The Absent Friends of 2021

 

The term "Absent Friends" took on a new and extremely close meaning to me this past October 12 when my wife of 47 years, Marilyn, left this world.  I wrote this Absent Friends post about her last month.  It was both the easiest and the hardest post that I ever wrote, and the one that I never wanted to write.  A truer friend I will never have, and her absence will be forever in my heart and my life.

Moving on, let us now pay tribute one final time to the Absent Friends of 2021.  There were 41 of them this year, which brings the total number of Absent Friends recognized by The Grandstander over the years to 415.  (For your information, Absent Friend #400 was Pittsburgh television personality Ricki Wertz.)  "Absent Friends" are people who have contributed in various ways, large and small, to our world and popular culture.  Some are famous, some are people who may be remembered only by people in their local areas, and some may be individuals who are noted only because I found them to be interesting folks.

All that said, here are the 41 Absent Friends of 2021.  If you are interested in seeing what I had to say about them at the time, just type their names into the search box at the top of this screen.

Gerry Marsden
Tanya Roberts
Hank Aaron
Don Sutton
Larry King
Walter Bernstein
Bruce Kirby
Cloris Leachman
Grant Jackson
Rennie Davis
Hal Holbrook
Eugenio Martinez
Mart Schottenheimer
Leon Spinks
Mary Wilson
Joe Tait
Larry McMurtry
Prince Phillip
Walter Mondale
Michael Collins
Rennie Stennett
Charles Grodin
Ned Beatty
Clarence Williams III
Jim "Mudcat" Grant
Ricki Wertz
Ron Popiel
Joe Walton
Don Everly
Charlie Watts
Ed Asner
Tunch Ilkin
Irma Kalish
Colin Powell
Marilyn Sproule
Sam Huff
Bill Virdon

Stephen Sondheim
Bob Dole
Mike Nesmith

John Madden

RIP One and All.

Three Absent Friends: A Public Servant, A Musician, A Coach

A busy December has prevented The Grandstander from posting on Absent Friends, so let us not allow this final day of the year to pass without recognizing three notable losses in the month of December.

Taking them in the order in which their deaths occurred....

Bob Dole

1936-2021

Few can say that they served their country with more honor and distinction than Bob Dole of Kansas.  

Dole served in World War II where he earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.  The wounds that he sustained in Italy during the War were visible for the rest of his life, but that hardly "disabled" him for that lifetime.  He represented Kansas in the US House of Representatives from 1961-69 and the US Senate from 1969-96.  He served as the Senate's Minority and Majority Leader, and was the Republican Party's nominee for President in 1996.

A staunch conservative, Dole was not a guy that I aligned myself with over the course of the years.  He did not get my vote in 1996, yet he is typical of politicians of that era, an era I fear has passed for the foreseeable future, in that he put the values of his country first, and wanted to be part of the leadership of a unified nation.

His obituary noted that he considered the most significant piece of legislation that he ever shepherded through Congress was the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Who did he work with hand-in-glove to make sure that the ADA passed in the Senate?  Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Can you see something like that happening here in 2021?

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Mike Nesmith, 1942-2021, was a member of The Monkees, a rock and roll band created by television in an effort to cash in on the popularity of The Beatles and their movie, "A Hard Day's Night."  That TV series, "The Monkees", ran for 58 episodes from 1966-68.  It accomplished what NBC desired.  The show was as success.  The band itself was criticized for being the invention of a TV network, and was often derisively known as the "Pre-Fab Four."  Still, if you go back and listen to some of their tunes, they put out some pretty good stuff.  No, they weren't the Beatles, the Stones, or the Beach Boys, but their work has stood up fairly well to the test of time.

Nesmith himself had a long career as a singer, songwriter, and record producer.  One of hie better known songs was "Different Drum", one of the first big hits by Linda Ronstadt.

Nesmith's death follows those of Davy Jones and Peter Tork, and leaves Mickey Dolenz as the last surviving Monkee.

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Pro Football Hall of Fame member John Madden died earlier in the week at the age of 85.

His name is on a football video game, perhaps the most popular sports video game ever, so his name is familiar to generations that have no real idea of who he really was.

He became arguably the best and most popular TV football analyst ever.  He worked for four networks, but he hasn't broadcast a game since the Steelers win over the Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII.

Yet Madden himself always referred to himself as a Coach.  A Football Coach, and what a coach he was.  He was head coach of the Raiders for only ten years, and in that time his record was an amazing 103-32-7.  His teams reached the AFL/AFC Championship game an astonishing SEVEN times in ten years, and were the Champions of Super Bowl XI.  

