To Absent Friends - John Thompson

 John Thompson

1941-2020

When I heard the news this morning that John Thompson, Hall of Fame Basketball Coach at Georgetown University, died yesterday, three days short of his 79th birthday. It was not my intention to do an Absent Friends post on him.  I mean, he wasn't a local guy, and he's been retired for quite awhile, and while I realize who he was and what he accomplished, he just didn't move the needle for me.  

Then I listened to today's Tony Kornheiser Show Podcast.  The first two segments of the show featured Kornheiser's opening monologue reminiscing about Thompson, and the second segment with Michael Wilbon, offered more of the same.   Both guys covered Georgetown during those glory days, and their stories were terrific.  If you are a college basketball fan, and especially if you are one of those folks who consistently long for the halcyon days of the Big East, I urge you to listen to today's, August 31, 2020, episode of the podcast and listen to the first two segments.  They cover about 30 minutes.  Nothing I could write could possibly be  a better tribute to  "Big John."

RIP John Thompson.

To Absent Friends - Chadwick Boseman

Chadwick Boseman

1977-2020

It was shocking news last night to learn of the death of actor Chadwick Boseman at the way-too-young age of 42.  He had been suffering from colon cancer, a diagnosis he and his family kept away from the public, for the last four years, and in that time, amidst all of the dire treatments that such a diagnosis entails, Boseman continued to work and act in movies, many of them quite significant ones.

His brief career includes 35 acting credits, the most significant, to me at least, being King T'Challa of Wakanda, the Black Panther, in the movie "Black Panther" in 2018, and Jackie Robinson in the 2013 biopic "42."  Both movies received critical acclaim for Boseman, and "Black Panther" become one of the highest grossing movies of all-time (over $1.3 billion to date).  He has also portrayed such figures as singer James Brown and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, in addition to appearing as the Black Panther in three other Marvel Universe movies.  Later this year, he will appear on Netflix in the film production of August Wilson's "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom."

As Robinson in "42"

How ironic that Boseman died on the day that 

MLB was observing Jackie Robinson Day

As King T'Challa, 

The Black Panther

It was an all too brief, yet quite notable career for Chadwick Boseman.  RIP.

The Giolito Masterpiece

 

I tuned into the Pirates game with the White Sox last night along about the third inning.  After the fourth inning I noted that while the Bucs were down 4-0, they had also yet to record a hit and that Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito had already struck out an inordinate amount of batters and had an inordinately low pitch count.

There  are few things in all of sports that can match the tension that builds up over the course of nine innings when a pitcher flirts with a no-hitter.  Hmmm, I thought, this could be interesting.  

And indeed it was.  Inning after inning, Giolito continued to mow down the Pirates hitters, and the tension began to build that something very special could happen in this game.  It was definitely NOT going to be a "Bob Gets To Bed Early Night."  After Sox shortstop Tim Anderson made a very nifty play in the seventh inning to nail Brian Reynolds in a bang-bang play at first (which replay showed was not actually all that close anyway), it seemed inevitable that Giolito was going to get his no-hitter.  The only doubt came on the 27th out when Eric Gonzalez hit a sinking, slicing opposite field liner only to see the Sox right fielder make another nifty play to save the no-hitter.  

Giolito's line was as follows:

9 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 13 K, 101 Pitches

It was as dominating a pitching performance as you will ever see, and I'm glad that I was able to see it.

Some other thoughts:

• There is a hallowed tradition in baseball that you never mention it when a pitcher is throwing a no-hitter.  Well, Pirate Chief Propaganda Minister Greg Brown and his assistant John Wehner wouldn't stop yapping about the possibility of it from the fifth inning on.  That is as it should be as they are, ostensibly, reporters after all, but if it was reversed, and a Pirate was throwing the no-hitter, all Brownie would have been saying would have been things like "something special going on here" or "the Sox only baserunner thus far came on a walk."  I've heard them do it many times over the years.
• In all fairness, though, Brownie and Wehner were effusive in their praise of Giolito throughout.  And on the radio post game, Bob Walk was positively giddy in describing Giolito's performance in a way that surely only a former pitcher can be.
• Some are diminishing this as "well, it was only against the Pirates", and that, pardon me, doesn't wash.  If it was that simple, then why isn't everyone throwing a no-hitter against the Pirates every night?
• That said, I saw this quote from Giolito in the Washington Post this  morning: "When I saw who was due to come up in the eighth and ninth, I knew I had a real shot at it."  I'm sure he didn't mean it that way, but, wow, THAT was a shot.
• I had to wonder if baseball's hallowed and much-in-the-news lately "Unwritten Rules" would have come into play had the Pirates, trailing by four runs, sent up a raft of pinch hitters in the bottom of the ninth. Would Sheltie and the Pirates have been accused of "not respecting the game"?  As it turned out, Shelton did send Jose Osuna up as a pinch hitter in place of John Ryan Murphy in the ninth, and he struck out just as feebly as twelve other Pirates before him, so the debate is moot.  I wonder though, if there would have been howling across the MLB landscape had Osuna managed to get a hit there.

