Zika, Pg. 2
Pitt forms team to research Zika virus
Radiohead, Pg. 6
The band’s new album floats between the real and the ethereal
Tyler Boyd’s journey from Clairton, Pennsylvania to Pitt to the Cincinnati Bengals Ash Sivaganesh |Assistant There were 57 seconds left in the fourth quarter on September 19, 2015, in Iowa City, Iowa, and the whole stadium knew where the ball was going. Pitt had the ball on second-and-goal from the eight-yard line, trailing the Iowa Hawkeyes by seven points. Quarterback Nathan Peterman was looking for an open receiver in the back right corner of the end zone to tie the game. He was looking for Tyler Boyd. Peterman saw the junior wide receiver with a defender on his tail, but heaved a pass toward him anyway. Boyd curled back toward
the ball, pulled it in and secured it to his chest before the Hawkeye had a chance to make a play. Touchdown. “Bout Dat” According to NCAA statistics, less than one in 50 college football players get a chance to play for the pros. A Pitt standout from the beginning, Boyd is now one of those select few. Or, in line with his personal motto, he’s all “‘bout dat.” On April 29, the Cincinnati Bengals selected the 6-foot-1 wide receiver in the second round of the 2016 NFL draft. Fans, teammates
and coaches watched with excitement over Twitter and in person as Boyd got the call at the Omni William Penn Hotel. Although playing for Cincinnati means exchanging his Pitt uniform for a Bengals jersey this fall, it won’t be Boyd’s first time donning orange and black. The Clairton, Pennsylvania native’s natural athleticism didn’t go unnoticed at Clairton High School, where Boyd wore the same colors as a letterman in baseball, basketball and football. Off all those sports, his legendary track-record under the Friday night lights garnered the most recognition.
By the time the do-it-all playmaker graduated from Clairton, he’d rushed for 5,755 yards and scored 117 touchdowns. More importantly, he helped the Bears capture the PIAA Class A championship all four years with the team, playing a lead role in the team’s state record 66-game winning streak. “I could tell from the first time I met him as an eighth grader that he had something really special,” former Clairton head football coach Tom Nola said. “He had really good vision of the field. He had that football instinct and never-lose attitude.” After his final season wearing a number See Boyd on page 9
News PITT FORMS ZIKA
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RESEARCH TEAM Erin Hare | Staff Writer
As potential Olympians get ready to compete in Brazil this summer, they’re also preparing to head into the heart of the Zika outbreak. In early 2016, amidst an increasing number of reported infections across the Americas, the World Health Organization officially declared the Zika virus — a disease spread through mosquito bites — an international emergency. While it’s not fatal if treated properly, research suggests that contracting the Zika virus during pregnancy can lead to microcephaly, a devastating congenital brain malformation, in newborns. According to the Estudio Colaborativo Latino Americano de Malformaciones Congenitas, there are typically only two cases of microcephaly for every 10,000 live births in Brazil. Since the Zika outbreak in fall 2015 there have been 1,168 confirmed cases, according to Celina Martelli, re-
searcher at the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, or Fiocruz. Through a program called Cura Zika, Martelli and other members of Fiocruz in Recife, Brazil, have joined with Pitt researchers to confirm the link between Zika and microcephaly, uncover the biochemical mechanisms leading from virus to birth defect and work toward developing a vaccine. The collaborative group of scientists presented their ongoing research in a symposium earlier this month at the Pitt Graduate School of Public Health. Donald Burke, dean of the Pitt School of Public Health, said the Cura Zika collaboration grew out of a long-standing relationship between Pittsburgh and Recife. One of the key players linking the two cities is Ernesto Marques, a professor in Pitt’s public health department of infectious diseases and miSee Zika on page 3
TNS
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT The Pitt News Staff
Everything of note since our last print edition. See online for the full stories. April 26 — Man fatally shot in South Oakland At about 10:15 p.m. on April 26, an unidentified man was fatally shot in a South Oakland home on the 3200 block of Gorman Way, between Bates Street and Juliet Street, during an apparent home invasion. According to a release, three unknown people shot the man when he opened the door of the residence. The Pittsburgh Violent Crime Unit is investigating. April 26 — Trump, Clinton win PA Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both won their party’s primaries in Pennsylvania April 26. Clinton won the state with 56 percent of the votes and Trump won with 57 percent of the votes. On the same Tuesday, Trump won primaries in Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware and Rhode Island. Clinton also took home wins in Connecticut, Delaware and Maryland that day, with Sen. Bernie Sanders winning Rhode Island.