He retired at a young age because he hated to fly.  The rest became broadcasting history.

As a Steelers fan, thoughts of John Madden always bring up memories of those great battles between the Steelers and the Raiders in the 1970's.  Here is a shot of Madden with the player with whom, in my mind anyway, he is most closely associated, QB Ken Stabler.

RIP Bob Dole, Mike Nesmith, and John Madden.

"Being The Ricardos"

Few people will argue that "I Love Lucy", which ran on network television from 1951 to 1957, and starring real life husband and wife Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, is probably one of the funniest, and certainly one of the most significant and groundbreaking situation comedies in the history of television.  And this is not just a generational thing, either.  A few years ago while working with a group of middle school age kids at the Caring Place, I met an eleven year old girl in the group whose idol was Lucille Ball.  We all know the iconic scenes:  Lucy and Ethel in the candy factory, Lucy stomping grapes, Lucy doing the Vitameatavegamin commercial, and on and on and on.  "I Love Lucy" has lived forever in reruns, and it is said that on every singe day of the year, an episode of the show is being shown somewhere in almost every part of the world.

All this leads up to the new feature film written and directed by Oscar winner Aaron Sorkin, "Being The Ricardos".  Not a typical biopic, the movie focuses on one specific week in 1953 on the set of the filming of "I Love Lucy" when gossip monger Walter Winchell went on the air with the announcement that Lucille Ball had at one time been a member of the Communist Party.  Big news during the era of McCarthyism and the communist witch hunts of the House Unamerican Activities Committee , when such accusations and affiliations could and did ruin lives and end careers.  Now, such an accusation was being leveled against the biggest TV star in the country and the existence of the Number One show in America was now in jeopardy.  Oh, and at the same time, another Hollywood scandal sheet was writing about an alleged affair that Desi was having, and this was placing the Arnez' marriage in doubt.

The movie focuses on how Lucy, Desi, the other actors, writers, producers, sponsors, and CBS Network execs responded to and handled this crisis.   In flashback sequences, Sorkin also tells about how Lucy and Desi met, their courtship, and their tempestuous relationship. Oscar winners Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem play Lucy and Desi, and Kidman is sure to pick up an Oscar nomination for her role in this one.  Bardem also pulls off his portrayal of Desi, right down to the "'splain this, Loo-cee" Cuban accent and singing "Baba Loo" while banging on the conga drum. J.K. Simmons and Nina Arianda are also quite good in portraying William Frawley and Vivian Vance.  Other roles of note include old pros Ronny Cox and Linda Lavin playing the older versions of writers Bob Carroll and Madelyn Pugh, and Jake Lacey, who was so detestable in HBO's "White Lotus", as the younger version of Carroll.

Kidman and Bardem

and the real

Lucy and Desi....

Simmons and Arianda

as Frawley and Vance,

"Fred and Ethel"....

If you are expecting to see recreations of classic Lucy bits from the TV show, you may be disappointed.  Sorkin uses black and white footage to focus on scenes from the "I Love Lucy" show, but mostly scenes from the show that is being filmed in that particular week when the movie takes place.   We only get one look at Kidman doing an iconic Lucy bit:  Lucy Stomping Grapes.

The movie is both a history lesson and a tribute to a landmark television show and its iconic stars without falling into the trap of being a fawning nostalgia piece.  It is a well written and quality production, exactly what you would expect from Sorkin, with very good performances from the actors, especially Kidman, who, as I said above, should get Oscar consideration for this one.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

And if you are interested in learning more about Lucille Ball (and Desi Arnez, too), I highly recommend Season Three of the Turner Classic Movie podcast, The Plot Thickens, which is simply titled "Lucy".  A ten part series hosted by TCM's Ben Mankiewicz.  It just concluded and was excellent.

"West Side Story" (2021)

Ever since it became known that director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner were planning a remake of the 1961 Oscar winning film classic "West Side Story", I have been anxiously awaiting the release of this new version.  The COVID pandemic delayed its scheduled 2020 release to 2021, and today, I got to see it on a big screen in a dark movie theater.  It was wonderful.

Let's get the subject of remaking classic movies out of the way first.  I have written on this topic many times, and I think i made my feelings best known in this post from September, 2016.  Read it now to get my full opinion if you're interested, but in short, I have no problem with remakes if they are done right and with quality.  The presence of Speilberg and Kushner on the project assured, or should assure, movie lovers of that.

On to the movie.

