Even for us Steelers fans, the Big Game was a bit of a snooze. But who knows? May it’ll make Mark Cuban, the flamboyant owner of the Dallas Mavericks, a little more nostalgic for his home town. The effusive billionaire is a native Pittsburgher best known to basketball fans for his on-court antics and outbursts, a few of which have gotten him heavily fined. But hey, how often do you find a team owner who loves the game as much as hardest of the hard-core fans?

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Anyway, Cuban said in an interview recently that he’d thought about buying the Pirates just so that he could rehabilitate the team. For die-hard Bucs fans who still dwell in the Clemente-Stargell era, as I do, and for those who recall Mazeroski’s home run in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series as though it happened yesterday, a fistful of Cuban’s money could be the best thing to happen to the Pirates since they were gifted by Hollywood with “Angel’s in the Outfield” (Not the 1994 remake, but the 1951 original with Paul Douglas.)

Besides being a a hell-raiser on the court, Cuban is known as a very shrewd business manager who knows how to make every dollar count. When he sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo! for $5.7 billion, he side-stepped the Internet bust and locked up his profits by using put and call “collars” to hedge his stock. (Our kind of guy, for sure.) Who needs prima donnas like Jeter, Rodriguez and Mike Piazza when your scouts can find bargain-basement talent in the Dominican Republic and the sandlots of Osaka? Bring ‘em on, Mark!