Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh hockey legend and two-time savior of the Penguins (both as a player and then an owner), recently made a bid with Penguins' co-owner Ron Burkle to buy the Pittsburgh Pirates from the team's current ownership group, lead by West Virginia newspaper man Bob Nutting. While some characterize the Lemieux group's bid as "serious," Nutting brushed it off when asked about it last night by simply saying that the team isn't for sale.It's the same answer Nutting has given in the past when asked about the status of the Pirates. Billionaire Pittsburgh native Mark Cuban has also made rumblings about buying the team, though nothing serious has come of that recently either. The Pirates are, of course, frequently targeted for this type of conversation both because they haven't had a winning season since 1992 and perennially have among the lowest payrolls in baseball.
With Saturday night's midnight deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players, it was widely anticipated that at least a few productive players would be non-tendered and added to the free agency pool. 
INDIANAPOLIS - Of all the names involved with the NL Central, two in particular stuck out during the Winter Meetings. The path the 
INDIANAPOLIS -- Wednesday afternoon at the annual Winter Meetings, the eight managers who had not yet given an interview session took the podium to field questions for a half-hour from in-house media. Eighteen others had already been there on the previous two days -- we posted about these sessions for both Monday and Tuesday -- and Joe Girardi, Joe Torre, Ron Gardenhire and Charlie Manuel were not present.
Footprints in the Snow
Once the baseball season ends, most players (or at least the ones that don't play winter ball) do everything they can to enjoy the few months of downtime they get with their family and friends before the rigors of spring training and regular travel begin again in February. Pirates' pitcher 
In a surprising piece of mid-World Series news, the 
Starting Five
There is a perfect storm of sorts going on in Pittsburgh this week. The Pirates have lost 22 of their past 25 games (and are in the process of losing number 23 as I type this), which is the worst streak for the franchise since well before the turn of the 20th (not 21st) century. Meanwhile, the city is hosting the G-20 Summit, which has resulted in a huge spate of business and school closings in the downtown area as the city ratchets up security for the visiting heads of state. 
The Pittsburgh Pirates are playing some terrible baseball right now. They've won just three games in September, just 12 games since Aug. 1, and are 20-50 since July 1. After emptying their roster in late July, their lineup has been composed mostly of players that only have an opportunity to play regularly in the majors because the Pirates exist. 
