This year I am “participating” in a great fundraiser for The Mario Lemieux Foundation.  I thought this was a great idea last year, but didn’t participate for one reason or another.  I decided to try growing a beard this year, and so far so good!

Three games into the playoffs, and I’ve already been able to raise $500!

Take a look at my profile page on Beard-A-Thon dot com and see what you think.

***Update***

05/13/10

I’m very pleased to report that although the Pens fell short in reaching the finals for the third straight season, I was able to raise nearly $1,100 for the Mario Lemieux Foundation.  At last count, all “growers” had raised over $85,000 for this great cause!

If you’ve attended just about any Pittsburgh Steelers games this decade, you’ve heard their “anthem”, Renegade, by Styx.  Similar to Sweet Caroline at Boston Red Sox games, it’s something that nobody could remember when it started, or why it was effective.

Wonder no more.

The good people at NFL films have put together a 30 minute show with everything you would ever want to know.  I found a 9 minute clip on YouTube for your enjoyment.  The most amusing section of this clip was the revelation the team actually will call up to the booth when they need Renegade played.  Priceless!

For as long as I can remember, I have been a Steelers fan.  As a child, I would spend Sunday afternoons with my Dad and brother watching the likes of Mark Malone, Bubby Brister, and eventually Greg Lloyd.  In hindsight, it probably would have been easier to like another team while growing up in the ’80′s.

I was born in 1977.  In both ’78, and ’79 the Steelers won the Super Bowl.  I, of course, didn’t notice.  From that point, until the Super Bowl appearance in 2005, they won 4 division titles in 16 years, and zero conference championships.

Year after year, I had to listen to “One for the Thumb” songs on DVE radio, when I didn’t even have one for a finger.  To top that off, when I was a freshman in college, they finally made it to the Super Bowl against the Dallas Cowboys.  After a lifetime of buildup, Super Bowl XXX was over with two crushing Neil O’Donnell interceptions.

At least in the ’90′s and most of the 2000′s, the Steelers under Bill Cowher and Jerome Bettis were either competitive or tops in the AFC.  But year after year, no Championship.

Then came the 2005 season.  I won’t bore you with the details of the season, or the playoff run.  But I will ask you a question.  Who Ride?

Give up?  Most people did.

Let me explain.

Sometime in 2002 or 2003, Joey Porter became the face of the Steelers defense.  Most people think of him as the trash talking  linebacker , or the guy who was shot in the butt outside a Denver night club.  This is the image most have of him:

I, however, had a different one.  Before every game, and after every win, Porter would lead the team in the pre-game chant.  I thought, that this was common knowledge.  I figured most “true” Steelers fans would know the FOUR words of the Steelers pre-game chant.  After-all, they had been doing it for several years!

Fast forward to Super Bowl XL.

In Detroit.

In Jerome Bettis’s final season.

I (you do realize it’s all about me, right?) finally got to see the Steelers championship.  Everyone else had their “One for the Thumb”, but I finally had ONE.  In all the excitement, I decided to celebrate in a way that only “true” Steelers fans would get.

I went online to the DMV, checked for license plate availability, and ordered the WHO RIDE license plate.  I figured with a Steelers license plate frame, it would be crystal clear what it meant.

I couldn’t have been more wrong!

Soon after receiving it in the mail, one of my neighbors asked if I was a big fan of the band “The Who”.  Sadly, that isn’t it.

I also had raced road bikes since 1997, so many others thought it had something to do with cycling.

The most typical response, from fans and otherwise, was, “What does that mean”?

After months of it being on my truck, only THREE  people got it.  T H R E E!!!  Needless to say, the “true fan” experiment had backfired into a giant pain in the butt.  It was at this point, I finally realzed my obsession with the Steelers was perhaps a bit over the top.  I understood when the casual fan, or local bandwagon fan didn’t get it.  But people I thought would know, had ZERO idea.

After a couple of years of this, I finally relented and went back to the DMV site to find something a little more obvious in 8 characters or less.  As you would expect, the obvoius choices were taken:  STEELERS (spelled with S’s or 8′s, both taken).  STILLERS, also gone.  Fortunatly, I found a replacement.

B L C K N G L D

Now, the only question I hear is, “Steelers, or Penguins”?  To which, the answer is both.

