson did. He’s the last Pittsburgh Pirates general manager to win a World Series. They’ve only won three in the past 94 years. Harding “Pete” Peterson died Tuesday at the age of 89, and the fact he was a...
John Steigerwald: Miracles not unheard of in Penguins-Islanders history
Do you believe in miracles? If the Pittsburgh Penguins win the next three games against the New York Islanders and are leading in Game 7 with 10 seconds to go, whoever is calling the game shouldn’t feel guilty about stealing Al Michaels’ line from 1980. Coming back to win this...
John Steigerwald: Experience says Penguins or Capitals will win Eastern Conference
The Pittsburgh Penguins finished fifth. Actually, and officially, they finished in third place in the Metropolitan Division behind the Washington Capitals and the New York Islanders and ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes and Columbus Blue Jackets. But Carolina and Columbus won more games. As you’ve probably noticed, the NHL has...
John Steigerwald: Review system needs Guy in the Sky
Get it right. That’s what we’ve been told is the reason for reviewing plays on video by the NFL and every other sports enterprise, but it’s never really been about getting it right all the time. When the NFL first went to replay it was only about getting it right...
John Steigerwald: Remember the 1979 Pirates? You must be old
So, how old would you have to be to remember the last time the Pirates were in the World Series? I remember it well. I was 30 years old and had been working at WTAE for four months when they opened the 1979 season at Three Rivers Stadium on April...
John Steigerwald: Steelers players must learn from Ben Roethlisberger
Ben Roethlisberger wasn’t always a leader. Whether he is now or ever was one seems to be an ongoing debate both locally and nationally. He is happy to claim that he is, and his boss, Kevin Colbert, backed him up on that Feb. 20 when he said, “Ben’s the unquestioned...
John Steigerwald: Antonio Brown made a fool of the Steelers
He played the Steelers like a fiddle. Then he beat them like a drum. What was the deciding factor? Was it the blue hair and the blond mustache? Or was it the videos he appeared in with the blue hair and the ‘stache, speaking semi-coherently and looking like he was...
John Steigerwald: Transgender athletes endanger women’s sports
It’s time to stand up to the stupidity. Have you seen what’s happening to women’s sports? Transgender women are threatening the existence of them, and if you have a problem with that, you will be told you are the problem. Martina Navratilova, who came out as gay in 1981 when...
John Steigerwald: Time for NHL to rein in outdoor games
OK, enough with the outdoor games. Like so many other things, playing an NHL regular-season game in a football stadium was a good idea that has been beaten to death. Saturday in Philadelphia turned out to be an ugly night for the Penguins because of the final score and the...
John Steigerwald: Players need to shut up, grow up and play
The word is that Antonio Brown and Steelers president Art Rooney II will meet face-to-face in Florida this week, possibly at Brown’s home. If so, the conversation could/should go something like this. ROONEY: Antonio, nice place you got here. Great view. Not sure if it was a good idea to...
John Steigerwald: Alliance of American Football off to great start
You could say the Alliance of American Football kicked off its inaugural season Saturday night, but you’d be lying. They don’t kickoff. Former Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward, the league’s director of player development, got the season started at the San Antonio Commanders-San Diego Fleet game in San Antonio by...
John Steigerwald: Bill Belichick is Patriots’ true GOAT
Tom Brady did it again. He won another Super Bowl on Sunday. You’ll be hearing that a lot in the coming days if you haven’t already. People will be telling their grandchildren about the time the Greatest Team Athlete in North American history held one of the highest-scoring teams in...
John Steigerwald: Chuck Noll the reason Pittsburgh became football town
Pittsburgh always has been a football town. How many times have you heard that? It’s probably the consensus among the national media, but it’s only an accepted truth in Western Pennsylvania by people who are not old enough to remember when it clearly wasn’t. Granted, that group is getting smaller...
John Steigerwald: Business as usual won’t cut it for Steelers
Art Rooney II is right. Things could have been a lot different in the AFC North if not for the kicker. There was that blocked field goal in overtime in Week 1 that led to a tie, and then there was that loss by three points when the kicker missed...
John Steigerwald: Time for Mike Tomlin to walk away as Steelers coach
You’d have to be pretty old or dead to remember the last time the Steelers fired a head coach. Everybody knows the Steelers like to hold on to their head coaches, and they’ve only had three in the last 50 years, but what’s even more amazing is they haven’t fired...
