The Absent Friends of 2019

In 2011, the second year of the existence of The Grandstander, I began doing "Absent Friends" postings.  These were write-ups that I did to note the deaths of people who were of interest to me.  Persons of consequence in our culture, or just some people who did some oddball things that made their lives noteworthy, if only to me.  I take the term absent friends from the late, great sportswriter Red Smith, who used it whenever he would write of some distinguished personage in the sports field who was no longer with us.

At times, I was kidded for writing "the obituary blog", but judging from comments that I have received over the years, these Absent Friends posts seem to be the most popular of all the posts that I do.  In all, including the thirty names listed below, I have paid tribute to 324 Absent Friends in this space.  I'm going to keep doing it, too.

Herewith, a final tribute to the Absent Friends of 2019.  If you missed it, or would like to revisit what I wrote of these folks, just type their name into the search box that appears in the upper left hand corner of this screen.

Carol Channing

Tony Mendez

Reggie Young

Bob Friend

Frank Robinson

Joe Gibbon

Stanley Donen

Peter Tork

Roy McHugh

Dan Jenkins

John Mehno

David White

Charles Van Doren

Harding Peterson

Gino Marchetti

Doris Day

Bart Starr

Bill Buckner

Arte Johnson

Sid Ramin

Jim Bouton

Harold Prince

Clifford Branch

Darryl Drake

Robert Freeman

Vera Clemente

Michael J. Pollard

Danny Aiello

Jerry Herman

Sue Lyon

I have no way to quantify this, but my memory tells me that the Absent Friend post that generated the most comments was the one on Doris Day.

NFL Playoffs - Grandstander Confidence Rankings

The Steelers season came to a merciful end with that 28-10 shellacking that the Ravens junior varsity laid on Rooney U yesterday afternoon.  The game wasn't as close as the score indicated.  Just as well that the dominoes didn't fall the way they needed to to get the Steelers into the Playoffs.  Had they made it, the mighty forces of Duck Hodges and Company would have had to travel to Foxboro next week to play the Patriots, and we all know how THAT always turns out.  In the end, sometimes you just have to shoot the horse to put it out of its misery, and that is exactly what John Harbaugh and has crew did to the Steelers last evening.

A more thorough post-mortem of the 2019 Steelers will appear in this space in the days ahead.  Or maybe not.  We'll see.  In the meantime, all of you who anxiously awaited the weekly unveiling of the Grandstander Power Rankings (GPR)  throughout the season are now about to be treated to subjected to the Grandstander Confidence Rankings (GCR) of the twelve teams set to tee it up in the NFL Playoffs.  Here you go.....

1. Ravens.  Here is a fun fact:  The Baltimore Orioles have lost a game more recently that the Baltimore Ravens.  This team has been unbeatable since October, and Lamar Jackson seems unstoppable.  On to Miami on February 2.
2. Chiefs.  One can only hope for a Jackson-Mahomes match up in the AFC Championship game.  That should be an amazing game.
3. Saints.  Drew Brees on a role.  But for a horrendous non-call in last year's NFC Championship, the Saints may well have won the Super Bowl last year.  They will be playing in it this year.
4. 49'ers.  But for  a James Conner fumble in Week 3, the Steelers would have beaten this team, so I have some reservations, but they have held strong all season long.
5. Packers. This  is a team that hasn't gotten a lot of respect all season, yet here they are, a division champ with a first round bye.  And Aaron Rodgers.
6. Seahawks.  Russell Wilson carved the Steelers up in week 2 like a Thanksgiving turkey, and their overtime win in Week 8 over the 49'ers on MNF might have been the most entertaining game of the season.  I have been bullish on this team all season long, but injuries have caused some stumbles in the closing weeks of the regular season.
7. Patriots.  All season long we have been hearing how this Pats team isn't very good, Tom Brady is a shell of his former self, and the Pats Dynasty is done.  Somehow, they've managed to eek out a 12-4 record and a division title, and only a mystifying loss to Miami yesterday prevented them from securing a first round bye.  Maybe that really aren't what they used to be, but I'm still going to have to see somebody kick them out before I'll bet against them.
8. Bills. Perhaps the surprise team of the year.  A very strong defense will make them a tough team to play in the Playoffs.
9. Vikings.  Gotta be honest here.  I don't have much to say here.  I don't believe that I saw this team play all year, but they went down to the last weekend in the race for the NFC North title, so here they are.
10. Texans.  Deshaun Watson at QB makes these guys exciting to watch.
11. Titans.  It took until Week 17 for these guys to beat out the Steelers for the final playoff spot, so how much faith can you have in them?  Will Ryan Tannehill continue what he has done since being named starting QB?
12. Eagles. The NFC East race this year may have been one of the weakest in recent memory in the NFL.  The Eagles were pretty much dead midway through the season until a complete collapse by the Cowboys allowed 9-7 Philly grab the division title.

