Thursday Tamer's

Chris F'n Tamer (please wait for the Matthew Barnaby beating sans equipment. Side note, whatever happened to those light blue undershirts?)

The interesting part about moving back to Pittsburgh when I was 8 was that for all the excellence Pittsburgh Sports have achieved in the past 20 years, that was a fairly boring time. The year was 1993, the Pens were coming off back to back Championships, the Pirates were coming off three straight division championships, and the Steelers were led by their second year/whippersnapper coach Bill Cowher (not to mention Sean Miller, Chuck Smith and send it in Jerome were out at Pitt). Little did we know it would take more than a decade to win a 'ship in the city of champions.

So when I showed up in Pittsburgh, I had a lot to choose from. Fortunately I chose the Pens as my go to, since they would go on to consistently win throughout the decade (weirdly, I ended up a bigger Pirates fan, and out of all the teams, I'm least interested in the Steelers- the steadiest of the group). I'd like to say it was random, but we all know the truth (back-to-back championships!).

Out of everybody on those post-cup teams, I remember Chris Tamer the most (although I did have a Jagr jersey.. thanks Dad). What a bad ass. The years he was with the Pens (93-98) were the heyday of my early Pens fandom. His best year with the 'Guins was the 95-96 season when he had a +20 and collected 153 PIM (how good was that team once you consider Tamer was a career -75 in 644 games... that was the year Mario scored 2.3o points per game, .48 more than second place Jagr and .72 more than third place Lindros... ridiculous).

Also, Tamer's number with the Pens was #2. It's like being close enough to #1 that guys might call you a pansy... just so you can drop the mitts. As you can tell, I'm pretty jelly of this guy:


Links will come tomorrow, but just to get you going, John Stewart makes fun of the Palmetto State. I love South Carolina, spent the better part of five years there, love the people... but like any other place, it has some issues. That might be understatement.

Here is a link to other links, Tim at BUCCOFans has a round up of the recent prospect rankings. It's pretty amazing how far the Pirates system has come in the last two years, yet it is still in the middle of the pack. It was important to build depth first, which they have, but the system will not be considered in the top echelon until they add some upside.

The Pensblog has an awesome write up on their guide to hockey fans. Do not skip over that one. Meanwhile the Pens host the Senators at the Igloo tonight, 7 p.m. sharp (FSNP). The Sens have been playing some good hockey of late, so they're no push over, while the Pens need to keep up the solid hockey they've displayed in the past two games. Get all the news you need over at the Empty Netters blog at the PG, which includes the news that Eric Godard will be out for 4-6 weeks (cue Bob Smizik writing a blog entry on how this is a good thing because it will keep Godard rested for the playoffs). And if anybody is looking for some used upholstery with a little history...

Pitt hosts St. Johns tonight at the Pete, with a 7 p.m. start as well (hello, DVR), the game will be on ESPNU while ESPN2 plays World Series of Poker reruns. No game is easy in the Big East, but this is a must win for the Panthers. The PG has a good article on former Schenley star and current Johnnie D.J. Kennedy and his own path to the NBA.

If you need to know, I'll be watching the Pens game live and recording the Pitt game. I was a Pens fan before I followed Pitt basketball, allegiances are allegiances.

Here's a link to the highlights from yesterday's Everton game in which US star and PROPECIA spokesman Landon Donovan scored his first European goal.

This made me laugh. Is that wrong?