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Republican presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich dropped out of the race after losing the Indiana primary to Trump on May 3. Though Sanders cut hundreds of campaign staff members after the April 26 primaries, he is still in the presidential race for 2016. April 29 — Port Authority approves changes to bus system The Port Authority of Allegheny County unanimously approved major changes to its fare system on April 29. Going into effect January 2017, the new system will make all buses pay-asyou enter — the only change affecting Pitt students who pay with their IDs. The new fare system will institute a flat fare of $2.50 for riders who pay with a ConnectCard, the automated payment system that riders use to pay for bus rides. Riders who pay with cash will be charged a fare of $2.75. May 2 — New South Oakland sign honors Warhol, Marino, Sammartino At 10 a.m. May 2, Mayor Bill Peduto recognized pop artist Andy Warhol, NFL Hall of
Fame quarterback Dan Marino and former heavyweight champion Bruno Sammartino with the rededication of a sign in their honor at the intersection of Dawson and Swinburne Streets in South Oakland. Members of the South Oakland community dedicated a sign to Marino and Warhol about 25 years ago, and the updated sign now includes Sammartino. All three Pittsburghers grew up in the South Oakland neighborhood. The updated sign reads “Welcome to South Oakland, childhood home of Dan Marino, Andy Warhol and Bruno Sammartino.” The City placed a second sign with the same message in the park between Juliet and Bates Streets on Boulevard of the Allies. May 5 — Pitt establishes $1 million fund for faculty, student business ventures Pitt announced it will give $1 million to faculty and students looking to put the products of their research on the market May 5. The $1 million in gap funding — called the Chancellor’s Innovation Commercialization Funds — will support projects with potential
May 11, 2016
for commercial success immediately and over the next two years. Pitt will distribute the funds through the Innovation Institute’s Pitt Ventures program. The funds will help researchers determine a need for their product, identify business partners, form a business or develop prototypes, according to a University release. May 9 — Pitt announces partnership with U.S. State Department On Monday, May 9, the University announced that the U.S. State Department has made Pitt a partner in its Diplomacy Lab for the upcoming academic year. Through the Diplomacy Lab — a research program that connects the State Department to university students nationally — Pitt graduate and undergraduate students in teams of at least four will research topics including climate change, counter terrorism and global health for Diplomacy Lab projects. After submitting their final projects, students can present to the State Department and other officials to receive feedback.
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Zika, pg. 2 crobiology and a researcher at Fiocruz. “I knew the University of Pittsburgh should be having more of a global presence,” Burke said. “So we recruited Ernesto [Marques] to come be a faculty member at the Graduate School of Public Health.” Marques has been at Pitt for seven years, and splits his time between Pittsburgh and Recife, where he runs a tropical infectious disease lab at Fiocruz. Because Marques is from Recife, he has special interest in the city, which flooded the headlines for harboring the virus. “This is where the epidemic of Zika hit hardest, right in Recife,” Burke said. “So our colleagues … were already on the ground, at ground zero of the Zika epidemic.” When the epidemic first hit, Burke immediately saw Pitt’s research resources as a possible way to get organized and find funding — Cura Zika was the result. The Cura Zika team includes Burke, Marques, Martelli, Magee-Womens Research Institute director Yoel Sadovsky and assistant professor of Pitt School of Public Health Jennifer Adibi, all of whom spoke at the symposium on May 5. “[Zika is the] first infectious disease linked to birth defects in almost 50 years,” Martelli said. “The last one was rubella.” According to Martelli, 30 percent of pregnant women who tested positive for Zika gave birth to babies with congenital malformations. Despite this strong correlation, the association between Zika and microcephaly is still so new that no case studies have included the appropriate control groups to test the causal link, Martelli said. To establish causality, the researchers will compare healthy infants born under similar conditions to infants with microcephaly and then test both groups for Zika exposure. For the case control study, Martelli recruited 45 healthy infants, matched to 23 microcephaly cases by due date and hospital of birth. The odds of giving birth to a baby with microcephaly were 132 times greater for women who were exposed to the Zika virus compared to women who were not exposed to Zika. This finding provides strong evidence in favor of the link between Zika and microcephaly, but Martelli still has questions, namely: Why has Zika — a virus identified in 1947 — suddenly become a tremendous public health threat? According to Marques, Zika originally spread slowly and was only associated with the mild symptoms immediately following infection, including red eyes and skin rash, or often no symptoms at all. Now the spread of Zika is much more rapid and could be the cause of microcephaly. Marques has two hypotheses to explain the recent increase in virulence. First, the African strain discovered in 1947 may be more benign than the Asian strain, which
