To Absent Friends - Rickey Henderson

Rickey Henderson, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and the man generally regarded as the best lead-off hitter in baseball history, died last week, a few days short of his 66th Christmas Day birthday.   The stats and numbers more than justify Henderson's HOF status, but he was what one would call a genuine character, a guy whose quirks made him memorable way beyond his on the field accomplishments.

But first, some of those "stats and numbers":

• MLB's all-time Stolen Base leader with 1,408 SB's, which is 470 more than the Number Two guy, Lou Brock, whose record he broke.  To put that in perspective, the current active player with the most stolen bases is the Mets' Starling Marte, who has 354 stolen bases.
• MLB's all-time Runs Scored leader with 2,295.  The Number Two guy is Ty Cobb with 2,245.  The current active player with the most runs scored is the Dodgers' Freddie Freeman with 1,298.
• A twenty-five season career with nine different teams.  3,055 hits, second only to Barry Bonds in lifetime Bases on Balls, two time Gold Glove winner, ten time All-Star, and member of two World Series champions, the 1989 Athletics and the 1993 Blue Jays.
• 81 career lead-off home runs, most ever by any player

Then there were the quirks.

A favorite story of mine is that one game he was on first base and the opposing first baseman was John Olerud.  Olerud, you may recall, always wore his batting helmet when playing in the field.  Henderson said to him "I once played in Seattle with a guy who always wore his helmet in the field" to which Olerud replied "Yeah, that was me."

The Oakland A's accounting department once called him to let him know that he had yet to cash a $1,000,000 bonus check that they had paid him only to be told the he had the check framed and hanging on his wall.

But the most notable quirk was that he always referred to himself in the third person as in "Rickey's the best."  I went online and found  THIS ARTICLE, Top Ten Times That Rickey Henderson Referred To Himself In The Third Person. You can read the whole article but here a couple of gems.

When referring to his limousine (yes, he had a limo):  "Rickey don't like it when Rickey can't find Rickey's limo."

When traded to the Yankees and asked about how it would feel playing on the same field as DiMaggio and Mantle:  "I don't care about them. It's Rickey time."

Another one not in the article concerns the time someone quoted the Bible verse John 3:16:  "Rickey don't care about three sixteen, Rickey's hitting .350"

RIP Rickey Henderson.  There may never be another one quite like him.

Rickey breaking Lou Brock's SB record.

 

To Absent Friends - Marshall Brickman

Marshall Brickman

1939-2024

Film screenwriter and director Marshall Brickman died a few weeks ago and his passing is worth mentioning.  To me, Brickman is best remembered as the screenwriter who, along with Woody Allen, co-wrote four of Allen's greatest movies: "Sleeper", "Manhattan", "Manhattan Murder Mystery" (a movie that earned an Oscar for Dianne Wiest), and, best of all "Annie Hall", which won four Oscars, Best Picture, Best Actress (Diane Keaton), Best Director (Allen), and Best Screenplay for both Allen and Brickman.

That alone earns Absent Friend recognition for Brickman in my book, but, as you learn when you read news obituaries, there was so much more to the Marshall Brickman.

He got his start in show biz by playing banjo in a folk music group called The Tarriers that made a minor name for themselves during the early 1960's folk music boom.  Brickman came on board the group as a replacement for a band member that as to go on to other things, actor Alan Arkin.  It was when the Tarriers were headlining in small clubs that Brickman met and became friends with an opening act comedian named Woody Allen.  After getting to know one another, Brickman began writing some of Allen's jokes and monologues that became a staple of his stand-up career,  He also helped to write a number TV specials for Allen as he was making his way up the show business ladder.

Some other Marshall Brickman highlights:

• All the while, Brickman continued his banjo playing. When the Tarriers disbanded, he briefly played in a group called The New Journeymen, that featured a couple of singers John and Michelle Phillips in their pre-Mommas and the Poppas days.  
• In 1972, the producers of the film "Deliverance" was looking for a soundtrack and stumbled upon an old banjo album that Brickman and his college roommate Eric Weissberg had recorded years earlier and used it.  The famous Dueling Banjos?  THAT was Marshall Brickman.  Brickman wasn't even aware of it until one day a check for $170,000 arrived in the mail for him from Warner Bros.
• He went on to become the Head Writer for Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show.  Remember all this hilarious sketches featuring Carnac the Magnificent, Aunt Blabby, and Art Fern's Tea Time Movie?  That was Marshall Brickman.
• The book for the hit Broadway Musical Jersey Boys?  Yep, that was Marshall Brickman, too.  He did the screenplay for the movie version as well.

