The First Horse's Ass Award of the Football Season Goes To.....

It has long been a tradition here in The Grandstand to bestow "Horse's Ass" citations to various and sundry  folks in various and sundry walks of life, and there are few fields more fertile for developing Horse's Asses than college football (and, to a lesser extent, basketball) coaches.  So much so, in fact, that I have considered changing the name of the Citation to the  "Dabo Swinney Award."  Still, who would have guessed that such a citation would be awarded so quickly in Week Zero of the 2022 College Football season, but here we are, and the first - I'm sure it won't be that last - Horse's Ass Award goes to...

Florida State University Head Coach Mike Norvell

Why, you may ask?  Well, in case you missed it, FSU played their opening game of the season against none other than the Duquesne University Dukes. an FCS school that plays, and plays well, in the mighty Northeast Conference.  You know how these things go.....big time Power 5 school opens against a Patsy Small College....Big School gets a guaranteed W and a big gate at their home stadium....Patsy College gets a big payday that helps to balance the athletic department budget.

Because of my connection to Duquesne (parents and a brother who are alumni), I watched this one, and the game went pretty much according to script.  The Seminoles built up a commanding 26-0 lead, and the game wasn't even that close, before the Dukes forced them to punt with about forty seconds remaining in the first half.  Duquesne gets the ball deep in their own territory and clearly intend to run out the clock before going into the locker room at the half.  Classy Coach Norvell than proceeds to use all three of his time outs after each Duquesne play, forcing Duquesne to punt with :05 remaining and then makes an all out effort to block the punt.  The Dukes punter does get the kick off and puts it out of bounds as the clock runs out, but not before Norvell has a heated discussion with the zebras claiming that the ball went out of bounds with :01 remaining and the FSU should get to run a play before the half ended.  The refs obviously told him to stick his claim up his ass and went off into the locker room.

I didn't watch the second half of a game that ended 47-7.  I wonder if Norvell had his players out for additional two-a-days this week for having given up a touchdown to lowly Duquesne?

Congrats on being such a Horse's Ass, Mike.  You have certainly earned it, and thank you for giving us another school and coach to root against this coming season.

One more thing about that Duquesne-Florida State game.  It was televised on the ACC Network, and I am guessing that the two announcers, don't remember their names, nor do I care, had probably never even heard of Duquesne University.  However, what with Duquesne being located in Pittsburgh, the producers loaded up these two guys with all sorts of "Pittsburgh stuff" to show how smart they were.  Thus, Coach Jerry Schmitt was a "dedicated Yinzer" who was fluent in "Pittsburghese" and we were told that the team trained on Primanti Brothers sandwiches.  I missed it if they said that the Dukes brought their "lunch pails" and "blue collar work ethic" to the game, but I'm sure they threw that in there somewhere.  The only thing missing were stock film shots of open hearth furnaces producing molten steel and references to Michael Keaton.

Can we stop with this kind of stuff already?

Steelers 16 - Jaguars 15

 

Thoughts, comments, and take-aways from last night's Steelers win, which, we all need to be reminded, was a practice game.