There are no guarantees when you buy a ticket to a sporting event or watch one on television.  Chances are that most of the time, the event that you see will be fairly unmemorable, but every so often, you see what we all saw last night coming from Chicago.  It's why you follow sports.

My Week With The Pirates, and Other Comments

 

Well, it's not actually a whole week with the Pirates, but rather the three game series with the Cleveland Indians at PNC Park this week.

Tuesday, Indians 6 - Pirates 3

The Pirates lose this one in the tenth inning when Carlos Santana hits a moon shot of a home run down the left field line with two runners on base that breaks a 3-3 tie.  The Pirates argue that the ball was actually foul, and it probably was and the replay officials at MLB HQ screwed it up (imagine that), but no matter.  The game was really lost in the bottom of the ninth when the Pirates had runners on first and second with no outs when Jarrod Dyson (more on him later) gets picked off of second base by the catcher.  The Pirates went meekly in the rest of the inning after that.  Yes, shit happens in baseball, and the Indians catcher made a nice play, but in a situation like  that you SIMPLY CAN'T ALLOW YOURSELF TO GET PICKED OFF OF SECOND BASE BY THE CATCHER.  You just can't.

Wednesday, Indians 6 - Pirates 1

Steven Brault starts for the Pirates and pitches brilliantly for five innings, allowing two hits and no runs.  He is pulled after those five innings with the score 0-0 and in comes Doyvadas Neverauskas with his can of gasoline.  Twenty-two pitches later, Carlos Santana hits another moon shot of a home run, this time to right field, over the seats, and probably into the Allegheny River.  No question as to whether this one was fair or foul.  It's now 3-0, Cleveland adds three more in the eighth.  Cleveland pitcher Aaron Civale throws a complete game five hitter, giving up one meaningless run in the ninth inning.

I watched both of those contests, and I vowed that I will not subject myself  Thursday's game.

Thursday, Indians 2 - Pirates 0

I stay true to my vow and do not turn on the television.  However, at about 9:20 or so when I switch it on, and I see that the Pirates are losing 1-0, and I see two Bucs strike out in the sixth inning and hear Greg Brown tell me that those were the tenth and eleventh K's for the Pirates so far.  They ended up striking out 16 times and losing meekly, 2-0.  I turned the the game off before it finished, switching to the Joe Biden coronation instead.

So how awful was this three game stretch?  That leads to the "Other Comments"....

• The Pirates record is now 4-17.  Over 162 games, that pace would produce a 31-131 record.  100 games UNDER .500.  10 games worse than the 1962 Mets (40-120).
• The Pirates regularly field a lineup with seven guys currently batting below .208 and four of those guys are below .200.
• The Pirates have used twenty-six (26!!) different pitchers in 21 games.
• Neverauskas, who has appeared in 8 games (8 IP) has an ERA of 9.00 and a WHIP of 2.00.  Why is he on the team?
• Jarrod Dyson, a washed up retread in the tradition of Pirates signings of the PNC Park Era, has played in 16 games, has 45 AB's and is batting .137.  As I was watching on Tuesday, my thought was that he should be used only as a late inning defensive replacement or a pinch runner.  Then he got picked off of second by the catcher, so he apparently isn't even good for that either.
• Cole Tucker has been used in the outfield and is learning as he goes, but I am fine with that.  For a team that is going nowhere, they SHOULD be playing Tucker, a former #1 draft pick and find out for sure if there is a spot for him on a major league roster.  With Tucker, there is at least the possibility of a future, which there certainly is not with Dyson.
• Gregory Polanco has played in 14 games and is hitting .070 (that's not a typo) and was struck out 22 times in 43 AB's and has looked pathetic in doing so.  He appears to be done.  Yet Jason Martin (for whom the Pirates traded Gerrit Cole) and Jarod Oliva, a couple of outfielders who might have promising futures, are kicking it around in boot camp in Altoona.
• On the bright side, on the rare occasions when Polanco is getting his bat on the ball, he is, according to the team's Analytics Gurus, hitting the ball HARD.  But he's still batting .070.

