Steel City Jim

The first four games of the season are now history. What do we know?

1. While it would be more pleasant to write this following a win, the Steelers ended up the four-game Roethlisberger suspension 3-1. If anybody would have predicted this record at the beginning of the season, we would have summoned the truck to take him/her to the looney bin. But it is a reality.

2. There will be no quarterback controversy in Pittsburgh this morning. Fans and players alike will welcome back the newly contrite, humble Ben Roethlisberger as he returns to the practice facilities this morning.

Considering that the Steelers went with a quarterback, Charlie Batch, who was the fourth guy on the depth chart at the end of camp and, most felt, was slated to be cut altogether, they didn't do too badly at all in the first four games. Batch, the brittle 35-year-old was long on savvy and short on physicality. But he shined in Tampa Bay last week, having a career day. But he sputtered Sunday against a much stronger Ravens defense. Despite his shortcomings, Batch put the Steelers in a position to win. Reed missed two field goals and they were winning by four points with 2 minutes and 20 seconds left in regulations. But the defense failed to stop the Ravens from scoring a touchdown with about 23 seconds left that iced the game, 17-14.

Now, with Roethlisberger coming back in two weeks to lead the Steelers against the rejuvenated Browns, who edged out the Bengals, there is a glimmer of hope in the old steel town despite this bitter defeat. In fact, the loss to the Ravens just might be a blessing in disguise. If the Steeler players have the same sour taste in their mouths as their multitude of fans have, they will barrel into the Cleveland game in two weeks.

This leads me to say that some people feel that a Super Bowl victor loses some of its drive the following season. But the team(s) that loses has a motive to get back and win. All indications are that the Steelers were stunned when they failed to make the playoffs last year. Could this have been the spur that got them off to a 3-1 start in 2010 despite having secondary quarterbacks in these four games?

I think there is another factor in their excellent start in 2010. Thanks to some insights by Rev. Creager, it's obvious that not everybody in the Steeler locker room has been in love with Mr. Roethlisberger. People have a tendency to act the same toward people no matter who or where they are. If Ben was a boor toward waitresses and bartenders around town, as has been amply reported, you can bet that he wasn't the most loveable guy in the locker room either.

Hines Ward and James Harrison have made some disparaging remarks about Ben over the past several seasons. And, you might have noted that his teammates took Ben's captaincy away from him for 2010. So, it is quite possible that the guys got together, particularly the defense, and decided to take the first four games into their own hands. They succeeded pretty well. In so doing, they told Mr. Roethlisberger that while they would much rather play with him than without him, they CAN win without him. So, the message is, "Welcome back, Ben, but we're looking for more humility and comeradeship from you in the future." From all indications, Ben got this message from the league, the Rooneys and his teammates. He has been conducting himself in a more positive manner since the suspension. Now, we will see how this manifests itself for the rest of the year.

Looking over the NFL, I think one can observe that if the powers that be are looking for parity, I think they have achieved it in 2010. No one team seems to be able to dominate, at least so far. It's a work in progress.

Now, that we have a bye week in football, the NHL season starts. With our new arena, hope is high for the Penguins.

In Pittsburgh, we have kissed the 2010 baseball season goodbye, with good riddance, and it looks like the manager, John Russell, will be let go. One will never know how good a manager Russell is because even John McGraw of yore couldn't have coaxed very many wins out of this rag tag group. But my guess is that the Pirates' brass saw what Buck Showalter did with the Orioles and think that maybe, just maybe, a guy like him can shake them up.

But will they pay a proven manager what he would demand? I don't know but Ken Macha is available, and he's had some success and he's a local product. Would he be crazy enough to do it? Stay tuned. Yes, the Yankees are in the playoffs. Baseball sucks.