Greetings sports fans and thank you for stopping by my blog, POINT AFTER with THE PITTMAN. My name is Chris Pittman, (a.k.a. "The PittMan"), and I absolutely love sports!! I've been a huge sports fan for as long as I can remember and so I decided to start a blog to share my passion for sports. Before I begin, I'd like to take a brief moment to thank everyone that encouraged me to start this blog. Your belief that I could do this means more to me than you'll ever know. I'd also like to thank everyone that takes the time to read my work. This blog has been something I've thought about doing for quite some time and it's very exciting to finally see it come to life. As any blogger will surely tell you, I hope you enjoy my writings enough to keep coming back. I will do my best to keep this blog fresh, informative, and hopefully at times, humorous. My goal is to bring a unique view to my two favorite sports teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team. Even if you're not a fan of the Steelers or ND, fear not because from time to time, I will also talk about other hot topics happening around the sports world that I find interesting.
This being my first ever blog entry, I'd like to tell you a pretty cool story of an amazing connection I have with my favorite NFL team, the Pittsburgh Steelers. As I mentioned earlier, I have a tremendous passion for sports. My favorite sport is easily the game of football. I love everything about football. I love the physically of it. The strategy involved in developing the perfect game plan for defeating your opponent. The arm strength to throw a football 65-yards down field. The athleticism to make an acrobatic catch. The ability to run for a 40-yard touchdown in less than 4.5 seconds. Everything about the game of football is absolutely thrilling to me. I know I'm not the first person to ever say this, but a football game is the greatest theatre ever created because you never know how it's going to end!! As much as I love the game of football, I've never been able to actually play it myself. I was born with a form of Muscular Dystrophy called, Spinal Muscular Atrophy, or SMA. Without getting too technical about it, SMA is a weakening of the muscles throughout the body. I am unable to walk, so I use a wheelchair and my respiratory muscles are such that I have to rely on a ventilator to breathe. While I may not be able to play sports physically, I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who loves sports as much as me.
Now, before I get too far away from the real reason of this blog entry, let me tell you about a pretty awesome connection I have with, in my humble opinion, the greatest organization in all of sports, the Pittsburgh Steelers. I could tell you about why I'm such a diehard Steeler fan, but I don't think that would be quite as fascinating as what I'm about to share with you. Besides, I think we've all gotten tired of people telling anyone who will listen why they are the biggest fan of such and such a team and no one is a bigger fan than them. Blah, blah, blah. My story begins with the number 4. As I already said, I've never been able to play physical sports like football, basketball, baseball, etc.; however, my entire life, I've always had the feeling that if I were able to play sports, my jersey number would be 4. I've always believed my number would be 4 and I can't really explain why. Perhaps I like the number 4 because I was born on October 4th. I honestly don't have a full explanation as to why I've always felt a connection with this number. All I know is, if I were ever granted the ability to play football or basketball or baseball or whatever sport requires a number on your uniform, my number would be 4. Several years ago for Christmas, my parents gave me a custom Pittsburgh Steelers football jersey, complete with my last name on the back and the number 4 on it. You can't imagine how excited I was to have my very own Steeler jersey with my name and number on it!! To this day, it remains one of the great Christmas gifts I've ever received.
I'm not entirely sure how long after I got the jersey from my parents that this happened, but I know it was at least a year later. One afternoon, I was looking through the newest edition of the Pittsburgh Steelers media guide. For those of you that may not be familiar with what a media guide is, basically it's a book put out every year by most collegiate and professional sports teams. They consist of all kinds of historical team statistics, such as all-time records, game scores, yearly team rosters, etc. The Steelers media guide I was looking at this particular day, had a section titled, "All-Time Jersey Numbers." Obviously this got my attention and I immediately went to the page where it listed all of the players to wear the number 4 in the history of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The names were listed alphabetically and I only recognized two of the players, punters Josh Miller and Dan Stryzinsk.
Side Note: Quarterbacks, Byron Leftwich and Tyler Palko, have both worn the number 4 since the time of the Steelers media guide shared in this story.
I was completely shocked when I read the last name on the list to wear the number 4 for the Pittsburgh Steelers. In 1935, which was only two years removed from when Art Rooney founded the Steelers, there was a man named, Mel Pittman, who wore the number 4. I couldn't believe my eyes!! A man with the same exact last name as me, not only played for my favorite football team, but he wore the very same number that I have such a strong connection to. As I stared at the page, almost in disbelief, it dawned on me how amazing what I had just discovered was. I don't know much about Mel Pittman or his football career. According to the website, databaseFootball.com, Melvin O. Pittman was a running back for the 1935 Pittsburgh Pirates, (the team wasn't called the Steelers until 1940). He was born on February 23, 1908, which made him 27-years-old in 1935. He stood 6'0" tall and weighed 215lbs. Perhaps the most fascinating thing about Mel Pittman's football career is the fact that he only played one season of professional football, only appearing in one game during Pittsburgh's 1935 season.
If I were given the ability to play for any football team, even if it were for just one day, of course I would chose to play for the Black and Gold of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yes, it's true that I'll never be able to truly live this dream, and to be completely honest, that realization gets me down every once in awhile. However, as silly as it may sound, I find comfort and enormous pride knowing that for one year, there was a man named Pittman who wore number 4 and that man played for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Thank you for taking the time to read my very first entry for POINT AFTER with THE PITTMAN. I hope you enjoyed it and I look forward to writing more articles about my passion for sports, including how the Pittsburgh Steelers and the number 4 have surfaced at other moments in my life!!
