Black and White Is Beautiful

Thanks to Turner Classic Movies and my DVR, I recently watched two pretty good movies.

The first was from 1948 and director Carol Reed, "The Third Man" starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton, Trevor Howard, and Alida Valli and was based on a Graham Greene novel.  The movie takes place in post-WW II Vienna when American hack novelist Holly Martens (Cotton) comes to look up his old friend, Harry Lime (Welles).  Only trouble is, Lime is now dead, and Holly sets out to discover what happened to him.

Seems that there was more to Harry's death than meets the eye.  In fact, it seems that there was more to Harry than his pal Holly ever thought, and the more that Holly noses around, the more that the American, British, French, and Russian forces that patrol and monitor the occupied city of Vienna want Holly to get out and on a plane back to America.

The nominal star of this movie is Orson Welles, and he is great in it, from the time he makes his first appearance about an hour into the movie....

...to a subtly frightening scene on a Ferris wheel, to a speech about a cuckoo clock, and concluding with a chase through the underground sewers of Vienna.  However, the real stars of this movie are the city of Vienna, still ravaged from the bombings of the war and now plagued by black marketeers, the visually stunning black and white scenes that mix shadows and light (cinematographer Robert Krasker won an Oscar for it), and a score that was played by Anton Karas on a zither that as much a "character" in the movie as any actor.  The movie several memorable scenes including the aforementioned Ferris wheel and sewer scenes, and a memorable closing shot with Cotton and Miss Valli.

"The Third Man" is considered an all-time great by many critics and film historians, and I won't argue the point.  Well worth seeing.

The second movie was a 1962 thriller from director Blake Edwards.....

This one stars Lee Remick, Glenn Ford, Ross Martin, and Stephanie Powers. Remick plays a bank teller who is terrorized by bad guy Martin who tells her he has to rob her own bank for him.  If she doesn't, or if she calls the cops, he will kill her or her younger sister (Powers), or both of them, and probably not before having his evil way with them either.   Remick does call in the FBI and Agent John Ripley (Ford) takes on the case of trying to find out who the bad guy is, foil the plot to rob the bank, and, oh yeah, protect Remick and Powers in the process.

The movie essentially becomes a police procedural that highlights the often tedious and difficult work of tracking down an unknown perpetrator.  Like "The Third Man", this movie's black and white filming highlights the grittiness of the story.  It also features a terrific score by Henry Mancini that accentuates the story being told.  And Ross Martin makes the villain, Red Lynch, one of the more evil pieces of work you will ever see on screen.  Since this was made in 1962, you don't see a lot of violence right in front of you, but you know the evil of which Lynch is capable, and you know it could happen at any moment.  The movie's climax also takes place in the then brand new baseball park, Candlestick Park, which is kind of cool for any ball park geeks among you. 

"Experiment in Terror" was a departure for Blake Edwards, who specialized in lighter romances and comedies ("Breakfast at Tiffany's", the Pink Panther movies), but he  certainly delivered the goods in this movie. This movie is not on anyone's All-Time Great Movies list, but it is a good one that fans of thrillers should make a point of seeing.

********

You may have seen one common thread in both of these movies - both were done in black and white.  I once heard director Peter Bogdanovich say that more movies should be filmed in black and white, as it would lend more credence and character to the story being told.  In thinking of recent movies that I have seen off the top of my head, I believe that the dark and gritty story told in the current "The Girl On The Train" would, in fact, have been better told if it was filmed in black and white.  Certainly, the moods that were created in "The Third Man" and "Experiment in Terror" were due in large part to the black and white photography.  They would probably have still been good movies were they filmed in color, but I don't think that they would have been AS good, and they certainly would not have been better than their B&W incarnations.

I think Bogdanovich was right.  I think that more movies should be made in black and white.

Cubs Win!

Okay, let's gets this out of the way first.  From The Grandstander of October 24, 2016:

The CUBS to win in six games.

So I was off by one game, but (all together now)....I BELIEVE I HAD THAT!