The Wildcard Weekend match ups are as follows:

• Bills vs. Texans
• Titans vs. Patriots
• Vikings vs. Saints
• Seahawks vs. Eagles

I'll wait until later in the week to make my predictions, but at first blush I would say that the best looking game of the weekend will be the Vikes-Saints on Sunday afternoon.

Can't wait to get started.

To Absent Friends - Sue Lyon and Jerry Herman

As the calendar year draws to its end, I know what you're thinking:  Who will be the last Absent Friend recognized by The Grandstander in 2019?

Today, you get a two-for-one deal, but there are still three days left in the year after today.

Jerry Herman was truly a legend on Broadway.  From 1960 to 1998, twelve different shows with Herman's music and lyrics played on Broadway.  The most famous among them were "Hello, Dolly", "Mame", and "La Gage aux Folles".  In his career, Herman won two Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards and was a Kennedy Center Honoree.

He was 88 years old.

Sue Lyon

1946 - 2019

Sue Lyon died yesterday at the age of 73.  She was controversially thrust to stardom when, at the age of 16, she was cast by Stanley Kubrick to play the sex nymphet Lolita in the movie, "Lolita" in 1962.  She went on to play in a few other feature films, most notably "Night of the Iguana" (1964) and "Tony Rome" (1967).  By the 1970's, she appeared mostly in TV shows, including "Night Gallery", "Love, American Style", and, yes, "Fantasy Island".  (Can't believe that she never boarded the "Love Boat".)  She only had 26 acting credits according to IMDB, her last one being a small part in a forgettable 1980 horror flick, "Alligator".

Maybe not a huge body of work, but because of just that one signature role as Lolita, Sue Lyon's passing is worth noting.

RIP Jerry Herman and Sue Lyon.

"Little Women"

I'll cut right to the chase here:

"Little Women" is one of the best movies, maybe even THE best,  that I have seen in 2019.

No, I had never read the Louisa May Alcott classic upon which the movie is based, and I wasn't even at all familiar with the story itself.  This admission comes much to the chagrin of Mrs. Grandstander, who counts "Little Women" as one of her all time favorite books.

Be that as it may, I was looking forward to seeing this movie for several reasons.  Foremost among them was the chance to see Saoirse Ronan on screen once again.  Also, the screenwriter and director of this one is Greta Gerwig, who last year gave us the wonderful "Lady Bird" (which also starred Miss Ronan).  Finally, the reviews for this movie have been universal in their praise.  Sometimes such a build up can lead to a letdown, but not so in the case of "Little Women".  It is a marvelous movie, and great story, gorgeously filmed, and smartly written and wonderfully directed by Gerwig, who at the age of 36 is quickly becoming one of the current days' great filmmakers.  Any movie that she now makes becomes one that I want to see.

Ronan and Gerwig

She makes the interesting choice of telling the story of the March Sisters during two different points in time, set seven years apart in the story.  It seems a bit disorienting at first, but you catch on pretty quickly and it turns out to have been a great way to present the story.

