:10 Don’t look now boys and girls, but your L.A. Lakers are now tied for the 8th playoff spot in the Western Conference and the party is just getting started.

AUBREY BRUCE

(Bradenton, Fla.)—Today is March 11, 2013 my 60th birthday or as former President of the United States the late Franklin Delano Roosevelt would say, “a day in infamy.”  Just the day before I, arrived in Tampa Bay and spent the day with my cousin Dr. Ramon Bruce, freshly retired from the Veterans Administration. “Doc” Bruce is a gentleman and a scholar who received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Auburn; I offered him my condolences with a smile. The genealogy of Dr. Bruce springs from the Bruce Tuskegee lineage; but you know what? Baseball and sports are like families in many ways, the more things change, the more things stay the same.
Many things have changed since I began to cover MLB many years ago. I won’t say what year it was because it would be telling my age. Oops my bad, I already told my age.  However I continue to feel sorta, kinda lonely “upstairs” because  on this particular afternoon there is not one, not one speck of color in the press box besides me, oh except for the janitor. Sometimes it gets lonesome here at the top and believe me “being at the top” does not mean anything arrogant, insolent or egotistical; I am just stating the obvious. I am at the bottom rung of those who sit up top.
Don’t try to blame this “continuing phenomenon” on anyone or anything because this is not the fault of MLB; but please answer this one question for me. Where in the hell are all of the professional baseball writers?  I know when teams from “chocolate cities” compete there are writers with more than ample amounts of “melanin” sprinkled throughout the “box.”  When I awoke at the crack of dawn semi-lamenting my charge into my sixties, I realize the more things change, the more they remain the same.  At this point the boys of summer are now the boys of semi-spring. They are ugly caterpillars ready to emerge from the cocoon of the losing. Pirates’ pitcher Jeff Locke who came over from the Atlanta Braves entered the game with a 2-1 record and a 3.60 ERA starting 3 games so far in the Pirates “grapefruit league” season. Even though his location wasn’t as sharp as he would have liked it to be he remained optimistic.
“Since I have come over [from the Braves] everything has been better, from my routine, to my work ethic.” he said.
“Maybe I was younger over there, now I’m maturing.”  

I say every year that I feel that this is the Pirates’ year in spite of the fact that Locke was hit hard by the Orioles. These are things that a winning team or a team on the way to winning must perform on an everyday basis sort of ho-hum normal things while playing baseball. The pickoff of an Orioles base runner in the first inning is one of those things. The more things change, the more they remain the same. Are things really changing? The stool that I am sitting on in the press box is probably the most uncomfortable seat that I have sat on. Is it the seat or has my backside become ultra sensitive as a sign of my advancing age?  It is probably a combination of both because I don’t feel this way after sitting through a Samuel L. Jackson movie marathon on the couch at home.
For the 1st three innings the Buc’s offense appears to be more like the “slumber company” not the feared “lumber company” of years gone by. Just as I finished the last sentence, centerfielder Starling Marte singled to left field. Hope is still alive.
Maybe I am doing myself and all of you the readers a disservice. I haven’t been to spring training since 2009. I am now promising everyone that I will return to Bradenton, FL annually so that I may get more surf and sun for these aching knees and also to stuff myself with some of the gargantuan fish sandwiches that Tampa Bay has to offer.  The only thing that I ate in Bradenton was ballpark food which really wasn’t so bad.  
I have one other thing that I would like to bring to your attention.  Every small town that hosts preseason events for major league sports experiences a windfall for their economy, once annually. The Pirates are in Bradenton far longer than the NFL teams are in Canton, Ohio preparing to play in the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame game but the impact on the local economies remains the same. Early spring and midsummer are Christmas-like events for Bradenton and Canton. The economies are juiced to the max because lots of folks get paid when the “circus” comes to town. As Dr. Bruce and our colleague Lee, another “son of the south” (also from Alabama) and I entered the park there were a few of the “locals” with ‘team leader’ shirts on parading around the “grounds” sporting “Wrigley” chewing gum smiles appearing to be relaxed, yet stressed looking as if they are about to steal a page from the SNL’s veteran Garret Morris’ page. They appeared that they were primed to say at any moment with the heaviest of Latino accents, “baseball been verdy, verdy, good to me.”  I am now beginning to get a bit antsy. My legs are beginning to get numb sitting on this wretched stool but not as numb as I have become when it comes to the losing ways of our beloved Pirates.  I am about to exit the ballpark. The Pirates end up beating the Orioles but I have already lost the battle with the “stool,” case dismissed.
(Aubrey Bruce can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 412-583-6741)

SHOPPING—In this October 2012, photo, Steelers wide receiver Mike Wallace (17) hauls in a catch for a touchdown as Tennessee Titans cornerback Jason McCourty defends during a game in Nashville, Tenn. On Tuesday, with all 32 teams under the $123 million salary cap, the checkbooks open up. Some clubs, most notably Green Bay and Pittsburgh, barely will participate, while likely letting top receivers Greg Jennings and Wallace leave for huge paydays elsewhere. That’s just their style, and building from within surely has paid off: each team has won a Super Bowl in the last five seasons. (AP Photo/Joe Howell, File)

PITTSBURGH (AP)—The Pittsburgh Steelers have tendered offers to four restricted free agents, including running backs Jonathan Dwyer and Isaac Redman.
The Steelers also made qualifying offers to wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders and nose tackle Steve McLendon. The offers give the Steelers the right to match any offer sheet the players may receive from other teams during free agency.
All four are expected to remain in Pittsburgh. Dwyer and Redman will likely battle for the starting running back spot next season. Veteran running back Rashard Mendenhall, a free agent, will almost certainly not return to the Steelers. Dwyer and Redman combined for 1,033 yards rushing and four touchdowns in 2012 but struggled staying healthy.
Sanders will move to the team’s No. 2 receiving spot if free agent Mike Wallace leaves.

FALLON FOX

by Michael Martinez

(CNN) -- Born a man, Fallon Fox became a woman through surgery and then trained to fight in mixed martial arts.