Brickman's writing, directing, and producing credits number over fifty in IMDB.  Quite a resume and quite a career.

By chance and right before Brickman's death, Linda and I rewatched "Annie Hall" a few weeks back.  The movie is now 52 years old and it holds up completely and remains a comedy classic. You might want to do the same thing in the days ahead.

RIP Marshall Brickman.

Three Sporting Thoughts

ONE:  Bill Belichick 

Big news on the football coaching front is that Bill Belichick, arguably the greatest coach in NFL history, will be returning to the sidelines in 2025, not in the NFL, but at the University of North Carolina.  "Can you imagine crusty, curmudgeonly  Bill Belichick kissing the asses of  17 year old high school kids on the college recruiting circuit?" seemed to be the most common theme among pundits.  True, although the landscape of college football has changed so drastically in recent years, that it has been speculated that a football "general manager" may be hired at UNC (as has been done at many other schools) to deal with the unseemly details of recruiting, transfer portal issues, and NIL money, and Bill would be left to do what he does best: coach football.  We'll see how it turns out.

A bigger question would be why has no NFL team turned to Belichick to become their HC?  He interviewed in Atlanta last year, and he reportedly wanted that job, but Arthur Blank choice otherwise. There will also be bunch of openings after this season concludes, and don't you think that Coach Bill would be a better option than any of the various OC's, DC'c and others who will be hired to fill those openings?

Belichick is 72 years old, and perhaps no team wants to commit long term to a guy of that age, but North Carolina is willing to go for five years at $10 million per.   It is going to be interesting to follow how things transpire in Chapel Hill over the ext several years.

TWO: Baseball Hall of Fame

Whatever they are calling the "Veterans Committee" in Cooperstown these days righted a couple of wrongs when it was announced this week that it has elected Dave Parker and Richie Allen into the Hall of Fame.

I'm not going to go into a recitation of the stats and numbers that Parker and Allen posted over long careers.  You can look those up.  If you followed baseball during the time that they played, you know just exactly how great they were.  Parker was a driving force  and best player on Pirates teams in the late '70s/early 80s that always competed for division titles and won the World Series in 1979.  He was the National League MVP in 1978.  The Cobra has fallen into ill health in his senior years, and I am glad that he got to know that he is a Hall of Famer while he can still smell the roses.

Not so Richie Allen, who left us in 2020.  A star with the Phillies, Cardinals, and White Sox (Al MVP in1972), Allen is surely one of the greatest players to ever come from Western Pennsylvania (Wampum, Beaver County), and I judge him by one totally subjective metric:  If the Pirates are clinging to a one run lead in the ninth inning and the other team has men on base, who do I LEAST want to see come to the plate in that situation?  Richie Allen was high, very high, on such a lot.

You can read what I wrote about Allen in 2020 when he died HERE, but I would like to add one paragraph from that post for y9our immediate reading:

He had his enemies and his defenders.  

"At two different SABR meetings in Pittsburgh over the years, I heard both sides.  Chuck Tanner, who managed him in Chicago, defended him to the highest, and said he was one of the best players, on and off the field, that he ever managed, a great guy.  On the other hand, Nellie Briles, who played with him on the Cardinals, said he was one of the worst teammates that he ever had, and almost shuddered when he even mentioned his name."

Both Parker and Allen were iconoclasts of sorts and I include these two photos proof:

THREE: The Pirates

Major League Baseball's annual winter meetings concluded this week and, lo and behold, the Pirates made a trade.  They acquired first baseman Spencer Horowitz from the Blue Jays via the Guardians.  Until the day of the trade, I had never heard of Spencer Horowitz.

No offense to Mr. Horowitz who I am sure is a nice guy and a competent baseball player, but the one word that appeared over and over again in news stories about the deal was "affordable".  In other words, he comes cheap, and that is the way our Beloved Buccos do business.  Free agent 1B Pete Alonso would sure have been a better addition for the Pirates, but, alas, he is not "affordable" for Bob Nutting's Pirates.  And when the biggest news was the Mets signing Juan Soto to a fifteen year contract worth $765 million, it becomes more depressing being a Pirates fan.  Oh, and Braves ace pitcher Max Fried signed an eight year, $218 million contract with.....the Yankees.

Other teams over the years have shown that you don't have to spend THAT kind of money to compete and win, but the Pirates won't even do that.  

Anyway, welcome to Pittsburgh, Spencer Horowitz!

It ain't easy being a Pirates fan.

