Old Movie Time - "Evil Under The Sun" (1982)

I have just spent a deolightful 1 hour and 57 minutes watching this 1982 movie version of Agatha Christie's whodunit of the same title.  It had everything you would want in an Agatha Christie story....a murder of someone in a confined setting....a limited number of suspects, each of whom had a motive to kill the victim and each of whom had an alibi.  Unfortunately, for the killer, Christie's most famous sleuth, Hercule Poirot also happened to be on the scene.

And as far as a movie goes, it had Peter Ustinov, once again playing Poirot brilliantly, a beautiful  setting, an exclusive resort hotel on an island in the Adriatic Sea, gorgeous costumes, music by Cole Porter, and an all-star cast including James Mason, Roddy McDowell, Sylvia Miles, Jane Birkin, and best of all...Maggie Smith and Diana Rigg.

The movie is worth seeing just to watch Smith and Rigg chew up the scenery as two old stage rivals. Rigg's character made it big time, and Smith's is now forced to running the hotel on the island.  Their meeting once again on the island gives them both some wonderfully bitchy dialog such as this between Smith as Daphne and Rigg as Arlena:

Daphne:  Arlena and I were in the chorus of a show together, not that I could ever compete. Even in those days, she could always throw her legs up in the air higher than any of us... and wider. 

and this:

Arlena : Oh, dear! I'm the last to arrive. 

Daphne: Have a sausage. You must be starving having to wait all that time in your room.

As you can see, Maggie Smith was great at delivering bitchy wisecracks long before "Downton Abbey."

There is also a great scene where Rigg hogs the attention of guests by singing Porter's "You're the Top" while Smith tries to horn in on her.  

Speaking of dialog, the screenplay for this one was written by Anthony Shaffer, who also wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock's "Frenzy", which I wrote about in this space a few days ago.  A look at his credits in IMDB includes other goodies like "Sleuth", "Death On The Nile", and "Murder on the Orient Express."  Quite a resume.

"Evil Under the Sun" will go on nobody's list of all-time great movies, but it was beautiful to look at, fun to watch, and very entertaining.  What more would you want in a movie?

Some photos of Miss Smith and Miss Rigg from the movie....

See what I mean about the costumes?

Grandstander Power Rankings - Week 16

 

Here you go.  The highly anticipated GPR for NFL Week 16:

1. Chiefs
2. Packers
3. Bills
4. Ravens

Knocking on the door... Browns, Bucs, Colts, Dolphins, Saints, Steelers.

Yes, at this very moment, the Ravens are on the outside of the NFL playoffs, but since they have returned to full strength, they are looking as good as any team, and they need help from other teams to even make the playoffs...After a week out in the cold, the Steelers are one again knocking on the door on the basis of the performance of their defense and Ben Roethlisberger in that second half comeback against another very good team, the Colts....Speaking of the Colts, I notice that the change in cities has not changed Phillip Rivers too much: he still leads the league in whining and yapping at the officials....How about the Cleve Brownies losing to the Jets?  I know, they had no WR's due to COVID, but still, the Jets?....And how about the 0-13 Jets winning two in a row, and assuring themselves of NOT having the overall #1 draft pick, presumably, Trevor Lawrence....Do you think the NFL is happy that Lawrence, perhaps the brightest star to come put of an NFL draft class in years, will now be sentenced to an NFL backwater like Jacksonville?  He could have been the second coming of Joe Namath playing in the Big Apple, okay, in New Jersey, but now, Jacksonville. I wonder how Lawrence feels about the whole thing.

Throughout the season, the GPR has been presented as a Top Four, as in If The NFL Did It By Committee Like College Football Does, and I've presented anywhere from four to six teams, alphabetically, each week as knocking on the door to have a top ten of sorts.  Next week, the GPR will be presented as a straight 1 through 14, a ranking of all of the NFL Playoff teams.  I can't wait to see which team emerges from the NFC East to take slot #14.

The Absent Friends of 2020

  

When I began The Grandstander way back in 2010, I had no way of knowing that obituaries, or tributes to Absent Friends, would become such a central part of it, but so it has come to pass.  It is no secret that 2020 has been a pretty rotten year on so many levels, and the deaths of so many notable people only adds to it.

On a personal level, death claimed several people close to me this past year.  Most notably, Billy Dinnin, my nephew, was called home to Heaven, a cancer victim at the way too young age of 54.  He was the first of that generation in my family, my parents' grandchildren, to die, and it was a very difficult thing to experience.  If there is any solace to be taken in such events, it happened at the gathering after his funeral in June, when many of the family gathered together to say good-bye and share in lots of great stories and memories from the past years.  As I said at the time, Billy did us all one last favor by bringing so many of us together that day.

Death also claimed two friends of mine from my working days at Highmark, Les Leonetti and Michael Tarabay.  Again, it is always sad when friends leave us, but the memories of good days and experiences are always there to sustain us.