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is now moving through the Americas, Marques said. Second, it may be the case that prior exposure to the dengue virus, a mosquito-borne disease that occurs in tropical and subtropical climates, facilitates Zika infection. This is an important connection because according to Marques, about half the mothers in Recife possess antibodies to dengue 3 virus, a strain also known as DEN-3 SS. Marques said that research needs to be done on the safety and efficacy of using lived or killed viruses for a Zika vaccine.. “As a long-term goal, we need a vaccine...The same way we needed it for rubella,” Marques said. Adding that, at this point, there is no “major obstacle” to developing that vaccine. “We can consider that any technology we have available today to produce a vaccine has the potential to work.” Like the famous historical feud between Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin over the polio vaccine, Marques said there is a debate now between whether a Zika vaccine should use live or killed virus. Research into the safety and efficacy of both methods is needed, Marques said. According to Yoel Sadovsky, a Pitt professor and scientific director at Magee-Womens Research Institute, time is of the essence. Sadovsky labeled Zika an “emerging human disaster.” Zika, according to Martelli, is moving faster than dengue in Brazil, where public health initiatives have struggled to control dengue for decades. Sadovsky is researching the mechanisms by which pathogens pass through the placenta from mother to child. “The placenta is the conduit from the baby to the outside world,” Sadovsky said. According to Sadovsky, primary trophoblasts — the placental cells that directly contact maternal blood — are highly resistant to Zika virus transmission. This implies that transmission of Zika to the fetus must occur through a breakdown of the trophoblast defenses, such as pre-existing physical tears or disease states. All of Sadovsky’s cell cultures were derived from mature placentas, which has lead Adibi to wonder if trophoblast cells extracted earlier in pregnancy are less resistant to Zika. Adibi said that while it is well-known that the placenta changes dramatically as pregnancy progresses, it is still unknown whether the placenta is more permissive to Zika at different times during pregnancy or whether the timing of Zika infection is important at all for the development of microcephaly. Adibi and the rest of the Cura Zika team look toward local, international and cross discipline collaborations to answer their plethora of questions. “My wishful thinking is to have collaboration worldwide,” Martelli said. “I think infectious disease can be a global threat for everyone.”
The Pitt News SuDoku 5/11/16 courtesy of dailysudoku.com
May 11, 2016
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Opinions
The Pitt News
from the editorial board
Penn State letter dismisses sexual assault victims A university should never defend a legacy — no matter how famous the legacy — at the expense of its students’ well-being. New reports from Penn State University’s Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal surfaced May 5, revealing that Joe Paterno may have known about Sandusky’s abuse as far back as the 1970s. According to one sentence in a court order on a related insurance-coverage case involving Penn State, a child allegedly reported his sexual abuse to Paterno in 1976. The survivor named in the 1976 case came forward on CNN May 8, telling his story. He claims that Sandusky sexually abused him at 15 years old and, after telling his parents what happened, they called Penn State authorities. The now 60-year-old man said he spoke with Joe Paterno about the abuse at the time, a piece of information highlighted in Penn State’s messy back-and-forth with its insurer. According to the court documents, there is no evidence that Paterno sent the information up the chain of command. The survivor was one of 30 people involved in the $60 million settlement, meaning that Penn State did not take him to court to fight his claims, despite claiming that there was absolutely no truth in Paterno’s alleged cover-up. In the meantime, out of the courtroom, higher-ups at the university are insisting on protecting Paterno’s legacy. University President Eric Barron wrote a letter last week, which he posted on Penn State’s news site for all of Penn State to see, dispelling the “rumor, innuendo and rush to judgment that have accompanied the media stories surrounding these allegations.” In the letter, Barron said there is no sufficient evidence proving allegations that Paterno ignored information about Sandusky’s abuse and that Penn State students should not be swayed by the “media’s sensationalized accounts.” Since the sexual abuse allegations surfaced — allegations which, for the most part, no-
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Editor-in-Chief ELIZABETH LEPRO editor@pittnews.com
body denies are true — Penn State has tripped over itself trying to keep any shame from falling on the good name of its most decorated coach. Whether or not there is evidence that Paterno knew, it’s not Barron’s job to defend the now-deceased coach, or comment on ongoing litigation. It’s his job to protect his students and to make them feel safe. Barron’s decision to honor Paterno’s reputation instead of recognizing the serious harm that a former student may have endured demonstrates a complete disregard for sexual assault survivors. In a university setting — where 18.1 percent of students will experience sexual assault, according to the 2015 Penn State Sexual Misconduct Climate Survey — disregarding the validity of a survivor’s story is damaging to students all across Penn State’s campus. By issuing a statement — that was seen by thousands of students, some of whom have no doubt experienced sexual assault themselves — and denying a survivor’s claims, Penn State is publicly shaming and further harming someone who has already gone through a traumatic experience. According to the Sexual Misconduct Climate Survey, of the full-time students over 18 years old who were sexually assaulted last year, only 7.8 percent of the survivors reported their assault overall. We should applaud the courage of survivors who are brave enough to come forward. If the former student did in fact tell Paterno what happened and nothing was done, the university should take responsibility for furthering the stigmatized nature of sexual assault on college campuses and make an effort to improve. As a large university, Penn State should be leading the charge in ending pervasive rape cultures on campuses nationwide.
