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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BA - .212, 146th in all of MLB

OPS - .733, 96th in all of MLB

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

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

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

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

1. Seth Hernandez, 19, RHP

2. Angel Cervantes, 17, RHP

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

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

PIRATES FEVER. CATCH IT!

Travis Williams, Ben Cherrington, Bob Nutting

The Bucco Brain Trust

What, us worry?

"Superman" and "The Better Sister"

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

"Superman"

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The Better Sister"

(This review contains NO SPOILERS.)

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

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

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

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

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

Two Stars from The Grandstander on this one.

Two Movies

Two movies upon which to comment today.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To Absent Friends - Dave Parker

 

One of the Pittsburgh Pirates All-Time Greats, Dave Parker, died this past weekend at the age of 74.  In a sad twist, Parker's death came one month before he was to be officially inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  In poor health for many years, at least Parker knew that he had finally made it to the Hall, even if he never got the chance to see his plaque hang in that Gallery in Cooperstown.

Here are the numbers.  In a 19 year career, Parker was a league MVP, a three time Gold Glove winner, two time batting champion, two time World Series champion, and seven time All-Star.  He hit .290 lifetime, with 2,712 hits, 339 home runs, and 1,493 RBI (.290/22 HR/98 RBI per 162 games).   In his eleven seasons with the Pirates from 1973-83, this numbers were .305, 166 HR and 758 RBI (.305/22 HR/94 RBI per 162 games).  

Those are the numbers, but you would have had to have actually seen Dave Parker when he first arrived in the big leagues to truly understand his impact.  He was big, 6'5", 230 pounds when ballplayers just weren't that big.  He was "Aaron Judge" before Aaron Judge was even born.  He was strong and fast.  A true five tool player.  

He was also brash and colorful, said what was on his mind, and humility was not his strong suit, as exemplified by this famous picture.  Oh, and by the way, this t-shirt can still be purchased at select retailers in the Pittsburgh area.

No one will say it out loud today, but Parker's personality was such that he was not always popular among the Pittsburgh fan base, and said fan base did not take kindly to the fact that Bucco management rewarded Parker with a five year, $5 million contract, making him baseball's first Million Dollar A Year player  (times were different back than).  Undoubtedly, racism played a part in the negative backlash that resulted whenever it was perceived that Parker was slacking or not putting out his best efforts.  No one will admit to that today, but, trust me, that was real.

Dave Parker eventually went the free agent route and signed with his hometown Cincinnati Reds, where he stayed for four years, and then spent five more seasons splitting time among the A's, Angels, Brewers, and Blue Jays.  

Parker also was a central figure in the "Pittsburgh Baseball Drug Trials" of the mid-1980's, and that further eroded his popularity among the Pittsburgh fan base,  However, sometime in the early part of the 21st century, the Pirates welcomed Parker back into the family, and he became a frequent visitor to PNC Park and team reunions and other Pirate Alumni events.  This was also at a time when Parker was diagnosed as having Parkinson's Disease, and his demeanor in the face of the disease as well as his efforts to raise funds for research were seen as heroic.

Dave Parker was the best player in baseball for an extended period of time in the late 1970's and early 1980's, and, all due respect to Willie Stargell, he was the best player on the Pirates World Series Champion team of 1979.  In the two days since his death, I have pondered the question "Have the Pirates had a better player than Dave Parker since he left the team in 1983?"  I suppose that you might be able to make a strong case for Andrew McCutchen, but if you had a choice who would you take for your team: an In-His-Prime-Parker of an In-His-Prime-McCutchen?  I love Cutch, but I'll take Dave Parker.

Dave Parker becomes the twelfth member of the 1979 We Are Fam-a-lee Pirates to die.  Fourteen members of the 1979 World Series roster remain with us.

	1979
Pitchers	Jim Bibby
	Bert Blyleven
	John Candelaria
	Grant Jackson
	Bruce Kison
	Dave Roberts
	Don Robinson
	Enrique Romo
	Jim Rooker
	Kent Tekulve
Catchers	Steve Nicosia
	Ed Ott
	Manny Sanguillen
Infielders	Tim Foli
	Phil Garner
	Bill Madlock
	Willie Stargell
	Rennie Stennett
Outfielders	Matt Alexander
	Omar Moreno
	Mike Easler
	Lee Lacy
	John Milner
	Dave Parker
	Bill Robinson
Manager	Chuck Tanner
	Deceased	12
	Still With Us	14

RIP Dave Parker.

(CORRECTION:  Since I originally posted this, it has been pointed out to me that Lee Lacy is still very much alive.  My apologies to him and all of his loved ones,)

The Thunder Rolls

Let us salute the Oklahoma City Thunder on their 103-91 Game 7 victory over the Indiana Pacers last night to secure the 2025 NBA Championship.  We also salute the League and Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who led the team to this championship.

It was a most entertaining Finals series, but the outcome will always carry a nagging "What if?' question for Pacers fans due to the first quarter injury to their star and best player, Tyrese Haliburton.  Haliburton started out on fire hitting three three point field goals before he popped his achilles midway through the first quarter and was lost for the rest of the game.

It was both sad and painful to watch as Haliburton lay on the floor for several minutes before he was able to get to the locker room.  I once heard the great Bill Russell, when he was working a TV commentator, say that "injuries are as much a part of this game as free throws", and that is certainly true.  The Thunder's title does not come with an asterisk because of Taliburton's injury.  As I stated on Facebook yesterday, I think that the Thunder is a better team, and that they probably would have won Game 7 regardless.  Still, the Pacers and their fans will have to always wonder "what if.....?'

