PITTSBURGH - Whether Curve catcher Tony Sanchez was forced to close his Twitter account or not, he made a smart decision by dropping it.
He has a promising future in baseball. Focus on that, and use social media the way it was intended - to meet girls.
Take it from personal experience: Baseball players make a lot more money than people who write wise guy comments.
The Freak Show
Gene Lamont was in town with the Detroit Tigers, which created the chance to reminisce about the 1997 Pirates.
That was Lamont's first year as manager after Jim Leyland left for Florida.
Expected to lose 100 games, they instead took advantage of a backsliding division and stayed in the race until the end of the season.
The Houston Astros, who had more talent and more money, wound up five games in front of them.
"It was a fun year," Lamont said. "A lot of good things happened to us."
Lamont said he started to believe in August, when the race with the Astros was still close.
"It just didn't look like Houston was going to pull away," he said. "You start thinking that maybe it was some kind of magical thing. It didn't end up that way, but when you look back, it was quite a year. We had a $9 million payroll and we stayed in there."
The '97 Pirates didn't win, so there will never be a reunion. That's too bad, because it was a fun team that made the summer memorable.
Macho madness
Pro wrestler Randy "Macho Man" Savage (Randy Poffo) died Friday in a highway accident in Florida.
Police reports indicate that Savage, 58, may have suffered a heart attack while driving.
When the WWE was still playing to a mainstream audience, Savage's character was as hot a performer as the industry had.
He parlayed that fame into a national endorsement deal for Slim Jims.
So his fortune was made on two products with dubious content - wrestling and Slim Jims.
Referendum?
Voter turnout for the off-year primary election was somewhere around 20 percent.
You want to get people to the polls?
Put the position of Steelers offensive coordinator on the ballot.
Mehno can be reached at johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com
