It's Pickett!! Kenny Stays Home.

I had decided that I would watch the insane circus that is the NFL Draft last night until I saw (a) who the Steelers would select, and (2) who would draft Pitt's Kenny Pickett.  The possibility existed that the Steelers might draft a quarterback.  Would it be Pickett or would it be Liberty University's Malik Willis?  As the draft progressed, it became more and more apparent that at least one, and possibly both, of them would be available to Rooney U when the 20th pick rolled around.

Lo and behold, when Franco Harris announced the pick, and it was certainly obvious that HE was happy with the selection, we all knew:  the Pitt kid would be staying in Pittsburgh,  Kenny Pickett would be a Pittsburgh Steeler!  The error made in 1983, when the Steelers did not draft Pitt's Dan Marino, would not be repeated thirty-nine years later.  It is a "feel good" pick to be sure.  (And speaking of feeling good, do you think Franco might have been just a wee bit over served in the Green Room before he came out on stage with Roger Goodell?)

As with any draft choice, we won't know for sure whether or not the Steelers made a mistake with this pick until at least the start of the 2022 season, and probably not for another two or three seasons.  People were nit-picking and finding flaws with Pickett ("hands too small";  please, give us a break with crap like that) in the months leading up to the Draft.  Does he have what it takes to be a Franchise Quarterback, the heir apparent to Terry Bradshaw and Ben Roethlisberger, or will he be just be another Mark Malone or Cliff Stoudt?  Plus, the Steelers have greater needs, and now what happens to Mitch Trubisky?  I haven't listened to any talk radio today, but I can only imagine that for every comment praising the Pickett selection, there will two others ripping it.

Of course, there is plenty of time to discuss the football aspect of this selection.  For what it's worth, I see a real competition in training camp between Trubisky and Pickett.  Trubisky may start the season, but if Pickett shows anything, anything at all, of what made him great at Pitt and a Heisman finalist, he could and maybe should become the number one guy midway through the season.  The guy I do feel bad for is Mason Rudolph.  He has to be feeling like Vaughn Meader on November 22, 1963.  I am guessing that he will be the one left standing when the music stops.  He probably makes too much money to be the Number Three QB, and the Steelers will trade him and sign an older vet to hold the clipboards and be available to suit up if Trubisky or Pickett get hurt.

My hope is that the folks of Steelers Nation don't put too much pressure on Pickett to be GREAT RIGHT NOW.   For all his claim to always being a "Pittsburgh guy", I think that deep down there is a part of Dan Marino that was glad he wasn't drafted by the Steelers where he would have been held to ridiculously high standards by the crowds and would have been torched for the slightest shortcomings.  I only hope that that does not happen to Pickett.

Now Rounds Two through Six will take place over today and tomorrow.  We will see how the Steelers address all of those other needs - O and D linemen, a corner, a wide receiver.  All of them, though, will be in the shadow of this year's Number One pick, Kenny Pickett of the University of Pittsburgh.

Welcome back home, Kenny!

Leaving Las Vegas!

Getting the news from Mike Tomlin

Thoughts from Pat Narduzzi

To Absent Friends - Guy Lafluer

Hockey Hall of Famer Guy Lafleur died earlier this week at the age of 70.  He was born on September 20, 1951, a mere nine days after The Grandstander was born, a fact that certainly brings me up short.  It also means that he was beginning his Hall of Fame career with the Habs at the age of 20.  What in the hell was I doing at the age of 20?  Certainly nothing like Lafleur.

Regardless, the mere fact that I know the name of Guy Lafleur is a testament to his greatness, but far be it for me to pen a tribute to him.  The picture and the statement below does it far better than anything I could write.

Yes, that is a 14 year old Mario Lemieux applauding The Flower at a game in Montreal.

RIP Guy Lafleur.

"WILT, 1962" by Gary M. Pomerantz

A few weeks ago,  March 2, to be precise, marked the sixtieth anniversary of one of the most extraordinary accomplishments in all of American professional sports:  the night that Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors scored 100 points in a regulation NBA basketball game.  In a column in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,  Gene Collier wrote about the event and referenced the book you see to the left of these words, published in 2005, and it prompted me to borrow it from the local library, and what a treat it was to read.