Now, as to the Absent Friends that were noted in The Grandstander this year.  I always choose to honor people who were significant in their fields, who were important figures culturally, or whose life stories just plain interested me.  There were fifty of them this year, an extraordinarily large number.  There were honest-to-God American heroes such as John Lewis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as well as sports Hall of Famers, giants of the stage and screen and television, and people who may have no profile at all outside of the confines of the Pittsburgh area.  You can read what I wrote of them by typing their names into the search box of this blog.

For one last time, a tribute to the Absent Friends of 2020:

David Stern

Don Larsen

Sam Wyche

George Perles

Buck Henry

Hal Smith

Kobe Bryant

Bob Shane

Kirk Douglas

Roger Kahn

Orson Bean

Robert Conrad

Dan Radekovich

Woody Widenhofer

Al Kaline

Tom Dempsey

Honor Blackman

Mort Drucker

Don Shula

Little Richard

Jerry Stiller

Fred Willard

Phyllis George

Ken Osmond

Herb Stempel

Johnny Majors

Jean Kennedy Smith

Vera Lynn

Carl Reiner

Nick Cordero

John Lewis

Olivia de Havilland

Chadwick Boseman

John Thompson

Tom Seaver

Diana Rigg

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Gale Sayers

Bob Gibson

Eddie Van Halen

Whitey Ford

Joe Morgan

Herb Adderly

Sean Connery

Alex Trebek

Eleanor Schano

Tom Heinsohn

Paul Hornung

Rafer Johnson

Richie Allen

In all, since I began formally writing of them in 2011, there have been 374  Absent Friends recognized by The Grandstander.

"Soul"

 

We watched the new Disney-Pixar movie "Soul" last night.  As always, you are amazed at the technical wizardry that is the Pixar animation process.  It seems to get better with each movie that they release, and there were times when watching this one that I actually forgot that this was a cartoon (except when that cat talked; then you knew these weren't actual humans up there on screen).

Joe, voiced by Jamie Foxx, is a middle school music teacher who longs to be a jazz musician playing real gigs in real clubs with other like musicians. Just when he gets his chance, he steps into an open manhole cover and dies.  Or does he?  Through strange only-in-movies circumstances, Joe does not go to the After Life, but ends up in the Before Life where unformed souls reside before being sent to earth to inhabit human forms.

Again, it's easy to follow as you watch, but too complicated to explain here.  Joe, along with "Number 22" (Tina Fey), gets sent back to earth, and there they learn all about life, dreams, and what is really important.

Like most Pixar movies, there is cute and funny stuff for the kids to laugh about, and other stuff that will go over the heads of the kiddies, but can hit home for adults.  A couple of great lines:

22 to Joe: Don't worry, they're fine. You can't crush a soul here. That's what life on Earth is for.

Moonwind: You know, lost souls are not that different from those in the zone. The zone is enjoyable, but when that joy becomes an obsession, one becomes disconnected from life.

Joe: Life is full of possibilities. You just need to know where to look. Don't miss out on the joys of life.

You get the idea.

I liked the movie, and right now, I rate it at Two and One-Half Stars.  However, I would like to see it again, because I think that further viewings will cause this one to jump at least another half a star, to maybe even a full one.  

I recommend it.

"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"

The story told in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", the movie based upon the August Wilson's 1982 play, takes place in one day in a Chicago recording studio in 1927.  The famous Ma Rainey (Viola Davis), legendary "Mother of the Blues" has come to town to record some records accompanied by her quartet of musicians, Levee (Chadwick Boseman), Toledo, Cutler, and Slow Drag.  Only horn player Levee would like to write his own songs and arrangements, and play the music his way, "like the people in the big cities" want to hear, only Ma, a diva unlike any other, is having none of it.  

Like all great plays - and director George Wolfe films this very tightly, you can tell that this was a play - lots of exposition takes place from different characters, particularly Levee, as we learn the backstories of the characters.  Like all great dramas, this story makes you think and at times makes you uncomfortable.  I'll not say more other than tell you that the final seen is ironic and tragic at the same time.

It's a great story, but you really want to see this movie for the performances of Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman.  

Both are sure to receive Oscar nominations for their performances.  The performance of Boseman is particularly wrenching when you realize what he was dealing with and nearing the end of a years long battle with cancer.  That he could give such a performance is remarkable and a great testimony to a career and a life that ended way, way too soon.

The Grandstander gives this one Three and One-Half Stars, and will leave you with a scene from the movie...

https://youtu.be/SwkStUxtGkI

College Football and Its Coaches

So if you asked me back in July, "Who do you think is going to be in the College Football Playoff following the 2020 season?"  I wouldn't have had to do a whole lot of thinking (nor would anyone else) before answering...Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio State.  I also would have said, cynically, if there is any way for the Committee, at the subtle urgings of ESPN, to get Notre Dame in because of the millions upon millions of eyeballs that they would bring to the party, i.e., TV sets,  then, I'll say, sure, go for the Irish.