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VOTING IS WORTH THE INCONVENIENCE Matt Moret | Contrubuting Editor I’m the political guy. I consume too much news, all day long. I get into arguments with my indifferent, uninformed roommates — not because our beliefs clash, but because they have no beliefs at all. Their total lack of engagement has always been an eye-roll-worthy sin in my eyes. Which is why immediate panic set in once I realized that I might not be able to vote in my first presidential primary. Applications to receive an absentee ballot were due on the Tuesday before the election, the same day I realized that I hadn’t sent mine in yet. Postmarks were not acceptable. I had only ever voted once — in the primary for the gubernatorial race I worked on in 2014. I had put the wrong address on my ballot for the general election that year, so mine was not among the 76,440 absentee ballots Pennsylvania counted. Determined to prevent a repeat incident, I decided that I would take a bus 300 miles home to Levittown, Pennsylvania on Monday, vote Tuesday, then get back on a bus and come all the way back to Pittsburgh that night. This was finals week, so I had bigger things to do than spend several days riding buses across Pennsylvania but I decided to do it anyway. Despite my enthusiasm to get to the polls, I’m not naive enough to think my vote would change the overall outcomes. Polls heading into the April 26, election day made it abundantly clear that Donald Trump was going to secure his party’s vote while Hillary Clinton walked away with her own. In my U.S. congressional district, Pennsylvania’s 8th, the party winners were equally obvious. I cared about the Senate and attorney general races enough to have preferences, but could have lived with most of the likely outcomes. All things considered, I had very little reason
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to care about missing the vote. But I knew that if I did nothing it would bother me forever. I wouldn’t have a nervous breakdown or anything, but I would feel like a hypocrite for all the time I’ve spent complaining about political free riders. Political participation is a deeply personal experience, and the fulfillment it brings is larger than electoral outcomes. Voting is one of our only means of formally expressing our ideological beliefs. People get so caught up in the hysteria of promoting their candidate or bashing someone else’s that they often miss that. Other political exercises, such as donating money and working for a campaign, are too ethically questionable or soul-crushing to provide long term satisfaction. So there’s a certain beauty to the idea that one person in a booth can attempt to nudge the country’s steering wheel, even if it doesn’t take us anywhere. At 6 a.m. on Monday, I rolled out of bed and took a Lyft downtown to get my bus. Everything went smoothly. Equipped with a term paper prompt, granola bars and a fitting YG song called “FDT,” I was golden. Seven hours later, I was home but still trying to decide who would get the final vote at the end of this adventure. Choosing who to vote for had become a nearly obsessive thought. I was talking about the primary every day, multiple times at both work and home. My rationale for one person over the other was pretty evenly matched by my rationale for the alternative, in a constant tug of war that got me nowhere for months. As a generally irritable cynic, it’s hard for individual politicians to inspire me. Politics is pageantry mixed with professional wrestling — specifically the fake elements of both. When I support a candidate it is usually based in sighs and agreement with his or her broader ideological camp, not a burning passion to see that particular person in office.
