Mark Madden stories, Page 12

NHL free agency doesn’t start till July 1, but it’s OK to do some window shopping now. After all, NFL Draft geeks already have started doing mocks for 2025. Two players the Penguins should take a good look at both played for Toronto this past season: winger Tyler Bertuzzi and...

In the seasons of wither, we’ll stand and deliver. Be strong and laugh and shout at the refreshing sports notes. I’m sure you’ve heard it all before… • Andrew McCutchen is hitting .182 with 31 strikeouts in 88 at-bats. The Pirates have scored 121 runs, ranking 24th in MLB. They...

Todd Reirden is a sacrificial lamb. Like ex-Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada before him. Next up: Pirates hitting coach Andy Haines. Canada got blamed for not being able to polish excrement, specifically quarterback Kenny Pickett. Haines is taking heat because, for one thing, Oneil Cruz never learned how to...

The Najee Harris situation is being blown out of proportion. Like all situations involving the Pittsburgh Steelers. Not picking up Harris’ fifth-year option wasn’t a good decision or a bad one. It was a meh decision involving a meh player. Harris still will be a Steeler this coming season. He’s playing...

Mike Sullivan probably won’t leave the Pittsburgh Penguins to take New Jersey’s vacant coaching position this offseason. Toronto probably will be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, triggering Sheldon Keefe’s dismissal as Maple Leafs coach. It’s easy to see Keefe replacing Sullivan in Pittsburgh at some point. Keefe...

The NFL Draft is mercifully over. But the hype preceding wasn’t the low point. The post-draft is even worse. The draft itself was pretty cockeyed, too. More than three-quarters of a million people gathered in downtown Detroit. This wasn’t Woodstock. It was young people being assigned a workplace with no...

With phenom flamethrower Paul Skenes likely to join the Pittsburgh Pirates in mid-May or a bit later, it’s time to map out the game plan for Skenes’ first MLB start. It will definitely take place at PNC Park. The Pirates aren’t dumb when it comes to matters of profit. There’s...

The Pittsburgh Steelers got a player they wanted in the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday, selecting Washington tackle Troy Fautanu. Good pick? Bad pick? Who knows? Franchise-changing pick? Not this year and not likely. The Steelers need a four- or five-win season if they want to draft that...

The NFL Draft is anything but an exact science, and the hype surrounding it is a myth. Mike Tomlin bleats about the Pittsburgh Steelers being “prepared,” but every team is equally prepared. Every team has the same resources, information and video. The only difference is how talent available to be...

Conventional wisdom says the Pittsburgh Steelers will take an offensive lineman with their first pick of the NFL Draft, 20th overall. Either a tackle or center. Whichever of those two positions isn’t addressed with that choice, they will likely select in the second round. That’s smart. If it’s the ’70s....

If you need reason not to trust the Pittsburgh Pirates’ developmental process, look no further than the most obvious example. Shortstop Oneil Cruz is 25, has all the raw talent in the world and doesn’t know how to play baseball. Cruz missed almost all of last season after breaking his...

The Pittsburgh Penguins need to understand what they are. They are underdogs. They have been for quite some time. Yes, you can be an underdog with Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin. The evidence is plentiful, not least finishing 10th in a terrible conference with 38 wins and 44...

The Pittsburgh Penguins will miss the playoffs for a second straight season. It feels like an eternity. Or like Buffalo. Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust deserve better. Not many others do. Those who frustrated outnumber those who didn’t. These players are the most disappointing: 1. Erik Karlsson. $11.5 million doesn’t...

Just remember, man, quarterbacks come and go, but Wu-Tang is forever. Here’s some refreshing sports notes that ain’t nothing to, uh … mess wit’. • I got a close-up look at Russell Wilson, wife Ciara and their entourage in the catacombs of PPG Paints Arena after Saturday’s Pittsburgh Penguins game....

With the Arizona Coyotes likely headed to Salt Lake City, it’s easy to dismiss hockey in Phoenix as a failed experiment. The Coyotes currently play in a college rink that seats just 4,600. Ownership can’t get a new arena built. The Coyotes rarely have drawn big in Phoenix, not even...

Whatever good happens to the Pittsburgh Penguins at season’s end, nobody but Sidney Crosby truly will deserve. Very rarely can a win be an utter travesty, but Thursday’s debacle of a 6-5 overtime victory over Detroit at PPG Paints Arena fits that description. That said, the Penguins winning in three-on-three...

David Bednar should not be relieved of his duties as Pittsburgh Pirates closer after blowing three saves in the season’s early going. Bednar led the National League in saves with 39 last season and had an ERA of 2.00. That’s a big sample. This year, so far, is a small...

Sidney Crosby has had better seasons. More productive. Higher numbers. He’s previously won the best of the NHL’s awards. This year, he’s being discussed for mere Miss Congeniality-level hardware. He has three Stanley Cup rings. The Pittsburgh Penguins won’t come close this year. But if Crosby drags the decidedly meh...

Much about sports coverage these days revolves around rankings or lists. It’s lazy, predictable and boring. I haven’t done enough to prove I can be all those things. Or have I? Anyway, here are the top 10 Pittsburgh Steelers stories of the offseason. 1. The Steelers are not a lot...

The Pirates have the most interesting psychology, if that’s how to put it, of any Pittsburgh sports franchise. Perhaps of any team on the continent. The Pirates are the little engine that could but won’t. They’re a perpetual underdog with a great ballpark and hot dogs piled with pierogis and...

As MLB and the NBA face calamitous gambling scandals, one wonders how ESPN covers them without casting a bad light on ESPNBet, the company’s online sportsbook. Networks and leagues are sponsored so heavily by bookies. It’s everywhere. (My radio program, too.) Gambling and sports are directly and massively intertwined now,...

Coach Mike Sullivan after the Penguins blew a 4-0 lead at Colorado on Sunday, losing 5-4 in overtime: “I thought we competed hard. That’s one of the most explosive offenses in the league that we played against. We knew they were going to push back. We competed hard all night.”...

The Pittsburgh Penguins are in deep decline. That’s OK, for now. Keep that first-round pick. Get more balls in the draft lottery. Maybe the Penguins get lucky. It’s happened before. Despite my faith in president of hockey ops/GM Kyle Dubas, he can’t do as he says. Dubas can’t reassemble a...

The City Game between the Pitt and Duquesne men’s basketball teams is a tradition that dates to 1932. The Panthers and Dukes have played each other 87 times but not since 2018. The rivalry ceased because Pitt refuses to play Duquesne. Pitt feels Duquesne is a lesser foe, that playing...

Pitt basketball fans enjoyed wallowing in despair Tuesday night when Virginia got beat by 25 points in the First Four of the NCAA Tournament. Virginia scored just 14 points in the first half of a 67-42 loss to Colorado State. This was evidence that Pitt should have gotten into March...