Steel City Jim

First, I must report a non-event. For the past four years, four other guys and I piled into a car and made the annual pilgrimage to Steeler training camp at St. Vincent's College, Latrobe, Pa., about a 50-mile drive from my home. Yesterday was the day we designated for this year's visit. So, with everyone on board by about 11:35 a.m., we headed east. But our first stop is a restaurant called DeSalvo's, which is housed in the old Latrobe railroad station. It's a very nice stop on the way to camp where the food is good and the conversation around the table is enlightening on many subjects.

We were aware that rain threatened the whole day. So, we came prepared with umbrellas, ponchos, you name it. While at lunch, we became aware of rain pounding on the roof of the restaurant. When we exited, the rain was still coming down quite heavily. But we persevered to camp and found our seats in the bleachers. After wiping the water from the benches, the sun miraculously appeared, and we settled in to wait for practice to begin.

Now to acquaint you with the setup: Our seats in the bleachers were precisely on the 50-yard line as the field spread out before us from left to right. Let's call that Field No. 1. Beyond this field, which is just below the bleachers, are two identical fields parallel the one just before us, Fields No. 2 and No. 3. To our right, and down a little grade from the end zone to our far right, lies another field that starts at about our end zone and runs perpendicular to the other three fields. We'll call that Field No. 4.

At exactly 1:50 p.m. the players begin their descent from their dormitories on top of a hill opposite where we are sitting in the bleachers. But instead of coming over to the field in front of the bleachers, as they had in the previous three years we attended, they headed directly to Field No. 4, a good distance from where we were sitting. They began to stretch. We felt they would stretch and come to Field No. 1. They began some drills. We thought they would come back to Field No. 1 right afterwards. To make a long story short, they never came over to Field No. 1. The entire practice was conducted on Field No. 4, and we couldn't see much of anything. We left after about an hour, thoroughly disgusted.

This morning I fund out that Field No. 4 is artificial turf, which is much less affected by wetness. So, with the threat of rain, they decided to use it exclusively. If you think we were miffed, one guy had driven in from New Jersey to watch practice. He was downright angry.

OK, enough of my frustrations from camp yesterday. So far, there haven't been too many concerns about the Steelers. Aside from some minor bumps and bruises, camp is a matter of getting veterans in football shape and evaluating rookies. As usual, some rookies have stood out. Among these are the first-round draft choice, Ziggy Hood, and an undrafted free agent runner, Isaac Redmond, from Bowie State. It looks like Limas Sweed has found his way around a pro football field. I still think he will replace Washington, who took off for Tennessee. A couple of cornerbacks have impressed as has another wide receiver, Mike Wallace, who has blazing speed and can be used for kick returns. The Steelers also welcomed back punter Daniel Sepulveda, who was injured and missed last season. How they won a Super Bowl with the minor league punting they had last year is beyond me.

I don't understand the Vikings signing Brett Favre. He was over-the-hill with the Jets. What is he going to do in Minnesota? They play the Packers twice. These will be interesting games, to say the least. If Childress was that anxious to have an experienced QB, I would have thought that he'd take a chance on Michael Vick. Vick carries some baggage, but he seems to be quite humble these days. A few completed passes, and most fans will forget his past transgressions ... even Eagle fans.

Don't look now, but the Pirates have won two in a row ... against the Brewers who had a 17-0 streak against them going into this mid-season. The Pirates are virtually conducting a tryout camp for the rest of the season wherein they will attempt to evaluate which of their brood had hack it in the Majors.

When I stated that baseball sucks, one of my Yankee fan followers said that the Yanks win because their management is smarter than their Pirate counterparts. Maybe so. But I think I would be pretty smart baseball-wise if I had $200-plus million to throw around in the free agent market. If financial genius is a rising market, baseball genius is having zillions for payroll.