TNS If I were one of the pseudo-intellectuals that irritate me, I would say that I vote for ideas, not people. But, the problem is that a lot of others don’t quite feel that way. Their goal when voting is to elect a certain leader instead of a platform. That’s perfectly valid, but it often leads to disappointing political experiences, because they approach voting with a strictly win or lose mindset instead of seeing the act’s inherent value. The extremes represented in this election have produced a particularly high degree of stalwarts unwilling to take part in the political process unless everything goes their way. An April McClatchy-Marist poll found that one in four supporters of Sanders will not vote for Clinton if she is the Democratic nominee. While that means that a majority would still vote for Clinton — and the poll also didn’t account for how many more of these people would vote for her — if it was against Donald Trump,
May 11, 2016
the dedication of the #BernieOrBust minority is pointless. The reality is that Sanders will almost certainly lose the Democratic nomination, so his supporters will have nobody to vote for in the general election if they take the “or bust” approach. What I’m saying is you don’t necessarily have to jump on the Clinton bus — you could even support a third-party candidate — but it is nonsensical to do nothing because you think nobody is willing to fight the status quo. Your first choice lost the primary, but that doesn’t mean your voice is worthless. You can still show an opposition exists. Just show something, because your voice has a place — especially if it’s disgruntled. Winning elections isn’t all that matters.
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Culture
RADIOHEAD MAKES STRONG RETURN WITH NINTH LP Ian Flanagan | Culture Editor
England’s most perplexing rock band has finally broken its five-year si lence, returning to the same hallmark glumness, lyrical oddity and eerie musicality that make up Radiohead. After its members went their separate ways for various solo works and collaborations, Radiohead came together again to record its ninth LP, “A Moon Shaped Pool,” which was released at 2 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, May 8. Yet again, the curious combination of elements from the group’s key members — multiinstrumentalist and singer Thom Yorke, guitaristkeyboardist-composer Jonny Greenwood and producer but unofficial sixth member of the band Nigel Godrich — mingle into an atmospheric whole. Since their last album, 2011’s “The King of Limbs,” Yorke and Godrich have teamed with Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea to form Atoms for Peace, creating the album “Amok” in 2013. Greenwood provided the score for filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” in 2012,
and both Yorke and drummer Philip Selway each released a solo album, respectively. In late 2014, they all kicked off months of studio work for “A Moon Shaped Pool,” which finds the separate musicians meshing as naturally as ever. Wavering between lush choir and string arrangements by Greenwood and a typical offering of austere poetry from Yorke’s delicate falsetto, the new record backdrops depressive lyrics and melodies with grand-scale cinematic ambiance. Just look to the first single, “Burn The Witch.” Radiohead released the song on May 1, a day after mailing ominous leaflets with artwork and the song’s grim lyrics to fans who had previously bought from the band. Though not as strong an opener as many past tracks, like “15 Step” from 2007’s “In Rainbows” or “Everything in Its Right Place” from 2000’s “Kid A,” the staccato string plucks and Yorke’s croons create a restless energy, like legendary musicians trying to prove they’ve still got it. See Radiohead on page 6
Radiohead front man Thom Yorke. | TNS
MARVEL V DC: BATTLE FOR THE MULTIPLEX
Ian Flanagan | Culture Editor
Eight years after “Iron Man” set the stage — and perfected Marvel’s new brand — Disney’s unprecedented superhero franchise is still running like clockwork. Disney released the 13th entry in its hugely popular canon, “Captain America: Civil War,” last Friday to universal praise and a staggering opening weekend haul for a non-Avengers picture. This movie positions viewers at the beginning of Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Phase One ranged from the first Iron Man film and ended with “The Avengers,” which
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was followed by the second stretch bookended by “Iron Man 3” and “Ant-Man.” Phase Three is presumably Disney’s last while the company makes plans beyond this decade. Meanwhile, Warner Bros., who owns DC Entertainment and DC Comics, is tripping over itself in an overt attempt to imitate Marvel’s success in the crowded genre. The studio is scrambling to craft a Justice League movie, and since it’s already made so many missteps in its short existence, DC’s future popularity and profitability looks far less certain than Marvel’s. See Comics on page 7
May 11, 2016
Marvel’s Thor opposite DC’s Superman. JD Hancock | Flickr
