To Absent Friends - Tony Roberts

Tony Roberts

1939-2025

The news arrived yesterday that actor Tony Roberts had died at the age of 85.  As his New York Times obituary pointed out, Roberts is best known for his roles in six Woody Allen films, usually playing Allen's best friend who tries to keep all of Woody's characters' various neuroses in check.  He also had an accomplished career on stage in New York, which is how he met Allen in the first place.  The two became fast friends well beyond their professional relationship.  Roberts' IMDB profile lists 68 acting credits in both feature films and television.

Perhaps his most notable role came in "Annie Hall" when he played the best friend of Allen's Alvy Singer.  He played an actor who moved on to Hollywood and was constantly trying to get Alvy to abandon New York City and come to California.  Alvy, of course, resisted, and it led to this great piece of dialog:

ALVY:  You're an actor.  You should be doing Shakespeare in the Park.

ROB: I did Shakespeare in the Park, Max.  I got mugged.  I was playing Richard the Second and two guys in leather jackets stole my leotard.

( I tried to find a clip of that scene on YouTube, but was unsuccessful.)

And it was Roberts' character in that movie who also introduced the acronym "VPL" when observing certain facets of how women were dressed at at Hollywood party.

I can also remember Roberts playing the Deputy Mayor of New York City in the original version of "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three".  He was terrific in the part.

I always hate to it see when someone like this leaves us.

RIP Tony Roberts

Roberts, Allen, and Diane Keaton

"Annie Hall"

"The Sequel" by Jean Hanff Korelitz

 

Back in July, 2021 (was it really that one ago?) I wrote THIS REVIEW of Jean Hanff Korelitz' novel "The Plot".  As you may remember, or will see if you click on the link, I thought it was terrific book, and I gave it a full Four Star Grandstander rating.  Three years later, Ms Korelitz has cranked out a follow-up to that great book, and it is called, fittingly, "The Sequel".

This in indeed a sequel, although it includes a whole new cast of characters. It takes place several years after the time setting of "The Plot", and the main character from that novel, Jake Bonner, is now dead, a suicide victim, and the protagonist in this one is his widow, Anna Williams-Bonner.   

Living the good life off of the earnings from Jake's blockbuster best-seller, Anna decides to write a novel of her own, and THAT novel becomes a best-seller, but not just a best-seller.  It is a literary best-seller.  And guess what happens, Anna starts receiving threatening anonymous messages just like Jake did.  Could it involve something about the story Jake used to pen his best-seller, and could Anna herself have played a part in the events surrounding that story?  How could she?  She didn't even know Jake back then, right?

I wish that I could say that I liked "The Sequel" as much as I did "The Plot", but, alas, I cannot.  I thought this one was a bit too convoluted as Korelitz wound through the stories within the stories of this particular Story.   The notes on the dust jacket of the book tells us that Korelitz "gives the readers an antihero to root for while illuminating and satirizing the world of publishing."  As to the first part of that, I am not sure that Anna is someone that you want to "root for"; you can draw your own conclusions if you read this.

As to the second part, as I read this, I wondered of the main point of the novel was to skewer the world of book publishing, and taking shots at the snobbery among writers and publishers concerning works of so-called "literary fiction" versus "genre fiction", and I'm still not totally sure upon which side Korelitz sits.

A disappointing Two Stars from The Grandstander.

Chiefs and Eagles and Pirates, Oh My!

Nobody asked me but.....

Super Bowl LIX (59) will be played in ten days, and it will feature, in case you hadn't heard, a rematch of Super Bowl LVII (57): Eagles vs. Chiefs.  I heard scuttlebutt on the talk shows earlier this week that this is a boring match-up, that people are tired of the Chiefs, tired of them benefiting from crooked referees, and that they are going to boycott the game and not watch it.  

Okay, I get it that the football world outside of Missouri is afflicted with a case of "Chiefs Fatigue", and I will never presume to tell you what you should or should not watch on television, but if you tell me that a football game that will feature these two guys....

....playing in it will be "boring", well, I do feel confident in saying that you either just don't know or don't like football as it is played in the NFL.