And so it came to pass:

Are they the four best teams in the country? Probably.  Is it good for the overall state of College Football that it is so easy to predict the participants in this little scrum year after year?  That is another question, and after listening to a couple pf podcasts today and hearing some expert observers of the sport, the answer is, probably, yes.  This is the seventh year of this CFP format.  Alabama and Clemson have been in the Playoffs six times each, and this will be the fourth trip for Ohio State.  Sixteen of twenty-eight slots have been occupied by only three schools.  If you're a fan of those three schools, great, and as viewer, the quality of the games that those schools will give you is undeniably great, but what about the other one hundred and whatever number schools play D-I football, not to mention all of those schools in conferences outside of the Power Five?

This will become a problem if, and only if, the TV ratings take a dive over the years if the country as a whole tires of seeing Alabama play Clemson every year.  We shall see if that starts to happen.   I will also spare going into all of the arguments that have been stated ad nauseam over the last forty-eight hours over undefeated teams like Cincinnati and Coastal Carolina not even getting a sniff at a playoff berth.  That particular problem can be avoided by going to an eight team format, but there are arguments to be made against that, too.   Like I said, eventually, Television will decide what will happen down the road.

Now the subject of College Football Coaches.  In this aberrant year of 2020 (and I don't have to spell out the reasons for that, do I?), has any group as a whole demonstrated such a complete lack of awareness in regard to the issues that have faced the country and the sports landscapes, the COVID pandemic and social justice issues just to name two, than have college football coaches?  As conferences and individual schools weighed whether or not to even play football this year, people like Dabo Swinney and Mike Gundy made dumbass statements all summer long showing their lack of self-awareness on these matters.  And in these last few weeks, add remarks by Jumbo Fisher, Dan Mullen, and Swinney (again!).  

The guy who might take the cake for brass, though, was Brian Kelly of Notre Dame.  Days before his conference championship game was to be played, Kelly made his statement about maybe bypassing the playoff entirely if the parents of the players weren't allowed to attend.  First of all, no school is going to bypass the financial windfall that going to the CFP would give them.  Who is he trying to kid here?  Was he speaking for ND prexy Fr. John Jenkins when he made this grandiose statement of university policy?  Arrogance personified.  Then again, the CFP bowed to his wishes and moved the playoff game out of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and into JerryWorld in Dallas, so who really is running the show at these schools?  I also understand that the game will still be called the "Rose Bowl", because, well, why in hell not?

And how can I write a college football post without commenting on Dabo Swinney, the personification of pius, pontificating, arrogant and clueless college football coaches.  Oh, he can coach, no question about that, but he's still a horse's ass on many fronts, including his sideline behavior.  I've written enough about that in the past so I won't go into it again, but I will mention what he tolerates in the behavior of his staff, particularly defensive coordinator Brent Venables.  The TV cameras love to focus on Venables on the sidelines because of his completely out-of-control actions during the course of a game. He might even be a bigger horse's ass than his boss, Swinney.  Just imagine if you went into a bank to apply for a home mortgage, or an insurance agency to purchase life insurance, and encountered employees in those establishments who comported themselves like these guys do.  You'd run for the exits as fast as you could to get way from idiots like that.

Which leads me to another observation.  Who among this fraternity of coaches DOESN'T act like that?  Who seems to remain calm on the sidelines throughout the games?  Who doesn't go off on the media and rant incoherently?  Who doesn't make stupid statements in public all the time?  Who doesn't rip his players a new one on the sidelines in full view of packed stadiums and TV cameras?  The answer to those questions:

Yep, it's Nick Saban, arguably the best coach of all of them.  Now I am sure that examples can be found and cited of Saban doing exactly those things over the years that I just said he doesn't do, but, by and large, he is not like any of these other dopes that I have already mentioned in this post.

As for the upcoming games themselves, more on them as we approach January 1, but at this point I can't see anything other Alabama meeting Clemson for the fourth time in the Final Game (and fifth time overall) in the seven year history of the CFP.  Such a match-up will certainly make for the best game, even if we've seen it many times before.

The Week 14 GPR and Other Steelers and NFL Thoughts

I wanted to be a bit more expansive in my thoughts this week, so the GPR gets a full blown Grandstander post today.  Here you go....

1. Chiefs
2. Packers
3. Bills
4. Titans

Knocking on the door.....Browns, Bucs, Colts, Dolphins, Rams, Ravens, Saints, Steelers, Washington.

Okay.  Some may be asking: "11-2 Steelers and Saints out of the top four?" "6-8 Washington knocking on the door?"  "Buffalo at #3?"

All I can tell you is that I am basing my selections based on how teams are playing NOW, and not necessarily how they performed in September and October.

