Steelers must spell Mendenhall

By Dejan Kovacevic, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Wednesday, August 10, 2011

LATROBE, PA - JULY 29: Rashard Mendenhall(notes) #34 of the Pittsburgh Steelers puts his helmet on during training camp on July 29, 2011 at St Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

Flash forward to Baltimore on the 11th of September: Rashard Mendenhall bursts through a hole in the Steelers' line but is barreled backward by the Ravens' Ray Lewis. His ankle bends awkwardly. He is carted off the field, cringing in pain.

Mike Tomlin looks down his sideline and sends in ...

No easy answer, is there?

Well, the Steelers had better find one, sooner rather than later.

Mendenhall has been one part force, two parts workhorse the past two seasons, with 627 carries and 2,611 yards, including playoffs. That's the third-most carries in the NFL in that span. Yeah, he's 24 years young, tough, durable, and he holds onto the football more often than James Harrison thinks. But this is a grind not even Earl Campbell could sustain.

Not that anyone concerned will acknowledge it.

I asked Mendenhall about his workload yesterday at St. Vincent College, and he came back flatly: "That's part of the game, part of your job as a running back. I'm preparing to carry whatever load I'm given."

Kirby Wilson, the Steelers' running backs coach, shrugged it off, too: "He's fine. He's a young man. He's built for it, and we feel like he's a special runner. Why take him off the field?"

Why?

Where do I start?

In an era in which most teams have running back tandems — Baltimore, for instance, just added Ricky Williams to back up Ray Rice — Mendenhall has accounted for an alarming 62.7 percent of the Steelers' carries the past two seasons. Of the league's top 15 rushing teams last season, the Steelers, who ranked 10th, had the lowest-ranking No. 2 rusher in Isaac Redman with 247 yards.

Moreover, Mendenhall isn't exactly the tiptoeing type. His 1,273 yards last season ranked seventh in the league, but his average of 3.9 yards per carry was the 11th-lowest of the top 50 in total rushing yardage. And remember how the goal line was supposed to be Redman's specialty after his spectacular showing in last year's camp?

Mendenhall was just too good down there and finished with 13 rushing touchdowns to Redman's zero.

The Steelers are going to run more than most seem to think. They did so 47.4 percent of the time last season, they've got uncertainty at wide receiver, and they now have run-blocking ace Willie Colon back at right tackle as part of an offense that loves to run to the right.

Somehow, someone else needs to get involved at running back.

But again, who?

Wilson answered "probably Mewelde Moore," and that's understandable to an extent: Moore, 29, is in his eighth season, he was Tomlin's choice for four starts in 2008 to replace injured Willie Parker, and he isn't far off when he calls himself "one of the best third-down backs in the game." But first and second down count, too. Moore is far from a feature back.

Baron Batch, the seventh-round draft pick, has been the buzz of camp, barreling through defenders as easily as he sprints around end. Kid looks like a keeper. But he's bound for special teams for now.

Of the rest of the backs, the only one who entered camp with a realistic chance, Jonathan Dwyer, has shown up out of shape and deserves to be among the first cuts.

So let's see more of Redman.

The pedigree looks suspect, I'll admit. He was an undrafted free agent two years ago out of Division II Bowie State, spent 2009 on the Steelers' practice squad, then made just 52 carries last season. But he's a bullish 230 pounds, he picks up blitzes and, even though he's just an average receiver, it's hard to forget that touchdown catch in Baltimore last season after Troy Polamalu's brilliant strip of Joe Flacco.

The Steelers at least sound open-minded about using Redman more.

"That's why we have him here," Wilson said. "Isaac is someone who's made exciting plays for us when he's been out there, someone who has another level. We think highly of him."

Redman is markedly more blunt on the subject.

"Rashard had a lot of carries, and a man's body can only take so much. Hopefully they'll send some of those my way," Redman said with a smile. "Hey, this has turned into a two-back league. We all know that. I'm trying to step up and make this a tandem."

It's a step worth taking.

Batch is a rookie on the field but not in life

Sunday, August 07, 2011
By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

In this photo from Sunday, July 31, 2011, Pittsburgh Steelers running back Baron Batch(notes) (35) runs the ball during training camp at the NFL football team's practice facility in Latrobe, Pa. Steelers' veteran running back Mewelde Moore(notes) and rookies Baron Batch and John Clay(notes) are fighting for playing time behind starter Rashard Mendenhall(notes). (AP)

Mike Tomlin reacts with the same simple, flat, declarative sentence every time somebody asks him about Baron Batch.

