@thepittnews Vol. 105 Issue 36 Wedneday, September 24, 2014 Pittnews.com STUDENT GOVERNMENT STUDENT GOVERNMENT A new proposal will prompt future Student Government Boards to pick up what this Board put down. Board member Graeme Meyer proposed a resolution at last week’s public meeting to create a long- term plan for future Boards, known as “The 2025 Initiative.” The Board then voted to approve the resolu- tion at public meeting on Tuesday. According to Meyer, Board members’ one-year term is not enough to complete and maintain long-term project goals. The cur- rent Board’s term ends when the next Board takes office, which will be the first day of next semester. Under the 2025 Initiative, the current Board will establish long- term goals for each position on the Board, so every Board up un- til 2025 would work on the same initiatives until the projects are complete. Meyer said he hasn’t yet established details — posi- tions, responsibilities and plans to ensure it’s upheld — but thinks the plan will give future Boards “a little more direction.” Meyer said he’ll distribute a survey about the plan to students for their initiative ideas via email, Facebook, the SGB website and Pitt’s homepage. “I can’t predict what will hap- pen in three years. I can’t predict what will happen in one year,” Meyer said. “We’ll probably have to constantly check in, modify and Board discusses the future, 2025 Initiative Abbey Reighard Senior Staff Writer Board members discussed an initiative that will focus on long-term projects on Tuesday. Sheldon Satenstein | Assistant Visual Editor SGB 4 Decision time Decision time Securing the Pirates’ future Securing the Pirates’ future page 8 page 8 Becoming a genius Becoming a genius Pitt alum wins MacArthur grant Pitt alum wins MacArthur grant page 2 page 2 e Talbert Report e Talbert Report On Penn State’s bowl ban lift On Penn State’s bowl ban lift page 6 page 6
Transcript
@thepittnews
Vol. 105Issue 36
Wedneday, September 24, 2014Pittnews.com
STUDENT GOVERNMENTSTUDENT GOVERNMENT
A new proposal will prompt future Student Government Boards to pick up what this Board put down.
Board member Graeme Meyer proposed a resolution at last week’s public meeting to create a long-term plan for future Boards, known as “The 2025 Initiative.” The Board then voted to approve the resolu-tion at public meeting on Tuesday.
According to Meyer, Board members’ one-year term is not
enough to complete and maintain long-term project goals. The cur-rent Board’s term ends when the next Board takes o! ce, which will be the fi rst day of next semester.
Under the 2025 Initiative, the current Board will establish long-term goals for each position on the Board, so every Board up un-til 2025 would work on the same initiatives until the projects are complete. Meyer said he hasn’t yet established details — posi-tions, responsibilities and plans to ensure it’s upheld — but thinks
the plan will give future Boards “a little more direction.”
Meyer said he’ll distribute a survey about the plan to students for their initiative ideas via email, Facebook, the SGB website and Pitt’s homepage.
“I can’t predict what will hap-pen in three years. I can’t predict what will happen in one year,” Meyer said. “We’ll probably have to constantly check in, modify and
Board discusses the future, 2025 Initiative
Abbey Reighard Senior Staff Writer
Board members discussed an initiative that will focus on long-term projects on Tuesday. Sheldon Satenstein | Assistant Visual Editor
SGB 4
Decision time Decision time Securing the Pirates’ futureSecuring the Pirates’ future
page 8page 8
Becoming a genius Becoming a genius Pitt alum wins MacArthur grantPitt alum wins MacArthur grant
page 2page 2
! e Talbert Report! e Talbert Report On Penn State’s bowl ban liftOn Penn State’s bowl ban lift
page 6page 6
2 September 24, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
NEWS
T errance Hayes has come a long way from being a starving artist. He is now considered a genius.
Last week, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced its 2014 class of fellows to receive a MacAr-thur grant. Hayes, a nationally recognized poet and professor at Pitt, was among the 21 selected.
The award, commonly referred to as the “genius grant” recognizes exceptional indi-viduals in their respective fi elds who show the potential to continue to produce great work. Joining Hayes in the 2014 class are a cartoonist, a physicist and a criminal law-yer. All fellows receive a $625,000 stipend, doled out over fi ve years. The foundation calls each recipient individually to inform
them of their fellowship. Hayes, however, learned he received the
fellowship a week late. “I received this phone call from Illinois,”
he said. “It was fi rst on my cell phone and then on my home phone, but I didn’t know the number. I didn’t recognize it, so I didn’t answer.”
A week later, they called again. He was in a co! ee shop with his wife.
“I looked at [my cell phone] like who’s this calling me? A bill collector? Is some-body harassing me? So I let it ring, then dialed it back. No one answered. I was still clueless as to who it was,” he said.
