Western Pa. Year in Sports: It was Steelers and Pens in the west
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Article RatingPitt’s basketball team went to No. 3. The Penguins came within two of winning it all. The Pirates are within one of setting a record.
No matter how the numbers are counted, no two years in western Pennsylvania sports are the same. There’s always a new name or an old face, a memorable accomplishment, a record or a streak that makes the year distinctive.
The year 2008 was no different, which, of course, meant it was a year unique to itself. Some of the big names were new (Marian Hossa), some were young but not-so-new (Sidney Crosby, Ben Roethlisberger, Evgeni Malkin, LeSean McCoy), some have been around as long as many can remember (Dan Rooney, Dave Wannstedt).
Pitt went to a bowl, and the Penguins began building one. Rooney not only didn’t sell out, he bought into what the Steelers are doing, acquiring more shares of the team than he has owned before. Hossa quickly came and went and, by early May, so did the Pirates’ chances of finally having a winning season.
OK, so that never changes.
The Penguins were a yearlong story, if only because it seemed like they played all year. Despite lengthy injury layoffs by Crosby and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, they not only survived but thrived as Malkin took over the scoring load with Crosby out for nearly two months.
Malkin, at age 21, didn’t win the NHL scoring title that Crosby won the year before at age 19, but he was a close second to Washington’s Alex Ovechkin. Once Crosby and Fleury returned, and GM Ray Shero added Hossa in a late-March trade, the Penguins breezed through the first three rounds of the playoffs, losing only twice.
They looked shaky against Detroit in dropping the first two games of their first Stanley Cup finals in 16 years but, after keeping the series alive by winning a memorable three-overtime Game 5 in Detroit, they were beaten 3-2 in Game 6. For the first time since the Penguins entered the NHL in 1967, the Stanley Cup was won in Pittsburgh — only not by the home team.
Mellon Arena, a fast-aging 47 years old, won’t have many more chances to host a cup-raising ceremony. During the Penguins’ brief time off the ice during the summer, ground was broken on their new $321 million-plus downtown arena that will be known as Consol Energy Center.
No matter the formal name, this truly will be the House that Crosby Built — with an assist from Mario Lemieux. The one downside as the new season unfolded: Hossa, so effective as a wing on Crosby’s line, passed up far more money from Pittsburgh and signed a one-year deal with the Red Wings. At year’s end, coach Michel Therrien, given a contract extension during the offseason, was searching yet again for effective linemates for Crosby.
“Hopefully, we can go just one more step next year,” Malkin said.
The Steelers lost a wild-card playoff game to Jacksonville 31-29 at home during the first weekend of the new year, but they will ring out the year as AFC North champions and the No. 2-seeded team in the conference. Despite an early season knee injury to Pro Bowl running back Willie Parker that significantly weakened their running game, the Steelers won five in a row to improve to 11-4 until a 31-14 loss at Tennessee cost them the conference’s top seed.
Their schedule was especially challenging (how about the Giants, Colts, Patriots, Cowboys, Ravens and Titans during a punishing two-month stretch), but their top-ranked defense, led by James Harrison and Troy Polamalu, looked like a billion bucks all season. Or about as much as the team is worth.
With some Rooney family members looking to sell their shares as they grow older, billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller made a bid to buy a majority stake, creating the possibility the Steelers might leave Rooney family control.
But with a strong nudge from the NFL, Dan Rooney brought in enough new investors to buy out shares from his four brothers and increase his stake to the 30 percent required by league rules for the primary owner.
Call it a come-from-behind win for Rooney, much like the five such victories Roethlisberger pulled off this season in the final quarter.
“It was a lot of work,” Dan Rooney said. “It wasn’t a slam dunk.”
The Pirates were a surprisingly good come-from-behind team, too; the problem was they fell behind so often. They all but fell apart after outfielders Jason Bay and Xavier Nady were traded late in late July, losing 41 of their final 60 to finish 67-95 during a major league record-tying 16th consecutive losing season. Now, their magic number is 2009 — the year they can secure the longest run of losing seasons in major American pro sports team history.
For the first time in baseball’s modern era, the Pirates didn’t have a 10-game winner. The last time that happened, in 1890, the franchise was only four seasons old.
Even with a new manager (John Russell) and a mostly new GM (Neal Huntington) and team president (Frank Coonelly), there was no quick turnaround for the Pirates, who lost 94 or more games for the fourth consecutive season. The pitching staff was a season-long disappointment, and even a breakout All-Star year by Nate McLouth (.276, 26 homers, 94 RBIs) couldn’t save this season, much like an overworked bullpen couldn’t.
“None of us feel good about where we finished,” Huntington said.
The Pirates’ problems stand out in a city where the Penguins are Steelers are championship contenders, Pitt’s basketball team was ranked No. 3 nationally in December, the Pitt women’s team went to the NCAA round of 32 under super-enthusiastic coach Agnus Berenato and the Panthers football team won nine games during the regular season for the first time since 1982. Pitt (9-3) plays Oregon State in the Sun Bowl on New Year’s Eve.
That Wannstedt-coached team began the season with a mystifying 27-17 loss to Bowling Green, then was beaten by 20 points at home by Rutgers slightly more than a month later.
But with McCoy following up an excellent freshman season with an even better one — he ran for 1,403 yards and 21 touchdowns — and linebacker Scott McKillop making second-team All-America, the Panthers beat Notre Dame, rival West Virginia for the second year in a row, Louisville and Iowa (something Penn State couldn’t do). The bowl appearance will be their first in four seasons.
“Coach Wannstedt has stressed to the seniors that our class can be responsible for taking Pitt back to where we want it to be,” McKillop said.
The Panthers basketball team went 27-10, won the Big East tournament in March by winning four games in four days only to have a familiar end to their season, a second-round NCAA loss to Michigan State. Despite being nationally ranked for seven years in a row, the Panthers haven’t advanced as far as the round of eight since 1975.
When the new season began in November, they quickly vaulted into the top three by winning their first 12 games behind Sam Young, DeJuan Blair and Levance Fields, possibly the best threesome in school history.
“We just want to keep winning and winning,” Blair said.
That was the citywide theme — with one exception — as 2008 segues into 2009.