So, what about that just completed World Series?  Through the first six games, only two of those games, the Indians 1-0 win in Game Three and the Cubs 3-2 win in Game Five, were exciting. None of the other four games were particularly noteworthy, and all of them were actually pretty one-sided and unmemorable affairs. However, those six games DID produce a need for a seventh game, and, really, is there anything in sports more exciting than the Seventh Game of the World Series?  

And this particular Seventh Game did not let us down.  It provided drama in the following forms:

• A game pitcher, Cory Kluber, trying to gut it out on short rest for the second time in the Series to win it for the Indians.  In the end, he fell short.
• Another game pitcher, Jon Lester, coming into a game in relief for the first time in nine years, and providing some tough and gritty innings for the Cubs.
• Ample opportunities for managerial second guessing. More on that later.
• The unlikeliest of heroes in ex-Pirate Rajai Davis.
• Extra innings!!
• A rain delay that preceded the extra inning.
• For the fans of both teams, a yo-yo-ing of emotions throughout the game that had to be almost unbearable.

It was a terrific game that ended up marking the 2016 World Series as one for the ages, and it was a game that produced a worthy and deserving Champion.  The best team doesn't always win its sport's Championship in any given season, but the Cubs were, undeniably, the best team in baseball throughout 2016, and now they have that World Series Trophy to prove it.

Some other unrelated thoughts an observations from here in The Grandstand....

• Managerial Second Guessing Dept. Joe Maddon is hailed by many as the Best Manager in Baseball.  He has now taken two moribund franchises, the Rays and the Cubs, to the World Series, so he has something going for him, no question.  He also doesn't do much to hide his light under a bushel, which can be grating if you root for the "other guys".  That said, his use of ace reliever Aroldis Chapman over parts of three innings in Game Six is mystifying.  To summarize: Chapman threw over fifty pitches in Game Five in recording an eight out save, something Chapman had never - as in NEVER - done before.  It was a one run game that the Cubs absolutely had to win, so you could understand it.  After a day off, Madden then brought in Chapman in the seventh inning of Game Six with the Cubs holding a five run lead, and kept him to pitch the eighth and part of the ninth even after the Cubs had opened the lead to seven runs.  It was inexplicable, and it almost cost the Cubs the Series, when a clearly out-of-gas Chapman came into Game Seven in the eighth inning and proceeded to blow the lead when he gave up a home run to Davis that tied the game.
• In the end, we know what happened.  Chapman got through the ninth and the Cubs won it in the tenth.  History is written by the winners, so Maddon's use of Chapman in Game Six will be little more than a footnote in the story, but had the Indians managed to win that seventh game, it would have been a tough winter for Joe Maddon and he'd have had a lot of 'splaining to do.
• I didn't see much of Cleveland play throughout the season, so I admit that this comment is unfair and uninformed, but the outfield defense that I saw in that seven game Series from the Indians was awful.  At time it looked an outfield full of Dave Kingmans playing out there.  
• And the play in the first inning of Game Six, when the Taylor Naquin and Lonnie Chisenhall almost collided, and let a sure out drop between them was a play that you would not expect to see beyond a Little League game was mind blowing.  On the major league level, that should have been an out one thousand times out of a thousand, but this happened in Game Six of the World Series.  The play took the Cleveland crowd completely out of the game.  It turned a 1-0 game into a 3-0 game, and  you just had the feeling when it happened  that that three run deficit was going to be an insurmountable one for Cleveland, and it was.  
• I feel bad for Cleveland.  I was really rooting for them, but in the end, I suppose that the injuries that they were somehow able to overcome all season long, just caught up to them.  A valiant effort and a great season for them.  Twenty-eight other teams would like to have been in their place.
• Theo Epstein.  How about that guy?  Ex-Pirates general manager Syd Thrift once said that "It ain't easy resurrecting the dead", and Epstein has now done it with two different teams.  Is he the best baseball executive since Branch Rickey?  Maybe yes, maybe no, but he sure is the best baseball exec of the twenty-first century, and whoever is in second place on the list isn't even close.
• It is maddening to watch Pirates batters hit a fly ball deep to the outfield and watch them stand in the box admiring it and lazily run down to first, only to see it drop out of reach of the outfielder, and then see the batter turn on the jets and just make it into second when he should have been in there easily, or, possibly, on third base.  Guess what?  This is not unique to our Buccos.  Throughout the MLB post-season, I saw batter after batter committing this cardinal baseball sin.  Or maybe it isn't a baseball sin any more, because nobody seems to run hard out of the batter's box on a fly ball anymore.  