Speilberg has kept "West Side Story" as a period piece, set in late 1950's era New York City as urban renewal is busting up neighborhoods in the name of  Robert Moses' idea of "progress."  You probably all know the story...gang/turf warfare between second and third generation Americans of Eastern European descent, the Jets, and first generation Puerto Rican immigrants, the Sharks....former Jets leader Tony falls in love with Maria, the sister of Sharks leader Bernardo...current Jet leadership wants Tony to come back to the gang to rumble with the Sharks and drive them out for good...Bernardo wants the Sharks to rumble to stake their claim to the neighborhood and, more specifically, to personally beat the shit out of Tony for daring to fall for his sister...tragedy ensues.  

Yes, Bill Shakespeare did this first back in the 17th century when he wrote "Romeo and Juliet", Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim took it to Broadway in 1957, and Robert Wise put it on screen in 1961.  All were brilliant, and Speilberg's 2021 version is AT LEAST as good, and probably better than the '61 film version.  It is sure to reap many Oscar nominations, and I hope that Speilberg can snag another Oscar for his mantel for directing his first musical film.

A nod to the actors in the lead roles:

Tony - Ansel Elgort

Maria - Rachel Zegler

Anita - Ariana DuBose

Bernardo -  David Alvarez

Riff - Mike Faist

Valentine - Rita Moreno

Elgort, Alvarez, and Faist all present  greater "street cred" as gang bangers than did Richard Beymer, George Chakiris, and Russ Tamblyn in the 1961 version. I can never be negative toward Natalie Wood, but I will give the nod to Zegler in this version because (a) she is authentically Latina, and (b) she did her own singing, unlike Wood in the prior film.  I will call it a draw between DuBose and the sixty years younger Rita Moreno as Anita.  And bringing the now 90 year old Moreno to play the owner of the drug store (she's Doc's widow in this version) was a master stroke by Spielberg.  She is tremendous.  Could she be the first person to receive an Oscar for playing different roles in two versions of the same movie?

Some other specific observations....

• The magnificent Bernstein/Sondheim music is still there.  Nothing taken out, nothing added.  If you tell me that these are the greatest lyrics ever written for a musical, I won't argue with you.
• Kushner gave Tony a back story.  We now know why he is working a steady job and trying to stay away from the gang life.
• The staging of "Tonight" as performed by Tony and Maria had me in tears.  Literally.  Lots of reasons for that, not the least of which were Zegler's and Elgort's singing and that it is just a beautiful song when heard in the context of the show.
• The dancing in this version was less balletic and more muscular (my God but that sounds pretentious on my part doesn't it?) than in the 1961 movie.  Made it more believable to me.  Particularly, the opening number, "When You're A Jet", and "Cool."
• Speilberg took "America" off of the rooftops and put it into the streets, and it was fabulous.  Led by DuBose and Alvarez, it was probably the best dance number in the show.

• The staging of the dance number in the gym, where Tony and Maria first meet, is almost identical to the original version, but you somehow feel closer to the action in this one.
• A fabulous presentation of "Tonight Quintet", maybe my favorite number in the play/movie, when the Jets, the Sharks, Anita, Tony, and Maria all sing about what is about to happen "tonight."
• The issues addressed in this show - immigration, prejudice, intolerance - are as relevant in 2021 as they were in 1957 and 1961, maybe even more so, and this version addresses those issues, but it doesn't bang you over the head with a hammer (as Hollywood sometimes tends to do) in doing so.
• A note to "Hamilton" fans.  Ariana DuBose played the role of The Bullet in the original Broadway production and the film version of  "Hamilton" that can be currently seen on the Disney+ streaming service.

I will tell you that if you refuse to see this movie because "there is no reason to remake" classic movies, you are being foolish and depriving yiouself of something really special.  If you do see it, and cannot bring yourself to admit that it is AT LEAST as good as, and perhaps even better than, the 1961 film, you just may have no soul.

"West Side Story" is the best movie that I have seen in 2021.  A full Four Stars from The Grandstander.

 

Here Come the Patriots, and the Week 13 GPR

 

After a hiatus of several weeks, the Grandstander Power Rankings are back after Week 13 of the NFL season, but before we get to those, a word on this week's Monday Night Football game between the Patriots and the Bills, a 14-10 win for New England.

Cold temperatures and winds in the neighborhood of 30-40 MPH caused Bill Belichick to dig deep into the playbooks of Jurassic Era football and come up with a game plan that would not expose his rookie quarterback Mac Jones to the vagaries of those conditions.  As a result, Coach Bill had the Pats use running plays on all but three plays.  Yep, only three passes thrown by Jones in the entire game.  It was amazing to watch, as was the Pats defense that that held the Bills to only ten points with the Buffalo TD coming after New England muffed a punt and gave them the ball inside the twenty yard line.  Not sure if the Patriots are a Super Bowl team for this year, but in a season where there does not appear to be a singularly great team, would you sell short the possibility of Coach Bill making it to the Big Game in February?