STEELERS - From 11-0 to 11-2 shouldn't be that precipitous a drop, but if you see how the Steelers have played in the last four weeks, you get it.  The dropped passes, the complete lack of a running game, and Ben's seeming inability to throw a ball beyond twenty yards are all alarming to the denizens of Steelers Nation.  Then there are the injuries.  Against the Bills on Sunday, four of their top five linebackers (Bush, Dupree, Williams, and Spillane) were unavailable due to injury or illness.  As Chris Collinsworth said on the telecast, good teams can survive injuries, but it's hard to survive multiple injuries at the same position.  They play the Bengals on Sunday, which should be an antidote for what's been ailing them, but games against the Colts and Browns after that are no sure things.  On to Cincinnati!

BILLS - I watched Josh Allen and the Bills earlier in the season and was not that impressed.  I was very impressed with them after the beating they put on the Steelers on Sunday night.  They are a "for real" good team, and I think that Josh Allen is on the way, he's not there yet, to becoming a Top Ten QB in the NFL.  Also, the way they took the air out of the football in the fourth quarter by running the ball and eating up the clock made the Steelers inability to run all the more apparent.

WFT - Yes, I do believe that the Washington Football Team has become a fairly good team in the recent weeks.  That defense is really good.  Now, they have problems in that Alex Smith will not be available at QB this coming week, and that the Giants, a team also improving but who trails the FT by a game, owns the tie-breaker over them.

AFC NORTH - Well, how about that 47-42 Ravens win over the Browns last night?  Three lead changes in the last two minutes.  That was a fun game.  As much as it would have killed me, had the Browns won that one, they would have been in the Top Four this week, so the Ravens did both the Steelers and me a big favor last night.  That win also signified that the Ravens ain't dead yet, but it also showed  that the Browns are for real (ugh!).  It also showed that both teams have some trouble defensively.  I think that the Ravens are on the outside of the Playoff picture as of now, but they have a schedule where they should be favored in each game.  It also appears that the final game of the season between the Steelers and Browns will be of enormous import in the hot AFC North kitchen.

NFC - Who advances in the NFC?  The Packers seem to be a sure thing for the Conference title game, but against whom?   The Saints seemed like the choice as of two weeks ago, but how do you explain that loss to the Eagles?  The Seahawks seemed a sure bet back in October, but they've shown weaknesses on defense.  As of right now, the Rams seem to be behind Green Bay for that title game, but they have shown tendencies to throw up a clinker on Sunday afternoons.

AFC - The Chiefs seem destined to play in the title game once again.  There are a lot of good teams in the AFC, moreso than in the NFC.  Anyone of the other six AFC teams that will make the playoffs would be capable of making it to the title game.

EARLY FINAL FOUR PREDICTIONS - Packers vs Rams and Chiefs vs Steelers.  And yes, my selection of the Steelers is made on purely sentimental and selfish rooting interests.  However, if it won't be the Steelers....How about the Buff Bills?  These predictions are, at this point, in the "watch, but don't bet" category.  No coin of the realm is being placed on them.

 

The Books of 2020

Earlier in the week  I finished reading a mystery/thriller "The Forgers" by Brandon Morrow.  It was neither mysterious nor thrilling, but it was the 52nd book that I had read in 2020, so I figure that now that I know that I will average at least one book a week this year, it's time to recap and make some recommendations.  The fact that "The Forgers" was a dud underscores the fact that many of the books that I read, particularly fiction, fall into the category of "mental junk food", and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing, I mean what's wrong with some mindless entertainment, it does mean that many of the books I read drop from my memory shortly after I read the last page.  Still, there were enough books that have stayed with me that I can draw up a pretty good list for the past year.  There are twelve books here, and I would recommend any one of them to you for your reading enlightenment and pleasure.  This is not a TOP TWELVE list, so I will present them to you alphabetically by author.

NON-FICTION

ALL THIS MARVELOUS POTENTIAL - Matthew Algeo

The story of a tour that Senator Robert Kennedy made to coal producing counties of Eastern Kentucky.  Ostensibly, the trip was to examine the issue of poverty in America, but it would also serve as an exploration of Kennedy's plan to run for President later that year.  The author retraces that tour, interviews some of the people who witnessed it and were a part of it, and looks to see what, if anything, has changed since 1968.  Fifty-two years after his death, I learned from this book that I can still be inspired by Bobby Kennedy.

THE WAX PACK - Brad Balukjian

The author opens up a 28 year old pack of baseball cards, and then sets out to meet the players whose cards were int he pack.   The author's own self-absorption brings this very good premise down a peg or two, but if you followed baseball in the 1980's, you will enjoy it when he does stick with the players, and not his own issues.

I HEARD YOU PAINT HOUSES - Charles Brandt

Also titled "The Irishman", it is the story of mobster/teamster Frank Sheerin, the man who killed Jimmy Hoffa (or so he says) and upon whom the movie "The Irishman" was based.  If you like reading Mob stories, this is as good as any.