• Every ballpark and team, I suppose, has their quirky and unique customs, but do we all have to be exposed to them?  I refer to the singing of "Take Me Out To the Ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch at Wrigley Field.  I suppose that the Cubs faithful love it, but did Fox need to show it to us for all three games at Wrigley Field?  I am sue that the Indians must have some similar gimmicky thing that they do every game.  Why didn't Fox show us that?
• Harry Carey has been dead for eighteen years now, so I am guessing that there are even a bunch of Cubs fans who are bored with that little tradition by now.
• Ah, the broadcasters.  Normally, Joe Buck doesn't inspire in me the passionate dislike that he apparently does in many others. In fact, I think he is among the best of the national network play-by-play guys.  I also recognize that reporters, which is what Buck and other play-by-play guys ostensibly are, supposedly, always "root for the story" and the Cubs were The Story this time around.  I also don't usually jump on the trope that this or that announcer is "for" one team and "against" the other one.  All that said, Buck really did seem to be almost orgasmic whenever things went the Cubs way.  And the constant slurping of Kyle Schwarber was embarrassing.
• On the other hand, John Smoltz as analyst was terrific.  After a season of listening to Bob Walk and Steve Blass, hearing Smoltz (and Ron Darling on TBS earlier in the playoffs) was like manna from Heaven.
• Can Cubs fans now just enjoy the success of their team and forever SHUT UP about curses, billy goats, black cats, Steve Bartman, and how star-crossed they are?     No one outside of Chicago cared about that before, and we REALLY don't want to hear about it now.
• And maybe the citizenry of Cubs Nation should consider some sort of restitution to the aforementioned Steve Bartman?  Those "fans" pretty  much ruined that guy's life.

As for the Cubs themselves, get used to seeing them on this stage for awhile.  Lots of good players, some destined to be superstars, in Bryant, Rizzo, Schwarber, Russell, Baez, Contreras, and others.  They could win a couple more of these things over the course of the next six or seven seasons.  

If you are a fan of the Pirates, that is going to be one pretty big obstacle to overcome.

Four Games Into the World Series.....

Quick thoughts.....

• Did even the most die hard of Cleveland Indians fans envision their team being up 3-1 after four games?
• Is there anything better than watching those smug Chicago Cubs fans getting quieter and quieter as the ninth inning wound down in games three and four?
• Okay, I know something that might be better, and that is seeing Joe "I Invented Baseball" Maddon standing in the dugout watching his team lose.
• Wonder what Vince Vaughn thought when Jason Kipness hit that three run dinger moments before he had to sing Take Me Out to The Ballgame?
• Speaking of which, Harry Carey has been dead for eighteen years now.  There are probably legions of Cubs fans who would like to see that tired seventh inning stretch trope done away with by now.  For people outside of Chicago, I'm guessing that the number is close to 99.9% who are sick and tired of it and want to see it go.
• I'm surprised that the Cubs didn't send Kyle Schwarber up in the ninth to hit a six-run home run.  I'm sure that Joe Buck thought it was possible.
• I am not one who subscribes to the theory that national TV announcers are "for" one team or "against" another.  I think that the top network guys, including Joe Buck, do a really good job in their neutrality.  That said, Buck and the Fox team were so positively gleeful when the Cubs evened the Series after the second game, that it was noteworthy to me.  And the love affair with Schwarber has been really hard to take.  It's making me root against Schwarber, and it's not even his fault!
• As much as I would love to see the Indians wrap this up tonight, I would say that the Jon Lester - Trevor Bauer pitching match up favors the Cubs, so I am thinking that there is a good chance this Series goes back to Cleveland.
• While I am enjoying the outcome of the Series so far, three of the four games have been yawners.  Only that 1-0 Game Three has offered edge of the seat tension from start to finish.
• Terry Francona has managed in twelve World Series games.  His record is 11-1. That's pretty good.
• Speaking of tropes that should be done away with, when did the City of Cleveland become known as "The Land"?  Yuck.  Dislike that as much as I dislike Pittsburgh being called "The Burg".
• Pirates fans dislike of Maddon and the Cubs may border on the irrational at times  - or maybe not - but I think it is absolutely delicious that the Cubs could lose the Series on the Hallowed Grounds of the Friendly Confines, and in fact, could be swept in all three games at Wrigley right in front of their home town fans.
• All that said, I am not considering this Series over quite yet.  Lester is tough, and that Cubs lineup CAN hit. Anything can still happen.
• Still, I think I'll just post this picture for the hell of it...

