Cannon Firing Line
New Blood
By Ellis G. Cannon
PSR Publisher & ESPN Radio 1250 Talk Show Host

Considering the Pittsburgh Penguins' 'Generation X' marketing efforts, perhaps nobody should be surprised PSR has bought into the same message.

No, PSR has not gone off the deep end and bought an entire section of seats in 'E,' or Mellon Arena's version of heaven, take your pick.

Nor have we decided to adopt the Pens' slick PR slogan and change our editorial focus to extreme sports.

But we did take the bait, go younger and grab a very talented person in making Tony DeFazio this publication's editor. That it coincides with the Penguins' marketing of a youth movement is merely coincidental. That we, like the Penguins, believe in a youth movement, is not.

Of course, this isn't the first time around the PSR block for Tony. He's been around forever, starting as a staff writer in January 1998 before becoming a senior writer in 2001. Tony also served as a PSR Associate Editor. He worked previously as a Corporate Communications Specialist for UPMC, as the Public Relations Director for Special Olympics Pennsylvania, and as the Sports Information Director at Bethany College in West Virginia.

Actually, the part of Tony's background that stands out to us is his joining the staff in January 1998. If memory serves us, his first PSR assignment was covering a Pitt men's basketball game. We met him in the lobby of Fitzgerald Field House and it was cold enough to justify him wearing one of those green army jackets Mike 'Meathead' Stivic wore on All In The Family. PSR was three months old and Tony shows up to nab one of our first-ever press passes like he's going to show up on the set of Ice Station Zebra.

Tony arrives dressed as Meathead. Beautiful.

If this was a first impression, he won. And he's been winning ever since, serving this publication with the loyalty and passion one does when they recognize these opportunities don't come around every day, and need nothing less to survive and ultimately succeed.

Which, if you think about it, is exactly what the Penguins need as they embark on perhaps their most uncertain chapter ever. Over-the-top, you say? Consider a work stoppage is almost certain months from today, the club is a complete unknown, and complex off-ice talks are presumably determining the fate of the organization. Those are issues.

True to style (albeit without the green army jacket), DeFazio, 32, but with perspective well beyond your 'normal' Gen-Xer, shows up on his first day at PSR and says he wants former Penguins' owner Howard Baldwin to be the subject of this issue's Up Close. Who better, he asks, to put so much of this into perspective? When better than now? Why not, considering fans and media alike treat him as some pariah, an evil force so many consider responsible for the Pens' current predicament?

Youth being served and all, DeFazio dispatched PSR senior writer Bob Grove, he the walking Penguins' resource guide and overall regional asset, for the job. Grover then lands one of the finest interviews the publication has ever had.

Not a bad way to finish out the seventh year of PSR. Heck, not a bad way to start the eighth either, particularly if you knew, like we do, what lies ahead.

New blood, even better results.

The Penguins should only hope to be so lucky.

Ellis Cannon is also a regular contributor on the #1 Cochran Sports Showdown, aired Sundays at 11:35 on KDKA-TV.