Before I even get to the subject matter, let me say that the book is worth reading for the sheer artistry of Gary Pomerantz' writing.  For example, read these opening sentences in the Introduction to the book:

"Wilt Chamberlain died on a mountaintop, alone, in bed, beneath a retractable ceiling that allowed him to see the stars.  The gardener found his body, which is how it works in Hollywood.  The Dipper died alone, a life he chose."

Great writing, evocative of the opening scene from "Citizen Kane", and so begins the story of an extraordinary night in the life of one of the more extraordinary athletes that America has ever produced.  Note the subtitle of the book for that is as much a part of this story as the 100 Point Game itself: "The Night of 100 Points and the Dawn of a New Era."  In that 1961-62 season the NBA itself was only in its sixteenth year of existence.  It was far from the international multi-billion dollar sports colossus that it is today.   It was an eight team league and to many, it remained the poor step-brother of college basketball.  Television coverage was spotty, and even in New York City, coverage of NBA games was buried deep in the sports section, next to the tire ads.   Teams played double headers to attract crowds, and games were often scheduled in smaller cities in order to expose the pro game to folks in the hinterlands, which is why this late season game between the Warriors and the Knicks took place, not in Madison Square Garden or Philly's Convention Hall, but in a dinky 8,000 seat gym in Hershey, PA.  The game was not televised - no film footage of the game exits - it was carried only on a Philadelphia radio station, and the New York newspapers didn't even bother  to send any sportswriters to cover the game.   Only 4,124 fans, a generous estimate, were in attendance.

It also needs to be noted that as the 1950's turned into the 1960's, NBA owners feared that their League might be perceived by the public as "too black."  The NBA was integrated, but there can be no doubt that an unspoken quota system existed among the owners of the teams. There was talk that the not-so-great television contract that the league had in place at the time was in danger of not being renewed.  The continued existence of the NBA as a "major league" was not a sure thing, hard as that might be to believe today.

More from Pomerantz...

"It is impossible in sports to know when or where the unforgettable moments will happen.  That's the beauty of it.  It can be a place or a time.  It can be a personality or a startling achievement."

A minor league venue in Hershey PA on March 2, 1962 was the place and the time of the extraordinary moment, and the personality and the startling achievement belonged to twenty-five year old Wilt Chamberlain, of Philadelphia's Overbrook High School, the University of Kansas, the Harlem Globetrotters, and, now, the Philadelphia Warriors.   If you are not old enough to have been around when Wilt (you only need one name to identify him)  played, it is hard to comprehend what a revolutionary and extraordinary player and personality he was.  This book, in addition to telling the story of the 100 Point Game, tells, or tries to tell, it's hard for even a great writer to capture the Essence of Wilt Chamberlain, just what Wilt was to the game of basketball.  One more passage from the book:

"When the players of this game had grown old and gray, they would yet light up in conversation remembering the way the young Dipper ran the floor on a fast break.  They would speak about it with a hushed reverence, as if they'd seen something otherworldly, like aged Plains Indians recalling the first sight of the steam locomotive."

The book tells the story of the game from the viewpoints of the other players, both Warriors and Knicks, who played that night.   Aging stars like Richie Guerin and Paul Arizin, both Hall of Famers, had to know that the game that they played - Guerin still specialized in two-handed set shots - was coming to an end, and that a wave of Black stars like Wilt, Bill Russell, and Oscar Robertson, and the many that would follow them, were changing how the game would be played, the game that we watch today. 

Back in the late 1960's, the Philly 76'ers scheduled some regular season games in Pittsburgh's Civic Arena, and because of that, I am privileged to say that I once saw Wilt Chamberlain play in person.  I've always been a fan of his, and I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Four Stars from The Grandstander.

Back in 2014, I wrote about Wilt in this space.  Here is that post.

If the name of Gary M. Pomerantz sounds familiar, his is also the author of the 2013 book "Their Life's Work", about the 1970's Era Super Bowl Steelers.  If you are a Steelers fan, or just a pro football fan, you owe it to yourself to read it.  Here is what I had to say about it back when it was published.

