Welcome to Steelers Takeaways! – Page 138 – More than 1,000 interviews of Steelers players, coaches, front office staff, media and more with those that played in the 50’s through today’s current roster.

Jim O’Brien: Blass blessed to be still living the dream

Blass blessed to be still living the dream

By Jim O’Brien, Columnnist, Pittsburgh Business Times

Steve Blass says he is blessed by the gods of baseball. He fell in love with the game as a kid in Caanan, Conn., and found a way to make it his life’s work.

“Of course, it’s not really work,” said Blass before a recent Pirates’ game at PNC Park. “Willie Stargell used to say the umpire says ‘Play ball.’ He doesn’t say ‘Work ball.’ ”

Blass counts playing ball with Willie Stargell and Roberto Clemente, Bob Friend, Bill Mazeroski and his neighbor and buddy Dave Giusti among those blessings. He said Maz once told him not to make excuses: “They care why you could and not why you can’t.”

Blass can’t believe he’s 70 and nearing his 20^th year as a color commentator for Bucs’ baseball. He was an outstanding right-handed pitcher for the Pirates for ten years (1964-1974). His career record was 103-76).

He was a World Series hero in 1971 against the Baltimore Orioles when he pitched two complete game victories, giving up only seven hits and two runs in 18 innings, winning the seventh game 2-1. He finished second in the World Series MVP voting to Clemente. His career was cut short in his prime when he could no longer control his pitches. That condition is now called “the Steve Blass Disease.”

He never lost his sense of humor and it has served him well working with Greg Brown on the Bucs’ broadcasting team.

Former Pirates’ broadcaster Lanny Frattare says Blass has become one of the most popular Pirates ever. Blass, in turn, says he learned his craft from all the announcers he worked with, beginning with Bob Prince, Frattare, Mike Lange, Brown and John Sanders. “I paid attention and they brought me along.

“One of my friends told me I am getting paid for something I did 40 years ago. I’ve been through 19 straight losing seasons, but I didn’t let that get me down. It was still a privilege to live my life with the Pirates.”

He teamed up with writer Erik Sherman for a memoir this past May called “A Pirate For Life.” Blass shares stories about the ups and downs of his career, and the book is a delightful read.

“It’s my love letter to Pirates’ fans,” said Blass. “I’m so happy for the fans that we’ve had the kind of season we have enjoyed most of this summer. The fans deserve this.”

Blass bought a home in Upper St. Clair early in his career and he still lives there, just around the corner from Dave Giusti, one of the great relief pitchers in Pirates’ history.

“I’ve had a good life,” said Blass. “I’ve been with one team, one wife and one house. Not many people can say that.”

Blass was spotted at a Washington Wild Things ball game during the Major League All-Star break.

His wife Karen accompanied him. “He gets a few days off,” she said, “and what’s he do? He takes me to a baseball game.”

In 2005, Blass did make the decision to serve as color commentator for only home games so he could spend more time with his family. He serves as a goodwill ambassador, speaking at luncheons and playing in charity golf outings.

Blass is a pretty good golfer. He had two holes-in-one in 2009 in one 18-hole outing. “He’s great to play with,” said one fan. “He has a funny line about something for every hole.”

He does the same as the jester at Fantasy Camp each January, and his presence alone is worth the price of admission.

Blass credits Prince for his popularity. “Bob Prince said don’t ever say ‘no’ to anything in your own community.”

Anyone who wants the full story on Blass will have to buy his book, but his attitude is to be admired. “I’ve had the two best jobs in baseball,” said Blass. “I was a starting pitcher and only had to work every five days. And then being a baseball broadcaster. There’s no pressure; this is a lark. Everyone is more fun to be around when you’re winning, but it’s just not in me to get down about the team. Hey, I’m still living the dream.”

Jim O’Brien has written 20 books, including “Fantasy Camp: Living the Dream With Maz and the ’60 Bucs.” His website is www.jimobriensportsauthor.com

Jim O’Brien: Homestead’s Charlie Batch hopes to stick with Steelers for another season

Pittsburgh sports author and Valley Mirror columnist Jim O’Brien

This Thursday may be a make or break night for Homestead’s Charlie Batch.

Once again, he and Byron Leftwich are looking to stick with the Steelers as backup quarterbacks to starter Ben Roethlisberger.

There’s a new kid on the block with a strong arm named Jerrod Johnson who has impressed the coaches, but Leftwich and Batch are hopeful of holding him off the way they did with Dennis Dixon in recent seasons.

Dixon is gone now. Johnson and Batch are expected to see action tonight in the final tune-up game before the regular season starts. Roethlisberger will be on the sideline when the Steelers take on the Carolina Panthers at Heinz Field, resting up for the real stuff.

He and the Steelers will be opposing Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos, the team that Tim Tebow led to an upset of the Steelers in the opening round of last season’s AFC playoffs, when the regular season begins. The Steelers are still smarting from that unexpected setback. The game in Denver will be on national TV.