Hayes thought that someone was playing a joke on him. Then, they called him a fourth time. This time, he answered. The voice on the other end told him he had been named a MacArthur Fellow.
“I was wondering who this was,” Hayes
said to the caller .The newly dubbed genius has published
four collections of poetry and has already won multiple awards and honors for three of them. His style is improvisational and hu-morous, and it combines the past and pres-ent with poems focusing on subjects such as history and hip-hop with references to artists such as Kendrick Lamar and Tupac.
Hayes often writes about gender, family and race in post-modern America, like in his “Black Confederate Ghost Story.”
“Hello black accomplices and accom-plished blacks. / Hello Robert E. Lee bobble-head doll on the handyman’s dashboard whistling Dixie / across our post racial coun-try. Last night / I watched several hours of television and saw / no blacks. NASDAQ. NASCAR. Nadda Black.”
The selection of the MacArthur Fellows is secretive — while the process is known,
the names of the nominators are never re-vealed.
Each year, The MacArthur Fellowship program chooses new nominators to select candidates. According to the MacArthur Foundation website, the nominators are chosen “on the basis of their expertise, ac-complishments and breadth of experience.” They are encouraged to nominate anyone in their fi eld or any other fi eld who they think demonstrates exceptional creativity. At any given time, there may be 100 or more active nominators.
Once all nominations are in, an inde-pendent selection committee evaluates candidates. The selection committee is a group of roughly a dozen leaders in the arts, sciences, humanities and for-profi ts and nonprofi ts. They consider the nomination
Pitt poet wins more than half a million, named a geniusDale Shoemaker
Staff Writer
Hayes 4
3September 24, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
Pitt is a 2015 Military Friendly School, according to Victory Media Inc. , a Pitts-burgh-based military services firm.
Pitt announced in a release Tuesday its reception of the award, which puts the University in the top 15 percent of academic institutions — including uni-versities and trade schools — that are working to advance veteran students in the best ways possible.
Victory Media based its distinction on academic credibility, financial cred-ibility, financial assistance, nonfinancial military support, veteran enrollment per-centage and veteran graduation rates at academic institutions after a post-Sept. 11 G.I. Bill funded more Veterans Affairs initiatives.
Cristina Ruggiero, associate dean of
Pitt’s College of General Studies, which is home to the Office of Veterans Services, said Pitt is proud of this recognition.
“Veterans Services is dedicated to its mission of helping our students in their transition from military to academic life by supporting their ongoing academic success and assisting veterans, guards-men, reservists, spouses and dependents in receiving their military education ben-efits,” Ruggiero said in the release.
Pitt’s Office of Veterans Services , founded in 2009, offers veteran students assistance with pre-admission counsel-ing, scholarship advising, free tutoring and career training assistance, according to its website.
“The University’s commitment to vet-erans and their families is seen in the wide variety of programs and services we provide through our Office of Veterans Services,” Ruggiero said.
Pitt is a military friendly school, study shows
Cristina Holtzer News Editor
Pitt is among the top 15 percent of military friendly schools in the country. | MCT Campus
4 September 24, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
tweak things.”Meyer’s program is based on the 2020
program adopted by the University of Lou-isville’s Student Government Association, according to Student Government Board President Mike Nites.
The University of Louisville’s SGA drafted their 2020 initiative during its 2009-2010 term, according to its President Monali Haldankar. In spring 2010, the SGA held a referendum that the entire University of Louisville student body voted on, which passed the Initiative.
Haldankar said the 2020 Initiative was designed to “give a more clear direction for Student Government to work towards,” but added that the SGA has modifi ed some of the initiatives since.
“As time goes on, we realize that only a few of the goals may not realistically be met in such a short time frame, and the support for some of the initiatives has dwindled,” Haldankar said in an email.
Meyer, who abstained from voting on
a modifi cation to the Elections Code at the public meeting on Sept. 16 because he is “potentially running for Student Govern-ment Board” this election, did not comment further on his plans. He said he plans to help future Boards with the 2025 Initiative re-gardless.
Meyer added that the future Board should be willing to work on the initiatives that stu-dents address in the surveys.
“If a signifi cant proportion of the stu-dent body values those things, I don’t know why a future Board wouldn’t follow that,” Meyer said.
In other action:Board member Benjamin West intro-
duced a resolution for the Student Govern-ment Board to support the University of Pittsburgh Sexual Assault Task Force.
The Board also plans to work with the Wellness Committee, Campus Women’s Organization, Rainbow Alliance, Interfra-ternity Council, Panhellenic Association, National Panhellenic Council and Resident Student Association on their separate an-nual events.
