Welcome to my annual-ish Pirates draft recap! As always, this is completely for entertainment and should not be used for actual analysis of these players. Please note that this post does not include all of the Pirates draft picks and is in no particular order.
Jason DeCaro - 3rd round, University of North Carolina, Pitcher
If you've listened to pop music over the last 15-20 years, you've heard songs by Jason Derulo, who sings his name in many of his songs.
Maybe the Pirates front office regularly listens to Derulo's music and thought it would be fun to draft a guy with a similar name. I really hope that DeCaro sings his name after recording a strikeout!
Alex Overbay - 8th round, Arizona State University, Pitcher
Overbay is the son of former Pirate great(?), Lyle Overbay. You might remember Overbay from his 103 games with the Bucs in 2011 where he hit .227 with 8 home runs and 37 RBIs. Fun fact: Alex Overbay is not a crocodile. (Unless, it's like a Teen Wolf thing where Overbay turns into a crocodile when there's a full moon or something.)
Andruw Giles - 4th round, Basic HS (Nevada), OF
Please be the son of Pirates great (no question mark needed) Brian Giles. Please be the son of Brian Giles. Please be the son of Brian Giles. Nope. Seems like his dad is Mark. Although Brian Giles has a brother, Marcus, who played in the majors, doesn't seem to be the same person. I guess we can settle on the fact that this Giles goes to a basic high school.
Griffin Stieg - 13th round, Virginia Tech, pitcher
Stieg spent the summer of 2023 playing for the Bethesda Big Train, part of the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League in the Washington DC area. While not as well-known or prestigious as the Cape Cod League, there are some really talented players in this league, and it's a lot of fun attending Big Train games at Shirley Povich Field. Close seats and a terrific environment. If you're in the DC area, I highly recommend checking out a Big Train game.
Tyler Fay - 6th round, University of Alabama, Pitcher
Bryson Moore - 7th round, Florida State University, Pitcher
One of my favorite TV shows from the last 15-20 years (basically since the arrival of Jason Derulo on the music scene) was the show Happy Endings. Such a fun and funny show. The back-to-back picks of Tyler Fay and Bryson Moore reminded me of this.
Nathan Helman - 17th round, Kennesaw State University, Pitcher
Although Nathan probably likes all types of condiments, we all know that he's a big mayo fan, and Duke's Mayo isn't his favorite brand.
Rohan Lettow - 12th round, San Diego State University, Pitcher
First, S-D-S-U, SDSU, Aztecs fight. Next, you don't mess with the Rohan!
This post is just filled with references from the late 2000s and early 2010s!
Spencer Evans - 11th round, TNXL Academy, Pitcher
Spencer (is) for hire. Just wanted to make a reference from the 20th century!
Tre Phelps - 9th round, University of Georgia, 3B
Phelps' aunt is Angel Robinson who played college basketball at Georgia and three seasons in the WNBA with the Seattle Storm in 2014 and Phoenix Mercury in 2017-2018. Based on his first name and family history, Phelps might be good at shooting from a long distance. Maybe from behind a certain line.
Chris Rembert - supplemental 2nd round, Auburn University, 2B
Rembert could be a work of art for the Pirates!
Okay, trying to connect Rembert with Dutch artist Rembrandt is definitely a stretch, but this post is about more than sports. Did you know that Rembrandt's name is actually Rembrandt van Rijn? And pictured above is arguably his most famous work, The Night Watch, painted in 1642. Feel free to tell all your friends that The Night Watch is your favorite work from the Dutch Golden Age!
Dakota Stone - 20th round, University of North Florida, Pitcher
This is clearly a fake name. I mean, Dakota Stone just sounds cool. Can't be real. Oh, maybe he' s related to former Steelers wide receiver Dwight Stone. Need to continue to balance out my references from 10-15 years ago with those from the 1980s!