To Absent Friends - Wendy Rieger

 

Over the years I have written numerous Absent Friends posts about Pittsburgh area television, radio, and media personalities.  People like Bill Cardille, Adam Lynch, Eleanor Schano, and Ricki Wirtz.  These names meant little to anyone outside of southwestern Pennsylvania, but they were very much a part of the fabric of the Pittsburgh area community and culture.  There are people like this in every community, every big city.

Such a person was Wendy Rieger who died on Friday at the age of 65.  Wendy was a news anchor and reporter for the NBC television station in Washington DC for the last thirty years. Now I never once saw Wendy Rieger do her thing for NBC4 in Washington, but she was a frequent guest on Tony Kornheiser's radio show and podcast.  She was loud and bombastic and funny as she told stories of reporting the news, her adventures, or misadventures, as a middle aged woman on the dating scene, of the dream house that she was designing and building in the Virginia countryside.  Tony often called her his favorite guest, and I came to look forward to her appearances on the show.

Wendy encountered health difficulties in recent years.  Heart surgery two years ago, and then glioblastoma, a brain tumor, that caused her to retire last year.  Earlier in the week, word came down that she had entered into hospice treatment, and then the news of her death arrived Friday.   

Like I said,  I have no first hand experience of watching Wendy Rieger at work, but I came to know her as one of those types of persons who exist in every community, and as someone who becomes a vital part of the lives of the people who live there, almost like a member of the family.   If you google "Wendy Rieger", you will find many tributes to her from her colleagues in the DC television community,  and you will get to see some small samplings of her work.  If you do that, I think that you will "get" what I am talking about.

RIP Wendy Rieger.

To Absent Friends - Dwayne Haskins

Dwayne Haskins

1997 - 2022

This past weekend brought with it the sad news of the death of Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins, killed in a pedestrian accident as he tried to cross on foot an eight lane interstate highway in Florida.  The circumstances of Haskins death are perplexing, to say the least, and there are some reports that there are some unusual and perhaps unsavory elements to the story.  The investigation continues, and who knows what the final verdict will be.  None of that, however, lessens the tragedy of someone losing their life so senselessly at the age of 24.

Haskins was an All-American quarterback at Ohio State who left school early to enter the NFL draft in 2019. He became a first round draft pick of the Washington Football Team and started a number of games for Washington in his two seasons there.   He was beset with what were termed as "maturity issues" and was cut after the 2020 season.  He signed on with the Steelers and spent the 2021 season as the team's third QB behind Ben Roethlisberger and Mason Rudolph.  He never appeared in a regular season game with the Steelers.  With Roethlisberger's retirement, it appeared that Haskins was about to have a clear shot to compete for the position in training camp and, at the least, have a real shot to beat out Rudolph as the back up quarterback.

Whatever issues Haskins may have had in the past, it was clear from the statements issued by the team's ownership, coaches, and players that he was a well liked and popular guy and a good teammate.

So sad that this happens to someone so young.

RIP Dwayne Haskins.

As an aside, in his Post-Gazette column on the topic, headlined "Haskins' Dearth Latest Tragedy to Beset Pittsburgh Sports Teams", Ron Cook turned to his mental rolodex and then phoned in a couple of paragraphs about Roberto Clemente, Bob Moose,  Michel Briere, Gabe Rivera, Badger Bob Johnson, and a few others.  It was an example of lazy writing.  Cook probably did it in his sleep.

"Let Us Come To Praise Ceasar....."

Well, no sooner had my Opening Day post that excoriated the Pirates for their skinflint ways been published in the blogosphere than the news arrived that the team had reached a contract agreement with one of their young hope-to-be-star players, third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes, for $70 million over eight years, with a team option for a ninth year.  It is the largest guaranteed contract that the Pirates have ever given a player, surpassing the $60 million contract that they gave to Jason Kendall in 2000.  It took the team twenty-two years to surpass the amount of that contract, make of that what you will.

So, while we have been rightfully critical of the team for their penurious ways, it is only fair to give them an "Attaboy" for this one.  If over the life of this contract Hayes becomes merely a good and consistent player, never mind a superstar, the team has fallen into an incredible bargain with this deal.   By comparison, Cardinals third sacker Nolan Arenado will make $34 million this season, just about half of what Hayes will make over the next eight years.  The real mystery here is why Hayes agreed to this deal.  He obviously is not betting on himself  to become the superstar who will command Arenado-type money down the road.  Of course, that seventy mill will insure that several generations of Hayes descendants will never have to punch a time clock in their lives, so I won't feel too bad for him.