Within the last three days, we were able to witness two of the greatest football coaches ever work their magic in big games, Nick Saban of Alabama against Georgia on Saturday and Belichick last night.  Never bet against those two.

Okay, now for the GPR:

1. Cardinals (10-2)
2. Packers (9-3)
3. Buccaneers (9-3)
4. Patriots (9-4)

The Cardinals remain at the top simply because they have the best record in the league and seem to be back on a roll with the return of the injured QB Kyler Murray.  The Patriots are at number 4 simply because of a rookie quarterback.  If you wanted to argue the placement of each of these four teams in the 1-2-3-4 order, I wouldn't argue strongly against it.

Is There Anything Better Than Steelers vs. Ravens?

 

Yesterday's matchup between the Steelers and the Baltimore, the thirtieth time that head coaches Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh have faced each other (more on that later), a 20-19 win for the Steelers, produced an obvious answer to the question stated in the headline above:

No, there is nothing better than games between the long time AFC North rivals, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.  I remember on one Sunday night  game between the two teams, Chris Collinsworth said something to the effect that he could watch these two teams go at it 16 games each season if the schedule makers would allow it, and it is hard to disagree with the sentiment.  Yesterday's game was no exception.

The Ravens came in with an AFC best record of 8-4, and the Steelers were on life support at 5-5-1 coming off of two straight losses where they gave up 82 points and were soundly thrashed by the Cincy Bengals 41-10 last week.  The Ravens dominated the Steelers defense and the Steelers offense was totally impotent in the first half, yet Baltimore went into the locker room at half-time with a mere 7-3 lead.

The headline over Ron Cook's column in the Post-Gazette this morning said it all about what then transpired:

On this day, the old guy came through for his team

The "old guy" in this case was, of course, 39 year old quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.  He may be a shadow of his younger self, but he somehow summoned up a measure of his past greatness by producing 17 fourth quarter points and produced the 39th fourth quarter comeback of his career.  If an athletic performance can be defined as "heroic", Big Ben's game yesterday falls into that category.  If this is to be his final season, as was reported this past week, then it is a shame that yesterday's game wasn't the final game of the year.  A gutsy comeback win over the team's bitterest rival would have been a great way to walk into the sunset.  However, there are more games to play, and if the Steelers still have life in their playoff hopes, then it will be the sheer force of Roethlisberger's will that will get them there.  It might not happen, probably won't happen, but it will still be fun to watch down the stretch.

T.J. Watt, the team's best player and perhaps the best defensive player in the NFL, did not practice all week due to COVID protocols, but was able to play, and he dominated the game, with sacks and pressures on Lamar Jackson, including one on the Ravens' final play, the attempted two point conversion with :12 to play that would have won the game for the Ravens.  Watt forced Jackson's pass to wobble just enough so that his pass to TE Mark Andrews fell out of reach.

About that two point conversion.  After the Steelers took a 20-13 lead with 1:38 to play, the Ravens proceeded to march down the field and score a TD to make it 2019 with :12 left.  Baltimore HC John Harbaugh eschewed the sure PAT that would send the game into overtime and went for a two point conversion to win the game outright then and there.  It was a gutsy coaching call, and he is no doubt being second guessed all over the Inner Harbor today, but why in the hell not go for it?  And it added yet one more layer of lore and legend to the Steelers-Ravens rivalry.

Oh, and about those Tomlin-Harbaugh face-offs.  Yesterday, was the 30th time that these two coaches' teams have played against each other.  This is the most such coach-to-coach encounters in the Super Bowl Era, and the third most in NFL history.  George Halas and Curly Lambeau faced each other 41 times , and Halas and Steve Owen went against each other 31 times.  After yesterday's game, Tomlin holds a 16-14 edge over Harbaugh.    Tomlin's Steelers are 2-1 in post season games with the Ravens.  The Steelers have been to the Super Bowl twice (1-1) in that time, the Ravens once, winning it.  The teams and the coaches meet again in the final game of the season on January 9.  At that point, the game may be meaningless for one or both of the teams, but it will no doubt be another epic encounter, and I can't wait to watch it.

If you want a better write up on this game and the nature of this Rivalry,  I cannot recommend the Post-Gazette's Gene Collier's column in this morning's paper.  You can read it here. 