Batch is 37 years old and in his 14^th season in the National Football League, his 10^th with the hometown Steelers. He has been the perfect backup for, at first, Tommy Maddox and more recently for Ben Roethlisberger.

Batch would have liked to have been the starting quarterback, of course. That’s the competitor in him. But he never stirs the pot or creates any kind of controversy. He has been content in his role with the Steelers, where he also has the opportunity to serve his neighborhood community in a meaningful way.

He has been honored by NFL and local agencies for the way he has helped improve recreational facilities, be it football fields or baseball fields, and be a role model for young men and kids in the Homestead-Munhall area. He has raised money through a golf outing he hosts to help Mercy Hospital provide health care for homeless people. He has his own foundation to raise money to enrich the lives of local kids.

Leftwich, at age 32, showed in the Steelers’ last game that he can still throw deep and accurately. He and Batch both have been injury-prone in their pro careers, so it has been an insurance policy for the Steelers to keep both of them, hoping at least one of them is healthy when Big Ben needs a breather or someone in relief if he is hurting from a hard tackle or sack.

The daily newspaper reports have indicated that Leftwich and Batch are believed to have an edge on Johnson in sticking with the Steelers. The team will try to keep Johnson on the practice team to continue his development, hoping no one claims him on waivers.

Some day, sooner than later, the Steelers will need to nurture a quarterback to replace Roethlisberger in the lineup. Big Ben is 30 and thought to have another five or six strong seasons in him. But he has taken more than his share of hits because of the way he prefers to play the game, biding for more time to find an open receiver or for something positive to develop, and because the Steelers have often had a make-shift offensive line.

The Steelers selected David DeCastro from Stanford and Mike Adams from Ohio State, two big offensive linemen, with their first two draft picks this year, but DeCastro went down early in the exhibition victory over the Buffalo Bills last Saturday night and will miss most of his rookie season. The Steelers were counting on DeCastro as a starter. Ramon Foster is the fill-in and he must step up and show he can do the job at guard.

That’s just another reason I never get too worked up about the draft stories and all the analysis about how the new players are going to help the team. You just never know.

The Steelers have a lot of injured players to start the season – never a good sign – and they may have held on to at least one of them, Casey Hampton, too long after they did some house-cleaning at the completion of last season.

They got rid of a lot of veteran players and leaders. Batch has been a positive force in the locker room. The players like him and respect him. He is good for the team. To date, he has been a model citizen.

The team’s general manager Kevin Colbert has always been a big fan of Batch. Colbert was working in player personnel with the Detroit Lions when they drafted Batch out of Eastern Michigan University on the second round of the 1998 draft.

Batch was a starter for the Lions for most of four seasons, but was released when Matt Millen was brought in from the TV booth where he’d been an analyst to manage the affairs of the Lions. Millen made personnel changes, and he gave up on Batch, who had been nagged by injuries throughout his time with the Lions. Millen, a Penn State product, was a disaster as the Lions’ GM.

Batch and Leftwich have missed considerable time since they have been with the Steelers for one injury or another that sidelined them.

Batch has been a survivor, going back to his early days in Homestead. He is the son of Lynne Settles, a former school teacher, and they experienced challenging times. She raised Charlie and his sister, Danly Lynn, mostly on her own.

Danly Lynn, at age 16, was shot and killed in a gangland crossfire while walking down the street with school friends. Danielle was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That memory still haunts Charlie’s family.

“The things that happened in our family inspired me to work harder,” Batch once told me. “It was just the two of us for a long time. We always shared everything and I’m glad we can share this. You can’t take anything for granted. You are never guaranteed tomorrow so you better make the most of today.”

Batch has been a goodwill ambassador for the Steelers. He has lent himself to many good causes in the community. He has become an entrepreneur and everything has not worked out well. He’s had some financial setbacks in his efforts to rehab buildings and homes in his old neighborhood.

Some things have worked out well, while others have been big disappointments. But Batch keeps moving on.

He earned a degree in criminal justice, not business, at Eastern Michigan University, and maybe he’s always had an interest in helping steer kids in the right direction, as coaches and teachers and his mother had done for him.

At this stage of his life, I don’t think he’d want to play elsewhere in the National Football League. He realizes his days are numbered in the NFL. But he feels good, everything is still functioning fine, and he’d like to play at least one more season with the Steelers.

Colbert was with the Steelers when the Lions released Batch and he signed him to a one-year contract for 2002 as a backup quarterback. Batch has been here ever since. He signed another one-year contract this past April.

He’s made good money in his pro career. He’s lived in a nice home in the North Hills – in the Gray Oaks development in Franklin Park — but he has never forgotten where he came from. One of the first things he did when he signed with the Lions was to buy his mother a new home.

“This was always the dream,” said Batch. “When you grow up in Homestead and you dream of playing in the National Football League, it’s playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“When I was in high school, I was a big fan of Dan Marino. He had come from Pittsburgh. Just being able to watch him and knowing he came from a nearby neighborhood was an inspiration for me.

