The 1974 NFL Draft

In doing some research on Gale Sayers last week, I had reason to take a look at the 1970 NFL Draft, and I noted that of 442 players selected in that  Draft, only two of them Terry Bradshaw and Mel Blount, had found their way into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  It seemed like a low number to me, so I wondered if that was an anomaly or the norm, and that caused me to take a look at the 1974 NFL Draft.

Steelers fans remember this draft fondly, and it is considered by many to be the single best draft class for ANY team EVER.  We all know the players:

Lynn Swann (1st Rd / 21st overall)

Jack Lambert (2nd / 46th)

John Stallworth (4th / 82nd)

Mike Webster (5th / 125th)

The team's first four picks (they didn't have a pick in the third round), four Super Bowl champions, four Hall of Famers.  And of course, just to put the icing on the cake, the Steelers signed Donnie Shell as an undrafted free agent, and he will be the fifth 1974 Steelers rookie who will enter the Hall of Fame later this year.

Okay, that's four draftees plus one free agent in the HOF just for one team, but surely there must have been others from that draft class whose busts now sit in Canton, right?  How many....two, three, five?

Well, thus far, only one other 1974 draftee has made it into the Hall.  I won't make you guess....

It is Dave Casper, tight end from Notre Dame, drafted by the Oakland Raiders in the second round with the 45th overall pick, right ahead of Lambert.  Fittingly, he was a guy who gave the Steelers fits over the many years of those classic Steelers-Raiders battles.

A lot more research needs to be done to state whether two HOF'ers per class is a low number or if five is a high number, but at this point, I am not inclined to dig any further into the issue, which is not to say that I won't do so at some point.  It's a fun little exercise.

Some other tidbits from that Class of '74....

• No other player drafted by the Steelers that year had any great impact, but what do you want after the first four picks?
• In the 13th round the Steelers selected a quarterback, Frank Kolch of Eastern Michigan.  See what I mean about no impact players after the first four guys?
• The Steelers did sign another free agent who would go on to make significant contributions to Super Bowl winning teams, tight end Randy Grossman of Temple. 
• The overall Number One pick in the draft that year was Ed "Too Tall" Jones, DE, Tennessee State, picked by the Dallas Cowboys.  Pretty good player.
• Amazingly, no quarterbacks were selected until the third round when Dallas took Arizona State's Danny White with the first pick in that round (53rd overall).  White became an all-pro with the Cowboys, but he was really the only QB who had an NFL career of any consequence.  A total of 17 other QB's were drafted that year, including Kolch by the Steelers.  You might recognize a few of the names, but, as I said, none had a significant career in the NFL.
• Penn State had eight players drafted, including Heisman Trophy winner John Cappelletti (1st/11th).  He was not, however, the first Nittany Lion selected.  That was LB Ed O'Neill, the 8th overall pick, selected by the Detroit Lions.
• Pitt had only three players drafted, the first one being LB Rod Kirby (11th/278th), selected by the Bills.  Two rounds and 98 picks later, the third and final Panther was selected, and he did become a player and coach of consequence, OL Dave Wannstedt (15th/376th), taken by the Packers.

Putting A Wrap on the 2020 Pirates

At lunch after golf last Friday, my buddy Dan asked me "Can you list something, anything, positive about the Pirates this year?"  Now this is a team that finished 19-41, a pace that would produce a 51-111 record in a full season, so let's just leave it at that, and concentrate on what Dan asked me.  So, what did I like about the 2020 Pirates?

