To Absent Friends: Crosby, Packer, Williams, and Hull

Absent Friends are leaving us faster in January that I can write about them, so these posts will be, regretfully, briefer that they should be.

David Crosby 1941-2023

Guitarist and vocalist David Crosby is remembered as a founding member of two seminal rock and roll groups of the late twentieth century, The Birds and Crosby, Stills, and Nash (sometimes Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young).  One of the best descriptions that I heard of Crosby following his death earlier this month came from podcaster Tony Kornheiser, who likened him to the quintessential "glue guy" on a baseball or basketball team.  He may not have been the best player, or lead vocalist in this case, but he made every group that he was a part of better because of his presence.

Seek out and find a documentary film from 2018 called "Echo In The Canyon" about the 1970's music scene in Los Angeles' Laurel Canyon.   Crosby is interviewed extensively throughout the film, and it is Must See for music fans of that era.

It is hard to pick a "best song" from Crosby, Stills, and Nash, but let this one serve as a tribute to the memory of David Crosby.

Billy Packer 1940-2023

Former college basketball coach, most notably at Wake Forest, Billy Packer passed away last week.  While he made his bones as a coach, he became far, far better known as television broadcaster of the sport.  At a time when college basketball was just becoming a part of broadcast network sports television, Packer teamed with fellow coach Al McGuire and broadcaster Brent Musberger, and they were an immediate hit with the audience.  Packer's pedantic X's and O's approach contrasted sharply with McGuire's hip, New York City street sense.  He was Felix to McGuire's Oscar, and they were largely responsible for the boom in college basketball as a television staple.  Packer was large presence at CBS's telecasts of the Final Four, first with Musberger and then with Jim Nantz, until his retirement a few years back.

My favorite memory of Packer was watching him on CBS' "Selection Sunday" show and listening to him carping and bitching over the fact that there weren't more ACC teams in the tournament.   It was gold, Jerry, gold.

"Hello, Friends"

Cindy Williams 1947-2023

Cindy Williams co-starred with Penny Marshall on one of the better television sitcoms of the late 1970's and early 1980's, "Laverne and Shirley".   She was cute, funny, and a talented physical comedienne who teamed perfectly with Marshall on the show.  She was also the featured lead actress opposite Ron Howard in George Lucas' terrific 1973 movie, "American Graffiti."  She was 75 years old.  As my buddy Dan said, when someone you watched and maybe even had a crush on back in your youth, it makes you sad.

With Marshall in "Laverne & Shirley"

As Laurie in "American Graffiti"

Bobby Hull 1939-2023

At a time before the Pittsburgh Penguins came into the National Hockey League, the NHL and the sport of hockey was barely a blip on my sports fan radar, yet I knew who Bobby Hull of the Chicago Black Hawks was, and that is the definition of a superstar.  His goal scoring and other accomplishments on the ice were overwhelming and undeniable.  I was going to write in a bit more depth of Hull's accomplishments on the ice, and then I  read his obit in the Washington Post on him today, and I almost skipped mentioning him entirely.

Hull, it seems, had a dark side.  He was married three times, beat up on at least two of his wives, was an indifferent father (although one of his sons, Brett, became an NHL superstar in his own right), and he drank a lot.  He also had a, shall we say, less than enlightened view of race relations and how to treat people of color.  Oh, and he thought that Hitler had a lot of "good ideas."  As I said, I almost skipped including him in this write-up, but what the Hell.  Let's just call him an "Absent Friend with an asterisk."

RIP David Crosby, Billy Packer, Cindy Williams, and Bobby Hull

Looking For Something To Watch? Some Suggestions.....

Some Capsule Critiques of what I've been watching of late....

In this filmed-in-(parts of) Pittsburgh movie, based upon a best selling novel, Hanks plays a crotchety misanthropic curmudgeon - one critic I read calls it "Forrest Grump" - who, seemingly, hates everything and everybody.  Why does he have to pay for six feet of rope, when he's only buying five feet, because that's all he needs, and the home improvement place (Busy Beaver; I didn't know there were any of those around anymore) only sells rope by the yard?  That kind of stuff.  He treats everyone in his neighborhood with a get-off-my-lawn contempt that makes Clint Eastwood from "Grand Torino" look like a pussycat.  

There is a reason for this, of course, which doesn't take too long to figure out, even if, like me, you haven't read the book, and this whole thing becomes a redemption story.  I mean, this is TOM HANKS here.  No movie can end with Tom Hanks being an unlovable old bastard can it?  Of course, Hanks is great in the role, but equally great is Mexican actress Mariana Trevino who plays new neighbor Marisol.  The scene where Otto comes to Marisol's house and asks if he can use her phone is the best one in the movie, I think.

