If the column name sounds familiar to you, it’s because it should. I have written “Flavell’s Five” for other sites and now it’s going to become a Thursday staple for Sportsvival. This version will be different, however.
Instead of focusing solely on one sport, I’ll be giving five takes a week on the Pittsburgh sports landscape in general as well as possibly outside topics if the topics are hot enough or there is a lack of things to talk about. But we live in Pittsburgh so that shouldn’t be an issue, right?
Away we go with the first ever Flavell’s Five on Sportsvival.
Donnie Kelly’s got these Buccos feeling different
The Pirates are 19 games into the Don Kelly tenure and the results are pretty mid to the naked eye. They’re 9-10 and hovering right around .500 ball in that span. Most Pirates fans would take that for sure in a normal season.
Unfortunately, the Buccos’ season was over early as the Derek Shelton-led Pirates buried themselves an insurmountable hole. It’s a shame but Kelly might have the Pirates on the brink of at least being watchable through the end of the season.
Let’s not forget this team has Paul Skenes going every fifth day. Mitch Keller is pitching outstanding along with Andrew Heaney and Bailey Falter. Bubba Chandler is a stone's throw away from pitching at PNC Park.
Oneil Cruz is having the breakout season everyone wanted to see. June Bryan Reynolds is right around the corner. Andrew McCutchen is possibly in his last season in Pittsburgh. Henry Davis is potentially (this is said very strongly) beginning to turn a corner and be the player the Pirates expected him to be when they drafted him 1.1 a few years ago.
I’m not saying these Pirates are going on a playoff chase. That simply isn’t going to happen but they’re playing closer games and starting to hit better which is at least going to give the fans something to enjoy in the dog days of summer before the Steelers render the Pirates irrelevant upon their return to play.
Kelly has the boys feeling rejuvenated and even .500 ball the rest of the way could be enough for him to see it through until next year.
Speaking of the Steelers…
It's the status quo on the Aaron Rodgers situation. Mason Rudolph is getting the lion share of first team reps with Skylar Thompson and Will Howard mixing in. Rudolph is gearing up to be the starter until he’s not.
The Steelers aren’t going anywhere with Rudolph starting. I’m sorry but it’s not happening and that’s probably in the best interest of literally everyone involved. Rudolph is going to get a chance to start. Mike Tomlin’s streak of mediocrity likely will come to an end with that and a high draft pick for the 2026 NFL Draft hosts could be staring them in the face.
Outside of that, we know the defense will be solid and they’ll enter the year with yet another contract dispute likely coming with TJ Watt. Whether it’s Heyward or Watt or another player, it seems like yearly these kinds of things happen and the Steelers always get it done but never seem to be in a hurry.
Otherwise, I don’t have much on the Steelers right now. It’s hard to get too jazzed up about OTA’s. They don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. It’s a team building exercise and a chance to see some athletes show their skills. Wake me up when training camp starts or we finally get a resolution on Rodgers.
Mitch Love or bust
I’m not going to sit here and pretend to know a whole lot about Mitch Love, a Capitals assistant coach. However, he was under Spencer Carbury who took the Capitals to unexpected heights this year by taking home the Eastern Conference’s top seed.
No one really saw that coming and it goes to show how good Carbury might be and the bright future ahead.
I draw a parallel to the Don Kelly-Pirates situation. Kelly has long been seen as a really good baseball mind. However, when you’re marred in a situation such as Kelly was where the team is miserable, you’re not going to get much interest in being promoted to a head coach for another organization when there are plenty of young minds out there.
Love is young enough, 40, to garner interest after he helped coach a Caps team to a better season than they were expected to have. The Penguins are going to give a first time guy a chance to navigate a ship that comes with a handful of future HOF’s and a handful of young promising prospects and then a lot of mids in between.
Mike Sullivan will be a tough act to follow but hiring someone like Love is forward thinking by Kyle Dubas who seems like he’s not interested in hiring another retread head coach that has been passed around the league.
The count down to Oakmont
The PGA Tour season goes by so much quicker now that the season has been condensed down. The U.S. Open will be played in just two weeks from Thursday and then The British Open will be played next month. Things go back quick now.
Rory McIlroy won The Masters. Scottie Scheffler won the PGA Championship. Two majors down and the world's two best players have won each of the first two. By those standards, world number three Xander Schauffele is going to win at Oakmont.
But seriously, golf is in great hands right now. The world’s best play on the PGA Tour but two LIV Golf players in Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm have been good on both their tour and at the majors this season. It’s anyone’s game at Oakmont but precision is going to be important.
Long-hitters won’t be able to just bomb the ball around Oakmont CC. They also have to find fairways because the thickness of the rough is intense. The greens will be rolling at incredible speeds and we’re likely going to see some carnage.
The hope is that course conditions are going to bring the winners’ scores closer to par for the tournament, a more fun viewing experience for those of us at home watching.
I’ll have more leading up to the US Open but if I had to make a prediction two weeks out from the tournament, I’m going to say that Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau will be in the final group for the second time at a major this season. I’ll set the betting odds at -110 for both and you guys can make that pick.
Things aren’t great, but let’s take time to reflect
The general landscape of Pittsburgh sports stinks right now. The Pirates won’t be contending yet again. Currently, the Penguins don’t have a head coach and missed the playoffs for the third straight year. Mason Rudolph is the starting quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers. So let’s take this time to appreciate some things.
Paul Skenes has given up almost half the runs of literally any other pitcher in MLB history through his first 35 starts. He’s allowed 47 earned runs in that span. Pedro Martinez was in second place and allowed 81 in his first 35 starts. I mean, come on. That’s not just generational, that’s all time greatness right there.
Sidney Crosby, all of soon-to-be-38-years-old, posted another point-per-game season and did so while clearly not being 100%. Despite the Penguins never really being in the thick of things after the 4 Nations Faceoff, Crosby played his best hockey as if he was trying to will them to the playoffs anyway. He’s just wired differently. Appreciate it because it’s getting really close to the end of his career.
For the Steelers, things have been ugly since Ben Roethlisberger left. They have yet to replace him and haven’t really even come close. They’re relying on a 41-year old to sign here just to lug them through this year.
But on the other side of the ball, Cam Heyward and TJ Watt, when healthy, have been high-level talent. Heyward had a Crosby-esque season of his own last year turning back the clock to the Heyward of old. Watt is posting HOF numbers in sacks every year even when he misses games.
You just sometimes have to appreciate what you’ve got in the sports landscape because things get bleak after it’s gone. We’re living it with the Steelers. Post-Crosby hockey is going to be tough Dahn at PPG Paints Arena. Skenes will one day be a Yankee or a Dodger or a Red Sox or a (insert high payroll team here) because the Pirates refuse to pay a guy of his caliber to stick around.
Never forget to cherish it and we’ll meet again in this space next week.