• Mitch Trubisky started and played three series.  The Steelers didn't score while he was in there.  The most encouraging thing about his performance was his ability to get out of the pocket and move away from pressure.   That is going to be a really, really important attribute to have given how the team's offensive line performed.
• Kenny Picket played two series, went 6-for-7, and produced a TD drive in the last minute of the half that gave the Steelers a 7-6 lead at intermission.  He looked poised and calm and like a veteran NFL QB.  Again, let us all remember that this was a practice game.
• Mason Rudolph played the entire second half, went 17-21, and led a late fourth quarter drive himself that produced the winning touchdown for the Steelers.  He was also called for intentional grounding in his own end zone that resulted in a safety for Jacksonville, and undoubtedly THIS is what the talk show crowd will focus on all week.
• That said, if the Steelers are showcasing Rudolph in advance of a possible trade, last night did not hurt that cause.
• Dionte Johnson played and looked like his brief hold-in had no adverse affect on him.
• TJ Watt played, had one sack, and looks ready to defend his DPOY title.
• Najee Harris didn't play, and the running game was not as impressive as it was in the prior week against Seattle.
• The Steelers offensive line, as noted above, appears to be a cause for concern.  The Jags applied great pressure on the Pittsburgh QB's and the running backs were held pretty much in check.
• Jacksonville seemed to have success, at least when their "varsity" was playing, running up the middle against the Steelers.  Whether this is because Cam Heyward wasn't playing or because the Steelers inside linebackers aren't any good, I will leave for others to discuss.  That said, I didn't see Devin Bush make any plays of note.
• Jacksonville QB Trevor Lawrence.  He's pretty good.  For his sake, I hope that the Jags organization can build a team to take advantage of his obvious skills.  He'll be fun to watch if they do.
• Finally, they say that it is foolish to bet on NFL exhibition games.  All I can say is that last week I bet the Steelers on the point spread and last night the Steelers on the money line.  Won both bets!

As I said at the beginning, we all need to remember that these are exhibition games.  Many of the guys playing will be selling mutual funds or coaching high school football a year from now, so who really, outside of the coaches, knows what these games portend.  Still, it's better to see your team win them than lose them.

This Post Is A Hodgepodge of Somethingness

Nope, I couldn't resist capitalizing on what was the buzz talk in Pittsburgh sports this week, BoSox announcer Dennis Eckersley's pronouncement that the Pirates lineup is a "hodgepodge of nothingness."  What I found out to be most entertainting about the whole affair was the reaction from Pirates officials over the whole thing.   The next afternoon I hear Bucco Chief Propaganda Minister Greg Brown with the afternoon guys on The Fan.  The tap dance Brownie was doing around it would have made Gene Kelly turn green with envy.  Then on Friday afternoon GM Ben Cherrington had a meeting with the local press to explain the progress that he has made with the overall organization since he and his team have been here.  That may be true from an organizational standpoint, but we sure haven't seen any results on the big league level as yet.  GMBC then went on to say that he wasn't going to comment on what Eckersley had to say, but if that were the case, then why hold a press briefing on some random Friday afternoon in August?

Anyway, on to other things.....

Here's the thing about baseball.  You know that your favorite team - the Pirates in my case - stink.  No need to go over all the reasons for that is there?  You know that they are going to lose 100 games  this season.  However, that doesn't mean that if you choose to go to one ball game on a nice summer's evening that the Pirates won't play well and win that particular game.  And even if they are playing a team that is only marginally better than they are, the Cincy Reds in this case, it doesn't mean that you won't see a well played and entertaining game.

And that is exactly what happened last night at PNC Park.  Very good starting pitching from Graham Ashcroft and Bryse Wilson, a couple of nifty defensive plays, and a couple of home runs which put the Reds in front 3-0 through five innings.  A run in the sixth and two in the seventh for the Pirates tied the game.  The Reds went ahead  4-3 in the eighth and the Pirates walked it off with two runs in the bottom of the ninth when Michael Chavis' bases loaded single scored the winning run.

Fun, exciting, a Pirates win, and it was all over in two hours and forty-eight minutes.   It can be done.

I haven't written about the Steelers 32-25 win over Seattle in last week's first exhibition game because, well, I just didn't get around to it.   Unless you've been living under a rock in Pittsburgh, or just really don't care about the Steelers, you know by now that the highlight of the game was the performance of the three quarterbacks.  Mitch Trubisky leading a 90 yard opening drive for a touchdown.  Mason Rudolph dropping a dime to rookie wideout George Pickens in the corner of the end zone.  And, of course, the second half, two TD pass performance of Kenny Pickett, including one that won the game with :03 left on the clock.

This all led to an interesting narrative on the talk shows and in the press.  For the first half of the week it was "Why are the Steelers continuing the charade with Mason Rudolph?  For his sake and the sake of the team, trade him now for whatever kind of low round draft pick you can get and turn things over to Pickett as the back-up to Trubisky."  By Thursday, however, the narrative changed, and the theme then became "Are the Steelers and the fans being unfair to Mason Rudolph?  Doesn't he deserve better?"