A warning.  A someone who was widowed two years ago, there were a couple of scenes in this one that struck way too close to home for me.  That doesn't make it a bad movie, but since I wasn't expecting it, it sure gave me a jolt, and brought tears to my eyes.

Two and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

Emily, played brilliantly by Aubrey Plaza (who was so good in Season 2 of HBO's "White Lotus"), is a late twenty-something young woman stuck in a shit job with over $70,000 of student debt to pay off.   She can't get a "real" job because of a felony conviction in her past.  One day she gets a text saying that for two hours of her time, she can make $200 cash, but she will be doing something illegal (no, it doesn't involve prostitution).  Thus begins a taut and suspenseful thriller that I cannot recommend highly enough.  I'll say no more other than SEE THIS ONE.  This movie was released in 2022, and while I haven't thoroughly perused all fo the Oscar nominations released yesterday, I don't believe that it received any love from the Motion Picture Academy,  For my money, though, it may well be the best of all the 2022 movies that I have seen thus far.

Three and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

This is a sequel to the "Knives Out" movie from two years ago.  Once again, Daniel Craig plays world famous detective Benoit Blanc.  Looks like Craig, after quitting his James Bond gig, has found another franchise character to play in a string of movies.  He's very good at this type of thing.

This is another murder mystery Whodunit, set in a gorgeous locale, and featuring a terrific cast that includes Edward Norton (has ever been bad in anything he's ever done?), Kate Hudson, Janelle Monae, Kathryn Hahn, and Leslie Odom Jr.  All of them have secrets to hide.  One of them ends up dead, and it's up to Blanc to unravel the whole thing.

No one will ever call "Glass Onion" a great movie, but it's a good one, and, perhaps more importantly, it's fun to watch and entertaining as all hell.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

Were you a fan of "That 70's Show", a sitcom that ran on network TV from 1998-2006?  I was.  It was funny.  It produced Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, the two young actors in the show who became breakout stars in movies and TV.  It brought Tanya Roberts back into our living rooms.  However, the best part of that show were Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp who played Red and Kitty Forman, the parents of central teen character Eric Forman, played by Topher Grace.  Well, Netflix has rebooted this series as "That 90's Show", and the even better news is that Red and Kitty are back and are the central part of the show.

In the first episode, Eric and Donna (Laurie Prepon) return to Wisconsin with their teenaged daughter, Leia, and arrangements are made for her, much to Kitty's delight and Red's exasperation, to stay with her grandparents for the summer.  Leia becomes friends with other kids from the neighborhood, including Michael Kelso's son, and the now happy and content empty nester Red sees his nightmare with teenagers beginning all over again, as he calls them "dumbasses" and threatens to put his "foot up their ass."  Hilarity will no doubt ensue.

In episode one, Grace, Prepon, Kutcher, and Kunas all made appearances as their former characters, and previews tell us that Fez will be back, too, but I am guessing that they are not going to be appearing regularly.  As in the '70s, Red and Kitty are going to be the stars here.

Not assigning Grandstander Stars just yet, but this series has a lot of potential.

A Trio of Absent Friends: Lisa Marie, Gina, and Frank

These first days of 2023 have seen three deaths of note, and I have been asked if I would be doing Absent Friends posts on them.   In and of themselves, they probably wouldn't have rated an Absent Friends post from me, but given the proximity of the three deaths, here we go....

The first is Lisa Marie Presley who died at the age of 54, apparently of a coronary condition. She is the daughter and the only child of Elvis Presley, and, as such, was the sole heir to the vast  earnings of her father, whose name, image, and likeness produced more wealth in death than he ever earned while alive.  She had her own music career, but is more known for some weird marriages.  She also bore, as the photo above indicates, and amazing resemblance to her father.

Next came the death of Italian actress and 1950's era sex symbol Gina Lollobridgida at the age of 95.  Honestly, I can say that I never saw a single movie in which Miss Lollobridgida appeared, but with a name like that, you have to say that she was unforgettable. And she certainly was pretty, too.

Finally, the news arrived yesterday that former Pittsburgh Pirate Frank Thomas died at the age of 93.  Thomas was a home run hitter for the Pirates in the 1950's and a three time All-Star,  but his greatest contribution to the Pirates came when GM Joe L. Brown traded him to the Reds after the 1958 season, a trade that netted the Bucs Don Hoak, Smokey Burgess, and Harvey Haddix, without whom the magical Championship season of 1960 would probably have never happened, so, thanks for that, Frank.