Scanlon, Ronan, Watson, and Pugh

The March Sisters, the "little women" of the title are played by Emma Watson (Meg), Saoirse Ronan (Jo), Florence Pugh (Amy), and Eliza Scanlon (Beth).  All are great, but the first among equals is Ronan.  Ever since seeing her in the great movie "Brooklyn" a few years back, she has become one of my favorite actresses. She alone makes any movie that she is in worth seeing (if they filmed her reading the telephone book, I think that I'd pay to see it), and she is absolutely mesmerizing as Jo March in this one.  You really just can't take your eyes off of her as you watch her perform on screen.  I have said previously on this Blog and will restate it once more, she is becoming the next great actress of her generation, and she will be, I believe, the "next Meryl Streep."

Also appearing in this movie are Timothee Chalamet (another veteran from "Lady Bird"), Laura Dern, Chris Cooper, Bob Odenkirk, and the aforementioned Meryl Streep.  How great to have both Streep and Ronan appear in the same movie, although they have few scenes together.  Most of Streep's interactions in the movie are with Miss Pugh's Amy.  

I simply cannot recommend this movie highly enough.  Some terrifically staged scenes, particularly of sequences where there is dancing involved.  Sounds crazy since this is NOT a musical, but when you see the scenes, you'll know what I mean. Also, terrific dialog, particularly from Streep's character Aunt March when talking about the sisters, the necessity of marriage in the nineteenth century, and her feelings towards Jo, who may be more like her than she realizes or cares to admit. 

Simply put, don't miss "Little Women".  I can't wait to see it again.

Four Stars from The Grandstander.

Oh, and one more thing.  We saw this yesterday in a theater that was close to being filled to capacity, and I was one of three or four men in the audience.  So my message to all you guys out there, don't pass this one up because you think this one is strictly for women, or more specifically, young girls.  To do so will cause you to miss out on a terrific movie.  Trust me on that.

Some Book Reviews

A few days ago my pal Dan asked why I don't do many book reviews in The Grandstander.  Ask and ye shall receive.  

Some mini-reviews of some books I have recently read, and can honestly recommend that you read.....

This was an intriguing read. The author, Gene Weingarten, a two time Pulitzer Prize winner, picks one day totally at random, December 28, 1986 (how The Day was selected is a cool part of the story), and examines things that took place on that day, which was the slowest news day of the week, a Sunday, in the slowest news week of the year, the one between Christmas and New Year's Day. Some of the stories/events of The Day are important, some mundane, and some had far reaching implications that could not possibly have been foreseen at the time, and many off them took place in communities just like the one that you and I live in. It's worth reading. 

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

In April 1986, the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles caught fire. The fire raged for over seven hours before several different fire companies of the LAFD were able to extinguish it. It destroyed 400,000 books and damaged over 700,000 others. The main library was shut down for six and a half years as a result. Susan Orlean of the New Yorker Magazine writes of the story of that fire and of the history of the Los Angeles Public Library in this really good part-detective story, part-history book, and in doing so, tells us of the roles that libraries have played throughout history and how they are reinventing themselves to continue to be relevant and important in the digital age of the 21st century and beyond. She also tells the story of Harry Peak, who was suspected of and accused of starting the fire. He is a character that, if you saw him portrayed in a movie, you would say that he was totally unbelievable. If you are a frequent or even not-so-frequent user of your local library, I recommend this book to you. Fittingly enough, I got my copy of "The Library Book" from the Northland Public Library, but according to the author's website, it is now available in paperback.

Two and one-half stars from The Grandstander.