Damarcus Rideout-Carter - 14th round, Heart Lake Secondary School (Ontario), Pitcher
While Rideout-Carter is also a cool name, let's focus on Canada. There were 10 Canadian-born players drafted this year. 4 of the 10 played college baseball in the United States. 3 of the 10 are position players. This means that in the entire MLB draft, there were only 3 high school pitchers drafted out of Canada. Of those 3 pitchers, Rideout-Carter is the only one from Ontario. While kind of neat, to paraphrase Dark Helmet, this means absolutely nothing.
Bonus pick: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (or whatever name they're using now)
In the 4th round, the Angels drafted Rylan Lujo, a pitcher from the University of Georgia. I know what you're thinking. Sean - Why are you including an Angels draft pick here? You don't even know their team name! Well, Lujo's grandfather is Rennie Stennett who was part of the Pirates 1971 and 1979 teams that won the World Series (though Stennett didn't play in the '71 series).
I hope you enjoyed this draft recap. Please feel free to check out draft recaps like this from previous years.
If you’re of a certain age, you’re familiar with the MTV
show, Jersey Shore. Even if you didn’t watch the show, the names Pauly D,
Snooki, and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino were unavoidable.
Facebook and Instagram regularly show content and reels that
I never requested. Sometimes it’s advertisements, but generally it’s seemingly
random. I feel like I never see posts from my friends and the people I follow.
With all of that written, there are times when the randomness is good. And this
is an example. I saw this picture on Instagram over the weekend.
It’s Mike the Situation with his family all wearing Ithaca
College T-shirts. It’s unclear what connection the family has with Ithaca
College, but this seems like a great excuse to start a brand new series,
Celebrities in Ithaca College gear. While I doubt this will have the depth and
history of my Celebrities in Pittsburgh Gear series, I have to start
somewhere!
I'm so bad at creating blog post titles. Anyway, in less than a week, I got to attend two Washington Nationals games. That's not the story though. For the first time since 1999 or 2000, I went to Fenway Park to see the Boston Red Sox. We just happened to see them play the Nationals since tickets were half the price than they were for Boston's previous series against the New York Yankees. Is it okay to write that Fenway Park is magical? A little too much? The stadium opened in 1912, and while there have been renovations over the years, it's a historic venue. While I think that the Pierogi race in Pittsburgh and the Presidents race in Washington is fun, particularly for kids, there aren't those types of gimmicks at Fenway Park. You're there to watch a baseball game. And sure your primary view of the game is the outfield if you sit straight in our seats about 20 rows up from the right field foul pole (meaning that you need to turn your body to the left to see actual at-bats), but that's part of the stadium's charm.
Okay, one gimmick is great. Singing Sweet Caroline!
I'll admit that I don't watch many Red Sox games on TV, but sports betting advertising on the Green Monster is a bit much.
As for the second Nationals game, I saw Washington host my Pittsburgh Pirates. It was hot. Really hot. 100 degrees at first pitch. While I've seen dozens of Nationals games over the years, a few notes from this one.
The national anthem was sung by DC Washington. Perfect name for an anthem singer for a game in Washington DC and a terrific voice. Not sure if DC Washington would be as successful in Baltimore.
My biggest complaint (besides the heat) is the primary scoreboard. Look at this picture and tell me what inning it is.
Is this any better? I mean, the math doesn't math.
(The answer was the 7th inning.)
I also got to see Pirates phenom Konnor Griffin play for the first time. He seemed to enjoy the post-game fireworks.
Unsure if Griffin met the 1st overall pick of the NBA draft, AJ Dybantsa who threw out the opening pitch.
The Nationals defeated the Pirates 9-5, but the Pirates won the last two games of the series. Interesting note. Two Nationals players (Luis Garcia Jr. and Daylen Lile) both hit two home runs. Not sure I've attended a game where teammates hit multiple home runs. Meanwhile, the Red Sox defeated the Nats 6-3 in a game that featured three home runs in the first inning though the Nats won the last two games of the series.
