Thanks to Dawn for this. Cleaning out a bunch of old submissions so I figured I'd double up after Dawn's snowy submission yesterday. And this one also has to do with Mister Buddy as well. Dawn says:

Check out this mini pony that was posted on Mister Buddy's FB...Her name is Dream!

Dream is a fantastic name for a mini pony. When I'm old and retired, I'll own two mini ponies named Salt and Pepper. Those are great mini pony names, too.

Thanks to Dawn for this. She says;

I don't know if you saw this, psamp, but Mister Buddy posted this on FB

We all remember Mister Buddy from when he has an itchy bum back in March. Dawn sent the above pic back then as well, I just have an incredible backlog of mini pony submissions to wade through. Plus it has been rather warm and muggy in NYC the past few days, so a mini pony in snow is a good polar opposite. Sure, "polar" pun intended with that snow, I guess.

On Saturday, the Pirates called up AAA pitcher Brandon Cumpton to make a start against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Adding another pitcher was huge, seeing that the starting rotation was slowly settling in with super-rook Gerrit Cole making his vaunted debut earlier in the week. Cumpton one-upped his more-highly-lauded teammate in the strikeout department, striking out the side in the first inning before felling another two in the second.

Cole's win beat out Cumpton's no-decision. 

And then since the Pirates are in the National League, Cumpton came up to bat in the bottom of the second. Spoiler Alert: he didn't do anything of note. So Gerrit Cole and his 2-RBI debut at-bat won that round.

But where Gerrit won on skill, Cumpton won on style. Here's shoddy footage I grabbed of Cumpton's first-ever walk-up to the plate:

For those of you that can't recognize the thumping beat or just haven't listened to it a jillion times like yours truly, that's Cumpton using Andrew W.K.'s "Party Hard" on his way to bat. You cannot make a better entrance than that. If Cumpton stood backwards and held the bat upside down, it still would have been the greatest at-bat in the majors all year.

And now Andrew W.K. himself is tweeting GO PIRATES!

Had I not stopped adding things to this blog's title at its inception, it very well might have been Pittsburgh Sports and Mini Ponies and Andrew W.K. Music. And then I would have to add Brandon Cumpton to the list and get a whole new website url and domain and everything.

Party Hard.

Go Buccos.

Thanks to Dexter for this. He says:

Hey psamp this is darryl. He wants to be the Mini Pony of the day

Darryl will ALWAYS be honored in this spot so long as he asks. Name something better than a polite mini pony. Don't worry, I'll wait.

Cool Vine of Darryl below:

Thanks to Cotter for this. It comes with no comment, and he sent it to me like two months ago. We can pretty much create our own backstory for these mini ponies I guess. Are they loose? Free? Headin' to Vegas to get neigh-lope? Sorry.

A funny thing happened yesterday. No, not the Bylsma extension...I expected as much and the team delivered. Perhaps it was a funny thing to everyone who thought he was as good as fired.

The funny thing was that GM Ray Shero came out and spoke candidly for about an hour on the team and expectations, and the people who wanted Bylsma axed all of a sudden turned on the masterful architect of this team who has been called nothing short of "genius" in his tenure. Somehow since the individual wants of the loss-mad fan went unheeded, the GM has lost all credibility and can no longer be trusted. Today's Malkin extension is likely a kick in those fans' faces.

But at the base level, it all boils down to keeping Dan Bylsma around as coach. According to Bylsma-hater logic, it won't matter if we have Sid and Geno for the rest of their primes if Disco Dan is around to muck things up for everyone.

So I've put together the below calendar for those of you intent on orbiting around negativity as it relates to the Pens and their head coach. We've heard all these comments and criticisms before for a variety of reasons, you might as well double-down on your idiocy if you're gonna keep up the front.

***

Early-October, 2013 - Loudly tell your buddy you can't believe Bylsma is here for opening night. Tell him you hope the Pens miss the playoffs for that reason.

20 minutes later, early-October, 2013 - Pens give up 2 quick ones and Dan looks up at the sky. Huck your Steelers Bad Call Brick at your tv which you didn't get to use during football this week cos the Steelers are on a bye. God the Steelers are awesome. Pens should fire Bylsma and hire a Rooney.

Mid-November, 2013 - A month and a half in and Simon Despres is a healthy scratch to get some rest. Make sure everyone at the sports bar knows sitting Despres was the wrong move. You also would've started a cyborg version of Mark Eaton and also kidnapped Rob Scuderi's family in the offseason to force him back to the Burgh.

Mid-December, 2013 - After clinching their 10th straight win, becoming the only team with 10-game win streaks in 4-straight seasons, make sure everyone knows that this won't help squat in the playoffs. "Playoffs are a different monster, Bylsma can't hack it there."

Late-January, 2014 - Pens slump heading into the Olympics. Tell your dog that you can't see Bylsma as head coach once everyone returns from Russia, and you would've gotten rid of him back in June if you had your way. The dog humps your leg.

snowboard cat know's what's up

February 18th, 2014 - "CAN'T BELIEVE DAN IS COACHING TEAM USA IN SOCHI. MIKE BABCOCK IS GONNA MAKE HIM LOOK LIKE A FOOL."

End-February, 2014 - "Pssshhhhhtttt...bronze medal is second loser."

