In one game, a 13-9 win over the West Virginia Mountaineers, Wannstedt and the Panthers completely erased the previous 34. They actually managed to “shock the world,” or the sports world, at any rate. To use another cliché, that this win “breathed life” into the program wouldn’t be accurate- “breathing life” seems to indicate “borrowing time” to me, and that’s simply not true here: This win did more than that, it took the program to places it was not when Wannstedt took over.

The buzz surrounding the program is now immutable. Pitt football is the new water cooler hot topic around Pittsburgh, at least until the Steelers-Patriots game. National analysts marveled over true freshman LeSean McCoy and scratched their heads over the shoddy officiating crew, which seemed intent on getting West Virginia to the BCS Championship Game.

Local recruits have taken notice. Gateway’s Cameron Saddler was the first to commit to Pitt after the game, and he promises to take others with him, namely his teammate Shayne Hale. This win will be sure to secure a third consecutive strong recruiting class for Wannstedt, who is extremely adept at selling the tradition of the program even when it looks more like current day Temple than Pitt circa 1976.

Even after a 5-7 season, the hype has begun to build for 2008. The 2007 season is now rightly characterized as an adversity-filled “rebuilding” year, for obvious reasons. First, Pitt was littered with injuries and suspensions at key positions. With even average quarterback play, which disappeared when junior Bill Stull went down in the season opener, the Panthers may have won 2-4 more games. Stars Derek Kinder, Jason Pinkston, and Gus Mustakas also went down early, and sophomore safety Elijah Fields, who often evokes comparisons to the late Sean Taylor, was suspended for the year for drug problems. Furthermore (and to a lesser extent), junior linebacker Tommie Campbell, a state champion sprinter, was suspended for cutting class and has subsequently transferred.

As a result of these complications and Walt Harris’ legacy as an awful recruiter, this Pitt team was very young, and gained invaluable experience through the course of the season. Aside from McCoy, Greg Romeus is also garnering freshman accolades. TJ Porter and Maurice Williams look like stellar receivers, and Aaron Berry may develop into Pitt’s next shutdown corner, continuing a legacy that includes Torrie Cox, Josh Lay, and Darrelle Revis.

Pitt also lost many close games, sometimes due to laziness (McCoy fumbled against Louisville), poor execution (An attempted fade to Darrell Strong against Navy), or bad officiating (Oderick Turner’s offensive pass interference against Rutgers). A more mature, tested team next season should not make the same mistakes.

However, Pitt simply can not be considered a big-time program with over half of Heinz Field empty.  The program needs more support both when playing less than mediocre teams  and when playing below expectations.

That naturally brings me to the second reason for the guarded nature of my optimism towards Pitt football- in this decade, they have consistently underachieved with high expectations. In 2001, the team started 1-5, only to win the final five games and the Tangerine Bowl. In 2003, with Larry Fitzgerald at its disposal, the team again underachieved and lost in the Continental Tire Bowl. And of course, Pitt fans saw Wannstedt’s nightmare of a first season in 2005.

But with consistent fan support and if next years’ team lives up to its expectations, the Pitt program stands to make a leap forward, to the upper echelon of the Big East, maybe even to the top.

After putting my eyes back into their sockets, I decided this would ultimately destroy the Angels’ franchise, and as such, was gross overpayment. Sure, A-Rod is the Sidney Crosby of baseball, and fair payment for Crosby would probably be a package along the lines of the LA Kings’ Anze Kopitar, Jack Johnson, Patrick O’Sullivan, and Jonathan Bernier, but comparing baseball and hockey= apples and oranges. A single player in baseball simply does not affect a team’s performance the way Crosby, LeBron James, or Peyton Manning can.

However, seeing as how A-Rod is the best singular package in the game, and the third most valuable trade asset (behind Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera), he can still fetch quite a group of players. So what would it take, then? First, we have to examine the Yankees (sans A-Rod) of 2008, and 2010. After doing some research, I think I have a rudimentary understanding of the Yanks’ formerly barren farm system.

The Yankees of 2008 should have a vastly improved pitching staff, simply because the group of prospects that includes Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, and Ian Kennedy has been superb this year, along with steady contibutions from Chien-Ming Wang and Andy Pettitte. They are set at 2b (Cano), ss (Jeter), two of the OF spots (Cabrera and Matsui), and Catcher (Posada). However, Giambi, Abreu, and Damon are on the decline. Third base is an enigma with A-Rod gone and Eric Duncan looking increasingly like a bust. The Yankees have Wilson Betemit, but they may be searching for slighly more production there.

The Yankees of 2010 should have an excellent pitching staff, but plenty of question marks otherwise. They’re still set for the long-term with Cano, Betemit and Cabrera, but Jeter, Posada, and Matsui are aging. The Yankees have two solid prospects in Catcher Fransisco Cirvelli, and Outfielder Jose Tabuta, and Duncan could always live up to his former super prospect status. Of course, the Yankees have likely signed at least two position players and traded one of their young pitchers for another at this time.

So, what would they ask for? Well, even though their pitching staff is set for quite some time, Cashman would feel obligated to acquire a young pitcher as part of an A-Rod package. Their second most glaring hole in the short and long-term is first base, so Cashman will likely acquire a first baseman. Now, in my opinion, if a team gives up two young all-star caliber players at each of those positions, that should be enough to acquire Rodriguez. If the players are anything less, Cashman should demand 1-2 more players, namely at outfield and third base.

