Steel City Summary *Bonus* : 7/7/2011

Armen Gilliam at the retirement ceremony for his #35 at UNLV.

- The sudden tragic death of former Bethel Park High School basketball star Armen Gilliam is a sad story, and leaves Pittsburgh without one of its true basketball heroes and one of the few city linked players who starred in the NBA.  After his stellar career in Bethel Park, he went on to play for the UNLV Runnin' Rebels program that was on its way to National prominence under coach Jerry Tarkanian.  He excelled at UNLV and earned a 2nd Round selection by the Phoenix Suns in the 1987 NBA Draft.  Gilliam was one of the true icons of Pittsburgh basketball, and had chosen to return to live in Bethel Park once his storied career was over.  Pittsburgh has been lucky to have an endless list of star professional athletes from our local area, but basketball has only recently become a hotbed.  Gilliam was a rarity.  The area lost one of its truest superstars and finest sons on Tuesday night.

- The Pirates take today off after the 8-2 drubbing they took at the hands of Houston last night, and now look forward to a 3-game series at PNC Park vs. Chicago Cubs starting tomorrow night.  The Cubs have been reeling as much as Houston, so the Bucs should be looking to sweep the Cubbies out of town and head into the All-Star break a posh 6 games over .500.  That would be the highest win total at the break for the franchise since 1992.  A failure to win the series vs. Chicago could easily put the Bucs right back at .500, and 4-5 games out of 1st in the NL Central.  The Bucs need to hold together the magic for one more weekend.

- The news on the NFL Lockout front has been sketchy at best.  It seems progress has been made, but as crunch time approaches and teams should be getting into Training Camp gear, the players and the owners need to start nailing this down, or run the risk of losing on preseason games.  

- The Pittsburgh Penguins made another minor signing on Wednesday, netting defenseman Alexandre Picard to a one-year deal.  Picard played with Montreal last season and is a veteran of 236 games with 5 different teams.  A minor deal, but another body for the Pens to throw out there in practice.

- The Pittsburgh Power AFL Team signed former Pitt QB Bill Stull to a deal.  Stull was released by the Spokane Shock after minimal playing time this season.  He will probably not make an impact this season for the Power, but he is a local kid with talent - as we all saw when he led Pitt into some huge games towards the end of the Coach Wanny era.  Welcome Back Bill Stull!

Thats it for tonight folks!