“I’m happy just to be here. Considering my family’s history, you just don’t let the outside world confuse you. A lot of things can make you go down the wrong road. You are never guaranteed tomorrow and that is the attitude I take, and I am going out there living every day to the fullest.

“In your mind, you know what you have to do. I only know one way to compete, or to prepare, and that’s as a starter. You always want to compete to be the guy.

“Charlie Batch has always been in sports, always competing. As a kid, I loved the Steelers. So this is great to be with them.

“I try to help out at Steel Valley High School, my alma mater. I grew up in the Steel Valley. That’s where the Steelers got their name in the first place, right?”

I will be rooting for Charlie Batch to be with the Steelers come next week, and the start of another season. I like what he is about, and I think a lot of people will be rooting for him to stay.

Pittsburgh author and Valley Mirror columnist Jim O’Brien has written “The Chief” and “Steeler Stuff” among his 20 books on the Pittsburgh sports scene. His website is www.jimobriensportsauthor.com and his e-mail address is jimmyo64@gmail.com

Merril Hoge, Steelers Running Back, 1987-1994; ESPN Broadcaster

First, can you tell readers how you got started in your broadcasting career?

It was back I think in my rookie year. I was asked to do so some autograph sessions and did some call-ins after the sessions for B-94 – the radio station. I was then asked to do some for WDVE – B-94 wasn’t paying me then, so doing them for WDVE was interesting to me. The only thing was I had to go into their studio on Monday mornings to do them. At first I didn’t like that idea, but the studio was on the way to the stadium, so I said what could it hurt? I got up thirty minutes earlier and started doing them.

The first day – well, I was never in a studio before. When I got there it just hit me – this bis what I wanted to do. I just knew this is what I wanted, and took advantage of various opportunities since then.

Continue reading “Merril Hoge, Steelers Running Back, 1987-1994; ESPN Broadcaster”

Lee Gutkind, Author, The Best Seat in Baseball & Almost Human: Making Robots Think

Lee Gutkind, Author

First, what is the “creative nonfiction movement” and how did you come lead the writing community in this method for storytelling?

The movement is simply about taking information and turning it into a compelling story without changing the meaning or facts.

We try to communicate information in as compelling a way as possible so people who would not be interested normally would be. People care about real people and their stories.

You see magazines and newspapers doing this more. We’re seeing a heckuva lot more narrative as people learn more through storytelling. Now there’s a storytelling explosion. I got a big science foundation grant to teach storytelling to science policy wonks. teaching policy is important but difficult to communicate to people.

The world needs to learn a lot more. The common every day person needs to understand more of what’s happening in the world as it’s much more complicated with new sciences and technologies.

Your book, Almost Human: Making Robots Think, documents CMU students and faculty over six years as they designed and built robots. What inspired you to cover this subject and what were some of the biggest lessons you learned?

The only thing the world seems to know about robots is that they are cute and are taking over the world and taking away jobs. Is that true? I wanted to see, so I picked Carnegie Mellon’s Robotic Institute to study it. It’s the world’s largest robotic academic institute.

In creative non-fiction, you immerse yourself for long periods of time in the milieu and then write on that. So, I walked from Shadyside to CMU and hung out with them for a half-dozen years, trying to develop stories versus just information on robots. That’s what creative non-fiction writers do.

What did you learn from your experience?

That robots taking over the world is only half-true. They are incredibly important but not nearly reliable as we think. They are too unpredictable at the moment to give the world away to them. Maybe in fifty to a hundred years we’ll be able to trust these robots to do what we want them to do.

By then, we’ll have had time to think about what we really want them to do! Now, they are killing people in Afghanistan and being used as security guards. Is that what we really want them to do?

The other thing that interested me is that the robotics world is a very young world. I originally thought of these grey-haired ex-hippies. But the fact is, the senior scientists are the supervisors and raising money. The real geniuses are the students writing the code. They are kids doing the essential work to make robots think.

Just like when computers first took off. They were children in Silicon Valley – Steve Jobs was under twenty-one.

You’ve crossed so many different genres and topics – from motorcycle subculture and robots to organ transplants and baseball umpires. What is your approach to learning something so diverse and foreign each time you look to write a new book?

The whole joy is immersing myself in the subject. I love writing, but what a challenge to pick a subject you know nothing about and walk in to a situation just like the everyday reader does. I involve myself for long periods of time. The big challenge is to get people to trust you and believe in what you’re doing.

You then have to take what you learn and find a real story – not one you make up – to relate the information.

How has sports influenced you and your writing, and do you follow any of the local sports teams?

I had a deep interest in baseball, but soured against it after writing my book The Best Seat in Baseball and getting such flack on it. It took a while to get back into it.

90% of the book is totally pro-umpire covering all kinds of information and challenges they had. Nobody’s perfect though and there was stuff that was critical too. I just showed people they way they are. And they went bananas.

