Random Ramblings: February 2017 Edition

I learned that my high school English teacher from my senior year passed away. She hated me and the feeling was mutual as she was really mean. However, I probably became a better student and writer because of her.

CBS picked up a pilot for the comedy Distefano by the creators of How I Met Your Mother. I'm amazed that there will be a television show about former Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder, Benny Distefano. [Hollywood Reporter]

While this home is on the market for $250 million, I think I'd like to make an offer of $2 million to start the negotiations. (I don't really need the cars valued at $30 million since I already have a 2003 Honda.) I also don't have an extra $2 million sitting around, but with a house so big, I figure that I can get about 20-30 friends to go in with me, and we can split the house. I might even be willing to go up to $2.5 million. [LA Times]

The Candy Room is a nice touch.

My son (The Moose) might be a meteorologist when he grows up. One of his favorite things to do is check the weather on my phone. He will type in random letters to see what temperatures are in random cities. For example, did you know that it is going to be 93 in Halfayat Al Muluk (Sudan) and 81 in M'mbulu (Malawi) on Thursday?

Fatima Al Ali, a member of United Arab Emirates' women’s hockey team, got to practice with the Washington Capitals. While I don't like the team (Caps fans say the same thing about the Penguins), this is really cool. [Puck Daddy]

Finally, this is also very cool.

C'mon CBS

I'm already unhappy with CBS for airing new episodes of the likely to be cancelled TV show Reckless on Saturday, September 13th meaning that I will not win the 2013-2014 Ted Marshall Open TV Death Pool. Now, it's the CBS Sports website that's upsetting me. My longtime fantasy/rotisserie baseball league (more on this in a few weeks) uses the CBS Sports website, which also shows player news and updates. Earlier this week, the website shared the following information about Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Vance "The Vanimal" Worley:

Notice anything odd about the picture? Sure Worley was a member of the Minnesota Twins in 2013, but he has pitched for the Pirates since June. It is now mid-September! Is it that difficult, CBS, to photoshop a Pirates hat in place of the Twins hat?

Steelers-Bills Recap

Remember last month when I took the blame for the Steelers poor season since I didn't wear my Louis Lipps jersey consistently? Well, the Steelers lost to the Raiders while I wore my jersey, so clearly, you could no longer blame me for the Steelers losses. However, perhaps you really can blame me. It is now November 11th and this is my first Steelers recap of the season. Maybe the Steelers just needed to know that I was going to write recaps to motivate them.

Here are my thoughts on the game that you probably won't read anywhere else.

- The Buffalo Bills feature several former Pittsburgh Steelers, Kraig Urbik, Doug Legursky and Frank Summers. The team's punter, Brian Moorman, was also in the Steelers' training camp this summer. While it appears that Buffalo has become Pittsburgh North, I didn't notice former University of Pittsburgh players Ruben Brown or Alex Van Pelt on the sideline.

- You see the date of this post, right? We're still at least six weeks from Christmas and about three weeks from Thanksgiving. We don't need Christmas commercials yet, Mercedes, Home Depot & Wal-Mart!

- Steelers punter Mat McBriar had five punts for an average of only 39 yards and an average net of only 34.9 yards. What did Daniel Sepulveda do to not get a try-out?

- Jerricho Cotchery was only targeted twice, but he made both catches for 31 yards and a great move on a TD catch. Cotchery has looked better than Sanders lately and has been a solid and valuable contributor to the team. While it probably makes sense for the Steelers to get rookie WR Markus Wheaton more playing time, I feel so much more comfortable with Cotchery on the field.

- Congratulations to Jarvis Jones on getting his first NFL sack! I'm sure that convinced the Subway execs that they made the right call in having Jones appear on their commercials.

- CBS is going to show a three-episode Person of Interest. Wouldn't that make it People of Interest?

- Overall, the Steelers defense played great. They gave up a field goal after the Bills started a drive on the Steelers 29 yard line. The Bills scored their touchdown on the last play of the game when the game was decided. By the way, the Bills didn't even deserve to score. Bills' QB E.J. Manuel should have been flagged for intentional grounding, but instead the ruling was a fumble that got overturned and the Steelers got a 15-yard penalty for unnecessary roughness. Plus, Bills' tight end Chris Gragg also moved early on the 4th down TD catch. Yes, I started the Steelers defense for several fantasy teams and am a little bitter that the team gave up 10 points instead of 3.

- Oh, message to Chris Gragg. You look ridiculous celebrating and pointing to the sky after catching a touchdown to make the score 23-9 with your team losing with 3 seconds left.

- Can someone explain the rumor that Roethlisberger wants to get traded. Here is the conversation between announcers and Marv Albert and Rich Gannon.

Albert - "As a key member of the media, as a guy who tweets, all you have to do is put out a tweet"
Gannon - "and it catches fire"
Albert - "and it's everywhere and we react to it and the teams react to it whether it is true or not."

So what media member put out the Tweet? Shouldn't we (or CBS) contact this media member and ask him/her for the source or to explain the story?

- Why did the Steelers cut Jonathan Dwyer again? All he did was have 6 carries for 38 yards in a supporting role.

For more on the Steelers game, check out the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, ESPN & Behind The Steel Curtain. (Yes, there's two links there for BTSC.)

Truly Sean’s Ramblings

There is a lot I could complain about from the past weekend. For starters, Sears delivered a new dishwasher, but it was damaged, so we still have our old dishwasher. After several phone calls and a trip back to the store, we’re getting another new dishwasher in about two weeks. Although this situation is/was frustrating, it looks like we might save a little money on the purchase, so this could turn out to be okay.

Meanwhile, I could complain about the Pittsburgh Steelers performance in Sunday's 34-31 loss to Oakland. Neither the running game or defense looked good, but the Steelers bye week comes at a perfect time. Hopefully, Troy Polamalu, James Harrison and Rashard Mendenhall get healthy. Meanwhile, the team has two weeks to prepare for the next game. Use that time well!

Now I will complaint about the NFL, CBS and DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket. I purchased Sunday Ticket so that I can watch every Steelers game (and every other NFL game) from the comfort of my home. On Sunday, DirecTV blacked out the Steelers-Raiders game since the local CBS station decided to carry the game. (DirecTV doesn’t air in-market games.) However, instead of showing the Steelers game at the regularly scheduled time of 4:25, CBS showed overtime of the Saints-Chiefs game followed by the end of the Dolphins-Jets game. CBS did not start airing the Steelers game until the second quarter started which was after 5:00. Now, I understand not showing the Steelers-Raiders game on time in the DC market if the 1:00 game featured Washington or even Baltimore. I wouldn’t necessarily be happy, but I would understand.

So I have several questions here. Since the Redskins-Bengals game ended before 4:25, why switch to the Saints-Chiefs game instead of going with the Steelers game you already had scheduled? Since CBS wasn’t showing the Steelers-Raiders game, why can’t DirecTV show the game until it airs on local TV? The most important question though is why am I paying for Sunday Ticket if I can’t watch the Steelers?

Since Yom Kippur starts tonight, I hope the NFL, CBS and DirecTV atone for their sins! (This may be a bit strong, but they can at least treat their customers better.)