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Radiohead, pg. 6 And, at least for the chorus, they do. Greenwood utilizes music from the London Contemporary Orchestra, who he also worked with to score “The Master.” The orchestra has a forceful presence on the album, providing the heft behind Yorke’s central lamentations and fearful imagery while Godrich’s glitches and labyrinthine production labors fill out the edges of the sonic canvas. Anderson also directed the music video for the band’s second single, “Daydreaming,” which debuted this past Friday. As the second track on the album, the rhythmically shifting ballad is representative of the album’s gloomier emotions, reminding listeners that this is still Radiohead. “Deck’s Dark” and “Identikit” are the album’s strongest offerings. They have the rock elements that root Radiohead in something tangible combined with the electronic influences that have been a staple of the band’s defining sound for years. Between the highs of meticulously engineered art-rock is Yorke making the otherwise vivacious album into something of a somber breakup record, at least in parts. Yorke ended a 23-year relationship with the mother of his two children in August. His heartbreak is present through much of “A Moon Shaped
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Pool,” while the end of “Daydreaming” features vocals of Yorke repeating “half of my life,” over and over but slowed down and reversed. Someone in the sea of serious fans unraveled the otherwise indecipherable audio. “True Love Waits,” a song Radiohead has kept since 1995, finally made its way onto this album as the closer, furthering the album’s lovesick subplot but providing a weak spot. Sporting gorgeous melancholic lyrics — “True love lives on lollipops and crisps” and “I’m not living, I’m just killing time” — the song fits the album thematically, but the flow is ambiguous and confusing, and the final produced version doesn’t do the sentiments justice. The band’s ability to be both chilling and calming is its greatest asset. The haunting milieu of “The King of Limbs,” their previous LP, articulated both creepy and cool vibes on a smaller, more abstract level. Here, like with “In Rainbows,” “A Moon Shaped Pool” is welcoming before it is challenging. In “Desert Island Disk” and “The Numbers,” Yorke flexes his acoustic skill. The former is a relaxed folk song about renewal, the latter a call to global action with some of Yorke’s most straightforward lyrics: “We are of the earth, to her we do
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Comics pg. 6 In general, superhero fatigue — a branch of blockbuster fatigue — affects studios across the board. The oversaturation of the superhero genre, especially Marvel’s output alone, has been clouding the enjoyment of individual movies since before “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” But Disney’s skill at pushing mechanically designed, fast moving comic-book-movie thrills seems second-nature. This is due in part to the comparison with DC’s pathetic attempt at an interconnected franchise of its own. DC gave us “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” — the second in the company’s own iteration of a collective filmic universe for its comic book heroes — a little over a month ago. The film was subject to critical panning and underwhelming box office results considering the popularity of the iconic characters involved. Despite a $250 million budget, DC’s first attempt to showcase multiple heroes in a single film is still struggling to near the billion dollar mark in worldwide gross, which would be a moderate feat for a blockbuster with such widespread appeal. It’s likely that the disappointments are going to continue.
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Zack Snyder, the infamously indulgent director behind the new DC franchise’s first two films, is known for his visually dynamic yet intellectually hollow filmography — see “300” or “Sucker Punch.” Even though his two superhero films have set a sour tone for this series, he is on board to direct the rushed two-part Justice League movies, the first of which is out next November. While audiences may have been getting tired of the sameness in Marvel’s recent filmography, the bloated mess of “Batman v Superman” provided the necessary contrast to see how right Marvel had been doing it all along. So far, DC’s flukes have only strengthened Marvel’s brand. Marvel’s gambles are now big-time contenders — after the success of the original, the sequel to “Guardians of the Galaxy” is slotted for the coveted first weekend of May 2017, the same weekend all “Iron Man” and “Avengers” films debuted. The characters Marvel digs up get progressively more obscure, but they’re the basis for the films that surprise us most — this year’s “Doctor Strange” has such potential. Marvel’s capacity to put considerable money into risky projects like “Ant-Man” just continues to fuel the cycle of profit and keep its vast uni-
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Sports IN CASE YOU MISSED IT The Pitt News Staff
Everything of note since our last print edition. See online for the full stories. April 29 — Bengals draft Boyd in second round The Cincinnati Bengals selected former Pitt wide receiver Tyler Boyd as the 55th overall pick in the 2016 NFL draft. A two-time firstteam All-ACC wide receiver, Boyd finished his three-year collegiate career as Pitt’s all-time leader in receptions with 254 and receiving yards with 3,361. April 30 — Holtz, Grigsby and Pitts join NFL as undrafted free agents Former tight end J.P. Holtz, linebacker Nicholas Grigsby and cornerback Lafayette Pitts joined Boyd in the ranks of the NFL shortly after the conclusion of the draft. Holtz signed as an undrafted free agent with the Cleveland Browns, Grigsby with the Los Angeles Rams and Pitts with the Miami Dolphins. May 1 — Pitt baseball and softball suffer home sweeps Reigning College World Series champion Virginia Cavaliers swept Pitt baseball at home, while the Florida State Seminoles also marked three wins against Pitt softball in the Panthers’ final home series of the season.
