Hey Yinz,

How lucky, two posts, one day! I have been a fan of The Morning Steel Mill for over a year now; I am thrilled to have a chance to be a part of it.

My name is Labuda, and I am a misplaced Pittsburgher, coming to you from the always sunny San Diego, home to the Charger "dead bolts." The city is in a craze for the playoffs, and did I mention our mayor declared today "Super Charger Day." I am in protest, wearing my Steeler gear loud and proud. Also, I haven't been able to find a suitable Steeler Bar here, and you'd think it it would be easy in the land of plenty...think twice. I have tried out many in the area, but sadly fans of less superior teams move into my territory. I have had to step up my Pittsburghness, if you will.

Yes, that is me!

Alas, the great game of football is over for another season for us and our beloved team. This brings me to your Pittsburgh fact for the week, everyone's favorite green sticker, and a compliment to how I feel about San Diego at the moment.

Mr. Yuk is the icon of the Pittsburgh Poison Control Center, and used nationwide. It was created by the Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh for the labeling of chemicals which are poisonous. This was the replacement for the Skull and Crossbones aka the Jolly Roger aka the Pittsburgh Pirates. Who wouldn't want to drink something marked with the Pirates Logo? So a tribute to San Diego Super Charger Day, "Things marked YUK make you sick, sick, sick. Mr. Yuk is MEAN, Mr. Yuk is GREEN."

To the Chargers: We still beat you 38-28 Remember?

LET'S GO PENS!

You can take the girl out of the BURGH, but you can't take the BURGH out of the girl,

Labuda on the Left Coast

Penn State Phriday

Yinzers,

Well, a lot has happened in Happy Valley since we last had the pleasure of speaking with each other. With the end of the Nittany Lion football season, there were proverbial "hanging chad's"-and not the Brognano type-out there about the fate of the Penn State Phridays on the MSM. I am personally here to tell you that it is here to stay, it will just be less football-driven. On that note, here's your phirst Phriday of the MSM in 2010!


After finishing up with yet another 10-win season, JoePa's squad headed South to look for another bowl win, greener pastures and find an answer to the lifelong question of "What's in YOUR wallet?" They found themselves in the Capital One Bowl at the Florida Citruis Bowl in Orlando, FL. While greener pastures were nowhere to be found due to heavy downpours and a previous use of the field by the Champs Sports Bowl, the Nittany Lions found out that a win over LSU was in their wallet. The Nittany Lions defeated LSU 19-17 in the mud bog. Overall, the field and weather conditions made it tougher on everybody with both teams dropping passes and slipping in the sod. In the end, Daryll Clark capped off his career winning a big game and going 18/35 for 216 yds and 1 TD. Evan Royster and Stephon Green, a.k.a. "Thunder and Lightning" added 65 and 35 on the ground respectively. The biggest contribution came from TE Andrew Quarless, who grabbed 8 passes for 88 yards. He will go down as one of the best tight ends that has ever set foot in Beaver Stadium. In the end, it was a great crescendo to end on for the careers of all the seniors, and for the senior fans such as myself.


uuuhhhh....do you know the meaning of 3-PEAT?
When most people think of collegiate volleyball, their thoughts tend to wander to the Napa Valley, Southern California or some place along California Interstate-1. However, I will tell you this, your thoughts deceive you. The Mecca of collegiate volleyball just so happens to be in the middle of Pennsylvania, in a rural town called State College. What gives me the credibility to make such statements? BECAUSE PENN STATE WINS EVERYTHING VOLLEYBALL. The women's volleyball team won their THIRD STRAIGHT national championship this year AND broke the record for most consecutive wins by any collegiate program. They defeated Texas in the national championship game after dropping the first 2 games of a best of 5 match. Penn State came roaring back to take it 3-2 and set their spot in the record books.
The men's team starts up in February, looking to defend their national title.


