The Baseball Part of Our Cooperstown Trip

 

In  my post yesterday I told you all about the "Bed & Brew" portion of our weekend in Cooperstown, so now it's time to talk about the Baseball part of the trip, as evidenced by the photo you see above.  First, however, let me tell you about how we took in the Pirates Opening Day game against the Marlins in Miami.

We had decided that we would break up our trip to Cooperstown by stopping and staying over in Ellicottville,  NY on Thursday.  It is a lovely little resort town that caters primarily to skiers.  There was still snow on the slopes and we did see some people skiing.  We found this place...

...and settled in for a late lunch, sampled a flight of local brews, and set up our laptop, streamed Sports Net Pittsburgh via FUBO-TV, and watched Paul Skenes handle the Marlins in the manner to which we became accustomed last season.

We made our own sports bar!

We stuck it out at the Ellicottville Brewing Co. until Derek Shelton, in his infinite managerial wisdom, removed Skenes in the sixth inning.  We then went back to the hotel to watch the rest of the game and see the Pirates blow a 4-1 lead and the Marlins walk it off in the bottom of the ninth.  It was a game that was perfect microcosm of the lousy last half of the '24 season, a season that should have gotten Sheltie and most of his bosses fired. However, we will leave the state of the Buccos for another day.

On Friday we arrived in Cooperstown and spent the afternoon visiting the Hall of Fame gift shop, have lunch at a local restaurant, and visited many of the charming little shops that line Cooperstown's Main Street.

This is the card shop where Pete Rose would set up shop every year during Induction Week and hawk his autograph and cheesey "Hit King" merchandise. The guy who owned the store spoke reverently of Rose and how much he will be missed.  I referred to the place as "Pete Rose's Whore House".

We also stopped by Doubleday Field (the place was padlocked so you couldn't go in and sit in the stands), and I paid a visit to the paver stone that I purchased there many years ago,

On Saturday we made our visit to the HOF itself.  First time visitor Linda really enjoyed touring the place. I enjoyed it as well, as I always have,  Here are some random thoughts and photos from our visit.

I found it curious that in the locker that represented the current day Pirates it highlighted two pieces of memorabilia of ex-Buccos John Jaso and Aroldis Chapman.  Couldn't they have done better than that?

It also showcased the cap that Paul Skenes wore when he started the All-Star Game last year, and the players wore those god-awful generic uniforms and caps.

I also noticed a couple of cool things.  In the HOF Gallery, where the plaques are displayed (it feels like you're walking into the Vatican), the plaques are arranged in various nooks grouped by the years of induction.  For example, 1941-1945 or 1993-1996 and so on.  Anyway, one such nook, and I can't tell you the exact years, includes the plaques of Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, and Willie Mays.  That, my friends, is a mighty exclusive neighborhood.  And in a case of absolute serendipity for Yankees fans, the plaques of Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter hang right next teach other.

Ever since I first visited Cooperstown and the Hall of Fame back in 1976 I have loved the place and have always looked forward to coming again at some point in the future.  Now, at 73, I have to wonder if this visit might have been my last.   Mind you, it's not like I'm planning on checking out any time soon, but Cooperstown is a long way away, and seven hours of driving is a lot harder than it used to be.  Whatever the case may be, I have wonderful memories of the place from seven visits over forty-nine years that I will always cherish,  Everybody should visit Cooperstown if they ever get the chance.

I'll close now with a few more photos from our visit to the Museum.

Johnny Mathis

 

I felt bad when I read this week that singer Johnny Mathis announced that he was retiring from touring and performing at the age of 89 due to "age and memory issues".

I have been fortunate enough to see Mathis perform live twice in my life, most recently in 2012 at Heinz Hall with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. (You can read about that HERE.)  Nobody could deliver a love song like Johnny Mathis!

Mathis has been performing since 1956, almost SEVENTY YEARS, and he is entitled to call it quits on his terms.  However, when someone loves his work, as Johnny Mathis so obviously did, it is sad to see that he is doing so for the reasons stated.  Let us all wish that Mathis spends the rest of his years in peace and comfort.