This is why I can only take sports talk radio in small doses.

Anyway, in a few more hours, the Steelers take on the Jax Jags in their second exhibition game of the season.  Trubisky will start, but by all accounts, Pickett will get the bulk of the QB playing time, including time with the first teamers, or "the varsity", as Mike Tomlin puts it.

For the first time in almost twenty years, the quarterback situation is making Steelers practice games interesting things to watch.

I am about 90 pages, or a little less than twenty percent, into this latest book by David Maraniss, "Path Lit By Lightning", a biography of Jim Thorpe.  Like Mariness' biographies of Vince Lombardi, Roberto Clemente, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, this book is meticulously researched and well written.  You learn a lot and are entertained while doing so.  I will most certainly be writing more about this book once I finish reading it.

Billy Joel - The Piano Man in Concert

About a forty minutes into the Billy Joel concert at PNC Park this past Thursday night, I leaned over to Linda and said simply, "This is a GREAT concert."  Indeed, this particular concert event immediately has achieved a ranking as one of the very best concerts that I have ever attended.

The 73 year old Long Islander, looking very cool in a dark suit, black shirt, and white patterned tie, performed a 27 song set list in a two-plus hours concert that was truly a wonderful experience for all who attended.  When someone asked me was I disappointed that he didn't  perform a particular song, I could honestly say, nope, he did every song that you, or at least I, wanted to hear.  

A word about stadium concerts.  Yes, when you are sitting in the third level of a baseball stadium, you can't see the performers on stage very well.  That is offset by a couple of factors.  One, the huge TV screens that surround a stage in a modern day concert brings the performers up close to you, regardless of where you are sitting.  Two, the acoustics and sound and PNC Park is amazing and excellent.  You are getting the full impact of the LIVE performance that you are experiencing.  Three, the setting at PNC Park is nothing short of spectacular, as you can see in the panoramic photo that I was able to take just prior to the beginning of the concert.

Two more full scale concerts are taking place at PNC Park this weekend, and I will be there again next month when Elton John is there as a part of his "Farewell Tour."  It's a terrific venue, and I can't wait for that one.   In the meantime, the memory of this fabulous Billy Joel concert will stay with me for as long as I have a memory.

I have included a link to the review and set list from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette HERE, and here a few other photos I took to try and capture the night.

The moon rises over The Burgh and Billy Joel

August 10, 2022

It's "-30-" for Tony Norman at the Post-Gazette

Today's edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette contained the disheartening news, at least for its readers, that columnist Tony Norman would be leaving the PG, and that TODAY'S COLUMN would be his final one at the paper.   The Insight section of today's edition not only contained his final column, but a page full of tributes from current and past writers at the PG.  All of them were well deserved. The one thing that each of them mentioned was his booming and infectious laugh.  That's a great quality to have.

Norman served as voice in the editorial wilderness into which the PG had wandered over the last two election cycles, and his strong opinions on national and local politics, racial standards and attitudes both locally and nationally, and even fun stuff like movies, books, comic books, and even Bob Dylan made him a reason to keep subscribing to the Post-Gazette.

The good news is that Norman is not retiring.  He will be doing a column for an online publication called NEXTpittsburgh and starting this Fall, a podcast with another former PG writer, Natalie Bencivenga.  So his voice will continue to be heard in the community, and that is a good thing.

To Absent Friends - Vin Scully

 

Vin Scully

1927-2022

The Departure Lounge is filling way too rapidly these days as giants are leaving us, and today we learned of the death of Los Angeles Dodgers play-by-play announcer Vin Scully at the age of 94.  Scully, of course, was far more than just another play-by-play guy.  He was universally regarded as the best in the business, if not the best of all time.  He began his career as the second guy in the booth with Red Barber doing Brooklyn Dodger games in 1950 at the age of 22.  Somewhere, there is a recording of Scully calling Bobby Thomson's "shot heard 'round the world" playoff winning home run in 1951.  It is a lot more professional and understated than the Russ Hodges' "the Giants win the pennant" call that you always hear.  Scully manned the Dodgers mic until he retired at the end of the 2016 season.

