True, it’s not baseball season, but I just love the story around the name of this Pittsburgh Pirates’ blog. Those of you not familiar with Derek Bell and his infamous ‘Operation Shutdown’ in 2002, should really check it out. My wife loves it so much she thinks about doing it herself. By the way, Pittsburgh is a blog heavy, and app heavy, town. If you are a fan of Pittsburgh sports, then you have a rich set of blogs to choose from. The website is http://operationshutdownblog.blogspot.com.

Here’s their description:

Blog about everything Pittsburgh Pirates. The Origins of Operation Shutdown In the spring training of 2002, after batting .173 the previous year, Derek Bell was expected to compete for a starting job. However, he thought that he didn’t need to, saying that “Nobody told me I was in competition. If there is competition, somebody better let me know. If there is competition, they better eliminate me out of the race and go ahead and do what they’re going to do with me. I ain’t never hit in spring training and I never will. If it ain’t settled with me out there, then they can trade me. I ain’t going out there to hurt myself in spring training battling for a job. If it is [a competition], then I’m going into “Operation Shutdown”. Tell them exactly what I said. I haven’t competed for a job since 1991.

You can get the app for yourself on the Operation Shutdown download page.