Of course, there are dozens and dozens of Johnny Mathis songs that I could include in this post as a tribute to him. Here is a FILM CLIP from the terrific 1978 movie "Same Time Next Year" starring Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn. Mathis, along with Jane Olivor, sung this song, "The Last Time I Felt Like This", over the titles and throughout the movie.  Music by Marvin Hamlisch, Lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, it is a terrific song, and Mathis made it even better.  It is also a movie that I highly recommend.

Cooperstown Sojourn - Bed & Brew....and Baseball

About two months ago, I received an email from The Inn at Cooperstown advising of a "Bed and Brew Package" that they would be co-hosting with the Ommegang Brewery, also in Cooperstown, on the weekend go March 28-30.

The weekend package would include a "Meet-n-Greet" for those who signed on on Friday night, and a tasting and dinner at the Brewery on Saturday night, wherein we would be able to sample different sorts of craft beers that would be paired with what was being served throughout the four course dinner.  The package also included free time throughout the day on Friday and Saturday to  "explore Cooperstown", which to me, meant a visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

Over the years, I had visited the Hall of Fame on six different occasions, including a stay on one of those visits at The Inn at Cooperstown, so I know that it was a nice place. This presented a perfect opportunity for what would be Linda's first visit to Cooperstown

So, we signed on for the Bed & Brew Package and last Friday, here we were:

There were twenty-six people signed up for the Package and Linda and I were the oldest ones of the lot.  In fact, as we were in the moment, We had to laugh at the fact that we were a part of a hipster group doing tastings of craft beers since I am more of the "Gimme an I.C.Light" crowd.  Still it was a fun experience, and we found that when a random group of 26 people are put in one place at one time, you can come across some very interesting folks.  Our favorites were an older couple from Long Island, Steve and Judy.  He was retired and in his mid-sixties, she was in her mid-fifties.  He was what you would call a "typical New Yorker" -  loud and had a story for everything, and boy, could he talk.

The "tasting" part of the evening took place in the bar area of the Brewery.  As you could see, you had the opportunity to try A LOT f different beers.

Everybody has a story, including the gent you see above.  His name was Shiloh (like the Civil War battle), and he has probably forgotten more about beer than most people will ever know.  He gave us interesting info about al of the different beers that we were tasting.  We talked to him one-on-one later in the evening and found out that in an earlier life, he was an aeronautical engineer, but when the COVID pandemic struck, he and his family decided to chuck it all, move to Cooperstown, and devote his life to his passion - making beer.  There's more to the story, of course, but that's the Reader's Digest version.

All in all, it was a pleasant and fun weekend, and we were probably the least serious beer drinkers among the crowd.  We did bring back some of the different beers that we tried, but in the end, we'll no doubt stick to the Bud and Miller Lights, and Blue Moons when we want to get fancy.  

Oh, and as the headline suggests, there was baseball involved, too, but I have gone on too long on this part of our weekend, so that part will come in another post, probably sometime tomorrow.  That post will also include the story of how we watched the Pirates Opening Day game in Miami.

Stay tuned.

Oh, the name Ommegang.  It's a Belgian word (most stories about beer originate in Belgium) that dates back to the 16th century.  Something about when the King of England invaded Europe to claim it for Jolly Old England.  To celebrate the occasion, an "ommegang", or a celebration, took place.  The world is still used in Belgium and parts of Europe to indicate any sort of celebration or festival.  As in, "There'll be a real ommegang in Pittsburgh when the Pirates win the World Series this year."

Having our own private little ommegang.

"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

When it was announced last year that the Pittsburgh Public Theater would be performing Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". I knew that I wanted to see it.   I had never seen the play performed, nor had I seen the 1966 film version, but I knew vaguely what it was about, and figured when you get the chance to see a classic American play performed, you grab on to it, so there we were last night in front row seats at the O'Reilly Theater.

The Plot: and older married couple, George and Martha, following a college faculty party (George teaches there, Martha's father is the college president), invite a younger couple, Nick (he's a new faculty member) and Honey, to there home for some post party cocktails and conversation.   It is two o'clock in the morning. What follows is a three hour drunken descent into the living Hell that is the marriage of George and Martha.  

