The Absent Friends of 2022 - A Final Salute

The time has come when The Grandstander pays one final tribute to those Absent Friends of 2022.  When I began writing this blog thirteen (!!) years ago, who would have thought that one of the more prominent features of it would be obituaries for those that I called "Absent Friends", a term used by the great sportswriter Red Smith when he would eulogize those who had passed to the great beyond.   To me, an Absent Friend could be somebody famous in the world of entertainment, politics, sports, or pop culture.  It could be someone who may be known to very few people outside of a given local area.  Or, it could be someone that I had never heard of but whose news  obituary caught my eye and I found his or her story to be worthy of recognition.

I posted 29 Absent Friends notices in 2022, a light year for me.  Since I began doing this, the total number of folks so recognized has now reached the symmetrical number of 444.  Let us bid these Friends adieu one final time before the calendar turns to a new year.  If you want to see what I had to say about them at the time of their deaths, just type the name in the search box at the top of this page, and that will get you to the original post.

Betty White

Peter Bogdanovich

Sidney Poitier

William Hurt

Sally Kellerman

Bobby Rydell

Dwayne Haskins

Wendy Rieger

Guy Lafleur

Bob Lanier

Ray Liotta

Roger Angell

James Caan

Larry Storch

Tony Sirico

Monty Norman

Dick Schofield

Paul Sorvino

Tony Dow

Bill Russell

Vin Scully

Queen Elizabeth II

David McCullough

Maury Wills

Angela Lansbury

Ron Masak

Jerry Lee Lewis

Franco Harris

Pele

RIP One and All

To Absent Friends - Pele

Pele

1940 - 2022

Even people who don't know a lot about international futbol, like me, all know one fact:  that Pele, born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, of Brazil was the greatest soccer player ever.   He played on three separate World Cup Champion Brazil teams in three different decades, 1958, 1962, and 1970.

I won't go on and on about Pele as a player. I'm not really qualified to do so, but I will highly recommend that you read this obituary that appeared on page A-1 of today's Washington Post, written by Liz Clarke.   It is a great read.

One thing I learned in reading various obits is that no one can explain how or where the name "Pele" came from.  It has no translation in the Portuguese language.  It is a made up word that is totally unique to the person.  A name that is a totally unique word affixed to a person of totally unique talents.  Perhaps that is as it should be.

RIP Pele.

 

To Absent Friends - Franco Harris

Franco Harris

1950 - 2022

On January 1, 1973, twenty-one year old me awoke to the news that Roberto Clemente had been killed in a plane crash.  It took another 49 years, 11 months, and 21 days before any death, including those of family members, came with the shock factor of Clemente's death, but it happened again yesterday when I awoke to the news that Steelers Hall of Fame running back Franco Harris had died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 72, four days shy of Christmas and two days prior to the 50th Anniversary, of the play that made him famous and has been voted time and again as the most famous single play in NFL history, The Immaculate Reception.  That Harris and the Steelers were to celebrate this Anniversary at a banquet on Friday, and retire Franco's #32 jersey at the game with the Raiders on Saturday only adds to the surreal nature of Harris' death.

I am not going to recount that famous play here.  If you are a football fan and are reading this, you already know all about it.  However, I cannot make mention of the Immaculate Reception with out making to obligatory statement that I WAS THERE.  Attended the game at Three Rivers Stadium - Section 651, Row J, Seats 5-6-7-8 - and I can still see the play unfold right before my eyes.

In watching the NFL Network yesterday morning, a couple of things struck me. The ex-players serving as talking heads on the morning show all admitted that they knew Harris only by reputation, and watching clips.  They never saw him actually play.  1984, the year Fraanco retired, was a long time ago.  One of those talking heads, however, Jason McCourty, made the excellent point that people need to realize that the Immaculate Reception was no one hit wonder for Franco Harris.  He was NFL Rookie of the Year, a multiple time Pro Bowler, a Super Bowl MVP, eight 1,000 yard rushing seasons, and a Walter Payton Man of the Year.  He was the third all time leading rusher at the time of his retirement, and today, thirty-eight years after he last played a game, he ranks second all time in NFL post-season rushing yardage.  

Franco trounces the Vikings for 158 yards 

and a touchdown in Super Bowl IX

More importantly, Steelers fans know that he was the final piece of the puzzle that Chuck Noll put together (Joe Greene and L.C. Greenwood in 1969, Terry Bradshaw and Mel Blount in 1970, Jack Ham, Dwight White, and Mike Wagner in 1971 among others).  Harris was the first round pick, 13th pick overall, in the 1972 draft, and he became the running back that Noll needed to implement the ball control, run oriented offense that he wanted, and that was necessary in the NFL of that era.  With Harris in place, the Steelers made the playoffs for the first time in their forty year history in 1972, and in 1974, they won the Super Bowl for the first time, the first of four such championships in six seasons.

Football fans know all of that.  What those outside of Pittsburgh may not know is how Harris stayed in Pittsburgh after his playing days ended, and became an astute businessman and a pillar of the community.  No charitable or philanthropic organization ever had Franco Harris say "No" to them when they asked for his assistance or help.   The local media has been filled with stories these last two days of people telling stories of how Harris helped out with this charity or spoke to that youth football program banquet or even how he stopped on the road side to lend a hand when their car broke down.