I immersed myself with one crew of National League umpire – Hall of Famer Doug Harvey, Harry Wendelstedt, Pelosi and Art Williams. Williams was very important in the world of baseball – he was the first Black umpire in the National League. He only had two years of experience before that. The American league brought a Black umpire in the year before and the National League felt threatened so they brought him up to the major leagues. after only two seasons.

He had a difficult time – they paired him with Harvey and Wendelstedt to take care of him. They weren’t smart from a racial perspective. They focused on the race card and that made his life miserable. He lasted only one season then they let him go. He later sued for racism. He was a hero, but Harvey and Wendelstedt didn’t like the way I wrote about them.

Does Pittsburgh rely too much on sports to define itself?

How else does Pittsburgh define itself?

Come on! Steeler nation is everywhere. It’s all about the Steelers – everything I read was about Ben Roethlisberger and concern about the team. The place is crazy in it’s worrying about the Steelers. The Rooneys are wonderful and have done a lot for the city.

But….CMU is one of the most important places for science and technology in the world. The University of Pittsburgh too – without them, there’d be no Google. That’s what we need to focus on. The accomplishments of what we do besides football. There’s a lot besides the Steelers – not that the Steelers are terrible.

In talking with students looking to attend CMU, the single drawback of the city was that there was little else to do there. No movie houses and cafes – we don’t have that here, and that’s the shame to me. It has incredible potential – with fascinating people. But they are not brought together in any significant way like you see in Portland or Seattle.

People don’t move here because of the Steelers. They move here because of the schools….to study medicine…

How has the city shaped who you are and the way you’ve approached your writing style?

It’s great place to write. It’s a quiet place and the people are cooperative. They are interested in what you do and feel it’s ok to be different. I like the down-home, comfortable atmosphere. There’s not a big night life, but that’s nice for a writer.

The writing community is disappointing. We have MFA programs for writing at Carlow College, Chatham and University of Pittsburgh as well as an undergraduate program at CMU. They are all in walking distance of one another, but they never cooperate. There’s no connection. The Robert Morris and Drew Hines writer series are not shared with the city. High school kids can’t afford twenty-five dollars to come see them.

What’s surprised you the most over the course of your writing career, and why?

How much people want t be written about. The more we sit in our offices and email, the more isolated we are. When we get out in the world, people open up. It’s delightful to immerse yourself with people who want to talk about themselves.

On the other hand, the downside is people are not buying books. It’s frustrating.

The publishing industry is changing due to new technologies and the web. How do you plan to adapt your content and writing, taking into account these new technologies?

Well, I edit a magazine – it’s been around now for over twenty years. We started a book imprint and we’re doing well with the e-books. I’m trying really hard to adjust to this new world and understand it. I’m trying to figure out how to being the product to market. I’m learning you can’t sell books through tv and tours – you have to hammer away at your niche market. That’s how you do it. I want to stay in the game and I started when the game was entirely different.

Your writing success has garnered you a good deal of media attention – both in print and on other venues like the Daily Show, the BBC and NPR. Do you worry about “staying grounded” as you realize more success?

The truth is, nobody pays attention to me. From my point of view, nobody knows I was on Good Morning America or the Daily Show. I was really happy to have those experiences – it was like immersing myself when I write. The Daily Show I was on won an Emmy! It stunned me, seeing a clip of me on national tv!

I feel good – I feel I accomplished a lot. If anyone reads my books and mentions it to me, that feels good.

What’s next for you?

I don’t know! I no longer work at the University of Pittsburgh. I’m at Arizona State University and travel a great deal for the university and my books. I want to keep doing that.

I’m focusing now on My latest book – You Can’t Make This Stuff Up. It’s my last book on writing – I’m putting all I know about writing in this book – it comes out in August.

I’ll spend my time telling people about the book then will find another book project. I usually have a couple of projects in hand before I complete the current one, but I intentionally did not do that this time. I am stopping am thinking more than before about what I do next.

I’ve gotten interested in hockey recently after reading about concussions and Sydney Crosby. I’m also getting interested in golf – I just hit a hole in one – even though I’m a terrible golfer. I find it satisfying – I love how you have to focus so deeply on writing -and golf is similar. The focus of the sport is similar. Maybe I’ll write a book about how golf and writing are the same.

As Arnold Palmer said, golf is 90% mental. It’s not physical. That’s what I care about and would make it fun to write about.

Dan Kreider, Steelers Fullback, 2000-2007

First, can you let readers now what you’ve been up to since you’ve retired from the NFL and how you got started in the line of work?

I have ownership in a property management business with my family that we started six years ago. I am involved with management of the properties.

What lessons from your playing days have helped you most in this new line of work?

The lessons from my playing days that have helped me in this line of work is being willing to do whatever is necessary to get the job done. Some jobs are not that much fun but they still need done.

