To Absent Friends - Gene Shalit

 

Gene Shalit

1026-2026

Legendary movie and entertainment critic and regular on the Today Show Gene Shalit died this weekend at the age of 100.  Tributes to Shalit and the amazing way that he had with words and puns in his film reviews have been all over the media in the days following his death ("Ishtar ishterrible"), and they are great fun to read.

Tis post will be my story of one of his reviews  that sticks in my mind.  It was in 1977 for the Paul Newman hockey movie "Slap Shot".  Shalit didn't care much for the movie and I remember happening to be watching the Today Show when he said:

"Slap Shot is has an R rating, which means that no one under 18 can see this movie unless accompanied by a parent.  Any parent that would take a kid to this movie deserves to be slapped.  Or shot!"

How great was that?

RIP Gene Shalit.

They Are The Champions

Both the NBA and the NHL wrapped up their Championship Series this weekend, and both results were quite satisfactory in our home.

The New York Knicks won their first NBA title since 1973 in five games over the San Antonio Spurs in what can only be described as astonishing fashion.  Here was their Playoff run:

• Fell behind two games to one to the Hawks in the first round then won three straight games to advance to the second round
• Swept the 76ers in the second round
• Swept the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals; in Game 1, the Cavs led by 22 points with 7:00 minutes remaining in the game, and the Knicks tied it and won it in overtime
• Defeated Spurs in five games to win The Finals

But that last bullet point doesn't even begin to describe just HOW the Knicks won those five games.  The Spurs had double digit leads in all five games, and could have, and perhaps should have, won all of the games that they lost.  After losing the first two games, the Spurs rallied to win the third game in Madison Square Garden, and appeared to have a Game Four win in their hip pockets, a win that would have tied the series.  They held a 27 point lead over the Knicks at the half, and got that lead up to 29 points in the third quarter.  No NBA teamed ever overcame a 29 point deficit in an NBA Finals game.  Until this past Wednesday.

The Knicks kept chipping into the lead, while the Spurs, with perhaps the most dominant low post "big man" in all of basketball, Victor Wembanyama, kept attempting , and missing, long range jump shots and three point attempts.  The Spurs still held a seven point lead with a minute to play, but the Knicks kept at it, and the Spurs kept missing shots, and it all came to an end when OG Anunoby tipped in a missed shot by Jaylen Brunson with 1.2 seconds remaining to give the Knicks an unbelievably improbable 107-106 win.  

OG Anunoby becomes Bobby Thomson in Game 4!

We watched that game unfold from our hotel room at Pittsburgh's William Penn Hotel (why we were there will be the subject of another post coming in the next day or two), and simply could not believe what we were seeing.  As I often say, a game like that one is why you follow sports.

The real star of the Knicks was Jalen Brunson, who was named MVP of the Series.  After the Knicks fell behind by double digits is Game 5, Brunson willed the Knicks to overcome the deficit and scored 45 points in New York's 94-90 win.  He'll never have to pick up a check in a New York City restaurant for the rest of his life.

MVP

A couple of comments on two other key figures in these Finals.

I was tremendously impressed with Knicks Head Coach Mike Brown, and after pulling off that unprecedented comeback in Game 4, how could you not be, but more than that, his calm demeanor on the sideline throughout all of these games stood in sharp contrast to his coaching counterparts on all levels of basketball.  He never whined or screamed at the refs.  When he had a beef, he would calmly address it to the official in question.  Most of the time, he stood on the sidelines with his hands in his pockets.

In a profession that is filled with Danny Hurleys, it's refreshing to see a guy like Mike Brown on the sidelines.

Make no mistake, the San Antonio Spurs are a very good team.  Led by their star player, 22 year old Victor Wembanyama, and other young stars like Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, the Spurs will be back on this stage again and will win NBA championships over the next five to eight years.  Wemby is a force of nature and when you see how he can dominate a basketball game at this point in his career, it boggles the mind to think of how much better he will become as he matures, and I use the word "mature" purposefully here.  I love watching him play, but it was disappointing to see some of the, shall we say, churlish behavior on his part both on the court (Is he a dirty player?)  and in post game interviews and interactions with other players.  Hell, he's only 22 years old, so let's all hope that he outgrows some of that stuff as he gets older.  He will be, if he isn't already, the Face of the NBA, and he needs to realize that there is some responsibility that comes along with that. 

*****

One night later, the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Las Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 to win the  NHL's Stanley Cup in six games.

I can sum up our actions to this by restating these comments from my June 2 post:

"Our rooting interest will be with the Hurricanes, not only because of her preseason wager, but because her sons  Jeffrey and Justin and their families reside in Raleigh now and are Hurricanes fans, and because she wants to see ex-Penguin Jordan Stahl win another Cup."

