That Epic Game 3, and Some Thoughts on Baseball Broadcasting

At some point late Monday night, or perhaps it was early Tuesday morning, I made the following post on Facebook:

Were you like me? did you stay up until three o'clock in the morning to watch all 18 innings of that 6-5 Dodgers win over the Blue Jays?  It was truly an epic game, and I couldn't tear myself away from it, no matter how tired I was.  (Thank God for being retired!)

I always love looking at box scores of marathon games like this.  Ernie Clement and Tommy Edman were both 1-for-8.  Edman had at least two chances in extras to end the game for the Dodgers, which would have been fitting, because he had earlier made two tremendous defensive plays in the game that prevented Toronto from scoring and winning the game.  Teoscar Hernandez was 4-for-8 with a home run and an RBI.  There were nineteen pitchers used.

We all know, though, what the true highlight of that box score was:  Shohei Ohtani with a 4-for-4 night and five walks, four of them intentional, two home runs and 3 RBI. He was on base an almost incomprehensible nine times.

And to have it end with a walk-off home run by one of my favorite players, Freddie Freeman.

It was indeed a game for the ages.

********

And now please allow me to vent a bit on the subject of baseball broadcasting in general.

Like you, I have slogged through these past several weeks watching MLB post-season games on various different networks - Fox, TNT, ESPN - and I have found that the announcers broadcasting these games, both the play by play guys and the analysts, are generally terrible to the point of being almost unlistenable.  I have the volume turned way low on the TV while watching and listening.

What is the problem?  Well, the game itself has gotten so bogged down with analytics and statistics and data that it has become mind-numbing.  John Smoltz, who I had always liked on these games, has gotten to the point where it seems that all he talks about are things like release angles and whether or not this or that pitcher is throwing too high a percentage of splitters.  Oh, and let's not forget how we are constantly reminded about things like exist velo and JUST HOW HARD so-snd-so is hitting the ball, never mind that he is in a 2-for-15 slump.  Honest to God, I think that my ears started to bleed while listening to him last night in Game 4.

And all of this comes after listening to Greg Brown, Joe Block, and all of the ex-jock Pirates in the booth over the course of a 162 game season.  As we all know, no one loves talking about launch angles, exit velocities and how HARD Oneil Cruz hits the ball as he compiles his .200 batting average more than Brownie and Blockie.

Back in August, the Pirates honored their former broadcaster Lanny Frattare upon his being placed on the Media Wall of Fame in the Press Room at PNC Park.  At that time, I heard Lanny being interviewed on The Fan, and in commenting upon the state of announcing today, he said two interesting things.  One was that he would prefer doing a broadcast of a game alone, with no analyst.  You know, like Vin Scully always did.  That would be nice, I think.  Secondly, he said that broadcasts today are too cluttered with word salads involving launch angles, exit velocities, and other advanced metrics mumbo-jumbo. He may not have meant it that way, but that was one serious shot across the bow that Lanny took at the current Bucco announcers.

Thanks for listening, folks.

The World Series Begins Tonight!

 

You all have no doubt been asking the question "Grandstander, why haven't you been writing about some of the great moments of the 2025 MLB Post Season?"

Well, that's because I've been very busy watching  the 2025 MLB Post Season.  And the NFL.  And the WNBA Playoffs.  And the Penguins season started.  And the NBA.  Oh, and there was that trip to Nashville over the weekend.

You get the idea.

Before getting into the World Series, let me just comment on a couple of things from this MLB Post Season.

First, a comment on a simply amazing Game 5 of the National League Division Series, won by the Dodgers 2-1 in an epic eleven inning game.  It was scoreless through six innings, the Phillies scored in the top of the seventh, and the Dodgers tied it in the bottom of the seventh.  It then went into extra innings, and the Dodgers won when Phillies pitcher Orion Kerkering inexplicably fielded a ground ball with two outs and the bases loaded and, rather than throwing to first base to end the inning, he threw to the plate. The throw was high and to the left, the run scored, the Dodgers won, and the series was over.  As I heard one commentator, I think it was Tim Kurkjian, say that it was a case of the game moving too fast for the young pitcher Kerkering, he got caught in the moment, and just made the wrong play.  I hope that the kid doesn't let it affect him mentally as he moves forward in his career.

