The Roberto Clemente Museum

The generally "By Appointment Only" Roberto Clemente Museum in Pittsburgh's Strip District held an open house today, so Marilyn and I finally got a chance to see this dandy little enterprise.  It is privately owned and operated, and it boasts the largest collection of Clemente memorabilia and photos anywhere.  As I heard a docent say today, it's like having a little piece of Cooperstown right here in Pittsburgh.  As it is not generally open to the public, it's not easy to get in to, but it is also not impossible, either, and if you are a Clemente fan, a Pirates fan, or a baseball fan, you really should try to get to see the place.

A sample of some of the photos that I took there today.

Had to have proof that I was there!

 Cool painting with iconic photos on either side

A wall filled with Roberto's awards

More great photos 

Athletes from various other Pittsburgh teams

 and other MLB teams as well donate signed jerseys

 to be used as fundraising items.

Couldn't resist this one

 A completed "Build It Yourself" Forbes Field 

designed by my friend, Len Martin, from the book

 that he and Dan Bonk published in 1994.

 After hit #3,000

What Pittsburgh sports museum would be complete 

without an homage to Game 7 of the 1960 World Series?

The Museum is housed in an old fire house on Penn Avenue which gives the place a really cool look.  Attached to the Museum is a wine making operation that sells special edition wines, many of which are bottled under labels of other celebrities and sports figures who use the resultant bottles of wine to sell or auction for their own charities or foundations.  Among barrels that we saw that are still in the aging process are wines designated for Jerome Bettis, Mike Trout, and Yadier Molina, among others.  We also bought a couple of bottles for our own use.  The labels on the bottles should be self-explanatory:

It was a fun day rekindling memories of "The Great One".

Documentary Film - "Apollo 11"

Think you know all about the July 1969 Apollo 11 space flight when men first landed upon and explored the surface of the moon? (No, not really.)  Saw it live when you were a kid back then? (I did.) Read all about over the past fifty years? (Some, but, no, not much.) Saw the movie "First Man" last year?  (Well, yeah, I did.)

Regardless of how you answer those questions, you haven't seen anything yet until and unless you see the new documentary, "Apollo 11", from CNN Films.  It is complied from thousands of hours of film that was taken by NASA to document the Apollo 11 mission, and when you watch this, you will see it from points of view that you have never seen, or can probably even imagine.  I'll give you just two examples:

• The cameras in place at the foot of the rocket as the spacecraft is launched from the Cape Kennedy launch pad.
• The film from Columbia as the Eagle comes into view, approaches, and then docks with the the command module upon its return from the surface of the moon.

There is no narrator in this film.  No current interviews with participants looking back on the event.  Just films taken as the events were happening, from the transport of the rocket ship to the pad at Cape Kennedy to  Eagle's landing at Tranquility Base to Armstrong and Aldrin frolicking on the lunar surface to the splashdown of the ship in the Pacific.  

Seeing this movie from the perspective of fifty years after the fact makes you still marvel and wonder about the total magnitude of the entire undertaking.  "Apollo 11" is an engrossing and amazing look at perhaps the most significant scientific and technological event in all of history.  Awesome in the truest meaning of the word.

Four Stars from The Grandstander.

Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins 

each turned 39 years of age in 1969

That command module was 320 feet 

off the ground when on the launch pad

Opening Day 2019, and a Marte Par-tay?

Like baseball fans the world over, I am excited that today is Opening Day of the 2019 season.  Even as a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team whose ownership seems to try to crush your soul well before the first pitch of every new season, it is a time for excitement and hope.

How are the Bucs going to do in this new season?  Well, I'll address that momentarily, but first, a word about center fielder Starling Marte, the most tenured Pirate on this current roster.

While out driving yesterday, Poni and Mullsey on The Fan were interviewing Pirates broadcaster and Chief Propaganda Minister Greg Brown and asking his thoughts on the season. Among other delicious bon mots that Brownie delivered was this one about Starling Marte.  Marte, said Greg, was a player who was equal in talent to players like this past winter's big free agent signees Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.

Really?

That prompted me to head to baseball-reference.com and do a little research.

Marte is now 30 years old, and has played seven seasons in the major leagues.  He has accumulated exactly 3,400 plate appearances and 3,108 at bats.  On a "per 162 game" basis, Mate has hit 17 home runs, driven in 67 runs, has a .286 batting average and a .783 OPS.  He has made one all-star team, and has won two gold gloves.  He has hit 20 home runs once in his career.  One area where Marte truly has excelled is in stealing bases.  He has stolen 42 bags per 162 games, and when he has played a full season, which he has done five times, he has never had fewer than 30 steals.