It seems like everyone had a story about an encounter with Franco Harris, so here is mine.  One night, probably sometime in the 1990's, I was walking through Northway Mall and there walking right towards me was Franco Harris himself.   I said hello, shook his hand, and thanked him for what he gave to us Steelers fans over the years.  He was polite, cordial, and acted like I was the first person, and not the one million and first person, to ever say that to him.  That night, one of the greatest Steelers and NFL players in history was just like me: a guy wandering aimlessly in a shopping mall while their wives were shopping in one of the stores.

Franco became one of the Steelers greatest ambassadors in his retirement years.  He showed up at games and team reunions, and almost always appeared at the NFL Draft to announce one of the Steelers' picks, as he did this past spring when he announced Kenny Pickett at the team's first round pick.

The Steelers may never see his like again.

RIP Franco Harris.
 

Three Movies and A Streaming Series (no spoilers!)

Because so much is being covered today, these critiques will be shorter than usual.  Here goes.....

"The White Lotus"

HBO has given us a second season of this Emmy Award winning series from 2021.  (My thoughts on that season can be found HERE.)  Season Two gives us more of the same: gorgeous scenery, this time in Sicily instead of Hawaii, beautiful, but not real likable people, twisty plot cliffhangers at the end of each of the seven episodes, and dead body at the very beginning, followed immediately by a flashback to "One Week Earlier".  

There are three separate plot lines following (1) two very attractive, very rich young couples;  the guys were college roommates who have both struck it rich in business, but will they remain friends, and will they remain happily married (if they ever were to begin with) as the week unfolds? (2) three generations of men from an Italian-American family (Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham is the grandfather and "The Sopranos" Michael Imperioli is his son) who are in Sicily to find their family roots, (3) Tonya McQuoid, played by the wonderful Jennifer Coolidge, the only recurring character from Season 1, who is at the White Lotus with her new husband, and (4) two beautiful - of course! - young Italian prostitutes who somehow manage to interact with all of them.  Oh, and throw in the story of White Lotus resort manager Valentina, who makes some steps towards self-discovery herself.  Mix it all up, and you have a wonderful melange of high quality soap opera-ish entertainment.

I think that I liked this season more than the first one, if for no other reason than many, but not all, of the characters in this season were people that you actually like and root for.  This is not a spoiler, but when the three De Grasso men do discover their ancestral home and some of their cousins?  Let's just say that the results are not what you would see in a Hallmark Channel movie.

The Grandstander gives this Three and One-half Stars, as he anxiously awaits Season Three in late 2023 or early 2024.

"See How They Run"

In 1953, an unscrupulous Hollywood producer (Ardian Brody) wants to make a movie from Agatha Christie's hit play, "The Mousetrap".  Trouble is,  no film production can be made until the play's run in London ends (SPOILER ALERT:  the play is still running in London, seventy years later), so what can be done to end the play's run? And what about the changes in the plot that Brody wants to make that are infuriating the screenwriter (David Oyelowo)?  A murder takes place, a whodunit unfolds, and the crime gets investigated by a half-assed Scotland Yard detective (Sam Rockwell) and an extremely overeager Women's Police Constable (something new in post-war England) played by the wonderful Saoirse Ronan.  As regular readers know, I love Miss Ronan in anything that she does, and she played this role to comic perfection, and the unraveling of the Whodunit makes for great movie-viewing fun.

Two and One-Half Grandstander Stars.

"Weird: The Weird Al Yankovic Story"

"Weird" is an apt title for this movie.  It is a send up of the kinds of movies we have seen in recent years about artists such a Freddie Mercury and Elton John, and told in the mockumentary style of "This is Spinal Tap".  Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame plays the adult Al Yankovic, and he proves to be the exception to the Hollywood tale of child actors not being able to make it as adults and outgrow the childhood roles that made them famous.  This is a fun movie and worth watching for two things alone:  (1) how young Al's father deals with a door-to-door accordion salesman, and (2) the original song that Yankovic himself sings over the closing credits.  If you're a person who leaves the theater or turns off the TV when the eight or nine minutes of credits start to roll, do NOT do so in this case.  It's hilarious.

This movie is available only on the ROKU streaming service, which I just learned is free.  Who knew?  Not me.

Two and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

"A Christmas Story Christmas"

Did a sequel to the now classic 1983 film "A Christmas Story" really need to be made?  Well, no it didn't, but that shouldn't stop fans of the first movie from seeing this.  Peter Billingsly, who played the air rifle longing Ralphie back in '83 returns as the now adult Ralph Parker.  The fact that Billingsly, who has spent most of his post-"Christmas Story" career as a producer got involved in this gave me hope that this would not be a cheap knock-off.  Anyway, the story takes place twenty-something years after the original, in 1972,  Ralph is an aspiring novelist with two kids of his own who learns that just before Christmas that his "Old Man" has died.  So, it's back to Indiana to settle affairs, celebrate Christmas, and, not incidentally, write the Old Man's obituary for the local newspaper.