"He's a rookie."

Which is a truth self-evident, but sometimes, we hold these truths to be wholly inadequate.

"Until he does something in a stadium," Tomlin said again here the other day, "I'm sticking with that statement."

Batch might never play a game in an NFL stadium, as seventh-round draft picks out of Texas Tech or anywhere else with the dimensions of a fairly standard human (5-10, 210) don't automatically assimilate to a professional roster, but you don't even have to ask Batch if that matters.

"Whether I play a down in the NFL or not," he wrote recently, "I am proud to say I am very much OK without football."

Batch's young life is an open book, or rather an open blog, so when you see the kind of move he put on an approaching linebacker here at Saint Vincent the other day, the kind of quick-twitch reflexive genius that sends young players and old observers alike into hoots of astonishment, you don't have to wonder where a person could have learned to run like that.

You just go to the blog.

And the blog is a wonder. It's called "Baron Batch, the Life and Happenings of Me. Enjoy."

Turns out he could have learned moves like that playing tag with four siblings on the roof of the West Texas trailer they grew up in.

Tag on the roof? Dangerous?

That's how little they had to lose.

Or he could have learned moves like that running the halls of that hospital where his mom died from multiple sclerosis when he was 15, when he ran in them all night, not knowing where, just running through the tears until he vomited and went to sleep.

How Baron Batch went from the torment of those halls, from the abandonment by his father and the agonizing decline of his mother, to the 23-year-old who gets email like the one that follows has to be one of the most compelling stories anyone has ever lugged to Latrobe for a Steelers summer.

"Dear Baron, Thank you for taking the time to read this email. I have a few questions and am asking for advice. How have you become so successful? How have you achieved what you have? I envy you, but you are also my hero. My family doesn't have much. I don't have the perfect life and the talents or skills that you have. I feel like the world is against me sometimes. My parents are divorced and my mom is sick. I have brothers and a sister that I have to take care of like I am a parent. I don't think it's fair. I feel like I will rot in this town that I'm in. I feel like there is no way out. I feel like my life isn't that important.

"I would like to hear any advice that you could give."

Batch's response ran hard and passionate toward 3,000 words, about childhood, repressed memory, faith, the heart, the soul, the spirit, temperament, grinding poverty, disease, anger, grief, life, death, bad hair days, and hope. Mostly hope.

So the demands of training camp on the clueless rookies aren't about to intimidate Baron Batch. In fact, some of the loudest, fiercest collisions of Saint Vincent's first full week have come from Batch's rattling blocks. He lit up free agent cornerback Donovan Warren on Thursday and held his own multiple times against James Harrison.

"I'm just trying to get better," he said on the field the other day. "I'm not aware of any particular reaction to what I'm doing. One or two things aren't going to make the team for me. The whole thing has just been an enormous learning experience, and the other running backs are doing a tremendous job helping me out."

Batch said he hasn't had time to update the blog in awhile, so we'll just have to content ourselves with its standing components, the evocative writing, the gorgeous photography, the soothing songs he chooses as the audio backdrop (forced to sing in the cafeteria to fulfill a rookie ritual, he went Four Tops -- "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch"), and the haunting pictures of the Haitian children he took on an Operation Hope mission in January. They're selling for $150, with the proceeds enabling those kids to attend school. Batch was hoping to sell 15 of them. More than 100 have been purchased, and his goal is to raise nearly a quarter of a million dollars.

That might happen whether or not he forces Tomlin to say something more expansive about him come September.

For now, he's just a rookie, one who appears to run with fluidity, block earnestly and catch if necessary.

But in a league that's been forced to establish its own little side industry in the redemption and reclamation business, rehabilitating dog abusers and gun toters and DUI cowboys and quarterbacks who go bump in the night, the question probably isn't whether Baron Batch is good enough for the NFL. It might be the reverse.

Thanks for the memories

Monday, August 08, 2011

By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

PITTSBURGH - AUGUST 05: Pedro Alvarez(notes) #24 of the Pittsburgh Pirates bare hands a ground ball against the San Diego Padres during the game on August 5, 2011 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

Children ran the bases Sunday at PNC Park, as always, hordes of 'em rounding third, three and four abreast, or was that still the Padres?