So, from my point of view, a team like the LAA or Arizona could put together a package for A-Rod fairly easily. If the Yankees’ trading partner is indeed the LAA, I think a package of Santana, Wood, and Casey Kotchman is entirely fair. So Adam wasn’t that far off, really, from my point of view. He can probably rebut this, but he’s too busy wasting his life trying to get an education, and thus reading Pride and Prejudice and redesigning a newspaper. Yuck.

A. How many I got correct

B. How much time I’ve wasted following this team.

You may feel free to try it yourself, and compare it against my guesses (after the jump, of course):

“The No-Brainers:” Jason Bay, Brian Giles, Craig Wilson, Aramis Ramirez

” Pretty solid picks:” Reggie Sanders, Daryle Ward, Rob Mackowiak

“I can’t believe I’m picking these guys:” Jack Wilson, Kevin Young, John Vanderwal

Below is the top 10 list, in order.

1. Brian Giles – 126

2. Jason Bay – 115

3. Craig Wilson – 94

4. Aramis Ramirez – 70

T-5. Rob Mackowiak – 52

T-5. Kevin Young – 52

7. Jack Wilson – 50

8. Jason Kendall – 36

9. John Vander Wal – 35

10. Reggie Sanders – 31

So I went 9/10, missing only the Pirates (slightly less homosexual) version of Mike Piazza. And for those counting, Tike finished with 15.

Most of the time, when a celebrity or sports figure dies, I automatically say “that’s awful,” but I don’t really feel anything when I say it. This time, it’s truly a terrible loss, as it stemmed from sudden and unforseen complications, and it’s even worse considering Prosser’s reputation of being one of the best human beings in college basketball.

It’s strange to think that if my wish came true, Pitt would be looking for a new coach tomorrow.

But what I will never understand is that, in part to “earn” their Steeler fan stripes and in part because they’re actually interested, thousands of people file out to St. Vincent College in Latrobe every day to watch the Steelers run mundane drills, participate in group huddle-ups, and walk around a college dormitory. As I will be heading off to college next year, I can assure you that I will not be staring at men walk in and out of dormitories and onto fields for hours on end.

After the jump is a brief list of things I’d rather do with my day than go watch training camp:

1. Actually play or practice a sport. Golf, tennis, soccer, basketball, baseball, you name it. Maybe even football, who knows?

2. Learn how to cook from a real chef, not Mrs. (I’ve made tens of millions of dollars from this franchise, but they aren’t doing enough for me) Faneca. As I type this, “Boy Meets Grill” is on in the background, and I find Bobby Flay a helluva lot more interesting than Clink Kriewaldt.

3. Go to a pool, and cool off instead of spending hours baking out in the sun, watching 300 pound linemen get sweaty.

4. Write meaningless blog articles.

And finally….

5. Follow the Pirates.

I don’t have a wife and family, but if I did, I’d have one more thing to add to this list: Use one of my paid vacation days to spend real time with them, instead of essentially telling them, “Well, I’m here to watch Ben Roethlisberger, but since I love you almost as much as him, I guess I could drag you along.”

Just when I was starting to get a little disconcerting feeling in my gut of “my god, perhaps the Pirates organization isn’t putting me first,” I found the religion of Bucco Baseball again last night. First, I was greeted by the warm, smiling face of a 80s era mascot bobblehead, which occupied my time for approximately 3 minutes, but for those 3 minutes I was in heaven, watching the head bounce up and down repeatedly. I didn’t even have to pay money for this privilege, but if given the opportunity, I’d gladly shell out $20-30 for this miniature slice of heaven, which the vast majority of the 32,000 strong paid.

After those 3 minutes, I instinctively headed for the exit, until I snapped out of my haze and realized that “by God, I’m gonna watch a baseball game now!” For about four innings, I watched the Pirates get mowed down by a man named Wandy, while Paul Maholm managed to scatter his hits, thus rendering the game scoreless. As this happened, I started complaining to my dad about Ronny Paulino’s complete sucktitude, asserting that with his swing, he didn’t seem like he could hit a ball out of the infield.

But then, in typical “We Will: Amaze.” fashion, the Pirates managed to string a few seeing-eye singles together in the next couple innings, and looked to be well on their way to their first victory in eight games. The highlight of this, of course, was that Ronny Paulino hit a hard, opposite field single, and my dad smugly said “hey, it looks like he got it to the outfield there.” I was immediately shut up, and completely forgot the law of large numbers, which states that Ronny Paulino is a terrible hitter and the Pirates are a terrible team. THEY WERE WINNING, after all, and they were going to go to 14 games under! But yesterday, they were 15! And they were gonna win this one through pure heart and spirit, as Pittsburgh is still a blue collar town with a litany of steel mills (1), and therefore by osmosis, the Pirates are a blue-collar, hard-hat team.

In the end, the pirogies raced, the wave…uhhhh, waved, and the Pirate and the Parrot shot hot dogs, flanked by pretty girls all around! The three hours were a purely sensual bonanza. But my high of victory was fading, and I was starting to realize that the Pirates were still 14 games under, they still had a minuscule payroll, they still draft based upon affordability and not talent, and Ronny Paulino is still awful. Then, my faith was restored forever, as I checked the back of my ticket, and found that I was now entitled to a $75 package from Seven Springs, compliments of the Pirates. I let out a sigh of relief, looked to the heavens glassy-eyed, and declared “They really do care!” to everyone that could hear me. I still can’t get over their thankless kindness, to let me go skiing like that.

The Nuttings surely impressed the Seven Springs ownership (whoever those guys are) with their mission of making every fan happy. I sure am.