Mystery Disease Kills Thousands
Ron Paul, Rick Santorum Suggest Foul Play From Romney Campaign
A world-class, 23-year-old athlete blasted a batting practice home run that bounced out of PNC Park yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately for the Pittsburgh Pirates, the athlete in question was crosstown hockey star, Sidney Crosby. Crosby was there with eight of his teammates as a guest of former Pirate and Pittsburgh native Sean Casey. Crosby's blast was estimated at 360 feet and it skipped over the top wall of PNC Park's right field grandstand and down onto the stadium's River Walk. After hitting the homer, Crosby gave a brief interview to PittsburghPenguins.com (you can see both the homer and the interview in the video embedded below the jump) and tried to downplay the homer by mentioning that he played baseball until he was 13 and that it's easy to hit a homer to right in PNC.
At 23, Crosby is younger than three of the four young players who debuted in the last two seasons that the Pirates are hoping help turn their franchise around. (Andrew McCutchen and Pedro Alvarez are both 23 but with birthdays before Crosby's in August and Neil Walker is turning 25 tomorrow; 21-year-old Jose Tabata is the only one of the four that's younger.) It's also worth mentioning that by hitting one homer, Sidney Crosby out-homered former Pirate Bobby Crosby in PNC Park this year. Bobby hit his only Pirate home run on the road before being traded (though I guess he may have hit a couple over the fence in batting practice).
While no one would accuse the Pirates' quartet of slouching thus far early in their careers (McCutchen had a great rookie campaign that put him in contention for last year's Rookie of the Year Award while Tabata and Walker are turning in fine rookie seasons this year and Alvarez became the first Pirate in nearly 25 years to blast multiple homers in back-to-back games), they've got a long ways to go to match Crosby's accomplishments up the banks of the Monongahela River. In his five NHL seasons he's led the league in goals once, total points once, won an MVP Award, and helped the Penguins hoist the Stanley Cup in the summer of 2009.
If Crosby ever has a Michael Jordan-type mid-career crisis, I don't think Pirate fans would complain if he wanted to move down the river.
Debt Ceiling Showdown 2: Coming This Fall, In Time For The Election, Only Worse
Obama Sending Ambitious Plan To Congress
Bomb Attacks Target Israeli Diplomats In India, Georgia
Adele Wins Album Of The Year
Updates On Whitney Houston's Autopsy
WATCH: Anderson Cooper's Hilarious Adventures With Adele
It's Only Getting Worse: Economists' Latest Dire Prediction
WATCH: Bill Maher Rips GOP Concept Of 'Elites'
Even In A Time Of Budget Austerity, Sacramento Stands Out
Greek Protests Continue As Lawmakers Debate Severe Austerity Measures
Quake Rocks Costa Rica
Country Considers Bills Lifting Gay-Marriage Ban
The Week's 5 Juiciest Apple Rumors
Michael Smerconish: A Response to Sean Hannity
Huff TV: WATCH: Arianna Talks Safety Net Benefits On CNN's 'Your Bottom Line'
Costa Concordia Video Shows Crew Reactions To Cruise Crash
GOP Bill Would Strip Workers Of Overtime, Minimum Wage Protections
Mitch McConnell Not Accepting Obama Compromise
Paul Ryan On Obama's 'Accounting Trick'