There are plenty of statistical snapshots out there trying to illustrate the underside of a 10-game Pirates losing streak, but two stand out.

First, consider that Aug. 7, San Diego fielded a lineup that included no player with as many as seven homers, no player with as many as 30 RBIs, but against this Pirates pitching staff, still had scored a franchise-record 28 runs in the two previous games.

Second, the weekend series started with the Pirates slashing 15 hits Friday night and still losing by 10 runs.

"The results aren't what anybody wants, but I'm very confident this staff is growing up before our eyes," manager Clint Hurdle offered after the Pirates finally held 'em to a touchdown in the finale of a lost homestand. "It's all part of the experience. I still believe in our staff. It's through these kinds of challenges that it's gonna make them better, and better quicker."

Hurdle has done an admirable job of keeping his composure even as a staff most expected to fade in the second half instead just sailed off the edge of the earth. Hurdle has described his pitchers as a pitch-to-contact outfit, but no one has pitched to contact like this since the kamikaze pilots.

National media darlings for about 48 hours there at one point, the Pirates now take it back to the road tonight in San Francisco, with an appointment schedule that includes nothing but world champions, Brewers, Cardinals and Reds between now and Aug. 29. Those teams probably will notice the new improved slogan: Your 2011 Pirates, same awful hitting, now with terrible pitching.

Wasn't it just July 28 when actor Michael Keaton was gushing all over the section front in USA Today about how revved up he and Pirates fans coast-to-coast were about this team?

"It doesn't get better than this," said Keaton, a Coraopolis native.

Keaton is now 2 for 2 on conspicuous Pirates observations. He said famously after throwing out an opening day first pitch once that at some point, "somebody's gotta write a check," and now, having identified the season's high point, he's right again. The club is 1-11 since he made that statement.

It was only a week ago this team returned from Philadelphia after a predictably damaging road trip that started in Atlanta, but it took a weeklong nosedive against dysfunctional National League teams Chicago and San Diego to end this season fairly definitively.

"I never thought we'd throw up a donut at home," Hurdle said.

I like the verb choice.

But candidly, now that it's over, I would like to thank the Pirates for a refreshingly interesting summer. Thanks to Frank Coonelly and Neal Huntington for taking a shot at the trade deadline by adding major league bats without yanking the rug from the project as a whole. Thanks to Hurdle and his coaching staff, particularly Ray Searage, for keeping a demonstrably dreadful pitching staff competitive for almost two-thirds of a season.

Even with a 10-game losing streak that's more likely to elongate than snap, the Pirates are 54-59. At this point a year ago, they were 39-74.

And obviously, thanks to the players for approaching every game as though they intended to win it despite massive empirical evidence that they likely wouldn't. It was they who made possible the near-unimaginable experience of watching a ballgame on the North Side of Pittsburgh determine who was in first place in late July and having it turn out to be the home team.

That actually happened. We weren't all on acid.

My own exceedingly marginal contribution was in urging the recall of Pedro Alvarez from Indianapolis July 25, and ever since, he has been the worst player on the field, if not the worst in the big leagues.

No need to thank me.

Through Sunday, he had 62 strikeouts and 37 hits and was hitting .206. The three double-plays he hit into Friday night were the main component in the answer to the question "How do you get 15 hits and lose by 10 runs?"

At the same time, a lot of Pirates actually have hit too well and pitched too well to be associated with this 10-game framework in which they have been outscored, 82-37.

"Nobody feels sorry for professional athletes when they deal with adversity; I don't," Hurdle said pointedly Sunday before the game. "You can feel embarrassed, you can feel humiliated, you can feel a lot of things. We are afforded an opportunity to have a lifestyle that's pretty comfortable. To have to deal with on-field adversity, like [playing] 20 games in a row, I got no time for that. I don't.

"Drive around the neighborhood around here Sunday morning, six o'clock, 12 o'clock at night. You want to talk about a game bein' hard vs. life bein' hard? That's the mental toughness part of it that everybody can improve upon as they get older."

Mental toughness is still on the to-do list for this recovering franchise. So is finding better players. But for 95 games, much deeper in the season than anyone could have dreamed, this team had a place among the better teams in baseball.

For people who remember that as the norm, it was darn near wonderful.