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As for the officiating, yes, that call of a completed Chiefs pass was probably incorrect, and Josh Allen probably did make a first down on that sneak at midfield (I thought that he did), and no doubt this calls benefited the Chiefs.  What also benefited the Chiefs was the Bills inability to gain two yards not once but twice on two point conversion attempts. That probably  benefited the Chiefs just as much if not more than those disputed calls.

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Not much was made of Sean McDermott's decision, early in the game, to take a successful PAT conversion off of the board after a KC penalty and go for a two point conversion, which failed.  I thought that was dumb at that point in the game.  Isn't is one of football's hoariest old maxims "never take points off of the board"?

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After watching tight ends like Travis Kelce, Zach Ertz, Dallas Goedert, and, yes, Mark Andrews, I found myself wondering if perhaps Pat Freiermuth just might not the elite tight end that Steelers fans think he is.

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As of this afternoon, the Chiefs remain a 1.5 point favorite over the Eagles.      I am kinda sorta leaning towards betting on the Eagles with the 1.5, but have we all not learned how foolish it is to bet against Patrick Mahomes?  Back in November, I dd place a $5 wager on the Eagles to win the Super Bowl and that will pay me $37.50 if they win, so I will be rooting for them from that selfish standpoint.  Two weeks ago, I also put $5 on the Chiefs, and that will pay back $15.50, so I'm covered either way.  (Never mind those other wagers made on the Bills, Commandeers, and even the Steelers when they were sitting at 10-3.)

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Let's shift to baseball and our Pittsburgh Pirates before I close out.

Let's say we are back in the first week of November and the World Series had just concluded.  If someone told you that the Pirates, facing a challenging off-season and in a desperate effort to improve the team, would seek out and then eventually sign Adam Frazier, a former Pirates All-Star, but now a journeyman jabronie.  (If you doubt that statement, Frazier hit .204 with an OPS of .576 in 104 games with the Royals in 2024.)  What would you have said to that?

I would have said that, no, not even the Pirates would be that cheap and/or stupid and/or tone-deaf to their fan base to do something like that.  I would have been wrong, because this week, that is exactly what the Pirates did.  They have added yet another utility player (he can play all infield positions and both corner outfield spots!!!) to a team that is filled with utility players.

He's back!!!

I'm figuring that Frazier probably told them that he would be willing to embarrass himself any number of times and be willing to have Sheltie use him a pitcher in blow out games.

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I would dearly love to ask any member of the Pirates Brain (?) Trust to tell me why we should have any reason, any reason at all, to expect this team to be better and be able to compete for spot in MLB's watered down post season in 2025.  I would bet that the first thing they would tell you would be "Well, we'll have Paul Skenes for he entire season this year."  

Okay, but what would that mean exactly?  Maybe six to eight additional starts for Skenes and maybe six more wins for the team?  If so, that will jump them from 76 wins to 82.  Just above .500, aka mediocrity.

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In case you are wondering, the Over/Under for Pirates wins in 2025 is set at 76.5 (per Fan Duel).  Last year the number was 75.5, which the Bucs went over, barely, with 76 wins.  The oddsmakers aren't thinking too much pf the team's prospects for the coming season, and they are usually pretty sharp in setting this O/U numbers.

Movie Review - "September 5"

History lesson, kids.

The events surrounding the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich took place fifty-three years ago, and if you are under the age of 60, there is a good chance that you have no first hand memory of the event.  I was 21 at the time and vividly remember watching all of it unfold on live television as Jim McKay earned a spot in broadcasting history as he reported from ABC Sports Olympic Studios from the time the story broke, until he uttered those terrible words "They're all gone."

The movie "September 5" looks at this even from the point of view of the ABC producers, directors, cameramen, and other technicians as they scrambled to cover what was then a simply unbelievable story.  The heroes of the story prove to be ABC Sports Executive Producer Roone Arledge (Peter Skaarsgard) and second line director Geoff Mason (John Magaro) who was manning the graveyard shift in the ABC control room when all hell broke loose in the Olympic Village.

Someone who has come of age while watching news stories on network television and all cable news channels in the 21st century will wonder at how primitive, relative to 2025, broadcast television was back in 1972.  Networks had to schedule time to use communications satellites (something that became a critical factor for ABC during the crisis; the work-around on that was ingenious), and there was even a question within ABC as to whether the "news people" should take over the coverage, rather than all the guys who "only covered sports".  Arledge settled that question, according to this movie, by simply hanging up the phone on the Suits in New York.

