Throw-Back Uniforms?

Throw 'em back! As my friend Kristin said, there's a reason why no one has worn these jerseys since 1934. I can't tell if this is a football jersey or a jail uniform, but either way, it's hideous. If I were the mannequin, I'd be grateful they didn't show my face . . .

I snagged this picture from the Steelers' Facebook photo page - what do you think, gentle (and not-so-gentle) readers?

Dahn 'air Sahside 'n Up 'air Uptahn 'n at . . .

So tonight I met my running club in the Southside. On my way back to my car, I stopped in a little shop with cool stuff in the window, where I found a memorial (there's no other word) tee shirt for the Civic (not Mellon) Arena. I asked the charming young man if it would make me too sad to wear it . . .  He said he could see the Arena from his house (not Alaska, the Arena. I believed him) and it made him very sad too . . .

So I told him my Civic Arena stories. The year the Arena opened, it hosted a celebration of Girl Scouting's 50th anniversary, and my Brownie Troop went. The seats were so high I was terrified and spent most of the event on the more solid walkway at the top, behind all the seating, peering down the aisle to see the show.

And speaking of high: In the early 1970s - I'd guess 1973 - I saw the Greatful Dead there and they had to open the roof to blow out the smoke - and I don't mean tobacco. I can still hear that "Sugar Magnolia" in my head.

I didn't mention that I was an extra there in possibly the worst movie ever made: The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh.

I've been sad ever since the final decree came down. I've been sad every time I've driven by and seen parts of the Arena hanging by a thread. My ever-prescient stepdaughter said that the fact that it put up a fight, that it refused to lie down and die, should have sent a message to those who wanted to see it destroyed. So true . . .

Did the city destroy a neighborhood when the Arena was built? Yes. We all get that now. Will the Hill come back because it's gone? We all know the answer to that, too.

When I was in junior high, there was a picture of the Civic Arena in our algebra book - a beacon of hope in a city where there wasn't much to feel pride in. We may feel we have more to be proud of now, but our respect for our past doesn't seem to be any part of it. Don't be surprised when the Arena site follows in the footsteps of the site of the lamented Syra Mosque, now an ill-kept surface parking lot. We believed the big talk about development there, too . . .

And to the Penguins and their foundation - I won't be buying a Penguins commemoration made from the stainless steel. It was the Penguins who forced the new arena, such as it is, and who refused to listen to reason on plans for the old. And as fond as I am of Wendall August Forge, when I read in the paper that they had signed that deal well before any final judgments about the Arena were made, I saw red, not stainless . . . If I ever meet Mario Lemeiux again, I'm going to tell him my plan to become famous in Montreal and then insist on destroying a major landmark there.

But in more cheerful news, our young people are getting it. The Southside store is called Decade (Wait a minute, isn't that a club in Oakland? How old am I?), and it's on Carson, river side, around 14th Street. Here's the tee (I wish it didn't say Igloo, but at least it doesn't say Mellon Arena). Go get one. Wear it to all events at the entirely unappealing Consol. Tell 'em Max sent you.

Who Has the Power?

Not the Pittsburgh Power Arena Football League team, apparently. Certainly not their players.

I made my first visit to the Consol Energy Center Friday night to see the Power with friends who are season ticket holders. More on them later . . .

There are many reasons to dislike, if not loathe, the management of this team. In order of increasing importance:

• Their annoyingly unnavigable website.
• Their offensive advertising: They plastered the school where I teach with posters that read, "Before you waste money on books . . . Get student-section season tickets." Waste money on books? Ouch.
• Their ruthless, take-no-prisoners labor practices.

That, of course, is the sticking point. To review information available on several sports news websites:  In anticipation of a strike, owner Matt Shiner fired the entire team - 24 members -- during dinner at an Olive Garden restaurant in the Orlando area before the season opener. Some players gave up their union membership and played - the rest of the positions were played by what the team called "replacement players" and what anyone else in the City of Pittsburgh would call scabs. Players who did not repent were left to find their own way back to the 'Burgh, where they found themselves evicted from player housing.

In the meantime, the team has hired back many of those players, with the significant exception of quarterback Kyle Rowley, now doing very well in Spokane, Washington.

Not coincidentally, the team has suffered in both performance and attendance. According to Adam Gretz of  the "Steelers Lounge" blog (really, guys? no apostrophe?), the Power averaged 9,480 last season, and set an AFL record with 13,904 at last season's opener.

Friday night? 4,000.

Note to Matt Shiner, and his co-owners Lance Shiner and Lynn Swann: Pittsburgh is a labor-friendly city built by union steelworkers. Also, we love football. So if you are going to break a union, and that union is made up of football players playing for the love of the game instead of the potential to become obscenely wealthy, chances are your fan base is going to shrink.

And if your team keeps losing, it is going to shrink even more.

But enough about that. The game.  OMG, the game. OMG, MSG, PTL, USB, the game. Fast, furious, and fascinating. All passing - there were fewer than half a dozen run plays, and only one of them was successful (a quarterback sneak for the Iowa Barnstormers). Go for it on fourth down every time - the field's too short to make punting a reasonable option. Extra point? The crossbar is only nine feet wide.

The Power was ahead by one point at the half (the Iowa kicker missed an extra point), but in the second half the game took on the unmistakeable air of a Steeler game - the officials turned against the home team and called penalties on nonexistent violations and refused to see blatant acts of roughing the passer and pass interference against the Power.

Things went rapidly downhill, and the game ended with a 55-42 Power loss, their third in a row.

Still. It was great fun. Bubba, the Power announcer, is fabulous - He was able to say "Hines completes the pass to Hymes" without fumbling. Wide receiver P.J. Berry is both talented and popular, and his mother is an amazing cheerleader in the stands. And the dancing girls . . .  oh, never mind - another time.

Back to my friends, Lance and Wendy. It's their second season as subscribers to the Power (they had already bought the tickets before the labor disaster). They are also known as the dynamite theater team behind Thoreau, NM - A Production Company. Please check out their theater reviews at http://iheartpgh.com/2012/03/29/monster-ink/