1. First and foremost, the debut and performance of third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes, pictured above.   Called up in mid-season, Hayes played in 24 games, and in 85 At Bats he hit .376 had 5 HR, 11 RBI, and had an OPS of 1.124.  He also played third base like a guy who will be adding multiple Gold Gloves to his trophy case in the years to come.  He seems to be the best Pirates prospect since Andrew McCutchen, and he will be a great joy to watch in the five or  six years he'll be in Pittsburgh before he will no longer be affordable for the Suits in the front office.
2. The emergence of Jacob Stallings as a gold glove caliber catcher, and a fair hitter (.248, 3 HR, 18 RBI, .702 OPS).  He appears to be excellent at handling pitchers and a popular and respected clubhouse leader.  
3. Mitch Keller, when he wasn't injured, seemed to emerge as the top pitcher he was touted to be over his last couple of starts, including throwing 11 consecutive no-hit innings in his last two starts.  That doesn't make him Johnny Vander Meer, but it does offer something hopeful.
4. The Pirates willingness to try Cole Tucker in the outfield.  He appears to be blocked in the infield, and trying him in the OF shows that the team is not willing to give up on a former #1 Draft Choice.  It's not like playing him there cost them anything in 2020, right?  He seemed to get better in the outfield as the season went along, but it's up it's him to prove that he can hit in the major leagues.
5. Several strong performances by Steven Brault.  I have spoken before of why I personally root for Brault, so I was very happy to see this for him.
6. Derek Shelton. He is a likable guy and a guy that, of course, we all want to see succeed.  He began his managerial career in a nightmare of a season like none ever before, and with the worst team in baseball.  He managed to get through it without slitting his wrists and jumping off of the Clemente Bridge, so good for him.  Insofar as his performance as a manager, it is far, far too early to offer any kind of judgement on that.
7. The attitude of the team.  The players all seemed to maintain a positive outlook throughout the season.  This was a breath of fresh air in contrast to the turmoil and sourness that was a hallmark of the team in the last half of the 2019 season.
8. The goofy stuff that the bullpen would do whenever a Pirate hit a home run.  This is the kind of organic stuff that can spring up in a team and make them easy to root for.  And it is something that cannot be manufactured.  I hope that the Pirates PR Machine doesn't try to do so.
9. They're getting the Overall Number One pick in the entry draft, presumably wunderkind pitcher Kumar Rocker.  Let's hope they don't screw it up.  (Can you say "Brian Bullington"?)
10. The fact that the Pirates and MLB were able to pull off any kind of season at all in this Pandemic Year.   Back in April, May, and even into June, I didn't think it was going to happen.

Okay, that's it.  There will be plenty of time to hash out the other not-so-positive aspects of the '20 squad, so we'll just leave it on a happy note.

And the sixteen team MLB Playoffs begin today.  In the great tradition of The Grandstander, let me predict that the Atlanta Braves will defeat the New York Yankees in the World Series this year.  A part of me, however, would perversely love to see the 29-31 Brewers take on the 29-31 Astros in the World Series, mainly because it will drive the Baseball Purists and Traditionalists positively batshit crazy!

Enjoy the post-season, and see you in Spring Training.

Oh, and one more image to give you some hope for the future....

 

Two at 3-0

It was a very successful football weekend in Pittsburgh as both the Steelers and the Pitt Panthers won and improved their records to 3-0 on the season, and both teams did it in similar fashion - with suffocating defenses.

Pitt defeated Louisville 23-20.  Louisville was in the game because of two big plays - a 70+ yard run for a TD and a pass where the receiver got behind what appeared to be broken down coverage in the secondary.  Other than that, the Cardinals were pretty much impotent against Pitt's defense, which appears to be as strong as we've seen in Oakland for quite sometime.   

The other big news of the day was that Pitt was wearing an "alternate uniform" on Saturday.  It was monochromatic steel grey uniform and helmet with the Panther Head logo.  The helmet was pretty cool, the rest of the uniform, not so much.  The uniform was designed to be a tribute to the region's "Steel Heritage."  If they want to do that next year, why not make the unis back and gold and call themselves the "Steelers"?

On Sunday, the Steelers trailed the Houston Texans 21-17 at halftime, and things looked dicey, especially on defense.  However, whatever Mike Tomlin and his coaches devised at halftime sure worked, because the Steelers defense took charge and positively smothered Deshaun Watson and the Texans offense.  I think that they managed all of two first downs in the second half, and the Steelers came away with a 28-21 win.