PITT WINS THE ACC CHAMPIONSIP, and Other Football Thoughts

 

Last night was another "This Is Why You Follow Sports" moment for fans (long-suffering?) of Pitt football, as we watched as the Panthers rolled to a 45-21 victory over Wake Forest to claim their first ever Atlantic Coast Conference Football Championship.  After a first quarter that appeared to be the beginning of a 100 total points game, Wake led 21-14.  It was the Panthers defense that then rose up and completely throttled Wake Forest from that point forward. Numerous sacks of the quarterback and four interceptions, one returned to the two yard line and one returned for a touchdown, led to Pitt's dismantling of the Demon Deacons.

The night also was showcase for quarterback Kenny Pickett, who threw for 258 yards and two TDs, and positively electrified the crowd, the announcers, and the TV audience on the fourth play off the game by running around end for 58 yards and the game's first touchdown.

It was the culmination of a season that will surely make Pickett a Heisman Trophy finalist, and a career that has seen him claim ownership of every single significant passing record in the history of Pitt football.   He was both the ACC's Offensive Player of the Year and Player of the Year in 2021.  He is a likely first round NFL draft pick, and he has given his name to an era of Pitt football: The Kenny Pickett Era.  Pitt will have one more game to play, probably the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.  In order to protect himself from possible injury, it is possible, and probably advisable, that Pickett will sit that one out, and if chooses to do so, I don't think that a single Pitt fan will begrudge him that choice.  I'm guessing, though, that from what I've read about him and seen of him over the past five years, he will be playing in Miami on January 1st.

A few years ago, someone asked me "What are your reasonable expectations of a college football team that you follow (in my case, Pitt)?"  My answer was that (a) when you watch them play, you would hope that they would have a reasonable chance of competing in every game that they play, (b) that you would hope that they win more games than they lose, (c) that they would be entertaining, and (d) you would hope that they would be competitive for their conference championship most years  and have a reasonable chance of actually winning the conference every five years or so.

Pitt did all of that in 2021, and gave us a season to remember.   Anything that happens in a Bowl game (which, except for the CFP games, have become pretty much meaningless) will be icing on the cake, and that 2021 ACC Championship Banner can hang forever at Heinz Field.

It's Why You Follow Sports.  Hail To Pitt!

********

Yesterday was absolute Hog Heaven for fans of college football with Conference Championship games being played throughout the day.  Serving as the amuse-bouche  for the Pitt game for me was the Big XII title game at Noon and the SEC matchup at 4:00.

Baylor defeated Oklahoma State in the Big XII game, a game that served to convince me that neither of these teams deserve to be within sniffing distance of any CFP consideration.  It was an exciting game, but not all that good a one.

In the SEC, Alabama throttled undefeated, first ranked, and seven point favorite Georgia 41-24.  It was a game that undoubtedly sewed up the Heisman Trophy for Crimson Tide QB Bryce Young, and also a game that prompts the question, why would you ever - EVER - pick against a Nick Saban team in a big game?

Did you catch this amazing statistical graphic that CBS showed during the game?  In games where a Saban coached team has held a 14 point lead at any point in the game,  the teams have a record of 160-4.  Now it's 161-4.

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The CFP Committee will announce it's four finalists in about a half hour (it is 11:30 AM as I type this).  My guess is that Alabama will be #1 and Cincinnati will be #4.  Michigan and Georgia will be 2-3 or 3-2, not that that matters.  No way the Committee would want to see a Alabama-Georgia rematch in the first round, and why would they even want to allow for the possibility of that in the final?  I think inclusion of Notre Dame in the final four would be better and more attractive, but I also think that the sway that the SEC holds in college football will carry the day, and they will get two spots in th playoffs.

Let's hope for a Michigan win in the semis.  Can you imagine the hype a Nick Saban-Jim Harbaugh match up will generate?  Assuming that the Tide beats Cincy, of course.

One really good thing about his year's CFP, of course, is the fact that William Christopher Swinney will not be coaching in it.

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Before actual games were played this weekend, college football dominated the news this past week with two amazing coaching changes.  Lincoln Riley leaving Oklahoma for USC,

and Brian Kelly leaving Notre Dame - NOTRE DAME!!!! - for LSU, where he immediately began speaking with a southern accent.

There may be college football programs bigger and more vaunted than Oklahoma and Notre Dame, but if there are, you can count them on the fingers of one hand.  There was a time, and it wasn't so long ago, that it would have been impossible to imagine a coach voluntarily leaving either of those schools to take a job at another school.

The times, they are a-changin'.

********

Now to the pros.  