Something that baseball-reference cannot quantify, but if you watch the Pirates regularly you know it, is Marte's penchant to, shall we say, make lots of mental mistakes and at times just not appear to be fully present during the course of a ball game.  And there is also that 80 game PED suspension on his resume.

Conclusion:  A talented ball player, no doubt, but after seven seasons and over 3,000 at bats, what we have seen from Starling Marte is what we are going to get, and in fact, he could begin to decline now that he has crossed into his thirties.  

And this note to Greg Brown.  For all of Marte's skills and talents, he ain't no Bryce Harper or Manny Machado.  In case you were wondering, each of the players has also played seven seasons, and here are their "per 162 games" stats:

Machado  31 HR, 90 RBI, .282 BA, .822 OPS

Harper  32 HR, 91 RBI. .279 BA, .900 OPS 

**********

As for the '19 Pirates, I do believe that they could well be a better team than the one that won 82 games last year, but I fear that they could have a very difficult time obtaining that same victory level this season.  The team played fairly well within the Central Division last year, but other teams in the Central did a lot to improve themselves, while the Pirates did very little.  Example:  The Cardinals new acquisitions were Paul Goldschmidt and Andrew Miller.  The Pirates signed Lonnie Chisenhall and Jordan Lyles.  See what I mean.

Quick random thoughts from this part of The Grandstand:

• The starting pitching will be the key to the team's success. Taillon, Williams, Archer, Musgrove.  If these four guys click, it won't matter who they will use in that fifth spot.
• Jung Ho Kang sure has produced in the Grapefruit League.  If he can do that in the regular season, his signing will have proved to be the most important one that the team made in this past off-season.  
• Which Josh Bell?  The guy who hit over twenty bombs and drove in over 90 runs in '17, or the guy with the reduced numbers in '17?
• I look forward to seeing this Erik Gonzalez kid play short.  Maybe that Cleveland trade will prove to have been a steal for GMNH.  
• I'll also be watching what Cole Tucker is doing at SS for Indy as the year progresses.
• How soon will Gregory Polanco get back on the field?

While in Las Vegas last January, I placed a small ($15) wager on the Pirates to win OVER 79.5 games this year.  Logically, I don't think that they will, not necessarily because they are a bad team, but because they will have tough time winning that many games in a tough NL Central Division.  However, I didn't want to place a bet that would put me in the position come the final week of the season of rooting for the Pirates to lose ballgames.  I could never go that.  I do think that that small bet will definitely put a lot of interest in those final weeks of the season as the Pirates strive for 80 wins and beyond.  

Clint better be playing his A-team that week!

Enjoy the Opener.  Enjoy the Season.  And as always....LET"S GO BUCS!!!!!

Calling B.S. on the Pitt Athletic Department

Since being named Athletic Director at Pitt in 2017, Heather Lyke has pretty much distinguished herself in that role, but a development this past week has caused me to call "bulls----" on the Pitt athletic department, and since the buck stops with her, well, sorry about that, Ms. Lyke.

I am speaking about the decision that Pitt has made to not play against Duquesne in the annual City Game basketball game next season.  "We just can't fit it on to our schedule next year" seems to be the word coming from Oakland.  Are you kidding me?  How many basketball games will be on Pitt's non-conference schedule next year? How many of them will be cream puff guaranteed wins against schools like East Overshoe State? 

Duquesne sits a few miles down Forbes Street from Pitt.  Duquesne is willing to play at the Peterson Center if PPG Paints Arena is somehow not available (which I find it hard to believe).  And Pitt can't see their way to playing this game?

I give credit to Pitt for agreeing to play Robert Morris next season in Moon Township for the opening of RMU's new on campus arena, but if they are using the scheduling of THAT game as an excuse NOT to find a way to play Duquesne, well, like I say....bull----!

All this is even more incomprehensible when one considers how the Pitt administration seems to be willing to crawl on its knees to schedule football games with Penn State, and then allows its fan base to bellyache and moan about Penn State's arrogance in not wanting to include the Panthers on its football schedule.  Looks like Pitt has learned a lesson from PSU and is doing the same thing to Duquesne in this instance.

More on Mehno

The recent death of John Mehno, noted in this space six days ago, prompted me to head to my book shelves and retrieve this little volume:

This book was written by John and was published in 2007.  It is great book chock full of fun little argument starters like.....