This is a taut (95 minutes long) thriller of a movie, and I found myself literally biting my fingernails as I watched, and I knew how the story ended.

As a note to some of my pals:  there is no on screen violence in this movie.  There is no depiction of the conclusion of this event.

I can't recommend this movie highly enough, especially if you are among those who don't remember or even know about this tragic event.

Four Stars from The Grandstander.

To Two Absent Friends - John and Herb

These two losses are personal to me.....

John Lisak

I came to know John as fellow employee at Blue Cross, and I learned a couple of things almost immediately. One, that he was fellow alum of Central Catholic (1965), albeit one a few years older than me, and that he was a member of the Central's 1964 football team that finished with a 10-0 record and was ranked #1 in the state.  More importantly, I learned that John was one of the truly "good guys" with whom to deal on business issues and if you needed help on matters.  

However, I REALLY got to  know John when we both were retired and played golf in our Tuesday Morning Retiree Golf Group.  He was perfect guy to have in your foursome. Easy going, never complained, laughed at himself when he made a bad shot.  John was also a lefty, when he golfed, and one day managed to show up without his putter.  So he asked if he and I could play together that day and he would use my putter.  Early on, he made a couple of nice putts, and he asked if I'd be willing to sell him my putter.  With every putt he made i would tell him that "price keeps going up."  Silly banter between a couple of old guys, but a nice memory.

John will surely be missed on future spring and summer Tuesday mornings  when the Old Guys tee it up.

Herb Soltman

I first met Herb Soltman when I joined the Society for American Baseball Research in 2001.  Herb was already a member, and he never missed a meeting.  He was a baseball and a Pirates fan to be sure, but the the most important element of his Fandom was the Pirates victory in the 1960 World Series. Herb was 25 years old when he attended Game 7 of that Series at Forbes Field and was among those who rushed the field and mobbed home plate when Bill Mazeroski his that famous home run.  To say that he was "passionate" about that event doesn't even begin to describe it.  Until ill health came upon him in recent years, Herb, along with his "Game 7 Gang", would be found at the Forbes Field Wall every October 13 reliving that momentous Pirates win over the Yankees.   It seemed that that single event was the most important event in Herb's life, but there was more to him than that.  

He was a father and a grandfather.  He was a faithful member of his synagogue, a business man, a dedicated global Ambassador for the City of Pittsburgh, and was honored for such service by being awarded the Global Ties U.S Volunteer of the Year Award at a ceremony in Washington DC for 53 years of such service in 2015.  He was loyal alumnus of the University of Pittsburgh and every year at homecoming, he would perform with Pitt's Alumni Marching Band at Pitt's Homecoming Game.  On a personal note, Herb was always concerned and had a kind word for me about Marilyn and how she was dealing with her illness over the years.

SABR meetings weren't quite the same without Herb in these recent years, and he will missed at all future such gatherings.

RIP John Lisak and Herb Soltman.

The Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2025

My thoughts on the newly elected members of Baseball's Hall of Fame.

Ichiro Suzuki.  Slam-dunk, no questions about it Hall of Famer.  Eight of the top ten "Similarity Scores" for Ichiro listed in Baseball-Reference are Hall of Famers themselves.  I once saw Ichiro play when I went with my brother Jim to a game at Yankee Stadium when the Mariners played the Yanks.  Can't remember what he did at bat or in the field that day, but, yep, I saw him play.

One voter left Ichiro off of his/her ballot.  More on that a bit later.

CC Sabathia.  I had no strong feeling on this one, so I have no issue with it, either.  One of the guys on his Similarity Scores list was Bob Gibson, so if he's comparable to Gibson in some way, shape, or form, Okay, give him a plaque in Cooperstown.

A memory:  I remember watching a game on TV where Sabathia was pitching and calling a friend and asking "When did Casey Hampton leave the Steelers to become a baseball pitcher?"  The guy was HUGE.