Continue reading “Dan Kreider, Steelers Fullback, 2000-2007”

Jim O’Brien: Suzie still feels the Olympic spirit

Suzie still feels the Olympic spirit

By Jim O’Brien, Columnnist, Pittsburgh Business Times

Few Pittsburghers could appreciate the 2012 Summer Olympic Games as much as Suzie McConnell-Serio, the head coach of the women’s basketball team at Duquesne University.

McConnell-Serio was a member of the gold medal-winning women’s basketball team at the Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea in 1988 and the bronze medal-winning team in Barcelona, Spain in 1992. She won a gold medal in the 1991 World University Games.

“I remember living in the Olympic Village, meeting all the athletes from around the world, learning different cultures. I remember the competition, the awards ceremonies. You’ll never forget it,” she said.

“Every chance I got during an especially busy period for me (with recruiting, camps and practice for a pre-season tour of Canada), I watched the Olympic Games on TV with my family,” she said with a gleam in her blue eyes. “I love the Olympic Games. When I’m in my family room I can cheer and root for them, agonize for them and feel their excitement and their pain. I know what it feels like.

“I won gold and I won the bronze; I know the disappointment of not living up to expectations.”

There are many stories about athletes who overcame obstacles to succeed. Suzie’s story is a good one because she is 5-feet 4-inches, and was often told she was too small.

She has modeled herself after the many coaches she has had from grade school, high school, college, international teams, Olympic teams and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) teams.

She is in her sixth season as the head coach of a continually improving Duquesne team and, at 46, is still as spunky and determined to win as when she was the only girl on the 4^th and 5^th grade teams at Brookline’s Our Lady of Loreto Grade School.

Her coach then, Dan Kail, whom she still credits for her early development, predicted that someday she’d be playing for the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team.

Susie and her husband Pete Serio, who also grew up in Brookline, have four children: Peter (21), Jordan (17), Mandy (15) and Madison (14). Young Pete is in his fourth year of the pharmacy program at Duquesne, and the three girls are on the basketball team at Upper St. Clair High.

Suzie credits her parents, Tom and Sue, for her work ethic. “They always told me to stay busy,” she said. “They taught me how to treat people.”

Basketball is in the family DNA. Her brothers Tom and Tim have been coaches, and her sisters Kathy and Maureen played basketball, and Kathy is coaching in the WNBA. She has two other sisters, Patty and Eileen, and a brother Michael.

Tim, a successful coach at Chartiers Valley High, says of Suzie, “The one thing that sets her apart is her determination.”

When Suzie went to Penn State University (1985-88) she became the school’s first All-American in women’s basketball. She majored in elementary education.

After her first Olympic Games experience, she was invited by Fran Mannion to be the coach of the girls’ basketball team at Oakland Catholic. She took over the program in 1990-91 and won her first of three Class AAAA State Championships in 1993. In 13 years, McConnell-Serio averaged over 24 wins a season.

She blushed when asked how much money she was paid to coach at Oakland Catholic. “I was paid $4,000 a year,” she said. So Suzie has paid her dues. Sometimes you have to start for little compensation.

Her husband Pete made sacrifices, too. He had to give up his job as a physical education teacher and basketball coach when his wife, after a six-year layoff from playing basketball came back to star as a player and then a coach in the WNBA. In 2004, she was named WNBA Coach of the Year with the Minnesota Lynx.

“It’s easier now because the kids are more self-sufficient,” she said, “but I couldn’t have done this without Pete’s help. He held everything together for us. I was expecting our first child in 1990, and I had all four of my kids between 1991 and 1997, so we had a real juggling act. The kids have been great from the start.”

Pete Serio said, “Her kids have been the No. 1 priority in her life.”

Suzie still has the Olympic spirit. She is living proof that all things are possible if you have a positive attitude, truly believe in yourself, and are willing to work hard and make the personal sacrifices necessary to realize one’s aspirations.

Jim O’Brien has written 20 books in his “Pittsburgh Proud” series. His e-mail address is jimmyo64@gmail.com and website is: www.jimobriensportsauthor.com

Jim O’Brien: Pittsburgh fans can look forward to winning seasons this fall

Pittsburgh sports author and Valley Mirror columnist Jim O’Brien

Since you asked, here are my thoughts about our favorite teams for this season.

I think the Pirates will post a winning season, and that’s a giant step in the right direction, and that the Steelers, Pitt and Penn State football teams will all have winning records this fall and provide fans with a great deal of entertainment.

No, I don’t think the Pirates will be a wild-card team in the playoffs and I certainly don’t think they will be in the World Series. It’s been a terrific season so far, with more highs than lows, and I think manager Clint Hurdle has done an amazing job.

Considering the Pirates’ personnel, the team has been more amazing than the 1969 New York Mets.

The Pitt schedule is soft and will be a tough sell to fill seats at Heinz Field, and Paul Cryst seems like a sound coach who understands that you do what your players do best, and not boast about your own “high octane” offense as did that phony Todd Graham, who thought he was Billy Graham and preached a better game than he played.