• Go Tribe!!

To Absent Friends - Sally O'Leary

Sally O'Leary died yesterday at the age of 82.  She was a long time member of the public relations department of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the personal baseball secretary to Bob Prince, and by the accounts of just about everyone who ever knew her, met her, or worked with her, she was one of a kind and was the "First Lady of the Pirates".  

I had the good fortune to meet Sally O'Leary back in 2013, and I can think of no better way to write this Absent Friends piece than to just cut-and-paste what I wrote in this blog back on June 23, 2013....

Meeting Sally O'Leary

If you grew up listening to Bob Prince broadcasting Pirates games, you will remember him often referring to his "Gal Friday, Sally O'Leary".  Over the years, in my involvement with the local SABR Chapter, I had occasion to correspond with Sally, and yesterday, I had the pleasure and honor of meeting Sally in person when she was the very Special Guest our monthly Breakfast Group.  Thanks to Dan and Len, long time acquaintances of Sally, for arranging this.

Sally began working for the Pirates in 1964 as an assistant to PR Director Jack Berger, and also served as the Baseball Secretary for Bob Prince.  She formally retired from the Pirates 14 years ago, but continues to serve the organization as the liaison for the Pirates Alumni Association.  We must have spent close to four hours with Sally yesterday, asking her questions, and hearing her stories about such folks as Bob Prince, Danny Murtaugh, Bill Mazersoki, Bing Crosby, Eddie Basinski, Vin Scully, Joe L. Brown, Fritz Ostermeuller, Leo Durocher,  Joe Torre, Curt Gowdy, Willie Stargell, Harry Walker, Kevin McClatchey, Wally Westlake, Dan Galbreath, Roberto Clemente, Frank Gustine, Dock Ellis, Harding Peterson, Ralph Kiner, Steve Blass, Bob Walk, Jim Woods, and on and on.  Are you getting the idea of what this must have been like for a bunch of life-long Pirates fans? 

To call Sally O'Leary a Treasure when it comes to the Pirates and the history of the team would not be overstating the case, and her love for and loyalty to the Pirates - even a Pirates Organization that is very, very different from the one she worked for - shone through.  

It was just a wonderful morning.  Thank you, Sally!

*******

That is what I wrote three years ago, and I will take the liberty to add one more story that Sally told us that day.  Shortly after she began her career with the Pirates, Jack Berger walked up to her desk with several dozen  baseballs and told her "We need to get these baseballs autographed and sent out to people who have requested them."

"Well, who's going to autograph them?" Sally asked.  A reasonable question.

Berger's reply:  "You are.  Better learn how these guys sign things."

Thereby began a career of harmless forgery.  Sally then took a pen and a breakfast paper napkin and provided us some pretty neat facsimiles of the signatures of Roberto Clemente and Bob Prince, among others.  

So, I hate to burst your bubbles out there, but if among you prized possessions is a Roberto Clemente or Dick Stuart or Willie Stargell autographed baseball or photo that you got from the Pirates once upon a time, there is a good chance that it just might not be as authentic as you think it is.

Sally O'Leary was indeed one of a kind, and there will never be another like her.

RIP Sally O'Leary. It was an honor to have known you.