His skill and professionalism led him to network jobs at both CBS and NBC doing baseball Games of the Week, NFL football, and professional golf.  That is probably how most of the country, including Yours Truly, become most familiar with his work, but I can remember back in the early 2000's when I got an XM Satellite Radio, and I actually heard Scully doing Dodger games on the radio for the "local" audience.  He worked alone, no color analyst, and listening to him was a revelation.  I always knew that he was good, but for the first time I actually realized just how Capital G Great he was at his craft.

Just last week, I stumbled up a posting of the entire Kirk Gibson at bat in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.  You all know the story:  Dodgers down by two runs, two outs, two men on base, and nearly crippled Gibson is sent to pinch hit on two knees so bad that it hurt to watch him walk.  Gibson works a 3-2 count on Dennis Eckersly and then launches a walkoff home run deep into the Dodger Stadium right field bleachers.  It is one of the most famous home runs in all of baseball history.  Scully calls the home run and then - SILENCE.  Scully remained silent for over sixty seconds and let the pictures - Gibson hobbling around the bases, Dodger players rushing the field, the stunned Oakland A's walking off the field, and the sheer euphoria of the crowd - tell the story.  Can you imagine Greg Brown doing that? Or Joe Buck?  When he did speak again, it was with the classic: "In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened."

Similarly, Scully's call of the bottom of the ninth inning of Sandy Koufax' perfect game in 1966 is also a classic.  A transcript of that broadcast has been anthologized an many baseball books, and I am sure that it can be found online in any number of places.  It is worth seeking out.

And then there was his call of the Bill Buckner error that ended Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.  And Don Larsen's perfect game, and Hank Aaron's 715th home run, and, well, you get the idea.  When it comes to baseball broadcasters, there was Vin Scully, and then there was everyone else.

RIP Vin Scully.

A far better Appreciation for Scully from the Washington Post's Dave Sheinin can be found HERE.

Presidential Medal of Freedom

2016

To Absent Friends - Bill Russell

 

Bill Russell

1934-2022

When someone of the stature of Bill Russell dies, far be it for me, The Grandstander, to write of his life and accomplishments.  First of all, who ISN'T aware of Bill Russell, so what could I possibly add to the commentary?  Secondly, tributes for Russell from his peers and the writers who knew him and covered his career can be found all over the Internet, and I urge you all to seek them out and read them.  I will, however, link one such tribute here and it came from someone who might possibly be mentioned in the same paragraph with Bill Russell when it comes to basketball greatness, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. 

So, I will not write of the 11 NBA titles, 2 NCAA titles, Olympic Gold Medal, Presidential Medal of Freedom, or a noble life of social activism (although I guess that I just did).  Instead, I will just share two things that always stuck with me about Russell.

First, I once read that his decision to never sign autographs was  because of the impersonal nature of the transaction.  He would rather, he said, just have someone say Hi to him and exchange pleasantries.  This is why I've never sought autographs when given the opportunity.  I've usually approached such folks and just said Hello or thanks for what you did or just how are you.  I've done this with people like Bob Friend, Franco Harris, Chuck Tanner, Steve Blass, Lynn Swann, and Chuck Noll (although I couldn't resist, and I did get Noll to sign a baseball for me).   I think that they all appreciated it.

Second, during his broadcast career as a network analyst for NBA games, I heard Russell say, when his partner, possibly Brent Mussberger, was talking about injuries affecting a team, "Injuries are as much a part of this game as free throws."  No alibis.  I have always remembered that.

RIP Bill Russell.  We will not see his like again.

Russell Rebounding

Did anyone ever do it better?

Jump Ball with Wilt

This defined an era of pro basketball

Presidential Medal of Freedom 

Boston Says Good-bye