In Praise of Etsy

Take  one authentic but now outdated Steelers replica jersey.

Find an expert craftsperson on Etsy, in this case, someone who goes by the name "Patch Planet".

Iron on the new name plate over the old one.

Now, I am ready for some football!!

FYI, the "Rodgers" patch from Patch Planet will cost you twenty-four bucks, plus shipping.  A whole lot less than what a new A-A-Ron jersey would set you back.

Billy Joel - And So It Goes

 

If you are a fan of the music of Billy Joel, and honestly, who isn't, I cannot recommend to you highly enough the documentary film about the singer now showing on HBO Max.  It is presented in two parts, each about two and a half hours long, and it tells everything about Billy Joel, and it tells the story in many different layers, from his growing up in Hicksville, Long Island, NY, and complicated family life, his not graduating from high school, how he kicked it around in various bands as a teenager, his career as a solo performer singer/songwriter, how he got ripped off by his management, his four marriages, his problems with alcohol.  Nothing is left out or  glossed over, but what always comes through is the absolutely amazing talent of the man.

Joel's grandparents escaped Europe as Hitler's genocidal programs were sweeping through Germany and central Europe. His father was a classical pianist who left the family when Billy was 7 years old, an act with which Joel was never quite able to come to terms.  It was only as he was older and successful that he was able to track his father down in Vienna and discover that he had a half-brother.  I am skimming over this spect of the film, but it is remarkable.  (That half-brother is a classical symphony conductor in Austria.  Talk about music being in the genes.)

Joel speaks on camera throughout the movie, and is frank and honest about all aspects of his life.  This is great, of course, but the cast of characters who pop up throughout the movie talking about Joel and his talent and influence is positively eye-popping.  Jackson Brown, Don Henley, Garth Brooks, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, and even Itzhak Perlman, for God's sake.  Their testimonies to Billy Joel just makes your jaw drop.  Example:  McCartney tells us this - "People often ask me Is there a song out there that you wish that you would have written, and I tell them 'Just The Way You Are'."

I am constantly amazed at the genius of musical superstars.  Time and again throughout the movie, Joel will tell the story about how an idea came to him while he was driving somewhere, and that by the time he reaches his destination, he can sit at a piano and produce a song that becomes a classic.  How these people can do that  is so far beyond my grasp as to be positively unimaginable.

Best of all, though, beyond everything else the film contains clips of Billy Joel singing and performing all of those songs that have become the music of our lives.  I consider myself fortunate to have seen Billy Joel live twice in my life.  The first time was at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena in 1986 or -87.  The second time was in August 2022 at PNC Park (read The Piano Man In Concert) in what was truly one of the greatest concert experiences that I have ever had.

As I reread what I have just written about this movie, I can tell you that this write up is hardly doing "And So It Goes" justice.  If you don't have HBO Max available to you, find a friend who does and see this documentary film.  You will not be disappointed.

A full Four Stars from The Grandstander.

Pirates vs. Brewers

The Pirates just completed a three game series in Milwaukee where they were swept by the Brewers.  The scores of those three games:

• 7-1
• 14-0
• 12-5

And here's the thing:  None of those games were as close as the scores indicated.  The differences between the two teams were so obvious, and so glaring as to be positively embarrassing for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but, of course we all know by now that Bob Nutting is incapable of being embarrassed.  Milwaukee is so much better, and so far ahead of the Pirates, it's like having the Alabama football team going up against a good WPIAL high school team.

Take a look at the Pirate box score from that 14-0 loss on Tuesday night:

Look  at those 6-7-8 slots - Suwinski/Triolo/Davis - in the line-up.  And Jared Triolo and Jack Suwinski are, it is being reported, guys that the Pirates "want to take a look at" as they prepare for 2026.  Like we don't already know who they are.   As my friend Dan asked me after golf on Monday, "Is there another team in all of MLB who would have Jack Suwinski on there roster?"  Don't think so.

On the bright side, in that 14-0 loss last night, the Bucs played true Sheltie-ball by having a position player, Triolo, pitch in the ninth inning, and tough guy skipper Don "Donnie" Kelly was ejected for the fifth time since he became manager in May.  Yep, Kelly takes no shit!