The "feel good" story of the day was the appearance of all three Watt Brothers, JJ, Derek, and TJ, in the game.

Derek got injured early and didn't play much, JJ was held to only four tackles, and TJ had his usual big day for the Steelers, including a monster sack of Watson late in the game that pretty much ended all hope for the Texans.

One of the cooler moment of the day was the pre-game coin toss, that featured the two brothers as Captains....

Up next, Pitt takes on North Carolina State on Saturday, and the Steelers face the Titans, also 3-0, in Nashville on Sunday.  Before that, though, is a dandy game on MNF tonight, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens.  These are the two best teams in the League (according to the Grandstander Power Rankings) and a possible preview of the AFC Championship Game.

Gale Sayers vs. The Steelers (and Fun Facts About the 1970 NFL Draft)

The Absent Friends post that I wrote on here two days ago in tribute to Gale Sayers prompted me to wonder how Sayers did in his career against the Pittsburgh Steelers.  As you know, the Internet allows us to research just about anything, so here it is for all you Steelers fans out there.

Turns out, Sayers' Bears played against the Steelers only twice, in 1967 and in 1969.

The 1967 game was alluded to in the previous post, but to restate:

The Steelers won that game, 41-13, and in it, Sayers was, astonishingly, held to two (2) rushing yards on only seven carries, and he did not catch a pass in that game, either.  He did, however, return two kicks for 147 yards, which included a 103 yard return for a touchdown.

In 1969, both Sayers and the Bears got their revenge.  Chicago routed the Steelers that day, 38-7.  Sayers had 28 rushing attempts for 112 yards and two touchdowns.  He also caught one pass for 25 yards and had one kick return for 9 yards.  He totaled 149 yards, the same number of yards he totaled in the 1967 game.   In his two game career against Pittsburgh, the Steelers held Sayers to 114 rushing yards on 35 attempts, an average of 3.26 yds/carry, well below his career average of 5.00 yds/carry.

That 1969 win against the Steelers was the only game that the Bears won that year, and allowed them to tie the Steelers for the worst record in the NFL that year, 1-13.  In an era before the NFL invented their elaborate system of tie-breakers, this meant that the Bears and Steelers would flip a coin to see who would get the overall Number One Draft Pick.  As Steelers fans know, Dan Rooney won the toss, the Steelers selected Terry Bradshaw with that pick, and the rest, as they say, is history.

And here are some Fun Facts you can learn when you go down the Internet Rabbit Hole....

What did the Bears do with the Number Two overall pick?  Well, they traded that  pick to Green Bay, and the Packers used it to select defensive lineman Mike McCoy of Notre Dame.  Chicago, in fact, didn't have selection until the third round that year.  

Only one other quarterback was selected in the first round, Purdue's Mike Phipps by the Browns.  Ten other quarterbacks were drafted that year, and the only one that stirred even the remotest interest in me was USC's Mike Holmgren.  He was taken by the Cardinals in the eighth round, the 201st player selected.  He would go on to a rather significant coaching career, taking both Seattle and Green Bay to Super Bowls, and winning one with the Packers.

With the fifth pick in the first round, the Bills selected USC linebacker Al Cowlings, he of OJ's White Bronco Fame.

A total of 442 players were drafted by NFL teams in that 1970 Draft, and only two of them, thus far, have made it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Bradshaw and another Steeler, defensive back Mel Blount, selected with the first pick of the third round, the fifty-third player taken in the draft.

To Absent Friends - Gale Sayers

 

Gale Sayers

1943 - 2020

University of Kansas and Chicago Bears all-time great and Pro Football Hall of Famer Gale Sayers died today at the age of 77.  It has been 49 years since Sayers played his last game, and, really, 51 years since he made any meaningful impact on the game.  Thus, most people know him more for his relationship with teammate Brian Piccolo that a was immortalized in the TV movie "Brian's Song."  