The movie has many of the same characters and tropes from the original, adult Billingsly exhibits the same facial expressions as the kid Billingsly did, and his voice over narration of the story does full justice the the job that author Jean Shepard did in the original.

If you liked "A Christmas Story", and who didn't, I cannot imagine you not liking "A Christmas Story Christmas."

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

Futbol and Football

The 2024 World Cup, oh, excuse me, the 2024 FIFA World Cup came to a thrilling conclusion yesterday when Argentina defeated France on penalty kicks (more on that in a bit) after the teams played to a 3-3 tie after 90 minutes regulation time, plus 30 minutes of overtime.  The backstories here were the final appearance on the World Cup stage by Argentina's Lionel Messi, 35, perhaps the world's best player who lacked only a World Cup championship on his resume, and his heir apparent, 24 year old Kylian Mbappe of France.

Both the match itself, and the two superstars lived up to all of the pre-match hype.  Messi scored twice, Mbappe three times.  France came back from a two goal deficit with less that 12 minutes to play in overtime.  Messi scored what looked to be the winning goal in overtime, only to see Mbappe, unbelievably, tie the game again in the final minutes of OT, which sent the game to penalty kick shootout, won by Argentina.  Not surprisingly, both Messi and Mbappe made their kicks in the shoot-out.

It has been called the greatest World Cup Final in history, and who am I to argue?  As one who finds the lack of shooting in world class soccer a detriment to the Beautiful Game, even I found this game tremendously exciting to watch.  The skill of the players is undeniable, and the efforts to score, the near misses, and the saves by both defenders and keepers were a marvel to behold.  It was as exciting a sporting event as you will see all year.  And all that said, what a shame that an athletic event so epic be decided on penalty kicks.  I get that Soccer demands a full thirty minute overtime, but why not make it sudden death instead, or sudden death after the traditional 30 minute OT period?  When the stakes are the very highest in the sport, it shouldn't end on a gimmicky outcome.  If that's me being an Ugly American, so be it.

I found myself watching more of the World Cup than I anticipated, certainly more than I ever have before, and enjoying it more than anticipated.  First, it was following the USA team, then the other elite national teams as they wended through the knockout rounds, and of course, the build up to the Messi-Mbappe confrontation made the whole thing must viewing.  Weekday games in the mornings and afternoons made for ideal viewing for this retiree, and being able to bet on the games via my FanDuel app only added to the interest levels.

Watching the tournament being staged in a nation such as Qatar, with its horrible human rights record and its blatant attempt to "sports wash" it all away, and knowing the overall corruption of FIFA did make one feel a little queasy at times.  The thrill of the competition and the skill of the athletes can make you forget all of that, but the overall stink of this backstory does stay with you.  This was best summarized by John Feinstein of the Washington Post in this column from today.

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Back here in the USA, the NFL concluded Week 15, so let's take a look at the GPR as it stands today. 

.

1. Eagles 13-1
2. Bills 11-3
3. Chiefs 11-3
4. Bengals 10-4

Knocking at the door (alphabetically)....49'ers 10-4, Cowboys 10-4, Dolphins 8-3, Jaguars 6-8, Lions 7-7, Vikings 11-3.

Yes, I have included a 6-8 and a 7-7 team in here.  Sounds crazy, but if your favorite team was in the playoffs, would YOU like to see them playing the Lions right now?  Or Trevor Lawrence?  

The final three weeks will be fun as these playoff scenarios play themselves out.

Reviews: "The Fabelmans" and "The Crown"

Before getting to the normal business of this Blog - sports, movie, TV, and book reviews, and obituaries - I need to acknowledge one very important and very personal event that took place one week ago today, on December 3, 2022:

Yep, Linda and I made it official and got married.  There is great joy in our lives.

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Okay, on to the usual business.  It has been awhile since I've offered any reviews for you, so here are two of them.

No movie of 2022 has received as much acclaim and Oscar buzz than Steven Spielberg's "The Fabelmans".  This is a not-at-all disguised biographical piece based on Spielberg's own life as a young kid growing up in Arizona, and being captivated by the movies and the art of making movies as a pre-pubescent child and teenager.  Great artists, we learn, grow up just like real people do.  They go to school, they deal with bullies in school (virulent anti-semites in young Sam Fabelman's case), they have quirky families, they join the Boy Scouts, experience young love for the first time, and, in Spielberg's case, deal with the trauma of broken families.

Throughout it all we see young Sam's development as a film maker as he makes movies with his neighborhood buddies.  Many of the movies that Sam makes are, in fact, the very same movies that young Steven made in his teenaged years.   We have learned over the course of the last fifty years that no one can tell a story on film better that Steven Spielberg, and he tells his own story in just as wonderful a way as he told stories about war heroes, alien creatures, killer sharks, and Abe Lincoln.

This movie stars Michelle Williams and Paul Dano as Mr. and Mrs. Fableman and young Gabriel LaBelle as Sam.  There is also a small but significant appearance by Judd Hirsch.  Williams, I believe, is a lead pipe lock to secure a Best Actress Oscar nomination for this one.  She is terrific in it.

