Shirt Pocket Notes

A lot has happened in the eleven days since I last posted, a time span that now makes much of this "Old News", so I will be brief in my comments.

Florida defeats Houston for NCAA Mens Basketball Title

The Shot That Wasn't

The Men's Final Four gave us three terrific games including a stunning upset, to me anyway, of Houston over Duke in one of the semi-final games.  If those two teams played a best of five or best of seven series, Duke would win it, but that's not how it goes in this tourney.  Duke's wonderful team of one-and-dones, including the marvelous Cooper Flagg, will now scatter to the winds and the NBA, but they will probably spend  lot of time over the rest of their lives wondering "We had a great season and THAT was how it ended?"  Or maybe they won't.

The title game featured a terrific comeback by Florida that ended when a Houston player was unable to get off a potential game winning shot thanks to a terrific defensive play by the Gators' Walter Clayton Jr.

UCONN trounces South Carolina for NCAA Women's Title

Back in February, Linda and I were enjoying lunch at a sports bar in Hilton Head SC where we watched the UCONN women dismantle top ranked and defending national champ South Carolina.  The crowd of South Carolinians in the bar were stunned by the one sided nature of the Huskies' win, and I said to a gent in the bar, "I guess we should never underestimate Geno."

The thoroughness of that UCONN win made me jump on the Huskies in the final game when I saw that they were laying a mere 6.5 points to the Gamecocks.  I expected a Connecticut win, but I never expected that they would thrash South Carolina the way that they did, leading by as many as thirty points at one time before  ending with an 82-59 win.

For HC Geno Auriemma it was an incredible 12th National Championship, and such a championship was fitting end to the collegiate career of the amazing Paige Bueckers.

Betting Statistics

So how did I do betting on college basketball games this season, you ask?   In betting on Men's games I went 73-48, while going 30-24 betting on Women's games.  That produced an overall winning percentage of .589 (103-72).  Included in those 175 wagers were March Madness games for both Men and Women of 37-16.

So, if you bet with me, you would have made money.  Again, my average wager falls somewhere in the range of $2.50 to $3.00, so I'm not getting rich (or poor) doing this.  It's a hobby, not an addiction.

The Pirates Open Season and Are, Well, The Pirates

In the 15+ years that I have been writing this blog, never have I written less about the Pittsburgh Pirates than I have this season, and for good reason.

In an effort to build a winning team around the once-in-a-generation talent of pitcher Paul Skenes, the Pirates spent the off-season trading for a guy named Spencer Horwitz, a first baseman who showed up in Bradenton with an arm that needed surgery, and added free agent Tommy Pham and Adam Frazier, two over-the-hill guys.

Predictably, they have started at 5-9 and are currently in last place in the NL Central, three games out of first place.  They have earned this miserable record by continuing to play lousy fundamental baseball that would get a high school coach fired.  Derek Shelton continues the post game bromides such as "We can't let things like that happen" and "We have to get better at executing plays like that" and We're working on correcting things like that".  The same crap he has been spewing for six seasons now.

In fairness, Sheltie can only work with what Ben Cherington gives him, which is nothing.  On Wednesday afternoon against the Cardinals, the Bucs starting lineup consisted of four guys hitting below .200, another guy hitting .204, and another guy, Tsung-Che Cheng, making his ML debut, who went 0-2 so then they had five guys hitting below .200,. but hey, Cheng is the 17th best prospect in the Pirates system!  They have also used guys like Pham, Frazier, and Jack Suwinski as lead-off hitters, none of whom will ever be confused with Rickey Henderson, or even Omar Moreno.

In what other businesses would guys like Cherington and Shelton still have jobs after five plus years of performances like this?  

Then there were the public relations gaffes concerning the removal of the Clemente marker and replacing it with an ad (and did you ever read such bullshit as the statement put out by Travis Williams over that screw up?) and the mess with the commemorative bricks outside of PNC Park.

If ever an organization exemplifies the expression "They could f--k up a one car funeral", it is the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Book Review

This is an autobiography of Trafford, PA's Sonny Vaccaro, founder of the Dapper Dan Roundball Classic, and legendary athletic shoe hustler, the guy who put Nike on the map, basketball-wise, and who signed Michael Jordan to that stupendous deal with Nike way back when.  I, of course, knew who Sonny Vaccaro was, and I always felt that he was a bit on the shady side of the ethical line, and that at least some of the evils - if that's the word you want to use - that have beset college sports here in the 2020's can be traced directly to his feet.