As the National Football League continues to celebrate its 100th season with all of the PR pomp and ceremony that only the NFL can deliver, this book from 2018 by John Eisenberg is worth reading.  As the sub-title indicates, this history of the early days of the NFL centers around the stories of five pioneer owners in the League -  George Halas of the Bears, Tim Mara of the Giants, George Preston Marshall of Washington, Bert Bell of the Eagles (and the Steelers, too, believe it or not), and Art Rooney of the Steelers - worked together to establish the NFL and keep it going through many lean years, including the years of the Great Depression and World War II, when the idea of "professional football" was pretty much a pipe dream.  No one in the 1920's and 1930's could possibly have imagined what a colossus the NFL was to become.   These five men all  made sacrifices and decisions, often at the expense of their own franchises, for the greater good of the League.  

The book takes us from George Halas and a few others meeting in a Canton, Ohio automobile showroom to set up the first formal professional football league in America up to the 1958 NFL Championship, the overtime victory of the Baltimore Colts over the New York Giants, the game that most agree marked the turning point when the NFL took over the reigns from Major League Baseball and became America's national pastime.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

Week 16 GPR

The Grandstander Power Rankings through Week 16 of the NFL season:

1. Ravens
2. Saints
3. Chiefs
4. 49'ers

Knocking at the door (alphabetically).....Bills, Packers, Patriots, Seahawks, Vikings.

There was only one change from Week 15:  a loss to the Cardinals knocked the Seahawks out of the four slot, and the 49'ers go back into the Top Four, based on their win over the Rams.

This will be the final GPR of the season.  Next week, the GPR will be replaced by the GCR (Grandstander Confidence Rankings) which will rank all twelve Playoff teams from 1 through 12.  That list will then be updated each week at the conclusion of each playoff round.   You can use the GCR to guide you as you make your legal wagers, but you do so at your own risk.

Jets 16 - Steelers 10

Random thoughts on the Steelers woeful loss yesterday to the Woeful Jets......

• That loss effectively ended the Steelers hopes of making the playoffs in 2019.  Yeah, I know that they can still get there, but too many things have to happen for them to nail down that last wild card spot, beginning with them beating the Ravens next week, and do you really think that THAT is going to happen?
• Given the state of the Steelers offense, I'm almost - almost! - glad that they won't be in the Playoffs.  That wasn't going to lead to a pretty ending.

• The Devlin "Duck" Hodges story was a fun one to follow as he was somehow leading the Steelers to victories, but, as I knew was going to happen, the League caught up with the Duck beginning with the Bills last week and continuing with the Jets yesterday.  When you watched Hodges play, you just knew that he just wasn't that good, and now the chickens, or in this case, the ducks, have come home to roost.
• Still, Hodges has some stories to tell for the rest of his life.  There are not a whole lot of people in the universe who have played quarterback and won games in the National Football League, so good for him.
• If you spent a lot of money, or even a little bit of money, on the goofy duck hats and duck suits to sit in the stands at Heinz Field so you can get in television, how silly do you feel today?

• One thing that that game proved to me yesterday was that it is way too early to give up on Mason Rudolph becoming a good NFL quarterback, and possibly even an eventual replacement for Ben Roethlisberger. That pass to Diontae Johnson for a touchdown yesterday was a thing of beauty, and one that Hodges on his best day could not have made.
• I have written many times of James Conner in this Blog.  He is a talented football player, and his story is an inspirational one.  He will always be one of my favorite Pittsburgh athletes, but he has shown that he is unable to stay on the field because of his propensity to injury.  Durability as a skill every bit as much as speed or the ability to catch a pass, and Conner just doesn't have it.  One wonders if all of the chemo and radiation treatments that he had endure five years ago have contributed to his being so susceptible to injury.
• As a result, one of the Steelers top needs in the off season will be drafting or signing a reliable and good running back.
• I wonder what the NFL record is for completed passes that resulted in gains of five yards or less.  Surely, these '19 Steelers have to be challenging for that record.
• After that awful 1-4 start, the Steelers proceeded to win seven of their next eight games  and that made it exciting for a while before reality struck these past two weeks.  In retrospect, however, the Steelers season really ended for all practical purposes at this moment in Week 2 against Seattle when Big Ben went into the locker room in the second quarter with the elbow injury that would end his season.