The Grandstander has been remiss in posting his Grandstander Power Rankings.  There are reasons for that, not the least of them being the awful performances of the Steelers in recent weeks.  I was ready to do one yesterday, but at the last minute thought, to Hell with it; might as well wait until this weekend's games are finished, so look for a new GPR come Tuesday morning.

One aspect of the NFL in recent weeks that bears noting is the fact that the New England Patriots.  Led by rookie QB Mac Jones, a strong defense, and, of course, their always lovable and peerless coach, 

the Pats have won six games in a row, have an 8-3 record and a one game lead over the team that they will play on Monday night and once again two weeks from now, the Buff Bills. This will be the Game of the Weekend in the NFL, and I can't wait to watch it come Monday night with Peyton and Eli.

It's indeed a great time of year to be a football fan!!

More of the Same from the Pirates

Well, our Pittsburgh Pirates have been much in the news this weekend and for all of the reasons that we have come to expect over the years of the Nutting Administration.

Catcher Jacob Stallings, one of the Bucs' most popular players, winner of this year's Gold Glove Award, and a guy that the team's Propaganda Ministry (I'm looking at you, Greg Brown) pumped up continually all season long was, surprisingly, or maybe not-so-surprisingly, traded this week to the Miami Marlins.   All the familiar reasons were trotted out.  Stallings is 32 years old and due to hit his downside, that team is getting three great young prospects for him (two pitchers and and outfielder) who have much more upside than Stallings, and, oh yeah, Stallings was eligible for salary arbitration this off season and would have commanded a healthy raise from the penny-pinching front office, a fact that was downplayed in the press releases coming out of 115 Federal Street.  Like all trades over the last ten or so years, this trade can be defended in a baseball sense and in a vacuum, but when it becomes just another brick in a wall with other bricks like Neil Walker, Andrew McCutchen, Jameson Taillon, and Gerrit Cole, it continues to paint a depressingly familiar scenario for Pirates fans.

In other Pirates news this week, the team DFA'd pitchers Steven Brault and Chad Kuhl, and infielder Colin Moran. Like Stallings, all three were eligible for salary arbitration this year.  What a coincidence.

Set your alarm clocks for when we will get to hear this same news about Brian Reynolds and Ke'Bryan Hayes.

And to top all for his off, the news arrives this morning that Major League Baseball has locked out their players as of today "in the hopes of accelerating the process of reaching a (new collective) bargaining agreement."  In the press release issued by the Pirates the team assures us that...

"While we are not able to able to make any Major League roster moves during this time, we will continue to work on the development of our talented minor league players. We remain laser focused on continuing to execute our plan of developing this next wave of talent that will fuel the future of our success in Pittsburgh."

Yeah, right.

Seriously, does anyone even care any more, especially in Pittsburgh?

Scene From A Pancake Restaurant (with apologies to Billy Joel)

 

So yesterday morning, I am among a group of six people about to enjoy a late Sunday morning brunch at a well known pancake restaurant located in the McKnight Road corridor.  (Hint: It wan't Denny's or Eat 'n Park).  The place is packed.  I am sitting on the end seat in a booth.  Traffic among the waitstaff is hectic, and, lo and behold, two of them bump into each other and a pot of very hot coffee spills, with a good portion of it landing on my leg.  It was quite hot at first, but soon cooled down, the waitress was quite apologetic, and no real harm was done other than some brief minor discomfort and the need to visit the laundry room when I got home.

I am now about to appeal to those of you in a service industry, particularly those who might be in the food services/restaurant business.

As I see it, the management of this restaurant had the following options:

1. They could have torn up the check for our breakfast (I had a separate check for two people).
2. They could have comped my portion of the check.
3. They could have given me a gift card for use on a future visit to the restaurant.
4. They could have done nothing.

If you guessed that they chose Option #4, you would be correct.

Now I never owned or even worked in a restaurant, but I did work in an industry where Customer Service was very important (and really, is there a business where customer service ISN'T important?), so I know which option I would have chosen had I been in charge.  Like I said, no real harm was done, but the next time I want to go out for pancakes, I'm going to Denny's.

To Absent Friends - Stephen Sondheim

 Stephen Sondheim

1930 - 2021

Stephen Sondheim, truly a Giant of the American Musical Theater died yesterday at the age of 91.  Had Sondheim only written the lyrics for West Side Story he would be, in my book anyway a first ballot Hall of Famer, but his other works include such classics as Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Company, Follies, and A Little Night Music.  Wikipedia lists 19 "major" productions for Sondheim.  There were many more.

In his career, he won eight Tony Awards, eight Grammy Awards, an Oscar,  a Pulitzer Prize, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and even an Edgar Award for his screenplay of the 1974 movie, The Last of Sheila.