May 4 — Pitt baseball settles for disappointing series split Pitt baseball split a two-game home series against the Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks. The Panthers let a late lead slip away in game two, allowing the Hawks to pull off the major upset. May 7 — Chad Voytik changes mind, transfers to Arkansas State After announcing last month that he would transfer to Eastern Kentucky University, former Pitt quarterback Chad Voytik decided to remain in the Division I level and play for the Arkansas State University Red Wolves next season. After starting every game for the Panthers in 2014, Nathan Peterman beat Voytik out for the starting job two games into the 2015 season. May 8 — Pitt softball earns ACC tournament spot, Pitt baseball wins road series Pitt softball won its final regular season game at Boston College to secure the eighth and final spot in this week’s ACC softball tournament. Meanwhile, Pitt baseball won two out of three games at Notre Dame to remain in contention for a spot in the ACC baseball tournament.
Jung-ho Kang blasted two home runs in his first game back|TNS
HURDLE HAS TO MAKE ROOM FOR KANG
David Leftwich | Staff Writer
Some players in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ already deep infield might have trouble staying relevant with the triumphant return of multi-talented infielder Jung-ho Kang. Professional sports teams are always searching for ways to add depth to their rosters. This is especially
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true in baseball, where teams face a 162-game gauntlet full of injuries and performance slumps. Every team wants a deep infield, but having one became imperative for the Pirates when Kang – who plays shortstop and third base — suffered a devastating leg injury against
the Chicago Cubs last September on Chris Coghlan’s takeout slide. Kang’s injury no doubt influenced the team’s signing of veteran David Freese during Spring Training. Entering a three-game road series against the rival St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night, the Pirates were on
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a four-game losing streak and barely hovering above .500. Enter Kang, who — in his first game back from a torn MCL and meniscus and a fractured tibia — swatted two clutch home runs and carried the Pirates to a 4-2 victory. See Pirates on page 10
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Boyd, pg. 1 23 Clairton jersey — with a fitting pair of Bengals gloves on his hands — Boyd was selected for the 2013 U.S. Army All-American Bowl, where he announced his decision to play football for Pitt during NBC’s live telecast. “I’m just trying to help build my town — bring more inspiration to it,” Boyd said on the telecast about his hometown. Clairton, which calls itself the “City of Prayer,” is an old steel-mill town located along the Monongahela River. The city of less than 10,000 residents was hit especially hard when the steel industry went bust. But like many old steel towns in the Rust Belt, Clairton’s love of sports — professional and minor — never diminished. Playing for Pitt not only meant continuing his career close to home in the city that fostered his athletic passion, it also meant continuing to play with Clairton teammates Titus Howard and Terrish Webb. The three were in the same class, from the same school and all three would continue playing together in a Division I program. A Class of his Own As a freshman, Boyd’s popularity flourished. Fast. During the second game of the season against the New Mexico Lobos, Boyd made a 34yard snatch in the end zone for a touchdown fol-
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lowed by a 33-yard score. His performance not only won over Pitt fans, but also made him ACC Receiver of the Week. In the team’s next game against Duke, Boyd dazzled with a career-high three touchdowns, helping Pitt secure the 58-55 victory, in addition to being named ACC Rookie of the Week. Former Pitt head coach Paul Chryst told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Boyd wanted to contribute to the team’s success as soon as he arrived on campus. “He thinks he should impact the game,” Chryst told the Post-Gazette. “He should be the reason why we’re winning.” In total, in Boyd’s freshman year, he made 85 catches for 1,174 yards and eight touchdowns, beating Pitt’s freshman records for receptions and yards set by Larry Fitzgerald in 2002 — 69 catches for 1,005 yards. Boyd also set the ACC record for receptions as a freshman and was named second-team All-ACC. During his sophomore year, Boyd became the first player in ACC history to collect over 1,000 receiving yards as both a freshman and a sophomore, ending the season with a total of 1,261 yards receiving. On September 20, 2014, Boyd amassed 10 catches for 153 yards against the Iowa Hawkeyes, one of six 100-yard receiving games during his sophomore season. That gave him over 100 receptions for his Pitt career, tying Fitzgerald for the fewest games needed to reach the century
mark at Pitt — 17 games. Boyd earned first-team All-ACC honors for his sophomore campaign and repeated the feat last year as a junior. He spent his final season becoming Pitt’s all-time leader in both receptions with 254 and receiving yards with 3,361. After a remarkable three-year college career, Boyd decided to forgo his senior season at Pitt and declared for the NFL draft. The Next Level From the beginning of January to midMarch, Boyd spent time training in Los Angeles with Sports Training and Rehabilitation Services to get in shape for the NFL scouting combine and Pitt’s Pro Day. Boyd’s agent, Charles Wells, said that many teams reached out to talk to Boyd to see how well he would fit with their program. “Tyler pretty much talked to every team at some point,” Wells said. “The teams that showed a lot of interest and seemed to click included Carolina, New England and New Orleans.” In a press conference held in Cincinnati the day after joining the Bengals, Boyd mentioned that he was always an avid Steelers fan. “I definitely rooted for the Steelers. That’s my hometown team,” Boyd said at the press conference. “But at the end of the day, I’m going to sacrifice myself for the team who picked me and who would rather have me. So I’m going to have to completely go at the Steelers and cause them all hell,” he added with a laugh.