THE DEVIL'S MERCEDES - Robert Klara

Whatever became of the specially built Mercedes limousines that were built for the highest echelon Nazi officers, including Adolf Hitler himself?  This terrifically researched history of two such cars tells a really fascinating story.

THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE - Erik Larson

The history of the first twelve months of the Prime Ministership of Winston Churchill from May 1940 - May 1941.  Europe was falling to the Nazis, and Great Britain was being bombed by the Luftwaffe on a nightly basis.  Great Britain and it's people, and, by  extension, the world survived through the extraordinary leadership of one man, Winston Churchill.  In a year when "leadership" was in short supply in America, this book was an inspirational look at what true leadership really means.  If you forced me to choose, I would tell you that this was the best book that I read in 2020.

A GOOD AMERICAN FAMILY - David Maraniss

A tale of how McCarthyism infected America in the 1950's, and of how the "naming of names" affected ordinary Americans, good American families, including the author's, who was a pre-teen boy at the time.  Sadly, parallels to McCarthyism continue to hold sway in America today.  It may not be called "McCarthyism" in 2020, but it's still out there and being perpetuated by, well, I won't name names here, but I'm pretty sure you know of whom I speak.

FICTION 

DO NO HARM - Max Allen Collins

The latest installment in Collins "Nate Heller" series of private  eye novels. This time, Heller gets involved in the murder of Marilyn Sheppard, whose husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard was convicted of the crime.  Among the real life people that Heller encounters, in addition to Sheppard, various Cleveland cops, prosecutors, and newspaper people, is celebrity attorney F. Lee Bailey.

SQUEEZE ME - Carl Hiaasen

Yet another kooky crime novel involving the weird, strange, yet oddly endearing criminal classes of Florida.  This one takes place in the swanky confines of West Palm Beach, and that city's two most famous residents, the President and First Lady, are featured characters in the story.  They are never mentioned by name, only by their Secret Service code names, Mastadon and Mockingbird, and it is a devastating and hysterical satirical swipe at Number Forty-five.  Thirty, forty, and fifty years from now when heavyweight historical tomes are still being churned out about the Trump Presidency, "Squeeze Me" will still probably be among the best works to describe the lunacy that this era has entailed.  Obviously, if you wear a MAGA hat, this book won't be for you.

THE ROYAL GOVERNESS - Wendy Holden

A lengthy, probably a little too lengthy, novelized account of Marion Crawford, a Scottish school teacher who from 1932 to 1947 served as the governess to the Royal Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.  Yes, it's a soap opera of a book and overwrought at times, but what the hell, it was fun to read.

MASKED PREY - John Sandford

The newest Lucas Davenport thriller.  Lucas takes a turn in the end of this one that sort of disappointed me, but Sanford still turns out a good yarn about characters that readers have come to know and care about.  

SAINT X - Alexis Schaitkin

The attractive college age daughter of a wealthy American family disappears on the last day of the family vacation in the fictional Caribbean island of St. X.  A few days later, her dead body is discovered.  Two young natives are arrested, but soon released for lack of evidence, and no-one is ever brought to justice for the crime.  Fifteen years later, the victim's younger sister, now in her twenties and living in New York City, encounters one of those young men, who is now driving a cab in New York.  A terrific story about the far reaching consequences an act of violence can have on so many people, including those who may only have been peripherally involved.

THE MARTIN BECK MYSTERIES - Maj Sjowell and Per Wahloo

From 1965 to 1975, the husband and wife author team of Sjowell and Wahloo wrote a series of ten police procedural novels set in Sweden and featuring homicide detective Martin Beck and a regular cast of characters. The authors used American Ed McBain's "87th Precinct" series as their inspiration, and that is a good thing.  I have read the first six of these novels in order, so a goal for early 2021 is to read the last four of them as well.  If you can see your way through some of the tongue twisting Swedish names for persons, places, and things, you will  become quickly immersed in the stores that are being told.

Again, if you forced me to pick the best of the novels that I read, I would go with "Squeeze Me" and St. X."

So there you are.  One dozen books for your reading pleasure (seventeen of you consider that there are six in the Martin Beck series).  If you want to know more about them, you can type the titles in the search box to see what I had to say about them at the time that I fIrst read them.

Sports Illustrated in 2020

At some point during the last decade or so, the idea of a weekly printed news magazine went the way of the horse and buggy.  Newsweek stopped their print edition.  I think, but I'm not absolutely sure, that Time still publishes a weekly magazine, but with the Internet and 24 hour news and sports cable outlets, what is the need for them?  Such was also the case for the venerable Sports Illustrated.

A few years ago, it went from a weekly to a bi-weekly publication.  It was also shed by Time-Life and is now owned and published by something called Maven Media Brands, and it has now become a monthly publication. It is no longer the place where you go to read about what happened in the World Series or Super Bowl.  So, what is it?

I long ago quit subscribing to SI, but I  recently succumbed to one of those one-year-for-twenty-bucks subscription offers to find out, and I have been pleasantly surprised.