Analysis: What happened to Pirates' pitching?

By Dejan Kovacevic, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Monday, August 8, 2011

PITTSBURGH - AUGUST 07: Kevin Correia(notes) #29 of the Pittsburgh Pirates is pulled by manager Clint Hurdle #13 in front of teammate Ryan Doumit(notes) #41 during the game against the San Diego Padres on August 7, 2011 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

So, what went wrong?

The obvious culprit in the Pirates' epic collapse, including the 7-3 loss to San Diego yesterday at PNC Park that extended a losing streak to 10 games, is the pitching that led to their stunning ascent to the top of the Central Division.

And the equally obvious explanation would appear to be fatigue, even if those taking the mound disagree.

"I wouldn't say that at all," Charlie Morton said. "I mean, you always get tired. Baseball's a game of peaks and valleys. But being tired as an excuse? No."

"Hey, I felt like Nolan Ryan last time I went out," Jeff Karstens said of his nine-run blow-up Friday.

Still, the results have been as cruel as the clear correlation: On July 25, the Pirates were 53-47 and in first place, the pitchers owning a 3.17 ERA. Since then, they are 1-12 and 10 games out of the race, the ERA at 6.19 for that span.

Some of that simply must be fatigue, as others in the organization will attest. But dig deeper with some advanced metrics, and it's easy to see there is an element of the Pirates' pitchers having been due some serious comeuppance:

• Through July 25, opponents had a .289 batting average on all balls put in play (BABIP), a statistic that distinguishes how much help a pitcher gets from his defense or from mere good luck. That figure was below the National League median of .295. Since July 25, it's a whopping .349.

• Some aren't even staying in the park. Through July 25, opponents homered on 9.2 percent of all fly balls, right around league average. Since then, they have homered on 15.2 percent, by far the worst such total in the past two weeks.

• The Pirates' pitch-to-contact staff averages just 6.3 strikeouts per nine innings, second lowest in the majors, which puts heavy pressure on the defense and on the pitchers to keep the ball in the ballpark.

• The Pirates have stranded 76 percent of their runners, second-best rate in the league, and that tends to be unsustainable.

"They'd all been so good for so long." general manger Neal Huntington said. "A variety of factors came together at one time and ... well, we've gotten our heads handed to us more often than we'd like."

About a month ago, management met to prepare for this possibility, based on the numbers.

"Our organization deals in a lot of those metrics, and we talked about how we'd pitched for three or four months and the expectancy as we moved forward," manager Clint Hurdle said. "Especially with a pitch-to-contact staff, you expect more contact, so you could anticipate more offense from the opponents. But, to the degree we've seen lately, it's been way more."

It has been 15 home runs in the past six games, one into the Allegheny River and several other moon shots. And even the weak-hitting Padres scored 28 times Friday and Saturday.

"Water finds its own level, as they say," Hurdle said. "If the water is really high, it's going to dip."

Although the pitchers are reluctant to acknowledge fatigue, pitching coach Ray Searage is not. But he doesn't point to arm fatigue.

"What I'm seeing is that our legs are a little bit tired, and that's going to relate to your arm," Searage said. "That's why they call these the dog days of August. We basically laid it all out there for the first three or four months, and you're starting to see that now."

Karstens has been the Pirates' best starter, but he also has stranded an incredible 85 percent of runners, and 17 of his 21 home runs were solo shots. All that boomeranged Friday, when nine of his 10 runners touched home plate and Chase Headley belted a grand slam. Karstens already has exceeded his innings total from last season, though not his pitch count, and he will need to show he can handle a full season.

"That's not an issue at all," Karstens said. "We'll all show that."

Maholm has been next best, but the Padres lit him up for seven runs in 6 2/3 innings Saturday, and his ERA swelled from 3.17 to 3.54. Kevin Correia, after a strong two months won him an All-Star invitation, now has a 4.78 ERA. Morton lost his dynamite sinker sometime in late May and didn't rediscover it until this past Wednesday. And James McDonald has been inconsistent and inefficient.

"This is something we're going to have to learn from," Searage said. "Some of these guys are experiencing this for the first time. My job is to stay positive."

In the bullpen, closer Joel Hanrahan has remained strong -- on those rare occasions he pitches, anyway -- but Jose Veras, Chris Resop and Daniel McCutchen have worn down, perhaps not coincidentally beginning with that 19-inning loss July 26 in Atlanta.