Billy Wagner.  Strictly a relief pitcher, I say that Wagner belongs in the Hall of Very Good, and not necessarily at the HOF in Cooperstown, and Wagner's Similarity Scores includes guys like Jonathan Papelbon, Joe Nathan, and Tom Henke.  However, the Hall has long become a place of Very-Good-but-not-necessarliy-Great players, so no use fighting it.

These three will join Dave Parker and Dick Allen (see HERE) as the Class of 2025.

Pretty good group.

Oh, and that one voter who denied Ichiro a unanimous entry?  My guess is that it is either a New York-centric writer who doesn't want Mariano Rivera to share the honor of being the only player ever to get a 100% vote, or some hide-bound old bastard of a curmudgeonly sportswriter who thinks "If Ty Cobb or Christy Mathewson weren't unanimous entries, then I'm going to make sure that NOBODY else will be either."

 

NFL Divisional Playoff Round Games

My thoughts and comments on the NFL Playoff games of this past weekend, all of them lived up to the anticipation that built up to them in the days leading up to them.

Chiefs 23 - Texans 14

As expected, the Chiefs won this one fairly easily, and the comments during and after the game focused mainly on the officiating.  A narrative has developed over the course of this season that goes something like "the League wants the Chiefs to win"....."you can't even breathe on Patrick Mahomes without getting flagged for it".

To the first of those allegations I would say that the NFL prides itself on parity, and would probably like seeing someone else hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.  As to the second allegation, well, there were two roughing the passer calls on Houston against Mahomes that were laughable.  Even Troy Aikman, an old QB himself, said "aw, come on" to the second call.   I will point out that this is nothing new.  How many times did Tom Brady draw penalties whenever someone got within the same zip code as him over the years?  The League does mandate that its quarterbacks be protected more than other players, and the bigger and more glamorous the player, the more likely that the yellow laundry will fly.  I daresay that those penalties  that Mahomes drew on Saturday would not have been thrown if the QB was, say, Mason Rudolph or Geno Smith.  If I remember correctly, at least one of those penalties gave the Chiefs a fresh set of downs when they would have otherwise been forced to punt.

Of such things are conspiracy theories born.

Commanders 45 - Lions 31

I admit that I was rooting for the Lions in this one.  How can you not root for a team and a fan base that has never played in the Super Bowl and that hasn't won a championship since Dwight Eisenhower resided in the White House?  All that said, this Washington team has been one of the biggest stories of the year in the NFL, and their rookie quarterback Jaydon Daniels is simply phenomenal.  (I also admit to developing some degree of fondness for the Commies based on my regularly listening to a Washington DC based sports podcast.)  I can recall watching a Commanders game early in the season and making a comment as to "this kid Daniels really appears to be The Goods", and who can forget that amazing Hail Mary pass  against the Bears in October that snatched victory from the jaws of defeat?  (I love a good cliche.)

Anyway, the WFT took it to the Lions, and Jayden Daniels was clearly the most outstanding player of the weekend.

Eagles 28 - Rams 22

This was certainly the most interesting game to watch, visually, because of the snowstorm that hit Philadelphia and caused the game to be played in a snow globe.  It was also terrific game, and it confirmed in my mind that Saquon Barkley should be the MVP of the NFL this year.  

The game will also be remembered for the valiant effort by the Rams, who after falling behind by 28-15 with a little over four minutes to play, drove for a  score to make it 28-22, forced a three-and-out from Philly, and again drove the field and almost, but not quite, scored again.  It was remarkable, really.

Also, those who wagered  the Eagles (cough cough) at -6.5 will remember, and not fondly, the Philly placekicker who missed not one, but two PAT attempts in the game.

The game also prompted memories among some of us of a Steelers-Colts 1978 playoff game at Three Rivers Stadium when groundskeeper Steve "Dirt" DiNardo drove a snowplow across the gridiron throughout the game while wearing sunglasses!  (I was there!)

Bills 27 - Ravens 25

This was the game that had been most anticipated by everyone after the Wild Card games were played.  The League scheduled it for the Sunday Night Prime time slot, and, boy did it deliver.  Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson proved why they will probably finish 1-2 in the MVP voting this year.  The final outcome hinged upon the play that you see pictured above.  Trailing 27-19 as time was running down, Jackson engineered the drive that brought the Ravens to within a two point conversion of sending the game to overtime.  Then Jackson hits Mark Andrews, as sure handed a tight end as there is in the NFL, who then dropped the ball.  Is it unfair that this terrific game be depicted by Andrews' dropped pass?  Probably, but it is the play that will be most remembered, at least by Baltimore and its fans.