It should be noted that Hayes left the game yesterday with what appeared to be a wrist injury in the second inning.  You will recall that he was injured in the second game of last season, missed two months, and ended up hitting in the .250 range for the season.  Reports are that Hayes is okay and his removal from the game yesterday was purely precautionary.  However, should Hayes turn out to be a china doll and hurt all the time, that will once again fall into an "only the Pirates" stroke of disastrous luck.  Let's all hope that that doesn't become the case.

For a better analysis of this deal, I refer you to Joe Starkey's column in today's Post-Gazette.  You can read it HERE.

One more thing.  What are the odds that Hayes spends the entirety of that eight year contract with the Buccos?   God willing, I'll still be around in 2030 when that contract expires, but I wouldn't bet the mortgage, or even the car payment, on him still being a Pirate when it does.

Opening Day 2022

So I get a message last night from my friend Steve Ozbolt in Milwaukee that asks me "Are you looking forward the the Pirates season?"  It is a seemingly simple question, yet at the same time, it is a rather complex one for a lifelong Pittsburgh Pirates fan to answer.   

The simple answer is that, yes, I look forward to the opening of the baseball season today as I have every year since 1959, the year that I attended my first Pirates game.  It's Opening Day....all things are possible....every team is 0-0....everyone has a fresh start.  You know, all of the usual tired cliches that surround Opening Day.  Somehow, though, 2022 feels different for this Pirates fan.

We all know how administration of Bob "Ebenezer" Nutting has turned this team that we love into a national joke.  The team makes tons of money for Nutting, but they stink, have stunk for the last twenty five years or so (FACT: Since they last won a World Series in 1979, the Pirates have had the worst  winning percentage of all MLB teams over this forty-three-years-and-still-counting time frame).  They go into the 2022 season with the 29th lowest payroll in all of MLB.  The biggest story out of Spring Training was that they are taking Bryan Reynolds, their  best player, to salary arbitration over a measly $650,000 difference, thereby assuring that there becomes a very good chance that Reynolds becomes an embittered ball player, and an even better chance that he will be traded at some point between now and 2023.  What is the message  Bob Nutting, Travis Williams, and Ben Cherrington send to the fans of the team when they play hardball with their best player over relative pocket change in MLB terms?  

Then there was the case of Oneil Cruz.  Cruz did everything asked of him in Spring Training.  He hit the cover off the ball and he appears to be the most exciting prospect to come out of the Pirates system since Andrew McCutchen.  He's 23 years old, not a baby.  And the Pirates send him to Indianapolis two weeks before the season starts.  Like many of the moves the Pirates make, this can be defended in pure baseball terms and in a vacuum.  However, it is yet another case of Pirates management looking at a player that could get the fans (aka, the "paying customers") excited about, someone that they want to go to the ball park and see, and yet again, the Suits at 115 Federal Street seem to say "F--- you" to the ticket buyers.

On a national podcast earlier this week, sportswriters Richard Justice talked about the Pirates and asked "Are they even trying?"  Doesn't seem like it.

Last year the Pirates won 61 games.  The Over/Under line of wins for them this season has been set at 64.5.  I bet the OVER, but I'm not all that confident that it's going to happen.  I made a nominal bet out of loyalty and with the idea that I don't want to be in a position of rooting for them to lose games as the season draws to a close.  Either way, a 65th win, if it happens at all, isn't going to come for this team until the last days of the season.

Yes, I will be watching the Pirates on television throughout the year, and I will attend games at PNC Park, although far fewer than I have in past years.  I saw only five or six games in person last year, a low number for me.  There were other reasons for that, but the sheer lousiness of the team was foremost among them.  Can't see that changing much in '22.

That question that Steve asked me last night was followed by him saying that he is "positively giddy about the Brewers" for this coming season.  Must be nice when your team makes the effort to compete.

Play ball!!!

Bryan Reynolds

Enjoy him while he's here, folks.