For those of you who can’t answer the title question, I include the following (at second 30 or so):

While this story is fairly ridiculous, I’m certain there are others.  What seemingly normal thing have you done for your team that the rest of the world just didn’t get?  I know I can’t be alone here!  Let’s compare your stories to mine below.

Last night was both the final home opener at Mellon arena, and the first game since the Pens won the Stanley Cup in June.  I mentioned previously after the Steelers home opener that I was pretty disapointed in the minimal Super Bowl Celebration at Heinz Field.  I was hoping the Pens would get it right.  And they did.

The Steelers/NBC had the Black Eyed Peas and Tim McGraw outside their opener.

The Pens, they had Mario’s “TV”.  Even the rain didn’t keep the faithful from coming out.

Inside, the copy of iceTIME magazine featured Sidney Crosby rasing the Cup on the cover, along with articles on their 2009-2010 title defense and past Stanley Cup champion teams.  There was also a free replica Stanley Cup Champion banner giveaway.

Promptly at 7:25, the lights were lowered, and crates of trophys were wheeled onto the ice.  Two videos were played briefly on the arena ceiling of the key moments from Game 7, before giant sheets dropped from the jumbotron at center ice.  A 6 or 7 minute video recapping the Pens improbable run that started with a drubbing in Toronto (that led to the firing of Coach Thierrien, and the hiring of Dan Bylesma), to earning a playoff spot, to home ice advantage in the first round, and all the way through the playoffs.

Here’s the video I shot on my iPhone 3GS from section C11:

Click on the video to see the other 4 videos I took of the rest of the ceremony.

At the conclusion of the video, the sheets dropped to the ice to reveal the Stanley Cup in the middle of the ice!  One by one the players were introduced in number order.  Instead of the traditional runway, they skated out under a sea of neon lights and fog from the zamboni entrance.  I was pleased to see “chicca chicca superstar” Max Talbot receive by far the loudest ovation (outside of Sidney Crosby, of course).

Finally the players were brought over to the runway where Mario Lemieux, Ron Burkle, and the rest of the Pens front office were standing to raise the Championship banner.

All in, the Penguins organization put together a fantastic 20 minute celebration of the ’08-’09 season and Stanley Cup Championship.  The team, and the crowed loved every minute of it.  I was lucky enough to have had tickets, and am hoping to see many more fireworks this season.

About a month ago, about 15 of us from my office decided to head up to Pittsburgh for a Pirates game.  It’s rare that we find time to get together socially outside of work, and somehow we missed the fact that the game was on day 2 of the G20 summit…as you might expect, a few people dropped out due to illness, and a few others due to security concerns.  Who am I to argue with wanting to avoid “anarchists”?

As you might expect, images of helicopters, snipers on rooftops, and mobs of 400+ people, combined with the on field product of the Pirates led more than a few people to stay home.  As it turned out, traffic was light, security was relatively quick, and imagine that, the Buccos won.

Multiple local “celebrity” sightings made the evening more amusing.  The spouses had their fun mocking Jeremy & I acting like a couple of 10 year olds snapping pictures of Skippy & the punter:

The Special Teams waiting outside PNC Park

Not to be out down, there was a big Stan sighting around the 7th inning stretch.

After it was all said and done, this was really just a prelude to next Fridays Penguins Home Opener.  That night, nobody will care if Jeff Reed shows up with the punter, or his typical gaggle of tweens.

Be sure to check back next weekend when I plan to have an up close, and in person view of the banner raising and post-Stanley Cup festivities.

I had tickets last night to see the Steelers open their title defense against the Tennessee Titans. It feels like there wasn’t even an offseason, thanks to them winning their second Lombardi trophy in four years, and the Penguins winning the Stanley Cup after making it to the finals two years in a row. I will be trying multiple ways tomorrow morning to buy tickets to the Penguins Rangers home opener when they go on sale at 10 am. I’ll be heading down to the local Ticketmaster site, I have a friend doing the same in Pittsburgh, and Christy will be trying her luck online. I made it to both the AFC Championship game, and game 6 of the Cup finals, and think it would be great to make it to both title defense openers.

I will admit that I was somewhat disappointed in the overall post Super Bowl festivities last night. Sure there was the Black Eyed Peas concert at Point State Park, fireworks before the game, and Harry Connick Jr singing the national anthem. It just felt like a production meant for TV. I think the propaganda style “pump you up” videos before each Penguin playoff game, complete with laser graphics on the ice, and the anticipation of seeing the third Cup banners raised in October have my standards set a little high.