Steelers' Super Bowl Loss Leaves Sour Taste for Padres Pitching Coach

February 7 2011 Last updated at 01:24 PM ET

Even as our West Coast guys Aaron Rodgers, Clay Matthews III and Desmond Bishop celebrated the Super Bowl victory, West Coast Bias fretted on late Sunday.

I feared for Padres pitching coach Darren Balsley, Steelers fan deluxe.

Spring training opens next Sunday, so it's best that Bud Black fly to Balsley's home in Tennessee today. Or else the pitching guru might stay in his man cave, clutching his Terrible Towel, for weeks.

Steeler fandom being what it is, we all know at least one wacko Steelers fan. Balsley's my guy.

Trust me, if more folks cared an eighth as much about the Padres as Balsley does the Steelers, I'd never write another pennant race article likening Petco Park to Switzerland.

My favorite part of Super Bowl week was our phone chat 24 hours before kickoff, Balsley as intense as Mike Tomlin, riffing like only the psycho fans do.

"I don't like that we're wearing the white jerseys," he told me, right out the chute.

His wife planned to have friends over for the game, adding to Balsley's pre-kickoff angst. How can one cheer his Steelers to victory and play the role of doting host?

West Coast Bias was pulling for the Packers, who'd be nothing without Pac-10 alums such as Rodgers (Cal) and Matthews (USC). Balsley had called early in Super Bowl week to suggest a friendly wager. We decided on a story written by the fan whose team won.

But 24 hours before kickoff, he wanted to go over his ground rules. Ground rules?

"Don't text me during the game," he said. "I don't want to hear any gloating, or if the Packers are losing, no concession messages."

In the AFC Championship, when Pittsburgh built a big a lead, a fellow Steelers nut had texted cocky messages to Balsley. The first referred to a Steelers TD as a "dagger," implying the Jets were mortally wounded. Next came: "See You in Dallas."

Tame stuff, right?

"I was furious," Balsley said.

Believing that cocky texts could doom his heroes, Balsley changed out of his Troy Polamalu jersey and put on the Steel Curtain jersey that his wife bought him years ago.

He then adjusted his seat in the man cave, as further offering to the football gods.

"That's the only reason the Steelers won," he said, and I don't think he was jesting.

It's eccentricity like that, I figure, that allows him to groom a variety of oddball pitchers, notably the Tattooed One (Padres ace Mat Latos) and the Loveable Kook (Padres closer Heath Bell).

Quarterbacks being like pitchers, he's also usually astute when he talks about them. An exception came last summer when he said Steelers great Terry Bradshaw was better than Joe Montana. As Padres pitchers Clayton Richard and Wade LeBlanc can attest, Balsley retracted that false audible after West Coast Bias weighed in on Montana's behalf.

But about Rogers, who lives in San Diego and pals around with Padres reliever Joe Thatcher, Balsley was dead on, telling me two years ago he was destined for greatness.

Sunday against the Steelers, Rodgers threw strike after strikes. And when he didn't throw a strike, as the baseball people say, he stayed away from the middle of the plate.

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw more like the Texas Rangers relievers in Game 2 of the World Series -- high and wide.

A visit from a sharp pitching coach was needed for Big Ben. I know of one who would've gone from Knoxville to Cowboy Stadium had the Steelers only called for him.

Source: http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2011/02/07/steelers-super-bowl-loss-leaves-sour-taste-for-padres-pitching/

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