So the Canes checked all the boxes for Linda and I throughout this series, and Jordan Stahl even won the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the Series!   Oh, and the "pre-season wager" referred to above was a five dollar bet that Linda asked me to place for her back on October 3 that yielded a $52.50 payout on FanDuel.

*****

In other sports news, the FIFA World Cup kicked off last Thursday, and on Friday the USA began play in their Group with a rousing 4-1 win over Paraguay.

It was great fun to watch, and in fact, this whole tournament has been and will continue to be fun to watch play out over the next thirty-four days.  Every day during group play there will be as many as four games matches being contested, and it has been fun to watch throughout these first five days of competition.  I won't be glued to every contest, but I will be watching certain matches with great interest, like when the USA plays, or when Argentina, led by the great Lionel Messi, plays.  Their first match is Tuesday night.   The USA takes on Australia on Friday night.

Revisiting "The Great Gatsby"

In my younger and more vulnerable years, like when I was in high school, I, like every other high school student in America, read F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. I recall that I liked the novel at the time, liked it a lot, but in retrospect, I realize that at the age of 16 or 17, I really would have had no idea as to what the novel was really about. I have just finished rereading this classic work for probably the third or fourth time since those high school days. With each rereading, and with the wisdom (?) that I have gained from living life for the past fifty plus years,  I can conclude that The Great Gatsby is "about" many things, and I can glean something new from it with each reading. In 2026, how can one read The Great Gatsby and NOT think about a billion dollar ballroom, tacky gold leaf decorations from Home Depot all over the Nation's Capital, and a UFC arena being constructed on the lawn of the White House. But I digress. The point is, that some things are timeless and should be experienced multiple times over the course of a lifetime, and The Great Gatsby is one of them.  

As an aside, that F. Scott Fitzgerald could really turn a phrase. Several times while reading this, I had to go to the dictionary to look up a word. (Example: "pasquinade"; I'll let you look it up for yourself.) I once read a critic say that the reason none of the movie versions of this book have ever been all the great is because no Hollywood screenwriter could possibly capture Fitzgerald's phrasings. I believe it.

I will turn 75 years young later this year, so I wonder if there is another re-reading of The Great Gatsby is in store for me. So if or until that occurs, we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

(Did you see what I did, twice, in this post?)

My Most Ambitious LEGO Project Ever

There it is!  The FIFA World Cup as designed by the good folks at LEGO.

While I don't consider myself a LEGO Hobbyist, I have dabbled a bit with the colorful bricks in my retirement years, and have taken great pleasure in completing a few small projects, and I can say the same thing about this replica of the World Cup.  This was far and away my most difficult and ambitions LEGO project ever. It was over 2,800 pieces packaged in 20 separate bags. This made the step-by-step process  easier, but the project was not without its fits, starts, and frustrations, and God help you if you somehow miss a step somewhere along the line!   A couple of times I had to take apart one of the "bags" and start it over again.  There were some missing pieces (which was probably my fault) which I had to reorder, and upon completion, I did find a couple of imperfections, but I will probably be the only one who notices them, so for all practical purposes, this LEGO model is finished!

Now the question becomes, what do I do with it?  I will probably display by our television while the actual World Cup Tournament is being contested over the next several weeks, but after that....who knows?

I do know that this may well be the last big LEGO structure that I will ever do.  They seem to offer nothing but Harry Potter and Star Wars stuff, which doesn't interest me, but, like I said above, who knows?  Maybe they will come up with something else that will grab my attention for a 2027 project.

Enjoy the FIFA World Cup, folks.

Will Lionel Messi and Argentina win

 the Cup once again in 2026?

 

Finals Week Begins

The National Basketball Association's Finals and the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup Championship Series begin tonight. 

The NBA Finals begin tomorrow night, and it is a match-up that has to have the league office and its television partners simply ecstatic.  The New York Knicks who sit in the nation's largest television market will face the San Antonio Spurs and their star player, Victor Wembanyama. At the age of 23 and in only his third year in the league,  he has become the Face of the NBA, if not the Face of the Sport of Basketball itself.

As I alluded in this post few days ago, I found myself really getting into the NBA Playoffs this year, and found myself cheering for both the Knicks and the Spurs as they made their way through the East and West playoffs.  I find myself very excited at watching this Finals series play itself out, and I honestly can't say for which team I will root.  

The Knicks are a fun team to watch and Jalen Brunson is just a terrific player.  The Spurs have Wemby, and what more is left to be said on that front?

The Knicks have won eleven straight Playoff games, many of them by large margins.  The Spurs have come off of a grueling seven game series against the defending champion OKC Thunder.

The Spurs are a slight betting favorite (-190) over the Knicks (+160), but the Knicks look to be on one of those unstoppable rolls upon which teams sometimes find themselves.