On another related matter, this screen shot from Pirates Announcer Greg Brown's Twitter feed was posted on Facebook yesterday on a Pirates fans group page:

Presumably, Brownie had a straight face when he posted that. Oh, and for those of you who didn't know the meaning of the word "shill", well, now you know.

They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot

 Behold this photo of the White House Rose Garden as it has been since the Kennedy Administration:

This wasn't to the liking of the current occupants, so that beautiful garden and green space has been replaced with this:

Beautiful, isn't it?

Joni Mitchell had it right.

Critical Commentary - Four Movies

In the past five days,  I have busied myself with watching four separate movies, two new, two old.  Here we go, in order of viewing.

Yes, a long term aversion to Adam Sandler didn't stop me from being among the millions of people who set Netflix records by streaming this one.

I think, but cannot absolutely swear to it, that I saw the original "Happy Gilmore", and if I did, I put much of it out of my mind, except for Sandler punching out Bob Barker. Still, we were in the mood for some mindless entertainment, and this one sure qualified as that.

It did have its comedic moments, and I did enjoy all of the cameos that were done by various professional golfers.  Like Jack Nicklaus ordering a half iced tea, half lemonade.  "Arnold Palmer?" the waiter asks.  "No" he replies "I'm Jack Nicklaus, but I get that a lot."  And of the current golfers featured, Xander Schauffele, in my opinion, steals the show in his bit while at the tournament banquet.

You don't grade a movie like this using the same curve that you would say, "Citizen Kane" or the latest Scorsese masterpiece, but considering what it is, The Grandstander gives it Two Stars.

Listening to Ben Mankiewicz on the latest season of The Plot Thickens podcast prompted me to watch this one from 1949.  Ben's uncle Joe Mankiewicz won Oscars for this one for Screenplay and Directing, so it is a classic of sorts.  Three ladies, Jeanne Crain, Ann Southern, and Linda Darnell, are about to embark on a river cruise to a day camp for underprivileged kids when they receive a note from a mutual friend of theirs, Addie Ross, telling them that that evening, she will be running off with one of their husbands.  Unable to communicate with anyone - there were no cell phones in 1949 - they spend the rest of the day wondering if their husband is the one who will be leaving with the hussy Addie.  We then see flashback scenes from each of them that would make them think that they are the one about to be abandoned.

Lots of dated ideas in this one, like "Only the husband should be the breadwinner in a family", but still a pretty good movie, and some of the notions, like marrying for money instead of love, can still prompt debate here in good ol' 2025.

Oh, and Thelma Ritter is in this one.  It is only her second credited movie appearance, and in it she displays the persona that she did in just about every movie she ever made thereafter, and did you know that she was nominated for SIX Academy Awards over the course other career?  I didn't.

The only quibble that Linda and I had with it was that we thought the wrap up to the story seemed rushed and also confusing.  Still, we liked it, and I give it Three Grandstander Stars.

I have written many times on this blog of my fondness for this classic movie from 1950 that was written and directed by Billy Wilder, and starred Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich Von Stroheim, and Nancy Olsen.  Just last month I pulled out my DVD copy of this movie and introduced it to Linda who had never seen it. As fate and good fortune would have it, just this weekend, theaters across the country were honoring the 75th anniversary of this movie by showing it on a big screen. 

I am not going to recount the plot line of the movie here, but it is a terrific story of Hollywood, past glories, and cynicism, and seeing it on the big screen for the first time with all those other "wonderful people out there in the dark" made for a whole new and terrific experience.

As always, "Sunset Boulevard" rates a full Four Stars from The Grandstander.

And then there is "The Naked Gun", and I will tell you right off the bat that I just loved this one.  It is a retelling of all of those Naked Gun/Police Squad movies that Leslie Nielsen and George Kennedy made back in the eighties and nineties.  In this one, Liam Neeson abandons his action hero persona, or maybe he just embraces it, as Frank Drebin Jr., Nielsen's son, and he is terrific.  He's great as he deadpans through all of his bits in this one, even as he and the producers make fun of his own reputed physical gifts, if you get my drift.  It's hard to think that this is the same guy who was nominated for an Oscar for "Schindlers List".