The Board will table the resolution for one week.
SGBFROM PAGE 1 ALLOCATIONS
Student Slovak Club: $1950.00
Model United Nations: $1629.69
Quidditch Club: $165.00
Strong Women, Strong Girls: $1482.78
Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers: $1304.67
HAYESFROM PAGE 2
letter, each candidate’s current work and expert evaluations in a thorough review. They then send their recommendations to the president and board of directors of the MacArthur Foundation. The board selects 20 to 30 of the candidates for fellowship. To date, the foundation has named 918 fellows.
“I had no idea,” Hayes said. “I’ve nomi-nated poets before, but none of [them] have ever gotten it. It’s a complicated process. It’s like you get nominated [for a fellowship, and] that’s like coming in on the fi rst fl oor of the Cathedral of Learning. You’re trying to get to the top fl oor.”
Now that he’s a fellow, Hayes said he hopes his nominees will receive more at-tention.
Hayes might have been left temporarily unaware of the fellowship awaiting him, but the missed connections had one positive: less time trying to keep it a secret.
When Hayes received the phone call in
Hayes 5
T P NS U DO K U
Today’s di! culty level: HardPuzzles by Dailysodoku.com
5September 24, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
the co! ee shop, he was told he wasn’t al-lowed to tell anyone except his wife. The Foundation said he had to wait until the o" cial list was released two weeks later.
When he later called and told his mother, she was ecstatic.
“My mom is drunk with excitement right now,” he said.
His wife and friends were less than sur-prised.
“[My wife] just said ‘Oh, I thought it would happen sooner or later,’” Hayes said. “Actually, a lot of my friends said the same thing, ‘We know you’re brilliant, and now everybody else does too.’”Don Bialostosky, professor and chair of Pitt’s English depart-ment, said he and the rest of the department are proud of Hayes’ fellowship.
“My colleagues and I in Pitt’s English de-partment are delighted that the MacArthur Foundation has recognized our colleague, Terrance Hayes, with its distinguished award,” he said in a emailed statement Tuesday.
To Mark Kemp, an English writing ad-visor and friend of Hayes for many years, Hayes was an obvious choice.
“I think he’s totally deserving of the MacArthur Fellowship grant: Because he is one of the best young poets in the country, because he’s an excellent ambassador for American poetry, because he’s a really fi ne reader and speaker,” Kemp said in an email.
Before Hayes was a teacher at Pitt, he received his Masters of Fine Arts in poetry from the University. Poetry, however, was not Hayes’ fi rst choice. He initially wanted to pursue visual art but didn’t think he could a! ord it.
“I thought, ‘I don’t think I can a! ord to go to graduate school for visual art, but poetry, that seems pretty easy, all I need is a pen and a little paper, that’s pretty cheap,’” Hayes said.
During this time, he house-sat for an elderly woman and lived rent-free. He de-scribed himself then as “a starving artist.” When he graduated, he started teaching and publishing his poetry. In 2001, he began teaching at CMU where he taught for 12 years. In 2013, he joined Pitt’s faculty.
One of his former students from CMU, Jeremy Philipson, said he was grateful for Hayes’ infl uence.
“He was my last professor of my under-graduate studies. He is kind, a brilliant man and poet who helped me channel my inner turmoil into external art,” he said.
Despite the praise, Hayes hopes the ex-citement will die down soon.
“I like to have a little anonymity,” he said. “What I hope happens is that this sort of recedes, and I can go back to my normal friends.”
Even with $625,000 coming his way over the next fi ve years, Hayes said he isn’t going to do anything drastic. Before he learned of
his fellowship, he was planning a lecture tour with stops at the Library of Congress, Harvard and NYU. Hayes also has a book of poetry titled “How To Be Drawn” slated for release in March.
He plans to follow through with both of these ventures and continue teaching at Pitt.
“I’m not inclined to use the money to take o! of work. That’s not my fi rst impulse. But there’s always a number of nonprofi ts that are struggling. Maybe there’s a way to contribute to those,” Hayes said.
He also said he has a 244-page book of
poems in his archives that he would like to return to. One fantasy he said he had, though, was pursuing a visual arts degree. Hayes has designed all of the covers for his four books of poetry.
Regardless of what else Hayes decides to do, he said above all, he will keep writing.
“I’ve just got to keep doing what I’ve been doing. I don’t have to go around and behave in a di! erent way or value my work in a di! erent way,” Hayes said. “I told myself, ‘You got this for what you do, so you’ve got to keep doing that.’”