Three stars from The Grandstander.

Season 5 of Netflix' "The Crown" dropped a few months back, and we finally got around to watching it over the past two weeks.   Season 5 has given us a new cast of older actors playing the  main roles.  We now have Imelda Staunton, Jonathan Pryce, Dominic West, and Elizabeth Debicki playing Liz, Phil, Chuck, and Di, respectively.  This season focuses on the travails of the marriage, separation, and divorce of the Prince and Princess of Wales, so, yes, it is very soap opera-y, but a very high class and stylish soap.

Some observations:

• With the exception of the Queen herself, the Windsors are one batshit crazy family.
• Throughout the series, members of the Royal Family, Charles and Diana especially, are shown getting in their cars and driving all by themselves.  No driver, no security guy in the car with them, and no palace entourage following them.    Could this possibly be true?  Do Will and Kate drive around solo today?  (We know that Harry and Megan do when they need to make a run to the local Target in California.)
• Debicki is an absolute clone of Diana, right down to the doe-eyed upward look while her head is bowed downward.  
• One of the best critiques of the show was of Dominic West. "He's way too handsome to play Prince Charles."
• One episode depicted Princess Margaret rekindling her relationship with the true love of her life, Peter Townsend.  The actor playing Townsend looked familiar, but it wasn't until I saw the credits that I realized that it was one-time double-naught spy, Timothy Dalton.  Bond.  James Bond, himself.
• There was a scene in the last episode where Charles shows up, alone, of course, at Diana's place, where she too is alone, shortly after the finalization of the divorce.   They have one of those where-did-we-go-wrong conversations, she attempts to make him an omelet (must have been the cook's day off), screws it up, makes scrambled eggs instead, and they continue their heart-to-heart until Chuck storms off in huff.  It was an interesting scene, but I can't believe for a single moment that any conversation remotely resembling it ever actually happened.
• This season also depicted a warm grandmother/grandson relationship between Elizabeth and William.  I hope that that is true, but at the same time, I find it hard to imagine.
• History has painted Diana as a sympathetic figure, deservedly so, but if there is any truth at all to her depiction in "The Crown", she was as big a screwball as any of the other Windsors.

One more season remains for "The Crown".  I am wondering how forward into history it will go.  My guess is that Season 6 will end with Diana's death, but will they now include an epilog that will show the recent death of the Queen and Charles finally getting to wear The Crown?   We're going to have to wait until next year to find out.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

Next up on the streaming circuit: Season Two of "The White Lotus".  We're only one episode in so far.

Steelers 24 - Colts 17 and the Updated Grandstander Power Rankings

 

Benny Snell Scores the go-ahead (and winning) TD

That the Steelers bumped their record to 4-7 by beating the crummy Indy Colts last night came as no surprise, but raise your hand if you had two of the stars of the game for Rooney U being Benny Snell and Anthony McFarland.  Didn't think so.

The biggest take-away for Steelers fans on this one, as it has been and will be for the remainder of the season, was the learning and development of Kenny Pickett as the team's quarterback of the future.  Pickett's stats were not flashy, and there were a couple of possessions where the Steelers settled for field goals instead of touchdowns, but the Pickett led offense did build up a 16-3 lead at halftime, a lead that was squandered thanks in large part to the special teams horrid coverage on kickoff and punt returns.  Then, Pickett achieved a significant career milestone:  he engineered his first fourth quarter comeback of his pro career, a 75 yard, 11 play drive, which included three third down conversions and culminated in a Snell TD and a gorgeous Pickett-to-George Pickens two point conversion.  More significantly, this was the third game in a row in which Pickett did not throw an interception.

The growth continues.

Oh, and a tip of the cap to Colts Head Coach Jeff Saturday for some bewildering clock (mis)management  in the final minutes of the game.  With possession and a chance to tie the game and all three time outs remaining, the Colts took none of them until it was way too late to do them any good.  Time expired and Saturday ended up with two time outs still in his pocket.  I can only imagine how he will be roasted on Indy sports talk radio all week.

Time now for what you have all been waiting....

Circumstances prevented me from watching any football on Sunday afternoon (yes, we DO have a social life!), but I did watch the Sunday night game and the Eagles 40-33 dismantling (score not indicative of Philly's dominance) of the Packers.  That is one damn good football team and Jalen Hurts has to be the lead candidate for MVP right now.

Through Week 12:

1. Eagles (10-1)
2. Chiefs (9-2)
3. Cowboys (8-3)
4. Vikings (9-2)

Knocking on the door: 49ers 7-4, Bills 8-3, Commanders 7-5, Dolphins 8-3, Ravens 7-4, and Titans 7-4.

"Just Shoot the Ball, Willya!" and Other Soccer Thoughts

During a Penguins game last week, one of the Penguins, and I must confess that I can remember neither the specific game nor the specific Penguin, took and awkward looking shot from about 45 feet out, with an opponent draped over him that somehow found the back of the net for goal.   Penguins announcer Bob Errey then said words to the effect that it may have been an ugly looking goal, but that you can never go wrong by just winding up and shooting the puck on the net.  Who knows what might happen when you just put the puck on the net?  Errey also talks about "puck volume" and the need to just make shots on goal.