And to put another local twist on it, the play also brought back memories of the Cowboys' Jackie Smith's drop in Super Bowl XIII against the Steelers.

Unfair as it might be, this game will also keep the "can't deliver in the Playoffs" tag on Lamar Jackson.

So this leads to one of my favorite spots days of the year - NFL Conference Championship Sunday.  Eagles vs. Commanders and Bills vs. Chiefs.  Eagles are installed as 5.5 point favorites and the Chiefs at 1.5 point favorites.

Can't wait until Sunday, but first....Ohio State vs. Notre Dame tonight!

1,000 Yards Ain't What It Used To Be

As long as I can remember, the measuring stick that indicted a great season for an NFL running back was 1,000 yards total rushing in a season.  It is still something that writers, broadcasters, and assorted talking heads point to and tell us that "RB Jacques LeStrapp has had a terrific season with 1,105 yards gained rushing", but did he really have great season?  Of course he did, but consider the following.

In 2024, sixteen NFL running backs finished with at least 1,000 yards gained, led by the Eagles' Saquon Barkley with 2,005 yards, and he sat out the 17th game of the season, and that brings me to my point.  Up until 1961, the NFL played a 12 game season.  In 1961 that number went up to 14 games.  It went to 16 games in 1978, and 17 games in 2023.  To achieve a thousand yards rushing back in the days of a twelve game season, a back had to average 83.3 yards a game.  When the season increased to 14 games, the average dropped to 71.4, then to 62.5 over 16 games, and then to the current number of 58.8 over 17 games.

I think that you see what I am getting at here. 

Jim Brown had seven season wherein he gained 1,000 or more yards, and he led the league in rushing in all but one of his nine seasons. Those two seasons when he didn't gain 1,000 yards?  He scraped by with 942 and 996 yards; one of those season was a twelve game season.  Three of his 1,000 yard seasons were achieved over twelve games.  Only five - Barkley, Derrick Henry, Brian Robinson, Jonathan Taylor, and Jahmyr Gibbs - of the 16 players who rushed for 1,000 yards in 2024  had a per game average that would have achieved 1,000 yards in a 12 game season.  

I mentioned sixteen players rushed for thousand yards this past season.  I pulled one season of Jim Brown's at random, 1958.  Brown ran for 1,527 yards (5.9 per carry) that year.  Not only was he the ONLY back to gain a thousand yards that year, but the guy in second place, Alan Ameche, amassed a total 791 yards, just slightly more than half of Brown's total.

In 1973, OJ Simpson became the first RB to crack the 2,000 yard barrier  when he gained 2,003 yards over 14 games, an average of 143.7 yds/game.  Pretty impressive.  2,000 yards has since been achieved seven other times, and all of them have exceeded Simpson's 1973 mark.  The record is held by Eric Dickerson with 2,105 over 16 games, 131.6 yds/game. 

When the NFL went to a 14 game schedule back in 1961, Pete Rozelle became the anti-Ford Frick and declared that there would be no asterisks in the NFL record books.  Season records would be season records regardless of the length of schedule, and good for him.  (For you kids out there, just Google "Ford Frick asterisks" if you don't understand what I just said.)  None of this is meant to denigrate the achievements of players who run for a thousand yards in the current day, but maybe it will just rekindle the respect for the achievements that guys like Brown, Dickerson, and Barry Sanders in earlier days.

I came up with all this by just sitting at the ol' iMac and cruising through Pro Football Reference for about thirty or so minutes this morning.  One of the things that this site does is that it will pro-rate a player's career stats over a 17 game schedule. So I just picked out ten guys at random to see what they would have averaged over a 17 game season.  This is not all inclusive and I obviously left a lot of great players off of the list, but consider these figures:

	Per Season, pro-rated over 17 games
Jim Brown	1,774
Barry Sanders	1,697
Eric Dickerson	1,544
Walter Payton	1,497
OJ Simpson	1,415
Earl Campbell	1,391
Emmitt Smith	1,381
Tony Dorsett	1,252
Jerome Bettis	1,210
Franco Harris	1,101
Barry Foster	1,081

These are the conclusions that I came up with after looking at these numbers.  (1) Jim Brown was the GOAT, and (2) Barry Sanders was and is under appreciated.