He doesn't see it that way, of course, but it's his book and he can tell it any way he wants, and he makes no effort to hide his light under a bushel, as the saying goes.

A pivotal scene in the book is when Vaccaro testifies before the Knight Commission that investigated college sports.  Former Penn State President Bryce Jordan interrogates Sonny by piously asking "Why should a university be an advertising medium for your industry?"

Vaccaro's answer was revealing:

"They shouldn't, sir.  You sold your souls, and you are going to continue selling them. You can be very moral and righteous in asking me that question, sir, but there is not one of you in this room that's going to turn down any of our money.  You're going to take it.  I can only offer it."

Vaccaro was correct in skewering the university presidents and other NCAA poo-bahs, but his answer is also like a drug pusher saying "I'm not making these school kids buy hard drugs, I'm only offering them."

"Legends and Soles" was in interesting read, and gets Two Stars from The Grandstander.

The Baseball Part of Our Cooperstown Trip

 

In  my post yesterday I told you all about the "Bed & Brew" portion of our weekend in Cooperstown, so now it's time to talk about the Baseball part of the trip, as evidenced by the photo you see above.  First, however, let me tell you about how we took in the Pirates Opening Day game against the Marlins in Miami.

We had decided that we would break up our trip to Cooperstown by stopping and staying over in Ellicottville,  NY on Thursday.  It is a lovely little resort town that caters primarily to skiers.  There was still snow on the slopes and we did see some people skiing.  We found this place...

...and settled in for a late lunch, sampled a flight of local brews, and set up our laptop, streamed Sports Net Pittsburgh via FUBO-TV, and watched Paul Skenes handle the Marlins in the manner to which we became accustomed last season.

We made our own sports bar!

We stuck it out at the Ellicottville Brewing Co. until Derek Shelton, in his infinite managerial wisdom, removed Skenes in the sixth inning.  We then went back to the hotel to watch the rest of the game and see the Pirates blow a 4-1 lead and the Marlins walk it off in the bottom of the ninth.  It was a game that was perfect microcosm of the lousy last half of the '24 season, a season that should have gotten Sheltie and most of his bosses fired. However, we will leave the state of the Buccos for another day.

On Friday we arrived in Cooperstown and spent the afternoon visiting the Hall of Fame gift shop, have lunch at a local restaurant, and visited many of the charming little shops that line Cooperstown's Main Street.

This is the card shop where Pete Rose would set up shop every year during Induction Week and hawk his autograph and cheesey "Hit King" merchandise. The guy who owned the store spoke reverently of Rose and how much he will be missed.  I referred to the place as "Pete Rose's Whore House".

We also stopped by Doubleday Field (the place was padlocked so you couldn't go in and sit in the stands), and I paid a visit to the paver stone that I purchased there many years ago,

On Saturday we made our visit to the HOF itself.  First time visitor Linda really enjoyed touring the place. I enjoyed it as well, as I always have,  Here are some random thoughts and photos from our visit.

I found it curious that in the locker that represented the current day Pirates it highlighted two pieces of memorabilia of ex-Buccos John Jaso and Aroldis Chapman.  Couldn't they have done better than that?

It also showcased the cap that Paul Skenes wore when he started the All-Star Game last year, and the players wore those god-awful generic uniforms and caps.

I also noticed a couple of cool things.  In the HOF Gallery, where the plaques are displayed (it feels like you're walking into the Vatican), the plaques are arranged in various nooks grouped by the years of induction.  For example, 1941-1945 or 1993-1996 and so on.  Anyway, one such nook, and I can't tell you the exact years, includes the plaques of Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, and Willie Mays.  That, my friends, is a mighty exclusive neighborhood.  And in a case of absolute serendipity for Yankees fans, the plaques of Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter hang right next teach other.

Ever since I first visited Cooperstown and the Hall of Fame back in 1976 I have loved the place and have always looked forward to coming again at some point in the future.  Now, at 73, I have to wonder if this visit might have been my last.   Mind you, it's not like I'm planning on checking out any time soon, but Cooperstown is a long way away, and seven hours of driving is a lot harder than it used to be.  Whatever the case may be, I have wonderful memories of the place from seven visits over forty-nine years that I will always cherish,  Everybody should visit Cooperstown if they ever get the chance.