I went to a 10:00 AM showing of this one this morning and I was the only person in the theater, which was good, because then I didn't have to stifle myself during all of the time I laughed out loud at throughout this one.  There are some great running gags in this one and one that I liked was Drebin and his partner constantly being handed cardboard cups of coffee.  Sophisticated it's not, like what the bad guy thinks he is seeing through the curtains of Frank's apartment while using infrared binoculars, and the body cam sequences of Drebin in his squad car after eating several chili dogs, but let's face it, going to see a Naked Gun movie isn't like going to a Noel Coward play.

I also give great props to Pamela Anderson in this one.  She plays it for all of its slapstick worth, but there is one scene of her doing some scat singing in a jazz club where she is just terrific.  Oh, and stay for the credits.  All of the credits.  There is a funny scene at the very end, and the movie makers drop some pretty funny fake credits throughout that will make you laugh, and I probably missed a bunch of them.

Like I said earlier, you don't judge a movie like this the same way you would a Spielberg of Scorsese movie, but for what it is, this one is terrific.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

What The Pirates Did At The Deadline

What, me worry?

Here you go, a summary of the moves all in one convenient spreadsheet that Bucco GM Ben Cherrington made to improve our Pittsburgh Pirates at the 2025 MLB Trade Deadline.

GONE	ACQUIRED
Adam Frazier to Royals	Cam Devanney, 28, INF
Ke’Bryan Hayes to Reds	Taylor Rodgers, 34, P
	Sammy Stafura, 20, INF
	Jeter Martinez, 19, P
Taylor Rodgers to Mariners	Ivan Brethowr, 22, OF
Bailey Falter to Royals	Evan Sisk, 27, P
	Callan Moss, 21, 1B
David Bednar to Yankees	Rafael Flores, 24, C
	Edgleen Perez, 19, C
	Brian Sanchez, 21, OF

My comments:

Taylor Rodgers gets traded the day after they acquire him.  I wonder if he will one day show up and play in the Pirates Alumni Golf Outing?

Perhaps Devanney, who was immediately sent to Indianapolis, will be called up to be a spare infielder now that Hayes is gone, and maybe Sisk will be on the team this year to replace Falter and/or Bednar.  Other than those two nondescript players, not  a single person acquired will help the Pirates this season, but since they are going nowhere anyway, so what?

None of the other players acquired figure to help the Pirates in 2025 (see above comment), and given the ages of guys like Stafura, Martinez, Perez, and Sanchez, they probably won't be in Pittsburgh until 2027 or 2028.  In other words, GMBC has brought in what the Pirates value the most: PROSPECTS, none of whom ever seem to pan out once they get into the Pirates system.

While I realize that there is no hope for 2025, to trade Bednar, perhaps their most effective player and certainly one of their most popular ones, and not get somebody, anybody who can contribute to the major league team now, today is irresponsible and ridiculous.  I mean, throw the fans a goddam bone once in awhile, willya?

But, hey, maybe Jeter Martinez will turn out to pitch like Pedro Martinez, maybe Callan Moss will play first and hit home runs like Jim Thome, and maybe Edgleen Perez will be the next Johnny Bench, well, then those 2030 Pirates will be a force with which to be reckoned in major league baseball.  Of course, if that happens, those guys will soon be plucked away by the Dodgers, Yankees, or Mets anyway.

Oh, and great quote from Mark Madden yesterday (and I can't believe that I am quoting Mark Madden).  People are talking about how the Pirates have "freed up money" in dumping Hayes and his contract to the Reds.  In a league with no salary cap, Double M stated, there is no "freeing up" of money.  The money that would have gone to Hayes goes right back into Bob Nutting's pockets.  He, Nutting, has given us no reason to believe otherwise based upon his track record. 

PIRATES FEVER. CATCH IT!!

Greg Brown, John Wehner, and the Infield Fly Rule

Were you watching the Pirates-Giants game last night when the Pirates made use of this baseball intricacy to their advantage?