• What were the Steelers five most memorable games?
• Jack Ham or Jack Lambert?
• Were the 1979 Pirates really a "family"?
• How did the Pirates go from powerhouse to laughingstock?
• Do Al Oliver and Dave Parker deserve to be in the Hall of Fame? (Die hard Bucco fans might not like his answer to this one,)
• What were the Pirates worst signings?
• Was Barry Bonds really that bad a guy?
• Who was the Penguins best player before Mario Lemieux?
• Was Forbes Field really that great?
• Was Three Rivers Stadium really that bad?
• Who were the best Pittsburgh teams that didn't win championships?

You get the idea, and there are 100 of these little gems in this book.  I'm not even sure if this book is still in print, but it really is a must for Pittsburgh sports fans.  Like I said, it is now a twelve year old book.  How great it would have been to have had John write a second volume that would include topics that have popped up on the 'Burgh Sports Scene since 2007.  He could probably have done whole thirty or forty questions on Neal Huntington and Pitt football coaches alone!

I treasure my copy of this book, which I got John to sign for me when he spoke to the Pittsburgh SABR Chapter back in 2012.

"Mary Queen of Scots"

For the second time in a week, I delved into a cinematic look at female British Monarchs ("l'll take female British Monarchs for a thousand, Alex") from long, long ago last night.  Last week it was "The Favourite", which told about Queen Anne in 1706.  Last night it was "Mary Queen of Scots", the story of the titular Queen and her, not sure what you would call it - her battles, rivalry, intramural tussles? - with Elizabeth I.  It starred Saoirse Ronan as Mary and Margot Robbie as Elizabeth.  This one took place back in the 1580's or thereabouts.

I'll be brief with my takeaways on this movie:

1. It starred Saoirse Ronan, rapidly becoming one of my very favorite (as opposed to "favourite") actresses.  She alone makes a movie worth seeing, and she is the sole reason I watched this one. 
2. The filmmakers managed to do the impossible:  They made Margot Robbie look unattractive.
3. It was better than "The Favourite", but, that, admittedly, is setting a very low bar in this particular grandstand.

One and one-half stars from The Grandstander.

A College Football Time Capsule

When writing about the death of Dan Jenkins in this space ten days ago, I made mention of the book you see pictured here, "Saturday's America".  It was an updated collection of long form articles that Jenkins wrote when he was covering college football for Sports Illustrated.  It was published in 1970, and I read the book when I was in college.   Jenkins' death prompted memories of that book, so I went to the library, checked it out and re-read it last week.

1970.  This book truly is a time capsule for college football fans.  To give you an idea of just how long ago 1970 was, College Football-wise, consider the following:

In 1970, Joe Paterno was in only his fifth year as head coach at Penn State.  In fact, at one point in the book, Jenkins referred to him as "the young head coach at Penn State".  When was the last time you thought of Joe Paterno being young?

In 1970, Nick Saban was playing defensive back at Kent State University.

In 1970, Pat Narduzzi was celebrating his fourth birthday, and Dabo Swinney was celebrating his first birthday. 

You get the idea.

Anyway, the book covers some great stories from throughout college football's first 100 years, with primary emphasis on the 1960's.  Here are some of the highlights covered in separate chapters of the book:

• The arrival of Ara Parseghian in South Bend, and how he revived the storied Notre Dame football traditions after the moribund coaching tenures of Joe Kuharich and Terry Brennan.  Also prominent in this chapter was a young QB out of Butler, PA, Terry Hanratty.
• Stories of a various college whiz kids of the era such as Tommy Nobis, Dick Butkus, Joe Namath, and O.J. Simpson.
• A great chapter about the "Game of the Decade" - the 1966 game between Notre Dame and Michigan State that ended in a 10-10 tie. The game where, as Jenkins put it,  Ara "tied one for the Gipper".
• "Pursuit of a Blue Chipper", a story about college recruiting that focused on the pursuit of a  high school QB out of Abilene, Texas, Jack Mildren.  If anything, recruiting has no doubt become even more of a blood sport fifty years later than it was back in the 1960's.  Mildren eventually ended up at Oklahoma where he was the main cog in OU's wishbone offense.  I remembered being at the game when Mildren and his Sooners - Greg Pruitt was the featured running back - blasted Pitt out of Pitt Stadium with that wishbone attack in 1971.  The final score was 55-29 (I had to look that up), and Pitt was never in the game.
• A story about the history of the Heisman Trophy.  This chapter seems remarkably quaint here in the 21st century ever since the Heisman Trophy was co-opted by ESPN and Nissan.
• An entire chapter about Woody Hayes, many years before he punched that kid from Clemson on national television.  He still came across as a complete and total horse's ass.