In Boston earlier this week, my family and I visited a quaint neighborhood cafe called Dunkin. Seems to be popular among locals. We ordered three donuts, an iced coffee, and a bagel. Then, I asked for a cup of water. The guy working at Dunkin replied that his manager said that he needs to charge for water. When I asked how much it would cost, he said $1 plus tax. I then asked about the price of a bottled water which was $2.85. Reluctantly, I paid for the tap water in an enormous cup.
About a minute later, a woman who had already ordered coffee and was holding a small dog in her arm (why was there a non-service dog in Dunkin?) asked a different employee for a cup of water when she received her beverage. The customer added that it was for her dog. The female employee handed the customer a small cup of water for no change. I immediately made sure to mention to the male employee who took my order that she didn’t get charged for water. He didn’t respond, and I really didn’t want to fight over $1. I feel like I was right in this situation, but what would have been the successful outcome? The store demanding $1 from the other customer? Or putting $1 back on my credit card? It wasn’t worth it. In my head though, I was thinking "I have not yet begun to fight," even though I probably would have been as successful as the black knight.
Maybe a little karma though for dog woman and the employee who gave her the free water. Dog woman spilled some of her water because of course she did. She was holding the dog and two drinks! Although she made a passing attempt at drying the water with napkins, the floor was still wet when she left the restaurant. Therefore, the female employee then had to get a mop out for the rest.
There’s no moral of the story here. I mean maybe don’t try to carry a dog and two cups at the same time. Or maybe charge nothing at all or a nominal fee like 25 cents for a cup of water for all customers.
I saw The Wallflowers perform at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races last month. It was an odd concert and an odd venue. Let's back up a little. For those of you under 35 (and I completely understand that no one under 35 reads this blog unless one of my kids stumbles on to a post), The Wallflowers are a band that had several massive hits in the mid-90s, and their lead singer is Jakob Dylan, son of Bob Dylan.
The Wallflowers are touring to celebrate the 30th (30th!!!!) anniversary of the release of their album Bringing Down The Horse ("BDTH"). Although I never actually bought the album, over 4 million people did, and of course I knew all of the band's big hits from that album. For this tour, The Wallflowers performed all of the songs from BDTH in order. Unfortunately, the album is extremely frontloaded. One Headlight and 6th Avenue Heartache are the band's biggest hits, and the first two songs they played. After Bleeders, the band performed Three Marlenas and probably my favorite song, The Difference.
Those were the first five songs. I honestly could have gone home at that point. The band played the remaining songs from BDTH, and I barely knew many of them.
Before the show, I listened to some of the more recent Wallflowers songs to try to familiarize myself with their later work. I didn't need to. I completely missed the fact that The Wallflowers were going to perform the entire Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' album, Long After Dark. I like Tom Petty. I mean, everyone likes Tom Petty. However, except for You Got Lucky, I didn't know any of the other songs from that album. No I Won't Back Down, no Runnin' Down a Dream, no American Girl, no Don't Come Around Here No More. The Wallflowers closed with I've Been Delivered (a song of theirs that I didn't recognize) but never played Heroes and finished with two Tom Petty songs that I knew, Refugee and The Waiting.
Overall, such an odd venue. I mean look at it.
This looks more like a large hotel ballroom than a concert venue. On the positive side, if you can make it through the smoky casino floor, they have free soft drinks. And horse racing is always fun. And there was a Waffle House just down the street. You can go there with Cinderella and put it all together. And after that, you can drive it home.
I received an offer to attend the UFC Freedom 250 Fan Fest in Washington this weekend. I loved watching WWF (that's what it was called then) wrestling when I was in junior high and even attended a few events at Pittsburgh's Civic Arena (that's what it was called then). I stopped following wrestling sometime in high school. Boxing was still a big deal when I was in high school and college with heavyweights like Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield. That sport lessened in popularity and relevance (at least for me) to the point where I can't name any active boxer under 40.