Here was the situation:

In the first inning the Giants had runners on first and second with no outs.  The third batter, Willy Adames hit a high pop-up that had  third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes drift towards the pitchers' mound to field.  The second base umpire immediately signaled for the "infield fly rule, batter automatically out, runners advance at their own risk." Hayes let the ball drop to the ground and then saw that the runner on second base, Heliot Ramos, was drifting just a bit too far off of second base.  Hayes quickly picked up the ball, threw to second baseman Nick Gonzales and picked off Ramos.  Double play.

That was a numbskull bit of base running by Ramos, to be sure, and Pirates Chief Propaganda Minister Greg Brown immediately jumped all over it.  "That was an unbelievable base running mistake" screamed Brownie.  "How can you be in the big leagues and do something like that" chimed in John Wehner.  "What a smart play by Hayes, and, again, an INCREDIBLE, mistake by Ramos."  Both announcers went on, well into the next inning with words to the effect that a major league player just can't let something like that happen!!!

Considering the base running acumen demonstrated by the Pirates this season (we are looking at you, Oneil Cruz) and, in fact, over the last several seasons (remember the halcyon days of Starling Marte and Gregory Polonco on the base paths?), this was a classic case of throwing stones from inside a glass house.  Perhaps the most INCREDIBLE and UNBELIEVABLE thing about this gaffe was that it wasn't a Pirates baserunner who did it.   

I will give Wehner credit for a good line though when he said that this is the kind of a mistake that a player will only make once in his career.

The whole incident also brought to mind a great line from my father, who had a lot of great lines in his life.  He said that whenever you are faced with some blowhard sports know-it-all, someone who is obviously full of shit, calmly say to him "Can you explain the infield fly rule to me?"  That will usually shut said blowhard up.

"Tricky Business" by Dave Barry (2002)

 

This book was one of the "$2.99 Kindle specials" that I get in my email every day.  It looked interesting, but for some reason I was too cheap to spring for the two-ninety-nine so I did something that I should do more often:  I got the book out of the library.

Take a crummy past-its-prime cruise ship, retro fitted and turned into a gambling ship that leaves the Florida coast every night and sails behind the three mile limit to suck money out of tourists and local suckers.  Throw in a lousy house band, a down on her luck cocktail waitress, two hilarious senior citizens (picture Morty Seinfeld and Jack Klompus from "Seinfeld"), and assorted mobsters, drug runners, money launderers, and other only-in-Florida characters, put them on this tub of a ship and send it out into the Gulfstream as a tropical storm is raging - and a theme throughout the book is the hilarious dead-on over the top coverage that a local television news team provides during this weather "emergency" -  and what you've got is a comic crime novel of classic proportions.

Keep in mind that this book was published in 2002, so some references may be dated.  For example, with casinos now being so ubiquitous, who needs a ship that sails into international waters every night to be able to gamble?  That's just nitpicking, though.  It took me all of two days to read this one, and there were times where I was shrieking out loud with laughter.  You probably would too!

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

Shirt Pocket Notes

 Pirates

When last we wrote of the Pittsburgh Pirates, they were just completing a nine game road trip leading up to the All-Star Break, a road trip wherein they complied a scintillating record of 1-8.  Rested and refreshed from their four day vacation, they began the nominal second half of the season by losing three straight games at home to the Chicago While Sox, one of the few teams in MLB who just might be worse than they are.  Baseball being the funny game that it is, they them swept three games from the Detroit Tigers, a team that at the start of that series had the best record in all of MLB.  Go figure.  There then followed an off day and then a home game last night against the Diamondbacks where they lost 1-0 in eleven innings while amassing the grand total of one (1) hit over the course of those eleven innings.

Bucco skipper Don "Donnie" Kelly came up with the quote of the year in his post game presser:  "You're not going to win many games when you only get one hit."

Yep.

Don "Donnie" Kelly

Master of Understatement

All that awaits the Buccos now is to see who will be traded at the July 31 trade deadline, where the Pirates will definitely be sellers.  Adam Frazier has already been traded to the Royals for, are you ready for this?, a 28 year old middle infielder who was immediately assigned to Indianapolis.  I can't remember his name and can't be bothered to look it up, because, really, is it ever going to really matter?