Severe knee injuries limited Sayers career to a mere seven seasons, 1965-71, and he only appeared in four games in those final two seasons, so Sayers' accomplishments were limited to an astonishing five year span.  By today's standards, Sayers stats seem rather modest when you look at them in a reference guide.  4,956 yards and 39 TDs rushing (5.0 yds/carry), 112 catches for 1,307 yards and 9 TDs, and 3,172 return yards  for 6 TDs.  In his rookie season, he even THREW a TD pass.  Still, only twice did he rush for over 1,000 yards in a season.  And he only played in 68 games.  Why is he in the Hall of Fame?

Well, he shares the NFL record for once scoring six touchdowns in a single game, but more to the point, if you ever saw him play, and I did (see next paragraph), you have no doubt as to his worthiness as a Hall of Famer.    Only an injury shorthened career kept Sayers from compiling numbers that would probably have surpassed Jim Brown, the all-time rushing leader at the time of his retirement.  The HOF voters recognized that and voted Sayers in in his first year of eligibility.

I have one very distinct personal memory of Gale Sayers.  It was September 17, 1967 (I looked it up.  Thank you, Internet and pro-football-reference.com).  The Steelers against the Bears, and I was sitting in the scoreboard end zone at Pitt Stadium.  I was there with my Dad, and I think that my brother Jim was there.  Don't think that brother Bill was, but I could be wrong.  From our seats, we were looking straight up what would have been to us the left hand sideline.  The Steelers took a 3-0 lead in the first quarter, and on the ensuing kickoff, Sayers took the ball three yards deep in the end zone, ran to his right and then began steaming down that sideline, his right, our left, and took it all the way for a touchdown.  It looked like he was running right at us.  I was sixteen years old at the time, what did I know, but I did know that I had just witnessed something GREAT.

As an aside, my only memory of that game was that kick return by Sayers, and all these years later, I had always assumed that the Steelers, a lousy team at the time, lost that game.  Not so.  In fact, the Steelers shut out the Bears over the last three quarters and won that game 41-13.  The Steelers didn't win much in those days, so why don't I remember what had to be a pretty significant win for them back then?  Well, the reason, I guess, is that everything else that day was eclipsed but that Gale Sayers kick return for a touchdown.

Here is some more minutia about that game.  Bill Nelson threw for 223, yards and two TDs for the Steelers that day.  Steelers scoring TDs that day were Willie Asbury (2), Mike Hilton, Charlie Bivins, and Dick Compton.  The Steelers would finish that season 4-9-1, the Bears 7-6-1.  (Better days and better players were ahead for the Steelers.)

Oh, and what else did Sayers do that day.  Astonishingly, the Steelers defense held him to a total of two (2!!) yards rushing on seven carries.

Below is a link to a 3:41 YouTube clip that might give some of you youngsters out there an idea of just how Great with a capital G Gale Sayers was.

https://youtu.be/mzo-enTMdzc

RIP Gale Sayers

Quick Hit Thoughts On A Great Sports Weekend

If you are a sports fan, you had to love the weekend just completed.  There was something for everyone.  

The Steelers 26-21 win over Denver yesterday is being categorized as an "ugly win" by most of the pundits in its aftermath.  Maybe so, and for sure it never should have been as close as it ended up being, but here is something that wasn't ugly - that 84 yard bomb from Ben to rookie Chase Claypool for a touchdown in the second quarter.  That was a jaw dropper.

And as they say in golf, "It's a scorecard, not a post card", and the Steelers are now 2-0.

On Friday night Pirates pitcher Mitch Keller no-hit the Cardinals for six innings and was then pulled after throwing 84 pitches.  He left with a 2-0 lead, which was expanded to 4-0 in the Pirates half of the sixth inning.  The Pirates bullpen then proceeded to give up five runs in the seventh with an assortment of walks, hit batsmen, and hits that plated five runs in what seemed to be the blink of an eye.  The Bucs ended up losing 5-4.