But this has been about the starting pitching, for better or worse, as those in the rotation seem to realize.

"It's on us," Maholm said. "We're the ones who go out there and pitch. We're going through a rough stretch. No one is happy, from the fans to anyone who plays the game. We have to turn it back around."

Get a grip on expectations

By Dejan Kovacevic, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Monday, August 8, 2011

PITTSBURGH - AUGUST 07: Garrett Jones(notes) #46 of the Pittsburgh Pirates misplays a ball in right field while avoiding a collision with teammate Neil Walker(notes) #18 during the game the San Diego Padres on August 7, 2011 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

Kevin Correia fell apart after two outs, Daniel McCutchen's wild pitch to a pitcher scored a run, the hitters kept flailing, the infield throws kept sailing, and 35,601 left PNC Park yesterday with long faces.

Add it up, multiply by 10, and that's pretty much the impact of the 7-3 loss to San Diego that carried this mega-meltdown into double digits and capped maybe the most deflating homestand in the franchise's 125 years.

"Honestly, something like this, losing 10 in a row, that's tough under any circumstance," shortstop Brandon Wood told me in another music-free clubhouse. "But to do this after being in first place ... man, that hurts."

It has stung the fan base, too, including the newcomers. And some are outright angry, barking on talk shows, booing rookies, blaming the manager for unsalvageable lineups, calling Jerry Meals' safe call a curse and ... well, maybe this is a good time for everyone to get a grip.

Refocus on 82, I say.

An 82-win season remains in reach at 54-59, and it would be a shame to see this group come this far only to lug that ignominious streak into a 19th year. Eighty-two wins would represent a 25-game improvement over 57-105 last year, matching the greatest in franchise history set in 1891-92.

Here are 10 areas, in order of importance, the Pirates still can address to view this season as a success:

10. Stop the bunts. Now.

Yeah, this is small, but there is something terribly incongruous about an offense with Major League Baseball's fifth-lowest on-base percentage, .245, having the second-most sacrifice bunts (59) and fifth-most caught-stealings (38). And this is to say nothing of other baserunning blunders.

Whatever school taught Clint Hurdle his bunting philosophy was boarded up long ago. Outs are gold.

9. Sign the No. 1 pick.

It's been under the public radar because of the major league team's rise and fall, but the Pirates have until a week from today to sign No. 1 overall pick Gerrit Cole, the flame-throwing right-hander from UCLA. That could cost into eight figures and represent the greatest single expenditure in franchise history.

This isn't optional.

8. Extend Neal Huntington.

I know team president Frank Coonelly has tried to downplay his general manager working deep into a lame-duck season by saying, "I expect Neal will be here for many years to come."

Fine, so grab a pen and get it done. It's starting to get weird.

7. Get rid of Joel Hanrahan.

Or threaten to do so, anyway.

Huntington's first task once he gets extended could be to issue a use-Hanrahan-or-lose-him decree to Hurdle, who inexplicably, indefensibly allowed his All-Star closer to fiddle -- just 41/3 cameo innings out of 125 innings pitched these past 13 games -- while the season burned to the ground.

It's about wins, not saves.

6. Settle the outfield.

When Jose Tabata and Alex Presley return, their performance could help dictate the Pirates' offensive approach for years to come: Should Huntington build an outfield on speed or power?

I know this: I want to see more of Presley, even if Ryan Ludwick sits.

5. Fix Pedro Alvarez.

Even if it means sending him down the rest of this month.

I've maintained from the outset that nothing in 2011 matters more to the Pirates' future than Alvarez, their only power-hitting prospect, making significant strides. Nothing has changed that view, but much more time at the Mendoza Line -- he's at .206 -- could begin to change the outlook.

4. Sustain the starters.

Correia is a shadow of an All-Star, Charlie Morton and James McDonald can't get through six or seven innings, and even Jeff Karstens and Paul Maholm have shown kinks. We'll know before long if the team's most instrumental area was a mirage.

3. Beat the Brewers.

At least once, you know?

Hurdle and his players have blown through a lot of barriers, but this one will be wholly intact when they reach Milwaukee next weekend: The Brewers have won all five meetings this season, 33 of the past 36.