My predictions as to who will NOT be on the team after July 31:  Mitch Keller and David Bednar for sure.  Dennis Santana probably be a 75% chance of getting traded., and 50% chance that Brian Reynolds and Ke'Bryan Hayes will also be gone.  Spare parts like Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Tommy Pham, and Andrew Heaney also most likely will be dealt.

The question is, will GMBC be likely to get good or even decent value for quality guys like Keller, Bednar, and Reynolds?  His track record for the last six years on this front has been.....not good.

Steelers

In what is close to a High Holy Day in The Burgh, the Steelers opened training camp at St. Vincent College in Latrobe this week. The big news of the week, though was signing T.J.Watt to a contract extension that will make him the highest paid non-quarterback in League history (a mark that will probably stand until Jerry Jones signs Micah Parsons to a new contract sometime before the season opens).  So, Aaron Rodgers has signed on to be the QB, Watt is under contract, and the media has now turned to their next favorite topic:  How hot should the seat upon which Mike Tomlin's ass rests be?  Seems the guys with the microphones and keyboards just can't wait to see Tomlin get fired.

The Rodgers signing got all of the press over the off-season but moves acquiring DK Metcalf, Jalen Ramsey, and Jonnu Smith combined with the rookies that were drafted in April would make it seem that this will be an interesting season for the Steelers.  My expectations were not high for the 2025 season for Rooney U, but they have ramped up a bit after the Rodgers signing and the Fitzpatrick-for-Ramsey-and-Smith trade.  It all hinges on what Rodgers has left in the tank.  If he can play at a level of, say, 75% of his prime, I'll sign up for that today.

In other Steelers news, the team announced today the 2025 Inductees into their Hall of Honor: Ben Roethlisberger, Maurice Pouncey, and Joey Porter.

Certainly can't argue with any of those choices.

Jeopardy

It has been a fun three weeks or so watching Scott Riccardi steamroll his way through 16 consecutive wins on Jeopardy and earnings of over $455,000 during his 16 game streak, the tenth longest in Jeopardy history.  All of this made it all the more confounding when Riccardi lost last night by answering a relatively easy Final Jeopardy question incorrectly.  "Who was William Randolph Hearst?" was the correct response, and Riccardi guessed "Howard Hughes".  Unbelievable.

I am thinking that we have not seen the last of Scott Riccardi as Jeopardy rolls out their various "tournaments" involving past champs.

The Absent Friends Quartet

There has been a preponderance of celebrity deaths in recent weeks, and probably none of these deaths on their own would merit the Absent Friends treatment from The Grandstander.  However, when they are stacked right on top of each other like so much cordwood, well, as Willie Loman's wife said in Death of a Salesman, "attention must be paid."   So, here you go, four shorter the usual Absent Friends tributes.

Was I a fan of former teenie-bopper idol, Tiger Beat cover boy, actor, and bubblegum rocker Bobby Sherman?  No, I was not.   Inexplicably, my friend Dan was and remains a huge Bobby Sherman fan, so I know that he will be happy with this post.  

Sherman died last month at the age of 81, and his obituaries told the story of what happened when the Show Biz lights went out for him.  Sherman devoted himself to a career in public safety.  I will let this entry from his Wikipedia page tell the story:

In 1974, Sherman guest-starred on an episode of the Jack Webb television series Emergency! ("Fools", season 3, episode 17, aired January 19, 1974), and found a new calling. Eventually, he left the public spotlight and became a paramedic. He volunteered with the Los Angeles Police Department, working with paramedics and giving CPR and first aid classes. He became a technical Reserve Police Officer with the Los Angeles Police Department in the 1990s, a position he still held as of 2017.^[8] For more than a decade he served as a medical training officer at the Los Angeles Police Academy, instructing thousands of police officers in first aid and CPR. He was named LAPD's Reserve Officer of the Year in 1999.

Sherman also became a reserve deputy sheriff in 1999 with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, continuing his CPR and emergency training of new deputy hires. He retired from the sheriff's department in 2010.^[8]

Sherman and his wife co-founded the Brigitte & Bobby Sherman Children's (BBSC) Foundation.^[17] The foundation's mission is to provide motivated students in Ghana with a high-quality education and music program, and to provide tools to pursue higher education.

