The Super Bowl Champion, Pittsburgh Steelers, start their journey towards their seventh championship tomorrow as the 2009 season kicks off with a rematch of last year's Super Bowl. Many would think that there would be few questions going into the 2009 season, but even Champions must make critical decisions, especially if this team wants to repeat. The focus of this article is to provide some things to look for during the next few weeks to see if we can answer some questions circling our beloved Steelers!

The Pirates came into the Mile High City with a 8 game losing streak, but were able to save their best game in the last two weeks for the wild card leading Rockies. The Pirates convincingly beat the Rockies last night 7-3, in front of a crowd of over 35,000 fans. Ross Ohlendorf threw six strong innings to post his 10th win on the season and the bullpen finally was able to hold onto the lead, with four relievers combining for three shutout innings. This game did reveal something I hope to see a lot more of from the young Buccos....

Football season is now less than a month away. The beauty of August is that training camp is underway and the anticipation of another great year is already starting to build. I had a special opportunity to take a trip up to Flagstaff, AZ with a few good friends to take a look at our Super Bowl oppenent from last seasons.....the Arizona Cardinals. I wanted to provide an observation of this Yinzer invading enemy territory. .

Here we are at the tail end of another disappointing baseball season, waiting in anticipation for our beloved Steelers to take the field and our exciting young hockey team to hit the ice. Both teams are coming off championship seasons and will be looking to repeat. As I sit here this morning, enjoying a cup of coffee and fighting off nicotine cravings (trying to quit again!) I thought I would share some of my fondest memories of the past 30 years in relation to Pittsburgh Sports. The ups, the downs, the ins, the outs, the tears, the joy, the heartache....ok you get it. I have received emails asking me who I am, who are my favorite players, what is my fondest Pittsburgh memory. I figured this would be as good as a time as any. So without further adieu, I present to you, What Pittsburgh sports means to the Steel Perogie.

The Pirates are starting to miss John Grabow and Shawn Burnett as they seek to establish their bullpen. The Pirates failed to hang onto a late 2-1 lead tonight versus the Diamondbacks, dropping their fourth game in a row. As stated yesterday, it is going to get worse before it gets better.

The Pirates were almost on the wrong side of history tonight as they were hitless through 8 innings versus Yusmeiro Petit. A seeing eye single by Ronnie Cedeno broke up the no hit bid, but the Pirates still only managed that single hit on the night. The Buccos dropped their third game in a row, but all is not lost. The Pirates had no shot of any postseason games this season and are utilizing the second half of this season to get some young players major league experience. The Pirates are using the second half of the season to assess their talent and determine their roster for the future. I would rather sit through games like these here in the second half of this season then waste another entire year assessing the roster and determining an everyday roster.

Here we are entering into the final four months of the year and just like every August the residents of Latrobe, Pennsylvania are awakened every morning by thousands of Steelers faithful invading their college town to get a glimpse of their favorite player. NFL training camp has arrived and the Champions start their quest for a repeat of last season. As we progress into the new season I wanted to take some time to list my sleeper Steelers for this season. These are players that struggled last season, but as the 2009 season progresses, will be names that will become part of everyday conversation amongst Yinzer fans across the nation.

All it took was three swings of the bat for a city to get behind one of the new faces in the Pirates lineup. The fans at PNC Park, at least for one moment, put all the losing and all the bitterness aside, to savor a special moment. A moment that puts Andrew McCutchen in the Pirate history books and has his name entrenched next to Willie Stargell and Roberto Clemente.

The new face Buccos did something that a team of veterans could not do in their past three games...win! The fans showed up (over 23,000 in attendance for tonight's game), the defense showed up (nice plays by new Pirate Roger Cedeno and recent call up Lastings Milledge), the starting pitching showed up (Ohlendorf threw 6 1/3 strong innings), and the offense showed up (Pirates put up 5 runs on 9 hits, highlighted by Milledge, Pearce, and McCutchen). For a team that many thought just decided to write off the rest of the season, the Pirates played with a lot of heart tonight and it showed in the final score!

The Pirates had another busy day on the trade front, sending relief pitcher John Grabow and former starting pitcher Tom Gorzellany to the Chicago Cubs in a five player deal. I can hear the Pirate doubters already....here is another Aramis Ramirez/Kenny Lofton deal. Just relax, this is a pretty even swap in my books, but I am sure we will get a lot of overreacting again this afternoon!