HAYESFROM PAGE 4
6 September 24, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
OPINIONSUnreported fracking spills call for higher fi nes
EDITORIALEDITORIAL
Pennsylvania is far from a new player in the energy game. After all, the state was the site of the fi rst oil boom in the United States — following the discovery at Oil Creek, Pa. in 1859 — and its rich coal deposits became a catalyst for the Industrial Revolution.
Pennsylvania should be all too aware of the risks associated with diving headfi rst into new energy sources — the rate at which we burned coal turned Pittsburgh’s skies black. Moreover, careless practices with oil have led to spills and the degradation of our en-vironment.
Yet, energy practices within the state con-tinue to err on the side of profi t over caution.
In comes the new energy boom in Marcel-lus Shale, where Pennsylvania once again is charging ahead. Of course, fracking — the process of drilling and injecting fl uid into shale rock to release the natural gas inside — is not as dirty as coal or oil, on the surface.
But, during the fracking process for natu-ral gas, methane and other chemicals can seep through the system and into nearby ground water — on average, methane con-centrations are 17 times higher in drinking water wells near fracturing sites than in normal wells, according to earthworksac-
tion.org.This is preventable, but many fracking
companies aren’t willing to pay the extra costs associated with prevention, which is where the state comes in.
Ideally, the state spots out spills and then fi nes the fracking company responsible, which then incentivizes them from spilling again. Thus, giving companies a reason to be more careful.
But, according to a Post-Gazette analysis, from 2005 to June 1 of this year, only a third of spills were originally spotted by a state inspector.
“I think the number [of spills found by inspectors] raise a legitimate question that needs to be answered,” George Jugovic, a former Southwest Department of Environ-mental Protection (DEP) bureau chief, said. “If the identifi cation of spills 30 percent of the time is dependent on DEP inspectors being on-site, how many spills are we missing?”
There are two main problems: One, the state doesn’t have enough inspectors. And two, the inspectors already with the DEP don’t have much of an incentive to pressure gas companies into complying with state regulations.
Many of Pennsylvania’s DEP employees end up working for gas companies after start-ing their careers with the DEP. According to several Pennsylvania politicians, 30 to 40 former DEP inspectors have gone into the industry in the past fi ve years.
This makes it di! cult for inspectors to properly police fracking companies, seeing that they will one day be working for them. No one wants to start o" on a bad note with his or her future boss.
Additionally, DEP inspectors are highly underpaid. They typically make about $35,000 to $65,000 annually — while inspectors employed by companies make double that.
Not only does this cause many DEP in-spectors to leave for higher paying jobs in the private sector, but it provides them with less incentive to do their job properly and e" ectively.
The lack of e" ective inspections placed upon fracking companies is coupled with the proportionally low fi nes placed upon them if they actually do spill — ExxonMobil was fi ned $100,000 by the Obama administra-tion in 2010 for a leak that contaminated a tributary of the Susquehanna River.
The price of a fi ne is compared to the price of improving wastewater management sys-tems, which can be up to millions of dollars. So for many companies, it’s cheaper to take the fi ne for a spill than improve its equipment.
To prevent future spills, inspectors should be kept on board and incentivize company adherence to environmental regulations, which should include dramatically higher fi nes for spills.
Higher fi nes will give companies the mo-tivation they need to prevent spills from ever occurring, rather than seeing them as an inevitable. It will cause them to spend money on better equipment, because that will then be the cheaper option.
Plus, higher fi nes could mean higher in-come for state inspectors. The more the state makes o" fracking companies, the more it can pay for its employees. This will also give inspectors more of a reason to be extremely vigilant when looking for spills, considering that they now have a monetary incentive to do so.
Overall, in order to properly protect our environment, the DEP needs to start fi ghting fi re with fi re. Or, as it often goes in the energy business, money with money.
Two weeks ago, the NCAA decided to lift the ban on Penn State’s bowl eligibility and restore the 10 scholarships it took away in 2011 be-cause of the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal . But after the immediate riots at Penn State, no one seems to really care anymore.
Nevertheless, that won’t stop me from objectively evaluating the NCAA’s decision and the restoration of Penn State’s football program in this column.
First, I hope you have all properly cele-brated the end of this massive punishment against Penn State’s football program — an end that probably reduced many a student to
tears after realizing all of the Tostitos Fiesta Bowls they could’ve won in the past two years of heartache and pain.
Thankfully, the NCAA’s decision has shown us that the all-American sport of football far outweighs any supposed institutional over-looking of child abuse, a great victory for all football fans.
After all, the NCAA’s original punishment didn’t even a" ect the right people. It might be true that the independent commission — put into place by Penn State’s board of trustees — found that the apparent need to maintain the image of the football program was more important . But when you think about it, mod-erate sanctions on the football program just weren’t fair.
