The Grandstander Hits a Milestone!!

Yes, as the headline indicates, this is a Milestone posting for The Grandstander. It is Posting Number 100!! I started this whole thing up a little over three months ago on January 8, and now we hit the century mark. And they said it wouldn't last!! My thanks go to all dozen or so of you who read this, and special thanks go out to those of you who post responses. I know that Google makes it a bit cumbersome to post a response, so I appreciate the efforts that you all make to respond, and I hope that more readers will continue to do so.

I was wondering how to make Post #100 special, and what better way to do that than to set forth, with apologies to Myron Cope, a fresh batch of Shirt Pocket Notes.....

*** Ben Roethlisberger. Wow, what can I add to the mountains of words that have already been spoken on this subject? To call this whole affair low rent, tawdry, and disgusting, wouldn't even begin to cover it. When Ben said in his prepared statement the other night that he wants to still be a "role model for kids" my thought was "man, has that ship ever sailed."

*** What do the Steelers do now? Obviously, Roethlisberger is a great football player, a QB who comes to a team every third generation or so. If your goal is to win and win championships, you just don't jettison a QB like this as you would, say, a Super Bowl MVP wide receiver. On the other hand, the Steelers do love that "Steelers Way" line that they talk about. That said, I see a suspension for Ben, but I'd be surprised if he was not the QB for the team in 2010.

*** I wonder if we REALLY knew about the character of the 53 guys who comprise any given Steelers roster, would the "Steelers Way" just be so much B.S.? James Harrison, Cedric Wilson, Najeh Davenport, and Jeff Reed aren't exactly guys you'd want your sister to date are they?

*** I made a comment the other day that these types of incidents didn't seem to happen when Bill Cowher was the Head Coach, but I believe that a couple of the guys listed in the previous paragraph were here under Cowher's watch. And, of course, Ernie Holmes did his thing on the Ohio turnpike when Chas Noll was in charge.

*** Maybe all this proves is that no organization in any sport is exempt from these types of problems when you are dealing with a bunch of elite athletes with a sense of entitlement who have been coddled and pampered and had their butts kissed since they were about ten years old. Perhaps everybody, including the Steelers, have been kidding themselves when they talk about the "Steelers Way" being different from the rest of the NFL and other sports.

*** When I think of how the Yinzers of "Steelers Nation" ran Neil O'Donnell and Kordell Stewart out of town for the crime not winning a Super Bowl, I don't know how Roethlisberger is going to survive in Pittsburgh. In his first game if the season, he better win the game, throw four TD's and pass for 350 yards - and then keep getting better from there on. I can just imagine the loyal Steelers fans when Ben throws his first INT at Heinz Field this season.

*** Interesting reading two extremes in the blogs on this issue. In his weekly column in the Beaver County Times, Mark Madden makes the case for Ben-as-Martyr. On the other end of the spectrum, John Stiegerwald is ready to round up a lynch mob and string Roethlisberger up from the nearest tall tree. Not that either of THESE guys should be taken seriously.

*** For a guy who said he had no case, that DA in Georgia really tried and convicted Roethlisberger during that press conference, didn't he? Again, I am not an apologist for Roethlisberger in this whole crummy affair, but is what the DA did in that news conference correct? Seems he threw away the concept of "innocent until proven guilty."

*** Speaking of John Stiegerwald, every time I go to his blog, I vow that it will be the last time I do so. It is one thing to don the persona of a cranky curmudgeon (hey, I do it myself on occasion), and it is another matter entirely to be just a total miserable ass. As for his beating the Roethlisberger Matter to death, my bet is that Ben stiffed him for an interview once and now Stiegy is getting his payback.

*** Perhaps the best writing about the Ben matter has come from Bob Smizik in his blog in the Post-Gazette online edition.

*** Speaking of careers gone wrong, it doesn't look like Tiger Woods is ever going to recover in the court of public opinion from the mess he has made of his life.

*** Phil Mikelson's win at the Masters with his wife Amy appearing in public for the first time since her cancer diagnosis sure made Tiger's travails seem all the worse, didn't it?

