Speaking of Sports.....

Idle sports thoughts from an idle mind..... 

A sixty foot putt in the rain to win the Open!

The United States Open Golf Championship was contested at the venerable Oakmont Country Club last week and was won by J.J. Spaun with a score of one (1!) under par. The mostly unheralded Spaun was at or near the top of the leaderbaord for the first three rounds.  Playing in the next to last group on Sunday, Spaun bogeyed five of the first six holes and shot 40 on the front nine, and it looked like he was about to fall back into the unheralded oblivion from whence he came.   However, through a rain delay, Spaun soldiered on and got back into contention as those around him kept falling back, and it was along about the time he played his 12th or 13th hole that I decided, "this is the guy I'm rooting for!".  He shot 32 on the back nine and had a birdie-birdie finish when he sank a 60 foot putt on the eighteenth hole to win the Open.  It was an epic performance for J.J. Spaun., and full credit and cheers for him.

(As an aside, Sam Burns, leader after three rounds, was royally screwed by not one, but two, officious USGA rules officials when he wasn't allowed a drop from casual water late in the round.  It probably wouldn't have made a diffidence in the final result, but we'll never really know that, will we?  If you were watching, you know that I am talking about.)

Okay, those are the facts of the matter, now for an opinion.  Spaun's win, especially his last two holes "saved" the US Open for this golf fan/viewer, because up until then, The Open was a slog of an event where we watched the best golfers in the world hack it around the golf course in much the same manner that I and my colleagues in the Tuesday Retiree Golf Group kick it around various public golf courses throughout southwestern Pennsylvania every summer.  That is not what I want to see when I watch golf being played at its highest level.  Of course, we get the standard "We don't seek to embarrass the best golfers, we seek to identify them" line of bullshit from the USGA, and the arrogant Oakmont members can continue to boast about how "they have to cut down the rough and slow the greens speeds for the pros when the Open comes here".  More bullshit.

I realize that my opinion is probably a minority one, and I agree that watching the pros go thirty-one under over four days at a routine Tour stop may not be the all that much fun either, but in the words of Bill Cowher, the 2025 US Open "wasn't a Mozart."

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Tomorrow night we will be treated to one of the best events in all of sports - a Seventh  Game of a Playoff Series, and it is in the Championship Round, no less.

I have greatly enjoyed following the NBA Playoffs this spring, and the Finals series between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder has been particularly enjoyable.  Both teams are likable and are filled with very good players, one of whom, the Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander , or "SGA", could become one of the great players in the League over the next decade or so.  The second and sixth games of the series were one-sided affairs that the two teams split, but the other four games were hotly contested and Game One was an absolute classic.. In that game, the Thunder led convincingly throughout the game, but Indy mounted a comeback in the fourth quarter and won the game on this shot

by Tyrese Halliburton with :00.3 left on the clock.  It was the only time in the game that the Pacers led, and it gave them a 111-110 win. It was one of those games and moments that make you say "THIS is why I follow sports."  Had that game been a Game Seven, Haliburton would have become Bobby Thomson or Bill Mazeroski.

At this point I have absolutely no clue as to which team will win tomorrow night., but I can say that a win by either team would be a satisfactory conclusion to the series and mean it.  The game is at OKC, and the Thunder have had double digit leads in five of the first six games.  Put a gun to my head and tell me to make a choice, I'll pick the Thunder, mainly because they are the home team and in SGA, they have the best player on the floor.  They are 7.5 point favorites, but if the Pacers won this one, I would not be the least bit surprised.  (How's that for waffling?)

As  I watch NBA games with some degree of regularity as I have over these last few months, I am inclined to shake my head whenever someone tells me that college basketball is a superior product.   I understand loyalty to the old Alma Mater, and the sport is a good one, but please don't tell me that the NBA play is inferior.  I mean....

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The National Hockey League season ended on Thursday night when for the second straight year, the Florida Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers  to win the Stanley Cup.  The championship series ended in six games.  In this household we were rooting for the Oilers because we wanted to see the best player in the game today, Connor McDavid, get to hoist the Cup.  Alas, it was not to be.