If you want to go to the theater for an uplifting and "feel good" experience, this ain't the play for you.  However, at some point in my formal education, either in high school or college, I recall some teacher saying that good drama is supposed to challenge you to think about what it is you are seeing, and it might even make you uncomfortable on several levels.  Using that criteria, "WAOVW?" hits it out of the park.  Twelve or so hours after seeing it, I'm still not sure what it I that I am supposed to take away from it.  And I know that I will spend time over the next several days researching some critical commentary on the play and pondering its message.

What the play also is is an opportunity for good actors to sink their teeth into some very meaty roles  and deliver bravura performances.  Such was the case in this production starring Daniel Jenkins (George), Tasha Lawrence (Martha), Dylan Marquis Meyers (Nick), and Claire Sabatine (Honey).  They were great in roles that have to be very demanding for an actor.

Seeing the play is also prompting us to seek out and watch the 1966 film version that starred Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis, and that was directed by the great Mike Nichols.  Taylor and Dennis won Oscars for their performances and Burton, Segal, Nichols, and the movie itself were also Oscar nominated.  Yep, that's a movie that I want to see, but I think that I'll wait awhile after just seeing the play.

A funny aside.  During one of the intermissions (there are two them over the course of the three hour play), we were chatting about what we were seeing with a young late 20's/early 30's couple sitting next to us.  Had you seen the movie, we asked.  No, they said, and who played the leading roles in the movie, they asked.  When we said "Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton", we could immediately tell that they had absolutely no idea who Taylor and Burton were, never mind George Segal and Sandy Dennis.  Time marches on and fame is fleeting.

Three Stars from The Grandstander for this performance at the PPT, and I will once again say that there is no better venue to see a play anywhere than the O'Reilly Theater.

Taking a Break

 

For various and sundry reasons, I have decided to take a break from Facebook.  We all know that social media can be a really good thing.  It can reconnect you with friends and family, talk about your vacations, share wedding photos and baby pictures, relive fond memories.

It can also be a pain in the ass.  Need I list all of the ways? I have also found that I am spending an inordinate amount of my leisure time here when I could be reading a book, watching television, or having cocktails and conversations with my wife. So I've just decided to take a break for a bit.  If nothing else, I can already feel my tension levels lowering because I won't be seeing the latest atrocities emanating from the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.

I have not deleted my account, and I may still post my Grandstander Blog posts there so that they can find a wider audience.  (You can also go the www.grandstander.blogspot.com and choose to "Follow" the blog.)

I am going to try a variation of the "one day at a time" school of thought on this.  My initial goal is to just stay away from reading and posting (other that the aforementioned Grandstander posts) through the month of April, at which time I'll reevaluate the whole thing.

See you on the other side and please stay in touch in other ways. It is possible, you know.

Bob, aka, The Grandstander

To Absent Friends - George Foreman

 

George Foreman, two time Heavyweight Champion of the World and at a time when that title still meant something in the sporting world, died last week at the age of 76, and what an amazing life story he had. Born in the rough part of Houston, Texas, Foreman, like many such youths, took to amateur boxing, and this is where that led him.

• He was the Golf Medalist in the heavyweight class for the USA in the 1968 Olympics
• Turned professional after the Olympics and in 1973, he defeated Joe Frazier for the Heavyweight Championship
• Lost the championship in 1974 to Muhammed Ali in the famous "Rumble in the Jungle
• Retired from boxing and became a Born Again ordained non-denominational Christian minister serving, mainly, at-risk youths in his native Texas
• After ten years of retirement, he returned to the ring - he needed the money to support his ministry - and, improbably, won the Heavyweight title again at the age of 46, the oldest man to ever win the title.
• Soon after one of boxing's alphabet soup governing bodies stripped him of his title, he retired again and began endorsing a line of indoor electric grills, and here is where a whole new life began for Foreman

The George Foreman Grill, the "Lean, Mean, Fat Burning Machine" took off like a rocket, and made Foreman wealthy beyond anything that boxing ever delivered unto him.  Raise your hands out there if you have never at one time in your life owned a George Foreman Grill.  Nobody?  Didn't think so.  