The magazine still has it's Scorecard, Faces In the Crowd, and Point After features, but more importantly, they still maintain a stable of very good writers - Michael Bamberger, Steve Rushin, Pat Forde to name a few - and the magazine consists mainly of the kind of feature stories that used to appear as the final long form story in each weekly issue.  You know, the stories that made subscribing to Sports Illustrated worth the money.

In the current issue alone, dated "Fall 2020" and pictured above, I read no less than five such terrific articles.  One about the chain gangs that work in NFL stadiums, a story about the demise of sports bars due to the COVID pandemic, a story about athletes visits to the Trump White House over the last four years, an excerpt from Jim Gray's new book, and a story about racial unrest at the University of Missouri.  In the previous issue, there were two great stories: one about high level tournament Scrabble (who knew?) and an interesting profile of golfer Bryson DeChambeau.  So in just two issues, I've gotten more than my money's worth.

One note of caution.  There is very little advertising in the magazine, so I wonder if the new SI is a sustainable business model.  The do still plan to have their special soft core porn issue, aka, the Swimsuit Issue, which will probably be chock full of ads, so who knows?  And maybe the digital Sports Illustrated website, which does give you up to the minute sports news,  generates enough income to carry the ink-on-paper magazine.   

Like I said, who knows?

To Absent Friends - Richie Allen

Richie Allen

1942 - 2020

One of the great baseball players of the 1960's and 1970's, and certainly one of the greatest to ever come from western Pennsylvania, Richie Allen from Wampum, PA (Beaver County), died today at the age of 78.

One of the yardsticks that I use in judging how great a player is is "Who would I least want to see coming up to bat against the Pirates in a close game in the ninth inning?"  By that measure, Richie, or Dick, as he preferred to be called, ranks high on any Great-Players-of-the-Era lists.  Over a fifteen year career, mainly with the Phillies and White Sox, Allen hit .292, hit 351 home runs and drove in 1,119 runs and had a career OPS of .912.  He was the American League MVP in 1972.  Pro-rated per 162 games, Allen hit 33 HR with 104 RBI.  He had an OPS over 1.000 in three different seasons, and five other seasons over .900.  Would you be interested in that to anchor your line-up?

Allen was also controversial.  He was branded a "militant" and a "trouble maker."  And who can forget his famous opinion of artificial turf?  "If a horse can't eat it" said avid racetrack aficionado Allen "then I don't want to play on it."  He was an iconoclast to be sure, as exemplified by the Sports Illustrated cover:

He had his enemies and his defenders.  At two different SABR meetings in Pittsburgh over the years, I heard both sides.  Chuck Tanner, who managed him in Chicago, defended him to the highest, and said he was one of the best players, on and off the field, that he ever managed, a great guy.  On the other hand, Nellie Briles, who played with him on the Cardinals, said he was one of the worst teammates that he ever had, and almost shuddered when he even mentioned his name.

Regardless of the truth, which no doubt lies somewhere in the middle here, Allen was one of the true stars of the times in which he played.

RIP Dick Allen.

Allen at Three Rivers Stadium with 

another well known star of the era.

Book Review - "The Wax Pack" by Brad Balukjian

The premise of this book is an intriguing one: Get yourself an unopened package of thirty year old baseball cards, then follow up on all of the players whose cards are inside the pack and see how life has treated them since they retired from the game.

That is exactly what thirty-four year old man-child college professor/baseball geek/self-absorbed Rob Balukjian did.  Like I said, the premise is intriguing, but as you can tell from the description in the prior sentence, I wasn't so crazy about the author who told the story.   In 2014, Balukjian went to eBay to purchase some Topps "wax packs" from 1986, the year he first began buying baseball cards.  In one pf those pristine packs, he found fourteen players - thirteen of whom were still alive - that ranged from journeymen (Randy Ready, Jaime Cocanower) to All-Stars (Garry Templeton, Dwight Gooden) to a Hall of Famer (Carlton Fisk). It also included the author's boyhood hero, Phillies pitcher Don Carmen, and for my own enjoyment, former Pirate Richie Hebner.  Over seven weeks in the summer of 2015, Balukjian visited, or attempted to visit, all of them.

What did he find?  Well, some were jerks (Vince Coleman) most of the former players were more than happy to meet with him and give him their time.   Dwight Gooden never showed up as agreed, and Fisk couldn't be bothered, so put him in the semi-jerk category.  Many told stories of multiple marriages that failed due to the baseball lifestyle, but just as many told of being happily married for decades.  Several of them made note of telling the author of how they had quit drinking after they retired.  It seemed, to me at least, that a disproportionate share of them had "father issues."  Rick Sutcliffe, who comes across as a genuinely good guy, had a father who was a race car driver who left his family when Rick was a small boy. Today, Sutcliffe admits that he doesn't even know if his father is dead or alive, and he has worked hard and has become a good father because, as he put it "I know what a piece of shit is. I know what not to be."  Fisk gave all praise to his mother, not his father.  When Fisk's high school basketball team lost the New Hampshire state championship game by two points, all Fisk's father said to him was "You missed four free throws."  This after Fisk had scored 40 points and had 36 rebounds.