Admittedly, my hockey acumen and knowledge cannot hold a candle to that of my wife's, but it was apparent to me that while the Oilers had the best player on the ice, the Panthers were the better team, so their victory was deserved, despite the fact that the detestable Brad Marchand was/is one of their stars.  It is also notable, that the Panthers were able to hold McDavid to only one goal over the six games, and that one came in garbage time of a 5-2 Edmonton loss in Game Five.

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And on the local front, THIS GUY showed up and participated in teh Steelers mandatory mini-camp last week.

In the words of Jerry Ford, "Our long national nightmare is over."

Or at least it is until the Steelers experience their first loss of the season.

Quick Hit Thoughts On A Great Sports Weekend

If you are a sports fan, you had to love the weekend just completed.  There was something for everyone.  

The Steelers 26-21 win over Denver yesterday is being categorized as an "ugly win" by most of the pundits in its aftermath.  Maybe so, and for sure it never should have been as close as it ended up being, but here is something that wasn't ugly - that 84 yard bomb from Ben to rookie Chase Claypool for a touchdown in the second quarter.  That was a jaw dropper.

And as they say in golf, "It's a scorecard, not a post card", and the Steelers are now 2-0.

On Friday night Pirates pitcher Mitch Keller no-hit the Cardinals for six innings and was then pulled after throwing 84 pitches.  He left with a 2-0 lead, which was expanded to 4-0 in the Pirates half of the sixth inning.  The Pirates bullpen then proceeded to give up five runs in the seventh with an assortment of walks, hit batsmen, and hits that plated five runs in what seemed to be the blink of an eye.  The Bucs ended up losing 5-4.

The predictable uproar of "they should have left him in to go for a no-hitter" arose almost immediately, but putting Keller on a strict pitch count and pulling him when he reached it was absolutely the right thing to do.  He remains the #1 pitching prospect that the Pirates have, despite some mixed results in his time with the Big Club.  He has also shown some "china doll" proclivities insofar as injuries are concerned.  Friday was only his second start since spending a few weeks on the injured list in this shortened season.  Maybe leaving Keller in would have yielded a no-hitter, or, at best, would have prevented another Pirates loss, which would mean finishing the season with 16 wins instead of only 15.  Big deal.  The Pirates need a healthy Keller for 2021 and beyond.  His six innings on Friday showed great promise for the future, and insofar as the Pirates are concerned, that is all that matters in 2020.

Speaking of the Pirates, a note in the paper this morning said that on his radio show yesterday, GMBC indicated that the complete lack of box office and in-stadium revenues in 2020 means that teams will have to readjust their way of thinking in terms of spending money in the pursuit free agents in the coming off season.  By "teams", of course, he meant "the Pirates", so really nothing will change much in the S.O.P. of our Pittsburgh Pirates as we head towards the 2021 season.

Golf's United States Open was head this weekend and was won by Bryson DeChambeau.  He shot six under par and was the only golfer to finish in red numbers for the tournament.  He deserved the win, no question about it, so congratulations to him.  He also comes across, and maybe I'm wrong about this, as a guy who feels that he is the smartest guy out there on the course with his extensive use of analytics in planning his on course strategy, and other golfers don't seem to like him.  He also takes FOREVER between shots, especially putts, by constantly consulting that little notebook he carries and pulls out of his back pocket on, it seems, every shot.  Maybe that does make him the smartest guy out there, and his way will be the norm for every golfer on tour within the next five years.  Then golf will become populated with a bunch of analytical mumbo-jumbo, just like Major League Baseball has.  Won't that be fun?

I made some comments on social media over the weekend about the USGA's tendency to trick up their US Open courses so as to provide a "true test of golf."  You saw the results: one guy finishes under par, and the best golfers in the world hack it out of the hay for four days and slog in at eight or nine or double digits over par.  I don't like it, but apparently a lot of people do.  If that's what the Blue Jacketed Stuffed Shirts from Far Hills, NJ want, so be it, but I'd hate to see that week after week on Tour.  

To those of you who beat the shit out of me on Facebook over the weekend for this opinion, no need to do it again.  I just managed to stop the bleeding.

