The Grandstander

The Oscar Nominations - and "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"

2012-01-27T11:52:00.005-05:00

The Academy Award nominations were announced this week, and I know that you are all dying to hear my thoughts on them.

Oh, you're not.

Well, here they are anyway.

Of the nine Best Picture nominees, I have seen "The Descendants", "Moneyball", "Hugo", and "Midnight in Paris." Marilyn has seen "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close." I plan on seeing "The Artist", "The Help", and "War Horse." Have absolutely no interest in seeing "Tree of Life." Of the four that I have seen, regular readers will know that I favor "The Descendants" to win the big one. I also am hoping that George Clooney will win for Best Actor in this movie. If I had to choose a runner up, it would probably be "Midnight in Paris" just edging out "Moneyball."

I am anxious to see "The Artist", and while I reserve judgement, this seems like the kind of movie that the Academy loves to reward: it's different (black & white and silent), it is made by non-Americans, and it is about movies, so rewarding it would be somewhat self-indulgent for the Hollywood crowd. Despite that, I am prepared to like this movie when I do see it, which I hope will be early next week. Likewise, "Hugo", which is in large part about the early days of movies, received much love from the Academy with 11 nominations, and I am guessing that Martin Scorsese is probably in the lead for Best Director for this one.

Earlier this week, I did re-watch "Midnight in Paris" and enjoyed it every bit as much, if not more so, that when I saw it earlier in the year. I do not expect it to win for Best Picture, nor do I expect Woody Allen to win for Best Director, but I am hoping that Allen will get the nod for Best Original Screenplay. It has now been 35 years since "Annie Hall", and I think it is time that Woody gets another Oscar.

From what you read, the Best Actress award seems to be a two horse race between Viola Davis and Meryl Streep. I haven't seen either performance so I can't offer an opinion, but I am kind of pulling for Meryl Streep who has now been nominated for either Best Actress or best Supporting Actress and amazing 18 times. She never wins because, I think people seem to think that "she always wins, so let's give it someone else." Fact is, she has won twice, but her last win was in 1982 - thirty years ago. I love Streep, so I hope she snags this one this year.

One Best Actress performance that I did see just this week was Rooney Mara in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." Great performance, but she's not going to win an Oscar for it. I will also say that this was a very good movie. Even if you've seen the original Swedish language movie version of this book, it is worth seeing this one as well. Very well done. A few scenes that are hard to watch, but still a very good movie. On the same track, I also finally got around the seeing the Swedish "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" this week, so I have now closed out that particular trilogy. All of those movies were quite good, even with sub-titles.

Finally, I can say, with tongue in cheek, of course, that I am amazed that the Academy did not see fit to give a single nomination to "Hall Pass." If nothing else, there should be some kind of special effects award for that scene with the chick sitting on the edge of the bathtub. If you've seen the movie, you know the one I mean.

To Absent Friends - Robert Heyges

2012-01-27T09:35:00.005-05:00

The news reported yesterday on the death of Robert Heyges at the age of 60. Heyges, as you can see from the picture above, was one of the "sweathogs" on the 1970's hit sitcom, "Welcome Back, Kotter." He played Juan Epstein, and his comic bit was to write outlandish excuse/absence notes to Mr. Kotter, and sign them "Epstein's mother." Funny stuff at the time.

Reading an online obit last night, I saw that Heyges had some parts on other TV series over the years, and continued to do stage work in New York, but, of course, he'll be forever remembered as a Sweathog. While he never became the superstar that fellow Sweathog John "Vinnie Barbarino" Travolta became. at least he never stooped to the D-list reality tripe of Ron "Horshack" Palillo.

RIP Robert Heyges

The Prince of Detroit

2012-01-25T17:01:00.004-05:00

Last week I was kicking around in my mind, but never got around to doing it, the idea of a post on Prince Fielder. About he was still out there as a baseball free agent; about how no one seemed to be offering him the big money, long term deal he wanted; about how with the big spenders (Yanks, Red Sox, Angels) not in the market for a first baseman, he might not actually get a big money, long term deal; about how perhaps fear for his expansive physique might work against him in getting a big money, long term deal.

Well, as Emily Litella used to say on Saturday Night Live, "never mind."

Nine years, $214 million from the Tigers. Wow. The Tigers now become a big time player in the American League, and the overwhelming favorite in the AL Central.

And in Miguel Cabrera and Fielder, they could also have two guys who could team up with Ndamukong Suh to anchor the Detroit Lions defensive line. And don't forget Victor Martinez, probably out for the season due to injury, also makes up the Beef Trust Review that is now the Tigers.

Does Cabrera now shift back to third place, which he last played about 50 pounds ago? And if Fielder becomes a full time DH, does he hit 350 pounds by the All-Star break? And what is Fielder going to look like by the end of that 9 year contract?

However, on a serious note, the Tigers win the division last year, attendance increases, and the team goes out and gets Prince Fielder. The Pirates flirt with contention for 2/3 of the season last year, attendance increases by 20%, and the team goes out and gets Clint Barmes. How sad.

A Super Bowl Rematch

2012-01-23T10:39:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite days of the sports year is NFL Championship Sunday, and the two games played yesterday did not let anybody down. I felt going in, and as the games played out, I am even more convinced, that of the four teams that played yesterday, the best possible outcome for the Super Bowl would be Patriots-Giants match-up.

Some quick thoughts....

That was not a vintage Tom Brady performance yesterday and much of that, no doubt, was a function of the Ravens defense. Joe Flacco, for God's sake, actually had better numbers! Two interceptions, and two others that were nullified by Baltimore penalties.

Man, I would hate to be a placekicker, and have to live with what Billy Cundiff will be living with over the next few months.

Patriots defensive back Sterling Moore broke up two passes on the Ravens' final drive, including the Vince Evans "drop" in the end zone. I hope he got a game ball.

Why is Evans being blamed more for dropping that pass that Moore is being credited for breaking it up?

For the lovers of great defense, that Giants-49'ers game was right up your alley.

Great play by Vernon Davis on that 73 yard TD, but a really, dumbass unsportsmanlike penalty for his celebration. Lucky for him it didn't end up hurting the 49'ers.

Just as you hate to see a game come down to a missed field goal, you also hate to see great game like New York and San Francisco played decided on a muffed punt (two of them, actually).

Outstanding Player of the Day: Eli Manning. A real warrior.

In explaining how Overtime would work in the playoff game, Ed Hochuli talked longer at the coin toss that Abe Lincoln did at Gettysburg.

I don't have the intense dislike that so many seem to have for the Harbaugh Brothers, but I am glad that we will be spared all of the media nonsense that would have resulted had they been matched up in the Super Bowl.

With two correct call yesterday, The Grandstander now stands at 7-3 for this Playoff season and is assured of a better record than last year's 6-5. Not ready to call the Super Bowl yet, but I am thinking that this could be as good a game as it was when these two teams matched up a few years back. Plenty of time left to make that prediction.

To Absent Friends - Joe Paterno

2012-01-23T10:20:00.003-05:00

All the sporting world, and even those beyond the sports world, such was the measure of the man, mourn the death yesterday of Joe Paterno. His record as a football coach is well known, so there is no need to restate it here. Also well known are the sad circumstances of his departure from his post as Head Coach at Penn State, and this is not the time to go over that story either.

Much of the talk yesterday was of the "legacy" that Paterno will leave behind. Again, his role as coach and benefactor to his University is indisputable. A question that does come to mind is, does one error of omission, albeit a serious one, negate a life of 1,000 (10,000? 100,000?..you decide how many zeros to add) wonderful acts? Everyone can answer this question in their own hearts and minds. I tend to believe that Joe Paterno will be remembered for the great coach and benefactor and molder of young people that he was at Penn State for over 60 years.

I will close with my own Joe Paterno story, one that I had almost forgotten. Back in the early 1970's, I know I was still a student at Robert Morris at the time, Penn State played Pitt in Pittsburgh on Thanksgiving Day. On the following day, I was walking through downtown by the William Penn Hotel (although why I was in town on the day after Thanksgiving, I have no idea), and I see Joe Paterno walking along William Penn Place, all by himself, no bodyguard, no entourage. He was wearing khakis, perhaps even the same pair he wore during the game the day before. I can't even recall if I said "Hi" to him or not. In retrospect, I hope that I did.

RIP Joe Paterno.

May 24, 1928

2012-01-21T11:05:00.002-05:00

The current issue of the Baseball Hall of Fame Magazine, Memories and Dreams, told the story of a lunch time discussion that led HOF staffers to the date at the top of this post.

The question posed at that staff lunch was "What regular season major league game featured the most number of future Hall of Famers?" Well, the HOF enlisted the services of the folks at the terrific Retrosheet website (www.retrosheet.org) and in less than a day, the Retrosheet folks came up with the parameters, programs, and algorithms to uncover the game. It took place on May 24, 1928 in the first game of a doubleheader between the New York Yankees (one might have predicted that the Yanks would be involved) and the Philadelphis Athletics.

Seventeen future Hall of Famers were active in that game. For the Yankees, the cast was Earle Combs, Leo Durocher, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Waite Hoyt, and manager Miller Huggins. For the A's, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Mickey Cochrane, Al Simmons, Eddie Collins, Lefty Grove, Jimmie Foxx, and manager Connie Mack. Finally, two of the umpires, Tommy Connolly and Bill McGowan also became HOF enshrinees. Also, on that Yankees team that day were three other future HOF'ers, Stan Coveleski, Herb Pennock, and Bill Dickey, who did not actually play in the game.

Does any name on these lists jump out at you as being out of place? The one that does for me is Leo Durocher.

In doing the research for this project, over 120,000 major league games were played where it was possible that 10 or more HOF'ers could have participated. There were four games, all played between 1925 and 1928, where there were 16 HOF'ers involved. And if you really want your mind blown, consider the second All-Star game, played in 1934. In that game, 28 players, plus two managers and one coach, 31 in all, were destined to enter the Hall of Fame. The last regular season major league game to feature as many as 10 HOF'ers was played on July 24, 1979 between the San Diego Padres and Montreal Expos - how many of you would have guessed those teams? - that featured 7 players, one manager, one coach, and one umpire.

Thought that this would be of interest to you.

Who Is/Was the Best PNC Park Pirate?

2012-01-21T10:42:00.007-05:00

Yesterday was the 41st birthday of former Pirate Brian Giles. I posted this comment on my Facebook page yesterday and asked the following question: Was/is Brian Giles the greatest Pirate of the PNC Park Era?

First off, in searching Google for a picture of Giles to post, I discovered that Giles has led a bit of an unsavory life in recent years. I have also been told over the years, that when Giles was with the Pirates, he and Jason "Welcome to Hell" Kendall led a clique in the clubhouse that can be described as despicable, disgusting, unsavory, a bunch of jackasses...take your pick. So, we will stipulate that Giles was NOT a nice guy, and that he hasn't seemed to clean up his act since he departed Pittsburgh. We will instead concentrate on the question at hand - is he the best Pirate player of the PNC Park Era?

Whelming (as opposed to "overwhelming") responses on Facebook agreed that he was a very good player, that he was probably a PED juicer in those pre-testing days, and that he was a jaggoff. Other names mentioned as the best PNC Park Pirate included Aramis Rameriz, Kevin Young, and Jason Bay, and the opinion that Andrew McCutchen is on his way to becoming the best PNC Park Pirate. Another poster opined that while he may not have been the best player of the era, Jack Wilson was the "face of the Pirates" during this era. That is an interesting opinion, and could lead to a whole other discussion thread.

My own vote on this Player would go to Jason Bay with Giles a close second. I also feel that McCutchen, if he is allowed to play here long enough, will eventually wear the mantle of "Best PNC Park Pirate."

Also, who do feel has been the "Face of the Franchise" during the PNC Park Era? One vote is already in for Wilson. My own thought is that, for better or worse, Jason Kendall was the Face of the Team during PNC's earlier years. Then Wilson, and now McCutchen. If I had to pick one, after 11 seasons have been played out, I would choose Kendall. Again, for better or for worse.

Any one care to comment further?

Calling the Championship Games

2012-01-20T09:54:00.004-05:00

Well, when the playoffs began, I said that the Super Bowl would be contested between New England and New Orleans. I have a chance to be half right. Carrying my 5-3 playoff record with me into Championship Sunday, I make the following predictions:

AFC, Ravens at Patriots. I know that the Ravens play good defense, and defense wins championships, blah blah blah. I also know that New England has yet to beat a team this season that finished with an above-.500 record. And I know that Baltimore beat the Patriots in the playoffs at Foxboro last season. I also know what I saw last week when the Patriots completely dismantled Denver, another team that plays pretty good defense. I just think that New England is peaking at the perfect time and that even if the Ravens can somehow exploit a suspect New England defense, there is no way that Tom Brady loses in a shootout with Joe Flacco. PATRIOTS to win.

NFC, Giants at 49'ers. Talking about a team that is peaking at the exact right time, the New York Giants fit that description to a tee. Two very good defensive teams going against each other in this one, so I think the quarterbacks will decide this one. While Alex Smith surprised most everyone with that outstanding game against the Saints last week, I think that Eli Manning is playing at an elite level this season. In what will probably be the better game of the two, the GIANTS win at Candlestick.

This avoids the Harbaugh vs. Harbaugh Super Bowl for which the media hype machine is no doubt praying, but a rematch of the Pats-Giants Super Bowl of four years ago should be able to feed the Media Beast well enough.

Book Review: "On Hallowed Ground, The Story of Arlington National Cemetery"

2012-01-20T09:25:00.003-05:00

The book you see at the left was written in 2009 and is a very interesting story about one of America's most honored places, Arlington National Cemetery. One online review that I read of this book said that author Robert Poole does not write a comprehensive history of the place, so much as he tells stories about it, and from those stories, you do get a good understanding of how what was the ancestral home of Martha Washington and Robert E. Lee developed into the "hallowed ground" that it is today.

About the first one-third of the books tells of how the Custis-Lee mansion and estate (Robert E. Lee was married to the step-granddaughter of Martha Custis Washington) was usurped by the Federal government during the Civil War. The government, under the direction of US Army Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs pretty much stole the property from the Lee family under the exigencies of war. I think that many people with even a rudimentary knowledge of the history of the Civil War Era are aware of the Lee connection to Arlington. What you may not know is that many years after the War, in the early 1880's, the Lee Family sued for the recovery of the property and won their case. At that point, the Cemetery was well established, so the government was then in the position where they had to buy the property back from the Lees for fair market value, which they did for $150,000.

Great stories included in the book were the process for selecting an Unknown Soldier following World War I, and the weekend surrounding the assassination and interment of President Kennedy. Did you know that when Mrs. Kennedy asked that an eternal flame be installed by the President's grave, personnel at Arlington and the Army had no idea how to construct one, but they somehow found a way to make it work in less than 24 hours.

Another fascinating story involves the Unknown from Viet Nam. In the early 1980's, there was great pressure from the Reagan Administration to find, designate, and inter an Unknown from that war. However, the advances in both military operations regarding war dead and in forensic science, made it easier to identify all war dead, and, thus, their weren't that many unknowns. Nevertheless, and Unknown was buried in a solemn ceremony that included President Reagan, even though there were those who were pretty sure that the body buried was not Unknown. In 1998, the body was exhumed and identified. I am painting this story with a very broad brush, and the details of the Viet Nam Unknown's story make for great reading.

It's a pretty good book, and if you have an Amazon Kindle, you can purchase it for a mere $3.99!

Cary Grant

2012-01-18T12:09:00.006-05:00

Today we observe what would have been the 108th birthday of Cary Grant.

Tell me, has there ever been a movie star, before or since, like Cary Grant? Just last week I watched Hitchcock's "To Catch A Thief" with Grant and Grace Kelly. What a screen pair that was. And for my money, one of the hottest and sexiest love scenes you will ever see in a movie was between Grant and Eva Marie Saint in "North by Northwest." No one took their clothes off, in fact, I don't even think that Grant and Saint were seen below their shoulders, but, man, you had no doubt what was going on between them.

(Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sKTO32r5Zs)

Comedy, drama, romance, and even self-deprecating humor....Grant could do it all. Here's a story I once read from director Peter Bogdanovich. Late in life, Grant was attending some sort of charity function somewhere and when he gave his name upon checking in, the lady at the registration said, "You don't look like Cary Grant." To which Grant said (and please imagine this in a Cary Grant accent), "Well, yes, but then nobody does."

Nobody like him, before or since.

Hawaii Five-0 Thoughts

2012-01-18T11:50:00.004-05:00

We are now halfway through the second season of the new incarnation of "Hawaii Five-O" and it is still must-see-TV in our house. The DVR is set to record all new episodes, so we never miss it. We like Alex O'Laughlin and Scott Caan in the lead roles, and even if the complete and total "bad-assness" of O'Laughlin's Steve McGarrett sometimes defies rational belief, so what. It's all part of what makes for a fun show.

All that said, however, the "who-killed-Steve's-father-and-why" back story that haunts every episode needs to be drawn to a conclusion. This has become so drawn out and convoluted, that I can no longer keep track of who's who, who did what, who's a good guy, who's a bad guy. At this point, I wonder if the writers of the show even know where they are going with this. As for Joe, the bald guy who was Steve's ex-SEALS commander, he has got to go. I'm tired of him.

As I said, let's find out who killed Steve's dad, let Steve kick the shit out of him, let his Dad now rest in peace, and let the Five-O crew solve the crime of the week. That's the way Jack Lord's Five-O did it, and they lasted for thirteen seasons on TV.

Book 'em, Danno!

Aloha.

And Then There Were Four....

2012-01-15T20:27:00.003-05:00

Some thoughts and questions on the recently concluded NFL Playoff weekend. If you are my Facebook Friend, some of this may seem familiar to you. It should be noted that my pre-game drill today prior to the Ravens-Texans kick-off was painting an accent wall in our dining room. It looks terrific, by the way.

So how many of you thought that BOTH Green Bay and New Orleans would lose? If you did, I hope you had a nice parlay bet at a sports book in Vegas.

If going into the weekend, you were asked to rank the eight quarterbacks who would be playing, where would you have ranked Alex Smith? Sixth or seventh, right? Maybe last?

When watching the Saints and 49'ers score three touchdowns and a field goal and exchange the lead four times in the last three and a half minutes of the game, did anyone flash back on a similar game between Michigan and Notre Dame last September?

It might be hard to root for the Ray Lewis, and, to a lesser degree, Ed Reed, but those guys are awfully good football players.

How about that Pitt Panther connection on the Ravens first touchdown today, Joe Flacco to Kris Wilson? Somewhere, Walt Harris was smiling.

Caught the CBS studio jokesters briefly on the post-game show. If you had tuned in at that moment, you would have thought that Baltimore lost the game.

How bad does last week's Steelers loss to Denver look now in light of the complete beatdown by Tom Brady and the Patriots over Tim Tebow and the Broncos? Answer: Pretty damn bad; even worse than it looked last week.

(That said, the guy who wrote a letter to the sports editor of the Post-Gazette suggesting that it was now time to fire Mike Tomlin is certifiably insane, and whoever at the PG thought this was worth printing today isn't far behind.)

Did anyone see Leslie Visser on CBS today? I hadn't seen her for awhile, and I was shocked when I did, as she appears to have been the victim of some very bad plastic surgery. How sad that she felt the need to have such work done.

All week long leading up to these games, I kept hearing about how bad the Patriots defense was. Sure didn't seem that way to me, or maybe Tim Tebow really is that bad, notwithstanding his game against the Steelers.

Defense does seem to be the strong suit of both the 49'ers and the Giants, however. That should be a very interesting game next week.

Tom Brady was absolutely unbelievably good on Saturday night. It is hard to imagine that the Ravens will be able to withstand what he can do.

Phil Simms had a great line last night about NE offensive coordinator and Penn State head coach Bill O'Brien. He asked of all the ex-Penn State players, boosters, and alums who have been bitching about the O'Brien hire, "do you like what you are seeing tonight?"

And, yes, I know, as it has been pointed out to me already, that O'Brien will not have Brady, Gronkowski, Welker et al in Happy Valley, but I think that Simms point to the PSU bitchers-and-moaners was well taken.

Speaking of Penn State, did you catch the lengthy interview and story by Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post on Joe Paterno? The one quote that jumped off the page was when Paterno said that "people must think I run things up here." Oh, you mean he didn't? I hate to kick a legend when he is down - and very ill to boot - but he really came across as a clueless old guy in that story.

Is there any football announcer more old school that CBS' Dan Dierdorf? When you listen to him talk, you just know that he thinks that, with very few exceptions, all of the players today are a bunch of namby-pamby jackwagons, and that if he, Dierdorf, was down there on the field, he would by God show them all how the game should be played. He used to bother me, but now I kind of love listening to the guy.

He was pretty calm on the sidelines today, but I know that there will come a day when Tom Coughlin's head will literally explode during a game. Maybe next week.

Why does the thought of a Harbaugh vs. Harbaugh Super Bowl showdown not get me in the lather that it seems to be inspiring in others? Of course, if that does come to pass, the media circus that will be made of it WILL be overblown to a degree that not even Chris Berman could imagine.

BEST GAME OF THE WEEKEND - 49'ers win over the Saints. No other game even close.

BEST PLAYER OF THE WEEKEND - Tom Brady

GOAT OF THE WEEKEND - Jacoby Jones

SURPRISE OF THE WEEKEND - The relative ease in which the Giants beat the Packers, who sure didn't look like a team that went 15-1.

PLAY OF THE WEEKEND - Three way tie: Alex Smith bootleg TD run to win game over the Saints; Alex Smith to Vernon Davis TD pass to win game over the Saints (again) after the Saints appeared to have won (again), and Eli Manning's Hail Mary TD pass at the end of the first half against Green Bay. There was still a half left to play, but I think that that TD was the dagger that killed the Packers today.