I once saw a production of Company at the Pittsburgh Public Theater.  It was somewhat complex.  The play was "about" the institution of marriage, but I am still not sure if Sondheim was celebrating the institution or excoriating it.  That the play could be seen from both points of view says something about the complexity and brilliance of the  playwright, I believe.

To hear one of Sondheim's most famous and movie pieces, Send in the Clowns from A Little Night Music, as performed by Judy Collins, click here.

Dim the lights on Broadway.  RIP Stephen Sondheim.

To Absent Friends - Bill Virdon

Bill Virdon

1931-2021

In a city and region rich in sports heritage, there is no more iconic a team in all of Pittsburgh sports history than the 1960 World Series Champion Pittsburgh Pirates, the underdog team that beat the heavily favored Yankees of Mantle, Maris, Berra, Ford, and Stengel on Bill Mazeroski's Game 7, bottom of the ninth walk-off home run.  Yeah, I had to type out that entire sentence for the kids out there who may not be aware of that momentous event.  So iconic is that team that the loss of any member of it is a noteworthy event and fully deserving of The Grandstander's Absent Friends treatment.

Such is the case today with the death of Bill Virdon, that Pirate team's centerfielder and leadoff man.  Virdon was 90 years old.  In 1955, Virdon was the NL Rookie-of-the -Year, and he came to the Pirates in a trade in 1956.  There he stayed until he retired at the age of only 34 after the 1965 season.  He then embarked on a managerial and coaching career that embodied the term "baseball lifer."  He managed the Pirates, Astros, Yankees, and Expos in the majors, and even well into his eighties, Virdon would show up at Pirates Spring Training every year as a guest instructor sporting the same flat stomach and waistline that he carried in his playing days.

By my reckoning, Virdon's death leaves only eight players on the Buccos 25 man World Series roster still among us:  Joe Christopher, Roy Face, Dick Groat, Vernon Law, Bill Mazeroski, Bob Oldis, Dick Schofield, and Bob Skinner.  Bob Oldis, the eldest among them, will turn 94 in January, and the youngest, Maz, will turn 86 in 2022.

RIP Bill Virdon.

The Pittsburgh Football Weekend That Was

It was a rather remarkable football weekend here in Pittsburgh what with Pitt giving us a "This Is Why You Follow Sports" moment, and the Steelers giving us everything from severe stomach cramps to euphoria to major letdown all in one game.  

Let's start with the Pitt Panthers.

As you no doubt know by now, Pitt clinched the ACC Coastal Division title and  a spot in two weeks in the ACC Championship game with their thrilling, and I do mean thrilling, 48-38 win over Virginia.  It was Senior Day at Pitt, the final home game for Pitt's senior players, most notably quarterback Kenny Pickett.

As he has over the course of a career that has seen him seize every significant passing record in Pitt history, Pickett delivered big time.  He passed for over 400 yards and threw four TD passes, two of them on fourth down plays.  All four of those TD passes went to sophomore wide out Jordan Addison.

It was a remarkable and electric performance by both Pickett and Addison.  Pickett will no doubt be a Heisman Trophy finalist and Addison has become the favorite to win the NCAA Biletnikoff Award as well.  Pitt now sits at 9-2, is nationally ranked, and will be favored to win their final game at Syracuse this coming Saturday.  Their opponent in the ACC title game is still TBD, and should they win that, a New Year's Day Bowl game is all but assured.  By any measure, it as been a successful season for HC Pat Narduzzi and his squad, and a very entertaining one for those of us who have been in attendance at Heinz Field throughout.  I was there on Saturday evening for that game, and it was truly a thrilling experience.

It has also been a joy to follow the career of Kenny Pickett and see his development.  His first start as a freshman was a win over a then undefeated and Top Five Miami team.  It was a portent of things to come.  His decision to forego the NFL Draft last year was a wise one.  From the probable late round pick he would have been last spring, it now appears that he will be among the first 2 or 3 QB's selected in the 2022 Draft, a surefire first round pick.  Panthers fans will surely miss him next year, but many Steelers fans are savoring the possibility of seeing Pickett just switching from Blue & Gold to Black & Gold come 2022 and replacing future Hall of Famer Ben Roethlisberger.

And that brings us to last night's Steelers-Chargers game.  Let's call that game a Tale of Two Quarterbacks.