Now you know why their pictures grace the top of this post.

 

To Absent Friends - Bob Uecker

"Mr. Baseball"

1934-2025

As soon as I heard of the death of Bob Uecker yesterday at the age of 90, I knew that an Absent Friends post would be absolutely required.  Before I did, though, I reached out to my Milwaukee pal Steve Ozbolt, and I asked him to tell me something about him that people outside Milwaukee didn't know about him.  Oz, who told me that he and indeed all of Milwaukee were truly heartbroken over the news of Ueck's passing.  It made me think of the losses over the years that we have experienced here in Pittsburgh - Bob Prince in the 1985, Myron Cope in 2008, and Stan Savran in 2023.  Steve told me that he would put some stuff together to help me write my tribute.  When I received his email later in the day, there was nothing that I could add to it.  Therefore, I now turn you over to Special Guest Blogger, Steve "Oz" Ozbolt.....

The word "Icon" is overused.

However, in the case of describing “Mr Baseball” Bob Uecker it is wholly insufficient. No one, and I mean no one, not Henry Aaron, Warren Spahn, Robin Yount, Eddie Mathews, not even Commissioner Emeritus of baseball Bud Selig meant as much to Milwaukee baseball as Bob.

For 54 seasons he was the voice of our summers, of triumph and tragedy, memorable moments, even keeping us all entertained during the lean years.

The city of Milwaukee, Brewers fans everywhere and especially baseball lost a legend today. He remains the only player ever born in Milwaukee to suit up for the local nine. 

Now, to hear Ueck talk about his career, you would think that he wasn’t a good player but he single handedly kept Sandy Koufax from unanimous election to the Hall of Fame by going 4 for 10 off of him. 

As an innovator during his second stint with the Braves he invented the position of a personal catch….er…chaser of Phil Niekro’s Knuckleball. 

When his Cardinals teammates hid his glove in an attempt to prevent him from playing in the 1964 World Series he still managed to catch batting practice flies, albeit, using a tuba.  

I mean, how many among us were juuuuuuuust mediocle enough to have a lifetime .200 batting average? No need to overachieve and his .201 or heaven forbid cross the Mendoza line and dip to .199 he managed to stick the landing. I mean, that’s got to count for something.   

 When he was notified of his retirement (after being told by his manager to “grab a bat and stop this rally” and having the third base coach turn his back when Ueck looked down for the sign) he took a stab at scouting. However after turning in a report covered in mashed potatoes and gravy they decided that the broadcast booth might be a better option. He was the soundtrack of every Milwaukee summer. With too many iconic call to mention I will bet that any Brewers fan alive on Easter Sunday 1987 will never forget where they were listening to Bob’s call of the game tying and winning home runs that propelled “Team Streak” to win number 12 (of 13) to open the season. 

From his love of the players here, Robin, Molly, Henry, Yelli (I’m beginning to notice a pattern here) , “Buddy” Selig and his love of the city; he refused to leave for Hollywood (taking a bit of time off for Mr Belevedere) (The movie Major League was filmed in Milwaukee) or for bigger cities (George Steinbrenner made multiple offers for him to join the Yankees broadcast team) he remained loyal to the city that he called home. He was an ambassador for the game, one of Johnny Carson’s favorite guests a network broadcaster and even a WWE Hall of famer. 

Simply put, icon doesn’t even come close to capturing what he means to us here. 

May your legend live forever, thanks for all of the memories Bob. 

Thanks for that, Steve, and we all share in your loss, and to close on a happier note, I have to include perhaps Uecker's most famous commercial, The"front row" one for Miller Lite.

RIP Bob Uecker.

P.S.  Last night Steve sent me a message to tell me that one year the Brewers players voted Bob Uecker a full share of their post-season money winnings.  Uecker accepted the gift, and then gave all of the money to various Milwaukee charities.

