what's in a name

I have been wanting to write a sports blog for a while now and since the Pens are playing like crap today, I decided there is no time like the present. This blog will feature alot of national sports topics and alot of local Pittsburgh sports topics as well .

I needed a name for this and I was trying to think of some comical goofs from Pittsburgh athletes and came up with quite a few, but have settled on one of my all-time favorites- Operation Shutdown.

For those of you that dont remember the meaning of Operation Shutdown, it refers to one of the Pirates worst signings of all-time, outfielder Derek Bell. In spring training of 2002, Bell told reporters "Nobody told me I was in a competition. If there is a competition, then I'm going into Operation Shutdown and they can do whatever they want to do."

Bell who hit .179 the previous year was released two days later and never played in the majors again. Oh yeah, the Pirates ended up paying him 4.5 mil not to play for them.

enjoy the blog,
Matt Shetler