So it was that Foreman, a once brooding, foreboding, and not very likable prizefighter turned into one of America's jolliest and most lovable commercial pitchmen.  In the late 1990's he sold the commercials rights to his grills for $138 million, and it is estimated that over the course of his life, he made over $200 million from the grills.  No wonder he said "It's so good, I put my name on it."

There was time when boxing mattered in the world of sports, and for one brief era, it was dominated by three seminal figures: Muhammed Ali, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman.  Ironically, there are no doubt thousands, if not millions, of owners of George Foreman Grills who have no idea just exactly who George Foreman actually was. Another irony pointed out by Tony Kornheiser in his comments on him, that as great as Foreman was (he was only defeated five times), he is probably most remembered for a fight that he lost, to Ali that 1974 night in Zaire.

One more Fun Fact:  George Foreman married five times in his life and fathered twelve children, five of them sons, each of whom is named George.

RIP George Foreman. It was quite a life, and here are some pictorial highlights.

Olympic Champion

Mexico City

1968

"Down goes Frazier. Down goes Frazier"

A New Champion - 1973

Losing to Ali

The Rumble in the Jungle

Zaire - 1974

When giants walked the earth.

Frazier, Foreman, Ali

"It's so good I put my name on it."

RIP Champ

Sporting Thoughts on a Monday Morning

 

Like many of you, no doubt, I have just come off of a four day weekend spent in large part most part watching the first and second rounds of the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments.  These four days every March offer a truly unique bacchanalia of sports viewing pleasure.

This applies to me, but the highlight of the weekend was the terrific showing that Robert Morris put up against second seeded Alabama in the opening round on Friday, losing 90-81, a score that didn't reflect the close nature of the game overall, as shown in this screenshot from late in the second half:

Yes, the Colonials actually led Alabama for a (very) brief moment in the second half.

It was great showing by the team, and one in which everyone connected with the University can take pride, as reflected by this photo released by the school in its social platforms later that evening:

Under circumstances that used to exist in college athletics, the future would look very bright for the RMU hoopsters, but in this age of NIL and the transfer portal, who knows?  Foremost question:  the team's two best players, Alvaro Folguieras and Amarion Dickerson have eligibility remaining, but after seeing how they performed over the course of the season and post-season, they are prime candidates to be poached by bigger programs.  Good for them, but tough on the fans, but that's life in a mid-major conference.

Otherwise, the tourney offered no real Cinderella Stories, other than a #10 seed Arkansas knocking out #2 seed St. John's, but can you really label any team coached by John Calipari a "Cinderella"? Of the sixteen teams remaining twelve of them were seeded 1 through 4 in their regions.  All four #1's remain, along with three #2's, two #3's, three #4's, one #5, two #6's, and the aforementioned #10 Arkansas Calaparis.

Watching all of the various conference tournaments prior to the main event, I thought Florida was the best team that I saw, but watching Duke dismantle Baylor yesterday, I think that I am changing  my mind.  They are scarey good, and it's not just because of Cooper Flagg.  At this point, I will call for a Duke win over Florida for the championship come April 7.

Speaking of Florida, I took great delight in seeing them beat Connecticut in a terrific second round game yesterday, if only because it has knocked Danny Hurley out of the tournament.  His profane sore loser comments afterward only cemented my great dislike for him.

And the last game that I saw before heading to bed last night was the Colorado State-Maryland game.  In case you missed, Colorado State snatched victory away from Maryland when Jalen Lake hit a three pointer to take a 71-70 lead with :06.1 remaining, only to see Maryland snatch said victory away from them when Derik Queen hit a floater with time expiring to win it for the terms 72-71.  In the space of six seconds of game time, BOTH teams experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.  If you missed it, HERE is how it played out.

Best line I saw on social media this morning was that Derik Queen will soon be signing a huge NIL deal with Travelers Insurance.  Wish that I'd have thought of that one!

Eight games today from the NCAA Women to fill out the Sweet 16 of the women's bracket, and then the bacchanalia begins again on Thursday.

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