Bleacher Report - Articles by Shorthandedby2

Mario Lemieux Committed To Winning In Pittsburgh

Shorthandedby2 — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 17:03:25 -0400

Winning starts at the top. Good decisions from ownership bring in the best people for front office positions and that produces a quality team. One of Mario Lemieux's goals when he bought the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team was bringing the Stanley Cup back to Pittsburgh. Mission Accomplished!

Mario Lemieux is one of the greatest hockey players ever. Mario overcame back problems, cancer and a three year retirement to come back and play at a very high level in the NHL.

The NHL Hall of Fame waived the three-year waiting period to unanimously elect Mario into the Hall on Nov. 17, 1997.

Mario was not done.

After the Penguins declared bankruptcy in the late 90's, Mario headed an ownership group that bought out the bankrupt Penguins.

The 2000-01 season was one of the Penguins most exciting seasons. Although it did not produce the cup. That year saw the return of Mario, as a player, and the Penguins went all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. They lost to the Devils in 5 games. It was a great ride for Penguin fans who got to see Mario do the unthinkable again.

After being retired for three years, Mario came back in 00-01 to score 76 points in 43 regular season games. That is 1.77 points per game. In the playoffs he had 18 points in 17 games. A point a game in the playoffs. Pretty good for a guy that hadn't played for three years. Thanks Mario!

The next three years would not be so productive as the Penguins not only did not make the playoffs but were in the basement of the NHL. Financially, the team was hurting and had to unload quality players with hefty contracts. The dark period of Pittsburgh Penguin hockey.

The '04-05 season was sacrificed for a lockout.

But the '05-06 season brought new life to Pittsburgh having won a lottery for the first pick in the draft. That brought Sidney Crosby to the Penguins. Mario and GM Craig Patrick made several moves to bring in experienced players that they felt would give Pittsburgh a chance to make a run at the Playoffs. The team never came together and Lemieux had to retire again after a heart condition was diagnosed. The team went on to finish in last place again.

Mario had been involved in negotiations for a new arena deal on and off for years. Frustrated and/or bluffing during the '06-07 season, Mario had the team up for sale and was also entertaining offers to relocate the team. It was a very uncertain time for Penguin fans that, on one hand, loved everything Mario had done for the team. But on the other were preparing for the anger that would come if he chose to take the club to another city. Really with the talent and potential the team had, who could blame him. After all, the Steelers and Pirates got new homes.

In March of 2007, at a packed Mellon Arena, Mario announced that a deal had been reached for a new arena and the Penguins were staying in Pittsburgh. Many fans were as proud of Super Mario on this night as they were of his magic on the ice. After that day many signs would say "Mario must have once been a goalie because he made a great save with the Penguins."

Never has a player become the majority owner of his club. Never has a player done so much for his franchise and the city as Mario has done for the city of Pittsburgh. Thanks, Mario.

Also, around this time the Penguins said "good-bye" and "thank-you" to long time GMCraig Patrick. He would be replaced by Ray Shero. Many players drafted by Patrick, would go on to propel the Penguin' success. Nobody knew what impact Ray Shero would have on the franchise, but they were going to find out.

The '06-07 season would see the Penguins make the playoffs only to get ousted by the Senators in the first round. They got to feel what it was like to play "playoff hockey" in the NHL and the experience would serve them well.

At the '07-08 season's trade deadline GM Ray Shero brought in the highly sought after forward, Marian Hossa. It was obvious that Mario and co-owner Ron Burkle were not waiting, the time to win was now!

The Penguins went on to more or less dominate through the East to meet the Detroit Redwings in the Stanley Cup Final. The Red Wings were too tough and won the Stanley cup in six games. Still, as fans, overall we were getting our money's worth.

After just four losing seasons and a lockout the Penguins had made it to the Stanley Cup final. They were just two wins from the ultimate prize.

Under the ownership of Mario Lemieux, the organization was doing all the right things to put a winning team on the ice. A talented, gritty team that proved it could win in the NHL Playoffs, perhaps the most grueling playoffs of any sport.

Pittsburgh came into the '08-09 season with GM Ray Shero unable to sign star forward, Marian Hossa. Shero did bring in free agents Miraslav Satan and Ruslan Fedatenko. They were also able to sign tough defenseman Brooks Orpik to a long term contract.

With about thirty games left in the season the Penguins were not in a position to make the playoffs. Mario and Ray Shero made a coaching change. They replaced head coach Michael Therien with Dan Bylsma from the AHL minor league Penguins.

That move along with some late season trades that brought Bill Guerin, Chris Kunitz and Craig Adams to the Penguins all paid off. The Penguins, of course, won the Stanley Cup, beating the defending champion Detroit Redwings. But not without the steadying hand and inspirational words from the owner, Mario Lemieux.

After Detroit beat the Penguins 5-0 in Game 5, Mario was waiting in the locker-room to tell the players it was going to be all right. He said something to the effect of, "We will win Game 6 at home and come back to Detroit and win the Cup."

After winning Game 7 for the Stanley Cup, many of the Penguin players referred back to a text message they received from Mario before the game. He had made an impact.

Thanks, Mario!

Looking forward to next year!

Winning starts at the top and we are very fortunate to have ownership in Pittsburgh like the Rooney's with the Steelers and Mario and Ron Burkle with the Penguins.

Pittsburgh Pirates Building the Foundation for Success

Shorthandedby2 — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:48:05 -0400

"If you build it, they will come." Field of Dreams

When PNC Park opened in the spring of 2001, it was and is, a lovely piece of architecture. The views of Pittsburgh are wonderful and the stadium seems to embrace the playing field. There is not a bad seat in the house. Many cars packed with families and buses from all over northwest PA make the trip down to the Park to take in America's pastime.