HONOR IN DEFEAT AWARD - Aaron Rogers who, despite his interceptions, kept the Packers in the game until late in the fourth quarter without a lot of help from the rest of his offensive teammates.

So, next Sunday is one of my favorite football days of the year - Conference Championship Sunday. Am looking forward to the big double header, and while I wish the Steelers were still alive, I have to admit that you can watch these games and enjoy them more when you don't have the emotional investment in them that the Steelers participation brings.

Catching Up with.....

2012-01-13T11:37:00.004-05:00

...the Movies.

Finally got to see "Moneyball" this week. Very good movie, and not just for the baseball. The Oscar buzz for Brad Pitt is well deserved (although I still would put him behind George Clooney, but ahead of Leonardo DiCaprio, if I were handicapping the race), and Jonah Hill was quite good, too. Funny seeing Hill in a role like this when you usually see him the R-rated comedies.

Also, rented "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." I am not a sci-fi guy, but I do kind of like these movies. This one was pretty good, even if it did take a long time to get to the good part - that is, when the apes go ape and over run San Francisco. Entertaining escapism, and they left it wide open for a sequel.

....the Pirates.

Paul Maholm made his departure from the Pirates official this week by signing with the Cubs. It's easy to say "so what" about losing a guy with a 53-73, 4.36 career record, and a career that, save for a six game 3-1 rookie season, never included a winning record, but I still hate to see him go. He was a former #1 draft pick and he never complained about the lack of support behind him (and he sure had every right to do so), never missed his turn, and was a good and decent guy who did a lot of charitable work in the area. I hope that he can have a successful career going forward, although the Cubs may not be all that much better than the Pirates team he is leaving.

Maholm, by the way, was the longest tenured Pirate, a title that now falls to Evan Meek, and I sure would not have guessed that had I not read it in Dejan's blog earlier in the week.

.....the Pirates, again.

You can go to the Pirates website and vote on the "Most Memorable Moment" of the 2011 season. They give you five choices, including the infamous 19 inning loss in the "Jerry Meals Game" in Atlanta. My vote went to the "Mike McKenry Home Run" game against the Cubs. As of last night, anyway, that game was leading in the early voting.

.....the Steelers.

Coming off a season in 2010 where they went to the Super Bowl, the Steelers opted to keep the team together for 2011, including some ageing players, in an effort to take one more shot at getting to the Super Bowl. It made sense, and they can be applauded for loyalty, but, as we all know, that effort fell short in Denver last week. There will need to be some very hard, or maybe not so hard, decisions made in light of that loss. The team needs to get younger, and look for a lot of familiar faces to be gone when the team convenes at St. Vincent's in July.

NFL Predictions - Round Two...and Tim Tebow

2012-01-13T10:55:00.005-05:00

Before attempting to build on my 3-1 record of last week, allow me a word or two on Tim Tebow.

I am much amused by the conversational train heard last evening on The Fan as to whether Steelers Loyalists should root for or against Tim Tebow this weekend against New England. The gist of all Yinzer thought was that (a) we don't like Tebow, because (b) he's a phony and (c) he's getting too much media attention and (d) he's a lousy quarterback who can't throw a perfect spiral and has a lousy completion percentage. To those objections, I offer the following:

(a) Not sure what there is not to like about Tebow. So he's a devout Christian. Good for him and he is no more in-your-face with his beliefs than is, say, Troy Polamalu. If we started making numerous and endless signs-of-the-cross and called it "Polamalu-ing", would that be okay?

(b) So far, Tebow has shown us nothing in his life to make us think that he is anything but the sincere guy he appears to be.

(c) We can agree that he is getting more than his share of media coverage, but it that his fault? Blame the networks for the Tebow saturation, including the gasbags at ESPN who yesterday were promoting a special "Tebow Roundtable" on Sports Center.

(d) Tebow may not be pretty throwing his passes, and if he is not a good quarterback, the NFL will catch up to him. That said, the so-called "lousy quarterback" ripped the Steelers to shreds last week, knocked them out of the playoffs, and left them for dead. Until the Steelers beat Tim Tebow, the Yinzers should just shut up.

Now, the games:

Saints at 49'ers. As you recall, I picked New Orleans to play in the Super Bowl, and nothing I saw last week would cause me to change my mind. I expect that the 49'ers defense will give the Saints a much tougher game than did the Lions last week, but in the end, Drew Brees will be too much. SAINTS to win.

Broncos at Patriots. Ahhhh, yes, the aforementioned Tebow against the Golden Boy, Tom Brady. As I said, the NFL may indeed catch up with Tim Tebow one of these weeks, and the Patriots bring, statistically speaking, one of the poorest defenses in the NFL to the table in this one, so I am not willing to concede that this will be the week that Tebow falters. He may well have yet another good game, like the one he had last week, but I think that Tom Brady will have a better one. PATRIOTS to win this one, but if the Broncos pull this one off, maybe there is something else at work going on here.

Texans at Ravens. The Ravens have shown an ability to lose games against teams that they should beat (Seattle, San Diego), however, they were 8-0 at home this season, and I think that the veteran defense of the Ravens will prevail over rookie T.J. Yates. The Texans were no doubt the winning team from last weekend that was least talked about in all of the post-game analysis, and I think that if there is to be a road team upset this week, it will be Houston that pulls it off. Still, I'm calling a RAVENS win in this one.

Giants at Packers. The Giants could be a classic case of a team that gets hot at the right time and makes a deep run in the playoffs, and Eli Manning is having a great season, but Aaron Rogers has had an other-worldly season. The PACKERS win and avenge that NFC Championship loss to the Giants of three seasons ago.

There you go. As always, watch, but don't bet.

A Day at the Carnegie

2012-01-10T18:28:00.007-05:00

Today we opted to pay a visit to a couple of Pittsburgh's cultural touchstones, the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History to take in two very fascinating exhibits now being featured at these venues.

At the Museum of Art over 1,000 photographs of famous Pittsburgh based photographer Charles "Teenie" Harris are displayed in an exhibit that will visit three other American cities over the next two years. The photos are works of art in their own right, but they can be viewed as historical documents as well. Harris worked mainly for the Pittsburgh Courier as well as a free lance photographer from the early 1940's and into the 1980's. The pictures show the vibrant community that the Hill District was and also shows the decline of that community as well for various and sundry reasons over the course of time. You see famous people like Lena Horne, Joe Louis, and Josh Gibson and ordinary, everyday people as well.

The Museum of Natural History has a large display of the pins and brooches that were worn by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright over the course of her long diplomatic career, with emphasis on her tenure as the Secretary of State. She would always wear such pins to set the tone of her meetings with various world leaders from Kim Jong Il to Yassir Arafat to the Queen of England to Saddam Husein. A beautiful, fascinating, and most interesting exhibit.

It had been a number of years since we had visited the Carnegie out in Oakland. It's a great place, and one admission gets you into both museums. Think about taking in one or both of these exhibits while they are still in town.

Alabama Beats LSU (Yawn)

2012-01-10T09:26:00.002-05:00

When two teams bring a combined record of 24-1 into a game, as Alabama and LSU did last night, it is obvious that these are two teams that definitely do not stink. That said, they produced a game last night that most certainly did stink. Hey, I'm all for great defense, but surely a team that asp[ires to be National Champion would be able to produce a touchdown, or even be able to cross the 50 yard line. Yeah, I know that the Tide did score a touchdown and LSU did finally cross the 50, but both events happened late in the fourth quarter, after I had given up on this snoozer and gone to bed.

Couple of comments:

Maybe this is what you get when you wait seven weeks to play your championship game.

Kudos to Brent Musberger who somehow managed to stay excited during this yawnfest, although I could have used a few less references to the Honey Badger.

Kudos also to Facebook, SABR buddy, and SEC Loyalist Madison McEntire for accusing Nick Saben of running up the score when he kicked a fourth field goal to go up 12-0. Great line.

"I Am Not a Crook."

2012-01-09T11:25:00.002-05:00

Happy 99th Birthday today to our 37th President.

Tebowed!

2012-01-09T11:04:00.002-05:00

Just when it appeared that that the NFL had caught up with Tim Tebow - Denver lost their last three regular season games with Tebow pretty much stinking up the joint - the Steelers and their #1 ranked defense coached by the sainted Dick LeBeau showed up at Mile High and pretty much laid down and died against Tebow and the Broncos yesterday afternoon.

Blame can be spread all around for yesterday's loss to Denver, but the brunt of it falls on the statistically best defense in the league that allowed the statistically worst quarterback in the league to shred it for 316 passing yards on only 10 completions. (Lies, damned lies, and statistics.) And while his teammates said all the usual we-lose-as-a-team cliches afterward, the goat horns for this game fit clearly on the head of Ike Taylor. Ike may have had a great season, but everything was negated in one thoroughly awful performance yesterday.

Here is a phenomenon that I don't understand. Offensive coordinator Bruce Arians will continue to be roasted by critics, and while the offense has much to answer for yesterday, they DID overcome 14 and 10 point deficits in the fourth quarter to force the game into overtime. Defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau will continue to be lionized by the yinzers. Why is that? It was LeBeau's defense that never even gave Ariens' offense a chance to get on the field in the revamped Playoffs OT rules. It was LeBeau's defense that didn't get one sack of Tebow yesterday. Yeah, I know about the injuries, but isn't the standard still the standard?

And speaking of the defense, where was James Harrison yesterday? The only time I heard his name yesterday was when he was called for - surprise! - a personal foul.

So ends a weird season for the Steelers. They sported a 12-4 record that never really felt like it was that good. Perhaps the loss to Denver was merciful, because I don't think a game in New England next week would have been pretty at all.

So, what is it now? 37 days until pitchers and catchers report to Bradenton? Let's go Bucs!

Happy Birthday, Elvis

2012-01-08T11:25:00.004-05:00

Elvis Presley would have been 77 years old today. If you forget what a great performer that he was, click below....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mh39QclKY0&feature=related

Saints March, Pitt Goes Quietly, New Era in Happy Valley, and Other Thoughts

2012-01-08T10:19:00.005-05:00

Some Football Thoughts halfway through Wildcard Weekend:

Unlike many football fans, I seldom watch any non-Steelers NFL game from start to finish until the playoffs begin. As a result, the only time that I saw the Detroit Lions all season was when they got thumped by Green Bay on Thanksgiving Day. Despite their 45-21 loss to New Orleans last night, I was really impressed by them. I came to three conclusions: (1) Matthew Stafford is really good, (2) Calvin Johnson is really, REALLY good, and (3) unless he is the coach of the team that you root for, Jim Schwartz can be really, really, really irritating.

I thought going into the weekend, that the Lions-Saints game could be the best one of the weekend, and both games today will have a long way to go to top it. With a 24-21 score after three quarters, you might have said the Saints were in control, but you wouldn't have bet the mortgage payment on that, would you? Early in the fourth Stafford made his first big mistake with an interception, and, to use a tasteless metaphor for a New Orleans game, the levees burst wide open from that point forward.

No special insight on my part here, but the Saints look awfully good.

If you are a San Diego Chargers fan, how did you feel watching Drew Brees and Darin Sproles playing for the Saints last night?

Texans beat the Bengals. I missed most of this one, but was anyone really surprised?

While out and about in the car yesterday I listened to Pitt fall behind 21-0 in the first quarter of the Compass Bowl. Thus, a nightmare of a season comes to an end for the football Panthers. In all honesty, I don't know how any of those Pitt players could have had any heart or enthusiasm in playing this game.

Saw Paul Chryst interviewed in the booth on TV during the second half of this game. Good luck to him in building this team up. I hope that everyone will give him the "honeymoon" that Todd Graham said he didn't need.

Attendance at the Compass Bowl was 29,000 and change. Should have felt like a home game for the Panthers.

Staying on the college front, Penn State finally hires its new head coach, Bill O'Brien, currently the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots. PSU boosters and former players have angrily denounced this hiring. "He has no roots at Penn State," they cry. They want him out before he even coaches a game. (Seriously. Bob Smizik posted a link to some Penn State booster blog that stated this very sentiment.) Seems that the Lions boosters, who haven't had to see their school hire a football coach for the last 45 years now get to do what boosters at every other school get to do every five years or so: act like that hundred dollar check they write to the booster club each year gives them the right to set University athletic policy.

Bill O'Brien may be great head coach. Or he may be a lousy one. There is no way to predict how any new coaching hire will turn out anywhere in Big Time sports, but he certainly brings strong credentials to the position at Happy Valley and seems to deserve the opportunity that he is getting. Lions fans who have watched Rob Bolden and Matt McGloin battle it out for the QB job the last few years should realize that O'Brien has most recently coached a guy named Tom Brady.

I admit that I am an outsider here, but my own thought is that Penn State was probably wise to go with someone who has NOT been associated with the program of recent years.

That said, I do feel bad for Tom Bradley. None of the Sandusky Stink has seemed to brush off on to him, he has served the University loyally for decades, he stepped in as interim coach under the absolute worst possible circumstance and held the team together, and for all that he is now looking for a job. I hope that he lands on his feet somewhere, but his association with the Penn State will probably now end up hurting him in his career. Another victim of the collateral damage done at Penn State over this whole mess.

While I can be supportive and optimistic about the O'Brien hiring at Happy Valley, I have to wonder why it took over two months to fill that position. Somebody is probably going to write a very good book on that subject one of these days.

And on the topic of Tom Brady (I did mention him a few bullets ago), there is a very good article in the current Sports Illustrated about him while he was at the University of Michigan, how he struggled there, and how he battled with super recruit and two-sport star Drew Henson for the QB position while at Ann Arbor. If you now see Brady as the Golden Boy prima donna of the NFL, this story will give you different insight. It also tells an interesting cautionary tale where Drew Henson is concerned. Recommended reading.

To recap, The Grandstander went 2-0 with his Wildcard predictions yesterday. I'm calling for Giants and Steelers wins today.

With each Steelers playoff game, we face the possibility of seeing Hines Ward's final game as a Steeler. Call me a sentimentalist, but I sure would love to see one final big game for Number 86 somewhere during this post-season.

Wild Card Weekend Predictions

2012-01-06T11:33:00.004-05:00

At the Stonebrook Village Men's Brunch yesterday I threw out the following question: what two teams will meet in the Super Bowl? Don't have to pick a winner, but commit to which two teams will be playing. My own choice was an "All-New" Super Bowl - New England vs. New Orleans. The other teams mentioned at the table were various combinations of Baltimore, New England, New Orleans, and Green Bay. When I posed the same question on Facebook last night, I received the same combination of teams (although the Facebookers haven't been exactly flooding the comment box with their predictions). Still plenty of time to respond.

So, it is time for The Grandstander's predictions for Wild Card weekend.

Bengals vs. Texans. Two rookie QB 's face each other in what will no doubt be the least anticipated game of the weekend, which doesn't necessarily mean it won't be a good game. A commitment at church tomorrow night means that I will miss most of this game, and, if you have to miss one, I'll take this one. The Texans beat the Steelers this year (albeit with Matt Schaub at QB) and the Bengals lost twice to the Steelers. And they are, after all, the Cincinnati Bengals, so I call for a Texans win.

Lions vs. New Orleans. The Lions have been the up and coming team this year, and have some good players to watch, so I am looking forward to this game. New Orleans has been a juggernaut, and, as you read above, I think they are going to the Super Bowl. Saints to win tomorrow night.

Falcons vs. Giants. Neither team excites me a lot, and the Giants had to go down to the wire to win a weak division and make the playoffs. When in doubt, take the team with the best QB, and in this game, that is Eli Manning, who has had a great year. Giants win.

Steelers vs. Broncos. Ah, yes, we have to wait until the last game if the weekend for the Big Game. On the face of it, this seems an easy pick, Steelers over Denver. BUT....we all know about the injuries that the Steelers have....Roethlisberger, Pouncy, Mendenhall, Clark....the list goes on. It was obvious watching the Browns game this past week that Ben is most certainly not 100%. Will that be good enough against a good Denver defense? Will Isaac Redman be the running back that all the talk show callers have been calling for all year? How will the injuries beyond Clark in the defensive backfield affect the performance of the team? Lots of questions, but I am thinking that a hobbled defense will still be able to stop Tim Tebow, and that a less than 100% Ben will be good enough to win this one. So, Steelers to win on Sunday.

As a historical point of reference, I went 6-5 in my post season NFL picks last year, which would allow you to barely stay above water, so, as always, watch, but don't bet!

Book Review: "Destiny of the Republic"

2012-01-06T09:20:00.004-05:00

One of my Christmas gifts this year (thank you, Sandy and Gary) was the book pictured at the right, "Destiny of the Republic" by Candice Millard. Sounds kind of dry, doesn't it, but check out the subtitle: "A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President." The book is the story of the assassination of President James Garfield in 1881 by a complete and total loon by the name of Charles Guiteau.

James Garfield is one of those American Presidents who has been pretty much forgotten by history, and part of the story that Millard tells is of Garfield himself. Born in abject poverty, Garfield was a brilliant man whose mother insisted he get an education. That he did, and he did it so well that he became a University president by the age of 26. He reluctantly entered into politics by serving in the Ohio state senate. He was soon after elected to the United States Congress, served as a commander for the Union army in the Civil War, returned to the U.S. Senate where he became a respected member of Congress, a key figure in battling for the rights of freed slaves, and a quasi-important figure in a Republican Party that was deeply split between two warring factions. This factionalism liked to a stalled Republican convention in 1880 that chose Garfield as a compromise candidate on its 36th ballot. Later that year, Garfield was elected as the 20th President of the United States, a job he never sought and didn't particularly want.

Charles Guiteau was a completely delusional person who felt that Garfield should appoint him ambassador to France. The fact that Guiteau was justifiably ignored by everyone in the government led him to the idea that God had intended him to kill the President, and on July 2, 1881, four months into Garfield's Presidency, Guiteau shot Garfield twice, once in the arm, once in the back in a District of Columbia train station.

So, there is the "madness" and the "murder" part of the subtitle, and for the "medicine" part, well, Garfield didn't die that day from his wounds. He survived for two months being treated by doctors who continually probed the President's wounds with their unsterilized fingers and instruments. Garfield didn't actually die from the bullet wounds, but rather from septic poisoning throughout his body, brought on by the doctors who treated him. During this period in medical history, English surgeon Joseph Lister was introducing the concept of sterilization of patients, doctors, and instruments when performing surgery and treating patients. American doctors, including those who treated Garfield, pretty much dismissed these techniques, and those practices might very well have saved Garfield's life.

As for Guiteau, he was tried, convicted, and hanged for the murder of the President.

You meet some pretty interesting people in the course of reading this book. Inventor Alexander Graham Bell, Republican power broker Senator Roscoe Conkling (the John Boehner of his day), Doctor Willard Bliss (docs with god-like complexes are not unique to this century), and Chester Arthur, the Vice-President who succeeded Garfield.

And, of course, there is James Garfield himself. Author Millard will by necessity paint a very glowing and favorable picture of Garfield for the purposes of telling this story. Still, you do wonder when reading about him as to what "might have been" had he survived. His presidency lasted a mere six months so he leaves no great legacy, but for this: his death lead to sweeping reforms in the Civil Service laws of the nation. The spoils system that produced a Charles Guiteau was eliminated by these reforms, so perhaps that is a pretty good legacy to leave behind.

A very good book for Presidential history buffs and assassination buffs as well.

Happy Birthday, Diane Keaton

2012-01-05T10:01:00.006-05:00

Whether as Kay Corleone, Annie Hall, a hot-model-of-a-certain-age for Chicos, or the star of countless other movies, Happy 66th Birthday today to one of my favorite actresses, Diane Keaton!

The NFL - Looking Back and Looking Ahead

2012-01-03T11:05:00.003-05:00

In my preview of the NFL in this space last September 9, I wrote the following:

In the AFC, the Steelers, Patriots, Jets, Ravens, and maybe the Chargers are all going to be pretty good. Also, with Peyton Manning out for up to three months, the Texans might finally sneak into the playoffs.

In the NFC, the Packers, Falcons, Eagles, and Saints are all going to be good.From those ten teams listed above, the two Super Bowl participants will emerge. There you have it, and that's as far out on a limb as I am gong to go. If you want more than that, read Peter King!

Here are a few more predictions: The Lions are a dark horse in the NFC, and could sneak in as a wild card.

The Bengals, Browns, Bears and Redskins will all stink.

Phillip Rivers will receive accolades galore but the Chargers will still not make it past the first round of the playoffs.

So, okay, I was right on the Ravens, Steelers, Patriots, Saints, Falcons, and Packers, and I still think that the two Super Bowl participants will come from among those teams.

I also had both the Lions and Texans as playoff teams.

I was wrong on the Eagles and Jets, both of whom failed to make the playoffs. So much for the Philly "Dream Team", and don't we all just feel so bad about Rex Ryan not being on stage for the playoffs. Won't be surprised if some network hires him on as a guest expert commentator for the playoffs, though.

I was wrong on the Bengals, who made the playoffs, and right about the Bears and Redskins, who did, indeed, stink.

I was right and wrong about the Chargers. Philip Rivers continues to get love from everyone, but the Chargers weren't very good and failed to make the playoffs.

And I never saw the 49'ers coming!

Later this week, I will make my calls on this weekend's playoff games.

Football Bowl Thoughts

2012-01-02T22:15:00.003-05:00

As halftime of the Fiesta Bowl approaches with the score now tied at 21, a few thoughts on what has transpired today.

Full disclosure: I watched most of the Penn State game, the fourth quarter of the Rose Bowl (The Grandaddy of Them All), and have been watching the Fiesta Bowl while reading a book.

Didn't watch any of the other games.

So, here are my thoughts.

**How did Penn State manage to win nine games this year? They looked slow, plodding and unimaginative against Houston today.

