Steelers-Ravens-Trip To Charleston (Part II)

Welcome to part two of my trip to Charleston and leftover thoughts on the Steelers-Ravens game. Click here to read part one.

I am not an aquarium aficionado, but the South Carolina Aquarium doesn’t come close to the aquariums in Baltimore, Boston, Atlanta or Monterey Bay. However, the South Carolina Aquarium does have Alabaster, an albino alligator, which is definitely something I’ve never seen before. Hmmm, perhaps, I am an aquarium aficionado!


(Alabaster barely moved while we were there, and we weren’t able to get a good picture of him. This picture is from Charleston’s ABC station via “the internet.”)

The aquarium is located right on water, and we saw several dolphins swimming. It was like the dolphins were mocking the other fish and animals. Yes Dan Marino, Mark Clayton & Lousaka Polite mocked Alabaster and friends. It definitely wasn’t Chad Henne; I don’t think he mocks anyone.

I'm not an offensive lineman and I'm not going to play one on the internet, but it seems to me that if you see the football on the ground and do not hear a whistle or see a referee waving his arms to indicate an incomplete pass, you pounce on said ball. Yes, I'm looking at you Ramon Foster.

With the Jets and Steelers meeting in the AFC Championship game, have you seen any articles where Neil O’Donnell, former QB for both teams, offers his take on the game and who he is supporting?

There is a plaque at Fort Sumter that commemorates all of the Federal soldiers that defended the fort during the Civil War’s first skirmish. I noticed that Captain Abner Doubleday was listed as a member of the 1st U.S. Artillery. I made a note of this and decided to see if this Doubleday was any relation to the supposed creator of baseball. Sure enough, it’s the same guy. According to Wikipedia, Abner Doubleday was “a captain and second in command in the garrison at Fort Sumter, under Major Robert Anderson. He aimed the cannon that fired the first return shot in answer to the Confederate bombardment on April 12, 1861, starting the war.” I never knew this.

I also learned that there were exactly zero casualties during the Fort Sumter battle. After the 34-hour siege, Major Anderson agreed to a cease fire (apparently it was not a surrender) in which the South Carolina troops took over Fort Sumter. The Federal forces were permitted to return to New York, but before leaving, performed a cannon salute. One of the cannons exploded prematurely causing the first fatality of the Civil War. Yes, the first Civil War death occurred during a ceremony.

The College of Charleston has a Cougar Club. Insert your own joke here (or actually in the comments section).

We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Charleston which is located in the original Citadel Military College. Pretty cool.



When is it a 15-yard penalty for blocking a player to the ground (Hines Ward on Ed Reed)? When is it not a penalty for head butting an opposing player (Ike Taylor on T.J. Houshmandzadeh)? Was the non-call on Taylor a make-up from the first penalty?

Doris Roberts, best known as Ray Romano’s mother on Everybody Loves Raymond, is now featured in a series of Zaxby’s commercials that were shown regularly during the Steelers-Ravens game. I really don’t understand using Doris Roberts as your celebrity spokesperson in commercials during football games, but I’m not Don Draper, so what do I know?

While I didn't actually see a Zaxby's (solid fast food restaurant in my opinion), I did locate, but not eat in, a Waffle House and Little Caesar’s. If only my vacation lasted longer!

Major plus for Charleston: Free trolley service to get around downtown!

Although we did not see a South Carolina Stingrays hockey game, there was apparently some type of youth hockey tournament in town. We met a family where the parents were originally from Pittsburgh and the father and son wore Penguins gear. It was cool (and somewhat random) talking to the father about the Penguins in the middle of South Carolina. (Well, technically the eastern coast of South Carolina.)

The Steelers were a different team coming out in the second half. I'd love to know what was said in the locker room during halftime.

That pretty much wraps up my trip to Charleston. Very cool city if you have a chance to visit. I didn't even mention the beautiful Magnolia Plantation & Gardens, the good restaurants, and overall friendliness of everyone there. In addition, I can't wait for Sunday's AFC Championship!