2. Make the playoffs.

This is absurd, of course, with the Pirates now 10 games back. But there's no good reason for this group to shift focus. The next 16 games are against the other three teams atop the Central Division, and a surge would at least restore some of that contending feeling.

Besides, as Hurdle said yesterday when I asked about long-term goals, "Hey, we're not dealing with today's game well."

1. Win 82.

I'll save you the math: They need to go 28-21 the rest of the way.

Ex-Pirate Jackie Hernandez, a captivating champion who made a lasting impression on me

By Joe Capozzi
The Palm Beach Post
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports/
Aug. 7, 2011

MIAMI — The last time I could recall seeing Jackie Hernandez, I was sitting in front of a bulky television set with my family in suburban Pittsburgh. I was 7 years old, but I remember it clearly because it was the moment I became addicted to baseball.

On the TV screen in our living room, Hernandez, the shortstop for the Pirates, glides to his left behind second base. He cuts off a grounder up the middle at the edge of the outfield grass, plants his feet, and fires to first base.

Bob Robertson catches the throw and thrusts his arms into the air. Then, my parents and two brothers and I see something I had never seen before - players jumping for joy and piling on top of each other.

Caught up in the excitement, we grab pots and pans from the kitchen and run into the street to bang them together, our way of celebrating the Pirates' World Series victory over Baltimore on Oct. 17, 1971.

Nearly 40 years later, I'm captivated by Hernandez again.

He's 70 years old and sitting on a folding chair at a batting range five minutes from Sun Life Stadium. A cigarette between his lips, a thermos of Cuban coffee at his feet, he's pulling baseballs from a bucket and flipping them to teenagers swinging aluminum bats.

His hair is gray and a goatee frames his mouth, but he has the same wiry frame I remember in the No. 2 uniform of the '71 Bucs.

"I wanted that ball. I wanted to make that last out. Ain't nothing better than that in baseball," Hernandez shouts from his stool, recalling the last play of Game 7 of the World Series. "That was the best thing that ever happened in my life in baseball.'

Hernandez was never an All-Star or a Gold Glove winner. He batted just .208 over nine seasons, from 1965 through '73.

But he was the kind of scrappy player who made a lasting impression on my childhood in the same way Glenn Beckert did for a kid growing up in Chicago or Bobby Tolan for a kid growing up in Cincinnati or Bud Harrelson for a kid in New York.

"We celebrated for three days in Pittsburgh," Hernandez shouts through a stream of "pings" as his students swat balls into a net. "You know how (the travel time from) the airport to downtown is 40, 45 minutes? Took us five hours to get there, because from the airport to downtown there were cars and cars and people and people.'

Hernandez credits the great Roberto Clemente for getting him to Pittsburgh. After playing together in the Puerto Rican winter league, he says Clemente put in a word with the Pirates front office about a shortstop they should go after.

After Pittsburgh got Hernandez in a trade with the Kansas City Royals before the '71 season, he made an error in one of his first games for the Pirates.

"Ball went right through my legs and we lost the game,' he says. "When I got to the dugout, I was crying. Clemente put his arm over my shoulder and said, 'No, no. You don't need to do that. We back you up here.' After that, my head was up every minute.'

Hernandez returned to Pittsburgh in June for a 40th anniversary celebration when the Pirates hosted an interleague series with the Orioles.

He still sees many of his old teammates and baseball friends in Miami. They often visit the batting range he has operated for 17 years with close friend and Cuban countryman Paul Casanova, a catcher for the Washington Senators and Atlanta Braves from 1965-74.

An hour into his lesson, Hernandez stamps out a cigarette and tells his kids to take a break. It's time for him to pose for a photographer, who instructs him to hold a bat.

Four snaps into the shoot, Hernandez suddenly drops down to bunt, momentarily startling the photographer the same way he used to surprise Bob Gibson or Tom Seaver.

"This was my specialty,' Hernandez says, grinning between hunched shoulders.

And for a moment, it's 1971 again.

Steelers must sustain fear factor

By Dejan Kovacevic, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Friday, August 5, 2011

LATROBE, PA - JULY 29: Troy Polamalu(notes) #43 of the Pittsburgh Steelers watches his teammates during training camp on July 29, 2011 at St Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

Troy Polamalu isn't about to pull aside some rookie here at St. Vincent College, grit his teeth and grill the kid on how the Steelers' defense instills fear in opponents.