Perhaps my favorite chapter was the one on Hebner.  Balukjian says that when he visited each of his Wax Packers and showed them his cards, "no one elicited a stronger reaction than Richie Hebner.....and that reaction was always overwhelmingly positive."  Now as a Pirates fan who liked Richie Hebner, that was really good to hear.  In the summer of 2015, Hebner was working as the hitting coach for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons, a Blue Jays farm club.  This meant that Hebner, who joined the Pirates in 1968, was then working in his sixth decade of professional baseball.  That astounded me.  Hebner, 68 years old in that summer of 2015, had become the embodiment of a Baseball Lifer.  In the epilog of the book, written in 2019, Balukjian does a where-are-they-now bit with his wax packers, and tells us that Hebner retired for good after the 2016 season.  I was hoping that he somehow made it to a seventh decade in 2020.  He no longer digs graves in the off season, but he still works part time in Norwood, MA at a friend's funeral home, driving the hearse.

I mentioned that I wasn't crazy about the author.  A large part of this book seems to be an exercise in self-therapy as he attempts to exorcise his own personal demons - OCD issues, a bad break up years earlier with a woman he loved (and with whom he meets on this trip after not speaking with her in ten years), how own father issues.  In the first chapter of the book, he writes about getting drunk in a bar one night early in his journey, forgetting where his hotel was, and pulling over and falling asleep in a field by the side of the road.  Really?  And this guy is a college teacher?

And maybe this is just me, but one thing really irritated me.  Early in his chapter on Vince Coleman, he referenced that the speedy base stealer Coleman's nickname was "Vincent Van Go."  He then spent the entire rest of the chapter, and also in the epilog, referring to him as nothing but "Van Go."  THAT WASN'T ACTUALLY HIS NAME, BRAD!!!  And while I'm nit-picking here, Balukjian spent way too much time telling us how much coffee he drinks and how much he dislikes San Diego.

All in all, and interesting book with a great premise.  If you followed baseball in the 1980's, it makes for good reading.  I just wish that someone else had written it.

Two and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

To Absent Friends - Rafer Johnson; Plus Decathlon Thoughts

Rafer Johnson

1934 - 2020

My first recollection of watching the Olympic Games is of the Rome Olympics of 1960.  Lots of great names from those games including sprinter Wilma Rudolph and a young boxer named Cassius Clay, but probably the most celebrated of all was the American gold medalist in the decathlon, Rafer Johnson, who died this past week at the age of 86.  

There was a time, not so much any more (and more on that later), that the winner of the Olympic Decathlon was recognized as "The Greatest Athlete in the World', and he more than lived up to that billing.  A few things that I didn't know until I read his obituary this week.  One, he played basketball at UCLA under Coach John Wooden.  Two, he was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams, even though he didn't play football in college.  Three, choosing to concentrate on track and field and the decathlon, he won a silver medal in the event in the 1956 Games in Melbourne.  Johnson went on to win the gold in Rome in particularly dramatic fashion edging out his UCLA teammate C.K Yang of Taiwan, who won silver.  I am not going to go into detail here, but I would highly recommend a book called "Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World" by David Maraniss (2008).  It tells the story of Johnson and many others from those entire Games.  It is a terrific book.

Anyway, Johnson went on to great fame after those Olympics.  He appeared in movies, got involved in politics as a supporter of Robert Kennedy, was involved in establishing the Special Olympics, and lit the Olympic Flame to begin the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.  He is famous for being present in the Ambassador Hotel in LA the night Robert Kennedy was shot and killed in 1968, and he was one of the people who wrestled the killer, Sirhan Sirhan to the ground and took  the gun from his hand.

RIP Rafer Johnson, truly one of the greatest Olympians ever.

Lighting the Olympic  Flame in 1984

With Kennedy in 1968

Now, some additional thoughts on the Decathlon.  On the tribute that Tony Kornheiser gave to Johnson on yesterday's PTI, he mentioned the Olympic Decathlon champion being recognized as the World's Greatest Athlete, and he mentioned the names off Americans most closely associated with that title....Johnson, Bob Mathias, Bill Toomey, and Bruce Jenner...but who but the most dedicated track and field follower even know who holds that title anymore?

Well, I thougt, I don't know who the gold medalist in this event was in 2016, and without going to the Google Machine, can you name who that is?  Well, I'll save you the trouble.

The Greatest Athlete in the World to emerge from Rio de Janeiro was an American, Ashton Eaton.  Not only that, but Eaton also won the Gold Medal for the event in London in 2012.   To me, that is a Very Big Deal for Americans in such an important event, and while I could be wrong about this, I don't even recall much of the Decathlon being televised in those two Games.  