With no NBA presence in Pittsburgh, I don't often write about it, but the Association is currently in the midst of its Conference Championships, and there have been some pretty good stories in this little bit of sports theater.  Foremost has been the Denver Nuggets twice coming back from 1-3 deficits against heavily favored teams to reach the Western Finals.  They currently trail the LeBron James/Anthony Davis Lakers two games to zero, but both games have been close, and would you be willing to count them out?  Not me.

In the East, the Miami Heat lead the Boston Celtics two games to one, and they are led by Jimmy Butler.  I have listened to Michael Wilbon sing the praises of Jimmy Butler seemingly forever to the point where I'm saying, "yeah, right", but in watching some of these games, I have to say that Wilbon is 100% correct.  Butler is and has been the driving force behind the Heat reaching this point, and he is the best player on the court when he is out there.  He is a really fun player to watch.

Finally, I stayed to the end of last night's Seattle - New England game, won by the Seahawks, 35-30.  I hope that you did too, because that was one terrific football game.  I won't recap it here, you can look it up, and then the picture I posted above will have some context for you.  I will leave you with just two conclusions:  (1) Russell Wilson is absolutely fantastic, and (2) don't count out the Patriots just because the Golden Boy is no longer at QB for them; they're still good.  Oh, and here's a third conclusion: (3) Julian Edelman is amazing; it wasn't just Tom Brady that made his so good. 

May the coming week in sports give us as much as this week just concluded has.

US Open Thoughts After Three Rounds

There is nothing like a US Open on the west coast to assure that golf fans in the eastern time zone will be glued to their couches and TV sets for four straight days of prime time.  Add the fact that this year's Open is being played at Pebble Beach, probably the most photogenic and beautiful golf course in the world, and, well, that makes for great viewing.

Some random thoughts.....

The coverage on Fox has been outstanding.  Great shots  by the camera folks and, for the most part, pretty good announcing  by the team led by Joe Buck, even though once in awhile he thinks he's doing an NFL game.  The shot track feature is fabulous as are those lines that they superimpose on the greens that tell you how the putts will break.  Wish I could have that on the greens when I'm lining up putts.

One quibble with the announcers.  Advanced metrics statistics, you know, like the ones that are so stultifyingly boring on baseball broadcasts, are beginning to creep into golf telecasts.  When they tell me that Pete McDuffer has 6.57 "Strokes gained putting"....just what in the hell does that mean?  

On the bright side, we don't have to listen to Peter Kostis drone on about this-or-that guy's degree of shoulder turn while looking at the Konika Minolta BizHub Swing Analyzer.

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Speaking of the announcers, it was cool when CBS' Jim Nantz turned up for a brief segment in the Fox booth yesterday with Buck and Paul Azinger.  Nantz lives in Carmel near Pebble Beach, so it was a good thought to allow for a network crossover and have him on.  I was disappointed, though that he didn't greet us with an "Hello, friends."  I also found it interesting that he said that Pebble Beach and St. Andrews are the best and most iconic courses in all of  golf.  That's it, that's the list.  I wonder what the green jacketed Poo-Bahs at Augusta National thought when they heard that little bon mot from CBS' "Voice of The Masters"?  Those dudes have been known to ban announcers from their little tournament for similar sacrileges.

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Maybe the Fox on course microphones are more sensitive or maybe there are just more of them, but from what I am hearing, the galleries at Pebble consist of the biggest bunch of yay-hoos around.  Barely two or three minutes of any portion of the telecasts pass with out hearing some jerk scream out "GET IN THE HOLE" (even on approach shots from 240 yards out).  There are especially hot rooms in Hell reserved for the idiots who scream that out at golf events.

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Speaking of idiots, how do you like that Jordan Speith?  He came upon the scene in 2015 when he won the Masters and the US Open at the age of 22, and was hailed as the future face of golf.  Since then, he has been seen acting out with some of his fellow tour players like a bunch drunken frat boys on a ritzy golf resort, taking forever to line up his shots and hit the ball, regularly rinsing balls on Number 12 at Augusta, and, this week at the Open, for petulantly blaming his caddy when he, Speith, hit back-to-back God-awful shots in the first round.

Swell headed, over-entitled jocks in the NFL and NBA have nothing on Jordan Speith.

