School Days

Here's the Friday Five!

Yes, I know its Saturday night...I was busy! Heck I haven't even had time to decide what I'm going to start calling the blog now that I've already turned 40!

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I had heard that it was homecoming week at WVU this weekend and it got me thinking about songs that are associated with the local sports teams.

West Virginia, for example, has adopted this song from John Denver as their theme over the years.

Much closer to home The University of Pittsburgh also had their homecoming this weekend. I had to reach out to an old friend and ask if there was a song they used to get the fans up or something they called their own....and he came through for me!

(And kudos to the guy who did that video!)

Once you get to the pro teams its a lot easier!

Starting with the Pirates...yes they are pros...its hard to believe its been 30 years since Pittsburgh won a World Series. OK, not that hard to believe. But back then there was a real family feel between the team and the city.

(By the way...best use of this song since 1979? Right here!)

Onward and upward and I'm not sure the reigning Stanley Cup Champions, your Pittsburgh Penguins, still use this song as Gary Glitter ran into a little bit of trouble in the recent past.

And of course there is the six-time and current Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers with their 4th quarter anthem!

So there you have it! The Friday Five!

Enjoy and if you have any suggestions for a future list drop me a line or leave a comment!

~ Glenn

Here We Go!

I put it off long enough.

Every year I dread this, but I HAVE to do it.

Please forgive me..



Here is my Pittsburgh Steelers Preview for the season!

Offense:
Of course the question is whether Ben can recover from the horrible season he had last year...wait, no. The question is whether he'll LIVE through the season because of the offensive line.

The short answer is Yes.

You don't need the long answer, but to sum up the line will be better. They will have had the advantage of playing to together for another year and they will feed off the success they had in the playoffs.

Ben is Ben (to quote Coach Tomlin) and will do what he does. No worries.

Parker is in a contract season and has something to prove. Mendenhall wants to show that he's no bust.

Ward and Holmes are stars and watch for Sweed and Wallace will stretch the field like we have seen in this town in a long time.

Defense:

Is this really a question? Injuries aside they should dominate much the same way they did last year.

If I have to pick on one thing its that the defensive line is still getting older, but Big Snack Hampton is also in a contract year and should continue to dominate and Ziggy is gonna get some looks too.

Special Teams:

Another player in a contract year and one of the most consistent players in the Steelers organization is Jeff Reed. He'll be fine and he'll be here next year too.

Sepulveda is healthy so fans don't have to hold their breath and cross their fingers every time the Steelers have to punt.

And you may have heard that they signed Stefan Logan:

So while anything can happen look for another great year. The schedule is easier than the famous "toughest schedule in the history of the NFL" from last year too.

But remember no matter what happens week to week the goal is to make the playoffs and then to get to the Super Bowl and then to win it all.

That never changes and I don't expect the Steelers chances to change either!

Do it again...

Hey!

I just got around to putting together some videos from our Super Bowl Party.

Here we are watching Pittsburgh score the winning touchdown!




~ Glenn

Paint It Black

Not much to say other than about half way into this we decided to hire someone to do the rest of the house! LOL!

Basically it took about two hours of prep, two hours to prime and four hours painting two coats.

Everything done in about a day though and Josh loves his new room!

The sports theme was his idea and he got a lot of the stuff for Christmas.

~ Glenn

The initial mess.

After the primer went on.


Still quite a mess.


Josh slept in Roni's room that night. Luckily he was at my sister's for a sleep over the next night.


Some of the trim work done.


Trimming with the new color.


One good coat of paint.


Second coat and the Steeler stuff is starting to go up!


Josh's new bed.


New rug!


Wall hanging over his new bed.

More decorations.

Finished product!

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Brett Favre is retiring...again.

The rest of the talking heads can have fun making jokes and comparing Brett to the all-time greats.

I wanted to share this little tid-bit that I heard some time ago.

Favre was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons originally.

You didn't know that?

Maybe because he only threw four passes his entire time there. His first one for a TD...scored by the opposing defense who pick-sixed him.

So after than inglorious start Favre was traded to the Green Bay Packers.

But the interesting part of the trade was the physical.