This comment of Errey's came to mind as I watched the the USA and Wales play to a 1-1 draw in their opening game of the World Cup.  The final stats showed that over the course of the entire match, a match that lasted over 100 minutes with stoppage time, Team USA managed a grand total of 1, as in ONE!!!, shot on goal.  Now if you are a glass-half-full kind of guy, you can say, "Hey, the made 100% of their shots", but really, one lousy shot over 100 minutes?  

In discussing the game on PTI last night, Tony Kornheiser said that he watched the game and kept yelling at the TV "shoot it shoot it" but hey never did.  In fact, the strategy in soccer seems to be to not shoot, but rather to continually pass the ball, pass it, pass it, pass it in the hopes of setting up the "perfect" shot.  Something that almost never comes, so you end up with the USA taking one shot, blowing 1-0 lead and probably punching their ticket out of the World Cup once group play concludes. 

And in the For What It's Worth Dept., two of the three games played today, Denmark v. Tunesia and Mexico v. Poland, ended in 0-0 draws.  Those four teams registered a total of twelve (12) shots on goal among them.

Were they even trying to score?

History, or at least history as I remember it, lesson.  I may be fuzzy on some of the details, but I think I am correct in the overall picture.....

Back in 1966, the World Cup final match between England and Germany, was televised live on ABC's Wide World of Sports.  England won the match, and ABC, which had no such expectations, was astounded with how well the ratings in America were for the game.  The ratings were so good that American sporting magnates launched, in 1967, not one, but two professional soccer leagues...

...Pardon the interruption, but as I have been typing this piece, I have had the match between Australia and France on the telly.  France had been enjoying a 2-1 lead in the second half, but over the course of about ten minutes of actual time, French star futboler Kylian Mbappe had taken not one, not two, not three, but four shots on the net.  The fourth one tickled the twine and France now leads 3-1.  Bob Errey was right.  OH, THIS JUST IN....as I was typing THIS aside, Mbappe  just sent a perfect cross pass in front ot the net which a team mate headed into the net.  4-1 France......

Okay, where was I?  Yes, two professional soccer leagues, the North American Professional Soccer League and the National Professional Soccer League, arrived on the scene in 1967.  What Pittsburgh sports fan doesn't remember the glory days of Co Prins and the Pittsburgh Phantoms?  High schools which had no soccer teams, started one, and youth soccer became a thing here in the USA.  This would lead, we were assured, to soccer becoming a dominant sport in the USA and the USA to becoming a dominant power in the game upon the world stage, and all of this would happen within two, maybe three generations.

That was over fifty years ago and what has happened?  Soccer has become a thriving sport in America.  It is played adjust about every high school.  I have six nieces and nephews who have played it and played it well on the high school level, and two of those nephews have played on the collegiate level.  "Youth Soccer" has become a thriving industry, and according to some pundits, "Soccer Moms" have become a real political demographic.  The NASL and the NPSL no longer exists, but Major League soccer, the MLS, has taken root and thrived (as I wrote back in 2020 HERE).

And the USA has indeed become a dominant soccer power.  That is, the USA Women have become the dominant power.  FIFA began staging a Women's World Cup in 1991 and the US Women's National Team have won four of the eight tournaments contested.  Brandi Chastain, Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, and Megan Rapinoe are athletes that are known by American sports fans, not just American soccer fans.

It has not happened for the US Men's National Team.  The team seems to exist on the fringes of international soccer.  They failed to qualify for the World Cup in 2018, and after snatching a tie from the jaws of victory yesterday, there's a good shot that they will not advance beyond group play this year.  In international competition, they continually lose to nations like Costa Rica and Panama, nations with a tiny fraction of the population the United States.  Is it because the best athletes in America still prefer football, basketball, or baseball?  That seems to be too simple an explanation.

Anyone else have a theory?

Betting the Process with Jeff Ma

Okay, I know that many of you may be asking, "Who is Jeff Ma?"  Some background.

If you have not read the 2003 book by Ben Mizrich called "Bringing Down The House", you should.  It tells the story of six MIT math students who formed a "blackjack team"and then proceeded to, well, bring down the house at various Las Vegas casinos using an expert knowledge of mathematical probabilities and an ability to count cards to their advantage.  What they did was not illegal, but the casinos didn't like it, and all six have been barred from ever entering those casinos again.  It's a great book.  One of those six students was Jeff Ma.

Ma now co-hosts a podcast called "Bet the Process" and for the last several years, he has been a weekly guest on the Tony Kornheiser Podcast where he picks five games each week with the point spreads.  Tony always likes to say that "if you're betting with Jeff Ma, your'e making money."  This season, I decided to test that theory.

I would listen to Jeff make his selections each week, and I would then bet one unit on each game.  Okay, a "unit" in my particular case is $1.  I'm not crazy.  The season is now ten weeks old and Jeff has made fifty such bets, a fair sample size, for the TK listeners.  How has it worked out?