You can't spell Nittany without NIT. Coming off of a huge NIT tournament championship, there were and are still high expectations on campus for the Penn State basketball team. I know a lot of students in the "Nittwitts"-true on more levels than one-who believe we will make an NCAA tournament appearance this year. Don't get me wrong, I love my Nittany Lions and if you slit my wrists, I bleed blue and white, but an NCAA tournament bid is out of the question. The main reason is the loss of forward Jamelle Cornley, who is now playing professionally in the Ukraine. When a team loses its best big man, who also is one of the top rebounders in the Big-10, and second on your squad in points...there is going to be a big hole. Said statement has proven true this year. The Nittany Lions are 10th in the Big-10 with a record of 8-8 (0-4). The baseline presence just is not there this year. Penn State's "big men" should just be called what they are..."lanky men." We have the height down low, but there is zero strength involved. Perhaps they will develop over time, but do not expect big things like last year to happen. I would predict a middle of the pack finish in the Big-10 and perhaps another NIT invitation at best.


Until next time, keep your stick on the ice.

For the Glory,
B Brog

Update from the North Country

Yinzers,

As said on Monday, our Pittsburgh Penguins are on a tour of the great white north, aka Canadia, aka wants to be the United States so badly it causes them to cry themselves to sleep at night, whatever you want to call it up there.


Monday night, the Pens stopped on the boarder of Molson Land in Minnesota. The North St-sorry, Wild-answered the Pens goal for goal and one, sneaking by with a 4-3 win. Sidney Crosby did his best to pull us back into the game late, but the puck luck just was not there. When all was said and done, the Penguins got contributions from Pascal Dupuis and two from the kid. The Wild got goals from Eric Belanger, Martin Havlat, Cal Clutterbuck (insert joke here) and Guillaume Latendresse.


Last night, it was hockey night in Canadia with Don Cherry, who continues to be on the forefront of P.C. statements. Just search for some of his quotes online and you'll be enlightened, impressed and most likely raise an eyebrow. The Calgary Flames hosted our Pittsburgh Penguins in what proved to be one of the more physical games of the season. Sidney Crosby took over second place in the scoring race when he scored the first goal of the game in the first period (29th of the season). Calgary answered off the stick of Mark Giordano, but that was all they could muster up. Marc-Andre Fleury posted 37 saves to keep the Flames extinguished. Billy Guerin and Tyler Kennedy added goals later in the game. However, the highlight of the game, to me, was the heavyweight bout of Eric Godard and Brian McGrattan. It was just hay-maker after hay-maker. You would swear you were in Baghdad with all the bombs that were falling.

Next game is tonight at 9:30 in Edmonton.

B Brog

If it's Sexy , It's Wedensday

Yinzers,

After the long hard winter here in SC we are back and better than ever. As you have read on Mon , Tues we have new stuff at the MSM. But as for old stuff we will always have you horde DE voure of the Middle of the week-Sexy Wed.

The MSM staff has gone through allot since last year, we lost one of the greatest Steeler fans and Pittsburgher in mid December, my grandfather John Kolesar.The Steelers finished out the season waiting to see what other teams did, to see if we could have made the playoffs- big whoop. Epic Fail on all accounts.

But what is not a disappointment is us keeping the MSM going. I had to make the decision with Brian B if we were going to can the thing after December- he said no.

But the MSM is back and ready for 2010.

We have brought in people that have never done anything with sports or blogging or whatever but love some point of Pittsburgh or the people of Pittsburgh...... the point is - We are very proud of our little blog. We are all proud to be Pittsburghers one way or another- That's all it is, our little blog.

Sexy Time

Pens are on there way to the cowtown of Calgary, Brandy a local historian and huge ( jugs) Flames fan loves SID the Kid. She is ready for tonights 9:30 Face off with the Stanley Cup Champs.

Have a great Hump day, Lets go PENS!

Wade

Truck Tuesdays Begin

I know it was a week ago – but I gotta say it.

rammer jammer yellow hammer, give ‘em hell alabama!

Anywho – I’m Truck and clearly I’m a bama fan. But for the purpose of this blog I’ll try to stick with my new love – Pittsburgh (insert team name here).