Sherman's singing and acting career made him famous and wealthy, but what he did after all of that made him a pretty neat guy.

Connie Francis died at the age of 87 last week.  A teenaged singer from New Jersey, Francis, like so many others of her era, was discovered by Dick Clark and his American Bandstand show when it was based in Philadelphia in the late nineteen fifties and sixties.  She had hit records with such songs as "Who's Sorry Now", "Stupid Cupid", "Lipstick On Your Collar", and "Where The Boys Are", the title tune of a movie in which Francis co-starred.  Like so many others of her era, her career as a mainstream pop star pretty much ended when The Beatles arrived in America.

Interesting item from her obituaries.  The complete and total love of her life was singer Bobby Darin,  However, Connie's father showed up one day with gun and threatened to shoot Darin unless he got out of his daughter's life.  Bobby took the hint and scrammed, although the torch for him still burned within her.  Connie Francis was married four time and, according to her, only hubby number three as any good at all.

Ozzy Osbourne

1948-2025

Like I said at the beginning, this is a death I would not have noted but for the fact that it was bunched together with all the others.  Back Sabbath and Ozzy the solo artist were not my bag, music-wise, nor did I ever watch that reality show that he did with his family.  I did like him on that commercial where he and others admonish business people for proclaiming themselves "rock stars."  That's a pretty good bit.

Oh, and he once bit the head off of a live bat on stage.

Hulk Hogan

1953-2025

When I worked at Equitable Life back in the 1980's, one of my co-workers was a huge fan of professional wrestling, and so it came to pass that for a period of four or five years, I too, became a follower of the pro wrestlers that populated the World Wrestling Federation. now the WWE, and I admit to attending many of the monty Wrestling cards that were held at the Civic Arena back in the day.  So, yes, I can say that I have seen Hulk Hogan perform live and in person on more that one occasion, and, yes, I did see him lift up and bodyslam Andre the Giant inside the squared circle at the Arena.  Hogan died yesterday at the age of 71.   Pro Rasslin' made him famous and wealthy,  but not without some bumps along the path.  I won't recount this incidents here; you can read all about them in his obits.  He also turned into a MAGA-head. (Holds nose while typing those words.)

RIP Bobby Sherman, Connie Francis, Ozzy Osbourne, and Hulk Hogan.

Let me leave you with THIS PERFORMANCE Of "Where The Boys Are" by Connie Francis on the Ed Sullivan show in 1961, her salad days.  She was pretty good!

Oneil Cruz, The Home Run Derby, and the Pirates at the All-Star Break

The Pirates Oneil Cruz, despite being eliminated in the semi-finals of Major League Baseball's Dunk Contest Home Run Derby, made quite an impression in the event last night.  The Post-Gazette made a huge deal of it this morning, and it is all over social media that not only did Cruz hit 34 HOME RUNS in the contest, he also hit THE LONGEST HOME RUN (513 FEET), and NINE OF THE TEN LONGEST HOME RUNS, and THE TOP FIVE LONGEST HOME RUNS in the contest.  Can you just imagine how Greg Brown and Joe Block will be slobbering all over this when the Pirates return to action on Friday?

Yes, I watched the HRD, and yes, I was rooting for Cruz, and yes, it was fun to see the rockets that were launched by Cruz and all of the other participants.  However, let's keep this in perspective here:  this was a glorified batting practice session, albeit one with the added pressure a time clock and a $1 million prize to the winner.  It also brings into perspective the conundrum that is Oneil Cruz.  He does have prodigious power, he is very fast, but he strikes out a lot, is not a very good hitter, and he is a disaster defensively, and he tends to loaf sometimes (although maybe he won't loaf anymore since Don "Donnie" Kelly recently benched him for two whole innings for not running out a ground ball).