One Last Visit from Janus, and Three Quickie Movie Reviews

Remember my reference to the ancient Roman god Janus last week? Well, I thought that we would pay one last visit with him before we get too deep into the month of January, if we haven't already.

BOOKS

In 2024, I read thirty books.  I'm not going to do a Top Ten list for those books, but here are three of them that I would highly recommend that you read, if you have not already done so:

• "The Big Time, How the 1970's Transformed Sports in America" by Michael MacCambridge
• "When Harry Met Pablo" by Matthew Algeo
• "The Demon of Unrest" by Erik Larson
• "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
• "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White

The first four of these books are non-fiction.  "In Cold Blood" was  published in 1965, and I first read it when I was in high school.  My friend Matthew Algeo, whose name you see above, told me that he re-reads this every three or four years just to appreciate the terrific narrative writing of Truman Capote.

"Charlotte's Web" is a children's book that I read when I was in third or fourth grade.  Chance's are, you read it, too, when you were that age.  Read it again as an adult.  You will get an entirely new appreciation for it.

I have linked all of my original posts on these books to the titles above.

I wish that I would have read more in 2024, but thirty is a nice round number, and that is the number for which I will aim in '25.

Rounds of Golf

I played 17 rounds of golf in 2024, well short of the twenty-five rounds that I had hoped to play.  Some unexpected surgery last spring curtailed my play for several weeks, and some bad weather on Tuesdays also played a role.  I am going to aim for twenty-five rounds once again, but some elective surgery scheduled for June and some travel plans I'm May and September may cause me to come up short once again.  

I am just thankful that at age 73 I am still physically able to consider twenty-five rounds a year to be a reasonable number!

Pirates Games

Last year I set the goal of seeing twelve Pirates games for the season.  I ended up seeing ten, wherein the Bucs went 5-5.  I am going to shoot for twelve once again.  Why do I want to subject myself to Bob Nutting's torture chamber like this?  Chalk it up to a propensity for self-flagellation.

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Okay, I promised three quickie Movie reviews.

This movie about two cousins on a road trip to Poland to visit the birthplace of their late grandmother has been getting some Oscar buzz.  Jesse Eisenberg directed, wrote, and stars in it, and Kieran Culkan won a golden Globe for his performance in it.  It was a good movie, not a great one.  The scene where the tourists visit a concentration camp was quite jarring and good.  Culkin's character was kind of irritating.

Two Stars from The Grandstander.

You may already know that Kieran Culkin is McCauley Culkin's younger brother, but did you know that he played Kevin's cousin Fuller in "Home Alone"?  He was the kid who always wet the bed.

This is a documentary produced and directed by actor Andrew McCarthy wherein he tracks down his fellow actors who were branded as "The Brat Pack" back in the mid-1980's when they were all in their early twenties and starring in teenage coming-of-age movies such as "St. Elmo's Fire" and "The Breakfast Club".  McCarthy got Emilio Estavez, Ally Sheedy, Demi Moore, Mare Winningham, and Rob Lowe to speak with him.  Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson took a pass.

It was mainly a 1 hour and 40 minute self-therapy session for McCarthy.

One Star from The Grandstander.

I admit that it was the Bob Dylan biopic, "A Complete Unknown", that spurred me into checking out this 2023 documentary about Joan Baez.  I liked it.  You get to hear Joan Baez sing, see vintage clips of her with Dylan, and see how remarkably well that she has aged (she was 79 years old when this film was made).   I loved her one line when she said that she was never good with one-on-one relationships, but she was great with one-on-six thousand relationships.

For those of you under age fifty or so who have no idea who Joan Baez is, you could do a lot worse that watching this and learning about a remarkable women who was a symbol and an icon of an era.

Two and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

Steelers Requiem

Let the record show that I am writing this monograph a little over eleven hours after the debacle in Baltimore last night, and I have not read any news accounts or columns regarding the game, either (mainly because our local so-called newspaper that was delivered to my door this morning did not have any accounts of the game because it ended "late", but that's another topic entirely).  Neither have I listened to any talk radio or television bloviators, local or national, so these thoughts are my own immediate ponderings regarding the state of our favorite NFL team.