The Knicks have Spike Lee, Ben Stiller, Timothee Chamalet, and Christopher and Bobby from The Sopranos.  The Spurs have the "Spurs Nuns" and those two young ladies with the low cut tops who sit in the second row right behind HC Mitch Johnson.

I hope it goes seven games.

The NHL's Stanley Cup Finals begin tonight between the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the Carolina Hurricanes.  As you know, my interest in hockey wanes when the Penguins are not involved, so I turned to Linda, my Hockey Fanatic wife (her vanity license plate is HOCKEE) for advice on this one.

Prior to the season, she had me place bets on both the Hurricanes and the Avalanche to win the Stanley Cup.  She was astonished that the Knights dispatched Colorado in four games, but not surprised at the Canes being in the Finals.  She is calling for Carolina to hoist the Cup when all is said and done. Our rooting interest will be with the Hurricanes, not only because of her preseason wager, but because her sons  Jeffrey and Justin and their families reside in Raleigh now and are Hurricanes fans, and because she wants to see ex-Penguin Jordan Stahl win another Cup.

Those are good enough reasons for me to root for the Canes.  That, and the chance to see numerous shots of Rod Brind'Amour and his smooshed up nose behind the bench.

How many times do you figure that proboscis got busted up 

over the course of a 21 year NHL career?

Enjoy these two Championship Series, folks!

To Absent Friends - Joe Negri

 

Jazz guitar virtuoso Joe Negri died over this past weekend.  He was ten days shy off his 100th birthday.

When I say "jazz guitar virtuoso", I am not exagerating for Joe Negri was known throughout the world of jazz music as one of the very best.  In his life, he has performed with a Hall of Fame line-up of jazz musicians from the 1940's to the end of his life. Born in the Mt. Washington section of Pittsburgh and a graduate of Taylor Allderdice High School, Negri served in the Army at the tail end of WW II, and, upon returning from the service, he toured with various bands and jazz groups, but he chose to stay in his native Pittsburgh, and you just cannot have grown up watching television or following The Arts scene in Pittsburgh over these last seventy plus years (like I have) without knowing who Joe Negri was.  

He appeared and played on children's shows like "Ricki and Copper" and "Paul Shannon's Adventure Time".  He was also in the house band at KDKA-TV, back when local television stations had such things, and appeared on locally produced programming like The John Reed King Show and Daybreak.  He was one of those people who become completely ingrained in the fabric of the community, and when such people leave us, you feel like you've lost a member of the family.

However, many of my not-in-Pittsburgh friends who may read this, people who have never lived in The Burgh, will, if they or their children grew up watching "Mister Rogers Neighborhood" on PBS, know of Joe Negri as "Handyman Negri", an regular visitor to Rogers' Land of Make Believe on that landmark children's program.  

Negri also passed on his musical gifts to countless Music and theater students over the years as an instructor at both Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne Universities in Pittsburgh.  His affiliation with Duquesne lasted over forty-five years.

He continued to play the guitar and perform right to the end of his life.  The world of jazz music has lost one of its very best performers, and Pittsburgh has lost one of its Legends. 

RIP Joe Negri.

Shirt Pocket Notes - Pittsburgh Pirates Edition

Some quick hit thoughts on the 2026 Pittsburgh Pirates, a topic upon which The Grandstander has been unusually silent thus far this season.  

On the whole, one has to be quite satisfied with how the team has performed this season, especially when compared to the abomination that was 2025.  This thought is born out by taking a look at the standings in the NL Central Division as of this morning:

Yes, the Buccos are in last place, but they are two games over .500 at 29-26, a pace that would produce 86 wins this season, and who wouldn't have signed up for that on Opening Day?  Significantly, they are only one game behind the second place Cardinals.  Much has been made of the fact the this division is the only one in MLB where all five teams are over .500.  In contrast, the American League West has all five teams playing under .500. These are statistical anomalies that will certainly sort themselves out as the season wears on, but, still, at this point, you have to consider the team a playoff contender.

*****

The team made significant efforts to improve offensively prior to the season, and some of these moves have already paid off.

Brandon Lowe, 2B. 14 HR, 36 RBI, .269 BA, .915 OPS.  He's an All-Star for sure.

Ryan O'Hearn, OF/1B. 7 HR, 29 RBI, .289 BA, .827 OPS.  Currently on the Injured List, his absence will hurt, but he too has been a very good addition.

Then there is Marcel Ozuna, DH. 5 HR, 21 RBI, .186 BA, .573 OPS.  He is also on pace to strike out over 150 times this season.  Apologists will say "well, he has a history of being streaky" but the season has passed the one-third mark and you have to wonder how much longer the team can carry a DH who is, let's be honest, stinking up the joint. 