"I don't think it's something that's ever talked about," Polamalu told me before practice the other day. "I think that when people come here ... you just see right away that they don't fit in. Like, we don't have raw cover corners here. I've seen great cover corners in these camps who just didn't make our team."

So, I came back, how does one fit in?

"I just think we play football in its purest form," he said, "and that's hitting and tackling, regardless of what the rules may say."

Polamalu laughed, but this topic isn't shaping up to be a joke this season. Ask me, and there is no more pressing priority for the Steelers in 2011 and beyond than retaining that fear factor within the NFL's new guidelines for hitting.

We're talking about the very foundation of a half-century of football excellence, from the drafting of "Mean" Joe Greene to the toothless snarl of Jack Lambert, the fury of Mel Blount, the dark disposition of Greg Lloyd, the hot-headed rants of Joey Porter and, yeah, even those fans' hoagie sales last year aimed at paying James Harrison's fines.

Is it any wonder the Steelers griped more about Roger Goodell than the other 31 teams combined in advance of the labor agreement, not least of which was their team-wide rejection of the pact yesterday?

They're defending their identity.

"The Steelers do have that mystique, but you've got to keep that through your play," said Ryan Clark, the hard-hitting safety and union rep who is by far the loudest of those protesting mouths. "It's very important for teams to know that you can't come across the middle and not be hit, for teams to know you can't run away from James Harrison because he'll seek you out. That's who we are."

As only he can, Clark digressed deftly into a boxing analogy.

"It's kind of like that Mike Tyson mystique. Before Buster Douglas beat him, nobody even wanted to step into the ring with him. But once Tyson lost, then people felt like there was a blueprint. They wanted to get into that ring. That's why you can't let go of what you've got."

He's right. At the veteran level, the hardest hitters must maintain the same approach, even as they adjust away from the head, away from opponents deemed vulnerable. They still need to hit to hurt.

Harrison, of all people, provided the best example late last season. He hated the fines to the point of threatening retirement, but he didn't tone down his aggression even as he picked up no further punishment despite all eyes watching.

Funny thing is, the man won't admit that he or the Steelers changed a thing. Nor that they should.

"That's just our defense," Harrison said. "We're going to play the game within the rules, whatever the changes may be or even if they make any more. We're going to go out and hit people in the mouth. Every year, it's a different thing they're saying you can or can't do. It's no different than any other year."

Hey, whatever works. If Harrison takes a pay-to-play mindset into the game but still keeps the new guidelines in the back of his mind, he'll remain a dangerous — and feared —player. Sounds like it might be workable for all of the team's hardest hitters, actually.

"We've just got to go out there and play," Clark said. "Let them worry about what's legal or not."

The earliest stages of camp have set the tone, judging by coach Mike Tomlin's terrific assessment of one session this week: "Some licks were passed. In some instances, the hits were high technically. In others, we weren't violent enough." Lawrence Timmons leveled Rashard Mendenhall in one drill. Harrison was banging shoulders with rookie running back Baron Batch in another.

The latter might have been one of those silent indoctrinations Polamalu described.

"Oh, we all know as rookies, believe me," said Cam Heyward, the first-round pick and iron-headed defensive end. "If you want to play for this team, you've got to be aggressive. It's almost like a rite of passage: Show no mercy."

When the Steelers do, you can kiss that half-century of excellence goodbye.

Just ask the guy who started it all.

"This 'D' needs to be who they are," said Greene, observing in camp as a special assistant. "This isn't tennis. This isn't golf. It's a rough, tough game. You need to make guys afraid to line up against you. These players will do that, and they'll adjust. You'll see. They just need to think out there."



The new rules

The NFL's new safety guidelines, approved in May, prohibit "forcibly hitting the neck or head area" of any player. They also prohibit hits against a player in a "defenseless posture," which was redefined as the following:

>> A player in the act or just after throwing a pass

>> A receiver attempting to catch a pass or one who has not completed a catch and hasn't had time to protect himself or hasn't clearly become a runner

>> A runner whose forward progress has been stopped

>> A kickoff or punt returner attempting to field a kick in the air

>> A player on the ground at the end of a play

>> A kicker/punter during a return

>> A quarterback any time after a turnover

>> A player who receives a blindside block when the blocker is moving toward his own end-line and approaches the opponent from behind or the side

Source: NFL