Through three weeks of the season, if you bet with Jeff Ma, you were up 14%, 19.2% through four weeks, and 18.5% through five weeks.  Jeff then hit a rough patch and four of the next five weeks his picks posted losing records.

Through ten weeks, Ma's record is 25-23-2, and you are in a virtual break even position, but six tenths of one percent in the red nonetheless.

What does this prove?  Does it prove that analytical analysis isn't all that much better than just flipping a coin or going with the team with the coolest uniform colors when you decide what teams you're going to wager on any given weekend?  Probably not, but who knows?  In my own football wagering this year, I am 24-28-1 on NFL games and 33-26 on college games, 57-54-1 overall.

I will continue betting with Jeff Ma through the remainder of the season.  If it does prove to be profitable, maybe next year I'll go nuts and bet two or maybe even three bucks on his games.

The Latest GPR and Some Other NFL Thoughts

Week 11 of the NFL season kicks off in less that two hours, so I thought it would be a good time to release the Week 10 Grandstander Power Rankings.

1. Vikings (8-1)
2. Eagles (8-1)
3. Chiefs (7-2)
4. Dolphins (7-2)

• Knocking On The Door.....Bills 6-3, Cowboys 6-3, Giants 7-2, Titans 6-3

The Bills, whom I think may still be the best team in the NFL, fall from the top 4 following two straight losses, and the Vikings, who notched one of those wins over the Bills, rise to the top based upon that quality win and a tied-for-the-best record in in the League of 8-1.  The previously undefeated Eagles fall to number two based upon their loss to a so-so Washington team.

Some movement could be anticipated in Week 11 with some key match ups including the Titans-Packers tonight, Bills-Browns, Eagles-Colts, Giants-Lions, and, in what could be the Game of the Week, Cowboys-Vikings on Sunday, and Chiefs-Chargers on Monday night.

Other thoughts from Week 10....

• Prior to the Steelers-Saints game, I posted on Facebook: "Looking forward to seeing Andy Dalton throwing his trademark Soul Crushing Interception afternoon. The #bengalsdna will show itself."  The Red Rifle didn't let me down and he threw not one, but two such interceptions that afternoon, and the Steelers won their third game of the seasons.
• How about the Colts?  After being ridiculed all week for hiring Jeff Saturday out of his chair at ESPN to be their interim coach, they pull off a 25-20 win over the Raiders.  The Colts aren't any good, they appear to be tanking this year, and Saturday could be back at his post in Bristol next season, but for one day, anyway, that had to be a pretty sweet win.
• As for the Raiders, wow.  A playoff team last year with high expectations for 2022, they are now a 2-7 dumpster fire.
• I never got around to do it, but after Week 9, I wanted to write a piece talking about the decline of quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady,  Not so fast, my friend.  Rodgers rebounded last week with a strong performance and a win over the Cowboys.  As far as Brady goes, watching him lead a sixty yard drive down field in 35 seconds with no timeouts and touchdown to beat the Rams, I will say this:  his skills may have eroded this season, but as they say in the old country song "I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was."  With a game on the line with two minutes to go in the fourth quarter, is there any other QB in the league that you would want instead  of Tom Brady?  Patrick Mahomes, maybe, but I can't think of anyone else off the top of my head.
• What if someone came to you before the season began and said "After ten weeks of the season, the Steelers would have the same record as the defending Super Bowl champion Rams.  I hope that Steelers fans would have read the fine print before signing on for that, because the Steelers and Rams are indeed tied with records of 3-6.  The Rams put all of their eggs in one basket last year to go for a Super Bowl, and they succeeded, but right now, Rams fans and even the Rams themselves have to be asking....

• I don't know about you, but I am very much looking forward to tonight's Thursday night game between the Titans and Packers.  Tennessee could stake a real claim to inclusion in the GPR Top Four with an impressive win, and how that plays out will depend on which Aaron Rodgers shows up at Lambeau tonight, the one who engineered that upset of Dallas last week, or the guy at the controls through that five game losing streak that preceded that Cowboys game.

#greatsportsweek

The genesis of what turned out to be one of the coolest sports experiences of my long life of sports watching came in September when Linda gifted me with two tickets to the November 13 Steelers-Saints game at Acrisure Stadium.  Then about three weeks ago, Linda made mention of having never been on a road trip to see her beloved Penguins play.  A check of the schedule, a few clicks on the inter webs and BAM! we had ourselves tickets to see the Pens play the Capitals in Washington on Wednesday, November 9 and room reservations in the Chinatown section of DC, a three minute walk to the Capital One Arena.

Following your hometown team on the road is something that I have never done, and I found it to be an incredibly cool experience, and we were not alone, far from it.  The proximity of Washington to Pittsburgh makes a game at the Cap One Arena a virtual home game for the Penguins.  We met a couple of Pens fans from Harrisburg who said it's closer for them to come see the Pens play in DC than is would be in Pittsburgh.