"Wicked"

 

So, we waited for the initial box office rush to die down a bit, then we waited to recover rom our Covid bouts, but on Monday we got ourselves to the theater to see "Wicked", the movie adaptation of the long running Broadway musical.  You may have noticed that there have been a commercial or two on television leading up to the release of this movie.

I am not going to go into a long review/synopsis of this movie, but I will tell you this:  It was terrific!  Bright, colorful, and beautiful to look at, and wonderfully acted.  Being in a <cough, cough> somewhat older demographic, I confess that I was not all that familiar with the oeuvres of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, but they were both wonderful in the lead roles of Galinda and Elphaba, respectively, and throw in performances by Jonathan Bailey (Fiyero), Michelle Yeoh (Madame Morrible). and Jeff Goldblum (The Wizard), and you've got a great cast, although I will say that this stage of his career, Goldblum mainly plays "Jeff Goldblum" in just about everything he does, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Oh, and there is a musical number that features cameo appearances from two people that came as a wonderful surprise to me.  Linda told me that she was aware that this was a part of the movie, but I was not and that made it all the more delightful to me.

The Two Stars of the Show

Much will be made about the "Defying Gravity" number that closes the movie, and it was spectacular, but the number that I just found totally delightful was "Dancing Through Life".  The choreography was amazing as was the visual effects and staging used throughout.  In an interview I saw on the Today Show a few weeks ago, Bailey said that took five days to film that scene.  It was well worth the effort.  Completely delightful.

This movie is going to get a whole bunch of Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.  The big question is will both Grande and Erivo receive acting nominations?  I wouldn't be surprised to see Yeoh nab a supporting actress nomination, and surely Jon M. Chu will be nominated for Best Director.

One gripe though.  This was only Part One of the film version of "Wicked".  Commercials for this movie began during the Super Bowl in February, and the there were more commercials for this movie in the last three months than there were Bob Casey and Dave McCormick commercials leading up to the election.  Trailers for it have been running in theaters all summer long, the Today Show spent an entire week in early November pimping for the movie, corporations like Target and Xfinity have built entire campaigns around it, and it was only until the week that it was released that it became known - at least to me - that this was only to be Part One of the movie, with Part Two being released next year at Thanksgiving, no doubt to similar promotional efforts.  This was not playing fair with the movie going public, I believe, but what are you going to do?  I just hope that I'm still alive when Part Two comes out next year.

Okay, I'm now off my soapbox.  Go see this movie.  

Four Stars from The Granddstander.

And a Post Script.  If you wonder what The Grandstander thought about the Broadway musical "Wicked" when he saw it back in 2018, you can read that HERE

CFP and Steelers Win

I decided midway through the afternoon yesterday  that the Monday Morning Blog Post would concentrate on the final bracket for this first ever 12 Team College Football Playoff.

Oh, I am not going to make a case as to whether or not a three loss Alabama or an 8-3 South Carolina, who beat Clemson, should be in there, nor do I care about who is seeded where.  Let the ESPN gasbags deal with all of that.  Rather, I want to speak to one of the unintended consequences, for this year at least, that this format hath wrought, and that is the complete and utter lack of drama that was Conference Championship Saturday in college football, or College Football, as Kirk Herbstreit might put it.

Think about it.  Of the twelve teams in the bracket, four of them (Notre Dame, Ohio State, Tennessee, and Indiana) didn't even play on Saturday because they had failed to qualify for their conference title game, and three of the teams actually LOST in their title game but are still alive for the Championship.  Only one of the games was a win-or-go-home game, Clemson vs SMU, and that was only if Clemson lost.  SMU lost, but they are still alive for the CFP title.  The people who bitch about Notre Dame being an independent and not having to win a Conference Championship in order to qualify, should now shut up entirely, because, clearly, winning your conference championship doesn't matter (see Texas, Penn State, Ohio State, Tennessee, Indiana, and SMU).

Oh, the games themselves were terrific:  Georgia 22 - Texas 19 in OT, Oregon 45 - Penn State 38, and Clemson 34 - SMU 27 on a last play of the game field goal, but the question becomes, if these games don't matter, and clearly they do not when it comes to deciding a CFP Championship, then why play them at all?  And before you answer, I will tell you that I already know answer. When it comes to big time sports, the answer to ALL of your questions is MONEY.  These games will continue to be played as long as ESPN or some other TV sugar daddy will open the vaults to the universities in question.

All that said, I am really looking forward to the games that will be played and the sturm und drang  that will surround them.  In the opening round alone....

