To Absent Friends - Richard Goodwin

Dick Goodwin (r)

1931 - 2018

With one of his former bosses

Earlier this week, Richard Goodwin died at the age of 86.  Goodwin had quite a career.  Graduated first in his class at Harvard Law School, by the age of 30, he had clerked for United States Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter and served as chief counsel for the Congressional Committee that investigated the television "quiz show scandals" in the 1950's. In that latter capacity, he was portrayed by actor Rob Morrow in the terrific 1994 feature film, "Quiz Show".

He went on to become a speechwriter and key policy advisor to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.  It was Goodwin who, among other things, coined the phrased "Great Society" to describe the social legislative programs of the Johnson Administration.  He ultimately split with LBJ over the President's Viet Nam War policy, and went on to work in the campaigns of Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy in 1968.  When Robert Kennedy was assassinated, he pretty much bowed out of involvement with electoral politics, and devoted his life to writing and the law.  He was one of the last links to the "Kennedy era" of Presidential history.

I would highly recommend the obituary for Mr. Goodwin that appeared in the Washington Post earlier in the week.  It makes for fascinating reading.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/richard-n-goodwin-supreme-generalist-who-was-top-aide-to-jfk-and-lbj-dies-at-86/2018/05/21/23b96a5e-59f8-11e8-b656-a5f8c2a9295d_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.58ecaf77484c

RIP Richard Goodwin.

On Gregory Polanco

At some point during 2015, the final season of Pedro Alvarez' career as a Pirate, I made the comment to the effect that now that Pedro had accumulated 2,000 at bats in the majors, we could reasonably conclude that "what we have seen, is what he is", and I believe that the time has come to make a similar statement about the player who seems to have become the Whipping Boy for the Pirates in 2018, Gregory Polanco.

When Polanco finally arrived in Pittsburgh in 2014, I was telling anyone who would listen that "he would be an All-Star by 2016; 2017 at the latest."  Well, I believe that I DIDN'T have that one. Now in his fifth season as a Pirate, here are the batting averages that Polanco has put on the back of his baseball card:

2014 - .235

2015 - .256

2016 - .258

2017 - .251

2018 - .225 (through May 22)

In 1,936 at bats, Polanco's production pro-rated over 162 games shows a batting average of .250, 17 HR, 69 RBI and an OPS of .723.  Not the stuff of which perennial All-Stars are made.  Through four plus seasons and close to 2,000 at bats, are what we have seen from Polanco what he is?  Add to this pedestrian offensive output the head-scratching base running blunders and the defensive gaffes in right field, and you have to wonder just how long the leash will be on the team's patience with a player for whom they had hopes of super stardom.

Finally, baseball-reference.com always lists "comparable players" on every player's page.  The list on Polanco's page happens to include tree former Pirates: Travis Snider, Roman Mejias, and Jacob Brumfield.  Not exactly Stargell, Clemente, and Parker is it?

Oh, and Austin Meadows' performance right out of the gate will certainly cause the fan base's patience for Polanco to run out, if not that of the front office.

When Harry Met (and Married) Meghan

The Happy Couple

Yeah, yeah, I know that we fought a revolution 250 years ago to rid ourselves of the shackles of the British Royals, and I am always scratching my head over the fascination of many Americans with these folks, but there I was this morning, sitting in front of the telly watching the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.  

Some observations from The Grandstand:

• Despite my semi-cynical tone in the above paragraph, there is a lot to be said for tradition, pomp, and ceremony.  The sight of all those cavalry horses leading and following that horse drawn carriage was pretty cool.
• Our network of choice this morning was NBC.  Could the Today Show crew - Savannah, Hoda, Al and the gang - have been any more obsequious?  The fourteen year old girls at the Ed Sullivan Show seeing The Beatles in 1964 were more reserved.
• Would it have killed Queen Elizabeth to have cracked a smile even once during the entire ceremony?
• Who would have thought that a song written by Ben E. King, Jerry Leiber, and Mike Stoller would have been a centerpiece of a Royal Wedding ceremony?  That had to have had some stiff-upper-lipped members of the Royal Family and its retinue seething.  I can only imagine what the Granthams were saying at Downton Abbey.