It seems Farve had the same condition that ended the football career of Bo Jackson and the GM of the Packers took him anyway.

Farve ended up starting a record 269 consecutive starts in the NFL!

For all his other records and accomplishments I personally feel that has to take the cake!

So say what you will about the retirement drama and everything that happened last season...the guy is/was amazing.

~ Glenn

Lonely Is The Night

This week it was Billy Squire leading off the show!

Loads of football talk as I am AMPED about the Steelers going for their record 6th Super Bowl win!

So naturally I played a lot of Steeler stuff. Pittsburgh fans love their team and they love to sing about them too!

One song I did NOT play, but I wanted to link anyway because it is good and the kids who sing it are 11 and 12 years old!



We did our LOST update and I'll try to be more concise next week but there was a lot of football stuff to talk about!


Next week: More LOST! A Super Bowl recap! Hockey (well, football is over ya know?) and the proud and long awaited return of the "People I Hate" segment!


Talk with you all then!

~ Glenn

Party On the Patio!

(Click on the title to go hear the episode!)

We kicked off the show with a great tune from ZZ Top off the El Loco album.

Then it was STEELERS, STEELERS, STEELERS!

A rare discussion of current events included that plane that crashed into the Hudson River just today. How can it be a miracle that all those people survived when flying is supposed to so much safer than anything else like they tell us?

Then we got a great novelty/comedy song from Aaron Wilburn!

Some weird news for the week:

1) Always a bridesmaid? Hell she's usually a pall-bearer!
2) why do people think its OK to to be rude to fat people?
3) Adolph Hitler was taken from his parents...last week.

That's it kids! Stay warm this weekend cause its FREEZING outside!

We'll be back next Thursday at 11pm!

~ Glenn

Instant Karma

Karma

kar·ma (kärm)
n.
1. Hinduism & Buddhism The total effect of a person's actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person's existence, regarded as determining the person's destiny.
2. Fate; destiny.
3. Informal A distinctive aura, atmosphere, or feeling: There's bad karma around the house today.

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[Sanskrit, deed, action that has consequences, karma; see kwer- in Indo-European roots.]

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For a real life example see the New England Patriots.

Last season they were caught red handed bending the rules to video tape signals from opposing teams.

Their "genius" coach said he just misunderstood the rules. The rules that had been clearly and recently reinforced by the league before the beginning of the season.

Based on the the investigation by the NFL the team was fined and so was the "genius".

The Patriots used the motivation from their being disrespected (?) to drive to an 18-0 record only to have their perfect season (and lots of t-shirts and books) ruined by the NY Giants in the Super Bowl.

Fast forward to this season.

The first half of the first quarter of the first game and Tom Brady goes out with a season ending injury.

In come Matt Cassel...who has not started a football game since he was in high school.

And the Patriots, with the easiest schedule in the entire NFL start winning without Brady.

Beating up on weaker teams and Cassel suddenly throwing the ball like he knows what he's doing the Patriots are suddenly not only in contention for the playoffs but could win their division!

Cassel has back to back 400+ yard games (ended when he met the Steelers) and the Patriots finish with a four game winning streak!

All the Patriots needed was a loss by Baltimore or the Dolphins.

New England watched as the Ravens killed the Jaguars.

The Jets hosted the Dolphins.

And lost.

Karma.

The Patriots become the first team since 1985 to have an 11 win season and NOT make the playoffs.

Karma.

Matt Cassel is an unrestricted free-agent and the Patriots are going to have to either throw a lot of money at him or franchise him and hope some other team is desperate enough to make it worth their while.

Karma.

The genius is home watching the playoffs for the first time in six seasons.

Karma

Its a bitch.

~ Glenn

Weclome to the Jungle...

I belong to a LOT of online sites.

Some of my favorites are the sports sites and one in particular is ran by the sad sack Cincinnati Bengals.

Their message board is a clever mix of smack talk and "jungle noise" where fans can argue even with people they agree with most of the time.

But recently there has been a trend to the smack talk. Since the Bengals can win on their won their fans are taking great pride in rooting for whoever beats the Steelers.