Because tonight's MNF game between the Packers and Vikings is a game of consequence, the release of the Grandstander Power Rankings will be delayed until tomorrow.

"Dolomite Is My Name"

Back in the early 1970's, Rudy Ray Moore was an aspiring singer/actor/stand-up comedian living on the fringes - the very far fringes - of show business, trying to scratch out a living in Los Angeles.  Things were so bad, the disc jockey in a record store where Moore worked as an assistant manager wouldn't even play his records.

One day, Moore got the idea to take the ribald poems and stories passed on by the winos and junkies who inhabited his neighborhood, expand upon them and incorporate them into his stand-up act.  Wah-lah, Moore became a hit in the black club scene in LA, cut some hit comedy albums, traveled the Chitlin' Circuit throughout the south, and then became a really big hit in the Blaxploitation movies of the seventies that featured the character he created, Dolomite.  (Early rap and hip-hop artists credit Moore for inspiring them with his comedy tales told in rhyme and accompanied by the funkadelic music of the era.)

Moore's story is told in the Netflix produced movie, "Dolomite Is My Name" that stars Eddie Murphy as Rudy Ray Moore.  This is a pretty good movie, and Murphy, who is now 58 years old (talk about the passage of time!) and who has been absent from the movies for far too long, is positively terrific in this movie.  I have heard and read that there is some talk of an Academy Award nomination for Murphy, and it would not be undeserved.  It is certainly one of the better performances that I have seen this year.

The movie is funny, and, in its own way a bit touching, and worth seeing if only to take in Murphy's performance, but a word of warning.  The movie is rated R, and it is a strong R, for the crude and vulgar language throughout.   If a sentence of dialog did not include the F-word in it, it probably did include the M-F-word.  Sometimes this bothers me, but in the context of the story being told in "Dolomite Is My Name", I didn't have a problem with it.  However, I get it that this may mean that this movie is not for everyone.  There, you've been warned.

Two and one-half Stars from The Grandstander.

By the way, Eddie Murphy is set to host "Saturday Night Live" tomorrow night on NBC, no doubt as a means to promote this movie.  It will be his first time back on the show that made him a star since 1984.  It will be enough to get me back to watching SNL, something that I have not done regularly, well, since Eddie Murphy was a cast member.

Week 15 GPR and a Ruptured Duck

The Grandstander Power Rankings (GPR) if the NFL Did It Like College Football for Week 15:

1. Ravens
2. Saints
3. Chiefs
4. Seahawks

Knocking at the door.....49'ers, Bills, Packers, Patriots, Vikings.

A bad loss to the Falcons knock the Niners out of the Top Four this week.

There will be one more Top Four GPR following Week 16.  At the conclusion of week 17, the GPR will be replaced  by the GCR, Grandstander Confidence Rankings, wherein all NFL Playoff teams will be ranked from Most Confident, #1, through Least Confident, #12.  The GCR will then be updated following each Playoff round leading up to the Super Bowl.

Bet you can't wait for that, huh?

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Speaking of bad losses, the Steelers 17-10 loss to the Bills on Sunday night was as inevitable as it was disappointing.  Let's face it, the Steelers offense has been doing it with mirrors ever since Ben Roethlisberger (and James Connor and JuJu Smith-Shuster and have I left anyone else out?) have gone down to injuries.  The Devlin "Duck" Hodges story has been a fun one to watch over the last month, but, really, who didn't see that a game like that four interception disaster of Sunday night was due to happen sooner rather than later? There was reason that thirty-two NFL teams didn't draft Duck Hodges.

So now the Who-Should-Play-QB game rears it's head again.   93.7 The Fan is conducting a "Who Should Start Against The Jets, Mason or Duck" poll on Facebook.  Ain't that fun?