In addition to the Pirates and Reds, Thomas played for the Cubs, Braves, Mets (he was an original Met, and the franchise's first "star"), Phillies, where he was traded after he got into an allegedly racially motivated fight with the Phil's young star Richie Allen, and Astros.

I got to meet Thomas on a couple of occasions when I was involved with the SABR Chapter in Pittsburgh.  I found him to be the typical ex-player from the pre-Marvin Miller Era, begrudging the money that "these guys today" are making.   I will also go by the dictum imparted to my by my mother any by the Notre Dame nuns who educated me, that if you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all, so I will leave it at that.

RIP Lisa Marie, Gina, and Frank.

Cutch Comes Home, The Playoffs Begin, and Jim Thorpe

It's been a jam-packed week, so let's get right on to various topics, as indicated in the headline.

CUTCH COMES HOME

The Pittsburgh Pirates made news this past week with the announcement that they had signed free agent Andrew McCutchen, 36, to a one year, $8 million contract.   This, of course, was greeted warmly by the Bucco fan base since it brings back, arguably, the greatest and most popular Pirates player of this century.  I, for one, will love seeing Cutch back wearing #22 for the Pirates and will be glad that he will get the chance, maybe, to "retire as a Pirate."   However, let's just suppose that the Pirates had signed some other 36 year old free agent who can be described as being well into the back nine of his career?

Would we be saying "same old cheap skate Pirates"?  I think that we probably would.  But, you say,  as the Post-Gazette's Jason Mackey did, "Cutch can still play."  Can he?  Last year for the Brewers, Cutch played in 134 games, had 515 at bats, hit .237 with 17 HR and 69 RBI, and sported a .700 OPS.  He's 36 years old and those numbers don't figure to get better come 2023.  Of course, Cutch will provide a veteran presence and elder statesman leadership in a clubhouse filled with young players, particularly outfielders Cal Mitchell and Jack Suwinski, and there is certainly value in that.  McCutchen is also expected to serve as a band-aid for the possible, if not probable, departure of Brian Reynolds, the man obtained from the Giants when Cutch was first traded away.  Why is Reynolds leaving?  Because the Pirates won't pay the market value price for him.  Surprise.

And don't think that this might not possibly occur.  Let's say that McCutchen discovers the fountain of youth (possibly from one of the new bars the team is putting into PNC Park) and by the All-Star Break has 15 HR, 50 RBI and is hitting in the .270 range.   The team still stinks and is headed for a 90-95 loss season.  Will GMBC then try to trade Andrew McCutchen to a contender in need of a hot bat in exchange for a basket full of prime prospects?  Will the Pirates become the first franchise in history to be pilloried TWICE by its fan base for trading the same player?

THE PLAYOFFS BEGIN

Wild Card Weekend, oh, excuse me, Super Wildcard Weekend, took place with five of the six games being incredibly good and exciting.  The only game that was not in that category was last night's easy win for the Cowboys over the Bucs, but that game was intriguing because it may well be the last time that we see Tom Brady playing.

Some quick hit thoughts and impressions....

• The 49ers looked incredibly good in their win over Seattle.  I see them playing in the Conference Championship game in two weeks.
• The comeback of the Jaguars from being down 0-27 to the Chargers to winning 31-30 was an unbelievable gag job by the Chargers.  
• The matchup between Trevor Lawrence and Justin Herbert could be this decade's version of Tom Brady v. Peyton Manning of the '00's.  Two incredible talents.
• Both Buffalo and Cincinnati won their games, but didn't look dominant in doing so, and it could be said that they were fortunate to win.  QB's Josh Allen and Joe Burrow did not play their best games, but, in the end, they won.  They meet this weekend in a rematch of the Monday Night game of two weeks back that ended up not being played.  One of them will end up playing the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game in two weeks.
• The Giants beat the Vikings, who may well have been one of the worst 12 win teams in history.   The Giants will meet the Eagles this weekend for the third time this season.  Philly finished shakily in the regular season, in large part due to Jalen Hurts injury.  I'm sure that the Eagles would rather be playing the Vikings instead of their divisional foe this weekend.

I am figuring that the 49ers, Eagles, and Chiefs will win their games this weekend.  The Cincy - Buffalo game will be the most intriguing one.  I am guessing the both Allen and Burrow will bounce back and perform better this week than last week.  I'll call it a win for the Buff Bills because the Bengals are, well, the Bengals.

