Pittsburgh Noir

Начало книги

In 1996, my husband and I were on sabbatical leaves in the south of France. And the Steelers were playing in the Superbowl. How could we miss that? I located a bar in Monaco called Le Texan. Unfortunately, the Steelers were playing the Dallas Cowboys that time around, so when we got to the bar, the place was filled with braying people in Stetsons. One drunk man stood up and said, “Did anyone ever hear of anything good coming out of Pittsburgh?” The place was too noisy for him to hear me answer.

It was a should-have-won/could-have-won loss.

Not everybody in Pittsburgh is sports crazy, but most are. Scratch a Pittsburgher and you will hear about Bill Mazeroski’s home run that won the 1960 World Series, the catch known as “the immaculate reception” by Steeler Franco Harris, the amazing year of 1979 when the Pirates won the World Series and the Steelers won the Superbowl. The Pirates, the Steelers, and the Penguins play out our personal dramas. Didn’t look possible and then he did it. Or: That show of anger was the thing that turned it around. Or: All in their hands and they got too confident. Sports provides all kinds of possible narratives. And the best one keeps being the story of the impossible, the story of the underdog fighting back and winning.

Читать дальше →