As for UFC, it's just not for me. I don't need to see people beat up their opponents. While there's an audience for this, I have absolutely no interest in it. So although I politely declined the invitation to deal with the commute to DC, the heat, the crowd, and the security, in my head, I said to myself that there's probably 100 things I would rather do than attend the Fan Fest.
And then I actually made a list. I decided that my list would only include realistic items. I mean, sure, I would much rather visit the Eiffel Tower in Paris or go to Vegas and see the Eiffel Tower knock-off there (and catch some shows too), but my list is for things that I can actually do this weekend.
30. Play with my cat Lucy even though her version of playing usually ends with her biting me
31. Start planning for Dad Camp week at the end of the summer
32. Search for theater performances in the area to attend over the next few months
33. Drive back to the Scout Shop for the third time in a week to buy more pins and merit badges for Pedro Tulo’s Troop
34. Write some blog posts
35. Begin compiling a list of people I want to contact for an epic blog post idea for this fall
36. Look through MLB rosters to see who the Pirates could acquire to help their bullpen
37. Play pickleball
38. Play frisbee golf
39. Take my kids to the dentist. All three have braces or Invisalign, so I’m there all the time.
40. Watch videos/reels of people using Saxboy Billy’s Puerto Rico song
41. Go to the podiatrist. The toe nail on my big toe looks better, but there’s still more healing that needs to happen.
42. Return pants to Costco
43. Clean Lucy’s litter box
44. Clean out my Gmail messages and photos. My Google account is out of storage.
45. Not bet on sports (one month of no online bets!)
46. Go through papers/mail/bills.
47. Play Wordle
48. Try to get The Moose to finish his last assignment of the school year
49. Go out with friends to play trivia
50. Take a nap
It was really difficult coming up with 50 more items, so I stopped here. I mean typing all the different names of shows to watch would easily get me to about 250. So for those of you attending the Fan Fest, more power to you. I'll gladly do any of the items above.
The World Cup,
arguably the biggest sporting event in the world (either this or the summer
Olympics) begins today. I considered writing a World Cup preview (my
previews from 2010, 2014, and 2018 were amazing and still hold up today!) or asking for World Cup
predictions (like I did in 2022), but I'm not for the 2026 edition. Basically,
while having 48 teams may make the tournament more enjoyable by having more
countries like Cape Verde and Curacao participate, does anyone believe that
teams like Haiti will keep a match close against Brazil? The group stage is
somewhat pointless since 32 teams will advance to the knock-out rounds. I tend
to think we're going to see a lot of chalk. Favorites like Spain, France,
Argentina, England, and Brazil are going to be there at the end. With so many
rounds as a result of the additional 16 teams, I expect that one of these
countries that have the most depth will win.
I’ve mentioned
multiple times on this blog that with the exception of about 5-6 years in the
late 90s and early 2000s, I’ve been a soccer referee since I was 14. While I
never worked high school, college, or professional adult games, I've worked
some high level youth games over the years. Now, I prefer working travel and
recreational games for kids in the 10-14 age range. I can still keep up with
them, but I also like teaching and explaining the rules/laws of the game. Plus, with
this age group, I get to work with some newer referees, and I enjoy being a
mentor and providing advice and suggestions.
Where am I
going with this? When I watch the World Cup, I can’t help but watch the
referees too. Their positioning, their calls, their body language. I was never
on track to become a professional referee, let alone one who got to the World
Cup, so I have great admiration for World Cup referees. It's an incredible
honor to be selected, and as much as teams/fans will criticize officials, the
referees earned their spots. Basically, FIFA didn't observe my U13 boys'
recreational games last weekend and decide that I should work World Cup
matches.