JIM THORPE

I finally finished David Maraniss' massive (568 pages) and meticulously researched biography of Jim Thorpe.  As he was beginning the project, Maraniss had numerous people say to him something along the lines of "Jim Thorpe?  I think I read a book about him when I was in fourth or fifth grade."  I think that I did, too, and like many people, I knew the basics of his story.  American Indian born on Oklahoma, sent to the Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, PA, great football player, won decathlon and pentathlon gold medals at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, then had medals stripped from him because he played bush league baseball in 1910.  One of the first great players in what is now the NFL, played major league baseball.  In 1950, he was Named the Greatest Athlete of the First Fifty Years of the 20th Century.   Had a movie of his life made with Burt Lancaster playing him on screen.  That was about the extent of my knowledge of Thorpe.

Maraniss give you more, a whole lot more, of what Thorpe's life was.  He pretty much spent his whole life scuffling to make ends meet.  He played minor league and barnstorming baseball well into his forties, he appeared in dozens of movies, usually as an extra, often uncredited (he was one of the native dancers in "King Kong"), fought for the rights of American Indian actors in Hollywood, dug ditches in California during the depression.  He was the front man for numerous bars, restaurants, and even a Nevada casino that always failed.  He drank too much, was married three times, and was an absent father to his seven children.   He died of a heart attack at age 65 in 1952.  He is buried in a town renamed Jim Thorpe, PA in the north east corner of Pennsylvania, an area where, for all of his travels, Thorpe never set foot.  Maraniss tells the story of how that came about in fascinating detail.

You will learn a lot about the plight of the American Indian when you read his book.  You will also learn who some of the villains were in Thorpe's story.  You  might be surprised to learn that one of them was fabled football coach Pop Warner.  You will not be surprised, if you know anything at all about the man, that another was Avery Brundage, Thorpe's teammate on the 1912 Olympic team and later the President of the USOC and the IOC.

"Path Lit By Lightning" (the english translation of Thorpe's Sac and Fox native name) is at times a ponderous read, but in the end, well worth it, I think.   I enjoyed Maraniss' books on Vince Lombardi and Roberto Clemente more, but I am glad I read this one.   It gets Two and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

In 2000, ESPN did a poll of the 100 Greatest Athletes of the Twentieth Century.  Thorpe, as noted above, topped the list in 1950, but in ESPN's 2000 poll, he fell to seventh, behind Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Wayne Gretzky, and Jesse Owens.

 

Painting of Jim Thorpe 

that hangs in the Oklahoma State Capital 

Building in Oklahoma City

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

The depiction at the right is of Janus, the ancient Roman god with two faces, one to look forward and one to look backward.  So appropriate that the month of January is named for him.  This post was to be my first post of 2023, but the football gods of America delivered unto us such a monumental weekend of games that, this look back/forward got bumped.

So, how was 2022 for The Grandstander?  On the whole it was a very good year.  On the downside, I found myself still dealing with the 2021 loss of Marilyn to cancer.  I found myself missing her in ways both profound and simple.  The memories of our life together serve to both make me smile with gratitude and happiness, but they also, sometimes, bring with them emotions of loss and sadness.  Over the last thirteen years, I have learned much about the nature of grief, and I know that it never goes away, and that it can strike you at the least expected moments and over the most seemingly trivial things, like paper napkins and how you operate a vacuum cleaner.  I know that these feelings are normal, and that the wonderful memories that we made will be with me forever, and that I will always miss her.

On the upside was the relationship that developed with our fellow Caring Place volunteer and friend Linda Mulzet (as first documented HERE) that grew into something special, and we were married on December 3.  I didn't know if I would ever find someone so special again, didn't know if I would ever get married again, and never expected it to happen as quickly as it did.  I am so glad that it did, however.   I have learned much over the past six years through therapy and other support systems, learned that there are no rules as to how life plays out, and that when the opportunity to begin anew and start new chapters arise, that you need to take them. If other people don't understand or have issues with what you do - and there have been plenty of such folks - then that is THEIR problem, and not mine, and that maybe, just maybe, such people were never your friends to begin with.

So, what was good about 2022:

• I got to travel to Hilton Head Island with Linda
• Spent am amazing 48 hours in New York City with Linda where we saw two Broadway shows, "The Music Man" and "Plaza Suite".  We also go engaged when we were there!!!
• Had an amazing eleven day tour of the breathtakingly beautiful Canadian Rockies via train and bus with a seventeen person tour group arranged by Greater Pittsburgh Travel
• Went to Washington DC with Linda to see a Penguins-Capitals game, saw an NBA game there the next night, and did some touristy stuff in DC.  All in the space of 48 hours
• Saw Billy Joel and Elton John in concert, both at PNC Park
• Saw "Hamilton" performed three times in Pittsburgh
• Experienced a wonderful event: the marriage of Linda's daughter, Sarah, and her fiancé Nick
• Attended my first Steelers game in person since 2003
• Became enamored of pooch named Zelda Fitzgerald
• Established a scholarship in Marilyn's name at Robert Morris University
• Staying in touch with my family and Marilyn's family
• Getting to know a whole new family, Linda's: her Mom, her daughter, her step-sons, her brother and sister, their spouses, and two generations worth of her nieces and nephews.
• Returned to working with groups at the Caring Place
• And I got married again.  Oh, I already mentioned that, didn't I?