**I can't imagine any team to be as glad that a season is over as Penn State must be tonight.

**I found myself feeling bad for Tom Bradley today. The guy's life dream has no doubt been to be the head coach at Penn State. He gets the job this year under the most unimaginable of circumstances and because of those circumstances, he will no doubt soon be dismissed by PSU, and find himself almost unhireable by any other school.

**Apparently, I should have watched all of the Rose Bowl (The Grandaddy of Them All) because that was quite an offensive show the Badgers and Ducks put on. However, did anybody else have trouble actually SEEING the Oregon players in the green uniforms against the green grass?

**Stanford and Oklahoma State are putting on quite a show. Am enjoying watching the presumptive #1 draft pick Andrew Luck playing. He looks pretty good. Now, we will spend the next three months hearing the draft geeks saying what is wrong with him. Poor arm angle, slow feet, bad vertical leap...all the crap that you always hear from the people who said that Jeff George was going to be a Hall of Famer and that Ryan Leaf was a better pick than Peyton Manning.

**As for that beard that Luck wears, it's pretty scraggly. If you can't grow a good beard, the don't grow one at all, Andy.

Not sure if I'll be up until the end of this one or not, but I'll give it a shot and see where it leads.

"We Bought A Zoo" and Other Topics

2012-01-01T10:56:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year, everyone!

I shall kick off 2012 with a very brief review of our New Year's Eve Date Movie: "We Bought A Zoo", directed by Cameron Crowe and starring Matt Damon and Scarlet Johanssen, both of whom were delightful. Very engaging family movie about a young widower with two kids who, in attempt to start over, quits his job and buys a zoo. Yeah, it's fluffy, you can see what's coming, and it will never win any awards, but you can't not like this movie. We thought it would be a light, enjoyable movie, but we both liked it much more than we expected.

A word about two of the supporting actors. Seven year old Maggie Elizabeth Jones, who plays Damon's daughter, just might be the cutest little girl you've ever seen on a movie screen. Thomas Haden Church plays Damon's brother, and he is very much like the character he played in "Sideways", which means he's quite funny.

Good movie.

*****
We came home and proceeded to watch five episodes from Season Four of "Mad Men." Great show. In fact, soon after I finish this blog entry, we will watch two more episodes, and that will wrap up Season Four for us.

*****
Much is at stake for the Pittsburgh Steelers as they take on the Browns on the lakefront this afternoon while the Bengals take on the Ravens in Cincy. The guess here is that the Steelers will hold serve and beat the Browns while the Bengals will be, well, the Bengals and lose to the Ravens, which means a wild card spot, no bye week, and a road playoff game next week for the Black & Gold. Well, the Steelers made this particular bed in losing both games, particularly the second one, against Baltimore. We shall see what happens.

*****
Two huge events await us in 2012.

It's an Olympic Year. No doubt the Games of London will be marvelous spectacle and great fun to watch. Someone who we currently do not even know exists will no doubt become a breakout star during these games. Whom will it be? Man? Woman? American? Asian? European? Someone from some small third world country? The fun will be in watching it unfold.

It's a Presidential Election Year. As has been my policy from the beginning, The Grandstander shall eschew politics in this space, as I prefer to concentrate on fun stuff and not the bitterness and anger that is so prevalent these days. All I will say now is that I hope that this can proceed as an exercise in an almost sacred right of democratic process as envisioned by the Constitution of the United States. Sadly, I fear that it will be a months long exhibition of ugliness among the various participants, and, in one of the lesser developments of the 21st Century, and avalanche of chain emails that purport to be funny, but are really their own exercise of hatefulness. I don't think this is what Washington, Jefferson, Adams and the rest of the founding Fathers had in mind.

*****
Have you noticed that The Grandstander now has a logo? What took me so long?

*****
All that aside, nothing but cheer, prosperity, good health, and happiness to all Loyal Readers in 2012!

TO ALL LOYAL READERS.......

2011-12-31T09:38:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year, one an all...and please celebrate responsibly!

By the way, this happens to be The Grandstander's 600th posting. How appropriate! Thank you all for being here these past two years.

Happy Birthday, Sandy Koufax

2011-12-30T20:39:00.003-05:00

76 years young today....

Movie Review: "The Great Escape"

2011-12-30T19:23:00.003-05:00

My Christmas present this year came from our good friends Dave and Judy Jones was a DVD of the 1963 movie, "The Great Escape" that starred Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, and the proverbial cast of thousands, and directed by John Sturges. This movie has become a bit of a standing joke between the Joneses and us because they always quote their son Mike who once said of this movie: "The Great Escape. What was so great about it? Only three guys actually escaped."

So, we all got a laugh out of it when we exchanged gifts, but I was more than happy to receive it. I can recall seeing this movie in the theater when it came out in 1963. I would have been in seventh grade, and I no doubt probably didn't get much of the movie at the time. I do not believe that I had ever seen the movie again from start to finish in the 48 years that have passed, and I was anxious to watch it once more.

Well, I did watch this movie yesterday, and I enjoyed it very much. It has held up remarkably well over the past 48 years. So much so, that I have no doubt that an average teenager in what will soon be 2012 would enjoy it every bit as much as audiences did back in 1963.

The movie is based upon actual events that took place at a German POW camp in Poland during World War II. British and American POW's undertake an immense escape attempt that would involve over 250 prisoners escaping in one night. Well, as you can gather from Mike Jones' comment above, not all of them make it, but they do succeed in one very important goal - to disrupt and distract the German forces enough so that they have to track down these escapees, thus preventing the Nazis from actually concentrating on fighting the war. In that goal, they were most successful. (The accompanying documentary on the DVD talks about this aspect of the escape.)

Good performances by James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Coburn, Charles Bronson and many others. As the years have gone by, this movie is probably most remembered for Steve McQueen bouncing a baseball against the wall of the "cooler" and escaping from half the German army on a motorcycle. McQueen is OK in the movie, I suppose, but I have come to the conclusion after seeing this movie and a couple of others over the past year or so, that McQueen, a huge star in the 60's and 70's and the absolute epitome of "cool" during that time, is way overrated in the memories of moviegoers. I watch him in some of these supposedly great roles of his, and all I can think of are about half a dozen actors, both contemporaries of his and current day actors, who were and are much, much better. In this very movie, James Garner is a perfect example of this hypothesis.

Be that as it may, if you've never seen "The Great Escape", or if it has been many years since you have seen it, give it a shot. I do not think that you will be disappointed.

And the New Year's Eve Movie Will Be......

2011-12-30T13:26:00.002-05:00

Thanks to those Facebook Friends who gave suggestions for what movie we will see for our traditional New Year's Eve movie date. All were considered and we decided against these suggestions:

The Sherlock Holmes movie. While I am a fan of both Holmes and Robert Downey Jr., the movie that came out two years ago was so over the top, that I couldn't get through it, so I am not so keen on seeing this one. Perhaps when it hits the Redbox.

Mission Impossible. Liked the first Tom Cruise MI movie, but the sequel was so convoluted that I have no desire to see this one. No disrespect to the Otts and the Materas intended.

War Horse. This is one that we do want to see, but we were forewarned to bring tissues. Big Poppy advises that Mrs. Big Poppy was a "blubbery mess" watching this one. Mrs. Grandstander wants no parts of crying on New Year's Eve.

While we usually enjoy a nice romantic comedy on the night (although not always; one year we saw "Titanic", and watching 1,500 people die in a shipwreck is no RomCom!), the one that is out there now, "New Year's Eve", has been universally panned by everyone, so forget that. Likewise, I am thinking that "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" might be more intense than what we want to take in tomorrow.

So, we have decided that this year's New Year's Eve Date Movie will be.......

"We Bought a Zoo" starring Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson (what's not to like with those two, right?). Friends of ours gave this a thumbs up and while it looks like it will probably not be heard from come Academy Award night, it looks to be the light touch that we look for each New Year's Eve.

Of course, you will hear all about it come the Sunday.

To Absent Friends - Cheetah?

2011-12-29T10:35:00.003-05:00

So I see an item on Facebook yesterday giving the news of the death of Cheetah, the chimpanzee who was in the Tarzan movies with Johnny Wiesmuller back in the 1930's. Cheetah died while a resident at a primate rescue center in Florida. Cheetah was thought to be 80 years old. Who had any idea that chimps lived that long? I sure didn't. Bummer, I thought, that this news arrived two days after I did my Absent Friends recap for 2011.

Today's paper brings word that there is some question as the whether or not the chimp who died was actually the Cheetah of the silver screen. What a shame that this star's death has to be shrouded in confusion and controversy. Must there always be a murky end when a great star passes?

Anyway, we all wish Cheetah a happy afterlife in that great jungle in the sky.

The Absent Friends of 2011

2011-12-27T10:04:00.004-05:00

Often throughout the past year I have noted the passing of notable people. So often, in fact, that one Loyal Reader began calling this "The Obituary Blog." Be that as it may, I began calling these features "To Absent Friends", and I admit to shamelessly stealing this phrase from the late, great sportswriter, Red Smith.

As 2011 draws to a close, one final salute to all the Absent Friends noted during these last 12 months:

Anne Francis
Cookie Gilchrist
Doug Hoerth
Woodie Fryman
Chuck Tanner
Gino Cimoli
Len "Uncle Leo" Lesser
Duke Snider
Suze Rotolo
Elizabeth Taylor
Larry Shepard
Lynn Chadnois
Madame Nhu
Kenny, The Lemonade Guy
Harmon Killebrew
John Henry Johnson
Clarence Clemons
Peter Falk
Sherwood Schwartz
Alvin Rue
Jerry Leiber
Steve Jobs
Matty Alou
Andy Rooney
Joe Frazier
Harry Morgan

RIP, All.

Garbage Disposal Update - Good News

2011-12-26T16:43:00.002-05:00

Some good news to report to you. After receiving a note on Facebook this morning about the plight of our busted garbage disposal, I decided to take one more shot at doing what the instruction manual advises. This involves using an Allen Wrench type gadget and hitting a reset button that is on the bottom of the unit. Trust me, this procedure was tried on two occasions last night to no avail. However, after giving it one more try this morning, lo and behold, the disposal began to grind away as normal. Hooray!!

There is an expression in baseball that sometimes the best trades are the ones you do not make. Similarly, sometimes the best money you receive is the money that you do not spend. So, the money that we did not spend at Lowe's this morning or on a plumber later in the week now remains in our coffers.

Nice.

(With thanks to Bob Mill for providing the impetus to give it just one more try!)

Some Things That Didn't Go Right This Christmas

2011-12-26T10:27:00.002-05:00

OK, I don't want anyone to deduce from the title of this post that Christmas 2011 was a bummer for us. It most definitely was not. As always, good times were had with family and friends, and I sincerely hope that all of you can say the same.

However, even the most idyllic of Norman Rockwell moments can have several Clark Griswold moments mixed among them, and here are four such moments of ours in order of occurrence.

Christmas Eve morning. Went to take a photo of the Stonebrook folks setting up the luminaries only to discover that our camera had ceased to function. After determining that it was not the battery, I departed for a trip into the belly of the beast: Target at 12:30 in the afternoon on Christmas Eve. Purchased a new camera for a most reasonable price and felt lucky to get one since Target's camera stock had been seriously depleted by that point.

Christmas morning. Marilyn discovers that her hairdryer, without any advance warning, is now, like Jacob Marley, as dead as a doornail. Fortunately, she did have a back-up in the spare bathroom. Good thing since Target was closed on Christmas Day!

Christmas afternoon. The toilet in the guest bathroom will not flush. Yuck! So, literally as he was about to carve the turkey, Clark Griswold, played by Yours Truly, retrieves the plumber's helper from the garage, crosses his fingers as he applies plunger to commode and gets the toilet to flush successfully! Crises averted. After thoroughly washing hands, the turkey then gets carved. Barely skipped a beat, and some people in the house didn't even realize what had just happened.

Christmas night. The guests have all departed, most of the clean-up had been done, and we discover that the garbage disposal no longer works. The good news is that it had worked all day long when it was most needed. Bad news, of course, is that a trip to Lowe's for a new garbage disposal, not to mention a visit from the plumber, is in our immediate future.

As Dean Martin put it, memories are made of this.

TO ALL LOYAL READERS.......

2011-12-23T08:21:00.002-05:00

Thank you for visiting The Grandstand!

2011 Books in Review

2011-12-22T13:53:00.002-05:00

So far in 2011 I have read 48 books. Yes, I actually keep track of these things! Many of them I have written about in this blog over the past 12 months, but as people are wont to do at year end, I thought I would list my favorite ones for you in case you are looking for a last minute Christmas gift, or just want a good read in the down time between Christmas Day and New Year's Day. There are 15 titles in my Top Ten list. (I am currently in the middle of book #49, but it would not have made this list even if I had already finished it.)

In no special order of preference......

Non-Fiction:

"Bloody Crimes, the Chase for Jefferson Davis and Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse" by James L. Swanson. The title kind of describes the book. Good stuff for history buffs.

"Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand. The unbelievable story of the wartime ordeal of Olympic athlete Louis Zamperini and his unbelievable recovery. Any story about man's inhumanity to man makes for difficult reading, but this is so well written and such an amazing story, that it is well worth it.

"56, Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports" by Kostya Kennedy. Even if you think there isn't anything more to learn about Joltin' Joe's 56 game hitting streak, this is well worth reading. Kennedy intersperses the book with the viewpoints of current day ballplayers, including Pete Rose, that put the enormity of The Streak into great perspective.

"Rawhide Down, The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan" by Del Quentin Wilber. This story of the attempt on the President's life in 1981 reads like a best selling fiction thriller.

"In The Garden of Beasts" by Erik Larson. The story of the man -and his family - whom FDR appointed as Ambassador to Germany in 1933 as Hitler and the Nazis were coming into power. Book proves that truth can be better than fiction.

"Nobody's Perfect - Billy Wilder, A Personal Biography" by Charlotte Chandler. This is an older book. You'll probably have to go to a library to find it, but if you are a movie fan, it's a must read about one of Hollywood's greatest screenwriters and directors.

"Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure" by Matthew Algeo. Shortly after he left the White House, Harry Truman and his wife drove from Missouri to New York and back - by themselves! No entourage, so security, just a couple of retirees on a solitary road trip. Fascinating look at an America that, for the most part, doesn't exist anymore, and a study into how the institution of the "Ex-Presidency" has evolved over the last 60 years.

"Hound Dog, the Leiber and Stoller Autobiography" by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Like the Wilder book, this is an older book by two of the absolute giants of American rock and roll songwriting.

"Stan Musial, An American Life" by George Vecsey. Great book that captures the life and times of perhaps the most overlooked great ballplayer of all time.

"Bottom of the 33rd" by Dan Barry. The story of the men who played in and surrounded the longest game in professional baseball history, a 33 inning contest between the Rochester Red Wings and Pawtuckett Red Sox in 1981. It is about so much more than baseball.

Fiction:

"Mystery" by Jonathan Kellerman. Any new entry in the Alex Delaware series will always make my list. And I understand that there will be another one coming in early 2012.

"The Confession" by John Grisham. An innocent man is about to be executed. The actual killer wants to prevent it. Will he be able to do it with the help of a young minister and the attorney of the convicted killer? A can't-put-it-down page turner in the best Grisham tradition.

"Buried Prey" and "Shock Wave" by John Sandford. Am including these latest Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers, respectively, novels as an entry. What a bonus to have Sandford put out two novels in one year.

"V is for Vengeance" by Sue Grafton. The latest in Grafton's "alphabet books" featuring PI Kinsey Millhone. Maybe not the best of the series, but a solid effort nonetheless, and when you've read A through U, you just have to put the newest one on the year end list.

There you go. The Grandstander will keep readin' and keep writin' about 'em in 2012!

Pitt Gets Its Man...Again

2011-12-22T12:14:00.003-05:00

It has been announced by the University of Pittsburgh that their next head football coach will be University of Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst. There will be a formal news conference this afternoon at 3:00 to introduce the new coach.

Chryst seems to have the background and the resume to make him more than qualified to earn the position, however, if we have learned anything from Pitt over the last 12 months, it is not to get too excited over a coaching hire. (In case you've lost track, Chryst will be Pitt's SIXTH head coach, counting interims, since last December.)

So, let us all wish the new coach good luck and much success with the Panthers. It is said that he is a low key guy and not a spell-binder when it comes to speaking. Chuck Noll was pretty dull, and Todd Graham was a veritable orator, and we know how both of those guys worked out.

I will also be very interested to see what kind of pre-season publicity campaign the Pitt Ministry of Sports Propaganda will pump out next spring and summer. I'm guessing that there will not be a special website as there was last year.

*****
Pitt is to be commended for moving quickly after the Graham debacle, hiring Chryst eight days after Graham slithered off into the desert. At the same time Penn State is now in its sixth week of trying to find a successor to Joe Paterno. There could be reasons for that, including that Penn State has become so toxic that no one wants the job, but I was struck by a quote from someone on the PSU coaching search committee to the effect that they do things differently at Penn State, and that they aren't going to rush into hiring a guy quickly just because every other school does. It seems that hubris is still a quality very much present at Happy Valley.

Early Christmas Gift from San Diego

2011-12-19T08:32:00.003-05:00

Well, as the title suggests, the Steelers get an absolute gift from San Diego last night as the Chargers open up a big old can of Whoopass on the Ravens. Now, the Steelers can win out and not only win the AFC North, but secure the #1 seed in the AFC. Who'd have believed it?

This now raises a huge question for Rooney U: to play or not play the hobbled Ben Roethlisberger tonight against the 49'ers? Here are the possibilities, as I see it:

Ben plays, avoids further injury, Steelers win. Best possible outcome.

Ben plays, avoids further injury, Steelers lose. Hey, it can happen, the 49'ers are a pretty good team.

Ben sits, Steelers win. Not likely.

Ben sits, Steelers lose. Right back where we were prior to the Ravens choke job of last night.

Ben plays, Steelers win OR lose, Ben aggravates injury and is lost for rest of the season. Worst possible outcome.

Making a decision like this is why Mike Tomlin makes the big bucks.

My own guess is that Ben plays tonight, and we all keep our fingers crossed.

Good-bye and Good Riddance

2011-12-15T10:08:00.003-05:00

Obviously, the title of this post refers to the departed Pitt football coach Todd Graham, or, as he has been called in the cyber world these past 18 hours or so, Fraud Graham, or Toad Graham, or...well, you get the idea.

I will admit, before any of you might point it out to me, that I liked Graham at the start. I liked his hype and enthusiasm (while acknowledging that it could blow up in his face it the team played lousy, both of which occurred). I also knew that he was peddling a brand of snake oil that just about every college coach tries to sell, and I knew that based on his track record, he was never going to be at Pitt for the long haul. I figured a couple of winning seasons at Pitt and he was gone to whatever more prestigious SEC or Big 12 school that came calling. I also didn't like how poorly the team played, how he deflected criticism away from himself, and how he hung his players, Tino Sunseri in particular, out to dry.

All that said, the by now well documented manner and speed in which Graham has abandoned Pitt and his players has set new records for lowering the bar in an already sleazy world of college athletics. Graham is getting roasted in print, on the airwaves, in the blogosphere, in the Twitter-verse, and in other places with which I am no doubt unaware. All such roasting is well deserved.

The irony is that Steve Pederson - if he survives as Pitt AD, and a strong case can be made that he should not - is about to lead Pitt on a mission that will no doubt end up with some other coach under contract to some other university jumping his contract and abandoning his school and players, just as Graham did to Pitt.

And you know what will happen then? People will be hailing this as a "great hire" by Pitt.

And Sonny Bono will once again be hailed as a prophet because the beat will go on.

Oh, and to any Arizona State fans out there, good luck. When the 2012 season opens with Graham on your sideline, he will be coaching his fourth team in five seasons. He'll probably be gone by the time 2015 rolls around, and I'm being very generous with that guess.

Book Review: "Bottom of the 33rd"

2011-12-14T09:32:00.003-05:00

Shortly after 8:00 PM on April 18, 1981, the night before Easter Sunday, in Pawtucket, RI, the Rochester Red Wings and Pawtucket Red Sox squared off in what everyone thought was just another insignificant early season Triple-A minor league baseball game. About 1,700 fans showed up on this cold and windy night in decrepit McCoy Stadium, little knowing what they were in for.

Over eight hours and 32 innings later, the 2-2 ball game was suspended (why it took so long to suspend the game, is a key part of the story), long after it has passed into history as professional baseball's longest game. Two months, one inning, and 18 minutes later, the game was completed. Dan Barry writes a compelling story about "Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game." It is not a dry play-by-play summary of the game, and thank God for that, but it is the story of all of the people who were involved in that game - the players, managers, bat boys, front office officials, club house boys, umpires, players' wives, broadcasters and reporters, and the 28 shivering fans who remained in the stadium when the came was finally suspended. The reader becomes involved with these people and becomes drawn into the surreal atmosphere that surrounded this game.

What I liked about the book is how Barry told the story of these men by reviewing both their pasts and what the future held for them. For example, three teammates on that Pawtucket team were pitchers Bobby Ojeda, Bruce Hurst, and catcher Rich Gedman. Five years later, all three played in the 1986 World Series. Baseball fans all know of the crushing nature of the Red Sox loss to the Mets in that Series, and the scene where the Sox' Hurst and Gedman went to the Mets locker room to congratulate Ojeda, now a Met, painted a most poignant scene of the bond created, not only by the 33 inning game, but by minor league experience itself.

Two future Hall of Famers played in that game Cal Ripken, Jr. (2-for-13) for Rochester and Wade Boggs (4-for 12) for Pawtucket. Players like Hurst, Gedman, Ojeda, and Marty Barrett went on to have good major league careers. Some appeared in the majors for the proverbial cup of coffee, while others never got the coveted call to The Show. One player went 0-for-13 for Rochester and one went 0-for-11 for Pawtucket. One pitcher pitched 10 innings of scoreless ball in relief. And for all you Pirates fans out there, the father of current Bucs' reliever Jason Grilli, Steve Grilli, pitched in that game.

