PITTSBURGH - Mid-week commentary on the news:
n Jack McKeon, 80, takes over as Florida Marlins manager.
McKeon won a World Series before when he answered the Marlins' call for an interim manager.
Managing in the major leagues is a significant challenge for anyone. The grind is terrible.
Most managers are in the office seven hours before a night game. There are a lot of 12-hour days.
Then there's the travel, plus the aggravation of dealing with some players.
In some ways, a major league baseball team is like a junior high classroom. There are always a few who want to see how much they get away with.
Joe Torre and Lou Piniella wore out last year.
McKeon is a baseball lifer, and he only has a little more than half a season to handle.
Still, it figures to be a big task.
Too bad the Marlins don't play the Detroit Tigers.
Jim Leyland, 66, would enjoy being the "kid" in that match-up.
n Stetson Allie makes his professional debut.
Last year's prime draft pick pitched two and a third innings for the Class A State College Spikes.
He threw 53 pitches, the last eight of which missed the strike zone.
Among his post-game comments, Allie said, "I got to the third and I felt like the umpire squeezed me a little bit."
Shouldn't you have at least three complete innings in professional baseball before you start complaining about umpires?
n The Boston Bruins celebrate the Stanley Cup championship with a $156,000 bar tab.
If you know hockey players, that really doesn't seem terribly outrageous.
Supposedly $100,000 of that was for an ultra-rare bottle of champagne.
Here's hoping they tipped the hard-working wait staff appropriately.
n Jaromir Jagr wants to come back to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
It's an idea worth considering.
The Penguins need scoring, especially on the power play, and Jagr doesn't have the maturity issues he did the last time he was here.
One drawback is money motivates Jagr. There will be no sentimental hometown discount.
Mehno can be reached at johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com.