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Okay, time for a prediction, but before that, take a look at my long shot bet that I made two weeks ago:

A victory by Tony Finau would have had me me playing on "house money" down at The Rivers Casino for the entire upcoming NFL season, but, alas and alack, Tony failed to make the cut.

As for those that are still playing, here is the top of the leader board going into the fourth round:

Gary Woodland    -11

Justin Rose          -10

Brooks Koepka     -7

Chez Reavie         -7

Louis Oosthuizen  -7

Rory McIlroy          -6

It is from among those final three pairings that the winner will emerge, and, realistically, I believe that only Woodland, Rose, and Koepka will still be in it until the end.  I suppose that a guy from back in the pack, say, Dustin Johnson would be capable of putting up a 65 today, which would get him to  eight under and reasonably close to contention, but that would assume that twenty-two other golfers tied or ahead of him would all stumble and fall back.  Not going to happen.

Who am I rooting for?  That would be Brooks Koepka because in addition to that wager above on Finau, I also dropped a ten spot on Koepka, albeit at much shorter odds, so a third straight Open for Koepka would net me eighty bucks. So there's that.

However, my official prediction for today?  Justin Rose to overtake Woodland and all others and win his second US Open title.

The US Open, Phil, and Brooks

Readers - I think there were two of you out there - have been beseeching The Grandstander for his thoughts on the recently completed US Open, specifically for his thoughts on Phil Mickelson's rules breaking fiasco in the third round.

First, The Phil Cause Celebre....

I won't recount the whole thing.  If you care at all, you know the details.  The Hall of Fame golfer, the second best and most important golfer of the still young 21st century, deliberately broke a rule, took a two stroke penalty, and caused a great deal of harrumphing among those who hold the rules of golf sacrosanct who saw Phil's transgression as equal to someone urinating on the altar at the Vatican.  My thoughts:

• No one in sports, no one, are more self-important than the rules nerds who run the game of golf.  So, when someone of Mickelson's stature sticks his finger in their collective ears, a part of me says "Good for Phil."
• In retrospect, however, Mickelson's actions WERE pretty egregious, and something a little stiffer than a two stroke penalty was no doubt deserved.
• The USGA Blue Blazers, who are the lead harrumphers when it comes to the rules of golf, defecated the bed on this one - AGAIN - by saying that the two stroke penalty was sufficient.  Had some shmoe Open qualifier who was ranked 241st in the world done what Mickelson did, he would undoubtedly have been DQ'ed immediately.  By showing that there IS a double standard when a golfer of Philly Mick's stature is involved, the Blue Blazers put the lie to the very standards that they hold so sacrosanct.
• Oh, and did you notice that three days after the conclusion of the tournament, Mickelson issued an apology for his actions.  Too late, but Phil is a guy who's dodged Insider Trading charges during the course of his life, so I guess this won't bother him all that much.

Second, the pros whine.....

There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth as the pros whined and bitched about how unfair the set up at Shinnecock Hills was, particularly on Saturday.  As fate would have it, my "Facebook Memories" today showed this post from this date in 2015 following the Open at Chambers Bay in Oregon.  I reproduce it here:

Pro golfers are independent contractors and, as such, are different from most other pro athletes, especially those in team sports. They should be admired for that. However, they take a back seat to NO PRO ATHLETE, not Tom Brady, not LeBron James, not A-Rod, no one, when it comes to - to coin a phrase - primadonnaism. Don't make a noise, don't click a camera, please don't move while I take 120 seconds to line up this putt. The complaints about Chambers Bay that we are hearing are a prime example. Let's bring Rory McIlroy or Jordan Spieth out to Rose Ridge or Saxon and give them a dose of humility in the form of what 99% of the world's golfers have to play on all the time.

Only the date and the location changes.  The guys who never had to play on a public course in their lives continue to cry whenever that can't shoot four rounds in the sixties.

Having said that, however, I also say screw the USGA people who insist that the Open be a "difficult test of golf".  I, for one, do not particularly enjoy watching the best players in the world kick it round the course shooting seven or eight over par in any given round.

Finally, the winner.....

