Avast! Today Be International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

It also be me day off, so contact with other people be pretty minimal (Arr!).

The 'poster girl' for this year's talk like a pirate day is actually from artist Earl Moran. This 1956 work is appropriately enough titled Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum. Moran, like Normal Rockwell, Fredrick Remington and Gil Elvgren, Earl Moran signed a contract with St. Paul MN-based advertising firm Brown & Bigelow in the 1930s and was featured in a 1940 Life magazine article entitles 'Speaking of Pictures'.

As famous an artist as Moran was, one of his models was even more renown. In 1946, Moran was approached by an aspiring star and divorcee named Norma Jean Dougherty (nee Mortenson), who in a few short years would go on to be known as Marylin Monroe.


Monroe would later credit Moran's artwork with enhancing her appearence, as she thought her legs looked too skinny in real life.

But where was I? Oh yeah...back to the Piracy. It isn't neccecarily a good era in which to be a pirate right now- the Pittsburgh Pirates just came off a humiliating 15-1 loss to the LA Dodgers the other night, fading fast after a scorching hot start earlier this season. The East Carolina Pirates of Conference USA are off to an 0-2 start on the NCAA Football season, losing 17-10 to Virginia Tech last weekend.

And let's not even start on the Somali pirates, either.



Of course, with that in mind, some pirates have managed to land on their feet.

Summertime Sports Chowdah Update for June 27- Miller Repels Marauding Pirates; Dodgers Go For (Chapter) 11; Tim Thomas- More Hardware Than True Value

RED SOX: Well, aside from that 10-run inning against San Diego last week it's been a pretty forgettable week for the Red Sox. Heading into Sunday afternoon's game against the Pirates, the Sox had managed to drop 4 in a row- the last two against San Diego at Fenway and the first two in the weekend series against Pittsburgh at PNC Park.

It was not the stuff of legends, and the Sox were helped out considerably by 4 errors from the Pirates in Sunday's game. PawSox callup Andy Miller went 6 innings, giving up five scattered hits and two runs while walking two and striking out four in what was actually his second start for Boston (he had no decision in last week's 14-5 romp over the San Diego Padres).

Jonathan Papelbon pitched the bottom of the 9th for his 14th save in 15 opportunities while Dustin Pedroia extended his hitting streak to 11 games, Adrian Gonzalez (still at 1B) raised his batting average to a league-best .361 and Miller is now 1-0 with a 3.09 ERA in the 4-2 win. Interestingly, all of Boston's runs came on either outs or errors on Sunday- another PawSox callup, LF Josh Reddick, had two sac flies, one of which resulted in an RBI.

Interestingly, the Pirates are now one game over .500- this is probably the latest in the season that they've had a record of .500 or better in recent years and just 4 games behind the NL-Central leading Brewers.

The Red Sox travel to the city of Brotherly Love for a 3-game series against the NL leading Philadelphia Phillies starting Tuesday night, with Josh Beckett (6-2; 1.84 ERA) getting the start against Cliff Lee (8-5; 2.87 ERA). First pitch will get underway at 7:05 PM ET and the game will be televised on NESN.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB: The Los Angeles Dodgers filed for Chapter 11 bankrupcy on Monday. The move came after MLB rejected a lucrative contract extension between the club and FOX sports and while the owner is close to finalizing a nasty and protracted divorce.

Two of the Dodgers largest unsecured creditors include the now-retired Manny Ramierez ($21 million) and Andruw Jones ($11.1 million). The Chapter 11 filing at a bankruptcy court in Delaware lists anywhere between $500 million and $1 billion in assets and $100 million to $500 billion in liabilities.

Owner Frank McCourt said the filing was to ensure that the team could continue to meet payroll, sign players and continue paying vendors and stadium personnel while preventing MLB from taking full control of the club.