Pittsburgh Sports Memories

As part of Mondesi's House Readers Rule Week, I was invited to answer the Pittsburgh-centric questions listed below. I think that this will be posted on the site sometime Tuesday (update: it has been posted; click on the link above), but I wanted to share my responses here anyway.

1. What is your all-time most memorable moment in Pittsburgh sports history?

On Tuesday, May 8, 2001, I was living in Columbus, Ohio and watched game six of the Eastern conference semi-finals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres with some friends. After the Penguins won in overtime, the ESPN announcers innocently stated that there were still tickets available for game seven. My friends and I looked at each other, decided to call the Sabres’ ticket office and managed to buy tickets in the last row of the arena. We all left work around noon on Thursday, drove the 325 or so miles to Buffalo and watched live as the Penguins defeated the Sabres in overtime when Darius Kasparaitis beat Dominik Hasek and dove on the ice in celebration. After jumping around and making our way down to the lower section (where I happened to be in the background of ESPN’s interview with Kasparaitis), we drove back to Columbus, had a horrible 4:00 am breakfast at Denny’s and made it to work on Friday.



1A. What is your all-time most forgettable moment in Pittsburgh sports history?

Everyone is going to write about the Francisco Cabrera, Sid Bream and the 1992 National League Championship Series. I still remember staring at the television in disbelief and watching Deion Sanders chase Tim McCarver around the locker room. While this is definitely #1 on my list, I’ll share my #1B least memorable moment in Pittsburgh sports history: the 1994 AFC Championship game between the Steelers and San Diego Chargers. The Steelers were huge favorites, and as we later learned, had plans to create their own "Super Bowl Shuffle" style video. However, Stan Humphries, Tony Martin and Alfred Pupunu ruined it. Trailing 17-13, the Steelers had one final chance on fourth and goal, but the Neil O’Donnell pass was batted away. I never heard Three Rivers Stadium and 55,000 people so quiet. It was silent walking out of the stadium.



2. What makes the city of Pittsburgh special to you?

The pride that people have in the city and its citizens. Maybe it’s just me (though I don’t think so), but we love to tell people about famous Pittsburghers such as Mr. Rogers, Andy Warhol and August Wilson. We love our teams and players from Western Pennsylvania like Jason Taylor, Curtis Martin and all of the legendary quarterbacks (Marino, Unitas , Montana , Kelly, Namath, etc.). I get so excited when I see positive things written about the city as was the case earlier this year when the New York Times and USA Today each published stories about traveling to Pittsburgh . Conversely, we get defensive when an outsider speaks ill of the city as a Seattle writer did prior to the Steelers-Seahawks Super Bowl. Again, I don’t think I’m alone on this. We even have pride in our food and restaurants like Primanti’s, The O and Eat ‘n Park! Maybe other places have this, but I haven’t seen it.



3. What would you consider your all-time favorite Pittsburgh sports team, specific to a single season? (For example, the '90-91 Penguins or the 1979 Pirates)

The 1990-91 Pittsburgh Penguins. I was too young to remember the Steelers’ Super Bowl championships so this was my first opportunity to celebrate any type of Pittsburgh sports title. I have several specific memories during the season. John Cullen was probably my favorite player on the team, and I remember being upset that he got traded to Hartford . Since the Penguins received Ron Francis, Grant Jennings and Ulf Samuelsson in return, I guess things turned out pretty well, but at the time, I knew very little about these guys. I just didn’t understand why the Penguins traded one of their best players. I also remember being at Kennywood during game one of the Stanley Cup Finals (it was our school district’s Kennywood Day) going around the park trying to listen to the game. Finally, and probably the reason why this team is my all-time favorite, the Penguins were all that we talked about during high school after each playoff game. I guess we had tests and homework but there seemed to be nothing else going on in our lives besides the Pens.

Feel free to provide your own answers to these questions in the comments or, if applicable, your own blog, and I'll be happy to link to your post.