Let's hear it for Brooks Koepka, who has won the Open for the second consecutive year, a feat that had not been accomplished in twenty-nine years.  Between Mickelson and the set up of the golf course, Koepka's considerable accomplishment seemed to be a footnote to the entire weekend, and that's a shame.

US Open Thoughts

As the golfers prepare to tee it up for the final round of the 2017 United States Open at Erin Hills, some thoughts....

You have to go sixteen names deep into the Leaderboard after the third round to find any golfers with a Major Championship to their credit, Louis Oostheizen and Sergio Garcia, who are T-17 with seven other golfers.  The first sixteen names include two top ten golfers (Fowler and Matsuyma) and a bunch of other guys who can be considered journeymen (Snedeker, Haas) or Up-and-Comers (Thomas, Koepka, Harman, Fleetwood).

What does it all mean?  Are guys like Thomas, Koepka, Reed, and Fleetwood truly "up-and-comers" who will share multiple Majors among them over the next ten years or so, or will they be a guy like Brandt Snedeker, a guy who has made a solid living on Tour, picks up a win a year and a bunch of top ten finishes, but never becomes a Star, or will today's winner be a One Hit Wonder, something that the US Open produces with some regularity (Andy North, Steve Jones).  

One thing for sure, none of these guys is "the next Tiger".

My own prediction is that Brooks Koepka will be hoisting that silver trophy come tonight (or tomorrow if a playoff is necessary).

Watch, but don't bet.

Oh, and speaking of Brooks Koepka, do you think he gets his golf shirts specially tailored for the sleeves to fit tight against his biceps to show off those guns of his?

Catching Up - Spieth, Pirates, and Warriors

The finish of the US Open at Chambers Bay yesterday certainly was one for the ages.  A four way tie to begin the fourth round, Dustin Johnson (my predicted winner) holds the lead for most of front nine, Rory McIlroy makes a charge and folds, Louis Oosthuizen makes six birdies on the back nine and is tied for the lead in the club house, Jordan Spieth takes a three shot lead with a spectacular birdie putt on sixteen, gives the lead away with a double on seventeen, makes another great birdie on eighteen, only to see Johnson birdie seventeen and have a putt for an eagle to win on eighteen, and a for-sure two putt birdie to force a playoff.  Amazingly, heartbreakingly, Johnson misses a two footer for birdie, and Spieth wins.

What is the fallout from this Open?

• Spieth now holds the first two legs of golf's Grand Slam.  This hasn't happened since 2002.  The hype leading to the British Open next month at St. Andrews for Spieth and his Grand Slam chances will be incredible.
• No doubt about it, Jordan Spieth is now THE pre-eminent golfer in America, if not the world, and he doesn't turn 22 until after the British Open.
• He is the youngest winner of the US Open since 1923, when an amateur of some note named Bob Jones won it.
• For Johnson, it was a heartbreaking defeat.  As much as I like Spieth, as Johnson stood over that birdie putt, I said to Marilyn, "I hope he makes it because no one should have to live with what will happen if he misses."  He has had close calls in Majors before, but this one is going to be a hard one to overcome mentally.  I hope that he does and gets his Major sooner rather than later.

I am going to forgo commenting on the Chambers Bay golf course and the TV coverage by Fox Sports.  Enough has been said about those two things already.

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The disastrous weekend in Washington DC for the Pirates takes away a bit of the luster from what has been a pretty special streak for the Pirates.  Prior to that Nats series, the Bucs had won eight in a row and, I believe, twenty-one of their prior twenty-six games, and had been doing it with pitching that was nothing short of spectacular.  While you hated seeing them get swept, perhaps what happened this week was inevitable.  As well as the Pirates had been playing, that's how poorly the Nats, a good team, had been doing, so some "market corrections" were due.  Next on the docket are three games with the division rival Reds, a team that the Pirates have had trouble beating.  Win two of three against them, and spirits will be lifted, no doubt.

By the way, I am stunned, although maybe I shouldn't be, at the over the top coverage of the Jose Tabata's HBP that broke up Max Scherzer's perfect game on Saturday with two outs in the ninth.  You'd have thought Tabata was responsible for snatching the Lindbergh Baby.  That is the ESPN-24 Hour Media culture in which we live, I suppose, but really...