Just think of the 20 football players who theoretically could have received scholarships from Penn State if not for the sanctions. The loss of top recruits and the resulting pain the fanbase experienced — although not techni-cally equivalent to child abuse — was still very signifi cant. God forbid those potential recruits wound up at a school like Pitt.
Not to mention all of the students who missed out on going to bowl games. For die hard football fans, that is like taking away Christmas. It was pure injustice to put such a vulnerable top football program through such agony. Why should any institution be held accountable for the actions of its top leaders anyway? It’s not like they are a refl ection of the organization’s values.
In addition, besides failing to report child abuse, Penn State’s football program had nothing to do with the Sandusky scandal. It is simply an unfortunate coincidence that San-dusky happened to use Penn State’s showers to commit his abuse and that employees of the football program happened to witness it.
According to Pennsylvania law, anyone who comes into regular contact with minors in the course of their employment is mandated to report suspected child abuse. But a college football coach doesn’t fi t this criteria. Why should Penn State’s football program be held accountable when its employees fail to report child abuse by one of its former employees
Having the right priorities: Football for the winEli Talbert
Columnist
THE TALBERT REPORTTHE TALBERT REPORT
Talbert 7
7September 24, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
on its property, when technically they aren’t specifi cally mandated to do it? It’s big govern-ment at its fi nest.
Of course, some people (those with a bias against Penn State football) would point out that three university o! cials have been in-dicted by grand juries as a result of the scandal. And even if their behavior was not technically criminal, it warranted the sanctions from the NCAA. These people though — blinded by their hatred for Penn State — forget that the NCAA is a sporting organization and should not be involved in criminal matters. Sure, the NCAA can give sanctions to USC — that are now the near equivalent to those given to Penn State — for unknowingly hosting non-amateurs on it’s athletic teams, but protecting children isn’t really its job.
In light of these reasons, the decision to end Penn State’s sanctions is entirely appropriate. We can all agree that any assumptions that the NCAA only cares about money are negligible. It might be true that when the sanctions were handed out that the stated goal was to “impose
sanctions that both refl ect the magnitude of these terrible acts and that also ensure Penn State will rebuild an athletic culture that went horribly awry.” Additionally, as recently as January, the president of the NCAA stated that “there were no discussions” of lifting the sanc-tions. But people change their minds.
Perhaps the NCAA realized that the mag-nitude of the acts was actually smaller than previously estimated. Besides, what is far more important than any negative impressions is the positive. Penn State students took to the streets to celebrate, and Big Ten coaches say that ending the sanctions was the right thing to do, while the only people who disapproved were probably those who don’t even like foot-ball or root for Penn State’s rivals.
In the end, justice prevailed, and the NCAA’s decision is now a mere footnote in history. It was one small victory for football and the American way of life. But, while we can celebrate now, we must not rest in the future. There are still battles to fi ght, and as the NFL continues to come under attack from the me-dia for things like alleged child and domestic abuse, I call on all football fans to ensure that football gets the win, yet again.
Penn State fans celebrate with their mascot, the Nittany Lion. MCT Campus
8 September 24, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
SPORTSSPORTS
Russell Martin has been one of the Pirates’ best players this season | MCT Campus
Do you hear that sound? No, that’s not the screaming fans in a sold-out PNC Park. That’s the cha-ching of a cash register after every clutch hit by Russell Martin.
Two years ago, the Pirates signed the catcher to a two-year, $17 million deal. Coming o! a .211 average and .714 OPS year with the Yankees, it seemed like an overpay. For a team with limited revenue, signing Martin seemed like a desperate move to fi ll a weak spot. There were better
ways for the Pirates to spend their money. Martin was once one of the best catch-
ers in baseball, combining a .293 average and .843 OPS with tremendous defense when he played with the Dodgers in 2007, which was his second year in the league. But in the succeeding years, Martin’s abili-ties began to decline. His o! ense and de-fense regressed every year. By the time the Pirates signed him, he seemed like an average to barely-above-average catcher.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.The only thing more surprising than
Martin’s transformation was that of the
whole team, which became a legitimate playo! contender. The once-dwindling player is now a smooth-hitting, rocket-armed, brick-wall-dynamo of a player. And not even that does him justice. It’s safe to say he may be the best catcher in the MLB.
Last season, his hitting did not improve much from his Dodgers days, as he posted only a .226 average and .704 OPS. His de-fense, on the other hand, was sensational, throwing out 36 of 53 runners an aston-ishing .404 percent of the time. The 36 runners thrown out was good for fi rst in the MLB, and the percentage was third.