*** That said, I say Woods wins at least one major this year, and that he will break Nicklaus' career record of 18 majors by, say, 2013.

*** The Pirates. Zach Duke sure has looked good in his two starts, but who else has? The lopsided nature of their five losses is alarming.

*** I noticed a paragraph in Sports Briefs the other day that Canada won the World Curling Championship over the weekend, and that the USA lost to Norway in the bronze medal match. Did John Shuster spit the bit again for the USA?

*** Kudos to MLB umpire Joe West for calling out MLB sacred cows the Yankees and Red Sox and their propensity for four hour ballgames. Of course, you might wonder why West and his fellow men in blue don't enforce the pace of play rules when these teams meet, but that, I suppose, is another issue. I had to laugh when guys like Derek Jeter and Dustin Pedroia acted with such outrage over West's comments. I guess the Yanks and Sawx feel that they operate on a different plane and cannot be criticized. For anything.

*** I think that the length of MLB games would be reduced DRAMATICALLY if batting gloves were eliminated. Watching guys fiddle with their batting gloves between EVERY PITCH is enough to drive you crazy.

*** Why do guys need batting gloves anyway? Mays, Mantle, Aaron, Clemente, and Williams did pretty well without them.

*** The NFL gets criticized, not without justification, as being the No Fun League for, among other things, their nitpicking enforcement of how the players wear their uniforms. I think that the NFL might be onto something there whenever I watch a major league baseball game. How players wear their uniforms borders on being a disgrace. Watching the Pirates-Giants game yesterday...yoi! Pedro Sandoval was wearing a uni that was baggy and his shirt was almost hanging out of his pants. Lastings Milledge's flashy shoes. We all know about the Brewers and how they untuck at the end of a game. And don't get me started on baggy pants that cover the shoe tops. Oh, and then there are the guys with so much pine tar on their batting helmets that the logo is obscured. Go find a picture of Bob Gibson or Willie Mays or Roberto Clemente from the 1960's. THAT is how a uniform should look on a major league ballplayer.

*** Have been catching up with the AMC TV series Mad Men on DVD. We are about two-thirds of the way through season two, and the season three DVD set arrived from Amazon today. Did people in business offices smoke THAT much in the 60's? Did people really have bars in their offices like that? And did we really treat women that shittily back then? This is really a good show. Good stories, good acting, and good story lines. I am not surprised that it has won so many Emmys and Golden Globes.

*** We also just watch the first season of Nurse Jackie, the Showtime series with Edie Falco on DVD. Another good show.

*** Speaking of good TV shows, we never miss Modern Family every Wednesday on ABC.

*** On the local TV front, watching the KDKA news the other day, fatso John Shumway was "live at Steeler headquarters on the Southside" covering the Big Ben Affair. He was wearing a jacket with a Steelers logo on it. Not sure if that passes the good journalism sniff test.

*** I was sad to see in the PG this morning that Robert Morris University is putting their downtown "Pittsburgh Center" up for sale and moving all operations to the Moon Township campus. From the enrollment figures that were cited, I suppose that this is a sound move and an inevitable one. Going to college in an eight story building that overlooked the exercise yard of the County Jail was certainly not the "college experience" of a rolling campus and ivy covered walls, but I received a good education at the RMC "Pittsburgh Center" and, more importantly, it is where Marilyn and I met. I hate to think that the empty classroom where we exchanged our first kiss will now be just another cubicle in a soulless office building.

*** How about that Larry King? Married eight times to seven different women, he is getting a divorce because he is having an affair with the sister of wife number eight!!! Larry is 76; the sister is 45. My mother had a saying about things like this: "There's no fool like an old fool."

*** Is there a more perfect food than a can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup?

*** I will close on a serious note. As most of you know, Marilyn completed the RCIA program and was welcomed into the Catholic Church at the recent Easter Vigil mass. It was a beautiful ceremony and it capped what has been a wonderful experience for BOTH of us. And I can't describe how great it has been for us to go to Communion together these past two weeks.

*** Finally thanks again for being here for the first 100 Posts. Tell your friends and stick around for the next hundred!!!