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A final comment on the NBA Playoffs that concluded last week with the Golden State Warriors defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in six games.  (I believe that I had that, although I did say it would go the full seven.)  The Warriors are deserving champions, and Steph Curry and Finals MVP Andre Iguodala were phenomenal in the Series, so Congratulations and Hail to the Champion Warriors.

Congratulations also to LeBron James who, essentially, dragged the injury riddled Cavs through six games in this series.  When he was doing TV announcing back in the '70s, I once remember the great Bill Russell saying that "Injuries are a much a part of this game as free throws."  He was right, of course, and the Cavs chances were severely hurt when Kevin Love went down early in the Playoffs, and whatever chances they had left were pretty much submarined when Kyrie Irving went down and out after the first game of the Finals.  What was left was a team consisting of LeBron James and four guys named Joe.  Minus James, that Cleveland team that took the court against the Warriors after Irving's injury was one that would have trouble winning 35 games in an NBA season.

U.S. Open Forecast

It was my intention to write a Grandstander post Wednesday evening or Thursday morning that would offer my prediction for the US Open that is currently being contested at Chambers Bay in University Place, Washington.  However, I never got around to it, so, better late than never, here goes, and, yes, these were the names I would have written had I done this post on Wednesday night.  Honest.

Rather than make a flat out prediction, I was instead going to offer a short list of names and state that the winner would come from among those golfers.  The names were:

Jordan Spieth
Dustin Johnson
Rory McIlroy
Patrick Reed
Jason Duffner
Rickie Fowler

As I type this, they are about midway through the second round with half the golfers not yet out, and here is how it's looking for my boys.

Spieth and Johnson are part of a four way tie for first at -5.  Reed is one back at -4, Duffner is at -2, McIlroy is +2, and Fowler is at +13.

Of interest is 45 year old Phil Mickelson who is searching for the only Major title that has eluded him.  He sits at -1 after one round.  It would be a great story, and I would be pulling for him, but I am doubtful that Lefty will be able to hang on. He hasn't teed off yet for today, and we'll know more about his chances tonight after he signs his card.

The good new for Tiger Woods is that he is keeping right up, shot-for-shot, with one of the bright lights and Young Guns on the Tour today.  The bad news is that this particular Young Gun is Rickie Fowler.  Yep, Tiger is +13 through fifteen holes today.

I have been calling for Dustin Johnson to win a major for just about every one of these over the last three or four years now, so that's who I am picking for this one come Sunday.

As always, watch, but don't bet.

US Open is Underway

So, I am sure that many of you are clamoring for a Grandstander prediction for the US Open now underway at Olympic Country Club in San Francisco.  After his win two weeks ago at The Memorial, Tiger Woods is the betting favorite and the trendy pick, and I suppose he has as good a shot as anyone.

Fans of Phil Mickelson, and I am one, wonder if Lefty will ever be able to capture a US Open, after he has finished second five times in this Championship in his career.  At the age of 41, time might be running out for Lefty, but I see one thing that might spur him on this week.  If there is anything that gets Mickelson's juices flowing it's major championships and the chance to put a beat down on Tiger Woods, and the two of them, along with Masters winner Bubba Watson will be paired together in the opening two rounds this week.  That can work against you, too, since you can get caught up playing the golfer in your group rather than the course, but I think Mickelson is smarter than that.  So is Woods, for that matter.

In fact, I will ooffer one prediction: Woods will finish ahead of Mickelson this week.

I have  not been able to muster up any kind of feeling to register a learned prediction other than this: an American will win the US Open this week.  Sorry about that Rory, Luke, Lee, Ian, and all you other Internationals. 

 And if you want to go with karma for a pick, how about this?  Earlier in the week, as a promotional gig before a Giants game at AT&T Park, Dustin Johnson and Giants pitcher Matt Cain were hitting drivers from home plate over the right field seats and into McCovey Cove.  We now know that Cain responded by pitching a perfect game last night.  Will some of that same karma rub off on Johnson?  Johnson has contended in majors before and he's coming off a nice win in Memphis last week.  Hey, it's as good a reason to pick him as anyone else.

Enjoy the Open.  With it being played in California, we will be seeing it in Prime Time here in the east.  I like that.