In The Stew
By John Mehno

Ah, autumn. The leaves turn fiery red and brilliant yellow, and the playing surface at Heinz Field becomes an ankle-deep brown muck.

Having separate baseball and football venues meant each could have a grass field, but it's time to give up on Heinz Field.

The constant pounding of two tenant teams (not to mention that all-day high school marathon) and the climate make it impossible to maintain a normal playing surface.

Forget how bad it looks. It's even worse to run on, and players who plant their feet have no idea where they might be headed. Mostly it's face down in the stew.

Artificial turf has come a long way since the flat, rock hard pool table surface that covered Three Rivers Stadium.

Get one of the new turf surfaces and let the players play the game without the possibility of an OSHA investigation on every play.

In other matters:

*First impression of new Pirates general manager Neal Huntington:

He doesn't have a lot of short answers.

He likes to explain things in detail. So far, though, it's not as annoying as Jim Tracy's habit of answering a simple question with a paragraph.

Huntington is clearly smart, and he's going to be diligent in his approach. It remains to be seen if he'll have the nerve to pull the trigger on big deals.

One of Dave Littlefield's flaws was his reluctance to act. If he traded a big name, it was because he was forced to for financial reasons.

The Pirates need to be pro-active and make deals before everyone knows they have to deal a player.

*The benching of Colby Armstrong is the biggest Penguins-related issue since the team was accused of playing mind games with Jamie Leach.

You know how that worked out. Leach wound up playing in 81 NHL games over 10 years with 11 goals and 20 points, which explained why he was scratched from the lineup as much as he was.

If Armstrong isn't playing at a maximum energy level, he isn't a consistent enough scorer to keep a spot in the lineup. The issue isn't Armstrong vs. Mark Recchi or Armstrong vs. Gary Roberts as much as it's Armstrong measured against the expectations the team has for him.

*Nice to see Mario Lemieux get that $21 million owed to him from the team's bankruptcy. He'd already received equity in the franchise, and the value of the team has increased greatly with the promise of a new arena.

Perhaps fans who suffered through the budget-minded Rico Fata era could ask for rebates now that the owner's cash reserves have been replenished.

*How surreal must it be to get into a traffic beef with another driver and suddenly find yourself being scolded by Joe Paterno?

John Mehno's latest book, "Pittsburgh's Best Sports Arguments" was published by Sourcebooks in October and is available at stores and through online retailers.