There's lots more, and if you are a fan of college football and it's history, it would be worth your while to seek out this one, although you can probably only find it in libraries and on dusty shelves in used book stores these days.  

If I had one criticism, it's the fact that Jenkins often resorts to folksy, Texas dialect when writing.  You know, quoting guys  who say "dadgummit" in every other sentence and refer to the game as "fooball".    That's okay in the occasional magazine article, but it gets old when your bludgeoned with it for 290 pages in a book.

A Three Star rating from The Grandstander.

Lady Colonials Reign Supreme Once Again

On his sunny St. Patrick's Day afternoon,  Marilyn and I toddled on out to Moon Township to the campus of Robert Morris University to take in the Championship Game of the Northeast Conference Women's Basketball Tournament.  We were rewarded with a 65-54 victory by the Lady Colonials over St. Francis University of PA.  It was the eighth NEC championship for the RMU women in their history and the fourth such championship in the last six years. 

The North Athletics Complex on campus was packed and loud and it was a great atmosphere for the game which made for a fun afternoon.

Some scenes from the day....

The Colonials take the court!

RoMo

Is there a spookier mascot in all of college sports?

Nina Augustin

A point guard from Helsinki, Finland.

She might have been our favorite player on the team.  She is one of seven international players on the RMU squad.  The others include 2 from Spain, 2 from Canada, 1 from England, and 1 from Japan.

They stormed the court when it was all over.  

We declined to participate.

The final score.

Getting ready to cut down the nets.

For various reasons, mainly the reconstruction of the Sewall Center into the sparkling new UPMC Events Center, which will be the Colonials new home beginning next season, we have not been on campus for several years, and being there today made us realize that we have missed it.  I am thinking that it just might be time come next fall to rejoin the ranks of RMU season ticket holders.

As has been the case, the NEC winner will probably get a #16 seed in the NCAA Tournament, so their reward for today will no doubt be a match up with some power like UConn or Notre Dame.  Somehow, I think that the young women we saw today will welcome such a challenge, and that the inevitable outcome of such a game won't detract one bit from the luster of today's win.

Oh, and by the way.the RMU roster has only two seniors on it, so there is no reason the think that the run of NEC dominance for the ladies won't continue into next season.

To Absent Friends - John Mehno

John Mehno

Sad news was delivered today with the death of Pittsburgh area sportswriter John Mehno.  He was 64 years old.

Mehno wrote for various organizations over the years - Beaver County Times, Altoona Mirror, Associated Press, Sporting News.  In recent years he would do twice weekly columns that would appear online.  They were among the more trenchant and humorous pieces of sports writing that you would find here in the tri-state area.

I first became aware of John Mehno when he would sometimes substitute for various sports talk show hosts on the old WTAE 1250.  Many years ago, I asked him to speak at one of the Pittsburgh SABR meetings, and he gave a most informative and entertaining summary of his history with the Pittsburgh Pirates.  I ran into him on several occasions over the years since then and he was always a friendly a gracious guy with whom to have a conversation.

He was also a Facebook friend, and would always respond to your comments and posts.  I can say with great pride that he once referred me by name when quoting from "The Grandstander" in one of his columns a few years back.  Coming from a REAL sportswriter, that was a real compliment.  His observations on the Pittsburgh sports scene will be greatly missed.

RIP John Mehno.

A Final Word on Le’Veon Bell

So, Le'Veon Bell signs a four year, $52.5 million deal with the Jets.  Last year, he turned down a five year, $70 million contract with the Steelers.  I attempted to read an article on Deadspin that purported to detail how much money was guaranteed in each contract, but halfway through it, my eyes started watering and my head started to hurt, so I quit.  I mean, who cares?

I will say this for Bell, he took a principled stand and sat out a year in order to get what he felt he was worth, so good for him.  That he acted like knucklehead during his holdout with tweets from jet-skis and strip clubs, sort of takes some of the Sam Gompers/Curt Flood like aura away from him, but still, you got to hand it to a guy who passed on 14.5 million bucks.  I am sure that the Steelers never thought it would go that far, and that, if they had it to do over, they would have traded him last summer for whatever they could have gotten (2nd round pick? 3rd round pick? a carton of jock straps?).   And don't you think that the Steelers might have used some of that $14.5 mil of cap space last year to have helped the team during the season?  Oh, well.