Okay, we all know that one of the big reasons that Dyson and Polanco are still playing is the money that they are owed by the Pirates.  Doesn't it always come down to money for this gang?

Can you sense my frustatuon?  I mean, why am I doing this to myself?  The best line I saw about this team came from a gent named Rick Bergman on the Pirate Chat Facebook group when he said "I wish that they would allow fans into the ballpark this season so I could make a point by refusing to go."

A Whirl Around the World of Sports

It's been quiet here in The Grandstand of late, but it hasn't been quiet in the wide, wide world of sports.  Some thoughts.....

GOLF

Is there anything better than one of professional golf's major championships being staged on the West Coast?  For four nights over this past weekend we were able to watch the PGA Championship, the first Major to be staged in over a year (I don't have to explain why, do I?), and it was compelling sport and television deep into Eastern Time Prime Time.

To restate, at one point on the back nine on Sunday, six players were tied for the lead.  We were looking at the very real possibility of an aggregate three hole playoff with as many as six guys playing in the same group.  On the fourteenth hole, that logjam was broken when 23 year old Colin Murikawa, staring a bogey in the face, chipped in from off the green for a birdie.  Two holes later, he drove the green on a Par 4 hole to within eight feet and calmly sank the putt for an eagle and a three stroke lead.  It was a truly remarkable shot, and, at that point, everyone else was playing for second place.

In Murikawa, the PGA Tour has an attractive and exciting young player who is now a major champion.  How many times did you hear it on Sunday? "Colin Murikawa becomes only the fourth player in history to win he PGA Championship at the age of 23, joining Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and Rory McIlroy." Before we get too over wrought about it though, consider this note that popped up on my Facebook Memories last week from 2014.  McIlroy had just won the PGA, his fourth Major in three years.  My buddy and golf maven Joe Riesacher posted a comment to the effect "is it time we put McIlroy in the discussion of chasing down Nicklaus' record of 18 Major Championships?"  That was six years ago, McIlroy was then 24 years old, and in the intervening years he has been consistently ranked in golf's Top Ten and has frequently been ranked  #1 in the world as well, but he has yet to win his fifth Major.  Winning these things is hard, and it makes the astounding accomplishments of Nicklaus and Woods all the more remarkable.

For his sake, because he seems to be a very nice young guy, I hope that Colin Murikawa has a terrific career ahead of him, but don't bet on him becoming the "next Jack" of the "next Tiger."

FOOTBALL

The biggest news in football this week is about what will NOT be happening in 2020, and that came when the Presidents of the schools of the Big Ten and Pac-12 announced that due to safety concerns surrounding COVID-19, they would not be playing football in the Fall this year.  They kicked the can down the road by saying that they would consider playing in the Spring, but don't bet the mortgage on that happening for reasons that go beyond the issues raised by the pandemic.  An interesting conversation on PTI yesterday between Michael Wilbon and Frank Isola pretty much defended the decisions made by the conferences.  Nobody wants to not have football, least of all the schools themselves, but there really seemed to be no other choice.  The virus is real, folks.

And how about the University of Nebraska.  They have been members of the Big 10 for about five minutes, have willingly accepted the gajillions of dollars that that membership has brought to them, and now they say that they are thinking about defying the B1G's decision and would be happy to set up a schedule on their own.  If I was a President of any of the other Big Ten schools, I would propose an immediate motion to kick the Cornhuskers out of the Conference.

BASEBALL, and THE PIRATES

We are now a little over two weeks into the abridged MLB season, and two teams, the Marlins and the Cardinals have been forced to miss multiple games - the Cardinals have only played five games - due to rampant numbers of positive COVID tests.  The Marlins couldn't stay out of the hotel bars and the Cardinals couldn't stay away from a Casino while both were on the road.  Boys will be boys, I guess.