Exposition Park Gets Remembered

Back in 1995, when Pittsburgh hosted the annual convention of the Society of American Baseball research (SABR), some members of the Pittsburgh Chapter (Dan Bonk, Len Martin, Ed Luteran, Dennis Repp, Dennis DeValeria among them) researched and pinpointed the location - probably within about fifteen feet or so - of home plate of Exposition Park, the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1890 to 1909.  (How they were able to do this is a fascinating story which I will not go into at this point.) The spot was commemorated by a spray-painted home plate in a parking lot of Three Rivers Stadium.

Since them a lot has happened:  PNC Park and Heinz Field were built, Three Rivers Stadium was imploded, and the area between the two stadiums has been developed and has boomed with new office buildings, restaurants, and parking garages.  Yet, the spray-painted Expo home plate remained, sitting in a parking lot at the corner of General Robinson Street and Tony Dorsett Drive, becoming more faded with each passing year.  Yesterday, however, a step was taken to ensure that this little piece of Pittsburgh and baseball history would not be forgotten when this more permanent vinyl marker was placed on the spot.

Credit for getting this done goes out to a lot of people, but, first and foremost, the lion's share goes to my friend Len Martin.  Len, who along with Dan Bonk, co-authored the 1994 "Forbes Field Build-It-Yourself" book, has been on this project like a dog on a bone for as long as I have known him.  Len, along with local historians Craig Britcher and Andy Terrick, continue to research, not only Exposition Park, but other venues and sites where baseball, both amateur and professional, was played in Pittsburgh even before Exposition Park came along.  Len also designed the home plate marker that you see above.

Thanks also go out to the following on this project:

• The aforementioned Craig Britcher and Andy Terrick.  Craig is a friend and a curator at the Heinz History Center and Western PA Sports Museum, and I always love to give a plug to the History Center!
• Brian O'Neill, columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, whose recent column about this project stirred a lot of interest among the general population of the city.
• Pittsburgh parking magnate Merrill Stabile, who met with Len and gave his blessing on the installation of this marker in one of his parking lots.  Word is that Mr. Stabile is also open to a similar commemoration of the home plate spot of Three Rivers Stadium.
• To a lesser extent, Len's and Dan's fellow Saturday morning breakfast mates, Jim Haller and Yours Truly.  This project has been discussed much over the course of our many years of breaking bread together.

I will leave you with some scenes from yesterday on location at Exposition Park.

The prep work and installation of the marker:

There were several supervisors for this job.  Kind of like a  PENDOT project.  The gentleman on the right is Jack, a producer from Root Sports.  Yes, you might - MIGHT - be seeing this story on Inside Pirates Baseball during an early season rain delay!

Brian O'Neill and Len Martin

Craig, Jack, and Len admire a job well done.

Len settling in to receive the first pitch!

Len, Myself, and Craig

This is what you see today when you dig in at home plate at Exposition Park.  Yes, your Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is produced everyday in shallow right-centerfield.

Meanwhile, three blocks away back at PNC Park, this former denizen of Exposition Park looks on in approval.

Len, Craig, and I score the first runs on this new home plate.

We already saw a few people looking on curiously as they walked through the parking lot yesterday afternoon.  Feel free to check it out yourself someday soon.

Second Guessing Narduzzi

I am not one who makes a habit of second guessing professional coaches and managers, and yes, I realize that this is a statement that one makes right before they second guess a coach or a manager.  I figure that they make big bucks to make hard decisions, and they know more - a LOT more - about the X's and O's of their sports and the skills of their teams than I do.  That said, I am now going into the Second Guess business, at least as far as last night's Pitt game is concerned.

A prior commitment prevented me from attending last night's Pitt - Virginia Tech game, which Tech won by a score of 39-36, and, in fact, I didn't get home until late in the third quarter.  When I turned on the game, the score stood at 22-21, Virginia Tech.  I saw Tech score to go up 29-21, and then watched the ensuing offensive fireworks by both teams that culminated in Pitt scoring with little more than two minutes remaining in the game to draw within three points, 39-36, of VT.