Me, my mind flashed back to Bob Moose's wild pitch that ended the 1972 NLCS.  If you know, you know.

Then there was Game Four, the final game of the NLCS, a game that will forever be know as The Shohei Ohtani Game.

You all know what happened.  Ohtani started the game pitching, went six scoreless innings, gave up 3 hits and struck out ten batters.  TEN STRIKE OUTS!  And he hit three home runs.  THREE HOME RUNS!.  It has been called the greatest single game that any baseball player has ever had.

Me, I have no other words for it.

In contrast the Dodgers sweep of the Phillies, the Mariners-Blue Jays series went the full seven games, and it was a Game 7 well worth its name.  Seattle held a 3-1 lead, thanks to solo home runs by Julio Rodriguez and Cal "The Big Dumper" Raleigh until George Springer hit a three run dinger that put the Jays up 4-3.  The bullpen held the lead, and Toronto secured its first trip to the World Series since 1992.

I have no strong rooting interest one way or the other in this Series.  I suppose that as the games progress I may develop such an interest, but until then, I will hope only for a competitive and exciting Series.  I'll also say that I hope that we get to see something historic from Shohei Ohtani, although I don't know how he can top that show he put on in Game 4 of the LCS.  As for a prediction, most of the "experts" out there are telling you that should the Dodgers starting pitchers continue to perform as they have thus far in the post season, they will win in the end.

I'll follow that party line and say the Dodgers win it in six games.

Nashville Cats, and Seeing The Great Messi

Sometime early this past summer, I made the random comment that since the greatest soccer player in the world, Lionel Messi of Argentina, was now playing in America for Inter Miami FC of Major League Soccer, that it would be cool to actually see him play in person.  However, at the point, Miami had already visited Columbus, the closest MLS city to Pittsburgh, so that was pretty much that.

Well, my birthday rolled around in September, and Linda presented me with my gift:  a  Lionel Messi Inter Miami jersey. Then she gave me an envelope containing the rest of my gift.  She had made plane and hotel reservations for a trip to Nashville that included tickets to the MLS match between Inter Miami and Nashville FC this past Saturday.  She had also purchased tickets to see a touring Broadway musical, "The Outsiders", for Friday afternoon at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center.  And she bought a Messi jersey for herself as well.

So there we were this past Saturday at Geodis Park, a soccer only stadium in Nashville to be a part of a sellout crowd (30,000+) and getting to see the greatest player in the world. 

And did he ever deliver.

Our seats were fantastic.  Seven rows up from the pitch, and with a perfect view of the goal which turned out to be the goal that Miami would be attacking in the second half.  If we were looking at a football field, our seats would have been on the 20 yard line or so.

The game itself was terrific.  Nashville led 2-1 at the half, and yes, the Miami goal was scored by Messi.  The second half was all Miami, who ended up winning 5-2, and the best part was that Messi scored three goals, including one on a penalty kick right in front of us and assisted on the other two.  Six of the seven total goals were scored at our end of the field right in front of us.  If I tried to write up a script for what I wanted to see that night, I couldn't have come up with a better one.

HERE ARE THE HIGHLIGHTS of the game showing all seven goals, including Messi's hat trick.  Here also are some photos that we took with our phones that night.

The soccer game was the main purpose of our trip, and, as I said, it could not have been scripted more perfectly.  It will go down as one of the best sports spectating experiences of my life, but the rest of our Nashville Adventure was pretty cool, too.  

We stayed, not in the heart of Nashville, where all the tourists go and the honky tonks are, but in an area called 12 South.   It is an area of about six blocks on 12th Street, south of downtown Nashville (hence, the name), consisting of fancy coffee shops, some bars and restaurants, and some upscale retail clothiers.  You want a pair of $350 jeans, this is where you'd go.  For you Pittsburghers out there, think of it as an upscale Shadyside.  Our hotel, The Gilmore, was right in the center of 12 South, and it suited us perfectly.  The area was very busy.  Lots of people, lots of tourists.  We found a cool bar called the Bottle Cap to eat and watch sports on TV, and a fancy linen tablecloth restaurant called Urban Grub for our special "birthday dinner", and a couple of cool breakfast places.