Facing a Steelers defense without all-pro DB's Minkah Fitzpatrick and Joe Haden, and, oh yeah, their best player and perhaps best defensive player in the NFL, TJ Watt, Chargers QB Justin Herbert shredded the Swiss cheese of a defense that Steelers had out there last night for over 380 passing yards, 90 rushing yards, and three TDs.  He is scarey good, and so young that it doesn't even look like his teenaged skin has cleared yet. He's going to be a force in the NFL well into the 2030's.

After three quarters, LA had a 27-10 lead.  No doubt TV sets were being switched off all over Western Pennsylvania.  However, a blocked punt, a bizarre interception of a Herbert pass, and some remarkable quarterback play from a "He's-still-got-some-gas-in-the-tank" Big Ben, and presto-change-o, the Steelers found themselves with a 37-34 lead with 3:24 remaining in the game.  Alas, the fairly tale ending was not to be as Herbert, on the third play of the ensuing Chargers possession, hit Mike Williams for a fifty-plus yard touchdown, a play that probably wouldn't have happened had Fitzpatrick been in the game.

In its own way, the Steelers losing effort was every bit as entertaining and compelling as Pitt's big win was the day before.  The Steelers now sit at 5-4-1, but in an AFC North Division that no team seems to want to win, who the hell knows what might happen the rest of the way?

Next week....On to Cincinnati!

 

Leni Riefenstahl

The genesis of this piece occurred back in late summer when I heard film critics Arch Campbell and Jason Fraley discuss German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl on Campbell's "At The Movies" podcast.  It prompted me to check out a couple of movies from the library to learn a little more about her.  

Riefenstahl was a dancer and actress in Germany during the time between the two World Wars.  In the early 1930's, she went behind the camera and in so doing, she became one of the first acclaimed female movie directors in the world.  Her work caught the eye of Adolf Hitler, who commissioned her to make a documentary film about the Nazi Party congress that was held in Nuremberg in 1934.  That movie, "Triumph of the Will", is widely considered to be the greatest documentary film ever made.   Scenes from it have been copied in many movies down through the years, including some of the "Star Wars" films.

In 1936, she was ostensibly selected by the International Olympic Committee to make a film documentary of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. I say "ostensibly" because it is widely believed that Hitler himself wanted Riefenstahl to make this movie, and prevailed upon IOC president Avery Brundage (another real piece of work, but that is a subject for another day) to have her make the movie.  That movie, "Olympia", is also considered a landmark documentary and set the standard for sports documentary films.  Techniques invented by Lenu Riefenstahl for "Olympia" are still being used today.

So, it was those two movies that I wanted to see, along with a 1993 German documentary, "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl", and I was able to obtain all three of them from my local library.  I also wondered if requesting these movies has put me on some sort of Homeland Security watchlist.

Riefenstahl's work with and for the Third Reich followed her for the rest of her life.  After the war, she was arrested and tried, but never convicted of war crimes, but was branded as a "fellow traveller" of the Reich.  Her skills as a filmmaker have never been questioned, but involvement with Hitler no doubt hampered her career although she worked for pretty much the rest of her life.  She died in 2003 at the age of 101.

Throughout the "Wonderful, Horrible Life..." doc, Riefenstahl held firm to the sort of statements that have become familiar throughout post WW II history:  "I was never a member of the Nazi Party"...."Hitler did many good things for Germany at first"...and, of course "I had NO IDEA of what was taking place in the concentration camps."  I tend to take all statements such as these with a hearty degree of skepticism. Maybe, she told the truth for all of those years.  Maybe.

As for the two films themselves, "Triumph of the Will" is indeed a work of film art.  Very compelling to watch, but, given the subject matter, it is a hard watch.  If viewed through the eyes of people in Germany in the mid-1930's, it can no doubt be seen as an ultimate recruiting tool for National Socialism and the hate that Hitler was selling.  Sort of like some of the rallies seen in the United States in 2016 and 2020.  I wonder if Riefenstahl was able to live with that on her conscience throughout her life if she indeed repudiated what Hitler stood for as she claimed.  (By the way, rumors that she and Hitler were lovers have never been substantiated.)

As for "Olympia", I confess to not getting through that one, only watching about the first thirty minutes or so.  Events in my own life in September pretty much put movie viewing on a back burner, and the DVD's were due at the library, so "Olympia" will have to wait for another day.

Despite all of that, Riefenstahl remains an interesting person to read about.  She continued to work for the rest of her life.  She photographed the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich and was a "guest of honor" at the 1976 Montreal Games.   Noted American film critic Pauline Kael has said that Triumph of the Will and Olympia are "the two greatest films ever directed by a woman."

I've brushed over much of Riefenstahl's life, but it cannot be denied that it wasn't an interesting one, as this 2003 British obituary details.