Then, add in Martin’s ability to keep nearly every ball in front of him. No per-fect statistic can quantify it, but as some-one who watches nearly every Pirates game, I can assert that Martin is a brick wall back there. No matter how badly the pitcher misses, or how far o! the plate the ball lands, Martin keeps it in front of him. His .998 fi elding percentage, fi rst among his position last year, speaks to that, along with his overall steadiness and consistency behind the plate.
Russell Martin should be the offseason priorityJeremy Tepper
Staff Writer
BASEBALLBASEBALL
Martin 12
9September 24, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
Despite an impressive second-half per-formance, Pitt was unable to get past Niagara in a disappointing and con-troversial ending and only managed a draw for its effort.
Unable to decide the game in regu-lation for the third straight game, the Panthers and Purple Eagles went into sudden-death overtime, in which the first team to score would win instantly.
The overtime session was dominated more by the referees than the players, as they handed out two yellow cards and a red card in the final 20 minutes of the 100-minute affair.
Defender Ryan Myers received the red card after a reported disagreement with the referee, and he was forced to leave the game as a result.
Head coach Joe Luxbacher said the
referee gave him an explanation shortly after the exit of his number 10.
“He [the ref ] said it was language directed at the ref,” Luxbacher said. “Myers says he didn’t say anything. There might have been something said, but he [Myers] said he wasn’t the guy.”
The dispute came after Pitt believed the referee had missed a penalty at the other end of the field, inside Niagara’s 18-yard box. The foul would have giv-en the Panthers a penalty kick and a chance at winning the game with just less than two minutes remaining.
Despite the theatrics, the Panthers’ record now stands at 2-3-2 on the sea-son with a matchup against ninth-ranked Louisville on the road looming on Friday.
The draw was Pitt’s third in three games on the homestand, a disappoint-ing trio of results since two of the ties came against weaker, non-conference
opponents.Like the flag at Ambrose Urbanic
Field — which was mysteriously ab-sent during the National Anthem — the Panthers’ offense seemed nonexistent early on.
The Purple Eagles outshot the Pan-thers 8-2 in the first half, though goal-keeper Dan Lynd only had to make one save.
While Pitt won the possession battle over Niagara, its interior passing in the midfield was lacking, and the team couldn’t provide any sufficient chances at goal.
The second half started brilliantly for the Panthers, as their offense looked fluid, and the midfield communicated well with the forwards to create high-volume chances.
Pitt’s goal came in the 50th minute, when freshman midfielder Raj Kahlon found junior defender Kevin Fielden
tearing down the sideline, who crossed the ball into the box for an easy finish from midfielder Dan Prete.
Prete was quick to credit his team-mates on the goal.
“Someone made a nice run down the left, and Cory… made a good run and brought a defender with him, which left me wide open behind him. He led it, and I had a wide open shot in the middle of the box, and I was able to tuck it in the corner,” he said.
The Panthers looked satisfied with their goal and kept pressuring the Purple Eagles in the midfield — a spot where they looked vulnerable through-out the game.
However, the mood and confidence of Pitt quickly changed in the 69th min-ute when sophomore Brandon Kolc-zynski attempted to clear a dangerous
Panthers surrender late equalizer in drama-fi lled drawMark Powell Staff Writer
MEN’S SOCCERMEN’S SOCCER
Soccer 13
10 September 24, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
I grew up thinking I didn’t hate the Yankees. Then, around age 12, I realized what a moron I’d been and thought about the amount of time I wasted not hating the Yankees. So, I blindly hated the Yankees. And then I learned how the world works and how money works — what di! erence is there, really? — and I didn’t need to blindly hate the Yankees anymore, because I could hate them for a reason.
Here I am, at 21 years old, and there are few things on this earth more beautiful than watching the New York Yankees collapse into a smoking heap of irony and justice.
Baseball’s second-biggest spenders (damn you, L.A. Dodgers) will miss the playo! s for — cue the world coming to a screeching halt — the second consecutive year. But the postseason must go on, even though most of America will be too busy swimming in the tears of the Bronx to notice. My apologies go
out to Derek Jeter, who deserves every ounce of respect and praise he receives. It doesn’t seem fi tting for our generation’s face of baseball to exit without a fi nal playo! appearance, but I’m willing to overlook a Jeter-less playo! season for the greater good.
Before the 2014 season started, the Yan-kees’ front o" ce went out and signed four of the biggest names in free agency — Jacoby Ellsbury, Masahiro Tanaka, Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran — for a combined $438 million. For those of you non-math-oriented kids out there like me, that’s about 438 mil-lion times more money than we have in our bank accounts. This year, the Yankees dished out $75 million to those four combined. Add in longtime Orioles disabled list staple Brian Roberts for another $2 million. Couple these commitments with the existing talent on the roster, and you fi nd yourself with a one-year, $200 million empire of might.
