Afternoon Baseball

Well, I was wayyy off on Carolina. Seattle steamrolled them. Bill Simmons picked the Panthers game wrong for the 12th consecutive time. Now, before all the Simmons haters use that as an example of how he knows nothing about sports, keep in mind that Chris Berman might be the worst picker in the history of the universe. But he knows plenty about football (and baseball, even if it doesn't always come across). He's just terrible at spreads and predictions.

Pittsburgh-Seattle. One team in its 6th Super Bowl, another in its first. But neither has a SB win in the last 25 years -- Hell, Seattle didn't have a playoff win in the last 20 years before last week. Get ready for Kordell Stewart, Neil O'Donnell, Jim Zorn and Dave Kreig to emerge from obscurity to talk about their teams and how they failed to win the big one. (O'Donnell, incidentally, was also the backup on the yard-short Titans SB team).

There will be lots of talk and speculation, especially since few thought either team would be here. But remember this: the game will come down to Big Ben (I refuse to try to spell his last name). His play, more than the play of anyone else, will determine who wins. If he's anything like he was today, the Steelers are in good shape.