One thing that impressed me above all else is how HARD it is to make it into the Major Leagues. This is embodied in one of the key persons of the game, Pawtucket first baseman Dave Koza. Koza was a home run hitter with one fatal flaw - he could not hit a major league curve ball. How he dedicated his life to become a big league ball player, how that call never came, and what has happened to him in the thirty years since that 33 inning game is an almost Shakespearean tale. So, when you are watching a major league baseball game, and screaming that So-and-So out there on the field stinks, be very sure that the guy you are excoriating is a very good baseball player.

(As an aside, when I read about Dave Koza, I thought about Matt Hague, the first baseman at Indianapolis who hit a lot of home runs last year and for whom many Pirates fans have been clamoring. Hague didn't get the September call up by the Pirates last year, and he is barely mentioned by the team in the pre-season ruminations. Perhaps there is a good reason for that.)

I imagine that only baseball fans will read this book, and that's a shame, because it really is about a lot more than baseball. It is a great read for everybody.

Many thanks to two Loyal Readers, both named Bill, for recommending this book too me!

Short Subjects: NA Strings, Casey at the Bat, Baseball Thoughts, and James Harrison

2011-12-13T11:41:00.005-05:00

Selected Short Subjects.....

We had ourselves a real treat this past Monday evening when we attended the North Allegheny Orchestra's Winter Concert. The concert featured the NA 9th grade, 10th grade, and Senior Orchestras and closed with a performance by the NA "Golden Strolling Strings." We have heard for years about the Strolling Strings, but last night was the first time that we had seen them. I said last night that their performance was breathtaking and that it left you speechless, so I will not even try to put into words how terrific it was. Amazing performances by a group of amazingly talented kids.

The North Allegheny School District is to be commended for its promotion and support of The Arts among its students. Too bad that these kids don't get the publicity that the football team gets.

Oh, and special kudos to niece and Goddaughter Monica Pike, ninth grade violinist extraordinaire!!

*****

Yesterday afternoon we also took in the new Martin Scorsese movie, "Hugo." If you are a Scorsese fan, don't go expecting another Raging Bull, Goodfellas, or The Departed. Do expect to see a rather engaging family movie that tells a very cute story about fitting in and what your life's purpose might be. Do expect a loving tribute to the movies, particularly the very earliest days of the movie art. Do expect some amazing visual shots. (Such visuals would be enhanced by seeing the 3D version of this, which we did not, due to the fact that 3D was not available at the dumpy Rave Cinema on McKnight Road.)

This is another movie that had garnered some Oscar buzz and has already been named to many Top Ten lists. It will probably win lots of technical awards, and Scorsese's name might carry it far during the Awards season. Good movie , but I don't put it ahead of "The Descendants."

*****
The Pirates are in the news with the announcement of the trade of the ulcer-inducing Jose Veras to Milwaukee for infielder/outfielder Casey McGehee. On the face of it, I like it. After all, who's going to miss Veras? McGehee has been a pretty good hitter over the years, but the red flag comes up when you see how his numbers have declined over each of the last three seasons, particularly in 2011. Still, he provides insurance, certainly better than anything currently available to them, at third base in the event that Pedro Alvarez' 2011 flame out continues into 2012.

*****
Speaking of the Brewers, Ryan Braun gives us yet another reason to dislike him with the news of his positive test for PED's. It's gonna be a different Brew Crew without Prince Fielder and without Cryin' Ryan for 50 games next year. What a shame.

*****
One more comment on Albert Pujols. If ever a perfect situation existed, it seemed that marriage of Pujols to the baseball-mad city of St. Louis seemed to be it. I naively never imagined that Pujols wold ever leave St. Louis. Another case where, as it always is, it was all about the money. It's the only way that these guys keep score. The ONLY way.

I am guessing that $210 million in St. Louis would have bought Albert a whole lot more than $250 million will buy him in Los Angeles/Anahiem, but, as I say, that's not how these guys keep score.

*****
If Pujols manages to help the Angels win a World Series or two over the next five or six years, perhaps Arte Moreno won't mind paying a 40+ year old Pujols $25 million a season at the end of that contract.

*****
If you had any hope at all of the Pirates keeping Andrew McCutchen or Neil Walker over the long haul, I am guessing that, like me, you have been disabused of that notion after (a) the terms of the recently agreed to CBA, and (b) this latest wave of free agent signings in baseball.

*****
Looks like the NFL has handed down a one game suspension to James Harrison for his illegal hit on Colt McCoy last week. I am going to avoid the talk shows today, because I am sure that the Yinzers of SteelersNation will be up in arms. All I can say is that if James Harrison played for any other NFL team, particularly, Baltimore, Cleveland, or Cincinnati, he would be the most hated man in the city of Pittsburgh. He's a great football player, but he got what he deserved today.

DK on Pujols

2011-12-09T09:40:00.003-05:00

Rather that try to paraphrase, I will just cut & paste from Dejan Kovacevic's blog in this morning's Trib on line. It summarizes my feelings exactly.

Take it away, DK.....

>> St. Louis and its Cardinals do everything right by baseball. The city and its fans fill the stadium night after night, the ownership pays for a way-above-market payroll in a metropolitan area the size of Pittsburgh. But the Cardinals can’t keep the best player in the game.

Albert Pujols is an Angel.

And really, if you want a good feel for how little this fazes the national baseball media, good luck finding one outrage-type piece anywhere outside St. Louis this morning. If you see one, please link it here. I haven’t seen any. All I saw were how great this was for the Angels, the balance of power in the AL West, and all that. Everything’s great. This is just how it is in baseball.

>> This isn’t just the Cardinals’ loss. Even if you didn’t like what Pujols did to the Pirates, any pure baseball fan surely enjoyed seeing him play on the North Shore nearly a dozen times every summer. No one ever will do to PNC Park what Pujols did, with a .376 average and 29 home runs in just 89 games.

>> Pujols is to blame, too. He had a chance for a one-of-a-kind legacy with one team, and he chose 10 years and $250 million over 10 years and $210 million. That’s greed of a scope that’s hard to comprehend.

Halftime at the Super Bowl

2011-12-08T11:14:00.004-05:00

The National Football League announced this week that the halftime entertainment at the upcoming Super Bowl will be Madonna.

In making this announcement, the NFL has upheld one of their most sacred traditions in choosing the Halftime Show for their Showcase Event: A 50-something rocker who is at least 25 years past his, or in this case, her, prime. Really, didn't Madonna peak in the late 80's?

I will say this, though. The last female entertainer that I remember performing at the Super Bowl was Janet Jackson, and we all remember how THAT turned out, right? If anyone might be able to top Ms. Jackson's performance, it would be Madonna looking to be totally outrageous in trying to jump start her career.

Czar Roger might want to rethink this.

Your Very Active Pittsburgh Pirates

2011-12-08T10:37:00.002-05:00

The Pirates continue to make news in this off season by being somewhat active at baseball's winter meetings this week.

The earlier, pre-meeting signings of catcher Rod Barajas and short stop Clint Barmes were supplemented yesterday by the signings of free agent outfielder Nate McLouth and pitcher Eric Bedard. (Still no word on the pursuit of free agent first basemen Albert Pujols or Prince Fielder. Kidding.)

No question that Barajas and Barmes represent a marginal improvement over what manned those positions last year, although Barajas' age, 36, is a concern.

In McLouth, the team brings back a fan favorite, whose trade to the Braves a few years back filled the fan base with outrage. It can be argued in retrospect, that this was an instance where the team knew what they were doing. McLouth never had a season in Atlanta like the one he had here in 2008 (26 HR, 94 RBI, and a Gold Glove), and the Pirates did obtain Charlie Morton, Jeff Locke, and Gorkys Hernandez. Morton had a good year last year, although we still await Locke and Hernandez to do anything on the major league level. In his projected role of fourth outfielder and pinch hitter, he should be okay.

The Eric Bedard signing is one that I think I like. A lefthanded pitcher, Bedard sports a 56-50, 3.70 ERA lifetime record. More important to the Pirates, a cynic might point out, Bedard will come at half the salary Paul Maholm would have cost the team had they picked up his option. And there is a red flag attached to Bedard, and that is frequent trips to the disabled list over the years. He is, a cynic would again point out, a good #3 or #4 starter on a staff that is filled with #3 and #4 starters. Still, if he can stay healthy, and if the team can score runs for him, two pretty big "ifs", Bedard could be a very nice addition to the Pirates.

The four players listed above do make the Pirates a somewhat better team than they were in 2011. Unfortunately, the key word in that sentence is "somewhat." Marginal improvement won't make a sub-.500 team a contender, and may not even make them an above .500 team, but as we all know, a .500 record is not the goal for the Pirates. Championships are!

In other Pirates news....

Derrek Lee rejects arbitration and will test the free agent market. Looks like the Pirates option at 1B next year will be a platoon of Garrett Jones and an as yet to be determined right handed batting first basemen scrapped from the bottom of the free agent barrel or some suspect now toiling in the Pirates minor league system. Maybe they can bring back Bob Robertson. I hear that he tears it up at Fantasy Camp every year, and they can probably get him for the minimum salary.

The team releases pitcher Ross Ohlendorf. Given what Ross did to the team in arbitration last year and his lousy performance in both 2010 and 2011, this might be the least surprising personnel move in recent Bucco history.

The team is making inquiries for a veteran third baseman just in case Pedro Alvarez' struggles of 2011 continue into 2012. Just as Alvarez' horrible season was the biggest story for the team, in my opinion, last season, the specter of what Alvarez might or might not do in 2012 remains the most important factor that will determine the success or failure of the team in 2012.

To Absent Friends - Harry Morgan

2011-12-08T10:24:00.003-05:00

Harry Morgan passed away yesterday at the age of 96. A long-time veteran character actor, Morgan is probably best known for playing Col. Sherman Potter on the classic TV series "M*A*S*H", and who would want a starring role on that series as their epitaph?

However, if you a somewhat older, you remember him as Detective Sgt. Bill Gannon, Joe Friday's sidekick on the 1960's revival of "Dragnet." If you are older than that, you remember him on the early 60's sitcom, "Pete and Gladys", and if you are even older than that, you remember him as a character on the 1950's sitcom, "December Bride." And if you are either a fan of Turner Classic Movies or are just really, really old, you know Morgan as an actor who appeared in over 100 movies in his career. Watch old movies on TCM often enough and you will probably see Morgan at least once a week. He played a key role in the all-time classic western, "High Noon." He also appeared as a regular in several other TV series, some of which I never heard of, after MASH finished it's run in 1983.

The point is, Morgan was a lot more than just the one role for which he will be forever remembered. You've seen him a million times, and it seemed that he was always good in anything that he did.

RIP Harry Morgan.

Book Review: "V is for Vengeance"

2011-12-07T09:07:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite series of fictional detective stories is Sue Grafton's "alphabet series" of novels featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone. The series began back in the early 1980's with "A is for Alibi" and has proceeded along alphabetically up to the just released "V is for Vengeance."

One of the neat things about this series is that the characters have aged in real time. The series began in the early '80s (1983, I believe), when Kinsey was in her early thirties. This current story takes place in 1988 and Kinsey celebrates (sort of) her 38th birthday in this one. Because these stories are still in the 1980's, there are no cell phones, office computers are rare, there is no Internet. This differs from many series where characters that might have sprung to life in the 1950's and 60's remain forever young while still operating in the 2000's.

I have read all of these stories, A through V, and like any series, some are better than others. Recent stories - "T is for Trespass" and "U is for Undertow" - have been among the very best of the series, however, so Grafton seems to get better with age. The stories are all written in the first person with Kinsey narrating the tale. However, in some of the later books, Grafton has interspersed chapters written in the third person and told from other characters' points of view. This device has served to make the stories better, I believe, and is used once again in "V", and one of the chapters is told in the third person while the character is interacting with Kinsey, which I believe is a first for the series. It is the first time that I can recall another character describing Kinsey.

This story begins innocently enough with Kinsey inadvertently witnessing a shoplifter while she herself is shopping. This leads to murder, interaction with organized crime, a crooked cop, and a rather unusual romantic tale. You also learn a lot about shoplifting and just how big a business it is.

While "V for Vengeance" may not rank as highly as some of the other entries in the series, I grade it a solid B.

Grafton has announced that she will continue the series through the letter Z. That means four more books, with "Z is for Zero" arriving sometime in the late 2010's with Kinsey at age 40. I look forward to each of them.

Ron Santo

2011-12-07T08:55:00.003-05:00

The Baseball Hall of Fame announced earlier this week that Ron Santo had been elected into the Hall of Fame by whatever incarnation of the Veteran's Committee is currently in place. I have no beef with Santo's enshrinement. I remember him as a player with the Cubs, a very good player, good enough to be a nine time All-Star.

It is too bad that the Vet's committee could not have come to this conclusion one year earlier so that Santo could have lived to experience it.

Santo also achieved a degree of post-playing days fame because of his heart-on-his-sleeve approach as an announcer on the Cubs radio broadcasts. Soundbites of samples of his broadcasts are priceless. No wonder he was so beloved in Chicago.

*****

Gil Hodges once again fell short of enshrinement in this latest vote, and comparison will no doubt be made (and will continue to be made) of Hodges' numbers to Santo's and other contemporaries. My post of a few days back about Hodges caused a flurry of comments when I posted it on Facebook. To be clear, my biggest gripe with the "Gil-Should-Be-In" crowd is not with Hodges per se, but rather with the fact the Hodges would be receiving no where near hype had he played anywhere else but Brooklyn.

On Pitt, High Schools, Rematches, and Herman

2011-12-04T11:16:00.005-05:00

Cleaning out the Mental In-Box.....

Herman Cain bows out of the GOP Presidential race after several revelations of marital infidelity come to light. OK, seeya later, Herm. Newt Gingrich, whose own checkered past regarding how sacred he has held his marital vows is well documented, soars to the top of the polls among GOP voters. What am I missing here?

Congrats to local high schools Montour and North Allegheny for winning their quarter-final games in the PIAA Football Championship tournament. If they win their semi-final game next week, they will advance to the State Championship games in Hershey in two weeks. This means that these HIGH SCHOOLS will have then played 16, count 'em, 16 games during their season, the equivalent of one full NFL regular season, and will finish playing football one week before Christmas. Does anyone besides me find that to be totally absurd?

So the BCS Championship game, which will take place 36 days from now, will be a rematch between LSU and Alabama. You all recall, even though you have probably been trying to forget, that scintillating offensive yawn-a-thon that these two teams played last month, a 9-6 overtime win by LSU. Really, has America been clamoring for a rematch of a game where neither team scored a touchdown? Will anyone outside of Baton Rouge and Tuscaloosa even care about this game five weeks from now, and after 34 other meaningless bowl games have been played?

And now, a word about Pitt Football....

Todd Graham became head coach at Pitt last winter, and spent the entire off-season talking about winning championships, scoring boatloads of points, and pretty much setting the world on fire. I liked the enthusiasm in contrast to the usual gloom and doom that is part and parcel of pre-season coachspeak. However, I stated in this forum before the season began that all of that hype could come back to bite Graham in the you-know-where if Pitt bombed out. Well, Pitt did bomb out, finishing their season yesterday at 6-6, and Graham has been hearing the critics loud and long over the team's pedestrian performance this season.

This is not to say that Graham will never work out for Pitt. Everyone has said that Graham needs to get "his players" in at Pitt that will be capable of running "his system" effectively, so give the guy a full recruiting class or two to make that happen. Who knows it it will ever happen, but the guy does deserve a chance. Again, I kind of like the bombast and self-confidence. However, those characteristics can and sometimes did cross over into arrogance and it-wasn't-the-coaches'-fault finger pointing, which I didn't like.

It should also be noted, that many of the people who are now screaming about Graham and saying he'll never win and should be fired (after ONE year) were last year at this time calling for Dave Wannstadt's head on a platter, which Pitt delivered to them. It should be noted that Graham was coaching a team this year that was almost wholly comprised of Wannstadt recruited players.

The season will end sometime later this month, or early in January, when Pitt plays in some completely irrelevant bowl game with some ridiculous corporate name attached to it. The god-awful bowl system in college football is a topic that is belabored ad nauseum, so I won't add to it here, other than to say that 6-6 Pitt playing in such a game is eloquent testimony to the system's god-awfulness.

Our Christmas Tree for 2012

2011-12-04T10:57:00.004-05:00

To your left you see a picture of the Sproule Christmas Tree for 2012. It has been standing since Thursday evening, and it has already secured it's place in our family lure as one of the more memorable Tannenbaums of our 37 years of wedded bliss, and not for the right reasons.

We have had disasters with the lights, have had difficulty getting it to stand straight, have had repair intercessions from both neighbors and visiting friends...all in all, it has been a pretty frustrating experience with this particular tree. Clark Griswold had an easier time with his tree.

However, as I type these words at 11:07 on Sunday morning, our tree is standing tall and straight, smells terrific, and looks absolutely beautiful. Keep you fingers crossed that the troubles are behind us.

It often seems that the most long held and cherished memories from Christmases (and vacations) past are the memories of when things DIDN'T go right, so perhaps we will look back fondly and laugh about the events surrounding the erection, decoration, and exhibiting of our 2012 Christmas Tree.

That's what we are telling ourselves, anyway.

News Item from Columbus, Ohio

2011-12-02T08:00:00.002-05:00

The news came out of Columbus this week that, after denying (lying?) that he was talking to the University or was even interested in returning to coaching, Urban Meyer has accepted the position as Head Football Coach at Ohio State at a salary of $4 MILLION per year over a five year contract.

Good to see that so many lessons were learned at THE Ohio State University in the wake of the Jim Tressel fiasco.

A Very Tired Hall of Fame Debate

2011-11-30T10:20:00.003-05:00

The old Put-Gil-Hodges-in-the-Hall-of-Fame Debate has been raging in recent days on the SABR-L listserv. This is a debate that should be packed away with all of the batting practice baseballs and never be discussed again. It rekindles ONLY because of the New York-centric influence among many baseball writers, and ONLY because Hodges played on one of baseball's iconic teams, the Boys of Summer Era Brooklyn Dodgers. Oh, and Hodges also managed the New York Mets when they won their improbable World Series championship in 1969. I grant you that that was no small feat, but there are a lot of managers who have won one World Series, so that in and of itself does not make you Hall of Fame worthy.

But back to Gil Hodges the player. Here are his stats over 18 seasons and 2,071 games:

HR 370
RBI 1,274
BA .273
OPS .846

Now, consider these stats of a player who played in relatively the same era as Hodges, only fewer season, 14, and games, 1,841:

HR 364
RBI 1,159
BA .266
OPS .848

The player in question? Rocky Colovito. How many people are on the bandwagon pushing for HIM to get into the Hall of Fame?

By the way, I take no credit for coming up with the Colovito comparison. One of the posters on SABR-L did that. There are as many people debating against Hodges for the Hall as there are for him. My point is, why even argue it at all?

When a Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words...

2011-11-30T09:22:00.002-05:00

Thanks to to the Post-Gazette's Rob Rodgers.

Movie Review: "The Descendants"

2011-11-29T13:33:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we decided to take advantage of our retired status and headed out to The Waterfront to take in a weekday matinee. The movie we selected was the newly released, highly touted George Clooney movie, "The Descendants." The movie is getting a lot of Oscar buzz, and I can do nothing but add to the praise. This is a really, really good movie.

The movie takes place in Hawaii, where Clooney plays an attorney who controls 25,000 acres of pristine Hawaiian land that the family is planning on selling to developers. At the same time, he is facing a very serious family crisis. His wife lies in a coma following a boating accident, and he is now faced with the responsibility of dealing more directly with his two daughters, age 17 and 10, than he ever has in the past. He admits that he was always the "secondary parent." As he faces the wrenching decision of how to deal with his wife's condition, his older daughter reveals to him a secret about her mother, his wife, that only adds to the turmoil.

This is a movie that is at times both funny and heartbreaking. It points up the fact that no one's life is ever perfect, and how everyone has to deal with the curve balls that life throws at us.

As I mentioned, this movie is getting four star reviews left and right, and the kudos are well deserved. Clooney is getting talked up big for the Best Actor Academy Award. Having recently seen another actor getting similar buzz, Leonardo DiCaprio in "J. Edgar", I will give my vote to Clooney. A young actress named Shailene Woodcock, who plays the older daughter, is excellent, and I would expect her to get a Supporting Actress nomination. Other small but excellently portrayed roles are Robert Forster as Clooney's father-in-law, Beau Bridges as one of his many cousins, and Judy Greer, who's peripheral involvement with Clooney's family is a critical part of the movie.

Another thing that recommended this movie to me was the involvement of Alexander Payne, who directed this movie and wrote the screenplay. Payne had similar duties for one of my favorite movies in recent years, "Sideways" (he won the Oscar for Best Screenplay on that movie). "Sideways" is a movie that I can watch again and again, and I think that "The Descendants" could fall into that category as well.

December is the time when lots and lots of good movies get released, but try to make time on your movie going calendar to see this one. Excellent movie.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

2011-11-28T18:22:00.002-05:00

Here's hoping that all readers out there had a terrific, fun, and safe Thanksgiving holiday and weekend. Ours was a great one and doings over the long weekend kept me away from the keyboard for several days, so let's serve up a helping or two of leftovers from the long weekend.

Leftover Turkey

"Turkey" sure is an appropriate term to describe the much ballyhooed Backyard Brawl between Pitt and West Virginia. I heard a great line from Ron Cook on The Fan this morning. He was saying how when you see a great game between two good teams the thought occurs to you that "it's a shame one of these teams has to lose." In watching Pitt-WVU on Friday, his thought was that it was shame that one of these teams had to win. My own thought was that when WVU muffed two punts giving Pitt the ball deep in WV territory, and all that Pitt came away with was two field goals, well, you just had a feeling that that was going to come back to haunt them, and did it ever.