Large payrolls do not always translate to playoff successAlex Wise
Staff Writer
COLUMNCOLUMN
Yankees 11The Yankees, with the second-highest payroll, missed the playoffs for the second straight season | MCT Campus
11September 24, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
E S T A B L I S H E D 1 9 1 0
Editorial PoliciesSingle copies of The Pitt News are free and available at newsstands around
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Copy Sta!Sarah Choflet
Anjuli Das Kinley Gillette Johanna HelbaEmily Maccia
But how did this empire of might become an empire of mediocrity? One would assume that dishing out astronomical salaries year in and year out would virtually purchase a spot in the playo" s, but the patent-pending Yankee Method has failed for two consecutive seasons. In fact, three of the four highest-paying teams — New York, Philadelphia at $180 million and Boston at almost $163 million — all missed the 2014 playo" s, and the latter two missed by wide margins.
Rather, it’s the so-called “small-market” teams that deal a mere $75 to $110 million to their players each year that are making a playo" push. The Baltimore Orioles ($107.5 million) clinched Tuesday night. The Oak-land Athletics ($83.5 million) have essentially locked up playo" s in the American League. The Kansas City Royals ($92 million) and Pitts-burgh Pirates ($78 million) are still fi rmly in the hunt. The Milwaukee Brewers ($104 million) are down but not mathematically out.
But what hasn’t worked for the Yankees, Phillies and Red Sox has worked for a few clubs this year. The correlation between money and
wins can be made for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Detroit Tigers and the Los Angeles Angels, who rank fi rst, fi fth and sixth in salary this year. All three should make the playo" s. Last year, the San Francisco Giants and their $140 million payroll fi nished 10 games under .500. This year, at nearly the same price, they’re a near-lock for the postseason.
So why does big spending work for some teams and not others? Why does it work for a team one year and not the next? What is the most e" ective model for building a profes-sional baseball team that wins consistently?
If you answered, “Who knows?” “I can’t
answer that,” or “No idea,” to those three questions, you pass the test. Baseball is fi ckle, and payrolls aren’t necessarily indicative of a team’s performance. The Boston Red Sox won the World Series last year with a payroll $12 million below what this year’s cellar-dwelling team in the same uniform made. This is one of the few things as sweet as watching the Yankees crumble. High payrolls are found on top of the standings and at the bottom. The same goes for low-spending clubs. The Oak-land Athletics was the best team in baseball
YANKEESFROM PAGE 10
Yankees 12
12 September 24, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
for the fi rst four months of the season, and its payroll is nearly $50 million under that of one of baseball’s worst teams, the Texas Rangers.
But the world has always found the Yankee way to be evil. Throwing eight-digit yearly sala-ries at players already considered superstars is certainly a more in-your-face business practice than, say, developing young talent in the minor leagues. Sure, any team that wishes to compete will make a free agent signing when necessary. But the Yankees have a habit of buying in excess at times, if for no other reason than being able to a! ord it. And that’s what makes the world angry. That’s why the Yankees are so actively despised in the sports universe. That’s why I nearly bought an orange T-shirt with a slogan that read “God hates the Yankees” on Craigslist.
But rather than waste my money, I think I’ll choose the free alternative: to Google “sad Mark Teixeira” and “Brett Gardner bald” until my stomach splits from laughter. And then I’ll watch the Orioles in the playo! s, and all will be well in the world.
For now, at least.
YANKEESFROM PAGE 11
On top of that, consider his expert abil-ity in calling games. Martin has an undeni-able chemistry with his pitchers, is seem-ingly never waved o! and always calls for the right pitch in the right situation.
“He’s, in my opinion, one of the best in the game,” Tony Watson, a relief pitcher on the team told Pirates Prospects on Sept. 11. “What he does for us, in calling games, reading hitters, scouting reports and things like that, is second to none.”
Martin produced a 4.3 WAR (wins above replacement) in 2013, good for fi fth among catchers.
This season, Martin has continued his defensive prowess while exponentially improving his o! ense. Behind the plate, Martin has thrown out 35 of 55 runners, which makes him fi rst in the MLB again. His pitch calling and ball stopping abilities are still elite as well — skills I’ve really begun to appreciate any time he does not start.
When the Pirates play Chris Stewart, a catcher with a good defensive reputa-
tion in his own right, the defense takes a signifi cant drop. I would constantly say to myself, “Martin would have stopped that,” or, “Martin would’ve thrown him out.”
On the other side of the ball, Martin has been sensational, hitting .297 with a .408 on-base percentage and .850 OPS. The latter two numbers would rank fi rst among his position if he had enough at-bats to qualify.