The Panthers could post an 8-4 record. The Panthers should post an 8-4 record. But both Dave Wannstedt and Graham managed to lose games the Panthers should have won.

PennState has been over-punished by the NCAA, but Bill O’Brien has an opportunity to be a leader in a recovery program that will gain national attention, and could end up casting a positive light on HappyValley. I think the Nittany Lions could post a 7-5 record this season.

Looking farther ahead, the Penguins will have a winning season as well.

The Steelers have the personnel to post a 10-6 record and, sorry, won’t be playing in the Super Bowl. Why do so many Steelers’ fans start the season wondering whether they will win the Super Bowl?

I may have been dead wrong, but I didn’t think the NCAA had the jurisdiction to do what it has done concerning the penalties it has dealt Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child-abuse scandal.

I think Joe Paterno erred by not seeing to it that Sandusky’s behavior was reported to law enforcement officials since Paterno was one of the most powerful figures on the campus. I think he stayed too long at the job and that his power impacted his judgment. I always thought he presented himself as being so smart, and now we learn he had to ask his son the meaning of the word sodomy.

Overall, Paterno’s program was a solid one, and I think the school conducted its program better than most, if not as snow white as Paterno would have had you believe.

To me, Paterno is the winningest coach on the major college level, and you can’t change that. Why punish a dead man? He didn’t win those games by himself. The NCAA stripped PennState of all its victories from 1998 to 2011 and that’s just absurd.

They fined the school a record $60 million which will be dedicated toward programs to protect children from abuse. Again, where does the NCAA come off having that role?

I think the four-year ban on bowl participation is fitting, and so is the reduction in scholarships from 85 to 65 over a four-year period, beginning in 2014. Teams such as Pitt and PennState were once successful with 65 players on their varsity football teams. PennState will attract a better kind of kid.

Nowadays schools such as Waynesburg and Washington & Jefferson and California (Pa.) have over 100, sometimes 120, players on the squad, and half of them never get on the field.

Bill O’Brien came from the New England Patriots to PennState. He is right when he says PennState is still a special place to play college football, and that there are no bowl games that attract 110,000 fans as they do on a regular basis at Beaver Stadium

O’Brien objects mostly to the NCAA granting the PennState players the ability to transfer to other schools without having to sit out a season of play. Several key players have already transferred.

He is wrong when he says that prospects should come to PennState because he has the ability to prepare them for the next level.

That’s not his job. You are talking about three and maybe four kids a year who have the ability to move on to the pro football level. His focus, and the focus of any college coach, should be to prepare his players to play college ball to the best of their ability.

This past Sunday was a full day for any Pittsburgh sports fan, watching the Pirates play a 19-inning game and finally beat the St. Louis Cardinals and then see the Steelers win a close one with the Indianapolis Colts on a late field goal.

I taped the Steelers’ game so we could watch the final innings of the Pirates’ game, and then we were able to watch the Steelers’ game and fast forward through the commercials and other breaks in the action.

The Pirates still have too many automatic outs in their lineup, and the pitching simply isn’t as strong and effective and consistent as it was in the first half of the season. When are the Pirates going to realize that Jose Tabatha has no aptitude for the game of baseball?

It was worth watching 19 innings of baseball just to see Pedro Alvarez smile for once after he launched the game-winning home run, and to see Wandy Rodriguez get a win in his pitching log. All three of those Pirates have the poorest body language in the lineup.

The Steelers have made some interesting changes in their scheme of things, but it will take a while for the team to adjust to the changes, and for the young players to grow into their roles. The Steelers want to run the ball more, but because of injuries do not have any running backs that have proven they can do well on a consistent basis.

I fully subscribe to the idea of protecting Ben Roethlisberger from himself and opposing tacklers.

The absence of Mike Wallace has been a distraction. Chuck Noll always thought that some people are more concerned about how they do rather than how the team performs. He thought such players would hurt you in the long run. He got rid of such players. Roy Jefferson was the best player on the team when Noll arrived in 1969, but he dealt the terrific receiver to the Redskins because he thought he was setting a bad example for the young players.

The Steelers pay their players well and Wallace would get fair compensation. He overrates himself and his production to date. He thinks he will be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame some day, and has told people this. The last Steelers’ player to oversell himself in a similar manner was Kordell Stewart.

If Wallace doesn’t watch himself, someday in the distant future he may be asking the Steelers if he can come back here to retire as a member of the Steelers.

I’m looking forward to this fall. Over the weekend I saw the land site near Station Square, where the Melody Tent once stood, where they are getting ready to build a soccer stadium for the Riverhounds along the Monongahela River and that will add to the downtown skyline for sports fans.

Pitt and PennState fans can look forward to new coaches with new ideas and, hopefully, both will attract the best of football players and kids also interested in the academic and life-building aspects of the respective programs.

Playing the Pittsburgh Steelers will still be special, and playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates won’t be so bad anymore. This city has had more than its share of success in sports.