As you all know by now, if you care about this, is that the brunt of all things wrong with Pitt lies with QB Tino Sunseri. I prefer to hold college players to a different standard than their professional counterparts, and I don't like to go overboard in criticizing college athletes. That said, Sunseri did not play well at all in that game on Friday, and this has been pretty much the case all season. In two years as the starting QB, it does not seem that he has improved in his play, and you could probably make a case that he has regressed. Is that his fault? His coaches? I don't know, but it is pretty clear that Pitt is going to need improved play at quarterback in 2012 to improve upon what has been a very disappointing season.

Still, I hate hearing people dump on a college kid, who is, nominally, at least, an amateur, the same way they would, to use examples from recent history, Kordell Stewart or Neil O'Donnell, pros who were paid big bucks to perform, just kind of goes against the grain with me.

As for first year coach Todd Graham, I have plenty of thoughts on him, but I'll save those until after the regular season ends this weekend against Syracuse.

Leftover Stuffing

Let's stick with football for the moment and talk about that Steelers game in KC last night. They won't be showcasing that one in the film rooms at Canton, will they? The Chiefs did everything in their power to give that game to the Steelers, and they still had a chance to win it in the end. Any kind of performance other than what Tyler Palko gave the Chiefs last night and that win would have probably been a loss for the Steelers.

Well, no one says that wins have to be pretty, and a win is a win, and you are what your record says you are and blah blah blah. A tough one with the Bengals next week. I'm figuring that the Steelers are going to almost have to win all of their remaining five games to hold on to the Wild Card spot in which they currently sit.

Also, will people please stop saying that the Steelers need to run the ball more. Were you watching last night? They CAN'T run the ball. The game has changed and neither Franco Harris nor John Henry Johnson is suiting up for them any time soon. They are a PASSING team, and when the receivers have a lackluster game like they did last night, combined with the non-running game, you get the near-unthinkable almost-loss you saw last night.

Final note on last night's game. A law should be passed that requires that Chris Collinsworth be the analyst on EVERY telecast of a football game. He's the best guy out there.

Leftover Pumpkin Pie

I did not see any of the Pittsburgh Thanksgiving Day parade on Saturday, but I did note that the big celebrity (not sure if he was called "Grand Marshall" or not) was Mitch Ryder. Mitch Ryder! The Detroit Wheels, sad to say, were not with him. I am guessing that 80% of the people who were watching the parade had absolutely no idea who he was. I mean, I don't even think the Pirates would line up Mitch Ryder to do a post-game SkyBlast concert. Is that the best that Macy's could come up with for the City's parade? Not even Luke Cravenstahl would show up for a photo op with Mitch Ryder! Who are they getting next year? How about Danny Bonaduce?

And on the other side of the coin, how do you think Mitch felt when his agent called and said that he had a great gig for him - riding in a Thanksgiving parade in Pittsburgh.

The Dishes Are Done

The Thanksgiving and Fall decorations have been packed away, and the Christmas decorations, with the exception of the Christmas Tree, are in place in our house. We look forward to a busy few weeks between now and Christmas Day with family and friends. We started the season off today by taking in the new, highly touted George Clooney movie, "The Descendants." I will write more on that in a separate posting later in the week, but will tell you now that it is a very good movie.

TO ALL LOYAL READERS.......

2011-11-23T22:51:00.001-05:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!

The Week That Was

2011-11-20T08:26:00.002-05:00

Looking back on the week this Sunday morning.....

High(?)light of the week for me involved the return of an old nemesis - kidney stones. The unmistakable pain in my right side came on Thursday morning. There then followed a call to the doctor, a CT scan, a visit to the doctor, lots of water drinking, and the continued use of a strainer. I have not been in any pain since Thursday morning, but the offending little bugger currently lodged in my internal plumbing has yet to pass, so the story isn't over yet.

I posted about this event on Facebook on Thursday, and few posts that I have ever made on Facebook have drawn the number of comments from Friends as this one did. Everyone's concern was and is most appreciated.

*****
I worked the WPIAL Sportsmanship Summit at the Heinz History Center this past Monday morning. A great event with over 600 high school athletes in attendance. I really enjoyed seeing the energy of all of these kids. Made you realize that the high school athletes with the sense of entitlement of, say, Terelle Pryor, are the exception, thankfully.

Last year's featured speaker was Pitt Womens Basketball coach Agnes Beranatto, and she was terrific. This year the speaker was Lavar Arrington. Let's just say that it is safe to assume that Arrington never took a public speaking course while matriculating at North Hills High School or Penn State.

*****
News Item: Franco Harris steps down as chairman of the Pittsburgh Promise under political pressure from Mayor Luke Ravenstahl because of his expressed support of Joe Paterno.

You can question Franco's judgement in this matter while at the same time admiring his loyalty to his old coach. What cannot be questioned is the naked political opportunism of Boy Mayor Cravenstahl in his attack on Harris in the news media. The Mayor, who has made a habit during his administration of being invisible during moments of crisis, never misses an opportunity to grandstand in the very worst sense of the word. But, hey, he did get that cameo spot in the new Batman movie, and Davey Lawrence never did anything that cool, did he?

*****
While being stalled in Monday morning rush hour traffic this week (it was raining, after all), I tried to relieve the boredom by punching the radio buttons, and I was astonished to be reminded that Jack Bogut is STILL on the air in morning drive time on WJAS, the Music of Your Life station (aka, the Geezer Station). Yes, Bogut is still doing all of the same old boring stuff he did at KDKA back in the Jurassic Age. I am not quite sure what this says about the Pittsburgh market.

It made me wonder about just how old this guy is, so I googled him when I got home. I find out he even has his own website! Interestingly enough, his bio on his website does not include his year of birth. It does say, however, that he came to Pittsburgh in 1968. Forty-three (43) years ago!!! He has to be well into his seventies.

Maybe fresh air is good for your teeth.

*****
It is being reported that the Pirates are close to signing a two year deal with free agent short stop Clint Barmes, age 32. The deal is reported to be worth $5 million. On Twitter last night, Dejan Kovacevic stated that the "Pirates have no peers when it comes to lateral, inexpensive offseason moves. Looks like that will be 2 for 2. Actual upgrades, anyone?"

Can you describe this move and the Rod Barajas signing any better?

Will either of these signings significantly improve the Pirates in any way?

My SABR and Facebook friend Dan Bonk described the Barajas move as a completely irrelevant free agent signing, and the Barmes signing will prove, no doubt, to be the same.

My brother Bill summed it up very well - "The Pirates: Where ballplayers in their thirties go to die."

*****
Amazingly, Tim Tebow is turning out to be one of the biggest stories of the year in the NFL. I tuned into the Thursday night NFL game at the end, just in time to see him engineer that 95 yard game winning drive against the Jets. (What happened to Rex Ryan's vaunted defensive schemes?) He may win ugly, and his style may not be sustainable in the NFL, but right now, Tebow is 4-1 as a Broncos starting QB, and how can you ignore that?

What surprises me is how much of a lightning rod Tebow is for criticism. Why? Some have speculated that this is because of his public profession of his Christianity. While I am somewhat suspicious of people who wear their religion on the sleeves, I don't think Tebow is any more or less overt in this than any one of dozens of athletes you could name, and they don't get dumped on by the public as Tebow seems to be.

Maybe the criticism stems from the fact that Tebow is not the ideal of an NFL quarterback or, even worse, not a good "Fantasy Guy." Hey, if he doesn't have the goods, the other teams in the league will catch up to him soon enough. Until then, though, give the guy credit for winning games right now.

*****
Speaking of the NFL Network, they seem to be working on another set of announcers for their Thursday night telecasts. This time it's Brad Nessler and Mike Mayock. Nessler is a more than capable play-by-play guy. Mayock is okay, I suppose, but he suffers the same disease as all color guys in that he has to comment and expound on EVERY SINGLE PLAY.

The good news is that (a) it is a two man booth and (b) Matt Millan and Joe Thiesman are not there any more.

*****
A Sunday with no Steelers game. How are you planning on spending this day?

Before MLB Signs That New CBA.....

2011-11-19T16:07:00.002-05:00

As I knew would happen, the naysayers are weighing in on the new playoff structure (additional wild card team and a One Game Wild Card Playoff game - hereafter to be known as the OGWCP game), so before Bud and whoever the guy who replaced Don Fehr is sign off on that new Bargaining Agreement, they should consider the following Modest Proposal to make everything right with the purists.

Get rid of 14 franchises. Contract them, dissolve them, just make them go away.

Make sure one of those 14 teams is the New York Mets. They've only been around for 50 years, so nobody really cares about them anyway.

Move the Dodgers and Giants back to Brooklyn and New York.

There will now be 16 teams remaining divided into two 8 team leagues.

No teams west of the Mississippi. Their scores never make the morning papers in the east, so they're pretty much irrelevant as it is.

Play a 154 game schedule that would include double headers for every team for every Sunday.

No night games.

One pennant winner per league, even if the pennant winner opens up a 20 game lead in mid-August, thus effectively killing any interest in that league's games for the remainder of the regular season.

Limit the amount of televised games to one per week. Teams contract with local TV stations to televise about 20-25 games per year. All telecasts to be in black & white.

What do you think?

Movie Review: "J. Edgar"

2011-11-18T18:23:00.003-05:00

The new Clint Eastwood directed and Leonardo DiCaprio starring movie, "J. Edgar", was heavily advertised during the baseball playoffs, and those ubiquitous commercials had me convinced that this was a movie to see. It had so much going for it....a great director in Eastwood, perhaps the best actor of his generation in DiCaprio, and a subject, J. Edgar Hoover, that was ripe for controversy and, perhaps, some rousing action.

Sorry to say, the whole was not as good as the sum of its parts.

While Hoover certainly deserves credit for building the FBI into the elite crime fighting organization it is today, a case could also be made that Hoover was also one of the more evil figures in our history. Personally, I was interested to see how Eastwood, whose personal politics are somewhat right of center, might portray Hoover. Would he emphasize the crime-busting anti-Communist passion of Hoover? Would he gloss over the Hoover who wiretapped seemingly everybody and use those findings to blackmail several Presidents and Attorneys General into keeping him at his post as FBI director until the day he died?

Well, the movie does show Hoover, warts and all, and it also plays up Hoover's long term relationship with his #2 man at the Bureau, Clyde Tolson. Unfortunately, the movie, which is told in flashbacks as Hoover dictates his memoirs to a present day Agent, is somewhat disjointed, which makes it somewhat hard to follow. The colors in the movie also are washed out through much of the movie. Sometimes that works well, but I don't think it did here. As a fellow viewer said to me as we exited the theater, "I expected more."

One thing that did not disappoint was DiCaprio's performance. He is really a great actor. I haven't seen everything he's done, but I've never seen him be anything less than excellent in anything that I have seen him in. I also like Armie Hammer, despite some ridiculous make-up, as Tolson. Very good performance there.

One of the historical figures portrayed in this movie was Robert Kennedy, and this leads me to a pet peeve. Whenever the Kennedys are portrayed in movies or on TV, why must the actors speak with such obviously phony New England accents? Is it really necessary to use accents when portraying historical figures? Would it make the movie any less valid if Jack or Bobby Kennedy just, you know, spoke their lines without making you think you are watching a bad version of Rich Little on the screen? Don't know who the actor was who played RFK in this movie, but the "pahk-the-cah" affectations were distracting in the extreme. Maybe they should have had him wearing a Red Sox hat, too.

BIG Changes in Major League Baseball

2011-11-18T11:34:00.003-05:00

Major League Baseball has announced some MAJOR changes to it's structure that include the following:

The Astros to move to the American League in 2013, thus creating two 15 team leagues, which means that interleague play will now occur throughout the 26 week season. Purists and old school seamheads are already bemoaning this fact, but this particular genie left the bottle in 1997 when interleague play began, and there is no turning back. Why is this only important to baseball people? Nobody cared when the the NFL and AFL merged in 1970 and inter-conference play became a fact of life. No one even thinks of this when the NFL schedule comes out.

Expansion of the playoffs to include two wild card teams in each league with the wild cards meeting in a one game playoff to start the post season. While you can argue that this dilutes the playoff pool, I think I like this. When wild cards were introduced, people said that the idea of down-to-the-wire-pennant-races had been killed, and we see that that hasn't happened. The final week of the 2011 season is ample proof of that. I also think that having a one game playoff between the wild cards will provide real incentive to finish first in your division. Now it will really MEAN something for the Yankees to finish ahead of the Red Sox, and vice versa.

And how pressure packed will that one game playoff be? Off the charts. If you say that it isn't fair to play 162 games and risk being eliminated in one game, then I say just play better, finish in first place, and avoid that one game shoot out.

Word is being leaked that teams and the players are close to coming to an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement. Well, nice to know that there will be no NBA-like work stoppage, but I am guessing that the Yankees will still be the Yankees, and the Pirates will still be the Pirates under the new CBA. I know, I know...the Yankees are only playing by the rules that are in place, and the Pirates are cheapskates who make lousy decisions anyway. The beat will continue to go on.

The Florida Marlins are now the Miami Marlins with some very cool new logos and colors. They are making a splash with their new stadium by making, by all accounts, serious contract offers to free agents Albert Pujols, Jose Reyes, and Mark Buerhle. As one Loyal Reader has pointed out to me, when the Pirates got a new stadium, they made a splash by signing Jason Kendall to a $60 million long term contract. That was 10 years, two principal owners, and three GM's ago, but you could say that the shadow of that contract still hangs over the Pirates to this very day.

Welcome, Rod Barajas

2011-11-13T10:50:00.005-05:00

Lost amidst the noise and the news coming from State College this past week was the signing by the Pirates of free agent catcher Rod Barajas. By all accounts, the Pirates were front and center in the courting of Barajas, and Barajas himself said all the right things about coming to the Pirates.

So, the team now has a catcher to replace Ryan Doumit. Barajas himself has admitted that he is neither a high average or high on base percentage guy, but that he can hit the ball out of the park (16 HR in 2011 and 125 over a thirteen year career). By contrast, Ryan Doumit has hit 67 HR over a seven year career, and sports a .271 career BA and .777 OPS, as opposed to .238 and .698 for Barajas. Of course, Doumit's biggest problems have been his many many trips to the DL and a salary commitment of $15 million over the next two seasons. Barajas will make $4 million next year (highest on the team as of today).

The one number on Barajas that scares me the most is his age: 36. Fairly old for a ballplayer, and really old for a catcher. Why am I filled with images of Pirates free agent signings of years past of guys who are in their mid-thirties who turn out to be washed up when they arrive in Bradenton? I really hate to be such a pessimist on this, but the Pirates track record on such matters makes you leery to say the least.

Thank You to All Veterans Today!!

2011-11-11T10:37:00.001-05:00

On Penn State

2011-11-11T10:08:00.003-05:00

Throughout the last several days, there has been some terrific writing and reporting from all across the country on this subject. I will not add to it except to say this.

If you have grown up, lived, and worked in Allegheny Country, western Pennsylvania, and the state of Pennsylvania, chances are very good that, if you are not one yourself, you know someone who is a Penn State alumnus and a dyed-in-the-wool Penn State fan. A family member, a co-worker, a neighbor, someone from church, you know these people, and this week I feel truly bad for these people. They are certainly not "victims" in this case, but they are indeed part of the collateral damage that has resulted from this mess.

It is easy to tweak and kid the caricature of the "bleeds-blue-and-white" Penn State fan. I've done it myself, but let's face it, part of that teasing stems from jealousy. I am envious of people that have spent a portion of their life at a place and institution that has engendered a passion and devotion that has lasted their entire lives. I wish I felt that way about any institution with which I have been associated over the years. These folks have not been well served by the stewards of their University.

As I mentioned, there has been some absolutely terrific writing from writers and reporters all over the country on this topic. Locally, I can point to Gene Collier, Dejan Kovacevic, Joe Starkey, and Bob Smizik. Smizik has also posted on his blog links to writers from papers all over the country to make it easier to find these stories.

No writing that I have read, however, was as eloquent than an email that I received from my nephew George, now age 41. George is the son of two Penn State alums, was born and raised in Centre County, and is a Penn State grad and a proud member of the Blue Band. As his thoughts came to me via a personal email, I will not share it here, but I can assure you that his thoughts summarize the sadness and disappointment that has been felt by these loyal alums and fans over this matter. I am sure that he speaks for thousands of Penn Staters across the land. I will take the liberty to share one sentence from his note to me:

It is "exquisitely ironic that a culture (Penn State football) that was in the business of creating upstanding and heroic men, didn't create a sufficient hero in this case."

This will probably be the last thing I wrote on this topic. It hardly falls within the fun-and-games part of life that I usually opine on, and I doubt that there is much of anything that I could add to what will be written in the weeks, months, and years ahead as this story continues to evolve.

Book Reviews - A Baseball Icon and a Football Time Capsule

2011-11-07T20:26:00.005-05:00

I have just concluded reading a couple of old books with a sporting theme that I would like to mention to you now.

The first is Richard Ben Cramer's biography of Joe DiMaggio, "Joe DiMaggio, The Hero's Life." Cramer spent five years researching and writing this book which was published in 2000, one year after Joltin' Joe's death. If you are a baseball fan and have even a rudimentary knowledge of baseball history, you already know a lot of the "baseball stuff" about DiMaggio - the sterling quality of his play, the 10 pennants and 9 World Series championships, and, of course, the epic 56 game hitting streak in 1941. However, as is often the case with such biographies, it is the off the field stuff, the post-playing days life, that make for the most interesting reading. For example, you will learn a lot about Marilyn Monroe in this book.

You will also learn that this most beloved of baseball heroes was not the most lovable of men. He was demanding of those around him, but would turn his back on you and cut you off completely if he thought that you were disloyal to him, or, even worse, using your relationship to him to your advantage. He was cheap and never paid for anything.

This is a pretty long (over 500 pages) book, thoroughly detailed, and sometimes slow moving, but worth reading for those who appreciate baseball history.

The second book is even older, "...And Everyday You Take Another Bite" by sportswriter (now boxing commentator on HBO or Showtime) Larry Merchant. This book was written in 1971 and was Merchant's somewhat iconoclastic view of the National Football League in 1971. I had read this book when I was in college, and I stumbled across it in a used bookstore in Cooperstown last month.

Yes, I said 1971, forty years ago. Think about it. When this book was published, the Steelers had never even made the playoffs, ESPN did not exist, Monday Night Football had been on the air only one year, and that relatively new event on the sporting landscape, the Super Bowl, had only just started using Roman numerals. Bob Sproule had not yet met Marilyn Moellenbrock! I had enjoyed the book when I read way back then, and I thought it might be interesting to see what had changed, and what had not changed, since Merchant wrote this book. It was like opening a football time capsule.

The book opens with Merchant's write-up of the previous season's Super Bowl. It was number V, and it was won 16-13 by the Baltimore Colts on a last second field goal that defeated the Dallas Cowboys. If you recall, the game was an error filled contest - fumbles, interceptions, wacky plays, and inept quarterbacking by Johnny Unitas, Earl Morrall, and, especially, Craig Morton. The sloppy play by both teams was made all the more apparent when set against the hype and bombast that NFL used to stage this showcase event. And this was during a time BEFORE 6:30 kick-offs, four hour pre-game shows, and $3 million per minute commercials.

In any event, Merchant's first chapter that summarizes the game is a classic.

The book details the pervasive influence that television was exercising over the game. Again, this was before the birth of ESPN, the NFL Network, and Thursday Night Football. So Merchant's warning bells were quite prophetic.

Some of the book is terribly dated. Remember Dave Meggesey? Didn't think so.

However, there is just all sorts of fun memories that can be dredged up reading this book. Such as....

The 1968 "Orange Juice Bowl" when the lousy Steelers beat the lousy Eagles 6-3 in a game where both teams were "as futile as the law allows." At the time, it was felt that the loser of that game would win the right to draft O.J. Simpson. Ironically, the Eagles won two of their final games and lost the right for the #1 pick. Merchant says that Eagles coach Joe Kuharich thus "refined the art of losing to its finite limit - losing while winning."

And isn't any book that tells Joe Kuharich stories worth reading?

Lots of stuff on Joe Namath, which, in retrospect, seem a bit overblown looking back on it.

Stories about Joe Don Looney. Again, any book with stories about that dude is worth reading.

Vince Lombardi had only died within the prior year, so Merchant spends some time on him, and how he was officially canonized by the NFL.

Some good stuff. It might be hard to find this book anywhere now, so if you care to read it. I'll be happy to lend it to you.

Andy Rooney on D-Day

2011-11-06T17:57:00.001-05:00

In my post earlier today, I made reference to an Andy Rooney essay on D-Day. It was run this morning on CBS' Sunday Morning show.

Watch and listen.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7387328n&tag=contentMain;contentBody

A Trip to the Movies, Football Fun & Games, and Other Topics

2011-11-06T10:11:00.007-05:00

Cleaning out the Mental In-Box....

As I usually try to confine this blog to light-hearted topics, saving outrage for baffling moves on the part of the Pirates, I will not expound on the truly awful news coming from Penn State this weekend. Better writers than I are opining on that, and I refer you to Gene Collier in today's PG, Joe Starkey in today's Trib, and Bob Smizik's blog on post-gazette.com, for more analysis. All I can ask is this: why did no one - no one -at the University call the police when the 2002 assault in the shower room was witnessed and reported to various University officials?

Okay, I will now return to the Fun & Games Department.....

For the first time in months, we took ourselves out to the movie theater yesterday and saw "Tower Heist" starring Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy. Now some readers who know me will be shocked - SHOCKED - to hear that I went to see Ben Stiller in anything. However, he did not play the usual put-upon character he usually plays (see those awful Focker movies), so I'm glad I kept an open mind. This is a movie that will never win any awards, but it was fun and entertaining, and a nice way to spend two hours. Also, it has been awhile since I've seen an Eddie Murphy movie, and I had almost forgotten how really FUNNY he is.