Speaking of the Buffalo Bills, they are no fluke.  They came to the attention of most people with that Thanksgiving Day win over Dallas, and that prime time win over the Steelers on Sunday proved that they are a team with whom to be reckoned.  Josh Allen is not a Top Tier quarterback, not yet, anyway, but he is good enough when playing on a team with a Top Tier defense, which the Bills have, to assure that whatever team draws Buffalo in the Playoffs is going to have its hands full.

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Regardless the eventual fate of the 2019 Steelers - and they can still make the Playoffs - one of the most fun things to watch about this year's Steelers has been the play of OLB T.J. Watt.  The Steelers have one of the best defenses in the entire league, and he has been its best player.  He has been a true force on defense, and he is in the discussion for Defensive Player of the Year in the entire NFL.  I can't imagine anyone else as the team's MVP for 2019.

To Absent Friends - Danny Aiello

Danny Aiello

1933 - 2019

I always like to say that Leading Men and Leading Ladies and Big Movie Stars may be what drives box office and makes people go to the movies, but Hollywood just can't make movies without all of the great character actors that comprise most of the roles that you see on screen.  Such an actor was Danny Aiello who died earlier this week at the age of 86.

IMDB shows 105 acting credits for Aiello right up through 2019.  Amazingly, he didn't get his first credit until 1973, when he was forty years old!  If you peruse his credits, you will see that many of his roles were portrayals of mobsters, but not all of them.  He was certainly well versed, and among the notable credits are....

• His very first credit was in 1973's "Bang the Drum Slowly", a baseball movie that also featured a young and relatively unknown actor named Robert De Niro.
• A part in "Godfather Part II" in 1974.
• He played Madonna's father in her 1986 music video for "Papa Don't Preach".
• He was a reluctant hit man who just couldn't do away with Mia Farrow in Woody Allen's 1986 "Radio Days."  He also appeared in Allen's "The Purple Rose of Cairo" in 1985.
• A part the romantic comedy "Moonstruck" (1987), a movie that won an Oscar for Cher.
• He was the owner of the pizza joint that became the center of an urban riot in Spike Lee's "Do the Right thing" (1985), and he was nominated for an Oscar for that role.

And, like I said, there are 98 other performances of note on the his remarkable and varied resume.

RIP Danny Aiello.

Getting In The Christmas Holiday Spirit

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

and

The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh

This past Friday evening, we, along with friends Susan and Dan, attended Holiday Pops Concert presented by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at Heinz Hall.  The concert also included the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh and featured vocalists Ashley Brown and Christopher Sanders, and the Three Rivers Ringers bell choir.  

I can think of no other event that could possibly be better at getting one into the spirit of this season.  It was an amazing and delightful evening.  We can recall attending a PSO Holiday Pops concert many many years ago, possibly as far back as the 1980's, but now we can see this becoming an annual tradition.

The PSO will perform this concert for four more performances next weekend as well, so if you want some first rate Holiday musical entertainment, there is still a chance for you to catch this wonderful concert in 2019.

The gorgeous Christmas Tree in the lobby of Heinz Hall

A tip of the hat to the 

Presenting Sponsor

"Knives Out"

Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is an 85 year old, successful mystery writer who is worth more money than God.  He lives in an isolated manor house out in the country where he has called his family together to celebrate his birthday.  His family consists of an assortment of ne'er-do-wells, wastrels, and ingrates among his various children, their spouses and his grandchildren.  He also has a beautiful young Uruguayan - or is she Paraguayan? -  nurse tending to his ailments and who seems to care more for him than any of his rotten family members do.  The morning after the party, Harlan is found in his upstairs office with his throat slit.  Everyone of his progeny had both motive and opportunity to do in the old bastard, but which one did it?  Oh, and did I mention that Harlan changed his will just a few days before his demise?

Enter eccentric private detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) who has been hired anonymously (and just who DID send him that big wad of cash?) to help the police bring the blighters to justice.