He does hit mammoth home runs more than occasionally, but let's put even that into perspective.  Here are Cruz's stats at the All-Star Break:

Home Runs - 16, tied for 43rd in all of MLB

RBI - 37, tied for 117th in all of MLB

Strike Outs - 116, tied for 3rd in all of MLB

BA - .212, 146th in all of MLB

OPS - .733, 96th in all of MLB

By contrast, the Mariners' Cal "The Big Dumper" Raleigh, the winner of the HRD, currently has 38 HR, 82 RBI, a .259 BA, and an OPS of 1.010.  He is also a Gold Glove catcher.  I include this paragraph not only for comparison purposes, but to also give me a reason to type out the best nickname in all of sports: The Big Dumper.

There is a reason why Cruz, a seemingly one trick pony, was at the Home Run Derby, but is not actually on the All-Star team.  I confess that I am confused in the matter of Oneil Cruz.  There is a mass of talent somewhere in there, but he is very far from being a complete ballplayer.  Willie Stargell, Roberto Clemente, and Dave Parker he ain't.

Now, as for the Pirates themselves.  What will probably be the high point of the season for them came on July 2 when they defeated the Cardinals 5-0. That was the third straight shutout of the Cards in that series, and it was the team's sixth straight win.  They then departed on a nine game road trip to Seattle, Kansas City, and Minnesota that would lead up the All-Star Break.  Would the team build upon that six game winning streak and create some momentum going into the second half of the season?  We all know that answer.  They lost eight straight games before salvaging a win on the final Sunday of the first half of the season.  They now sit at 39-58 on pace for a 97 loss season.  However, I for one am fully confident that they can pull off 100 losses in this, the sixth year of the Ben Cherrington Regime.

For reasons unknown to many, Cherrington remains the GM of the Pirates, and earlier this week he oversaw the Pirates selections in the MLB entry draft.  The Bucs used their first two picks to select a couple of high school pitchers:

1. Seth Hernandez, 19, RHP

2. Angel Cervantes, 17, RHP

Unless either of these guys are Paul Skenes 2.0, we won't see Hernandez in Pittsburgh until 2029, and it will be the 2030's before Cervantes arrives.

We now await the July 31 trade deadline to see what guys GMBC trades for some other teams' random middle infield prospects.

PIRATES FEVER. CATCH IT!

Travis Williams, Ben Cherrington, Bob Nutting

The Bucco Brain Trust

What, us worry?

"Superman" and "The Better Sister"

Hey, I just realized that it has been fourteen days since I last posted here.  No, I wasn't on vacation, and I wasn't sick.  Just not much has struck my fancy over the last two weeks, or did you want me to wax endlessly about how lousy the Pirates have been?  (Don't worry.  I do plan to write about the Buccos as we settle into the All-Star Break, but that will come later in the week.)  For today though, some Critical Commentary.

"Superman"

So this morning I made my $7.50 contribution to the $217 million in box office receipts racked up thus far for the new Superman movie.  Those who know me know that this is not my kind of movie, but what the hell, I gave in to the hype, and I have to say that I did enjoy it, although, it got a little silly - to me, anyway - as it went on for it's two hour length. 

The movie is also being criticized by those on the right end of the political spectrum as being too "Woke", and the movie certainly can be seen as an allegory for what we see happening in this country today, right down to the concentration camp facilities where "undesirables" are placed.  So, if you're a fan of the guy now residing in the White House, you've been warned.  And if you're not a fan of Felon47, you might ask "Can't I even go to a comic book movie to get away from what is going on the real world today?"

All that aside, I found the movie to be entertaining enough given that you have to suspend belief a bit and believe that "meta humans" from the planets exist.  David Corenswet, a likable enough hunk of beefcake with whom I was not familiar, although he does boast 23 other acting credits in IMDB, is fine as the Man of Steel.  Rachel Brosnahan, Mrs. Maisel herself, was quite good as Lois Lane, and she was charming.  She also had some of the best comic lines in the movie.  Some guy named Nicholas Hoult (again, someone with whom I am not familiar, but he seems to have been in a whole bunch Mad Max and X-Men types of movies, which would explain that) played Lex Luthor, and was totally hateable, so I guess that means he did a good job in the role.

The best character in the movie, though, was Krypto, the CGI dog.  He was even more charming that Ms. Brosnahan!  Maybe they'll do a feature movie about just him. I'd go see that one.

"Superman" gets Two and Three-Quarters Grandstander Stars.  

