Can We Get A COMON?
By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor What if you took some of the world’s greatest racecar drivers, put them in equal equipment, and cut them loose on some of the best short tracks in the nation? You get America’s newest racing series: Superstar Racing Experience (SRX). SRX was the brain child of former championship crew chief and NASCAR Hall-of-Famer, Ray Evernham.
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By Joe Smeltzer For as bad as the Pirates have been since 1993– get your jokes out now– they’ve only lost 100 games twice. This year’s team might be No. 3. One day, I was looking through a Twitter account called “PGH Sports History,” which posts newspaper articles to coincide with the day’s date. I stumbled upon an article the
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor Memorial Day weekend is one of our country’s most patriotic celebrations. It’s a time to reflect on those who gave their lives so that we may live in freedom. Families gather around the grille in fellowship with a beer in hand. If there’s a TV on at any point in the afternoon, it will probably
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Mitch Keller has a 7.41 ERA, and many Pirates fans are throwing in the towel. Is that a little premature? Our analytics guru @RyanSimpson20 dives in.
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor Darlington Raceway is often referred to as the track “Too Tough to Tame.” The 1.3-mile egg-shaped oval is highly regarded as the toughest track in NASCAR. The racing surface barely holds enough room for drivers to run three-wide. The walls almost seem to reach out and grab drivers who don’t respect its treacherous corners. The
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By Joe Smeltzer Mel Kiper says the Steelers’ 2021 draft class was mediocre. Tom in Bethel Park says it was great. Tom’s best friend, Ted, says it stunk, and the two have been arguing about it over cold suds for the past week. As a team with many areas of need, it would have been impossible for Pittsburgh to address
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor Kansas Race Preview This weekend NASCAR travels to Kansas Speedway just outside of Kansas City. The 1.5-mile tri-oval hosts two race weekends every year and usually puts on a decent show. Built back in 2001 near the peak of NASCAR’s popularity, Kansas Speedway has seen a surprising number of hard crashes in its 20 years
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor Few names in sports seem to resonate when it rolls off the tongue. Talladega Superspeedway is such a name that is synonymous with American stock car racing. The 2.66-mile tri-oval boasts blistering speeds, massive pileups and spectacular airborne flips that turn 3400-pound racecars into feathers. It’s a frightening prospect for the average human being, but
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor The three-quarter mile D-shaped oval of Richmond Raceway is the latest stop on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule. It’s the third short track in three races. Richmond is known as “The Action Track” given for its multi-groove racing and short track tempers. Richmond has been hosting NASCAR races since the early 1950s and has become
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor The NASCAR Cup Series stars shake off the dirt from Bristol and recharge from the Easter off week and head to the shortest track on the schedule. The flat, half-mile oval of Martinsville Speedway is one of NASCAR’s oldest venues, hosting just the sixth race ever run in what would become the NASCAR Cup Series
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By Joe Smeltzer Phil Coyne’s longevity made him a celebrity. He spent more time as a Pittsburgh Pirates’ usher— 81 years— than most people spend on planet earth. Coyne’s tenure started in the heat of the Great Depression, and lasted through 12 US Presidents and five American wars. He saw Babe Ruth’s last three home runs in person, and was
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By Joe Smeltzer The 20th season of PNC Park should have been celebrated last year, and since the season ended up taking place, I guess, in a way, it did. Since there were no fans and the season was the most screwed-up baseball ever has (and hopefully ever will) see, I don’t count it. Besides, PNC Park opened in 2001,
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By Joe Smeltzer The 20th season of PNC Park should have been celebrated last year, and since the season ended up taking place, I guess, in a way, it did. Since there were no fans and the season was the most screwed-up baseball ever has (and hopefully ever will) see, I don’t count it. Besides, PNC Park opened in 2001,
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By Donny Chedrick Don’t get confused here. This isn’t me saying the Steelers should draft a particular player. I’m just suggesting why his name will be brought up by the time the Steelers find themselves on the clock at No. 24 during the 2021 NFL Draft in just about a month. The player in question is Najee Harris. Alabama’s latest
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By Joe Smeltzer The 20th season of PNC Park should have been celebrated last year, and since the season ended up taking place, I guess, in a way, it did. Since there were no fans and the season was the most screwed-up baseball ever has (and hopefully ever will) see, I don’t count it. Besides, PNC Park opened in 2001,
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor The Bullring. Thunder Valley. The World’s Fastest Half-Mile. The Last Great Coliseum. Nicknames like these are descriptive by nature. Pointing out something specific to help define a person or thing. Sometimes nicknames can become more well-known than their real counterparts. Sport venues across the country have nicknames given to them by the community they stand
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By Joe Smeltzer The 20th season of PNC Park should have been celebrated last year, and since the season ended up taking place, I guess, in a way, it did. Since there were no fans and the season was the most screwed-up baseball ever has (and hopefully ever will) see, I don’t count it. Besides, PNC Park opened in 2001,