In 2008, American Brian Clay won gold, ending a two Olympic Games streak of an American not winning.  In fact, in 23 Olympic Games, an athlete from the USA has brought home the Gold Medal fourteen times, and to honor those "Greatest Athletes in the World", here they are:

1912 - Jim Thorpe

1924 - Harold Olsen

1932 - Jim Bausch

1936 - Glenn Morris

1948 - Bob Mathias

1952 - Bob Mathias

1956 - Milt Campbell

1960 - Rafer Johnson

1968 - Bill Toomey

1976 - Bruce Jenner

1996 - Dan O'Brien

2008 - Brian Clay

2012 - Ashton Eaton

2016 - Ashton Eaton

Two time Gold Medalist Ashton Eaton

As you know, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics have been postponed until 2021 due to the corona virus. We shall see if an American can take a fifteenth Gold in this event when, and if, those Games are played next year.

 

"The Queen's Gambit" and "The (Queen's) Crown"

After making good use of our Netflix subscription in recent weeks, allow me to offer some critical commentary.

"The Queen's Gambit" is a limited series, seven episodes, that tells the story of Beth Harmon.  When her mother is killed in an auto accident (?), eight year old Beth is consigned to a hell-hole of a girls' orphanage in Kentucky in the late 1950's.  While there, she learns to play chess after being taught the game by the custodian of the orphanage, who is about the only staff member there that shows Beth any trace of kindness.  It soon becomes apparent that Beth is a prodigy at chess, even if she is somewhat of a social misfit after she gets adopted by a couple that consists of a cold fish adulterous father and a mother who drinks too much.

Beth is able to enter some local chess tournaments where she quickly becomes a name among the chess people.  The story goes on from there, as Beth advances to regional, national, and eventually, international tournaments in the chess world.  Along the way she falls prey to booze and drugs.  We get to meet characters who populate the world of chess at its highest levels, some of whom want to help Beth out, but will she listen to them? Will this end up being a story of a wasted life or a story of redemption?

To be honest, through the first three episodes of the series, I found it to be interesting, but I was also wondering what all the fuss was about from my friends who had already seen the show.  It picked up in the fourth episode, and the final three episodes were fantastic.  It might help you enjoy the show even more if you knew the intricacies of the game of chess, but it sure isn't necessary, and the way some of Beth's key matches are filmed and told in the story make the game - and, hence, the show itself - tremendously exciting.

Beth is played by 24 year old actress Anya Taylor-Joy.  I am not familiar with her previous work, but she was excellent in this.  She transforms herself from an awkward adolescent in the orphanage to a nerdy teenager in high school to a self-confidant young adult (when not drinking to excess) to a stunningly beautiful young woman who sweeps to international renown, at least in the chess world.

"The Queen's Gambit" gets Three Stars from The Grandstander.

Corrin, Coleman, and Anderson

Season Four of "The Crown" dropped last week, and, of course, we gobbled up all ten episodes in a matter of three days.  Yeah, it's a soap opera, but a well made one and great fun to watch and wonder...."Did shit like this REALLY happen in the Royal Family?" and "Are the Windsors really this screwed up?"

Season Four introduced two new players into the saga of Queen Elizabeth II, Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first woman Prime Minister, and Diana Spencer, who would become the Princess of Wales when she marries Prince Charles.  Charles, by the way, is portrayed in this like (a) a complete doofus, (b) a serial adulterer, (c) a complete doofus, (d) a most unpleasant sibling, and (e) a complete doofus.  Did I mention that Charles comes across as a complete and total doofus?

Thatcher is played by "X-Files" alum Gillian Anderson, and she will probably win an Emmy for this portrayal.  Diana is played by a young woman named Emma Corrin, and, by the way, Diana had her "issues" too.  Perhaps she and Chuck deserved each other.

There are some great stories told in this season, and perhaps my favorite one came in Episode 5, "Fagan."  It tells the story of unemployed house painter Michael Fagan who breaks into Buckingham Place not once, but twice, on separate occasions, and on the second trip, he actually enters the Queen's bedroom and has a conversation with her.  I remember when the incident happened, but this version, no doubt enhanced for dramatic purposes, for I doubt that Elizabeth ever actually revealed what the two of them conversed about before he was captured, was really a great hour of television.

This season made me especially appreciate the casting that we have seen in Seasons 3 and 4.  Olivia Coleman (Elizabeth), Tobias Menzies (Phillip), Helena Bonham Carter (Princess Margaret), Erin Doherty (Princess Anne), and Josh O'Conner (Charles) are all really good in their roles.  All of them will be replaced by different actors, older actors, in Seasons 5 and 6.  Their replacements will have some tough acts to follow.

One problem with these streaming series that drop all at once:  after gobbling them up in three days or so, we have to wait another year before the next season comes out.  Bloody hell, as the Windsors might put it.

"The Crown" Season 4 gets Three and One-half Stars from The Grandstander.