Don’t forget to check out your favorite high school teams on Friday night. That’s as much fun, sometimes more, than following the professional and college teams.

Relax and enjoy the ride.

Pittsburgh sports author and Valley Mirror columnist Jim O’Brien can be reached at www.jimobriensportsauthor.com or jimmyo64@gmail.com

Oliver Gibson, Steelers Defensive Lineman, 1995-1998

First, you’ve been interning with the Steelers. How did that start, how has it been going and what has interested you most in general about coaching?

I saw an NFL Players Association memo on the Bill Walsh Coaching Internship Program. I thought I could go through the NFL and submitted my application with my team preferences. But I didn’t hear anything form them so I called Dick LeBeau directly. I played for him both in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. He told me Coach Mitchell was in charge of the program and put me in touch with him. And now, here I am…

Continue reading “Oliver Gibson, Steelers Defensive Lineman, 1995-1998”

Jim O’Brien: Randy Grossman offers a “good story” about his early days with Steelers

Pittsburgh sports author and Valley Mirror columnist Jim O’Brien

The Steelers started their pre-season schedule with a less-than-scintillating 24-23 loss to the Eagles in Philadelphia last Thursday evening. While it failed to get us excited about the Steelers’ Super Bowl prospects for this year it did serve to remind me of a story I heard Randy Grossman tell at a sports luncheon earlier this year.

Grossman was a terrific tight end for the Steelers during their glory days of the ‘70s, playing eight seasons (1974-1981), when they won four Super Bowls in six seasons under head coach Chuck Noll.

Grossman signed with the Steelers as a free agent out of Temple University for the minimum of $15,000. Today, the minimum salary for a rookie is $355,000. Grossman and Donnie Shell of South Carolina State, another free agent, came to the team with the greatest draft class in NFL history.

It included four future Hall of Famers in Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth and Mike Webster, plus Jimmy Allen, a fine but often overlooked defensive back who was a valued reserve on two of those Super Bowl teams.

So there was plenty of talent around and Grossman worked hard to make his mark. The NFL teams played six pre-season games back then. Talk about cruel and inhuman punishment – for the fans more than the players.

The third of those pre-season games was in Philadelphia, Grossman’s hometown. Joe Greene was talking to Grossman in the locker room a few days before the game in Philadelphia. “Bet you’re looking forward to playing in your hometown,” said Greene.

Grossman agreed with that assessment, but went on to tell Greene that he hated to fly on airplanes. He told Greene that he often got ill just thinking about it.

Terry Bradshaw overheard the conversation and came over and spoke to Grossman as well, offering some encouraging words.

Bradshaw and Greene said they’d help him out and told him they’d see him at the airport prior to takeoff and that they’d have breakfast there. They assured him that if he was flying on a full stomach it would quiet his nerves.

They’d been in the NFL a few years. They were the offensive and defensive stars of the team. They’d been around the block a few times, and they knew what to do. Grossman was an eager rookie, and he thanked them for their concern.

As Grossman was sharing this story, as a featured speaker at a sports reunion luncheon at the Kennedy Township Fire Hall, where I had been the speaker the year before, it struck me that I had never previously heard this story.

I had heard him speak around the same time at a golf outing at the Butler Country Club. I had heard him speak at the Sports Night at the Thompson Club in West Mifflin on a few occasions, and I had joined him in a parade of former Steelers at Kennywood Park on two occasions. Yet I never heard that story before.

I first met Grossman at St. Vincent College at the Steelers’ training camp in the summer of 1979, and I had interviewed him many times, for newspaper, magazine and book stories. But he never told me this story.

That’s why I have learned you can never interview these guys enough times. Maybe you failed to ask the question that would unleash a pretty good tale.

“So I got together with Bradshaw and Greene at the Pittsburgh Airport, and we went to a restaurant there,” recalled Grossman. “They urged me to order this and that, some eggs, some pancakes, juice and coffee.

“They ordered breakfast for themselves. After they ate, they said they had to go to the bathroom. They never came back. I was stuck with paying the bill. They’d gotten the best of a rookie. I should have known I was in trouble then.

“I had to hustle just to get on the plane before it left the gate. I was the last one on the plane. There was only one seat open on the plane and it was the one next to Chuck Noll in the first row. Now you have to know that I was afraid of Chuck Noll at the time. He was like God to me.

“He gave me a half-smile as I took my seat and buckled myself in. It wouldn’t be a long flight to Philadelphia, so I thought I’d be okay. But midway through the flight I felt a little queasy. The bathroom was in the back of the plane, and I didn’t want to go down the aisle and have Greene and Bradshaw laugh at me, knowing they’d gotten the best of me. My stomach was rumbling.

“I was very competitive and I thought I could tough it out. I could hear my stomach growling more frequently. The plane was about to land and I knew I was in trouble. I threw up on Chuck Noll’s lap. He was sleeping at the time. Thank God for that.