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By Joe Smeltzer There won’t be many one-year, $8 million deals that will get the reaction that this one does. The words “polarizing” and “JuJu Smith-Schuster” go together like milk and cookies, so it’s appropriate that his surprising new contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers has a lot of people talking, with many spewing contrasting opinions. Is Smith-Schuster loyal for reportedly
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By Brennen McCall, NASCAR Contributor Race Preview: Atlanta Martin Truex Jr. rallied from scrubbing the wall early to earning his first victory of the 2021 season. Phoenix proved all day to be a bit of a challenge for drivers particularly with passing. The PJ1 traction compound on the top side of both corners was the dominant groove which forced every
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By Brennen McCall, NASCAR Contributor The 2021 NASCAR season continued its trend of unpredictability in a thrilling race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this past weekend. The fourth race of the season saw its fourth different winner. Kyle Larson is no stranger to winning. The dirt racing prodigy has found victory in NASCAR’s highest level on six occasions before receiving
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor Viva Las Vegas! The surprisingly unpredictable NASCAR season continues from the beachy shores of Florida’s East Coast to the hot sun of America’s Western deserts. Three races have now seen three different winners. Young gun William Byron took only his second Cup Series victory last week at Homestead earning him a spot in playoffs. While
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By Joe Smeltzer Last winter, we longed for the day we’d see Ben Roethlisberger play football again. Last fall, we smiled when that day came, and for three months after that, we thanked all things good that Big Ben was back. But by the end of 2020, we started to wonder if the gunslinger could still sling. In the first
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By Brennen McCall, Racing Contributor The first two races of the 2021 season are in the books and we already have a pair of first-time winners. This time it was Cup series sophomore Christopher Bell who bested veteran Joey Logano with a thrilling pass on the penultimate lap of the Daytona Road Course. Bell getting a win in 2021 wasn’t
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By Brennen McCall The Daytona 500 has concluded. A long offseason and countless hours of preparation came down to one heart-stopping moment on the final lap, where a 14-year veteran who had never won in his Cup Series career, found himself leading the field when it counted. Michael McDowell may not be the flashiest personality NASCAR has ever seen, but
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By Joe Smeltzer Knock it off. Cut it out. That’s enough. Wake up. It’s not going to happen, and the reasons couldn’t be more obvious if they were written on baseball, Aroldis Chapman threw it 100 MPH and hit you in the face with it. JJ Watt isn’t going to be a Pittsburgh Steeler. That statement should be as obvious
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By Brennen McCall, Guest Contributor It’s that time of year again. A new NASCAR season is upon us and the green flag will fall for the Great American Race. It’s the Super Bowl of stock-car racing. There is no offseason for NASCAR teams as they spend the winter months preparing their cars for the new year. The best equipment is
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By Brennen McCall, Guest Contributor It’s April 12, 2020. The country is beginning to cope with the idea that we might not see sports return for a long time. Stands were empty. Courts were bare. Fields of grass and turf were no longer illuminated with primetime lights. Racetracks too were robbed of the roar of screaming engines and the smell
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By Joe Smeltzer Every notable Pirate that’s went somewhere else over the past several years has a different story. Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte left having reached their full potential. Pedro Alvarez and Josh Bell left showing flashes of greatness, and nothing else. Pitchers Gerrit Cole and Tyler Glasnow left a system that failed them, and now… look at them.
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By Dylan Mitchell, Capel Faithful Guest Contributor If you would have told me after the season opening loss to St. Francis (PA) that Pitt would be 8-2 and 4-1 in the ACC in mid-January, I would’ve said… 1) Why have they only played 10 games? 2) Yeah, I bet…. Although I was not pressing the panic button that many Pitt
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By Joe Smeltzer If Ben Cherington didn’t walk into baseball hell, he walked into the next worst thing. Two Novembers ago, the Pirates were a slop fest. They still are, in a way, but that’s just on the field. In 2019 there was slop here, there and everywhere. On the field, the team lost 93 games. In the locker room,
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By COMON Network Team 1/17 – Pittburgh Penguins (1-2-0, 2 pts) 4 def. Washington Capitals (2-0-1, 5 pts) 3 in a shootout. The Penguins got their first win of the season via shootout against the Washington Capitals Sunday afternoon. After back-and-forth scoring and a very methodical overtime, the Penguins were able to overcome the Capitals after Jake Guentzel’s shootout goal and
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By COMON Network Team 1/13 – Philadelphia Flyers (1-0-0, 2 pts) 6 def. Pittsburgh Penguins (0-1-0, 0 pts) 3 The Penguins lost their 2021 56-game season opener 6-3 to the Flyers Wednesday night at Wells Fargo Arena. It was Pittsburgh getting on the board first with Mark Jankowski at 5:12 of the first, but the Flyers lit the lamp twice to
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By Joe Smeltzer “I want to send a message. A message to everyone who ever made fun of Cleveland. A message to anyone who ever told a Cleveland joke or laughed at a Cleveland joke. You can now officially shut up! – Drew Carey, Sept. 12, 1999 It took 21 years, but Carey is finally right. The Steelers couldn’t win
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By Austin Shaw With the return of the NHL Season and it only being 56 games, now is the time to get your futures bets in. I’m using both Fanduel (FD) and Barstool Sportsbook (BS) for the Odds. As of Monday, January 11th at 10 a.m. here are the teams I believe have the best betting odds to win the