I watched the Alabama -LSU game last night that LSU won 9-6 on OT. Two great defensive teams, to be sure, but if you purport to be the Number One team in the nation, shouldn't you be able to play at least SOME offense?

On the other hand, any game where you can see Nick Saban lose has its merits.

You can get into all sorts of debates over the validity of overtime in regular season games, but I can recall Myron Cope once commenting that sometimes a tie can be a just result in a game. I think that game last night was an example of that premise.

The SEC Loyalists out there are already tub-thumping for a rematch of LSU-Alabama in the BCS Championship Game. Please, God, save us from that.

Got into an interesting, if short, exchange with a Facebook buddy last night. He was saying how awful the Oklahome State - Kansas State 52-45 game was because it was circus with no defense at all. I was saying how the 6-6 Alabama game was far from the "game of the century" the flacksters were promoting because of the complete lack of offense. I would say that we were probably both right.

Pitt once against snatches defeat from the jaws of victory, blowing a 10 point third quarter lead against Cincinnati last night. I was switching back and forth between that game and the Alabama game, but I saw enough to state that the Pitt offense in that fourth quarter was thoroughly awful. Almost unwatchable.

Then again, West Virginia loses to Lousiville yesterday. Big East football really is terrible, isn't it?

I have written in the past about how I enjoy listening to the "60's on 6" radio station on the Sirius XM satellite radio. Great music from the 1960's. However, when you listen for an extended period of time, as we did on our recent drive to Cooperstown, you learn that not everything from that era was great, and some of it was downright bad. As evidence I give you "Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro, and anything by Bobby Vinton.

I was saddened to read in the paper a few weeks back that Highland Country Club has closed. I was never a member there, but for a period of time in the 1990's my boss was, and, thus, I was able to play there quite a bit when entertaining customers. Highland was never ranked as one of the truly great country club courses here in western PA, but I always found it a fun and enjoyable course to play. Too bad.

Also saddened to hear that Joe Frazier, 67, has been stricken with liver cancer and is now in hospice care.

And of course, I was also saddened to hear of the death of Andy Rooney. This morning's "CBS Sunday Morning" show was devoted to Rooney, and it included his essay on D-Day, which is something everybody should see.

Finally, I hear tell that a football game of some note will be played at Heinz Field this evening. The Ravens have been struggling of late, and the Steelers are coming off that huge win against the Patriots. What the hell, the Steelers to win tonight!!

"Million Dollar Quartet"

2011-11-04T15:39:00.004-04:00

On a December day in 1956, musical legends Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis really did meet in the Sam Phillips' Sun Records studio in Memphis, and really did have a jam session. That session has been fleshed out dramatically for the purposes of creating the musical "Million Dollar Quartet" that Marilyn and I took in at the Benedum Theater last evening.

While the show does tell a story, it is really all about the music, and the four actors who play the leads really do it up right. These guys are not "impersonators" as we have come to know them, but actors playing a part, and they all do it really well. The idea of an "Elvis impersonator" has become a show biz cliche. What this role in MDQ requires is someone playing Elvis (and Cash, Perkins, and Lewis), and the actors in last night's production hit just the right notes. The actor who played Elvis got the hip-shaking moves down right, and while the voice isn't exactly like Elvis, you know that you are seeing the 1956 version of Elvis on stage.

The show confirms that the pre-Army Elvis Presley was and is the "real" Elvis, the Elvis who really was The King. People whose only impression or knowledge of Elvis Presley consists of cheesy movies and a fat guy in a white jump suit on a Vegas stage, really need to learn more about Elvis prior to his 1960 induction.

(Which brings to mind John Lennon's quote when he learned that Presley had died in 1977: "The real Elvis died the day he went into the Army.")

Back to the show, the actor who played Jerry Lee Lewis really stole the show. Pure energy and he played the piano just like the Killer.

The encore to the show was great with each actor performing a signature song of each artist:

Hound Dog by Elvis, Ghostriders in the Sky by Cash, See You Later, Alligator by Perkins, and a rousing finale of Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On by Lewis. And, of course, when it was over, the announcement was made that "Elvis has just left the building."

Great show!!

To Absent Friends - Matty Alou

2011-11-03T16:31:00.003-04:00

News arrives today that Matty Alou passed away today in his native Dominican Republic at the age of 72. Alou is, of course, famous for being one of the three Alou brothers who played in the major leagues in the 1960's and -70's.

Pirates fans will remember him coming to the Pirates after in 1966 in one of Joe L. Brown's great trades (Joe Gibbon and Ozzie Virgil went to the Giants). All Alou did in his five seasons with the Bucs was put together seasons where he produced batting averages of .342, .338, .332, .331, and .297, winning the NL batting championship in 1966. Over 15 big league seasons, he compiled a .307 lifetime batting average.

I will remember Alou as being a part of some of my favorite Pirates teams of all time in the late 60's when the Pirates often challenged for a pennant, but never quite made it, but, man could those teams hit...Clemente, Stargell, Clendennon, Alou, Mota, Pagliaroni....Some cherished memories there.

It might also be noted, that even when Alou left the Pirates, he served them well. He was traded after the 1970 season to the Cardinals for Nelson Briles and Vic Davillio, two key guys on the 1971 World Series Champions.

RIP Matty Alou.

The Clemente Picture

2011-11-01T13:53:00.003-04:00

Below you will see a picture of the picture of Roberto Clemente that I won at the World Series Gala at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown last week. We bought the frame and decided to hang it in a place of honor in our den at home.

Appropriate that it hangs below a painting of Forbes Field, don't you think?

Some Baseball News

2011-10-31T14:35:00.003-04:00

Well, we can all calm down after that big Steelers win yesterday, and it has been three whole days since the end of the World Series, so why not kick off the Hot Stove Season right now.

In some not so surprising news, the Pirates made it official today that they will not be picking up the club options for four players for 2012: pitcher Paul Maholm, catchers Ryan Doumit and Chris Snyder, and shortstop Ronny Cedeno. The Maholm and Doumit moves are not surprising since they represent $25.25 million in salary obligations on the part of the team. The Snyder move is somewhat surprising because, while Snyder would have cost them $6.75 million in salary next year, they have to have somebody who can catch and at least have a reasonable chance at hitting the ball. The Cedeno move is a real surprise since his salary next year would have been a relative pittance, $3 million, and despite his mental lapses that tend to drive you absolutely crazy, it has been obvious that the Pirates have been unable to find - or pay - anyone who can do any better (see Wood, Brandon).

If you are keeping score at home, the Pirates have now pared off $35 million in salary obligations for 2012 and are in desperate need of a catcher, a shortstop, and at least one starting pitcher, and this is in addition to everything else a 90 loss team needs. What exactly will they do with that $35 million? Not nearly enough to sign Jose Reyes or Jimmy Rollins to play shortstop or CJ Wilson to pitch. Maybe they will sink that money into securing Andrew McCutchen or Neil Walker to long term deals. Or maybe it will go into "player development" and be used to help the long term plans of the team as the current team struggles to avoid 90 losses again next season.

As I read somewhere today, it's going to be an interesting off season watching GM Neal trying to plug these holes. Right now, I am having a very sinking feeling that the team we watch in 2012 could be a lot worse than what we saw in 2011.

*****

Elsewhere in baseball, more surprising news arrived with the announcement of Tony LaRussa's retirement. Those who know me know that I am no big fan of LaRussa's. I thought him to be smug and self-important and someone who relished the "genius" tag that the George Wills and Buzz Bissingers of the world bestowed upon him. I also thought that he was allowed to skate on that DUI charge of a few years back. To my knowledge, he never received a reprimand from either MLB or the Cardinals on that.

Be all that as it may, you cannot take away from his accomplishments. Only Connie Mack and John McGraw won more games as a manager, and he had to have had something to do with that two month run that the Cardinals just pulled off. So his eventual plaque in the Baseball of Fame will be well deserved.

And he is certainly going out on a high note!

*****

One other baseball note. Last week on Pardon the Interruption, Tony and Mike interviewed the newly appointed Cubs major domo Theo Epstein, late of the Boston Red Sox. When asked what it would take to turn the Cubs around, Theo spouted the usual baseball b.s. about player development, setting up a flow of talent that would turn the team into a contender year in and year out, and not just for a one shot deal and on and on and on. It was the same line that we have been hearing for Coonelly and Huntington since their arrival in 2007. I mean, word for word. I guess the big difference is that Theo had the unlimited checkbook of John Henry in Boston to make it work, and I suspect those same resources will be available to him in the Windy City.

Book Review: "Shock Wave"

2011-10-30T22:38:00.005-04:00

I recently finished reading John Sandford's newest novel, "Shock Wave." Earlier in the year, I had read an reviewed Sandford's other book this year, "Buried Prey", which featured Sandford's signature character, Minnesota police detective chief Lucas Davenport. "Shock Wave" features Sandford's other series character, police detective Virgil Flowers.

(See http://grandstander.blogspot.com/2011/06/book-review-buried-prey.html)

Flowers was actually a minor character in the Davenport books who Sandford, I am happy to say, decided to spin off in his own series of novels. He still works for Davenport in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), and Lucas appears "off-screen" in these novels, usually as a sort of sounding board for Virgil as he conducts his investigations.

In this novel, a huge big box retailer, PyeMart, is planning on opening a new store in the small Minnesota town of Butternut Falls. Having this store in the community would virtually destroy existing small businesses in the community and, essentially, ruin the lives of many, many people in the town. So someone intends to stop it by planting bombs at both PyeMart headquarters and at or near the proposed construction site. Several people have been killed by these bombs. Finding the bomber is Virgil's job.

It's a great story with terrifically drawn characters. (There is one scene where Virgil is interviewing a teen aged boy who is working as a desk clerk at the motel where he is staying about a woman who might be somehow involved with a possible suspect. It is a classic scene.) This is the I believe the fifth Virgil flowers novel that Sandford has written, and while they are not yet quite the equal of the Lucas Davenport "Prey" novels, they are rapidly closing in on them.

Check them out.

By the way, when I read stories with series characters like these, I always try to picture the actors who would portray them if they were made into movies. I always had a hard time coming up with an actor for Lucas Davenport. I have recently earned that USA Network has made a movie of the book "Certain Prey" and that it will star Mark Harmon as Lucas. It will air next Sunday, November 6. I'm thinking that Harmon might be a little too old for the part, but I am also thinking that he just may be able to pull it off. I'm looking forward to watching it.

Steelers 25 - Patriots 17

2011-10-30T22:19:00.003-04:00

Well, I certainly didn't see THIS one coming.

The Steelers certainly dominated New England this afternoon in that 25-17 victory. The closeness of the score doesn't reflect the dominating nature of the win, and as one Loyal Reader mentioned to me, NE had to screw up an onside kick to assure the win. And I do question the wisdom of the two pass attempts at the end that resulted in sacks that led to the Steelers having to punt the ball and give NE yet one more chance, albeit a slim one, to score again. Still, that was the New England Patriots and Tom Brady that they were playing out there. It wasn't supposed to be easy.

I almost screamed and applauded something that Phil Simms said in the broadcast. He referenced how people often say that the Steelers need to go back to "playing Steelers football", meaning a constant, pounding running game. While I can't quote Simms directly, what he said was that "Steelers football" in 2011 is NOT running the football. It is throwing the football. When you have an elite quarterback and a corps of receivers like the Steelers have, your are SUPPOSED TO RELY ON PASSING THE FOOTBALL. Thank you, Phil. I have been saying that for at least the last two seasons. However, I fully expect the talk show crowd, who don't realize that Woody Hayes and Jock Sutherland are dead, to be filling the airwaves starting tomorrow - if they aren't already - that "Ariens needsta be runnin' the ball more n'at."

The win today now assures that the Yinzers of Steelers Nation will be frothing at the mouth all week over the arrival of the Ravens at Heinz Field next Sunday night. It will be a big game for certain, and the hype will be waaayyyy over the top. Probably best to not turn on the radio much this week.

Quickie Thoughts on a Sunday Morning

2011-10-30T11:01:00.003-04:00

Wow, it has been a busy time these last several days. Not a lot of time to post, but some quick thoughts:

What a World Series! I am planning a more detailed write-up on this later in the week, but it sure was a dandy.

Steelers vs Patriots this afternoon. I am not hopeful.

Central advances to the quarter-finals of the WPIAL Soccer tourney. Next game on Tuesday night.

With the World Series over, we finally caught up on all back-logged TV shows on DVR last night with a marathon three episode viewing of "Person of Interest." Lot of people died over that three hour period!

Now there are all those movies I DVR'd from TCM over the last few weeks.

The Pitt hoopsters opened with a 101-33 squeaker over D-II LaRoche college yesterday. Robert Morris opens with a similar cannon-fodder opponent tomorrow night, wheeling Jesuit.

Off to see nephew Brian and the North Pittsburgh Ironmen footballers this afternoon. good prelim for the Steelers game!

Enjoy the day, everyone!

SABR Meeting

2011-10-30T10:59:00.001-04:00

Just for the heck of it, I am sending along to all Grandstander Loyal Readers a summary of yesterday's meeting of SABR's Pittsburgh Chapter (some of you may have already read this in another forum):

The Pittsburgh / Forbes Field Chapter of SABR held its Fall meeting yesterday, October 29, at the Senator John Heinz Western Pennsylvania History Center. Despite a surprise pre-Halloween snowstorm that delayed the arrival of many of the attendees, a total of 45 people attended the meeting.

Our guest speaker was Joe Jordano, Head Baseball Coach at the University of Pittsburgh. Coach Jordano has been at the helm of the Panthers for 15 seasons, and in 2012, he will become the winningest coach in Pitt baseball history. He informed the group that since he became coach in 1997, over 50 Panthers players have been drafted and signed by major league teams. Pitt will be one of the strongest teams in the Big East in 2012, and Coach Jordano looks forward to the challenges that Pitt will face when they move to Atlantic Coast Conference in 2014.

The Chapter plans on attending a Pitt baseball game as a group this spring at Pitt’s Peterson Athletic Complex on campus.

Thanks go out to member Marky Billson for arranging the Coach’s appearance.

The day also included the following member presentations:

Bob Sproule talked about attending the World Series Gala at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Bill Sproule presented “A Casual Fan Looks at Some Numbers” concerning the 2011 baseball season. Combining OPS and WHIP, Bill’s numbers had the eight teams that made the MLB Playoffs occupying eight of the first nine slots in his “final standings.”

Nina Schreiner talked about her summer as an intern at the Baseball of Fame. Great stories and pictures from her most interesting summer job were a part of her presentation.

Joe Guzzardi discussed the trend of more foreign born players entering the Major Leagues.

Jim Haller conducted the ballpark-themed trivia contest, won by Joe Elinich.

Len Martin discussed the possibility of SABR becoming involved in an attempt to preserve, by some means, a marking of the spot of home plate from old Exposition Park, site of the first World Series in 1903. Len and others from SABR had determined the spot of home plate back in 2003, and that land will soon be developed, probably as an office building, within the next year.

Sam Reich presented his ideas for leveling the playing field among all teams in MLB. It involves additional draft picks for some teams and world wide entry draft.

The raffle prize, a tee shirt from the Baseball Hall of Fame that featured the HOF plaque of Roberto Clemente, was won by member Alan Steinberg.

Future plans that were discussed for the Chapter for 2012 included attending a Pirates game as a group, the aforementioned University of Pittsburgh game, possible plans for SABR Day on January 28, attending the Cleveland chapter meeting on February 4, our winter Hot Stove gathering at SoHo Restaurant sometime following the Super Bowl, and another chapter outing to see a Pittsburgh Franklins Vintage Base Ball Game next summer.

Game Six

2011-10-28T08:32:00.003-04:00

I am not sure that there is anything that I can say that will capture what a ball game last night's Game Six was. If you went to bed early, you missed an absolute classic. If you stayed 'til the end, the improbable end, you will not care in the least that you might be just a little sleepy as you go through your day today.

In his blog today in the Trib, Dejan Kovacevic states it perfectly:

Baseball is awesome.
It’s beautiful even if it’s ugly.
It moves at just the right pace even when it’s long.
There’s no clock, no hope truly dashed until the last pitch … once, then twice, then as many times as St. Louis can send up David Freese to illustrate it again and again.
If you didn’t stay up last night, suffice it to say you missed the best World Series game since the last time Bill Mazeroski faced Ralph Terry.

So, so much to talk about, but let's pick one strategic point:

Bottom of the tenth, two outs, Rangers lead 9-8, runner on second, Albert Pujols due up, Lance Berkman on deck. What do you do?

Well, on of the oldest adages in baseball is that "you never intentionally walk the winning run." But this is Albert Pujols coming to the plate. And, save for that inhuman Game 3 that Albert had, he has been impotent at the plate throughout the Series. And, Berkman has been the Cardinals best hitter in the Series, and has two hits already in this game. But, Pujols doubled in his last at bat. So, what do you do? Ron Washington elects to walk Pujols intentionally, Berkman then gets his third hit of the night, ties the game and sets the stage for David Freese's 11th inning heroics.

I said at the beginning that while I had no particular rooting interest in either team, what I really wanted was a Game Seven. Many folks on Facebook echoed those thoughts. Well, we are getting a Game Seven, and can it possibly top what we saw in Game Six? Hard to imagine, but I cannot wait to see it. Two schools of thought as to what might happen. (1) The Rangers will be so thoroughly demoralized for letting that one go in Game Six, that they cannot possibly win Game Seven. (2) Cardinals will be so emotionally spent after coming from behind in ninth and tenth innings, and winning in the eleventh, that they cannot possibly win Game Seven.

I am not going to even try to predict what might happen, but the way these two teams have played these first six game, I'm not sure either of those premises will hold. I'm guessing another gut-wrencher tonight. It will only be fitting for one of the best World Series in recent memory.

And I loved how Joe Buck called the home run in the eleventh, echoing his father's call in Game Six of the '91 Series: "We'll see you tomorrow night, folks."

I can't wait.

Names on a Brick

2011-10-26T13:12:00.003-04:00

When Marilyn and I last visited Cooperstown, it was in October, 2006, shortly after the deaths of her mother and my dad. The trip was made as much to get away from town and clear our heads after a very emotional period of our lives as it was to see the Hall of Fame. It was a very nice, if bittersweet, trip.

While there, we picked up an informational brochure that described a fundraising campaign to help maintain and upgrade Doubleday Field. For Christmas that year, Marilyn had purchased a brick with an inscription that would be placed on the walkways outside of Doubleday Field. As the years went by, we kind of forgot all about it, and it wasn't even on our radar on our trip to Cooperstown this past weekend. It wasn't until we walked up to Doubleday Field and actually saw the inscribed paver stones that we even thought to look for it.

After some intense searching, we found the stone, and here it is:

I have to tell you that seeing that brick was a pretty emotional experience for both of us. It is really neat to know that it will sit in Cooperstown forever.

A Cooperstown World Series Journey

2011-10-24T10:32:00.005-04:00

In the last installment of The Grandstander, I had hinted that Marilyn and I would be watching Game 3 of the World Series from a most unique vantage point. From the title of this post and the picture above, you have by now figured it out (as did one astute Loyal Reader) just exactly where that was.

For the last 15 years, the Baseball Hall of Fame has held a Members event, a World Series Gala, on the Saturday night game of the World Series. Since I first read about it, this is something that I have always wanted to do, and this year, we did it! So cross of another item from the Baseball Bucket List.

For Marilyn and I, this was out fifth visit to Cooperstown, and we never get tired of it. (We always seem to forget how long a drive it is, though. For some reason, we had it in our minds that it was about a 5 and 1/2 to 6 hour trip. I wish. It's an easy drive, all but the last 25 miles are on interstate highways, but it's long and somewhat boring. Eight hours to get there on Friday, but only 7.5 hours to get home on Sunday!) We left bright and early on Friday and arrived in Cooperstown by 2:00.

We spent that first afternoon exploring the Hall of Fame itself, and, of course, dropping a bunch of cash in the gift shop. This was about a two-and-a-half hour visit exploring some of the new exhibits added since our last visit in 2006. There are two exceptional new permanent exhibits. One is called "Chasing the Dream" and is dedicated to the life and career of Hank Aaron. The other is called "One for the Books: Baseball Records & The Stories Behind Them." Great exhibits. The Records exhibit has all sorts of interactive stuff where you can look up both career and active records for just about any thing you can think of. You could spend hours in that exhibit alone.

Stopped after that at a local bar for a beer and some wings, before our one big indulgence of the trip - dinner at the Hawkeye Grill in the super ritzy Otesaga Hotel. This was the one big disappointment of the trip since the steak that I ordered had the consistency of the sole of a nice pair of Florshiems. What are you gonna do? It happens sometimes. On the bright side, Marilyn's shrimp dinner was perfect.

Saturday began with breakfast at the Doubleday Cafe and visit to a terrific local farmer's market held every Saturday morning outside of Doubleday Field. We then went our separate ways. Marilyn explored the various shops of downtown Cooperstown, while I spent close to four more hours in the HOF on my own. What can I say? It was four hours well spent. We then met up and had a dinner at a another local tavern, where the terrific bacon cheeseburgers more than compensated for the bummer steak of the night before.

Then, of course, came the event that brought us to Cooperstown this time around. Here we are on our way into the Hall and seated in The Grandstander Theater:

The theater holds a little over 200 people and it was packed. The Fox telecast of the game was projected onto the big movie screen. In the course of the evening, we learned that there were people in attendance from 15 states, Canada, and one person from Cambodia! The Hall provided free hot dogs, soft drinks, and chips (courtesy of Price Chopper Supermarkets!), and between each commercial break, they would call people from the audience to answer various trivia questions. The questions were easy enough, and with help from the audience, no one ever lost when they were called to the stage.