Then there’s the clutch hitting. Just this weekend, Martin had the game winning RBIs in two games against the Brewers. On the year, Martin bats .383 with a 1.032 OPS with runners in scoring position, a dramatic improvement over last year when he hit .192 with a .572 OPS in that situation.
The change has been astonishing. Once a pull-heavy, big swinger with the Yankees, Martin has become incredibly patient, waiting for his pitch and then driving it.
“You look at his numbers from last year, his fi rst checkmark on what he needed to improve on was hitting with runners in scoring position,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “It’s all about his approach, his stubbornness in the plate, giving up big swings and trying to make hard contact
with the pitches hit.”All of this has combined to produce a
5.3 WAR, second among catchers only to Jonathan Lucroy’s 6.5. Martin has 200 less at-bats than Lucroy, so it’s fair to assume that given equal time, Martin would sur-pass him. Next to Andrew McCutchen, he may be the most irreplaceable player on the Pirates.
What’s all of this worth? Well, in 2012, Yadier Molina, often thought as the para-gon of catchers, signed a fi ve-year, $75 million contract extension. Molina was 29 years old at the time, while Martin is 31 now. Catchers decline rapidly with age, though Martin hasn’t shown any sign of that yet. Considering he’ll be on the open market after this season — while Molina wasn’t — it’s safe to predict that Martin will get $15-$20 million a year from somebody.
Whether that money will come from the Pirates remains to be seen. It likely won’t. In the meantime, Martin should be appreciated for what he’s done.
Without him, the Pirates probably would not make the playo! s last year or this year. With him, though, they’re a World Series contender.
MARTINFROM PAGE 8
13September 24, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
ACROSS1 Club joke teller6 Misfortunes
10 Motel worker14 Traditional
Pennsylvaniabarn raisers
15 Tide type16 Ploy17 Letter-routing
number19 Overly
submissive20 Poker hand prize21 Thai language22 Baker that
“nobody doesn’tlike”
24 __ cum laude26 Beer barrel27 Can in an Andy
Warhol painting32 __ New Guinea33 Hairy Addams
cousin34 Norwegian
capital36 Fancy flower
vase37 Hat for a
Western hero41 Former Mideast
alliance: Abbr.42 Emily Dickinson,
e.g.44 Apt name for a
painter45 How the elated
walk47 World Series
setting51 “2001” computer52 Mars neighbor53 Traveled around
52-Across, say57 Mates for mas58 Chicken __ king61 Fight-or-flight
emotion62 California Gold
Rush figure65 Fly like a butterfly66 Reverse67 Early morning hr.68 Heavy drinkers69 Jump70 Yellowish-brown
DOWN1 Dogpatch creator
Al2 Melville novel3 Light fog4 Suffix with Marx
5 Fried Taco Bellofferings
6 It may be grossor net
7 MGM mascot8 Boys9 Has a talk with
10 Nearsighted toon11 “The Mammoth
Hunters” authorJean
12 “Got it”13 Fake on the ice18 Ram’s offspring23 Hi-__ monitor24 Church-owned
Texas sch.25 Not very much27 Chocolate
substitute28 Sleep disorder29 Ranks for
Columbo andKojak: Abbr.
30 Customary31 Tartan pattern32 Coyote’s offspring35 Hockey legend
Bobby38 Enough food for
a feast39 Mesozoic or
Paleozoic40 “That’s a fact”
rebuttal
43 Saloon souvenirs46 Old Testament
book beforeEsth.
48 Break bread49 Computer on an
airplane traytable
50 Unravel at theedge, as threads
53 Switch positions54 Move, in real
estate lingo
55 Switch partner56 Fully cooked58 All over again59 Low in fat60 Soldier’s group,
a member ofwhich might bestationed at thestart of 17-, 27-,47- or 62-Across
cross from the wing, but he accidentally redirected the ball into his own net.
“Brandon tried to kick it out, but it just came off his foot the wrong way,” said Fielden. “Dan tried to get it but it just got through him.”
Pitt responded positively in the final 20 minutes and overtime but was unable to find the go-ahead goal.
Similar to the loss to Lafayette, Lux-bacher said the Panthers have to play sharper, especially against better op-ponents.
“We weren’t sharp tonight at all, and we had talked that good teams should get ready for every game... we weren’t tonight,” he said. “We were on our back foot most of the night. The general play wasn’t nearly the standard I expect...that’s what’s frustrating.”
Pitt travels to ninth-ranked Louisville for its next game on Friday.
The Panthers have played three straight extra time games. Bobby Mizia | Visual Editor
SOCCERFROM PAGE 9
14 September 24, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