• Clemson vs Texas. Who doesn't want to watch this game and cheer for Dabo Swinney to get his Bible-thumping ass kicked? Hook 'em Horns, I say!
• Tennessee vs Ohio State.  After losing his fourth straight game to Michigan last month the question becomes, "Will Ryan Day lose his job if he goes out early in the CFP tourney?"
• SMU vs Penn State.  Can James Franklin win a game against a ranked team?  
• Indiana vs Notre Dame.  Well, it is Notre Dame, after all, and they are playing an in-state rival, and just how good is Indiana after all?

It's gonna be a lot of fun, I do believe.

********

Oh, and I can't not mention something that always brings great joy to my football heart....

Steelers 27 - Browns 14

Yep, a Steelers win over this long time rival is always good news.  I thought I'd include a few highlights of yesterday's game for my Cleveland pals.

Browns kicker Dustin Hopkins on one

 of his two missed field goal attempts

Kadarius Toney muffs a point which was recovered 

by Steeler Ben Skowronek.  The game was 

pretty much over at that point anyway, 

but it put a nice bow on the Steelers victory.

The Steelers are now 10-3, have a two game lead over Baltimore in the AFC North, as they head into a brutal three game stretch of the schedule: @ Eagles, @ Ravens, Chiefs at home on Christmas.   Three playoff caliber teams as they gear up for the Playoffs.

Grandstander Power Rankings Through Week 13

Yes, I know that I neglected to post an updated GPR after the Week 12 games. I blame it on being in a depressed state over that Steelers loss to the Cleveland Haslams.  Anyway, a nice win over the Bungles  snapped me right out of it, so here we go.....

1. Lions 11-1 (Prior Ranking: 1)
2. Eagles 10-2  (5)
3. Bills 10-2 (2)
4. Chiefs 11-1 (3)
5. Steelers 9-3  (4)
6. Vikings 10-2  (7)
7. Packers 9-3 (Unranked)
8. Ravens 8-5 (6)
9. Chargers 8-4  (8)
10. Broncos 8-5  (Unranked)

Knocking at the Door:  Cardinals 6-5, Commanders 8-5, Seahawks 7-5, Texans 8-5

As an added feature, I give you The Grandstander's Ballot for the NFL MVP Award through Week 13:

1. Saquan Barkley, Eagles
2. Josh Allen, Bills
3. Jared Goff, Lions

Looking ahead:

• A HUGE game on Thursday night between the Lions at home against the Packers.  A TNF game for which it will be worth staying up late.  Lions are 3.5 point favorites and the O/U is 51.5.   Not sure how to bet on this one.
• Steelers a 6.5 point favorite at home against the Browns.  This will be a revenge game, and I look for the Steelers to shut the loud mouths of the CleveBrownies.  O/U is 44.5.
• The win-by-the-skin-of-the-teeth Chiefs at home against the surging LA Chargers.  Chiefs a 3.5 favorite and the O/U is 42.5.

A Football Cornucopia

Thanksgiving 2024 will not go down as one of the best holidays in our lives.  Early in the week, both Linda and I tested positive for Covid (it's still out there, folks), and spent much of the holiday week feeling, oh how should I put this, feeling like shit.  It caused us to cancel plans for a basketball game, a fancy Thanksgiving Dinner out in downtown Pittsburgh, the Michael Jackson musical at the Benedum, and plans for having friends over to watch the Steelers game on Sunday.  It was only yesterday that I felt that I was "over it", and Linda is finally starting to feel like herself today.  So, while this Thanksgiving wasn't a good one, it certainly was memorable.

Fortunately, we had, as I told family members, football, Netflix, and each other, and the football gods certainly served up a veritable cornucopia of delights for our viewing pleasure.  So much so, that I am only going to skim, over all of it.

The Thanksgiving Day games weren't so great, but were most notable for two things.  One, the Green Bay Packers have established themselves as one of the better teams in the League, but, unfortunately for them, they find themselves in the same division as the team that may well be the League's best, the Detroit Lions.  And two, the total end of game clock mismanagement by Bears HC Matt Eberflus that ended up getting him fired two days later.

On Friday, the Chiefs moved to 11-1 by winning a 19-17 squeaker over the awful Raiders who lost a chance for the upset on a botched snap from center that led to a recovered fumble by the Chiefs on the last play of the game as Vegas was driving towards a makable field goal attempt.  The Chiefs have won at least four games this season on such twists of fate, and one wonders if such good fortune will be sustainable over the course of a Playoff run.  Still, they do have that Mahomes guy playing quarterback, so it's hard to bet against them.  Oh, and this game was made memorable by me cashing in on two parlay bets, both of which involved the Chiefs winning and one of which involved the total points being under 42.5.  I was sweating out both of them, but was still able to cash two nice tickets.