The Pirate faithful continue to buy tickets even as we near mid-season, with the Pirates sliding farther out of contention. The proverbial "other shoe" is hanging precariously, and will surely drop before long. Thus, sending a couple of the last producing Pirates to an eagerly awaiting major league club.

PNC Park was built and they did come. The fans came. The players came, and went.

Now the building of a baseball team in Pittsburgh continues. In the last few years we have seen our best players come and go. So where does one start, to build a winning baseball team?

How will management, media or fans know when the foundation for winning is in place?

With the Championship Steelers and Penguins we could see the progress in the seasons leading up to winning the ultimate prize.

Roethlisberger, Polamalu, Ward, and James Harrison were obviously a pretty good foundation. Fleury, Crosby, Malkin, and Staal were talented players that only needed a committed and gritty group around them to win it all.

Who do the Pirates build around?

It seems their best players are gone by the end of the year. Andrew McCutchen has shown good promise and after trading McClouth to bring him up, he would appear to be a keeper.

After that who knows? I do know that the people the Pirates pay to make these decisions know a lot more than I do. By almost all accounts, those writers that have the deepest understanding of MLB say that Huntington has done a great job repairing the damage done to the organization by the previous GM. Keep it up Neal! Bring us a winner!

That said, after so many seasons of what appears to be the same old thing, just where are we at in the process?

I would say the odds of getting a really competitive team that can make and win in the playoffs purely from "prospects" is about as good as winning the Powerball. Which I do play sometimes and know that with a ticket, I at least have a chance of winning...It could happen.

How close do the Pirates have to be before management would consider spending some money and bringing in players that have proved themselves in the majors? Not a lot, but enough to round out the talent that does come through Pittsburgh.

If they still had some of the talent traded away in the last two years and had added a couple of strong pitchers (if any were even available), the team would look to compete for a playoff spot. At least the prospect of winning with such a team would be very good. Pirates have gotten rid of some strong bats in recent times.

However, those that know baseball will contend that Huntington has done a hell of a job rebuilding the farm talent that feeds the Major League Pirates. I believe them. Perhaps the players that will lead us to the playoffs are down there some where and we just don't get to see them.

My view is just that perhaps the Pirates have been closer than we think, having had some strong players in key areas. Most successful teams have to, at some point, make some calculated moves to get them over the top. A couple of experienced players, that can still can play, go a long way to stabilize and help young talent produce.

Of course going mostly with prospects, that have yet to prove they can do anything in the Majors and have never been in a playoff series, will probably win a pennant in a few years if we are patient.

...It could happen.

The Pittsburgh Pirates, a Wall-Mart for Major League GMs

Shorthandedby2 — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:03:38 -0400

Great players at a bargain, I am surprised someone isn't complaining of unfair trade practices. I dare say that some MLB teams feel less stress about the speed of their prospects' development over the last five or six years.

If they need a proven talent in the majors they can trade prospects at a variety of minor league levels to the Pirates for a player that is proving his worth with respectable numbers In the Majors. The Pirates might even be willing to take players coming off injury or surgery, having not yet showed that they can come back to play in the majors.

Pittsburgh is a small market and doesn't generate the revenue to allow the Pirates to compete with the spending of the Yankees or Red Sox. And that, by the way, is why I love it when the Pirates do manufacture a win against these deep pocketed teams.

But in all of sports no quote holds more simple truth than when Herman Edwards said, "We Play to Win the Game!" Of course that is why we play any game—to win.

Why is there a professional baseball team in Pittsburgh? To win games.

Except for, going on 17 years, they can't win more games than they lose. So for all practical purposes, if you should spend the time and money to go to a game, you have a better than 50 percent chance of seeing the Pirates lose. And the odds of losing, in recent years, goes way up after the trade deadline.

In all fairness the New Management has made some decisions and signings that show promise, but will they drop anchor and keep good players long enough to build around?

Some of the fun in going to PNC Park or watching on TV, is getting to know the young talent and watching them improve and enjoy playing for the "Love of the Game." I have watched more baseball, on TV, this year than I have in a long time. I am impressed with the way the Pirates players compete and take pride in what they do.

I especially enjoyed a game where Nijer Morgan was miked up and we, the TV fans, were able to hear some of the banter from down on the field.

But this leads to more sadness, anger and frustration as Morgan, like many other fan favorites here in Pittsburgh, was traded to the Nationals. The trade might work out to give the Pirates something down the road. I don't know.

But the fans lose again. Proud parents have to try and explain to their kids why the family's favorite player gets traded when he is playing so well.

Also, the Pittsburgh Pirate fans have not had the excitement of playoff baseball for a long time. No Little League Pirate fan has even heard talk about the current team being in the playoffs.

What if we had a baseball team in a playoff series, right here in Pittsburgh?

What if the Pirates major league team went to a bigger market where they could compete with the payrolls of other teams in the majors? Maybe Jim Balsillie would buy them and take them to Canada. He couldn't get the Penguins but he is a rich, rich man.

What if PNC Park and Pittsburgh could be the home to a minor league team that might be able to compete against other minor league teams and maybe even make the playoffs? The Pittsburgh Bucks! (a good name for PA team)

This idea is totally outlandish and unreasonable. But, and I would love to be proved wrong, the Pirates have been essentially a farm club playing in the majors.

Of course, if current Pirate management can produce a winner in the next two or three years, the point is moot because then we could, beyond everyone's belief, have a winner in the majors right here in Pittsburgh.