March 1st, 2014 - "Pens are 1-1 in outdoor games. If they lose this game to the Blackhawks there's no way Bylsma survives. 1-2 in outdoor games is crap. We should hire Joel Quenneville today."

Late-March, 2014 - Pens beat new division mate Washington and your insults briefly shift to everything DC because you're still obsessed with the 05-09 Capitals.

Early-April, 2014 - Pens lose playoff opener. 4,000 Pittsburghers commit seppuku via extensive paper cuts by their PensPoints vouchers. Everyone Youtubes it and on video you can hear the slow hum of "Dannnnnnnnnnnnn" at the moment of honor.

today's penspoints code is ASININE

The next day, early-April, 2014 - "WHAT'S BYLSMA'S RECORD IN THE PLAYOFFS SINCE THE CUP?!?!" [hint]

End-May, 2014 - Pens get taken to 6 games in the ECF. Make Twitter become Super-Hell.

Mid-June, 2014 - The Pens get swept in 2 games (refs cancel the next 2 games to spare Bylsma the pain) in the SCF to a new independent team created by Jaromir Jagr in the 2013 offseason consisting entirely of Jagr clones. Re-start this insult chain as necessary.

Go Pens.

Thanks to Doug for this. He says:

it's a miniature scottish highlander

When I think back to all the non-mini ponies we've used in the Mini Pony of the Day section, there probably isn't one animal as weird as a mini Scottish Highlander. Some goats, dogs, cats, etc., but never something so small yet so brutal that you need tennis balls on his horns.

Loootta digital ink has been spilled with the announcement today that Ray Shero WILL NOT fire head coach Dan Bylsma, instead opting to extend the entire coaching staff another two years. It seems many fans wanted Bylsma axed for the playoff struggles of the Pens in the past 4 seasons. So I went ahead and checked the records of every team and coach* that has been active in said playoffs over that same amount of time.**

*no rhyme or reason to the order. the first eight in each conference are the top eight from the 2010 playoffs, bottom few are teams in each conference that have made the playoffs since.

**can't just forget about dan's 16 wins the season prior to the following data.

May I quickly remind you that Dan Bylsma and the Pens went 3-4 against the Lightning in 2011 with no Sid or Geno, and Mark Letestu as the mainstay #1 center.

So Boston and Chicago are your run-away winners, and will rightfully be playing for the Cup again in this year's SCF.

The Kings are the only team that got away with the Dan Bylsma way of doing things...canning an ineffective coach and winning with a new guy later that same season.

Bruce Boudreau and Randy Carlyle are the only coaches with multiple playoff teams in this same stretch, coincidentally both taking teams from the East AND West to the dance. Both coaches have below .500 records in the playoffs in both conferences in this stretch. Paul MacLean is the only offseason replacement coach to get to .500 with a team that had previously made the playoffs. He's 8-8 with one series win.

Ray Shero says he wishes to emulate Detroit's stability in the front office and coaching ranks. Mike Babcock has a similar record to Bylsma and his most recent Cup happened before Bylsma's.

In the East, Peter Laviolette has more wins than Dan Bylsma, but also more losses. He also missed the playoffs more than Bylsma over this stretch. And his Cup happened forever ago by comparison, not with the Flyers.

In the West, Alain Vigneault has a similar record. Again, no Cup, and underachieved with a similar set of Art Ross winners, an MVP and a Quebecois goalie from the 2010 Olympics.

Staying out West, Todd McLellan is staggeringly above .500 in the playoffs over this stretch. He has no Cup to speak of.

My point in bringing this up is to hopefully show, IN PLAIN FACTS, that Ray Shero made the correct decision in extending Dan Bylsma. With the amount of turnover among playoff team coaches, only once since Bylsma has a reactionary change worked...Sutter. And that wasn't even an offseason move. If we look at who was available to replace Dan this year, you got your Torts and Vigneault, who have proven themselves lesser than Bylsma, not even counting Dan's Cup. Or maybe the Pens could've won with Pete DeBoer!

There's also rumors Ted Nolan is being required to take a pay cut to stay with the Latvian men's team. Shero should've got on that before extending Bylsma.

Please draw your own haphazard conclusions.

Go Pens.

Thanks (?) to Anna for this.

Sad news, as a mini pony was shot in the neck by a high-powered rifle in Westmoreland County last week. The poor buddy had to be put down as a result of the injuries. I hear that people who harm mini ponies go to Super-Hell.

Pirates top prospect and former 2011 1st-overall pick Gerrit Cole debuts tonight against the San Francisco Giants. This is big. Despite the recent, shall we say, lack of success, Gerrit follows only two Pirates 1st-overall picks in the last 15 years. The notorious Bryan Bullington, and Anna Benson's husband Kris.

Coincidentally, Gerrit shares more than just that top overall spot with Bullington and Benson. All three are/were right handed pitchers. Let's hope that's where the similarities end. Bullington never won a game with Pittsburgh, and only one in his career. Benson fared a bit better, winning his debut before seismically crapping the bed over the next 5-6 years...having a 9-6 record be the pinnacle of his Pirates career.

So we rejoice at Cole's entrance tonight, as it brings a new wind. The team is in much better shape and nobody passed up Greinke or Fielder or Hamels or Cain to get Gerrit Cole. This passes for playoff-level celebrations in Pittsburgh.

Go Gerrit. Go Buccos.