Saturday was Rivalry Day in College Football, and it was highlighted by the 19.5 point favorite and second ranked Ohio State losing the Big Game to Michigan.  What now happens to OSU HC Ryan Day, who beats everyone else except Michigan, now seems to be Topic A amongst college football pundits.

The highlight of this game, though, came afterwards when a Michigan player attempted to "plant the Michigan flag" on the Ohio State logo at midfield, which led to an ugly, really, ugly scene of both teams brawling on the field and cops pepper spraying players and anyone else in the vicinity in an attempt to restore order.

I am not sure when "planting the flag", which leads to "disrespecting our logo" (both ideas are ridiculous) became a thing, but it is a stupid thing and should be stopped by any means possible.  I understand that both Michigan and Ohio State were fined $100,000 for these shenanigans, and that is certainly a good place to start.  Another place might be to fine the coaches of the teams involved and suspending players for such deeds.  

The whole scene was disgraceful.

Locally, Penn State laid a can of whoop-ass on Maryland and was leading 38-7 when with :04 remaining in the game, a Penn State fourth string QB threw a touchdown pass to a fourth string receiver to allow PSU to go up 44-7 on the last play of the game.   Maryland took exception and accused Penn State, and their HC James Franklin, of "running it up".  Franklin, of course, defended the whole thing by saying that the "3's and 4's on the team deserve to be able to 'play football' when they get a chance to play" especially when the other team still has their starters in the game.  Okay, I get that, but did the fourth string kid really have to throw a pass on that last play?

This isn't the first time crap like this has surrounded Franklin.  Remember this scene from several years back?  Penn State is playing Pitt at Heinz Field and is thoroughly thrashing the Panthers.  In the last minute of the game, which was also being played in a torrential downpour, Penn State fumbles and Pitt recovers.  With his team leading by a million points and the final seconds ticking away while a hurricane rages, Franklin challenges the ruling of a recovered fumble by Pitt.  I don't even remember the results of this challenge,  but I do remember this chickenshit act by Franklin.  He's  great coach (except agains Ohio State), but he's, well, chickenshit.  I never root for Penn State to lose, but I'm always delighted to see HCJF take one on the chin, which will probably happen when the Lions meet Oregon for the Big Ten championship on Saturday.

But, hey, at least Franklin didn't demand that the field at Beaver Stadium be cleared in order for Penn State attempt the extra point that would have made it 45-7.  What a sport.

The there was Pitt losing to Boston College.  Remember back in October, when Pitt was 7-0 and nationally ranked?  Seems a hundred years ago, because since that time, Pitt has lost five straight games to finish the season 7-5, and howls have gone up amongst the fanatics and the future of HC Pat Narduzzi is being questioned.  He is actually being compared to Derek Shelton!  Lots of reasons, mainly financial ones, that won't cause Pitt to can Narduzzi, but that seat has to be really, really hot under his behind, and rightfully so, as they head into 2025.  Hey, maybe Pitt can hire Ryan Day after he gets fired in Columbus!

Sunday arrived and the Steelers delivered unto us a 44-38 victory of the Cincy Bengals, thanks mainly to a 400+ yards performance by QB Russell Wilson, the first 400 yard game for a Steelers passer since 2018.

Wilson has the Steelers offense rolling in ways that haven't been seen since Big Ben was calling the signals.  Ten different players caught passed from Wilson on Sunday.  It was fun to watch.

Of course, glass-half-empty Steelers fans are bemoaning that the lowly Bengals scored 38 points against them, but to that I say, that was Joe Burrow going against them throwing to two all-world wideouts in Tee Higgins and Ja'Mar Chase.  Burrow's numbers are among the very best in the NFL, and they are being killed by an absolutely awful Cincy defense.  As a friend of mine noted, if Burrow, Higgins, and Chase got to play against their own defense, they'd score a hundred points a game.

Two very entertaining games followed on Sunday.  The Eagles handily beat the Ravens, 24-19, and the Bills completely buried the 49ers, 35-10, in a blizzard in Buffalo.

Both of those games raised the question in my mind of who should be the Most Valuable Player in the NFL this season.  Up until a week or so ago, this award was generally being conceded to Lamar Jackson of Baltimore, and not without merit.  However, recent weeks have dropped Jackson, in my mind at least, to no better that fourth in this particular horse race.  I think that the players who should be put ahead of him are Saquan Barkley of the Eagles, Josh Allen of the Bills, and Jared Goff of the Lions.

Just my.....

All of this talk should, of course, lead up to the release of an Updated Grandstander Power Rankings, but I've rambled enough for today.  Maybe tomorrow, folks.