On the night of December 1, the Steelers were 10-3, had a two game lead in the AFC North, and had a shot, albeit a long and outside one, at the overall #1 seed in the AFC.  What followed was a collapse of Pirates-like proportions: four straight regular season losses and a humiliating 28-14 loss to the Ravens in the Wild Card Playoff round last night.  Don't let that final score fool you.  If you watched that first half, you know that this was way, way, WAY worse that a two score defeat.

My immediate thought is that somebody has to be held accountable for this down-the-stretch failure.  

The rabble is screaming for Mike Tomlin to be fired.  That is not going to happen, nor should it, in my opinion.  Why?  Well, Tomlin does win games (you may have heard that he has never had a losing season 😏), and despite what we have seen this December and January, that does count for something.   Also, hiring a coach is not a sure thing in the NFL.  The Steelers were either good or lucky or both in their last three hires (Noll, Cowher, Tomlin), but there is no guarantee that the next guy will be better that Mike Tomlin.  In fact, the odds are greater that the Next Guy will turn out to be a Matt Eberflus or Robert Saleh than he will be a Bill Belichick, Andy Reid, or.....Mike Tomlin.   Plus, players seem to like and respect Tomlin and want to play for him, and that should count for something, too.

All that said, some serious evaluation of the coaching staff needs to take place.  In the end, the Arthur Smith offense wasn't all that more effective than was the Matt Canada Offense, and Teryl Austin's Defense, the highest paid in the NFL, proved inadequate too, as Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry showed us all too well last night.  I'm not smart enough to comment on the performance of other assistants, but the top two lieutenants on the staff should be feeling very warm seats today.

Other off-the-top-of-my-head thoughts.....

Quarterback.  Russell Wilson started strong when he recovered from a camp injury and won six of seven games off the bat, but in the end he looked like what he is - a Hall of Fame bound QB who is 36 years old and past his prime.  Like a crafty veteran once great baseball pitcher, he can occasionally find greatness, but his best days are behind him.  Justin Fields went 4-2 in his four starts, but I'm not sure - and, again, what do I know? - that he's a long term solution.  Both guys are free agents after this season, so some big decisions need to be made by Omar Kahn and the rest of the Brain Trust in regard to the most important position on the field.  Playing in a division with Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow, this is a grim picture for the Steelers.

George Pickens.  His talent is off the charts.  Every game he plays he seems to make at least one play that makes your jaw drop.  He did it last night on the Steelers second touchdown. Then there are the off the field diva issues, and on the field bonehead plays.  He did one of those last night as well when he was called for offensive pass interference that nullified one of those spectacular catches and runs of his in the first half, a play that might have led to a score at a point in the game when it might have made a difference.

Add Pickens' name to a list that includes Mike Wallace, Martavis Bryant, Antonio Brown, Chase Claypool, and Dionte Johnson.  All good to very good receivers who were all knuckleheads to one degree or another.  Are there no guys like Hines Ward out there anymore?   In fact, Ward is currently coaching wide receivers at Arizona State.  Maybe the Steelers should bring him back to coach these guys and show them how to act.

I think that we have seen the last of Najee Harris as a Steeler.  He is a free agent, and given how fungible running backs seem to be in the modern NFL, I can't see that Steelers signing him to another deal.  He's been a solid guy at the position over the years, but he has never performed in the NFL at the same relative level that he did in college at Alabama.   To compare him to another Crimson Tide RB, he never became Derrick Henry.

There is a lot more that can be said, but I'm going to leave it at that for now.  I'm sure that I'll have more to say as the off-season for Rooney U unfolds.  Let me leave you though with these depressing thoughts that will wrap up 2024 for us Pittsburgh Sports Fans.

• At the trade deadline the Pirates were thick in the chase for a playoff spot.  There then followed a ten game losing streak in early August that led to a collapse that was awful even by the low standards that the Bucs have established for themselves in this century.
• Pitt football got off to a 7-0 start and the proceeded to lose their last five regular season games and a minor league bowl game to finish the season at 7-6
• The Penguins failed to make the NHL Playoffs last season and seem to be on their way to repeating this non-accomplishment in 2025.
• The collapse of the Steelers has been documented above.

HELP!!