Tim Benz stories, Page 129

In a season gone this wrong for the Pittsburgh Pirates, at least one thing needs to get right. Perhaps it started to happen this past weekend. The Pirates’ 5-4 win Sunday afternoon at PNC Park completed a three-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers. They scored 24 runs in three days....

I know what some Steelers fans are thinking. Stop thinking it. The Steelers shouldn’t sign Earl Thomas. I know. I know. They could use another safety to complement Minkah Fitzpatrick. The Baltimore Ravens just cut Thomas. It’d be a great way to goose the Ravens. But Thomas just squawked his...

This week’s “U mad, bro?” gets into some pretty choppy waters. Mike Sullivan versus Mike Tomlin. Bryan Rust versus trade talk. Governor Tom Wolf versus high school sports. And me versus copyright infringement. Read carefully. This could get dicey. Let’s start with James. He really enjoyed my recent column about...

Thursday’s “First Call” looks at the prospect of an NFL playoff bubble. Some stats to back up Cameron Heyward’s call for a contract extension. Bad news for Steely McBeam. And a pair of Penguins fan favorites do what they do best. NFL playoff bubble? The NFL won’t be played in...

Here’s one way the Steelers need to get better in 2020. And no, this has nothing to do with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger returning. Because he’s been on the field for much of this problem in recent years. The issue is starting better in September. The Steelers’ failure to win a...

Wednesday’s “First Call” features the Pittsburgh Pirates reaction to the Fernando Tatis Jr. controversy. Steelers tight end Vance McDonald makes a Pittsburgh folklore faux pas. A former Penguins prospect has a new home. And a tip of the cap to Roberto Clemente on his birthday. Taillon on Tatis The big...

No one needs to float this idea past Pittsburgh Penguins fans. They’ve already gotten the message. But one trend is becoming noticeable in the coronavirus-era rebooted sports world. Reformatted training camps, empty stadiums, herky-jerky schedules and covid-19-related absences have heightened competitive balance within the leagues. The playing field is a...

In the big picture, former Pittsburgh Steeler Jeremy Bloom led a charmed life. Hometown college football star. NFL player. He even made the Olympics as a freestyle skier. Twice. But he also knows the emotional pain of coming so close to your lifelong goals and coming up just short. The...

On Monday afternoon, I visited five websites to track how sports on television ratings were tracking amid the pandemic restarts. I got four different answers. Monday’s news from NBC was that the first two days of the Stanley Cup Playoffs official first round “averaged 620,000 viewers across NBC Sports’ TV...

For Tuesday’s “First Call,” we take a look at the new NFL “Monday Night Football” broadcast booth. And there’s some Pittsburgh representation. Former Pitt Panther Louis Riddick is going to be part of the crew. He’ll be one of the color-commentary analysts, along with former NFL quarterback Brian Griese. Steve...

It didn’t last very long, did it? Mid-summer excitement about the return of Pittsburgh’s pro sports world was brief. And frankly, not that enjoyable. Hey, better to have it than not. But it hardly felt like the real thing. Especially based on how short of a run it was. The...

The Penguins have already successfully pulled off a mini-rebuild within their current era of championship success. What’s now being called the “core three” of the Penguins team — Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin — used to have a much broader membership. The perception was that “core” also used to...

Monday’s “First Call” features a Hall of Famer who is making a pitch to sign Antonio Brown. A few NFL.com lists aren’t very flattering of the Steelers. And a pair of former Penguins had some key contributions in NHL wins Sunday. A.B. in L.A. Isaac Bruce knows receivers. He was...

We might be short on sports right now, but Mark Madden isn’t short on opinions. In this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, Mark and I get into great detail about the Penguins’ looming offseason. General manager Jim Rutherford and head coach Mike Sullivan both make it sound like roster adjustments are...

Neil Walker completed his WPIAL career at Pine-Richland High School as one of the best athletes in Western Pennsylvania history. He was a three-sport star with the Rams (football, baseball, basketball), playing multiple positions along the way. Walker emerged as one of the best baseball prospects in the country as...

Friday’s “First Call” features developments on Adam “Pacman” Jones versus Steelers cornerback Joe Haden and a big challenge for “Big Ben” Roethlisberger. Montreal Canadiens coach Claude Julien has a health scare, and another MLB pitcher gets ejected from the stands for arguing balls and strikes. • • • Joe vs....

Last week, Gov. Tom Wolf made an out-of-nowhere recommendation that scholastic sports be postponed until at least Jan. 1. The PIAA didn’t know that statement was coming. Wolf provided no context for how his office came to that decision. And he put forth no explanation for the logic behind the...

A favorite crutch for Penguins coach Mike Sullivan is “moving forward.” He uses it as a transition. As punctuation. As a point of emphasis. All the time. Unfortunately, his team has spent the last three years moving backward. Badly. From Stanley Cup champion in 2017. To a second-round exit in...

For Thursday’s “First Call,” TMZ has video of former Cincinnati Bengals annoyance Adam “Pacman” Jones burning a box full of Steelers jerseys. There are no more words necessary. And if we did use any more words as quotes from Pacman, they’d probably all have to be censored or edited out...

I’m getting to that point with college sports. That point when you think, “Shut it down until there is a coronavirus vaccine. Or a treatment. Or national infection rates are next to nothing.” I’m conflicted. Because I’m also at a point where I think, “Just play through it. We aren’t...

You knew that venom would be spewed toward the Penguins in “U mad, bro?” this week. The team was dreadful in its four-game, qualifying-round elimination at the hands of the 24th-seeded Montreal Canadiens last week. Fans are ticked off. They should be. My only question was, “Which Penguins were going...

I didn’t think anything could make me more frustrated than watching the fifth-seeded Penguins lose to the 24th-seeded Montreal Canadiens in the qualifying round of the 2020 NHL season. Until I listened to Jim Rutherford talk about it. On Tuesday, the Penguins general manager gave a frank assessment of how...

The chances of playing any semblance of a college football season in the fall are looking bleak. It’s unclear if the sport will try to function in the spring. And who knows if either option will be safe enough for the players. For those reasons, many top-tier NFL prospects have...

The Pittsburgh Steelers secondary surprisingly blossomed into one of the best units in the NFL during 2019. That doesn’t mean it is without questions heading into 2020, though. For Wednesday’s “First Call,” we examine five that stand out. How do the Steelers make the most of Minkah? After being acquired...