Head Coach Pat Narduzzi, or HCPN, as he is called on the message boards, could have then done one of two things at that point.

1. Attempted an onside kick to get his offense back on the field in a last ditch effort to win the game or tie the game and go into overtime.
2. Kick off normally and use his three remaining times out to stop Tech and get the ball back on a punt and drive the length of the field to score and either tie or win the game. As you all know, this is the option that HCPN chose.

Based upon the seventeen minutes or so that I saw of that game up to that point, the onside kick seemed to be the only option for Pitt.  Yes, the odds of recovering an onside kick are small, but were they any smaller that the odds of Pitt stopping and preventing VT from making a first down that would seal the victory for them?  And even if Tech would have recovered the onside kick, Pitt would have been no worse off, save for field position, than they ended up: the defense on the field, with all three TO's remaining, and  trying to prevent VT from making a first down as they ran out the clock.  Again as you know, Pitt didn't prevent VT from making that first down and running out the clock, and really, was there any doubt in any of your minds that Virginia Tech wouldn't make that first down?

A much larger issue, of course, is Pitt's inability to prevent their opponents from scoring points.  Oh, Pitt scores a lot, too, and their games are enormously entertaining to watch, but their defense, particularly their pass defense, is practically nonexistent.  For a far better analysis than I can give, I would highly recommend that you read Joe Starkey's column in this morning's Post-Gazette.

Pitt now stands at 5-3, and as my buddy Dan Bonk has pointed out, a mere eleven points separate them from being 8-0, but as I have pointed out before, it is not inconceivable that with a twist or turn here or there, they could also easily be 1-7 or 2-6.  The rest of the schedule is @Miami, @Clemson, Duke, and Syracuse.  I am thinking that 2-2 is the best that Pitt fans can hope for at this point.

One final note and something that has been bugging me all season.  The uniform pants that defensive lineman Ejaun Price wears are ridiculous.  We all like to make fun of the NFL and its "uniform police", but seeing Price out there in those shorts is, as I say, ridiculous.  That Pitt coaches, or the NCAA itself, allows this is strictly bush league.

Andrew Miller and What Might Have Been

There is little doubt that perhaps the most outstanding performer in MLB's 2016 post-season has been Cleveland Indians pitcher Andrew Miller.  I seemed to remember Miller's name being bandied about at the time he was coming out of the University of North Carolina and coming into the MLB Entry Draft.  He was projected to be a high draft pick at the time that the Pirates, due to many seasons of ineptitude, had a very high draft pick.  So, when Miller came into the game last night, I went to the Google Machine to do a little research.

The year was 2006.  With the first pick in that draft, the Kansas City Royals selected Luke Hochevar, not a Hall of Famer, to be sure, but not a bad ballplayer, either. With the third pick, the Rays selected a future All-Star Evan Longoria.  Great pick.  It wasn't until the sixth pick that the Tigers selected Andrew Miller.  Miller has bounced around with five teams before landing with the Indians this season, and while his career may not have warranted, in hindsight, that overall number six pick, he sure has been worth his weight in gold to Cleveland in October, 2016, hasn't he?

So what else happened in that 2016 draft? It's always fun to use 20/20 hindsight in these stories. Right after Miller went, the Dodgers selected a high school pitcher named Clayton Kershaw.  Three picks later at number ten, the Giants selected Tim Lincecum out of the University of Washington, and at number eleven, the Diamondbacks selected Max Scherzer from the University of Missouri.  That's a lot of Cy Young Awards right there in that draft.

The Pirates? Well, they had the overall number four pick that year, and used it on a pitcher: Brad Lincoln from the University of Houston.  So, with Kershaw, Lincecum, Scherzer, and Miller still on the table, the McClatchey-Littlefield brain trust selected Brad Lincoln.  Lincoln pitched for parts of five seasons in the Bigs, compiling a record of 9-11, 4.74 (7-9, 4.62 with the Pirates), and he has been out of baseball since 2014.

I realize that such backward looks aren't always fair, and that similar stories can be told for every team in the Majors, but it is yet one more additional reason why being a Pirates fan can sometimes just drive you plain crazy.