Laurels & lances: Sports, spats, skates and scams
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Laurel: To little bits of sports history. Close to 300 people gathered on New Year’s Day in a North Huntingdon auto dealership to get a glimpse of some of the pieces of the past that made up Bill Mazeroski’s 17-year Hall-of-Fame career with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
More than 120 participated in the auction of the items, taking home things like bats, balls, gloves and the 16mm film of the 1960 World Series Game 7 where Mazeroski’s walk-off home run gave Pittsburgh the win.
The appreciation for a star player who hasn’t taken the field since 1972 shows fan devotion and that some people remember why Pittsburgh is the City of Champions.
Lance: To more television travails. On Wednesday, Cox Media Group announced that “after weeks of negotiations, Verizon has unexpectedly decided to remove WPXI-Pittsburgh from its services.” That followed Tuesday’s announcement that Comcast was dropping Pittsburgh Cable News Channel.
The moves are the latest tug-of-war between stations and providers, like a July 2019 stalemate between DirecTV and CBS that left KDKA blacked out for subscribers.
It probably won’t be the last.
Laurel: To warm hearts and cold ice. If there’s anything better than a fundraiser for a great cause, it’s a fundraiser for a great cause that brings in more money than expected.
The Maura C. Rupprecht Alumni Hockey Game was shooting for $5,000 to go to mental health care programs at Deer Lakes School District in the wake of two student suicides in two years — including Rupprecht.
Instead, the game raised $6,300 — and turned a spotlight on the issue of suicide and the need for support.
Lance: To cashing in on fear. Scams where people pretend to be something they aren’t to get money from the unsuspecting are nothing new.
So, it isn’t really surprising that state police report someone posed as a Westmoreland County sheriff’s deputy to scam a New Alexandria woman out of $7,000 under false threats of jail time.
It is, however, reprehensible.