I am disappointed that the Steelers didn’t even make it to the Super Bowl – however, since I did join the cult, err- fan base on a not so fantastic season, I can’t be accused of being a bandwagon fan – right?

As the season progressed, I did develop an appreciation for the steelers – or maybe I was just brainwashed by the colors of the apartment, I guess we will find out when next season rolls around.

And now that the Steelers season is over we have the Pens. I must say that almost instantly I fell in love with the Pens – Penguins for those of you non-hockey, non-pittsburgh people (i.e. me 6 months ago J) Anywho – I do love them.

Growing up in the cotton fields of Alabama, I have not experienced a whole lot of ice/snow/ice skating/ice skiing/sledding/etcetera etcetera – so hockey is a novelty to me. And who couldn’t love my boyfri- I mean, Billy Gerrin’s hot porn stache – mmm tasty.

So I hope you enjoy Truck Tuesdays - sports posts from someone who doesn't know a whole lot about sports, much less Pittsburgh sports. enjoy.

till next tuesday (when I can properly figure out how to put pics up)

TRUCK

Igloo Update Monday

Yinzers,

Today marks the epic beginning of the new schedule for the MSM. Today's and every Monday and Thursday feature will be the Igloo Update with the past few days in brief of your Pittsburgh Penguins. The feature will be a summary from a brother blog of the MSM named Let Us Go Pens written and produced by Captain Kleck. His blog can be read at http://www.letusgopens.blogspot.com. Support him, for he is a friend of the show, and a friend of mine. Now, down to business:

As all of the Pittsburgh Nation knows, our boys have hit a rough patch of ice as of late, dropping 6 of their last 8. "Keep your heads up!" I say, for the Penguins had this same situation last year. In the first week of January last season, the Pens had a 5 game losing steak and guess what, we still went dancing with Lord Stanley. Don't throw in your towel like a Philthadelphia fan just yet, its a long season and the ride is only half complete.


Last week, the Pens took on the Atlanta Thrashers. The Thrashers filled the confidence glass of the Pens after the Pens "Beat them like a rented mule" 5-2. The Pens pulled in goals from across the board with Kris Letang, Ruslan Fedotenko, Luca Caputi with his second NHL goal and first this season and Jordan Staal adding 2 tallies.


After the rout of the Thrashers, the Pens took on the pre-season "best in the east" vote Philthadelphia Flyers. Though I do not agree with the "best in the east" tag, I do think that they are a better team than the fluke that got to the playoffs last year. With the addition of Pronger on defense, all they need is solid goaltender play and they could be the 3rd best team in the Atlantic division. What irked me about this game was the fact that Simon Gagne was back in action. He is to the Flyers offense what Troy Polamalu is to the Steelers defense...and it showed. The Pens simply laid an egg in this one, losing 7-4. We generated a ton of shots, but few quality scoring chances and let the Flyers skate right into the zone. Best just to put this one behind us.


The Pens got back onto the winning track when they started their northern tour. The moose march began Saturday night in Toronto. The Pens skated away with a 4-1 victory in dominating fashion, showing that the skid is only temporary. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 42 of 43 shots and maintained perfect positioning all game. Sergei "Sarge" Gonchar showed why he is one of the best goal-scoring defensemen in league history by blistering 2 slap shots past Gustavsson. Sidney Crosby and Billy "Gray Beard" Guerin tickled the twine as well.


The Pens next game is tonight at 8:00 on Versus as they take on the Minnesota Nor-sorry Wild-in Minnesota.

Don't forget to check out Captain Kleck's blog at http://www.letusgopens.blogspot.com

I'm Score,
B Brog

We'll Be Back in 2010

Yinzers,

Don't give up on the MSM we will be back with a new and improved staff and a new lineup for the Brand new year.

We here wish you the Very Merriest of Christmas's and A wonderful New year as well.

We'll Be Back In 2010!

Sincerely,

MSM staff