All of this
brings me to Omar Abdulkadir Artan. While you can read all about Artan's background from this BBC article, since we're in the middle of the NBA and
NHL finals and the World Cup hasn't actually started yet, I'm not sure how
familiar many sports fans are with this name. Artan was going to be the first
referee from Somalia to officiate at the World Cup. He was the 2025
Confederation of African Football referee of the year. This is the entire
African continent, so again, he is significantly more qualified to officiate
the World Cup than me. Artan arrived in Miami earlier this week, which is where
the referee base camp is located. My guess is that there were multiple meetings
and activities planned to finalize preparation for the games. Artan was denied
entry into the United States. This is from CNN:
When asked
about Artan’s case, a US Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told CNN
that he underwent additional inspection upon arriving in Miami following a
flight from Istanbul.
“During
processing, the traveler underwent additional inspection, a routine part of
CBP’s inspection process when officers need to verify information or determine
admissibility,” the spokesperson said. “Following inspection, the traveler, a
referee for the FIFA World Cup, was determined to be inadmissible due to
vetting concerns and was denied entry.”
Apparently,
FIFA has no say in this matter. Although FIFA has plenty of its own problems,
this decision was made solely by US authorities, and the host country has final
say on these types of matters.
A United States
official said Tuesday night that Omar Artan, the Somalian soccer referee who
was denied entry into the country ahead of the World Cup, was refused admission
due to "association with suspected members of terror organizations."
The official
spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a matter that is covered by visa
privacy laws.
While it's
certainly possible that Artan has some type of ties with suspected members of
terror organizations, as the kids say, this is sus (that’s short for suspicious
for those unhip folks). I highly doubt that Artan was a last minute replacement
official. FIFA likely assigned the officials weeks if not months before the
World Cup. Which means that FIFA provided names of officials to the US well
before the Cup began. So you’re telling us that the US only learned of Artan’s
so-called terrorist ties when he arrived in Miami and not anytime in the weeks
and months before? Again, sus.
If Artan was
from Germany or Japan or Bosnia and Herzegovina, he would probably be fine.
This is because he’s from Somalia, and I suspect that our government considers
everyone from that country to have ties to terrorists.
Let's say that
Artan does have association with suspected members of terror
organizations. That's an incredible long-game to work your way up to become the
continent's top referee and get invited to the World Cup. And what exactly is
he going to do in America? I suspect that there is tight security surrounding
referees to make sure no one approaches them, due to suspected threats
involving match-fixing and gambling. Is Artan going to leave his hotel and skip
his match to do some type of scouting of potential terrorist attacks? Do
you know how ridiculous this sounds?
Meanwhile,
there has been no media attention given to Christian Pulisic and the strong
possibility of him being a traitor. Sure, Pulisic is the face of US men's
national team, but here he is supporting Sweden.
Don't let the
"red, white, and blue" Swedish fish fool you. It's still SWEDISH
fish. If the US ends up facing Sweden later in the tournament, watch Pulisic
closely for bad passes and maybe an own goal. He'll get a hero's welcome when he moves to Stockholm.
The Poscast
with Joe Posnanski & Michael Schur is one of my favorite podcasts. I've
listened to every single episode for many years. Posnanski is a sports writer,
and I've read several of his books. Schur is best known for creating Parks and
Recreation, The Good Place, and Man on the Inside among a long list of credits.
So when they announced that they co-wrote a book, I was excited to read it. The
pair promoted a specific independent bookstore that I will not mention here
where you could purchase the book. All of the books would be autographed by the
authors with limited edition versions signed by people like Ted Danson and
Kristen Bell. On May 13th, I placed my order through the bookstore's online
site.
After finishing
the transaction, I received an email from the store indicating that the
preorder had been processed and would be shipped upon the book's release. The
book was released on Tuesday, May 19th, so I figured that I would receive an
update with the status or a tracking number on or around that day. To date, 10
days later, I still have not received any information about the order status.
And it's certainly not due to a lack of effort by me. Let's go to the timeline:
On Thursday,
May 21st, I emailed the store's account for online orders asking about the
status. No response.
On Sunday, May
24th, I emailed a general "contact us" account about the order
status. No response.