*****

Oneil Cruz.  We all know about the latent talent, and in fact he is producing at the plate with 11 HR, 35 RBI, .260 BA, .777 OPS.  He has also struck out 89 times, on pace for a mind numbing 257 K's this season.  He is also a Capital T Terrible outfielder.  This is his third season playing in CF, and he hasn't improved a bit.  I always thought that Dave Kingman was the worst major league outfielder that I ever saw, but Cruz is worse.  He is not a good baserunner, and he tends to not hustle 100% at times.  I can recall a game where he nonchalanted it out of the batter's box when he hit a lazy short fly to the outfield, only to see the ball drop between the outfielders, just as he was reaching first base.  What could have been a double, turned into a single simply because of lack of effort.

Then there is his penchant for ABS challenges.  A challenge of a strike call when he was the leadoff batter in the first inning of a game?  Really?  Just last night he challenged a strike call that wasn't even close.  In both of these cases, the calls were upheld by the ABS system.  He is one player who should be expressly forbidden from registering an ABS challenge.

If ever a guy was born to be a Designated Hitter, it's Oneil Cruz.  The team should cut bait on Ozuna and install Cruz as the DH as soon as possible, and when they do, they should never let Cruz wear a glove and play in the field ever again.

*****

There is cause for excitement with the arrival of Konnor Griffen.  After a start where he was hitting below .200, he has goosed his average to .261 and is starting to exhibit some "doubles power" and has hit 4 HR.  He is also a very good defensive short stop. The team did the right thing when they signed him at age 20 to a nine year $140 million contract earlier in the season.

*****

The injury to O'Hearn has led to the Pirates calling up a couple of their younger outfield prospects, Esmerlyn Valdez and Jhostynxon "The Password" Garcia.  The two have accumulated only 37 AB's between them, so it's way too early to pass judgement, but early results are promising, and it shows that the Pirates are willing to bring up guys to replace guys who are not producing.

*****

Catcher Joey Bart was showing signs that he could be a productive hitter, but then he had to be placed on the IL.  Endy Rodriguez was called up and is hitting .316 but in a limited number of AB's thus far.  That leaves Henry Davis - say it with me, a "former Number One overall draft pick" - as the primary catcher.  

Davis is batting .139.

I don't care if he is as good a defensive catcher as Johnny Bench, nor do I care how much Paul Skenes likes to pitch to him, that simply cannot be allowed to happen.  If you are serious about contending, you cannot have a guy hitting .139 as a part of your everyday lineup.

I don't know what the answer is, but it can't be Henry Davis.

*****

Pitching.  The Pirates starting pitching has been good, maybe even very good.  Paul Skenes, despite two straight rough outings, is simply the best pitcher in baseball.  Braxton Ashcraft has been terrific, Mitch Keller has been solid and steady, and even Carmon Mlodzinski has been solid.  Bubba Chandler is still figuring it out, but the signs are there that he will be a good starting big league pitcher.  Oh, and Jared Jones will be returning a soon.

Paul Skenes and Braxton Ashcraft

Then there is the bullpen, which, after starting out well, has been an utter disaster in recent weeks. I am at the point where I have no faith in any of these guys that they bring in out of the pen.

*****

One guy that I have really come to like on the team is first baseman Spencer Horowitz.  Oh, he's not a superstar or an all-star, but he has proven to be a solid and steady player.  A "nice lookin' ballplayer" as by grandfather Bill Madden would have put it.  He is currently hitting .288 with an .850 OPS and has 6 HR and 25 RBI.  Maybe not quite the power production you want from your first baseman, but not all that bad, either.  That trade to acquire him prior to the '25 season is looking like a win for GM Ben Cherrington.

*****

Who is the most irritating member of this year's Pirates?  That's an easy one for me.  It is new pitching coach Bill Murphy.  He may or may not be a good pitching coach, time will tell on that front, but every time he makes that agonizingly sloooooowwwww walk out to the pitcher's mound, I would like to run on the field and punch him in the face.  Well, I would never do that, nor would I advocate that such a thing be done, so I just content myself with bitching about it as I stare at the TV set.

Oh, and he better figure out how get something, anything, out of his relievers.

*****

So, at this point in the season, I am giving the Bucs a solid "B" for their performance thus far.  Much improved over the abominable team of 2025.  Given their starting pitching, and the fact that six teams can now make the Playoffs in each league, I would give them a puncher's chance of doing so, or, at the very least, stay in contention for such a spot all the way through September.  And it they do make it to  the post-season?  Well, a team having to face Skenes-Ashcraft-Keller in a short series won't have an easy time of it.  

Way too early to be entertaining thoughts like that however.   In the meantime, I am planning to keep on enjoying this season.