To Absent Friends - Bobby Rydell

Bobby Rydell

1942-2022

Pop singer and one time teen idol Bobby Rydell died earlier this week at the age of 79, just a few weeks short of his eightieth birthday.   You almost have to be as old as he was to remember Rydell when he was at the height of his popularity, yet, amazingly, Bobby Rydell never really went away.

Rydell, born Robert Ridarelli, came from the same South Philly Italian neighborhood as two other teen idol contemporaries, Frankie Avalon and Fabian.  Dick Clark, whose "American Bandstand" program was being filmed in Philadelphia at the time, latched on to all three of them, and they all became stars.  Their popularity came just after Elvis Presley went into the army and Buddy Holly died in a plane crash in 1959 and ended pretty much in 1964, when the Beatles came to America and essentially changed rock & roll forever.  No one will ever compare Rydell to those artists, yet during that period, he placed 34 singles in Billboard's Hot 100,  nineteen of them reaching the Top 40.  His biggest hits were Wild One and Volare.

He co-starred in the 1963 movie version of "Bye Bye Birdie" but never hung around Hollywood, saying that he was an "east coast guy."  He bought a home in a Philadelphi suburb and lived there with his wife until recent years when it just became "too big" for him, and who can't relate to that?

Like I said, though, Rydell never really went away.  In 1985, he joined up with old Philly buddies Avalon and Fabian and toured as the Golden Boys at nostalgia gigs, cruise ships, pretty much anywhere.  Despite liver and kidney transplant surgery in 2012 and heart bypass surgery in 2013, Rydell performed for the rest of his life.  Somewhere on YouTube you will find a clip of Avalon introducing him at one of these shows as his "old pal Ridarelli."  When Marilyn and I went to Las Vegas for the first time in 2002, I can remember seeing billboards for an act playing there at the time featuring Frankie Avalon and Bobby Rydell.  I always regretted that we didn't make an effort to take in that show.

Fabian, Avalon, and Rydell

"The Golden Boys"

Here's a look at an older Bobby Rydell performing his most famous song.  The audiences still loved him.

RIP Bobby Rydell.

The 2022 Final Four

After two weekends of terrific basketball, and let's be honest, some not so terrific basketball in the Regional Finals, the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament has produced a Final Four featuring four programs with the bluest of Blue Blood.  Even all of the school's colors are various shades of blue.

Anyway, here is why I am rooting for....

DUKE 

Let's face it, in Mike Krzyzewski, Duke has arguably the greatest coach in the history of the sport, and in case you missed it, he is retiring as soon as the tournament is over.  While Coach K has tended to get pious and preachy in his latter years, I have no gripe with him, and having he and his Blue Devils win it all in his final season at the helm would be a great story, except for anywhere in North Carolina outside of Durham.  And for Duke and Krzyzewski haters.  So, go Duke!

NORTH CAROLINA

My niece Bonny Moellenbrock and her husband Michael Lowry are UNC grads, and their daughter is currently an undergrad at Chapel Hill.  North Carolina has great tradition and cool uniforms.  So, go North Carolina.

VILLANOVA

Villanova is a Catholic school and part of Philadelphia's Big Five.  My brother Bill went to a Catholic Philly Big Five school, albeit not Villanova.  My niece Carole Sproule is a Villanova graduate, as is my friend Mike Montrose, and Jay Wright is a great coach and a cool guy who wears great suits.  So, go Villanova.

KANSAS

Kansas is coached by a coach whose shady and unethical practices should have gotten him fired a couple of years ago.  Also, if Kansas wins the whole thing, I owe my pals Dave Jones and Fred Shugars ten bucks each.  So, in spite of my regard for KU alum David Cicotello, I say Anybody But Kansas.  

They also are probably the best team among the four remaining, so I may be unhappy, and twenty dollars poorer come Monday night.

Less heralded but no less entertaining will be the Women's Final Four also being staged this weekend.  I hope you saw Connecticut's double overtime win over NC State on Monday to get to the Final Four.  It was probably the best game, men or women, played over the weekend.

I will go with South Carolina over Louisville and UConn over Stanford in the semis with UConn, led by the incomparable Paige Bueckers, winning yet another championship for Coach Geno come Sunday night.

Enjoy the games, everyone.