If this is reminiscent of something out of the mind of Agatha Christie, well, I am guessing that that is exactly director/screenwriter Rian Johnson was shooting for.  The kids/spouses/grandchildren are all played with great scenery-chewing relish by, among others, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Michael Shannon, and Chris Evans, and the beautiful young nurse, who cannot tell a lie without giving herself dead away, is played by a lovely young Cuban actress named Ana de Armas.

"Knives Out" is very stylish and great fun to wade through.  The plot twists and turns, but if you like this genre of movies, then you know that having a plot that completely makes sense is often sacrificed for the sake of the fun-and-games involved in such elaborate whodunits, and that is certainly the case here.

The Grandstander gives this one Two-and-One-half stars, and assures you that you will be entertained for the two hours and fifteen minutes of the movie if you are willing to suspend your sense of logic and just surrender to the campy fun of the whole thing.

Week 14 GPR and Other Sports Thoughts

The Grandstander Power Rankings for Week 14 of the NFL:

1. Ravens
2. 49'ers
3. Saints
4. Chiefs

Knocking at the door.....Bills, Packers, Patriots, Seahawks, Steelers, Vikings.

No change at the top; Niners jump two slots; Seahawks fall out; Chiefs are back; Steelers now knocking at the door.

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Speaking of the Steelers, we are destined to have nothing but anxiety-ridden experiences watching this team perform this season. No such thing as an "easy win."  I'm not sure what mirrors Duck Hodges is using in piloting this team to where they currently sit: 8-5 and in a playoff position.  The defense being played by this team is reminiscent of great Steelers teams of the past fifty years, and T.J Watt, if not the NFL Defensive Player of the Year, is easily the team's Most Valuable Player.

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The CFP semi-finals will be LSU-Oklahoma and Ohio State-Clemson.  The dual between Joe Burrow and Jalen Hurts will be fun to watch, and I'm not sure how to go in picking that second match-up.  Should be terrific game, and based upon the scare that Wisconsin put into the Buckeyes on Saturday, the smart pick just might be Clemson, but I'll be rooting for Ohio State (and who thought that I would have ever said that about the school the gave us Woody Hayes, Jim Tressel, and Urban Meyer?) for three reasons: (1) My niece Frances and nephew Brian are students at Ohio State, (2) who outside the state of South Carolina isn't getting tired of Clemson in the CFP every year?, and (3) I would love, love, LOVE to see Dabo Swinney get punched in the mouth, figuratively speaking, of course.

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The "Modern Era Committee" elected Marvin Miller and Ted Simmons into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  I have written about how Miller belongs in the HOF so often in the past that I'm not going to restate it all once more other than to say "It's about effin time."  As for Simmons,  he was for sure a good ballplayer, but nothing about him ever screamed "Hall of Fame" as I watched him play over the years, and you know that it wasn't his stint as Pirates GM back in the day that got him into Cooperstown.

Of local interest was the fact that Dave Parker once again fell short of getting elected, and the vote wasn't even close.  Twelve of sixteen were needed, and the Cobra only received seven votes.  Proponents said that Parker is Hall-worthy because for a "period of time", he was the best player in the game. True, but should a four or five season stretch of brilliance (and Parker was undeniably brilliant during that time) over a 19 year career qualify you for the HOF?  It is a point that is fun to debate.  I also remember how Parker acted when his time in Pittsburgh was coming to an end.  He let himself get fat, out of shape, and his recalcitrance with the media and the fan base left a sour taste in the mouths  of most everyone in Pittsburgh, and I remember THAT aspect of Parker every bit as much as I remember his MVP type seasons with the team.

To his credit, Parker has worked to make himself once again a part of the Pirates family and heritage over the years, and that has helped to make the bitter ending here recede quite a bit.  It would have been nice if he had made it, and, face it, there are guys in the HOF who are less deserving than Parker (like, say, Ted Simmons), but c'est la vie.

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The Pitt Panther football team is headed for the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit against Eastern Michigan on December 26.  Good luck to them there.  The big question is, will those  precious fifteen extra practice sessions they get from playing in bowl and that coaches love so much help propel them beyond another seven win season in 2020?