But in all seriousness, the fact that the Royals are welcoming a divorced, bi-racial, foreigner into their family with such apparent ease is a lesson to which we should all pay heed.  In the words of one of Harry's eighteenth century ancestors, George III, I find that part of this whole affair to be "Awesome. Wow."

God bless the happy couple, and God Save the Queen.

To Absent Friends - Margot Kidder

Margot Kidder

1948 - 2018

Melancholy Happy Trails go out today to actress Margot Kidder, who died yesterday at the age of 69.

Kidder came on the scene in the 1970's and made some pretty big movies - The Amityville Horror, The Great Waldo Pepper, and four Superman movies with Christopher Reeve. She seemed to drop off of the A-List not long after that, and she wasn't much heard from, by me at least, until her struggles with depression and mental illness put her back in the news in the mid-1990's. 

It seemed that her final act was destined to be a sad one, and perhaps it was, but when I looked her up in IMDB this morning, I see that she had accumulated 135 acting credits over the years and continued to work steadily right up to the end.  She shows forty film and television acting credits since the year 2000 alone, including a 2017 feature film release called "The Neighborhood".  As I said, none of these credits represent anything approaching the level of fame of her Lois Lane days, but it seemed that in spite of whatever demons she faced she was able to work right up to the end of her life, and isn't that all that an actor really wants?

I always liked Margot Kidder and thought that she was quite sexy and attractive, as attested by a pretty spectacular photo spread in Playboy magazine back in her salad days.  (I have chosen to keep The Grandstander family friendly, but you can find some of those photos on Google Images if you are so inclined.)

RIP Margot Kidder.

The Pirates at the 24.69% Pole

The Pirates have now played 40 games, almost, but not exactly, one-quarter of the season. (I have gone for strict mathematical accuracy in the headline so as to save my pal Fred Shugars the bother of correcting me.)  Their record is now 23-16.  They are in a virtual tie for second place in the NL Central with the Cardinals, one-half game behind the first place Brewers.  They are on a pace that would win 94 games over the course of 162 games.

If you tell me that you saw that coming back in Spring Training, and your name is NOT Neal Huntington or Clint Hurdle, I simply do not believe you.

A couple of observations:

• The much reviled trade of Andrew McCutchen was and will perhaps always remain an emotional gut-kick to all Pirates fans.  From a baseball standpoint, though, it seems that the time to move McCutchen had indeed arrived.  He is being thoroughly out performed by the man who replaced him in the lineup, Cory Dickerson.  However, it should also be pointed out that the jury is still out on whether or not the players received from the Giants for Cutch, Kyle Crick and Brian Reynolds will prove to be sufficient value received over the long haul.
• The Pirates have certainly proved to be a winning, exciting, and thoroughly likable team to watch in 2018.  Dickerson has probably been the best position player on the team thus far, Colin Moran appears to be a solid, if unspectacular guy at third base, and Francisco Cervelli would be the NL's All-Star catcher if the game was being held today.
• On the down side, Josh Bell needs to bring his hitting up to the levels that it approached last year, and I have my doubts that Gregory Polanco will ever achieve the superstar status that many had hoped that he would obtain.
• The pitching concerns me.  Starters with ERA's over 4.00 cannot, it would seem, be sustainable over the course of a long season.  The bullpen has shown some signs of improvement in recent weeks, but you still have to worry about whomever comes in to bridge the gap between the starter and Felipe Vazquez.

The big message is that the Pirates have proven thus far that they have earned the right to be taken seriously.  They are exciting to watch, and with 24.69% of the schedule behind them, it is no longer "still early" in the season.  A summer that looked to be a moribund one, baseball-wise, back in March now shows promise of giving us some hope and excitement here in Pittsburgh.