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The Steelers met with Boyd during the predraft process, but considering their loaded receiving corps, he didn’t get his hopes up of continuing his career in Pittsburgh. After the 2016 NFL combine, Boyd received a grade of 5.9 out 10 from NFL.com. According to the website’s classification system, this placed him in the 5.70-5.99 grade scale titled, “Could become early NFL starter.” The grade comes from a series of mental and physical tests, and one of Boyd’s weaknesses is his lack of breakaway speed. Boyd ran the 40-yard dash in 4.58 seconds, which is considered middle-of-the-pack for a wide receiver. However, his overall performance inferred he’d likely be drafted in the second round. While he’s been a beacon of praise at Pitt, he’s stepping into murky territory in the NFL — which has the potential to push out college’s best players if they don’t live up to expectations. Draft Day The NFL 2016 draft was held in Chicago, but Boyd decided that when the events unfolded, he wanted to be back home in Clairton, the same place he said he wanted to help build and inspire in 2013. So on the first night of the draft, he watched from home with friends and family.
Find the full story online at
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On one hand, Kang’s return to the lineup would be cause for celebration. But with only four starting spots available, the team now has too many infielders who are all capable of playing multiple positions. The five Pirates contending for starting infield spots are John Jaso, Josh Harrison, Jordy Mercer, Freese and Kang. Throw in utility player Sean Rodriguez and you have six players vying to fill four spots, meaning two players will lose playing time. Other teams have players waiting to fill spots left open due to injury, but most teams have a clear pecking order in the infield. In Pittsburgh, it’s become difficult to find a reason to play one of the six contending players over another, except for Kang — an obvious must-start. For a sport in which superstitions and pre-game rituals are as ingrained as the 108 stitches on a baseball, the last thing talented players want is for a manager interfere with their daily routine by taking them out of the lineup. Having to sit around on the bench for the majority of games without knowing when your name will be called takes a whole different kind of mental preparation than being an everyday starter does. Overachieving players like Mercer and Rodriguez are making it much harder for Pirates manager Clint Hurdle to decide who starts and who sits. Previously thought of as a defensefirst shortstop, Mercer has flipped that narrative on its head this season. After batting .244 last year, Mercer has raised his average to .291 and become an offensive staple for the Pirates. After batting .246 with four home runs in 139 games last year, the Pirates were in no hurry to resign Rodriguez, another supposed defensive specialist. But since signing a one-year, $2.5 million contract in the offseason, Rodriguez has combined his slick glove and versatility with an astonishing
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.341 batting average, while already matching his total of four home runs from last year in the first 20 games. Mercer, Jaso and Rodriguez have all been outperforming their career averages, but if they lose consistent playing time, they risk losing their rhythm and never returning to peak form. So instead of having an abundance of above-average infielders, the Pirates will be left with replacement-level backups. One solution to this problem would have been to slowly work Kang back into the lineup, allowing the already productive infielders to play and work toward their averages while opening up a hole for Kang at shortstop or third base. But Kang nullified that strategy in a hurry when he crushed two mammoth home runs in his first game back. “I think everybody in the organization that’s been a part of this or watched this whole process take place is blown away by this man’s courage, determination, resiliency and perseverance,” Hurdle told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after Kang’s Friday night performance. “It’s been crazy good.” While the Pirates’ infield is in a constant state of flux, so far every infielder has either played up to expectations or exceeded them. In one sense, this is a good thing. No matter who gets their name posted on the lineup card, the team knows it will have a productive offensive infield. But if players who are outperforming expectations miss consistent playing time , they may regress, thus weakening their offensive impact off the bench. Hurdle has to navigate this situation and make some important infield decisions. Having depth is great, but keeping the entire infield involved — especially a standout like Kang — should be a primary concern for the Pirates moving forward.
The Pitt news crossword 5/11/16
Pirates, pg. 8
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