As it is, it certainly appears that Bell lost on the bet he made on himself.  Of course, when you sort through what the guaranteed dough was from the Steelers and is from the Jets, maybe he didn't, but I am pretty sure that he will never recover that fourteen point five large he DIDN'T get paid by the Steelers last year.

I was going to say a "Final Word" on Antonio Brown, but, really, I am just tired of that subject.  Instead, I will refer you to Joe Starkey's column in today's Post-Gazette.  Says it all:

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/joe-starkey/2019/03/13/Joe-Starkey-Don-t-ever-forget-what-Antonio-Brown-did-to-this-team-and-its-fans/stories/201903130146

Yes, the Steelers have lost a couple of major talents in Bell and Brown, but they did play last season without Bell, and James Conner, notwithstanding a couple of devastating fumbles in key situations, pretty much replaced him without a beat.  Brown's talents may be more difficult to replace, but let us all remember a critical number:

0 - The number of Super Bowls won by the Steelers with Bell and Brown in the lineup.

On another Steelers note, I was sorry to see that TE Jesse James has elected to sign as a free agent with Detroit.  I know that the Steelers will move on from this, but I always liked James, and thought he was an asset to the team.  I wish him well, and I hope that Vance McDonald can stay healthy for sixteen games next year.

Yes, this really WAS a catch!

Two Movies

Watched two movies in the last two days, both of them Oscar winners.

"Spotlight" was the Best Picture Oscar winner for 2015, and we pulled it out and re-watched it on Sunday.   The movie, which details the Boston Globe's investigation and reporting on the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church in Boston in 2001-02, holds up terrifically as a drama and a thriller.  If anything, the movie is all the more searing in light of further news developments on this issue that came to light in the past year.  No doubt, this is a movie that stands the test of time and will still be compelling to watch ten, twenty, and thirty years from now.

Four Stars all the way from The Grandstander

Got around to watching "The Favourite" yesterday.   My reaction to this one is simple:  THIS got nominated for ten Academy Awards?  Marilyn was in and out of the room as I watched this, and when she asked me how it ended, I had a hard time in answering her.  When you have to go to the Google Machine to research what the ending of a movie was all about, well, that's not my kind of movie.

One review I saw said that the movie was "idiosyncratic".  I suppose that is one way to look at it.  It was prettily photographed and the costumes and make-up were eye-catching, but it was also pretty pretentious.  The acting from Olivia Coleman, Rachel Weisz, and Emma Stone was good, but when the sum of the parts add up to a story that is just, well, weird, it's not for me.

The Oscar it won was for Best Actress for Olivia Colman.  Good for her, but after seeing this movie, I still say that Glenn Close got shafted by not winning the Award for "The Wife".

Only One Star from The Grandstander.

Bye-bye, "Bye Bye Birdie"

I have fond memories of the 1963 movie "Bye Bye Birdie".  

I can remember seeing it at the time it was released.  Thought it was cool to see Dick Van Dyke, who was so funny on that new TV series at the time.  There were some great songs..."Put On A Happy Face"...."The Telephone Hour"...."One Boy"...."Kids".  Paul Lynde was just great singing about "these kids today", and what twelve year old boy didn't love seeing a young Ann-Margret up there on the big screen in all her glory?

Well, "Bye Bye Birdie" was on TCM last night, and I gave up after about forty minutes.  Maybe it was the staging, maybe it was the direction, but we both thought that the movie version was incredibly dated and stiff (especially Van Dyke's performance).   Not sure I'll ever give it another look-see when the opportunity arises.

Funny thing, though.  Over the years, I have seen two stage productions of this show.  One was a professional touring company that starred Tommy Tune, and the other a few years ago when it was North Allegheny's Spring Musical.  Both of those productions showed that "Bye Bye Birdie" can be a fun and energetic musical STAGE comedy.  It is a staple on the high school musical circuit, so it will no doubt continue to be performed forever.  Go see it on stage if you ever get the chance.

Just take a pass on the 1963 film version.

Oh, and come to think of it, Ann-Margret is STILL pretty damn special, as I wrote back in 2017.....

https://grandstander.blogspot.com/2017/04/ann-margret.html

Who Carries Cash?