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By Austin Shaw Hockey is back, again. It feels like yesterday was the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Let me tell you, I don’t want to talk about that pitiful performance. But, I’m sure I’ll reference it. I’m just disappointed and I do not have high hopes. If you haven’t read the NHL Season Preview, head to the blog
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By COMON Network Team Final Score – Cleveland Browns 48 def. Pittsburgh Steelers 37 The start of the 2020 Playoffs couldn’t have been much worse for the Steelers. When the final buzzer sounded, the Steelers were on the wrong end of the decision, and the Browns won their first playoff game since 1995. On the first snap of the game, the
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By Joe Smeltzer It’s always been a rivalry, I suppose. Not in the same way that Athens and Sparta were rivals, or the Montagues and the Capulets were rivals. No, Steelers-Browns games over the past 30 years have usually borne a more striking resemblance to what a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Dolly Parton would look like, or a
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By Austin Shaw The NHL season is about to start and just a few months later than usual. The NHL isn’t unfamiliar with a short season, but we haven’t seen one since 2012-2013. That season was shortened to 48 games due to a battle between the NHL and the NHLPA over a labor dispute. The Chicago Blackhawks went on to
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By COMON Network Team Final Score – Cleveland Browns (11-5) 24 def. Pittsburgh Steelers (12-4) 22 The Pittsburgh Steelers traveled to Cleveland sans Ben Roethlisberger, Cam Heyward, TJ Watt, Chris Boswell, Terrell Edmunds and Maurkice Pouncey, and also were without the services of Joe Haden due to a COVID situation that came about Saturday. At the end, a failed two-point conversion
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By Joe Smeltzer Don’t lie to yourself. You know why you care about the Steelers’ last regular season game, and it has nothing to do with the Steelers. A win probably won’t make a seventh Super Bowl ring any more likely, so don’t pretend that it would. Unless Mason Rudolph throws for about 400 yards or launches a football into
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By Jack Hillgrove Ah, yes. 2020. Perhaps the most cliché year of our lifetimes if there is such a thing. Every once in a while I’ll come across the Match.com commercial where Satan meets up with a woman named “2020,” and I can’t help but laugh. In the most comical way, I think that is the perfect summary for how
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By David Haddad, Guest Contributor Unique stadium anthems have become a valuable calling card in American athletics, galvanizing fanbases before the 4th quarter, leading up to do-or-die defensive stands and after wins. These ballads that have become synonymous with their program’s successes and have deeply embedded themselves in the culture and brand of their respective institutions. They enhance the game-day
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By David Haddad, Guest Contributor Unique stadium anthems have become a valuable calling card in American athletics, galvanizing fanbases before the 4th quarter, leading up to do-or-die defensive stands and after wins. “Jump Around” at Wisconsin, “Dixieland Delight” at Bama and “Enter Sandman” at Virginia Tech are all examples of power ballads that have become synonymous with their program’s successes
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By Joe Smeltzer Pittsburgh has good reason to miss Josh Bell. He came to the big leagues just as the Pirates were beginning their descent from a fine wine to a warm can of Dr. Pepper. We haven’t had too many reasons to smile over the past four years, but there were times when Bell was one of them, especially
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By COMON Network Team Final Score – Pittsburgh Steelers (12-3) 28 def. Indianapolis Colts (10-5) 24 The Pittsburgh Steelers trailed 21-7 at halftime, and came back to win 28-24 and clinch the AFC North title Sunday at Heinz Field. The Steelers trailed by as many as 17, and it goes down as the largest second-half comeback under Mike Tomlin for Pittsburgh.
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By COMON Network Team The Pittsburgh Pirates have traded first baseman and slugger Josh Bell to the Washington Nationals, reports say. Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was the first to break the news. The Pirates acquire two right-handed pitchers from the Nationals for Bell, according to Mackey and ESPN’s Jeff Passan, among others. The two hurlers are ranked No.
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By Joe Smeltzer I remember my favorite elementary school teacher. I’ll keep her name confidential. I haven’t seen her in more than a decade, but I still remember her face and voice well. I don’t know what age range she was in. I was only seven, so if she was 55, she may as well have been 85. The reason
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By Sam Hixson We haven’t seen a father this pissed off about losing his kid since Adam Sandler in Big Daddy. The Mandalorian is on the hunt for Moff Gideon to retrieve Grogu and he will go to any length necessary to secure America’s Sweetheart. Any length including enlisting the help of a man who betrayed him in season 1,
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By Joe Smeltzer I don’t know when it started. But at some point, every Steelers fan from here to Prague decided that whatever happened in 2020 would lead into a heavyweight clash with the Kansas City Chiefs. Fans, even of the same team, disagree on many things. One thing everybody in this city has in common is a minor obsession
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By COMON Network Team Final Score – Buffalo Bills (10-3) 26 def. Pittsburgh Steelers (11-2) 15 After starting 11-0, the Pittsburgh Steelers have dropped two-straight games as they lost tonight to the Buffalo Bills 26-15, falling to 11-2 despite clinching a playoff spot earlier in the day by virtue of Miami’s loss to Kansas City. The Steelers drew first blood following
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