What was not so good about 2022:

• Two trips to the emergency room
• One positive COVID test
• Health issues within the extended family.  Keep all prayers coming, folks.
• I only read 13 books this year, and all-time low for me in my retirement years.
• I only played 13 rounds of golf this year, another all time low in the retirement era
• I only made 85 posts in The Grandstander in 2022. In thirteen years of blogging, this was the lowest annual output for me.  I am hopeful that reduced quantity has led to improved quality.  I hope.

What are my goals (I won't call them resolutions) for 2023:

• Read more books.  At least two dozen in 2023.
• Play more golf.  Twenty-five rounds will be a nice number to shoot for.
• Spend less time on Facebook, which will allow me to read more books, I am sure.
• I weighed 220 pounds when I weighed myself yesterday morning, New Year's Day.  My lowest weight in years.  It would be great to get that down to 210 by December 31, 2023, but I'll happily settle for 215.
• See more movies.
• More books + More movies = More Grandstander posts
• Drink more water
• Go to at least eight Pirates games.  Yeah, yeah, I'm crazy, I know it.
• Try to be nice to all people at all times.

Oh, and to all Grandstander Readers....the obituaries, the Absent Friends posts, will continue to be a mainstay of the blog.

Here is to a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2023 for us all.

Peace.

What A Football Weekend!

Well, you couldn't have closed out 2022 and begin 2023 in any better fashion, football-wise, that what we were treated to this past weekend.

Let's start with the College Football Playoff Semi-finals.

I can recall that in past years, like last year, these semi-final games have tended to be one sided and just not all that good.  Not so this year.

First game, TCU 51 - Michigan 45.  Explosive offenses.  Tremendous quarterback play, and a game that went to the final minutes.  Plus, Jim Harbaugh gets beat.  At the end of the game, my thought was, "Top that game, Georgia and Ohio State."

Well, they did.  Georgia 42 - Ohio State 41.  Explosive offenses.  Tremendous quarterback play, and a game that went down to the final three seconds before it was decided.

Currently, Georgia is a 13.5 point favorite in the CFP Championship game.  The Over/Under is set at 62.5 (bet the OVER).  Regardless of the point spread, if you have no dog in the fight, how could you not be rooting for TCU against the SEC behemoth Georgia?   Should be a whale of a game, and I can't wait to see it.

Then came Week 17 of the NFL.  I confess to missing all of the afternoon games yesterday for various and sundry reasons.  I know that it featured an amazing Tom Brady Performance, an amazing Aaron Rodgers Performance, a crushing victory for Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars, and an OT win by the 49ers.  Would have loved to have seen them all, but I didn't, but I did see yet another classic in the epic drama that is Mike Tomlin's Steelers vs. John Harbaugh's Ravens.  This one won by the Steelers 16-13.

It was won with :54 remaining when Kenny Pickett passed...

...to Najee Harris in the end zone....

...for the game winner.  It was a tremendous throw as Pickett had to scramble to his left to avoid being sacked, and an even more tremendous catch by Harris.  It also marked the second week in a row where Pickett led the team on length-of-the-field drives in the closing minutes of the game to win it for the Steelers.

The Steelers playoff hopes, amazingly (remember that they were 2-6 at one point), are still alive.  They need to beat the Browns at home next week, but are dependent on two other games going their way, so it's a long shot at this point.  This season, it should be remembered, was not going to be about W's and L's or deep playoff runs.  It was to be about the replacement of an 18 year vet Hall of Fame quarterback and the development of first round pick Kenny Pickett into the QB of the Future.  That story has yet to be written, of course, but it seems to be trending, as Neal Huntington used to put it, upward.

One last comment on last night's game.  However, you may feel about Chris Collinsworth as an announcer  - I happen to like him, but I know that many consider him a football version of Tim McCarver - he does know football, and a couple of comments he made last night were noteworthy to me.  One, he made a number of favorable comments about LB Robert Spillane, two, he said that Pickett's TD pass to Harris was worthy of anything Patrick Mahomes does, and three, he compared Pat Freiermuth to Travis Kelce.  That is some pretty serious company.

Already looking forward to next week.