Users of The Facebook know that when you make a post on your timeline, probably eighty-five or so of a hundred will just sit there, ignored and maybe garnering an occasional "like', "ha-ha" or "angry" emoticon, a dozen or so might engender a comment or three, but every so often, you will put out a post that will light up the metaphorical switchboard.  You never know what topic will tickle the fancy of your Facebook friends.

Two days ago, I made this post describing an experience that I had at the local DiBella's Sandwich Shop, and the floodgates opened.....

So I’m at a local fast food emporium for lunch today, and the cashier had a problem with the guy in front of me. Something to do with his gift card not covering the total amount of the bill. Anyway, the guy says “I don’t have any cash.” Is this a new thing, a millennial thing, not carrying any cash with you? Who leaves the house without cash on them? Or am I just incredibly old and missed the fact that it’s not cool to carry cash?

The incident caught my attention because earlier in the week on his podcast, Tony Kornheiser was going on and on about how he seems to be the last person left in the world who carries cash and pays for things in cash, and that is what prompted me to make my Facebook post.

So far, there have been thirty-two responses to that post that I made.  Many people of my, ahem, age demographic mentioned that while they carried "some" cash, they usually paid for everything by credit cards in order to get reward points and cash back bonuses.  Okay, I get that.  Those same people mentioned that their kids never carry cash.  Younger respondents mentioned how they not only don't carry cash, they don't use credit or debit cards, and that they pay for stuff using some app or another on their phone.  This is clearly a generational thing.

Me?  I start out every week with fifty or sixty bucks in cash in my wallet.  I'd feel naked leaving the house without cash in my pocket.  Yes, I find myself paying for larger purchases (a meal at a nice, i.e., non-fast food, restaurant) with my debit card, but I am not going to be the guy who pays for his $.99  fountain drink at Sheetz or McDonald's with a credit card.  It's just not going to happen.  I am also a person who likes to throw some dough into a street musician's tip jar.  Can't do that with a debit card, although my friend Alyson from Lawrenceville tells me that you can if the musician has something called Venmo.

This is not just the wailing cries off an Old Guy bitching about "these kids today", but as more and more business are going cashless, real problems arise for that segment of the population that is "unbanked", and until I read this article that my friend Marilyn from Delaware sent me, I didn't realize how large that segment was.

https://www.npr.org/2019/03/08/701076862/protecting-the-unbanked-by-banning-cashless-businesses-in-philadelphia?fbclid=IwAR0Ig0C8RJNHo7MeHMzZ8yIMp_KoaubayULX0Fuo--g_8bay-FQ9YA7Izsg

As you will read, the City of Philadelphia has passed legislation prohibiting business to operate on a 100% Cashless basis.

Anyway, I'm not going to rail against progress, but I am still going to carry good old fashioned Coin (or Paper) of the Realm on me, and I will try my best to accept the fact that, as the wise man from Hibbing, Minnesota said over fifty years ago, the times they are, and continue to be, a-changin'.  I wonder if Bob Dylan carries cash on him?

Anyway, I thought I'd share a couple of the comments that I received to my post. 

From Kaye in Maine.  I won't give her age, other than to say that she is a Gen-X'er:

The blank looks when your nieces and nephews open their Christmas cards and find a check... 😂 🤔 🙄

Perhaps the best response came from my fellow Central Alum and BC retiree, Dan from Kennedy Twp:

Last night after seeing Shen Yun, we walked to the parking garage where many people were lined up to pay at machines with their credit cards, phones, whatever. The cash window had no one in line, and we made the elevator ahead of them all! 

See, sometimes, cash is best!

"Free Solo"

"Free Solo" won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film of 2018 for filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarheli, and we caught up with it this past week. It is the story of climber Alex Honnold who specializes in "free climbs", that is, no ropes, harnesses, or anything else mountain climbers use when climbing a mountain.  These guys, use nothing but their hands and feet.  Crazy!

This movie was about Honnold's attempt to be the first person to free solo El Capitan mountain in Yosemite National Park.  Thirty-two hundred feet of sheer granite.  

Yep.  These guys are crazy.

I would highly recommend that you watch this movie.  Not only to see Honnold's attempt (SPOILER ALERT:  He makes it!), but to consider the fact that the people who were filming this were right up there on El Cap with him!  How they did that is also a part of this movie.

And while we knew the outcome, I have to tell you that Marilyn and I were barely breathing during the last twenty minutes or so of the movie as Alex was making his climb.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.