​Another Piece Of My Heart…

Pam Pollock
October 2019

In all of our piles of “stuff” at our house (and trust me, there are piles and piles) is a huge assortment of sports jerseys. These jerseys pay homage to our Pittsburgh Pirates, Steelers and Penguins.

We aren’t true devoted fans as we don’t have season tickets to any of the teams because, well, quite frankly, that’s out of our price range. But we do watch all of the Steelers and Penguins games at home on our TV. We haven’t’ been to a Pirates game in two years because I got worked up into a snit when the Bucs traded my man Andrew McCutchen and declared that I was really mad, and the Bucs could stick it where the sun don’t shine. I am sure the Pirates organization were really upset [sic] with my decision.

So, in the piles of jerseys are THREE Andrew McCutchen jerseys, including one that is autographed. They look very forlorn sitting in that heap. I feel just as forlorn. Dang it, Andrew was my dude. I loved seeing his smile when he was on the field at PNC Park. I loved watching him hit homeruns. And then the big wig jerks had to ruin everything and trade him. Jagoffs…

I guess I have to discuss our collection of former Steelers jerseys next, these cover many years of football: Joey Porter, Troy Polamalu, Mike Wallace, James Harrison, Brett Keisel, Heath Miller and I am aghast to admit that my husband has an Antonio Brown jersey. I told my spouse two years ago not to pick *that* jersey because even then AB was showing signs of being an asshat, and that JuJu Smith-Schuster was a much better choice. But nope, the 84 jersey was chosen. After the antics of AB for the past year, I think we should just throw it onto the burn pile and toss a lighted match and watch it go up in flames, but I don’t want to pollute the earth with its toxicity. (Yeah, I’m pretty bitter right now about the entire AB situation, as well as Le’veon Bell.)

It’s no secret that hockey is my jam. I LOVE my Pittsburgh Penguins and even when management screws up and gets rids of my favorite players (and they do this A LOT), I still refuse to boycott them. Our Pens jersey pile of former players includes Pascal Dupuis (oh how I miss Pascal), Sergei Gonchar, James Neal, and the jerseys of my 2 absolute favorite players – Marc Andre Fleury and Carl Hagelin. Confession time, the trading of Fleury and Hagelin have just about sent me over the edge.

My son-in-law have long talks about our sports teams. He is a logical thinker and rationales that sometimes these trades are best for the team, although he agrees that is not always the case. I, on the other hand, am all emotional and become attached to these players. I don’t want them to leave our “family.” I still follow their careers, even after they are traded. I check social media to see how my retired guys are doing.

Every trade is like taking another piece of my heart. Oh, dang you, jagoff sports teams management, just dang you.