The courtyard at The Gilmore

One of those neat breakfast places

On Friday morning, we ventured into downtown Nasheville for brunch and the 1:00 performance of "The Outsiders", but before the show, we did walk along several blocks of Broadway, and "experienced" Nashville. At 11:00 on a Friday morning, the place was jumping.  Party buses all over the place, live music coming out of every doorway that you passed, and people, masses of people, everywhere.   And when we left the theater after the show and UBERed back to our hotel, the number of people had increased exponentially.  We can only imagine what it is like at night when, we understand, you sometimes have to wait two hours just to get inside a place.   It was quite the experience.

Some street scenes.

Brunch before we hit Broadway!

"Make good trouble."

The Grand Ol' Opry

Day drinkin' and music at Garth Brooks' place.

Only in Nashville, I suppose

One stop for Miss Hockey!

I must also note that seeing "The Outsiders" was also one terrific experience.  The show won several Tony Awards, including Best Musical, during it's original Broadway run, and you can see why.  Set in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1967, it is about kids on both ends of the social spectrum  co-existing, or actually NOT co-existing.  The Greasers and the Soshes in this show could be compared to the Sharks and Jets in "West Side Story", so it is a familiar dramatic theme, but the staging in this one was really a marvel to behold.  The show in based upon the novel of the same name by S.E. Hinton, which, I understand, is the best selling young adult novel of all time.

Both the show and the theater, the Tennessee Center for the Performing Arts get Four Stars from The Grandstander.

Our last full day in Nashville was spent visiting with pal David Cicotello, who motored over from his home in Murfreesboro, TN to spend an afternoon with us.  A splendid time was had by all.

Two final comments on our trip.

One, our room at our hotel did not have a telephone in it.  How's that for a shifting paradigm?

Two, this is the first time we ever took a trip where our transportation was totally dependent on ride-sharing, UBER in our case.  In all we took six rides with UBER: to and from the airport, to and from the soccer game, and to and from downtown Nashville.  Our total costs were $186.73.  I don't believe that we could have rented a car and paid for parking over the four days we were there for less than that.  Also, after visiting downtown Nashville, that is just about the last place that I would want to be driving.

I will close with this toast to Linda and thank her for just about the most wonderful birthday gift ever!

 

To Absent Friends - Diane Keaton

 

Diane Keaton

1946-2025

Sometimes the death of a prominent person, be it an athlete, show biz personality, or politician, makes you just feel really bad, even though you never actually knew the person yourself.  Such is the case with how I've felt ever since I heard the news of the death of Diane Keaton yesterday at the age of 79.

In looking at her filmography on IMDB, I can deduce that my first memory of seeing Diane Keaton would have been in the 1970 comedy movie "Lovers and Other Strangers".  She also became better known for appearing in the Woody Allen comedies "Play It Again, Sam" (1972) and "Sleeper" (1973).  What I didn't realize until I read her obituaries today was that Keaton got her first big break in 1968 when she played Allen's female lead in the Broadway stage production of "Play It Again, Sam". She won a Tony Award for her performance in that play.

At about the same time as when she was making those two comedies, Keaton landed the role of a lifetime when she was tapped to play Kay Adams, Michael Corleone's girlfriend and wife in "The Godfather" in 1972.  This put her over the top as an actress able to play anything and not just comedy roles.  It assured her of screen immortality.  She went on to play the same role in the two Godfather sequels.

There followed six more movies with Allen, including the role for which she will probably be most remembered, Kay Adams Corleone notwithstanding, that of Annie Hall in Allen's 1977 masterpiece of the same name.  "Annie Hall" won the Oscar for Best Picture, Allen for director and screenwriter, and, of course, the Best Actress Oscar for Keaton.

By the time she made her final movie with Allen, "Manhattan Murder Mystery" in 1993, and the "Godfather Part III" in 1990, Keaton was in her forties, a time when Hollywood usually spits out actresses who have attained such an "advanced" age, but Diane Keaton's career took another turn.

It started with such movies as "Baby Boom" (1987) and continued with roles in such movies as the "Father of the Bride" movies with Steve Martin, "Something's Gotta Give" (2003) with Jack Nicholson, and two really terrific holiday movies, "The Family Stone" (2005) and "Love The Coopers" (2015).  There were plenty of other movies, of course.  She has 74 acting credits in IMDB.  She was nominated for Oscars four times, and she has won two Golden Globe Awards.  In the late 1960's, before Broadway and the movies came rolling, she also made TV appearances in Mannix, The F.B.I., Night Gallery, and Love, American Style.  (I also had a memory of her doing a TV commercial for some product in which she wore a track suit, I was able to find in HERE.  It's from 1970.)