“I was in a panic. I didn’t know what to do. I started cleaning up my mess a little bit, and that’s when he stirred and woke up. I was standing over him now. He looked up at me. And I said, ‘Coach, are you feeling a little better now?”

The audience at the Kennedy Township Fire Hall was wide-eyed and laughing. What a story! They’d never heard this story before either.

I wrote down Grossman’s remarks for future use.

Grossman, now 59, has been a financial and investment advisor the past 22 years, a certified financial planner since 2002. He is with Wealth Management Strategies. I visited him in his office on Brilliant Avenue in Aspinwall, a quaint old-fashioned community just off Rt. 28 east of downtown Pittsburgh.

I asked him about his story. My wife Kathie couldn’t believe it was true, and now I was doubtful.

I asked Grossman if that story about him and Chuck Noll on the airplane was true, and Grossman gave me one of his double smiles. He smiles with his mouth, like most of us, but he also smiles with his dark eyes, squinting them both.

“It’s a good story,” he said.

“But is it true?” I persisted.

“It’s a good story,” he repeated.

Later that same day, I bumped into Rocky Bleier, another Steelers’ star on those teams in the ‘70s, at the Heinz History Center in The Strip. Bleier and I both serve on a Champions Committee, chaired by Franco Harris, for the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum at the Heinz History Center.

I repeated Grossman’s story for the benefit of Bleier. Rocky just smiled when I finished the tale. He put his hand on my shoulder in a reassuring way and said, “It’s a good story.”

Pittsburgh sports author and Valley Mirror columnist Jim O’Brien has written “Steeler Stuff” that is one of the 20 books in his “Pittsburgh Proud” series. His website is www.jimobriensportsauthor.com

John Balawejder on the Pittsburgh Hockey Expo

John Balawejder on the Pittsburgh Hockey Expo:

First, can you tell us a bit about the expo. How the idea began and who runs the expo itself?

The idea began three years ago. Myself and some fellow collectors of Penguins game worn/used items got together and thought it would be fun to put on a free expo for the public. Joe Tomon of J & J Distributing and John Balawejder from Double Deke Hockey are the ones who run the expo.

If people have items they’d like to sell at the expo, how can they go about doing so?

We have a few dealer tables available for $75 a piece or two for $100. But fans can bring in rare/unusual pieces of memorabilia to sell to collectors/dealers as well.

How involved – if at all – is the Penguins organization and it’s affiliates – and how are they involved?

The Penguins sell the game worn jerseys and sticks to us but are not involved in any other way.

What are the big reasons why fans should come to the expo – and is this only for those interested in selling or purchasing a piece of Penguins history, or are there reasons for the non-buyer/non-seller to attend?

If you are a hockey fan in Pittsburgh, this is a can’t miss event.

First, its free. Second, its like walking into the NHL Hall of Fame, but there only being Penguins stuff. Third, you can actually touch/try on pieces of Penguins history from your favorite players. So you can walk in, not spend a dime, and have an amazing time, or you can walk out with a prize piece for your personal collection.

Card and autograph collectors, there will be items for you as well.

This year Phil Bourque is in attendance. What is Phil’s role and how can fans meet him?

Phil is good friends with one of our collectors. He is a special guest who will be signing autographs and hanging out with the fans.

Any other former players/personalities fans should look for at the expo? What others have attended in prior years?

This is the first year that we have had a special guest. But with it being so close to the arena on a game day, you never know who will stop in.

Have you seen representatives from sports history museums like the The History Center and Sports Museum come to the event to acquire items?

We have had some major auction houses come in to acquire items from collectors, but have not had anyone from the museums. A lot of what you will see if Hall of Fame worthy items.

What are some of the more unique pieces of Penguins history you’ve seen sold through the years – and what are some of the more unique items being sold this year?

Because it is a first come first serve event, we don’t reveal any of the items in advance. This keeps people from getting really upset that they missed out on a piece. All we can say is, get in line early. As far as in the past, most collectors hold onto their prized items, but here are a few of the amazing pieces of Penguins history you will see at the Expo:

Mario Lemieuxs game worn jersey vs NJ when he scored five goals five different ways
Mario Lemieuxs rookie NHL contract
Michel Briere’s photomatched game worn glove
Sidney Crosbys rookie game worn jersey
Tons of jerseys and game used items from all 3 Stanley Cup Seasons
Game Worn Jerseys from every season of the Penguins

What else should readers know about the event?

It takes place Saturday Sept 22nd 9am-4pm at the Epiphany Church Hall located right next to the Consol Energy Centers lower entrance at 184 Washington Place.

Doors open at 9am but get there early for best selection. Phil Bourque will be signing autographs from 10:30am – noon(subject to change without notice).

The equipment sale also starts at 9am. There will be game used sticks, jerseys, helmets, gloves, skates, and pants, many never being available for sale before.

Any last thoughts for readers?

If you like Pittsburgh Hockey, then the 3rd Annual Pittsburgh Hockey Expo is a can’t miss event!