Bonifay’s impressive career includes one crazy footnote

July 4, 2020

It’s tough to top Mike’s choice of Rajai Davis, who has a whopping 415 stolen bases in the majors, yet has never fully been appreciated as one of the elite former Curve players. Still, there's really only one answer to this question, when you consider something that quite frankly is unbelievable. There have been some incredibly mediocre and even some pretty weak Curve players who made it to Triple-A over the years. They were in the right place at the right time when someone had to be to promoted to fill a hole at the next level. Yet somehow, Josh Bonifay, one of the best Curve ...

Pirates-Curve bond strong, but fans shouldn’t be at workouts

June 27, 2020

Over the years, I’ve often wondered what everyone around here did during the summer prior to the Curve’s arrival in 1999. Unfortunately, we are finding out this year, with the minor league baseball season wiped out because of the coronavirus. I’ve read social media posts from countless sports fans talking about how they miss going to Curve games. Ditto. There was some very good news on the Curve front this week, though, as the Pirates announced they’ll be sending their taxi-squad players to work out at Peoples Natural Gas Field. The move further exemplifies just how good ...

Sad to see RMU leave NEC, but it’s not all bad for Flash

June 20, 2020

Saint Francis lost not only its biggest rival, but also its biggest ally earlier this week when Robert Morris announced it’s leaving the Northeast Conference to join the Horizon League. While the Colonials’ departure is sure to bring about some sadness for longtime Saint Francis fans, the bright side is that it also presents some good opportunities for the Red Flash men’s and women’s basketball programs. Robert Morris’ departure from the NEC had been expected for some time, with the writing on the wall after the school opened its gorgeous new on-campus basketball arena, ...

Young kids, parents of athletes have had to miss out on so much

June 13, 2020

Personally, I have not missed pro sports. Having the NCAA Tournament canceled was a huge bummer, because I’m a college hoops junkie. It’s certainly very sad that so, so many high school athletes had their seasons taken away, especially seniors. I’m proud that the Mirror has found a way to honor so many of those athletes in our area with feature stories over the past few months. Still, there are two other things which haven’t received a great deal of attention that sadden me about the sports shutdown. One involves young kids, while the other centers around parents of ...

For comfort and cost reasons, watching on TV much better

June 6, 2020

Pause … let me take a minute for a bathroom break. Hang on, what did the announcer just say? Let me rewind. WOW! What a play!!! Let me see that again in slo-mo five times from every single angle. “Daddy, can you come play with me for a bit?” “Sure. I’ll pause the game and come back to it in a little while.” Alright, pause again … snack time! I love my TV. The technology allows me to watch whatever I want to watch, whenever I want to watch it and exactly how I want to watch it. Including pretty much every major sporting event in the entire country. Right ...

Getting sick of greed in pro sports

May 30, 2020

“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works.’’ Baloney! What the famous Gordon Gekko character, played by Michael Douglas in the classic 1987 film “Wall Street,’’ tries to sell everyone is a bunch of hogwash. In actuality, greed is bad. Greed is wrong. Greed doesn’t work. It’s selfish, inhumane and even sickening. Greed also is the reason why I find it harder and harder to be a fan of professional sports these days. It’s all about the Benjamins. Not for everyone, of course. But for so many folks involved in pro sports, money is ...