I don't want to end this contemplation of the Finals without mentioning the Pacers' TJ McConnell.

McConnell is a local kid out of Chartiers Valley High School.  His father was and is a legendary high school coach at Char Valley. His aunt is Suzie McConnell-Serio, one of the great athletes to ever come out of western PA, and his sister was a star player at Duquesne and is now a rookie in the WNBA.  He started his college career at Duquesne before transferring to Arizona.  He was undrafted but has fashioned a nice little career as bench player and sixth man. In this series, he came off the bench and was effective in every game he played.  Coming into the game last night in place of Haliburton, he kept the Pacers in the game through the first half, before the Thunder just wore them out.  He is one of those types of players that are common in sport:  one that you love when he plays for YOU team, but one who drives you nuts when he plays for the other guys.

One more uplifting moment.  As the dejected Pacers came off the floor at the end of the game, Tyrese Haliburton, dressed and on crutches, was there to greet and console them in defeat.  It was an almost noble moment.

Again, all hail the OKC Thunder, worthy Champions!  And thanks to BOTH teams for a most entertaining and enjoyable Finals series.

 

To Absent Friends - Chuck Spatafore

In the course of your lifetime, if you are lucky enough, you will meet a small handful of people about whom you will say "I've never met anyone quite like him."  If you are really lucky, as I was, one of those persons that you will have encountered would have been Chuck Spatafore, who passed way peacefully this past Friday.  Chuck was never one to give his age, but he was somewhere in his early nineties.  If anyone can be said to have lived a full and rich life, it was Chuck.

I first met him in 1988 when I began working at Blue Cross of Western Pennsylvania.  Chuck and I were fellow Account Executives working in the area that sold to and serviced Taft Hartley Health and Welfare Trust Funds.  It didn't take me long to realize that this guy was one of the most engaging, and certainly one of the funniest, guys that I had ever met.   Chuck was a jazz drummer of renown in the greater Pittsburgh area, and he had worked as a professional musician throughout the country.  This "show biz" background allowed Chuck to accumulate a wealth of stories about many famous persons, both locally and nationally.  He also knew a million jokes, and could tell them in such a way that provoked great fits of laughter.  I can honestly say that Chuck was the funniest guy that I have ever known.

Here's just two stories that I loved hearing Chuck tell.  And I had him tell them to me many times.

In the mid-1960's, Chuck was the drummer in the house band at KDKA-TV Channel 2 in Pittsburgh,  Yes, local TV stations actually had such things as "house bands" back then.  One day, an up and coming rock and roll band from England came through town and needed to generate some publicity for their Pittsburgh gig, so they appeared on a local show down at Channel 2.  That group was the Rolling Stones.  (This was a long time ago.)  Anyway, the gist of the story was Chuck telling everyone how he got into it with "that skinny bastard Charlie Watts" as he, Watts, kept tinkering with Chuck's drum kit.  "I wanted to kill him and that would have been the end of the g.d. Rolling Stones."

Another time, Chuck was playing in the band at the old Holiday House night club when Milton Berle was the main act.  After one of Berle's jokes, Chuck gave a rim shot on his drums, whereupon Berle glared at him and said "I work alone, drummer."  Needless to say, Uncle Miltie was not one of Chuck's favorites.

Like I said, Chuck knew everybody.  He went to North Catholic with Dan Rooney, and played football at Dayton University with Chuck Noll.  So Chuck was connected to the Steelers.  He coached football at North Catholic High School with Tom Foerster.  Foerster went onto become an Allegheny Counter Commissioner and a major force in local Democratic politics, so this meant that Chuck was connected with just about any politico that mattered in the Pittsburgh area.  Among all of his connections  - show biz, sports, politics - Chuck knew just about everyone, and he usually had great story to tell about all of them.

Chuck retired from the Blues in 1996, and I am glad to say that he and I kept in touch, and every time we talked, the old stories would be told and I would be in tears with laughter.  Later this week, I will visit the funeral home to pay my respects to Chuck and his family, and I am certain that there will be more laughter than tears as everyone celebrates a full life that was certainly well lived.

I don't know who in his family composed the death notice for Chuck that appeared in the paper, but I want to quote from it here:

He inspired everyone who knew him to keep moving, keep smiling and keep going. Chuck was an extrovert in the best sense of the word. His joy for life was infectious, his storytelling legendary and his humor unmatched. No one could leave a conversation with him without a laugh, a grin or a new favorite anecdote. He had a deep love for his friends and family always bringing his signature warmth. Chuck Spatafore was a true original: a drummer, a teammate, a jokester, a gym rat, a sports fanatic, a dear friend, and a loving family man. He leaves behind a legacy of rhythm, resilience and joy. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you honor Chuck by doing what he did best: tell a good story, listen to some great music and make someone laugh. 

A perfect description.

RIP Spats.

This picture was taken at a mini-reunion of the Blue Cross "Foster Plaza Gang" in 2014.  That's Chuck, front row, right.  Me on the left with Michelle Hickey Cerminara, who organizes these reunions, in the middle.  Ken Cikovic, Bill Hepfinger, and Judy Jones standing behind us.

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."

********

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....

********

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.

********

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.