That the Pens won 4-1 was a bonus, and when the victory became apparent, we got a text from our friend Tim Baker who said "Now you have to head over the The Steps."  In a tradition that began during one of the Pens' Cup years, Penguins fans head across the street the steps of the National Portrait Gallery to cheer for the victory and harass - in a good natured manner - the Caps and their fans.

Here's Linda as the crowd begins to gather....

...and coalesce into a full scale mob.... 

Then the rhythmic cheers begin...."Let's Go Pens"......"This is our house"....."You can't beat us"....."We've got five Cups"....and my personal favorite "Crosby's better".

It's hard to explain, but it turned into one of the coolest experiences I've ever had at a sporting event.  And the Caps fans who walked by were cool with it too.  Oh, there were a few middle fingers thrown to the Pens' crowd, but there were smiles as they were flipped, and most Caps fans just walked by and smiled at the scene.

As we were standing in line to get into the Arena for the hockey game, I said "I wonder when the Wizards are playing next?".  A check of the schedule showed that they would be at home the very next night playing the Dallas Mavericks.  Again, a few clicks on the phone, and we had tickets to see the Wizards go up against the Mavs and their superstar player, Luka Doncic.

We had really nice seats for the game, and the home team Wizards won 113-105, but the disappointment of the night was seeing Doncic held to only 17 points and, in fact, play pretty poorly.  Three nights later, Doncic put up 44 points and had a triple double.  Oh well, even superstars can have off nights, and as I always say, nothing is guaranteed when you buy a ticket to a sporting event.

Both the Caps and the Wizards games were played to crowds of 18,000 plus.

Before that basketball game on Thursday, we did some sightseeing that included seeing Hamilton (the statue of the first Treasury Secretary, not the musical). the White House, Washington Monument, World War II Memorial (a must see), the Viet Nam War Memorial, and one of my favorite spots, the Lincoln Memorial.

Linda decided to count the steps that you need to climb to get to see Abe sitting in that chair, and it came out to 87 steps.  Considering that we were there to see the Penguins play, that was a pretty serendipitous number.

You can't do the Nation's Capital in a day, can't even come close.   Perhaps a four or five day trip needs to be planned.  Going to have to check that Pirates schedule for '23 to see when they visit the Nationals and then plan for a longer stay.

So in the space of 24 hours, we had seen an NHL and an NBA game, and two days after getting home, we went to an NFL game.

I had not seen a Steelers game in person since I passed my season tickets on to my nephews back in 2003, and as easy and comfortable and hassle free as it is to watch on your TV set in your living room, I was very much looking forward to it.  I was not let down.  We had nice seats as you can see from the photo above, I got to experience the player introductions, including the crowd going berserk when T.J. Watt was introduced, got to see something called "Here We Go", which is an apparent pregame fixture about the Terrible Towel,  saw the Pittsburgh Steel Line, a drum line that plays at home games, and maybe best of all, got to experience the playing of "Renegade" early in the fourth quarter.   None of these things existed back when I attended my last Steelers game in the flesh.

And, oh yeah, the Steelers won, 20-10.  Life was good.

Unless someone comes through with airplane tickets to Qatar and primo seats for the World Cup later this month, I don't know how this past sports week can be topped.

Farewell to Twitter

 

I have been on Twitter for several years now, but to be honest about it, I never much cared for it, never got comfortable following this athlete or that political figure, and used it mainly just to post my Grandstander blog entries.   As you know, the entire Twitter business has recently been purchased by a multi-billionaire narcissist, so I figured it was time to cut myself loose from a platform that has done so much to cause the divide and division that now pervades our country. Twitter also voice to a tyrant that used it to help get himself elected President back in 2016.  So this weekend, I deactivated my Twitter account.   

Twitter isn't going to miss me, and I sure as hell am not going to miss it.

Random Thoughts.....and an Absent Friend, Jerry Lee Lewis

Cleaning out the Mental In-Box.....

Quick hit football thoughts:

• Another rough day at the office yesterday for Steelers rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett.  His stat line through five games: 67.9% complete rate, 2 TD's, 5 INT's.  How much of this is Pickett's fault, how much is the O-line's fault, how much is it the game plan's (ahem, we're looking at you, Matt Canada) fault?
• (Speaking of rookie QB's stat lines, how 'bout this one: 14 games, 38.1% completion rate, 6 TD, 24 INT.  Steelers fans will instantly recognize the 1970 season of Terry Bradshaw.  That turned out alright.)
• Steelers entering their bye week, so they have two weeks to try and figure something, anything, out.
• Myron Cope always took the position on his talk show that he "never fires coaches", and he knew more about that kind of stuff than I do, so I won't either, but, man, it sure seems apparent that something  just ain't right with the Steelers offensive way of doing things. (We're looking at you, Matt Canada)  By just about any metric that you care to use, this year's Steelers are the worst offensive team in the NFL.  It becomes more apparent when you watch other NFL games and see those teams throwing downfield to fast and talented receivers.  You know, like how Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown undressed the Steelers yesterday.  I watched Kenny Pickett for five years at Pitt, and I KNOW that he can throw the ball downfield.  Why won't the Steelers let him do that to guys like Chase Claypool, Dionte Johnson, and rookie George Pickens, who may be better that both of the first two guys?
• Speaking of things the Steelers don't do that other teams do, how about running backs who can rip off gains of 7, 8, 10, or more yards several times a game?  Watching Green Bay play Buffalo last night and seeing their RB's in action made me want to cry.
• No one was more enthusiastic about the drafting of Najee Harris last year, but be honest now, who has been better (and this is damning with faint praise, I realize) at the position thus far, Harris or Jaylen Warren?  It can't ALL be the fault of the linemen, can it?