If you are a fan of these types of movies, though, you would probably rate it much higher.

"The Better Sister"

(This review contains NO SPOILERS.)

Linda and I just finished watching this eight part Amazon Prime mini-series last night. It is based upon a novel of the same name by Alifar Burke. I have read a number of books by Ms Burke, but not this one.  Perhaps if I had, I would have been able to make sense of the jumble that this series was.  It starred Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel as estranged sisters.  Banks was the trashy sister with addiction problems whose husband left her and took their infant son with him years ago.  Biel played the successful sister.  She was editor in chief of a fancy glossy fashion/lifestyle magazine, lives with her husband and son in a terrace apartment overlooking Central Park, while also having a gorgeous home in the Hamptons.  Oh, and she was married to her sister's ex-husband and raised her sister's son.  Got all that?

Well, the husband ends up getting murdered, the son gets arrested for the crime, and that is only the beginning of this fancy-shmancy melodrama.  The husband may also have been involved in some nefarious scheme with the crooked head of the law firm where he works.  There is an FBI agent who may be crooked, an aggressive lady detective who just KNOWS that these sisters just aren't what they seem and her partner who she constantly belittles, a protege of the victim who turns out to be more that just a friend to Biel, and a building doorman who also comes under suspicion.  And just who was Katherine, the African American lady who appears Biel's mentor?/boss?/friend?  Just who and what was she?  Neither of us could figure that out.

Yeh, it was a real dog's breakfast of characters and plot lines and after we were halfway through, we thought "Do we want to keep up with this?", but we slogged through it to the end.

Oh, and one other thing:  In the trial that took place in the show, the defendant, the kid, testified before every other witness did.  Does that ever happen in real life?  Isn't  the defendant usually the last witness to testify in any trial, if they even testify at all?

And how does the relationship between the two sisters resolve itself, and which sister ends up being the Better Sister?  You'll have to send eight hours of your life to find out.

Two Stars from The Grandstander on this one.

Two Movies

Two movies upon which to comment today.

I watched this one on Netflix this past weekend, and I highly recommend it.  It tells the story of how the BBC secured an interview in 2019 with Prince Andrew, Duke of York to discuss his relationship with well known sex predator and trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.  The movie stars Billie Piper and the young BBC producer who worked to get the interview, Gillian Anderson as the reporter who conducted the interview on the telly, and Rufus Sewall who plays the priggish and clueless Andrew.  If you know the story, you know that it was this interview that led to Andrew essentially being fired from his "job" as a Royal by his mummy, the Queen.

I give this movie Three and One-Half Grandstander Stars, and make this observation.  The way the British Royal Family is portrayed in movies and television - if only a third of it is actually true, then they are just a bunch of batshit crazy eccentrics.  I mean, what was with "Randy Andy" and the stuffed animals on his bed pillows?  The man was sixty years old at the time!

Last Sunday afternoon, Linda staged a surprise "Date Afternoon" for me.  I had no idea where we were going until we got to the place:

Yep, the Strand Theater in beautiful downtown Zelienople, PA was showing "Casablanca" on a big screen, and my perfect date was treating me to the perfect movie in a perfect setting.  I have written of "Casablanca" many, many times in this space,  just type "Casablanca" in the search box to verify that fact, so I won't go into detail about it again today.   If you've never seen it, then what in the hell is the matter with you?  Stop what you're doing now, find it on a streaming service, and watch it today.  And if you ever get the chance to see it (or any other classic movie for that matter) on a big screen in  theater, do so.  This is the third time that I have seen it in this manner.

In a 1992 book, "The Making of Casablanca", marking the fiftieth anniversary of the movie, author Aljean Harmetz includes this paragraph in the Preface:

"Cynicism is a necessary protective cost for those who come close to the film industry's seductively hot center, and I have needed a doubly thick coat.  I grew up on the outskirts of MGM where my mother worked in the wardrobe department, and I later wrote about Hollywood for the New York Times.  But my cynicism dissolves when Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman say goodbye at the airport, and, at least in the dark corner of a movie theater, I am sure that I would be capable of such a sacrifice too."

That is the essence of "Casablanca".  It is a perfect movie.