The predictable uproar of "they should have left him in to go for a no-hitter" arose almost immediately, but putting Keller on a strict pitch count and pulling him when he reached it was absolutely the right thing to do.  He remains the #1 pitching prospect that the Pirates have, despite some mixed results in his time with the Big Club.  He has also shown some "china doll" proclivities insofar as injuries are concerned.  Friday was only his second start since spending a few weeks on the injured list in this shortened season.  Maybe leaving Keller in would have yielded a no-hitter, or, at best, would have prevented another Pirates loss, which would mean finishing the season with 16 wins instead of only 15.  Big deal.  The Pirates need a healthy Keller for 2021 and beyond.  His six innings on Friday showed great promise for the future, and insofar as the Pirates are concerned, that is all that matters in 2020.

Speaking of the Pirates, a note in the paper this morning said that on his radio show yesterday, GMBC indicated that the complete lack of box office and in-stadium revenues in 2020 means that teams will have to readjust their way of thinking in terms of spending money in the pursuit free agents in the coming off season.  By "teams", of course, he meant "the Pirates", so really nothing will change much in the S.O.P. of our Pittsburgh Pirates as we head towards the 2021 season.

Golf's United States Open was head this weekend and was won by Bryson DeChambeau.  He shot six under par and was the only golfer to finish in red numbers for the tournament.  He deserved the win, no question about it, so congratulations to him.  He also comes across, and maybe I'm wrong about this, as a guy who feels that he is the smartest guy out there on the course with his extensive use of analytics in planning his on course strategy, and other golfers don't seem to like him.  He also takes FOREVER between shots, especially putts, by constantly consulting that little notebook he carries and pulls out of his back pocket on, it seems, every shot.  Maybe that does make him the smartest guy out there, and his way will be the norm for every golfer on tour within the next five years.  Then golf will become populated with a bunch of analytical mumbo-jumbo, just like Major League Baseball has.  Won't that be fun?

I made some comments on social media over the weekend about the USGA's tendency to trick up their US Open courses so as to provide a "true test of golf."  You saw the results: one guy finishes under par, and the best golfers in the world hack it out of the hay for four days and slog in at eight or nine or double digits over par.  I don't like it, but apparently a lot of people do.  If that's what the Blue Jacketed Stuffed Shirts from Far Hills, NJ want, so be it, but I'd hate to see that week after week on Tour.  

To those of you who beat the shit out of me on Facebook over the weekend for this opinion, no need to do it again.  I just managed to stop the bleeding.

With no NBA presence in Pittsburgh, I don't often write about it, but the Association is currently in the midst of its Conference Championships, and there have been some pretty good stories in this little bit of sports theater.  Foremost has been the Denver Nuggets twice coming back from 1-3 deficits against heavily favored teams to reach the Western Finals.  They currently trail the LeBron James/Anthony Davis Lakers two games to zero, but both games have been close, and would you be willing to count them out?  Not me.

In the East, the Miami Heat lead the Boston Celtics two games to one, and they are led by Jimmy Butler.  I have listened to Michael Wilbon sing the praises of Jimmy Butler seemingly forever to the point where I'm saying, "yeah, right", but in watching some of these games, I have to say that Wilbon is 100% correct.  Butler is and has been the driving force behind the Heat reaching this point, and he is the best player on the court when he is out there.  He is a really fun player to watch.

Finally, I stayed to the end of last night's Seattle - New England game, won by the Seahawks, 35-30.  I hope that you did too, because that was one terrific football game.  I won't recap it here, you can look it up, and then the picture I posted above will have some context for you.  I will leave you with just two conclusions:  (1) Russell Wilson is absolutely fantastic, and (2) don't count out the Patriots just because the Golden Boy is no longer at QB for them; they're still good.  Oh, and here's a third conclusion: (3) Julian Edelman is amazing; it wasn't just Tom Brady that made his so good. 