As to non-Steelers thoughts....

• How much fun is it watching the Buffalo Bills?   Josh Allen surely is the leading contender for MVP after eight weeks of the season, unless....
• ....the leading contender is Jalen Hurts of the Eagles.  The Eagles are undefeated, and Hurts and Company sure laid an ass-kicking on the Steelers yesterday, which, to use the phrase a second time, may be damning with faint praise.
• And how about the performances of Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers so far?  Plenty of season left to be proven wrong, of course, but it seems that these two have all of a sudden "gotten old" and are approaching the end.

All of these thoughts lead to the return of.....

I know you've all been waiting for them, so here we go, through Week Eight.

1. Eagles 
2. Bills
3. Chiefs
4. Cowboys

In my heart, I think the Bills are better, but that may be only because I've seen them more that Philly, but an undefeated team can't be anything less than #1.

Now, on to Baseball.

The third game of the World Series will be played tonight, and if you are surprised that The Grandstander has not written one word about the MLB Post-Season, well, I can tell you that I too am astonished by this fact.  In actuality, I watched some, but very little of the first three rounds of the Playoffs.  (As an aside, I will say that I do like the Three, Five, Seven, and Seven format that MLB has instituted for the first time this season.)   I can attribute this to a couple of factors.  One, the fact that Baseball has begun a descent into the lower tiers of importance in American professional sports; there are reasons for that too numerous to go into right now.  Two,  the level of excellence that both college football and the NFL has been providing this season has overshadowed MLB.  Three, too much other stuff going on in my own life right now.  Four, the Pirates have succeeded in lessening, if not killing, my enthusiasm for Major League Baseball.

Still the World Series is the WORLD SERIES, so attention must be paid.  I watched the first game of the Series with rapt interest.  The Astros staked Justin Verlander to a 5-0 lead which the Phillies overcame and fashioned a 6-5 win in ten innings.  It was an interesting and most entertaining game and a lot of fun to watch, despite it lasting over three and a half hours.  It was a game that reminded you of why you like baseball in the first place.

I skipped Game Two, won by the Astros, in favor of the Pitt football game, wherein Pitt "Pitted" and lost convincingly.  Bad decision on my part.

Tonight the Series moves to Philly, where a no doubt raucous scene will unfold.  The Phillies were the sixth seeded team in the NL and are actually an easy team to root for.  They hit the ball, score a lot of runs, and have good starting pitching, and a bullpen that can be, ahem, adventurous.  Hard to believe that Boy Wunderkind Bryce Harper turned thirty years old this past season.  Perhaps through reasons not entirely his fault, Harper has always been kind of unlikable.  A guy you like only when he plays for YOUR team, but for me at least, and maybe this will last only through this Playoff Year, he seems to have moved beyond that, and I find myself rooting for him and the Phillies.  The Astros are a better team, or they were over this past 162 game season, but we are now down to a best of five series with Philly having the home field advantage, so who knows?  I am looking forward to the remainder of this Series.

Finally, and Absent Friend....

Jerry Lee Lewis

1935-2022

The last of the true pioneers of Rock 'n Roll, Jerry Lee Lewis, died last week at the age of 87.  The first two paragraphs of Lewis' obituary on the pop culture website Vulture describes Lewis far better that I can:

Jerry Lee Lewis was known as the Killer, and it wasn’t a casual sobriquet — a schoolmate called him that after he tried to strangle a teacher. He once shot his bass player in the chest; just about all of his seven wives, including one who was a child, said he beat them; and there’s a lingering suspicion that he murdered wife No. 5. He was the very model of a high-functioning sociopath and somehow defied hard living, drug and alcohol abuse, and serious health problems to make it well into his ninth decade.

The pianist, singer, and showman, who was one of the three or four people who decisively ushered in the rock-and-roll era — and utterly personified an unbridled and dangerous part of the music — died today, his family announced. He was 87 and, after the death of Little Richard in 2020, the last man standing from the dawn of rock and roll.

On his podcast today, Tony Kornheiser said that while Lewis wasn't Elvis, he may very well have been on the next step below him.

A few years ago, I saw the musical "The Million Dollar Quartet" which tells the story of a time when four legends, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Lewis, all recoded together at Sun Studio in Memphis on the same day.  The show's curtain call had each actor perform one song as the performer they portrayed.  I said at the time that during that curtain call, and in fact throughout the entire show, the actor that played Lewis stole the show.  Maybe it wasn't just the actor, but perhaps the energy of Lewis himself that stole that show.

If you've never seen him, here's a clip of The Killer in action on the Ed Sullivan Show back in 1969.

RIP Jerry Lee Lewis.