And the great mantra that goes up around this time each year: "Yeah, well, your team might have made the playoffs, but they'll be one and done!"

Recently I responded to those "one and done" Steeler haters:

My philosophy is this..just get to the payoffs and anything can happen.

Look at 2005. The Steelers had to bust their hind ends to get in the playoffs and went on a tear that lead them to their 5th Lombardi trophy.

Last year as the Steelers were limping into the playoffs I was at least help to hold out some hope because at least they made it. As they dropped that game to Jacksonville my wife, who is a newcomer to watching football, said well at least you won't have to worry about next week.

She couldn't have been more wrong.

Win that game against Jacksonville and anything can happen the following week.

So to everyone here who will take great pleasure if the Steelers lose in the playoffs...your jealousy is what I love!

Getting to the playoffs is just half the battle...but getting there allows you to play on. Something fans of the Bengals don't have much memory of.

~ Glenn

I love this bar...

We have a great time getting together to watch Steeler games!

Win or lose it is always an adventure!

I never liked to get with other people to watch a football game because I tend to get loud and upset when the team I am rooting for is doing poorly.

But for the last three years a group of us have been taking turns hosting the games and its turned into great fun.

However the best place so far is at my in-laws house.

They have the best set up in their basement with a full-sized bar, dart board, big screen television (with speakers even in the bathroom!), a pool table...its a great place to watch a game!

Not that this is an earth-shattering revelation to anyone but I thought I should at least thank them for putting up with all of us most of the time!

~ Glenn

Radio Gaga

Show 36 Links!


Happy Thanksgiving!

It was tough going on air this week with the Steeler-Bengal game still undecided, but I had faith on my home team and they came through!

By the way...the REFS SUCK! Honestly, can't the NFL afford to hire younger guys who can keep up with the play? How can they make a call when they can't even breath after running downfield!?!?

Still, I have to give props to the fans of the Bengals...they have to go through some really tough times with that team!

So since it was the Thanksgiving show we had some great comedy bits from Lewis Black, Adam Sandler and some wonderful older stuff from Andy Griffith!

After the closing credits it was time for weird news!

1) A cougar attacked! And it wasn't the hot kind of courgar either!
2) A German supermarket chain got caught poisoning their garbage to keep the homeless away. Funny, maybe they could just have GIVEN it to them since they were throwing it away anyway?3) A woman hid a rotting corpse in her bathroom so she could continue collecting the social security for her religious leader. I had two jokes...listen to hear them...they're funnier that way!4) Wisconsin water authority threatned a lien on a blind, 74 year old woman's house because she owed 1 cent from last year. Yea, she never saw that one coming....


NEXT WEEK:

A one hour show!

I'm going back to my love for local radio and playing back a 45 minute program recorded live at a local hospital and performed by my daughters school. Its Christmas carols and musical presentations.

I feel its important to support our local communities even in the age of a global community via the world wide web.

Join me!




~ Glenn

Here we go...

Frustrating loss for the Steelers today.

Everything seemed to bounce the right way for the colts with a tipped pass going for a touchdown (btw...the most used phrase used during a Steeler broadcast? "In front of Ike Taylor") and another tipped ball completed for a first down.

Add in some untimely Big Ben INTs and it added up to a game the Steelers could have won bu did not.

So now they find themselves tied for first place with the Baltimore Ravens and holding the tie-breaker at this point.

I have two complaints about the game:

1) Bruce Arians calls an awful game. He mixes everything perfectly for about two drives a game...the rest of the time he has a knack for calling the exact wrong play.

2) I spent the better part of 30 minutes explaining to my guests during the game that the left tackle of the Colts was regularly tackling our DE. Yet ZERO holding penalties were called on the Colts.

The inconsistency of calls (especially holding) is very frustrating for me. It seems like certain teams never get called and holding only gets called during plays that go for positive yardage...even if the hold had nothing to do with the play.

But this loss falls on the Steelers who played fairly well despite their injury situation.

They are in the middle of a tough stretch and a win today would have been great...but they are professionals and need to shake it off and get ready for next Sunday!

GO STEELERS!!