The completion of this season is certainly not a sure thing at this point, and a strong possibility exists that not all teams will play the full complement of sixty games.  To do that, the aforementioned Cardinals, for example, would now be required to play 55 games in forty-four days.  Good luck with that.

Then there are the Pirates.  Until this week's series with the Cardinals was COVID-postponed, they had played sixteen games, and sport a 3-13 record.  They are on a pace that would give them, over the course of a full season, a record of 30-132.  They are on pace not only to the worst season, percentage-wise, in Pirates history, but in all of baseball history.  I think we all knew that it wasn't going to be good in 2020, but this?

It's easy to pick on the players, who have been awful, no doubt about it, but the real villain here, I think, is our boy, former general manager Neal Huntington (FGMNH).  Upon his firing, he left to his successors an organization so bereft of talent, that the team has been forced to go down to the local YMCA's and sign anyone who can throw a baseball sixty feet, six inches just to fill a roster.  The fact that Doyvadas Neverauskas is leading the team in appearances for pitchers, the fact that he is even on the team at all, is a testamant to just what a colossal mess FGMNH passed on the GMBC (Ben Cherrington).  

It's easy to bitch and moan about guys like Neverauskas, Miguel Del Pozo, Chris Stratton, and Geoff Hartlieb.  They're not actually trying to stink up the place, they just plain don't belong in the Major Leagues.  The fact that this is the best the Pirates can do at this point, is a withering indictment of the one time "Best Management Team in Baseball, If Not All of Sports."  Thank you, Bob Nutting.

What about new Bucco skipper Derek Shelton?  He has got to be saying night after night "I waited my whole career to be a big league manager and THIS is what I get?"  First off, 16 games is too soon to pass judgment on anybody as a manager.  So hold the hot takes on that issue, please.  It also has to be taken into account the truly awful collection of trinkets and trash he has been given to manage.  Factor in the delayed start of the season, the bastardized season that is scheduled, and, to be fair, the unbelievable number of injuries that have plagued the Pirates, and, well, I just feel plain sorry for the guy.  Conclusion:  Let's see what GMBC can do in a more normal off-season in 2020-21, see what kind of team can be put together for a full spring training and a full 2021 season, and the see what we get, and even then, it might not be fair to expect anything from a rebuilding (whether they want to say it or not) team until at least 2022.  Then we can pass judgement on "Sheltie."

Oh, and of course it will all depend on how much the MLB Owners and the MLBPA eviscerate each other in the upcoming Collective Bargaining sessions. Those will be fun to read about, won't they?

"Greyhound"

Anytime that you have the chance to watch Tom Hanks in a movie, you gotta take it.  So it was that Mrs. Grandstander and I settled in to watch "Greyhound" tonight on Apple TV (which I got for free for one year when I bought my new iPhone last month).   I believe that this is a movie that was supposed to  be a theatrical release this summer, because I'm sure I remember seeing a trailer for it way back when we were able to go to the movin'  picture shows in an actual the-a-ter.  Looks like the producers gave up on that idea and decided to send it to a streamer, so here we are.

In this one, Hanks plays a US Navy Captain in charge of a convoy of cargo and other military ships crossing the Atlantic during WW II.  At some point, ships would enter a "no man's land" of sorts where they were too far at sea to be able to have aerial cover.  This tells the story of one such crossing and how the ships dealt with continued attacks from German U-boats during their fifty unprotected hours.  

The movie opens with Hanks meeting his girlfriend in a hotel lobby in San Francisco just before he ships out.  That took  all of about five minutes and from that point on, this was one slam-bang, non-stop, action filled movie.  The movie is only 93 minutes long, and it pretty much never stops with the sounds things like "hard right rudder" and "I've got the conn" and "deploy depth charges" and "Captain's on the bridge" and, well, you get the idea.

As always, Hanks is terrific, and he alone makes this one well worth seeing (he also wrote the screenplay; talented guy!).  If I have one quibble with the movie it's that it was very dark, and that made it hard to make out some of what you were seeing.  Also, about halfway through, we switched to closed captions, and that helped a great deal in following the movie.   The sea battle scenes, which I assume were mostly CGI, were terrific, and there was one very touching moment in it that brought Mrs. G. to tears.

The Grandstander gives this one Two and One-Half Stars.  Marilyn would probably give it at least Three.