This led to a really big thrill for me, as my number was selected to come on down to answer the questions. When I said where I was from and that I was a Pirates fan, the emcee asked if I thought the Pirates would ever get to the big screen behind us. My response was "I hope in my lifetime" whereupon some guy in the audience yelled "and just how old ARE you?" Gives you an idea of what kind of a fun night it was. For answering my questions correctly and because I was a Pirates fan, my prize was a beautiful matted photograph of Roberto Clemente, which will be framed and find a place of honor in our house!

Unfortunately, the lighting in the Grandstand Theater was such that it didn't lend itself to picture taking, but the one below did come out pretty well, and will give you and idea of what it was like.

The game itself was the one that will forever be known as the "Albert Pujols Game", and the fact that it was such a blowout took some of the excitement out of the evening. Since the game ran so late, a lot of people left early, which also took some of the edge off the night. Too bad it wasn't one of those edge-of-the-seat pitching duels that the other three games have been.

I can't say enough about the great job that Hall of Fame did in putting this event together. It was just a completely and totally FUN event from start to finish. I think that the only way that I would enjoy a World Series game more would be to watch one in person at PNC Park.

Cardinals 3 - Rangers 2...Game One Reactions

2011-10-20T10:19:00.003-04:00

Well, that was a dandy of a game last night to open the World Series. None of those high scoring extravaganzas that closed out both LCS's, but some great pitching by both teams and very timely hitting on the part of the victorious Cardinals.

I was watching the game on TV, of course, but in the company of many friends out there in the Facebook and Twitter worlds. I don't want to go all geeky on you, but it's kind of a neat experience, I have to say. Much of the talk centered on the Fox broadcasters and how much everyone seems to hate them. Tim McCarver seems to be a bigger lightning rod for anger and hatred that Barack Obama and John Boehner combined. I remain in the distinct minority of those in the audience who actually like McCarver on the broadcasts. Am I the only one??

I will also take the two man tandem of Joe Buck and McCarver over the three-in-a-booth circus that TBS inflicted on us in the playoffs and that ESPN went with all season long. I also recall watching the the rebroadcast of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series last year and having solo announcers, Bob Prince and Mel Allen, split the announcing duties. One guy doing the telecast in the booth. Can you imagine such a concept. I am betting that if some network tried it today, it would be a huge hit. Of course, they would first have to find someone as good as Mel Allen, which might prove more difficult that the Pirates finding a decent catcher for 2012.

Of course, the big talk was about the Adrian Beltre did-the-ball-hit-his-foot-or-not call in the ninth inning. I did not listen to Mike & Mike today, but I am guessing that Mike Greenberg was probably weeping over the need to install instant replay in baseball RIGHT NOW. I say NO to this idea, and here's why. IF you had replay challenges, and IF you applied the same football logic to the baseball system, the replays last night did not provide "indisputable video proof" to allow the call on the field to be overturned. Not to my eye anyway. I am not sure if the umpire consulted with his colleagues - I think he did - to confer and get the call right, as they say, but that should be as far as it goes. Now, did the ball hit Beltre in the foot? It probably did, because it doesn't seem likely that Beltre could have come up with a fake act as quickly as he did, but, hey, to apply a golf metaphor here, that's just the rub of the green. Plays like this happen all the time in baseball. If this happens in a Royals-Mariners game in September, or, say, in the 19th inning of a Pirates-Braves game in July, no one notices. Well, they did notice that Pirates-Braves snafu, but you get my point. Too bad for the Rangers that this happened in Game One of the World Series, but that, as they say, is baseball, and they have as many as six games left to even things out.

And, hey, wouldn't it have been great if Jerry Meals was the home plate ump last night?

TEASER: The Grandstander and Mrs. Grandstander have a special viewing experience lined up for viewing Game Three of the Series. No, we will not be in Arlington sitting with Nolan Ryan and George Bush, but it might be something even better. I will provide a full report for you later in the weekend.

To Those Who Follow on Facebook.....

2011-10-18T19:18:00.003-04:00

If you are not on Facebook, feel free to skip this installment of The Grandstander.

I have noticed lately that some post that I put out on Facebook go directly to my Wall, and do not appear among the "news feeds" on my Facebook page. This is especially true of when I link a Grandstander page to Facebook. This is something new since all of the recent changes made to Facebook.

So, I just want to know if everyone is seeing these links when they go up on my Wall.

If you are reading this via Facebook, please just give me a quick comment that you are reading this. A simple "I got it" or even a quickie "Like" will do.

Thank you.

Happy Birthday, Chuck Berry

2011-10-18T18:56:00.002-04:00

He is, arguably, the Father of American Rock & Roll. Happy Birthday #85 today to Chuck Berry.

If you want to have some fun, go out to YouTube and type in "Chuck Berry" and just allow yourself to be entertained.

Here's a sample for you. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ofD9t_sULM

World Series Thoughts, and the Football Weekend

2011-10-17T13:55:00.003-04:00

Cleaning out the Mental In-Box While Trying to Avoid a Jim Harbaugh Handshake.....

I realize that I am hopelessly behind times, but I still consider the World Series a Big Deal. A very Big Deal. Now we know the combatants in this year's Fall Classic, and it shapes up to be a Series with lots of runs and home runs, and perhaps, as Buster Olney suggested, perhaps the worst pitched world Series in memory.

The Texas Rangers have certainly proved that their 2010 pennant was not the work of a One Hit Wonder. That top-to-bottom line up sure is a marvel to behold.

The Cardinals trip from being 10 and 1/2 games out of the wild card spot on August 25 to the World Series is quite the story. While I am not fan of the self-important Tony LaRussa, you have to hand it to him. His teams win and they never quit on him. Never.

I had decided mid-way through the LCS that I was rooting for the Cardinals to go the distance. I made that decision based on two players: Albert Pujols and Stan Musial.

Rooting interests aside, I am going to pick the Rangers to win the Series. I just think that last year's loss to the Giants will have them extremely motivated this time around.

That said, I will point out that I picked the Tigers and Brewers to win their respective LCS.

As thrilling as the three Games Five were in the division series were, the two games six in the LCS were sure at the other end of the spectrum.

That was a weird win for the Steelers yesterday. After a first half that gave all indications of being a blowout, they came out at halftime and did nothing offensively, and were barely able to hang on to win 17-13. A more experienced Jacksonville QB would probably have won the game for them. Very hard to explain that performance.

How about that post game dust-up between Coaches Jim Harbaugh and Jim Schwartz? If a couple of high school coaches behaved like that, I would suspect that their respective school boards would severely discipline them, or perhaps even relieve them of their duties. When coaches at football's highest level act like that, how do you think every Lombardi-Wannabe coaching a peewee football team is going to act?

Peter King had a good line on this today: He liked it better when coaches wore business suits.

And how about yet another awful performance by the Pitt Panthers. The highly touted Todd Graham Offense (and let's hope the Pitt publicity machine starts to cool it with the gasoline metaphors) throws up (good choice of words there) a goose egg on Saturday, abandons Ray Graham, and barely generates 100 yards in total offense.

First year coaches like Graham usually get a honeymoon, but he ain't getting one and he can blame himself for all his off season hyperbole. I do like his enthusiasm, but he's paying the price for it now.

Maybe in a year or two when Graham recruits the players to fit his "system", Pitt will be steamrolling their opponents, but right now maybe Graham and his coaches should be dialing back the system to fit the players he has. Of course, coaching egos would never allow that to happen.

I will close by paraphrasing Dejan Kovacevic by saying that if anyone can explain the Pirates' decision to not pick up Paul Maholm's option for 2012 as anything other than the team being cheap, I'm willing to listen, but it's going to take some convincing.

Stop the Presses!!!!

2011-10-13T11:43:00.002-04:00

Well, to the surprise of practically no one, it has become clear that the Pirates, without actually coming out and saying the words (and if you are familiar with Neal Huntington's way of talking to the public, does that surprise you?), will not be exercising the $9.75 million team option on pitcher Paul Maholm for 2012. This means that Maholm, the longest tenured pitcher on the team, will no longer be pitching for the home team next season.

(By now I am sure you realize that the "Stop the Presses" banner over the Pirates NOT spending $9.75 million was written with tongue planted firmly in cheek.)

Of course, a very good baseball case could be made for not picking up the option, but the overriding sentiment will be that this is yet another case of the Pirates deciding to go cheap and not pay a player once he gets too expensive for them. And, of course, for a variety of circumstances, Maholm will leave and the team will get nothing in return.

Paul Maholm will never be confused with Steve Carlton, to be sure, but he was a good guy who took the ball every five days, pitched a lot of innings, and did it in front of a generally lousy baseball team. Here's hoping that he lands with a team where he will be what everyone says he should be - a productive fourth or fifth starter - and have a successful rest of his career.

Now, the interesting thing will be to see what exactly the Pirates will do with that $9.75 million that they won't be spending on Maholm (as well as the multi-millions that they won't be spending on Ryan Doumit when that shoe drops). If they end up spending nine million bucks on a guy like Jorge De La Rosa, as they were purportedly ready to do last year, then they haven't really improved themselves over what Maholm would have given them. Or, will they take the Maholm and Doumit money and apply it to a long term deal for Andrew McCutchen? Or, will they use it to sign another washed up stiff like Lyle Overbay? Or, will the money just be quietly designated for "player development", which has been the handy catch-all for Pirates profits over the last few years.

Book Review: "Stan Musial, An American Life"

2011-10-12T13:15:00.005-04:00

Twice in the last 12 months I have written posts on this blog about Stan Musial, so it was with interest that I read this new biography of Stan the Man by New York sportswriter George Vecsey. The book starts with the premise that Musial is really the forgotten superstar in baseball history. Heck, a person would have to be pretty much over 50 years old to have any memory of having seen him play ball.

The superstars who were his contemporaries, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams, are certainly far more famous and celebrated. He played in St. Louis, not New York and Boston (although Vecsey, somewhat defensively, I think, is quick to point out how New York writers loved him). He didn't marry Marilyn Monroe, but rather his hometown sweetheart, a marriage that has lasted over 70 years, and he never had the "signature season" of a .400 average or a 56 game hitting streak, but for sustained excellence over a 22 year career, a case can be made that Musial was the equal, if not better, than either Joe D. or Teddy Ballgame. No scandals, no ugly off field events ever tarnished Musial's image. I will not recite all of Musial's records or accomplishments, but would recommend that you just look at Musial's career stats on any online reference site. They are mind boggling.

The book is not a detailed biography in the traditional sense. Vecsey doesn't bog you down with a lot of detailed runs-hits-errors stuff, but he does paint a great picture of Musial the man and the ballplayer. And there are some great stories to be told in the book:

To Cardinals major domo Branch Rickey, Musial was little more than just another one of hundreds of minor league ballplayers under the Cardinals controled back in the late 1930's. Until, that is, it became apparent what kind of a player Musial was to become, at which point Rickey never missed the opportunity to tell anyone who was listening the key role that he, Rickey, played in Musial's discovery and development. Musial never publicly disagreed with Rickey, but he never gave him credit either.

When Musial was discharged from the Navy in 1946, he hitchhiked back to St. Louis.

When attending a reunion of old Cardinals, Musial stopped at a bank and took out a bunch of $100 bills, which he surreptitiously handed out to old teammates who were down on their luck. An observer guessed that he gave out over $10,000 that night.

When some Cardinals fans began to call Albert Pujols "El Hombre", Pujols graciously asked that they not do so stating that there was and could only be one "Man" in St. Louis.

In awarding Musial the Presidential Medal of Freedom earlier this year, Barack Obama summarized Musial well: "Stan remains, to this day, an icon, untarnished; a beloved pillar of the community; a gentleman you'd want your kids to emulate."

Musial will turn 91 in November and through much of the past decade he has been suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. Not a nice way for anyone, much less an elite athlete, to end their days. It is nice that Vecsey has written this book to remind everyone of the career and life of a guy who was and remains a true class act.

Autumn Leaves

2011-10-11T09:15:00.003-04:00

The Grandstander is about to channel his Inner Gilbert Love for you (now there is a reference that really skewes old), and make a comment about autumn leaves.

While driving to Shanksville this weekend, we noticed how the leaves in the Pennsylvania hills were putting on their annual autumnal show, and the Sunday PG listed a number of places to go to view the colorful leaves, but the pictures below show that sometimes all you really have to do is look into your own back yard. Yes, these pictures were taken this morning while standing on our back deck. Sorry that we weren't able to get any of the local wild life into the picture.

A Rock in a Field

2011-10-09T21:53:00.003-04:00

The picture above is just a big rock in an open field, right? Hardly.

Yesterday we decided to take advantage of the beautiful autumn weather and we took a drive to see the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, PA. The open field is the actual crash sight of Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, and the rock indicates the exact spot where the plane hit the earth. Only family members of those who died in that crash are permitted out onto the field, which is truly hallowed ground for those who died and their survivors. If you look closely, you can see small American flags that have been placed by that rock.

The Memorial currently consists of a walkway in front of the field that you see above, and a wall of white marble with names of the 40 heroes of Flight 93. A complete visitors' center is planned and scheduled to be completed by 2014. The whole Memorial is under the supervision of the National Parks Service, so you can be assured that the Memorial is and will be completed and run in top notch fashion.

While the completed visitors' center will be great, don't wait until its completion to visit the Memorial if you are so inclined. It is a most sobering feeling to walk the ground and try to imagine the events of that day.

It was quite crowded yesterday, which given the weather and the fact that it was Saturday is probably not surprising. What was surprising, to me at least, were the number of bikers -as in motorcyclists - who were there. We literally saw hundreds of bikers both at the site and headed toward it as we left and headed for home. I have no comment to make on that. Just thought it interesting.

Anyway, I would recommend that everyone, particularly those who live in western PA, make an effort to visit this site. It is a most emotional experience.

Sunday Morning Thoughts

2011-10-09T12:04:00.003-04:00

Cleaning out the Mental In-Box while awaiting the Steelers kick-off....

After soundly thrashing South Florida last week, Pitt fans were giddy in the seeming arrival, finally, of Todd Graham's high octane offense last week. So what happened at Rutgers, which Bill Hillgrove continually tells is is in Piscataway, New Jersey, sure came as as a shock yesterday. What a stinker of a performance that was.

Graham was quick to place the blame squarely on himself and his staff. Guess he learned his lesson after he blamed the players and took no blame after the Iowa and Notre Dame losses. As someone suggested, while Graham may be the highest paid employee at Pitt, he still has a boss, and that that boss obviously told Graham to knock it off with the it's-not-my-fault stuff.

Which makes me wonder about Dana Holgerson's bosses at WVU. Holgerson's reaming of the WVU fans for not showing up at game against Bowling Green two weeks ago had to have Oliver Luck wondering about this guy, who has been a loose cannon of sorts ever since he arrived at Morgantown.

Which leads me to another prediction: If Holgerson achieves any type of success at WVU, and if WVU finds itself an odd man out as colleges keep playing the conference reshuffling game, he will leave Morgantown as soon as some BCS school comes calling with a job offer. I say he's gone from WVU by 2014.

To anyone who says that baseball games are slow, boring, and take too long to play, I will point out that the Pitt-Rutgers football game yesterday took 3 hours and 40 minutes in real time to play. Even Hillgrove and Pat Bostick on the radio broadcast were saying how excruciating it was. The first half, in which 9 total points were scored, took and hour and forty-five minutes to play.

The 17-10 score of last week's Steelers loss to Houston is not indicative, if you ask me, of how badly they were beaten in that game. Today the 2-2 Steelers take on the 3-1 Tennessee Titans at Heinz Field. Is it an overstatement to say that how this game goes could well determine the direction of the rest of the season for the Steelers?

A friend of mine made the statement this week that if nothing else, Steelers losses make the sports radio talk shows a whole lot more entertaining.

And that phenomenon is not unique to Pittsburgh. The Atlantic Highlands, NJ correspondent to The Grandstander reports that callers to New York stations are demanding that the Yankees ditch Curtis Granderson (the presumptive MVP in the American League) because "he strikes out too much." Good thing there wasn't sports talk radio back when Babe Ruth was striking out a lot for the Yankees back in the 1920's and '30.

Watch but Don't Bet Department: The Steelers win over the Titans at home today, but it won't be easy.

Those MLB Division Series sure were great theater, weren't they? Hope the two LCS can live up to them.

To Absent Friends: Al Davis, who WAS the Oakland Raiders died yesterday. While he was certainly not a likable guy to the teams that opposed him, his place in football history cannot be disputed. The NFL-AFL merger was going to happen eventually, but it happened a lot sooner when Davis became commissioner of the AFL, and established NFL bigdomes realized that they had no stomach for a street fight led by Davis. And has football in Pittsburgh ever been so intense as it was when the Steelers and Raiders met so often and with so much on the line in the 1970's? Davis was as big a part of that as anyone involved. You wonder what will happen to the Raiders now that Davis will no longer be there.

LCS Predictions

2011-10-08T19:16:00.002-04:00

After some scintillating Division Series, wherein the each of the three game fives (games five?) was better that the one which preceded it, I am ready to make my predictions for the League Championship Series. For those who don't remember, and who probably don't much care anyway, I went 2-2 in the four LDS, hitting on the Brewers and Rangers, and missing on the Yankees and Phillies.

ALCS

Not sure why I am not sold on the Rangers. After all, they ARE the defending AL champs. Maybe it is just the fact that as an AL team who plays most of their games well past my bed time, I am just not that familiar with them. Also, I look at the Tigers and see a team that seemed to get better as the season went along, and then beat the team with baseball's best record in the Division Series. So I'll go with the Tigers to take down the AL gonfalon.

And speaking of the Tigers, I love seeing Lloyd McClendon in their dugout. Yeah, the Pirates weren't any good while he managed them, but I liked the guy, liked the passion he brought to the job. Plus, he made regular use of the word "flummoxed." How can you not like him?

NLCS

Logic tells you to go with the hot hand, and that is the Cardinals, who stormed through September to win the wild card spot, and who then beat the Phillies in the LDS by beating Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, and Roy Halladay. Logic also makes you see that the Brewers were the team that outdistanced those same Cardinals over 162 games in the NL Central. Prince Fielder will no doubt be leaving Milwaukee after this season, so this may be the Brewers last shot at taking it all. That degree of urgency will get them past the Cardinals and into the Fall Classic.

As always, watch, but don't bet.

Book Review: "Sex On the Moon"

2011-10-07T12:11:00.003-04:00

OK, the book is not as salacious as the title would suggest, and the subtitle fills you in: "The Amazing Story of the Most Audacious Heist in History." It's author is Ben Mezrich who has written "Bringing down the House" which was a terrific book about a group of MIT students who formed a black jack team to "bring down the house" at various casinos, but ran into some nasty trouble in Las Vegas. It ws made into a good movie called "21" that starred Kevin Spacey. His more recent book was "The Accidental Billionaires" about Mark Zuckerberg and the founding of Facebook, which was made into the really good movie, "The Social Network."

"Sex On the Moon" is about a brilliant young student (you sensing a theme here among Mezrich's topics?) named Thad Roberts who secures a three year internship with NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. He wants to be an astronaut, and he just might have done so, but.... There's always a "but" in stories like this, right? Somewhere along the way, Roberts gets the idea of stealing actual moon rocks from NASA's labs. Moon rocks may well be the most valuable substance on earth considering that there only about 800 pounds of them brought back by the Apollo astronauts, and it's not likely that any more will be arriving on earth in the foreseeable future, if ever.

Why does Roberts do this? Well, a lot of it involves his own insecurities, and, as you might expect, a woman was involved. He literally wanted to "give her the moon."

It's a pretty interesting tale, but I did not find it as compelling a read as "Bringing Down the House", and I confess that I did not read "Accidental Billionaires." I actually found myself feeling sorry for Roberts, a brilliant kid, but a social nerd, and not at all smart enough to see how stupid he was in considering, executing, and (trying to) complete his audacious caper.

Actually, if you just Google "Thad Roberts Moon Rocks" it will give you all you really need to know about the story. Then, you can wait until the movie comes out.

Movie Review: "A Bronx Tale"

2011-10-07T11:48:00.005-04:00

Loyal Reader BigPoppy has long been recommending that I see the 1993 Robert DeNiro directed movie, "A Bronx Tale." Finally, it has come to pass that I have now seen this gem (thanks solely to the BigPoppy's loan of his personal DVD of the movie), and what a great movie!

The movie stars DeNiro as Lorenzo, a New York City bus driver, and Chaz Palminteri as Sonny, the neighborhood wiseguy who holds court over this one little neighborhood in the Bronx. It is told from the point of view of Lorenzo's son, Calogero, or "C". In 1960, nine year old Calogero witnesses a murder, doesn't properly identify the shooter, and is then taken under the wing of Sonny. What happens then is not what you might think. C does not fall into Sonny's way of life (as happened to Henry in "Goodfellas"), although he is surely tempted. The honest working guy Lorenzo battles to keep his son on the straight an narrow as he grows into a teenager (the movie jumps ahead in time to Calogero at age 17 in 1968).

It's a mob movie, it's a movie about family values, it's a coming of age movie, it's funny, and it's deadly serious. And it is based in fact: Palminteri wrote the screenplay for the movie based upon his own one act play, which was based on his own life growing up in the Bronx. Turns our that Chaz is a nickname for Calogero.

I don't honestly even remember this movie when it came out, and it is difficult to find today. I could not get it from the library, and I am told that you can't even get it on Netflix, so many thanks to BigPoppy for the loan of his DVD. It is worth keeping your eye out for this one if you've never seen it. It is well worth watching.

Oh and for fans of The Sopranos, the role of Lorenzo's wife is played by Kathleen Narducci who played Charmaine Bucco, and the 17 year old Calogero was played by Lillo Brancato (who, btw, looks enough like Robert DeNiro to actually be his son) who played Matthew Bevilaqua, who met an untimely end at the hands of Tony Soprano himself while sipping a diet soda, "the last thing you're ever going to taste." And it could have had an even stronger Sopranos connection. According to IMDB, there was to be a scene where Sonny's mob boss was to pay him a visit, and that don was to be played by Frank Vincent, aka Phil Leotardo, aka Billy Bats from "Goodfellas." It was eventually decided to leave that scene out of the movie.