It was in this latter period of her career that I really became a fan of Diane Keaton.  She was playing leading roles, age appropriate roles, and I found her to be every bit as charming, attractive, and a terrific actress as she got older as she was in her "Annie Hall" days.

The tributes that have flooded social media in the last twenty-four hours have been incredible.  It seems that she was a genuinely good person, as charming and lovable in real life as she was on screen.

I will miss Diane Keaton, but people like her will always be with us with the legacies that they leave behind.  I probably own at least ten DVD's of movies in which she starred.  Think I'll start with "Play It Again, Sam" and "Annie Hall" and then move on to "The Godfather".  

Some photos to make you remember Diane Keaton.

I mentioned tributes from her contemporaries. This one was posted on Facebook by frequent co-star, Steve Martin.  

Steve Martin 

3h · 

This playbill is from a 1964 college production of Carousel. Diane “Hall” (Keaton) is the lead; I’m a stage hand.

As Annie Hall. Great role that caused a revolution of sorts in women's fashion, The Annie Hall Look.

With Woody Allen

"Lah-dee-dah, lah-de-dah"

Memorable scenes from "The Godfather".

"That's a true story, Kay."

That memorable final scene.

With Jack Nicholson in "Something's Gotta Give".

Fare well, Diane Keaton, and RIP.

The Wheel

 

In an effort to tie in with the release of Taylor Swift's new album, "Life of Showgirl" (unless you live in a cave, you may have heard about it), the Heinz History Center made a post on social media over the weekend about the establishment that you see pictured on the left, The Wheel Cafe, located on Forbes Street in downtown Pittsburgh between Smithfield and Wood Streets, and to tie it in with other types of "showgirls" from Pittsburgh's past.  

I'll get to that part a bit later, but seeing pictures of The Wheel brought back a lot of fond memories to The Grandstander.  I had first heard about the joint from my Dad, who lunched there often during his working career in the city. When I started going to Robert Morris College  in 1970, it was quite convenient to go there for lunch myself.  Sometimes I would meet my Dad there for lunch, and if memory serves me correctly, I courted a young RMC co-ed named Marilyn Moellenbrock there on many an occasion.  I also distinctly remember eating there with my Dad and my two brothers on the morning of December 23, 1972, and then hopping on a shuttle bus to Three Rivers Stadium  where we watched a little sporting event that came to be known as The Immaculate Reception Game.  When I came back to Pittsburgh in 1978 and worked in Gateway Center for Equitable Life, I had lunch there regularly (often times with that same now former RMC co-ed, who I had married in 1974) right up until the time The Wheel closed its doors in 1985.  I seem to recall that The Wheel tried to make a go of it at a new location on Smithfield Street, but it was just not the same, and it didn't last long.

The Wheel was a dark and somewhat dingy place, but it was clean, and it served really good lunch fare.  My favorite was "The Regular", a grilled ham and cheese sandwich served on a nice crusty roll.  It was a great place for business men and women (and college students) to stop for a quick sandwich and a beer (or soft drink) for lunch.  It was a place that had a distinct personality and character, and joints like that just aren't around anymore.

Now, as to the "showgirl" theme.  The Wheel opened in 1936 and it was located just a few doors down from the Casino Theater.  The Casino, which closed in 1965, was a burlesque house during a time when burlesque was respectable and striptease was considered an art form.  History  tells us that between and after shows at the Casino, the performers, including the, ahem, showgirls, would stop in at The Wheel for drinks and a meal.  The girls would leave autographed pictures at the place, like this one from the legendary Tempest Storm....

,,,and all of these pictures were hung above the bar.  Those old photos from the forties and fifties remained hanging above the bar in all of their faded and black and white glory right up until when the place closed down.

I was told by my father, a wise man in so many ways, that the name of the place came from the nickname for the circuit that the burlesque performers traveled as they practiced their art form, "The Peel Wheel".  I never had that confirmed, and a Google search today gives a different spin on the term "peel wheel" as it relates to burlesque, but I like my Dad's version, and I'm sticking to it.

Thanks to my friends at the Heinz History Center for stirring up some pretty cool memories for me.