On Monday, May
25th, I attempted to contact the store through its Facebook page. I received
an automated message asking me to email a different account or call the
store due to the high volume of messages the store receives. I sent
an email to that email address on that day. No response.
On Tuesday, May
26th, I called the number from the Facebook message and was given a prompt for
online orders. I left a voice message. No response.
On Thursday,
May 28th, I called the store and actually talked to someone. I was told that
the store essentially outsources its online store, so she could not see the
status of my account. I was given the store's marketing email account and sent
an email. No response.
So I have now
sent four emails to four different email accounts, provided a message on
Facebook, and left a voice message. I have not received a response, and the
physical bookstore can't access my order.
This really
shouldn't be that difficult. I generally check out books from the library, but
I figured this would be a fun book to own, particularly since I would get an
autographed copy. While I truly want to support independent bookstores, I could
have paid less to order from a giant company and received the book at least a
week ago. Get it together!
There are several different subjects I want to write about, but this is an emergency. We have multiple celebrities wearing (or adjacent to) Pittsburgh gear. First, actors J.K. Simmons and Bill Fagerbakke threw out the first pitch at Wednesday's Pirates game. You know J.K. Simmons from his roles in the Spider-Man movies, the Farmer's Insurance commercials, and for his Oscar-winning performance in Whiplash. Such a disturbing yet thought-provoking film. Meanwhile, Bill Fagerbakke's name may not be familiar but his voice is. Yes, you may recognize him from being Dauber on Coach, but he's also the voice of Patrick Star on SpongeBob SquarePants.
Across the ocean a few weeks ago, leaders of Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, PA visited Pope Leo XIV in Rome and presented him with a Terrible Towel. The "American Pope" recognized the item and smiled. Although it doesn't appear that Pope Leo waved the Terrible Towel, he at least held it, so that counts as a celebrity in Pittsburgh gear in my book.
I have saved this story for several years, but I believe that the statute of limitations has expired. In the summer of 2022, we took a family trip to Niagara Falls, Toronto, Rochester, and Ithaca. Niagara Falls is absolutely stunning, and there’s so much to do in Toronto. We went to a Cirque du Soleil show, Blue Jays game, visited the Hockey Hall of Fame and Toronto zoo, and checked out a few museums. In Rochester, we saw some friends and went to The Strong National Museum of Play which is worth it particularly if you have younger kids. We went to Taughannock Falls outside Ithaca and toured my alma mater, Ithaca College.
Let me double check with my lawyers if I’m allowed to continue. Please hold.
I got the okay. We visited Ithaca on a summer weekend when the campus was completely empty. This was the first time my kids had been to Ithaca, so I was excited to show them around the campus. The bookstore was closed and many buildings were locked. I saw the Athletics and Events Center for the first time which made me a little jealous since that facility wasn’t there when I was a student. Maybe I would have actually gone to the gym to try to counterbalance late night Rogan’s pizza and D.P. Dough calzones. There were one or two staff members there, and we got kicked out since the building was closing.
Finally, we wandered into the Whalen Center of Music. And we heard music. In one of the main concert halls, there were maybe 25 adults on stage. We didn’t know who they were, but we felt like we were intruding, so we listened from the outside for a few minutes before moving on. Except that I noticed a table with bags and coffee mugs. I figured this was nice memorabilia for people visiting the building, so I took one of each.
I later learned that there was some sort of IC Band reunion with a performance later that night. So were the mug and bag for me? Probably not. Does the mug get used in our kitchen four years later? Yes it does!
I’ve included several pictures from the trip that have been saved for nearly 4 years. For example, you can enjoy this Canada Dry can on the ground close to Niagara Falls where it definitely is not dry!
Welcome to Sean's Ramblings! If you're looking for thoughts on pop culture, music, fun and informative links, random DC and Pittsburgh info, sports (particularly Pittsburgh sports), and just what's going on in my life, then you're come to the right place.
Any questions, comments or links? Contact me at seanramblings[at]yahoo[dot]com.
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