Big Thumbs Up from The Grandstander for this one.

To Absent Friends - Steve Jobs

2011-10-07T11:37:00.004-04:00

As I type up this blog on my home, laptop computer, listing to music on my iPod, music that I may have purchased from the iTunes store, after having already perused several out of town newspapers on my iPad2, let me be among the many to note the passing of Apple founder Steve Jobs. Actually, the previous sentence could make me come across as an insufferable bore (please hold your comments on this point), but it was really written to make the point of the impact that Mr. Jobs has had on the world and on almost everybody's everyday lives. Perhaps it isn't often that we recognize true genius in our midst, but that was certainly not the case with Steve Jobs.

He and his company, Apple, truly did change the world, and it was perhaps best summarized in the statement released by President Obama: "His ultimate tribute is the fact that most people may have learned of his passing on a device that he invented."

RIP Steve Jobs.

Quickie Premonition and Quickie Thoughts on Yesterday

2011-10-02T12:45:00.002-04:00

Anxiously awaiting the Steelers-Texans kick off. Somehow, I do not have real good feeling for this one. Unless Rooney U. Plays a lot better that they did last week, I fear that the Texans will win this one.

Hope I'm wrong.

Hey, did anyone watch the Wisconsin and Nebraska game last night? Now THAT was what you would call High Octane Football.

And I happened to stumble upon the Navy and Air Force game and saw the last few minutes of regulation and the overtime. What a finish! No one much cares about a game between Navy and Air Force, but, trust me, if that one was between a couple of SEC biggies, it would be dubbed an Instant Classic, and the ESPN boys would be slobbering all over each other raving about it.

And On The High School Front...

2011-10-01T09:38:00.002-04:00

First, a disclaimer. I don't follow high school sports with the exception of Central basketball and soccer, and North Allegheny girls' soccer for familial reasons. Oh, I'll check the scores to see how Central or NA is doing in football and hoops, but that's about it, so I claim no knowledge, expertise, and a very limited emotional attachment.

That said, I note today that Gateway High School defeated Norwin High School in football last night by a score of 85-0. That's right...EIGHTY-FIVE to ZERO.

Again, this is just a score in the newspaper. I don't know when, or even if, the Gateway coach cleared his bench and put the water boys in against Norwin, don't know if they were calling times out in the fourth quarter, don't know if they were still passing after they got up by, say, forty or so points, and I am sure that the Gateway coach will thoroughly justify this performance and tell everyone what a great win it was for his "program", and he will no doubt say something like "what was I supposed to tell my fifth string kids? Lie down out there?" But I'm sorry, there is no reason on this earth that a high school team should beat another high school team by a score of 85-0.

These are not the paid professionals of the NFL, nor the scholarship athletes of the NCAA, but high school kids. Many of them aren't old enough to drive a car yet. It's one thing to tell the Steelers to man up and play better when they get beat up by the Ravens in the season opener, but should those 14-15-16 year old kids from Norwin be held to the same standard? I hardly think so.

I guess this just makes me a bleeding heart, but I wonder how those coaches and kids from Norwin are feeling this morning.

Division Series Predictions

2011-09-30T10:36:00.002-04:00

Here you go, short and sweet, predictions for the Division Series:

Yankees over Tigers

Rangers over Rays

Phillies over Cardinals

Brewers over Diamondbacks

No special analysis on these picks. I'll save those for the LCS's.

I will say this, I am looking forward to the Sabbathia-Verlander pitching match-up tonight. This is kind of like seeing Koufax go up against Marichal back in my formative years. Let's hope it lives up the the expectations.

Let's hope for a full five games for each series!

72-90

2011-09-29T18:18:00.002-04:00

Well, the Pirates season went out with both a bang (six of them, actually - the number of HR's hit by the Brewers in the last two games) and a whimper - Pedro Alvarez looking at a called third for the final out of the season. If there could have been a more appropriate and symbolic ending to the 2011 season, I can't think of it at the moment.

Let me pose a question to you. If, in the dead of winter prior to the opening of Spring Training, if someone had guaranteed that the Pirates would improve their sorry 2010 record by 15 games, would you have signed on for that?

And let me present a quote from the November 15, 2010 edition of this blog, made upon the hiring of Clint Hurdle as new Pirates skipper:

"He also knows what lies ahead. If he can coax 70 wins from this team, I would make him an early candidate for Manager if the Year in the National League for next year."

Based on those two suppositions, you'd have to say that the 2012 Pirates season was a successful one wouldn't you? But of course, to those of us who followed it intently, it sure isn't that simple. We all remember the giddy days of July when the Bucs hit their high water mark at 51-44, and how thay sat all alone in first place after 100 games with a 53-47 record. Then there was that 101st game in Atlanta, the 19 inning "Jerry Meals Game" after which it all seemed to come crashing down upon the Buccos.

Of course, it isn't THAT simple either. No doubt you have all seen the various statistical comparisons of the First 100 Game Pirates vs. the Last 62 Game Pirates, and know that the downfall can be explained very simply, and the reason is as old as baseball itself: the pitching, so stellar, so over-achieving for three and one-half months, simply gave out and came crashing back to earth. This, combined with an offense that never was very potent, spelled the end not only of division title hopes, but hopes for the end of the losing seasons streak.

While I agree that the downfall of the pitching staff caused the downfall of the Pirates, to me, the single biggest story and theme of this season was the failure of Pedro Alvarez to do anything at all at the plate. Coming off a rookie season that filled us with so much hope and optimism, Alvarez had a season of hitting below .200 with only 4 HR and 19 RBI while spending time on the disabled list and having two return trips to the minor leagues. At a game in June with some SABR friends, Len Martin said that Alvarez was the Pirates linchpin, not only for this season, but for all the seasons to come in the Pirates immediate future. As the team heads into the off season, Alvarez is in my mind the most important player and biggest question mark before the team. Was 2011 an aberration, a bump in the road on the way to a stellar career? Will Alvarez, indeed, be the next Willie Stargell? Or the next Brad Eldred?

As fall fades to winter, I am guessing that the optimism that springs eternal in all baseball fans will cause the sorry finish of the Pirates' season to fade, and that memories of the excitement, the baseball excitement, that returned to Pittsburgh in June and July will be what remains. How cool was it to see the Pirates at the top or near the top of the standings everyday, how great it was to look forward to getting to the ballpark or turning on the TV to see the next game, even when you knew in your heart-of-hearts, that, no, they weren't going to win the division, but wouldn't it be great to hang in until after Labor Day and then finish over .500.

To that end, when I look back upon this season, I will remember two very specific games:

June 8. Pirates 3 Diamondbacks 2. The Pirates staged a terrific come from behind win the night before to get to within one game of .500, Zach Duke was returning to PNC Park, and Dan Bonk reached into his own wallet, paid his way into PNC Park, and jumped on the Pirates Bandwagon. At Dan's instigation, Len Martin, Jim Haller, he, and I met up and went to that June 8 game, and, serendipitously, also met up with SABR buddy Marky Bilson as well. In extra innings, the Pirates fell behind the D'backs, and tied the game on a clutch Neil Walker RBI in the bottom of the 10th, and the game was won in the 12th on an Andrew McCutchen walk-off HR. It was a great ball game and a great time spent with some good friends. And the Pirates hit the .500 mark for the latest time in a season since 2003.

July 8. Pirates 7 Cubs 4. Marilyn and I headed down on a Friday night and were part of a sell-out crowd that witnessed what forever will be called the "Mike McKenry Game." It was a back and forth game, several lead changes, and all seemed lost in the eighth inning when McKenry worked and worked and worked the count on Carlos Marmol in a terrific at bat that ended with his first major league home run, a three run shot that stunned the Cubs, caused the crowd to explode, and keyed a win that put the Pirates over .500, where, I believe they stayed until into early August. The most unlikely guy on the team hit perhaps the most important home run in the 11 year history of PNC Park.

Walking over the Clemente Bridge after both of those games was like leaving Three Rivers Stadium back in the day after Steelers playoff wins. No exaggeration. The Pirates front office folks who continually say that ".500 is not the goal" should have been walking over the bridge those nights.

After a scintillating last day of the season wherein the Wild Card winners were decided in amazing fashion, we now await the baseball post-season. Will attempt to squeeze out a predictions posting for you tomorrow. Can't wait, can you?

Friday Night Thoughts

2011-09-23T19:30:00.003-04:00

Some quick thoughts on a Friday night....

The Pirates start the weekend with a record of 69-87 and have six games remaining. As each miserable Bucco season unfolds, the goals become more and more compressed, so here are my final thoughts for the last six games:

If they go 4-2, they will avoid a 90 loss season. Isn't that a grand goal to have when in July we were talking about a possible pennant chase? In all honesty, I don't think that they're going to achieve four wins in these last six games, not when three of them will be played in Miller Park

If they go 1-5, they will have won 70 games, the number that I said would represent a successful season if they achieved it. I think that they will win at least one of these final six games, but the route that they have taken to get to 70 wins will not make this season seem to be the success that we might have envisioned it to be back on Opening Day. To further that thought, I would suggest that you check out Dejan Kovacevic's column in today's Trib.

*****
All speculation on the matter ended earlier in the week when Pedro Alvarez indicated that he would not be playing Winter League baseball, despite the Pirates' request that he do so. Opinion is divided on the matter. Both Gene Collier and Bob Smizik feel that it is probably a good idea that Alvarez hang it up for the winter, clear his head, and come to Spring Training with clean slate. Kovacevic's has blasted Pedro for his "selfish" decision not to honor the team's (which has paid him $6 million, by the way) request. I can see both sides of the argument, and probably lean to the Collier/Smizik opinion, but I will say this. If Pedro begins 2012 with the same level of performance we saw this season, his decision not to do as the team asked concerning winter ball will set him up, fairly or unfairly,to join Derek Bell and Kordell Stewart in the pantheon of Pittsburgh athletes who will get merciless treatment form the fans in the stands .

Old Movie Review - "Ace in the Hole"

2011-09-22T16:30:00.004-04:00

Regular readers are aware of the fact that I have been on a Billy Wilder kick in recent weeks after reading a biography of him during the summer. This quest was rewarded earlier this week, thanks to Turner Classic Movies and the great invention of this era, the DVR, when I watched Wilder's 1951 movie, "Ace in the Hole" starring Kirk Douglas and Jan Sterling.

In this movie, Douglas plays a many fired newspaper reporter who finds himself working for a paper in Albuquerque, NM. After a year of looking for a story that will get him out of the sticks and back in the big time, he stumbles upon a guy who has been trapped in a mine cave-in. This is his big chance. When he learns that it a relatively simple procedure would enable the rescuers to free the trapped guy within 24 hours, he manipulates a crooked sheriff and mine engineer into using an alternate rescue plan that would take six or seven days to release the guy. By doing this, he can manipulate and milk the story to his own advantage, drawing maximum attention to himself, of course.

This begins a huge media circus that soon careens completely out of control. This was Wilder's follow-up to his classic "Sunset Boulevard" and it was not well received by critics at the time. Perhaps they didn't like how Wilder held up the mirror before them. It was re-released under a different title, "The Big Carnival", and it still never took hold. It wasn't until many years after release, when it appeared on television and later on video and DVD that the movie came to be recognized as the gem that it is. Woody Allen, for example, considers this one of his all-time favorite movies.

As I said, this movie does not paint a flattering picture of the news media, and keep in mind that this movie was made in 1951, long before 24 cable news outlets - and not to mention Larry King! - made the idea of media circuses a common event. Wilder didn't know it then, but he was making a movie about O.J. Simpson, Jon Benet Ramsey, Lacey & Scott Peterson, and Michael Jackson, or anyone of dozens of stories we could all mention if we thought hard enough.

Kirk Douglas is great in this movie. One Internet source I found states that Douglas not winning an Oscar for this movie is a classic case of when the Oscars got it wrong. (In case you are wondering, Humphrey Bogart won that year for "The African Queen.") He is not a nice guy or a likable character, to say the least, but what a performance!

This movie also contains a classic Wilder line. When Douglas tells Jan Sterling, the wife of the trapped guy, to go to a prayer service because it will look good for the papers, she tells him "I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons." That's right up there with "it's the pictures that got small" in my book.

So, keep your eye out for "Ace in the Hole." It's a great movie.

In My Mind I'm Going to Carolina....

2011-09-19T15:12:00.007-04:00

Last week, Marilyn and I took off for a brief trip to North Carolina (and, apropos to the title of this post, we actually did cross the James Taylor Bridge at one point in our journey) to visit our long time friends, Sandy and Gary Carroll, who retired and moved to Southern Pines, NC several years back. It was a most enjoyable trip.

Sandy and Gary have a beautiful home in a golf course community called Long Leaf in Southern Pines. Here is the view, literally, from their back porch:

Not bad, huh? This is the first hole at Long Leaf, which I double bogeyed!

We spent much of our three days in Southern Pines catching up with Sandy and Gary, enjoying their hospitality, eating at some very fine restaurants, and touring the area, including a visit to the famous Pinehurst Golf Resort. It was at Pinehurst's Number 2 course where Payne Stewart won the US Open in 1999 a few months before he died in a plane crash. A statue of Stewart commemorating that win stands just off the 18th green at the #2 Course.

As referenced above, I also played with Gary and two of his playing partners at Long Leaf on Thursday. It was a fun course to play and an enjoyable round. I even played fairly well, carding a 53-50 for the day.

On Friday morning, we left Southern Pines, and drove to Durham to visit our niece Bonny and her husband, Michael and daughters Mara and Sophie. It was a short but delightful visit. On Friday evening, we went to the "American Tobacco District" in downtown Durham. This is an area of old tobacco factories and warehouses that have been reclaimed and redeveloped into offices, retail space, restaurants, and condos surrounding a very cool public gathering space, and beneath an old Lucky Strike water tower, where we saw a very cool outdoor concert. The picture below will give you some idea of what a neat venue it is.

It was an all together delightful experience to get together with old friends and distant family members over the four days we were there.

The trip through North Carolina was also of interest to an old TV fan, because you pass near and through the town of Mt. Airy, NC, which is famed for being the birthplace of Andy Griffith. While we did not stop and visit Mt. Airy, you can surmise from the signs you see along the way on the Andy Griffith Parkway that the area is milking the Griffith connection for all it's worth. The famous fictional town of Mayberry is said to be based upon Mt. Airy, and one of the geographic landmarks is Pilot Mountain, from which I am sure Mayberry's neighboring town of Mt. Pilot was derived.

While driving through this area, we saw signs for the following businesses: Mt. Pilot Storage, Mayberry Camp Grounds, Mayberry Shazzam Go-Carts, and Aunt Bea's Gentlemen's Club.

OK, I made that last one up, but the others are real.

On the way home, we pulled off at a scenic overlook, something that we never do, and got a close up look at the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virgina. It was quite a sight, as you can see below.

Most of the drive is spent driving through the state of West Virgina, and I will put aside all West Virgina jokes and tell you that it is beautiful country. I can only imagine how gorgeous it might be two or three weeks from now when all the leaves turn to their fall colors.

The only negative for the entire trip came when we were within shouting distance of home. On Saturday afternoon, just north of Canonsburg on I-79, we hit road construction and it then took us 64 minutes - yes, that is 1 hour and 4 minutes - to drive the SIX MILES between Canonsburg and Bridgeville. We are grateful to PENNDOT for making it such a pleasure to drive in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

And I will close by giving a shout out to one of the great inventions of the era - our Garmin GPS system. That thing took us on our 1,000+ mile round trip journey without missing a turn. How does it do that? We both were lamenting how much we would have loved to have had such a gadget while working and traveling the hinterlands back in the day.

But as with all trips, it is always good to be back home.

Hail to Pitt??

2011-09-18T11:34:00.002-04:00

So, back in 2003, Boston College, Miami, and Virginia Tech left (abandoned?) the Big East to join the Atlantic Coast Conference. At the time, both the three schools and the ACC were decried for their greed and overall lack of integrity. Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg stood tall as a beacon of integrity as he led the charge to hold things together and keep the Big East in tact.

Today, you all know the story....Pitt, under the leadership of Chancellor Nordenberg, as announced that it is bolting the Big East and heading to the Atlantic Coast Conference. So much for integrity, so much for loyalty to your conference brethren. Hey, just exactly whose ox is being gored here?

Of course, if you have been following college athletics for the last few years, ever since the ACC's original raid on the Big East in 2003, really, you know that it isn't really that simple, that black and white, and you also know that the concept of "integrity" has very little place in big time college athletics. Pitt can certainly defend their move to the ACC, and everyone will be dancing the happy dance of joy when North Carolina and Duke come to the Peterson Center on a regular basis. Hey, I'll still be a Pitt fan, so if you want to call me a hypocrite, go ahead, but the whole thing still makes you want to take a shower after you read about it.

Still, I'd love to overhear the next conversation between Nordenberg and his counterpart at Texas Christian, who were lured into joining the Big East beginning next year.

Football Weekend...and a Baseball Item

2011-09-11T19:38:00.002-04:00

As it happened, today was the Stonebrook Village picnic. Because of that, I knew that I was not going to be able to watch the Steelers-Ravens game. So, I set the DVR before I left with the idea that I would zip through the game tonight. Well, we did have a radio at the picnic shelter, so I was aware of how the game was unfolding.

I am happy to report that I came home with the knowledge that I have three hours of my life back, since I intend to delete that game without even giving it a glance. Since I saw very little other than the first quarter, and only heard bits and pieces on the radio, I can make no knowledgeable comment on it, other than saying that sometimes a blow out loss can be more easily overcome than a heartbreaking, last minute loss by a touchdown or a field goal. Just ask Notre Dame about that after their game with Michigan last night. No, there are no what-ifs and might-have-beens in a game like that. Just an old fashioned ass kicking that you can file away and forget.

Speaking of that Notre Dame - Michigan game....WOW. That was one amazing football game last night. In case you missed it, three touchdowns and three lead changes in the final 1:12 of the game. An absolutely amazing ball game. If you were rooting for ND, it was a crushing loss, but even that shouldn't lessen you appreciation for such a great ball game.

The only thing about that game that ticked me off was the post-game, on-the-field interview with Michigan coach Brady Hoke. Instead of being caught up in the euphoria of such a remarkable victory, he resorted to the worst kind of coach speak and talked about the mistakes his team made, and said how they all "still had a lot of work to do." Geez, Coach, way to stick a pin in the balloons of all of your players. What a horse's ass.

Pitt now stands at 2-0, although you wouldn't know it from listening to the talk show callers. I do have to say that a six point win over the University of Maine was probably not what Pitt was expecting when they scheduled this game. Things aren't going to get any easier, for the "high octane" Panthers, not even in the weak Big East. They do say that teams do get better as a season progresses. Let's hope so for the Panthers' sake.

In other news, Penn State gets drubbed by Alabama in Happy Valley yesterday. No surprise there, and the Joe Paterno rumblings go on and get louder and louder.

And in baseball news, the Pirates announce a three year contract extension for GM Neal Huntington. A coincidence that the Pirates make this rather important announcement on the day that the Steelers open their season against perhaps their biggest rival in recent years? I think not. The team celebrated this news by losing to the Marlins, which completed a three game sweep for Florida. The season is sixteen games away from being mercifully concluded. Will take more time to discuss the season, GM Neal, and other such matters in the days ahead and when the season concludes in Milwaukee. How appropriate that the Bucco season will conclude in their personal graveyard, Miller Park.

They Say It's Your Birthday....

2011-09-11T12:01:00.003-04:00

Yes, today I celebrate one of those milestone birthdays that everyone both looks forward to and dreads. I will paraphrase the late Billy Wilder here (although he was speaking on the occasion of turning 90), and say that I try to think of myself as being comfortably middle-aged, until I realize that I don't know of anyone who is 120 years old. Oh, well.

However, I would rather reflect on a couple of aphorisms of one of the 20th centuries great philosophers, Satchel Paige.

"Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter."

"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?"

And perhaps, Satch's most famous.... "Don't look back, something might be gaining on you."

If you are looking for rules to live by, you could do a lot worse.

Are You Ready For Some Football????

2011-09-09T12:32:00.003-04:00

Well, with the Packers and Saints opening the season last night, it is time for The Grandstander's cutting edge preview of the upcoming NFL season.

Here you go...

In the AFC, the Steelers, Patriots, Jets, Ravens, and maybe the Chargers are all going to be pretty good. Also, with Peyton Manning out for up to three months, the Texans might finally sneak into the playoffs.

In the NFC, the Packers, Falcons, Eagles, and Saints are all going to be good.

From those ten teams listed above, the two Super Bowl participants will emerge.

There you have it, and that's as far out on a limb as I am gong to go. If you want more than that, read Peter King!

Here are a few more predictions:

The Lions are a dark horse in the NFC, and could sneak in as a wild card.

The Bengals, Browns, Bears and Redskins will all stink.

Phillip Rivers will receive accolades galore but the Chargers will still not make it past the first round of the playoffs.

On a more serious note, I do have high expectations for your Pittsburgh Steelers. I think that they will be an offensive powerhouse. My concern, and I have stated it here before, is that so many key players on defense are well into their thirties. I know that everyone had the same concerns last year, and the defense was the best in the NFL and the team made it to the Super Bowl, so why can't it happen again? Well, I hope that it does, but Father Time can be very cruel to athletes, and great teams can get "old" very quickly, almost overnight. Here's hoping younger guys like Woodley, Timmons, Gay, Hood, and Heyward can mix in with the older guys and make it a seamless transition.

As for that game last night, how awesome did the Packers look? Missing out on mini-camps and off-season OTA's really hurt them, didn't it?