Speaking of Andrew McCutchen, Marilyn and I did make our way to PNC Park on Friday night to see Cutch's first game back in Pittsburgh, and I managed to get these pictures of what I though was the emotional highlight - Jameson Taillon, Francisco Cervelli, and home plate umpire Chris Segal stalling for time during McCutchen's first plate appearance in order to let the ovation continue for a sustained length of time.  It was also cool that Taillon struck him out, and that the Pirates won the game 11-2.

"Tully"

We spent this Mother's Day afternoon seeing a movie about, well, motherhood, "Tully", from director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody.  This is the same creative team who gave us the wonderful "Juno" in 2007, a movie for which Cody won an Oscar, so the bloodlines were good for this one.

Oscar winner Charlize Theron, plays Marlo, a woman quickly approaching middle age who is about to give birth to her third child.  Difficulties with her first two elementary school aged kids and the pregnancy itself is putting a lot of stain on Marlo and her husband, Drew, played by Ron Livingston, and the stress and strain only magnify when the new baby girl arrives.

Into her life comes Tully, a Night Nanny played by Mackenzie Davis, whose services are a gift from Marlo's wealthy brother.  Tully's services take a lot of the stress and strain off of Marlo's shoulders, but it may not be quite a simple as that.

Davis and Theron

There is a "big reveal" moment in this movie that will make sense of several previous head-scratching moments.  There are also a couple of "oh no" moments, so I am not going to say any more, other than to say that after seeing this today, I really want to see it again.

Theron reportedly put on fifty pounds to play the role of the stressed out Mom, and she is a marvel in the role.  It is probably too early in the year to start predicting Oscar nominees, but it's hard to imagine that she will not get strong consideration for such a nomination.

"Tully" is the seventh 2018 movie release that I have seen thus far this year, and I will say that it is the best of those movies that I have seen thus far.

Four stars from The Grandstander.

 Theron about to give birth

I was unaware of a movie that the Reitman-Cody team gave us back in 2011 called "Young Adult", but several reviewers of "Tully" have spoken highly of it.  I am going to make it a point to seek out and watch this movie.  It also stars Charlize Theron, so the bloodlines that I spoke of above  would seem to apply to that movie as well.  I'll keep you posted.

Buccos and Ex-Buccos

We are 35 games into the 2018 Major League Baseball season, the Pirates sit at 19-16, third place in the NL Central, and 2 and 1/2 games behind the Cardinals.  Way better than I thought that they would be at this point.  Starting pitchers have all accumulated six or seven starts by now, and hitters have accumulated over 100 at bats.  Time to look at some of the stats and play my pal Len Martin's favorite game. "How Are All the Ex-Pirates Doing?"  I'll also take a look at how the current Pirates are doing.  All statistics are through the games played through May 6.

First, let's look at this interesting comparison.  

	G	AB	H	HR	RBI	BA	OPS
Corey Dickerson	32	124	39	5	24	0.315	0.888
Andrew McCutchen	33	114	28	3	14	0.246	0.765

Left fielder Corey Dickerson is the guy who replaced Andrew McCutchen in the Pirates lineup.  There can be little argument as to who has been the better player thus far.  It cannot be quantified in numbers, or at least I can't quantity it, I'm sure advanced SABRmetricians could, but it just seems  that Dickerson is getting hits when the Pirates really need them.  It should also be noted that since I  last ran these numbers, back on April 14, McCutchen is picking it up just a bit.  Back then, he was hitting only .214 and had a .647 OPS.  It will be interesting to follow these two as the season progresses.

Here is the total picture for the Ex-Buccos.  Since last time, I have added Francisco Liriano to the mix.