May the coming week in sports give us as much as this week just concluded has.

To Absent Friends - Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

1933 - 2020

Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States

1993 - 2020

"Fight for the things you care about, 

but do it in a away that 

will lead others to join you."

 

I will leave it to the legal scholars and historians, of which I am neither, to discuss Ruth Bader Ginsburg's place in history.  I do know enough to know, however, a Giant Among Us when I have seen one, and RBG was certainly that.  

RIP Justice Ginsburg.

Tom Seaver vs. Dock Ellis

Dock Ellis

Last week, you may recall, upon the death of Tom Seaver, I posted a summary of the times that Pirates ace pitcher Steve Blass matched up on the mound against Mets ace Seaver. 

 http://grandstander.blogspot.com/2020/09/tom-seaver-vs-steve-blass.html 

You will see that I was surprised that such a matchup took place only six times over the years, and that there was a stretch of two entire seasons where the two didn't face each other at all.  So that got me to wondering: perhaps Seaver matched up more frequently with the Pirates other  ace pitcher of that era, Dock Ellis.  So off I went to www.baseball-almanac.com, run by the esteemed Sean Holtz, and I got my answer:

8/10/70 @ Pgh; Ny 10 - Pgh 2	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Decision
Ellis	2	5	5	3	3	1	L
Seaver	9	6	2	2	3	3	W
4/16/71 @ NY; NY 1 - Pgh 0	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Decision
Ellis	7	6	1	1	1	6	L
Seaver	9	3	0	0	0	14	W
4/15/72 @ NY; NY 4 - Pgh 0	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Decision
Ellis	6	6	4	4	2	2	L
Seaver	6	5	0	0	0	6	W
7/28/72 @Pgh; P 3 - NY 1	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Decision
Ellis	9	7	1	1	1	7	W
Seaver	7	4	2	2	4	8	L
7/28/74 @ NY; Pgh 8 - NY 3	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Decision
Ellis	8.1	6	3	3	1	6	W
Seaver	4.1	12	8	7	1	6	L
8/3/75 @ NY; P 5 - NY 4	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Decision
Ellis	6.1	7	4	3	3	4	ND
Seaver	10	9	4	3	4	5	ND
9/1/75 @ NY; Ny 3 - Pgh 0	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K
Ellis	1	1	0	0	2	0	ND
Seaver	9	4	0	0	1	10	W

As it turns out, the two aces matched up against each other only six times as starters as well, and Ellis appeared in relief against Seaver once late in 1975, so that hardly counts.   And as it was with Blass, there was one entire season, 1973,  when the two did not face each other at all. 

Ellis did a little better against Seaver than teammate Blass did, posting a 2-3 record with two ND, and a 3.49 ERA.  In three of his starts, Pirates batters managed to get him 2, 0, and 0 runs in the way of support.  In those seven games, which includes the Ellis relief appearance, Seaver pitched four complete games and three shutouts.  His record was 4-2, 1 ND, and a 2.32 ERA.  He struck out 52 Pirates in 54.1 innings pitched.  If you take away the July 28, 1974 game, when Seaver gave up 7 earned runs in 4.1 IP, Seaver's ERA against Ellis and the Pirates was 1.26.

Not sure what this proves, other than that Tom Seaver was a great pitcher, even when facing against the opponents' best pitchers, but then, we already knew that.  

Anecdotally, as I was paging through Ellis-vs-Mets box scores, it seemed like Dock Ellis matched up against Jerry Koosman in EVERY Pirates-Mets series, but I didn't take notes, so that is a project for another day.  Ellis also pitched for a bunch of other teams over the years, including the Mets, but he never went up against Seaver in any of those other stops.

Oh, and I can't do a story about Dock Ellis without posting one of the more famous photos of him.