BOSTON BRUINS: To hardly anybody's surprise, Bruins goalie Tim Thomas was named the Vezina trophy winner (NHL's Goalie of the Year) at the NHL awards last week. The former Vermont Catamount also won the Vezina in 2009, making this the second time he has garnered the award. Thomas was first on 26 of 30 ballots among votes submitted by NHL general managers.

Thomas conceded that his goaltending was far from perfect, even with an NHL-leading .938 save percentage.

"I don't think that my style's the perfect style -- that's for sure," Thomas said. "But it works for me.

"I'm kind of like the redneck of goaltending that duct-tapes everything together to fix it."

Thomas also won the Conn Smythe trophy (above) for the most valuable player in the Stanley Cup finals in the 7 game series against Vancouver.

Big and Tall Pittsburgh Pirates Jerseys, T-Shirts, MLB Baseball Apparel

Pittsburgh Pirates Big and Tall Jerseys and T-Shirts

Remember the glory days of the "Fun Bunch" Pittsburgh Pirates back in the 1970's? Or how about the Bobby Bonilla, Barry Bonds, Andy Van Slyke trio in the 80's? Ever since those days, there hasn't been too much to cheer about if your a Pirates fan. Many experts, and fans think that this may be about to change in the near future. The Pittsburgh Pirates have young talent stockpiled in their system and many say that they are about to reap the benefits.

Cheer on the Pittsburgh Pirates in officially licensed MLB apparel. Have you been looking for a Pirates jersey or t-shirt, but can't seem to find any in your size? It's unfortunate that most stores don't carry sizes higher than 2X or XLT. Here you can find big and tall Pirate jerseys and t-shirts in sizes 3XL, 4XL, and 5XL. Finally you can find the bigger sizes that you need. We will be searching for other sizes and hope to have them soon. Be sure to bookmark this site so you can come back and see what is currently available. We hope to carry the sizes 2XT, 3XT, 4XT, 5XT, and 6X in the future to compliment our current selections.

Pittsburgh Pirates Big and Tall Road Jerseys

Sizes 3X (56), 4X (58), and 5X (60)

Buy or Browse Big and Tall Pittsburgh Pirates Road MLB Jerseys

Home White Jerseys

Big and Tall Pirates Home White MLB Baseball Jerseys

 Alternate Black Jersey

This Big and Tall Pittsburgh Pirates Jersey Available in 5XL

T-Shirts - 100 Percent Cotton Tees in Bigger Sizes!

Sizes 3X, 4X, and 5X

Property of T-Shirt - Sizes 3XL, 4XL, and 5XL

Pittsburgh Pirates Big and Tall Black T-Shirt

Big Sizes Black Pirates Tee : 3X, and 5X

Ravishing Relics

He made his major league debut on April 16, 1946 with the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1947, he hit 51 home runs. Many of Kiner's homers were hit into a shortened left-field and left-center-field porch at Forbes Field, originally built for Hank Greenberg, and known in the press as "Greenberg Gardens"; the porch was retained for Kiner and redubbed "Kiner's Korner". Kiner would later use "Kiner's Korner" as the title of his post-game TV show in New York.

In 1949, Kiner topped his 1947 total with 54 home runs, falling just two short of Hack Wilson's National League record. It was the highest total in the major leagues from 1939 to 1960, and the highest National League total from 1931 to 1997. It made Kiner the first National League player with two fifty-plus seasons. Kiner also matched his peak of 127 RBIs. From 1947 to 1951, Kiner topped 40 home runs and 100 RBIs each season. His string of seasons leading the league in home runs reached seven in 1952, when he hit 37. This was also the last of a record six consecutive seasons in which he led Major League Baseball in home runs, all under the guidance of manager Billy Meyer and Pirate great Honus Wagner. He was selected to participate in the All-Star Game in six straight seasons, 1948 to 1953. He holds (by himself) the major league record of eight home runs in four consecutive multi-homer games, a mark that he set in September, 1947. This info is from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Kiner