Hitters	G	AB	H	HR	RBI	BA	OPS
Neil Walker	25	90	17	0	8	0.189	0.504
Pedro Alvarez	30	78	16	7	14	0.205	0.811
Andrew McCutchen	33	114	28	3	14	0.246	0.765
Russell Martin	22	76	11	4	9	0.145	0.615
PITCHERS	G	IP	W-L	ERA	WHIP	K	BB	HR Allowed	Sv/Sv Opp	BA Against
J.A. Happ	7	41.2	4-2	3.67	1.08	53	11	7		0.218
Gerrit Cole	7	50.2	3-1	1.42	0.69	77	9	3		0.151
Charlie Morton	7	41.2	4-0	2.16	1.03	46	17	5		0.178
Tony Watson	15	15.2	1-1	0.57	0.89	17	3	0		0.200
Francisco Liriano	6	36.1	3-1	2.97	1.07	26	16	3		0.187
All stats through May 6

My $.02.....

• We always hear what a genius Ray Searage is.  If that is true, then who is the Astros' pitching guru?  So far, he's getting results out of Cole and Morton that Searage never even approached.
• Pedro Alvarez is what we thought he was.  A guy who can hit home runs but can't hit.  He has found his niche with the Orioles as a platoon DH.  Only four of his seventy-eight at bats came against left handed pitching. (FYI - he went 1-for-4, with a HR and 2 K's)
• Is Neil Walker, at age 32, done as a player?

And now the current Buccos.

Hitters	G	AB	H	HR	RBI	BA	OPS
Josh Harrison	14	57	15	1	5	0.263	0.679
Gregory Poanco	32	121	25	6	18	0.207	0.741
Starling Marte	35	136	38	5	16	0.278	0.819
Josh Bell	35	130	31	2	17	0.238	0.661
Corey Dickerson	32	124	39	5	24	0.315	0.888
Colin Moran	31	97	27	2	15	0.278	0.774
Francisco Cervelli	28	93	28	5	22	0.301	0.950
Jordy Mercer	32	113	27	1	8	0.239	0.636
Adam Frazier	32	92	24	2	5	0.261	0.654
Sean Rodriguez	23	51	8	3	6	0.157	0.617
David Freese	24	48	13	3	9	0.271	0.845
Elias Diaz	16	39	15	2	6	0.385	0.967
PITCHERS	G	IP	W-L	ERA	WHIP	K	BB	HR Allowed	Sv/SvOpp	BA Against
Jameson Taillon	7	36.2	2-3	4.42	1.28	30	11	4		0.254
Ivan Nova	7	42.2	2-2	4.01	1.22	35	6	6		0.269
Trevor Williams	7	41.0	4-2	2.63	1.10	26	18	3		0.193
Chad Kuhl	7	39.1	4-2	4.12	1.30	36	12	7		0.264
Steven Brault	8	31.1	2-1	4.60	1.31	21	16	3		0.223
Joe Musgrovew
Felipe Vazquez	13	13.0	1-0	3.46	1.38	15	6	0	6/6	0.235
Michael Feliz	16	14.0	0-1	3.21	1.21	19	6	1	0	0.208
George Kontos	16	15.1	2-3	4.11	1.37	4	5	2	1/1	0.271
Tyler Glasnow	8	16.1	0-1	7.71	1.71	23	12	1		0.246
Nick Kingham	2	12.1	2-0	2.92	0.65	16	1	2		0.159
Kyle Crick	10	8.1	0-0	3.24	1.44	13	4	1		0.235
Stats through May 6

Some observations...

• Four starting pitchers have ERA's over 4.00.  That's a concern.  One of those guys. Steven Brault, has been moved to the bullpen and has been replaced by Nick Kingham, who has looked good in two starts.
• Since I last did this on April 14, Gregory Polanco has had 1 HR and 3 RBI.
• Of the guys obtained for Gerrit Cole, Colin Moran has been a solid player at third base, Michael Feliz has been a pretty good set-up reliever, Joe Musgrove is still on the DL and has yet to make an appearance, and minor league outfielder Jason Martin is, presumably, somewhere in the Pirates minor league system.  Cole is an early Cy Young Award candidate.  The jury is still out on that trade.  
• David Freese has proven to be a very good bench guy.
• If I had to select the "Pirate to Make the All-Star Team" today it would be Francisco Cervelli.

Will check back in on all of these guys in another month or so.