H2P.

"The Laundromat"

We watched this movie on Netflix on Friday night.  It was, to say the least, and interesting movie, and I am not sure I can even tell you what it was about.  Money laundering? Corruption in the tangled relationships among lawyers, bankers, and insurance and financial services companies?  Corrupt political systems both here and abroad? It was funny in parts, sad in parts, and it made you feel both angry and helpless against "the system."  It stars Academy Award winners Meryl Streep and Gary Oldman, as well as Antonio Banderas, James Cromwell, and an almost unrecognizable Sharon Stone in a minor role.

WARNING:  If you lean to the right, and like wearing a red baseball cap with gold lettering that promotes a certain political agenda, don't bother seeing this one because you will hate it.  You've been warned.

Two and one-half Stars from The Grandstander.

College Football Championship Weekend and the CFP

It was Conference Championship Weekend in College Football Friday and yesterday, and great works of gridiron art were NOT produced.  Of the five Power Five  championship games, only one of them can be termed an exciting contest:  Oklahoma's 30-23 overtime victory over Baylor.

The Big Ten game held promise of an exciting upset when Wisconsin led Ohio state 21-7 at halftime, but the Buckeyes then got serious and scored 27 unanswered points in the second half to win 34-21, and the game turned into a yawner right after OSU scored within two minutes to open the half.

The other three games featured scores of 37-15, 37-10, and 62-17 (a comment on that one a bit later).  Let's hope that the  semi-final and final CFP games that will be played will all be more competitive and exciting than what we witnessed this weekend.

As I type this at 10:25 on Sunday morning, here's how I see the rankings coming down later today:

1. LSU
2. Clemson
3. Ohio State
4. Oklahoma

The committee could flip-flop Clemson and Ohio State, but since #2 plays #3 on a neutral field in the semis, that ranking is, essentially, meaningless.

As for Clemson, this is the team that I will definitely be rooting against  as the Playoffs unfold.  I switched over from the Ohio State game late last night to see how the ACC game was going.  What I saw was Clemson with the ball inside the Virginia five yard line with less than minute and a half to play, and leading 55-17.  Most coaches, even Bill Bellichick, would have taken a knee right there and let the clock run out.  Not sanctimonious Dabo Swinney, though.  He chose to run it up the gut and win 62-17.  After the game, Dabo, who loves to invoke the Jesus' name when talking about his sacred football program, probably cited a passage in the Bible to justify that play call.  

I can find reasons to root for any of the other three teams, but, like I say, I know what team I DON'T want to see win in the CFP.

Speaking of lopsided scores, did you notice that a team won the PIAA Class 2A state championship on Friday by beating another team 74-7.  The coach, whose name and school I am not going to mention, was quoted in the paper about what a "great victory" this was for his "program."  I mean, honestly, how proud could this coach be of watching his 15, 16, and 17 year old kids beating up on another school's 15,16, and 17 year old kids?

Hey, if an NFL team runs up a score like that on an opponent,  I say "tough shit" to the losing team.  You're pros, so start playing better.  I can even be a little more tolerant of elite NCAA schools doing it, although I still don't like it, as my comment about Swinney above attests.  However, it just ain't right that this happens in a high school game.  I don't know if this coach cleaned his bench in the second quarter and was playing his fifth stringers in the fourth quarter and did nothing but run plays straight into the line.  Maybe he did, or maybe he really tried to run it up like that, but in any event, a 74-7 win is nothing to be proud of.

And this is purely a personal pet peeve, but I have a problem with high schools who talk about their football and basketball "programs."  When I was in high school, my school's football coaches were an algebra teacher and a history teacher.  Neither of them thought that they were Vince Lombardi or Tom Landry, to name the two top coaches of that era.  I believe that they perceived that they were coaching an extracurricular activity, and I am guessing that they thought a "football program" was the booklet sold before the game that listed the players numbers.