I'll close now with a few more photos from our visit to the Museum.

Johnny Mathis

 

I felt bad when I read this week that singer Johnny Mathis announced that he was retiring from touring and performing at the age of 89 due to "age and memory issues".

I have been fortunate enough to see Mathis perform live twice in my life, most recently in 2012 at Heinz Hall with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. (You can read about that HERE.)  Nobody could deliver a love song like Johnny Mathis!

Mathis has been performing since 1956, almost SEVENTY YEARS, and he is entitled to call it quits on his terms.  However, when someone loves his work, as Johnny Mathis so obviously did, it is sad to see that he is doing so for the reasons stated.  Let us all wish that Mathis spends the rest of his years in peace and comfort.

Of course, there are dozens and dozens of Johnny Mathis songs that I could include in this post as a tribute to him. Here is a FILM CLIP from the terrific 1978 movie "Same Time Next Year" starring Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn. Mathis, along with Jane Olivor, sung this song, "The Last Time I Felt Like This", over the titles and throughout the movie.  Music by Marvin Hamlisch, Lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, it is a terrific song, and Mathis made it even better.  It is also a movie that I highly recommend.

Cooperstown Sojourn - Bed & Brew....and Baseball

About two months ago, I received an email from The Inn at Cooperstown advising of a "Bed and Brew Package" that they would be co-hosting with the Ommegang Brewery, also in Cooperstown, on the weekend go March 28-30.

The weekend package would include a "Meet-n-Greet" for those who signed on on Friday night, and a tasting and dinner at the Brewery on Saturday night, wherein we would be able to sample different sorts of craft beers that would be paired with what was being served throughout the four course dinner.  The package also included free time throughout the day on Friday and Saturday to  "explore Cooperstown", which to me, meant a visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

Over the years, I had visited the Hall of Fame on six different occasions, including a stay on one of those visits at The Inn at Cooperstown, so I know that it was a nice place. This presented a perfect opportunity for what would be Linda's first visit to Cooperstown

So, we signed on for the Bed & Brew Package and last Friday, here we were:

There were twenty-six people signed up for the Package and Linda and I were the oldest ones of the lot.  In fact, as we were in the moment, We had to laugh at the fact that we were a part of a hipster group doing tastings of craft beers since I am more of the "Gimme an I.C.Light" crowd.  Still it was a fun experience, and we found that when a random group of 26 people are put in one place at one time, you can come across some very interesting folks.  Our favorites were an older couple from Long Island, Steve and Judy.  He was retired and in his mid-sixties, she was in her mid-fifties.  He was what you would call a "typical New Yorker" -  loud and had a story for everything, and boy, could he talk.

The "tasting" part of the evening took place in the bar area of the Brewery.  As you could see, you had the opportunity to try A LOT f different beers.

Everybody has a story, including the gent you see above.  His name was Shiloh (like the Civil War battle), and he has probably forgotten more about beer than most people will ever know.  He gave us interesting info about al of the different beers that we were tasting.  We talked to him one-on-one later in the evening and found out that in an earlier life, he was an aeronautical engineer, but when the COVID pandemic struck, he and his family decided to chuck it all, move to Cooperstown, and devote his life to his passion - making beer.  There's more to the story, of course, but that's the Reader's Digest version.

All in all, it was a pleasant and fun weekend, and we were probably the least serious beer drinkers among the crowd.  We did bring back some of the different beers that we tried, but in the end, we'll no doubt stick to the Bud and Miller Lights, and Blue Moons when we want to get fancy.  

Oh, and as the headline suggests, there was baseball involved, too, but I have gone on too long on this part of our weekend, so that part will come in another post, probably sometime tomorrow.  That post will also include the story of how we watched the Pirates Opening Day game in Miami.

Stay tuned.

Oh, the name Ommegang.  It's a Belgian word (most stories about beer originate in Belgium) that dates back to the 16th century.  Something about when the King of England invaded Europe to claim it for Jolly Old England.  To celebrate the occasion, an "ommegang", or a celebration, took place.  The world is still used in Belgium and parts of Europe to indicate any sort of celebration or festival.  As in, "There'll be a real ommegang in Pittsburgh when the Pirates win the World Series this year."

Having our own private little ommegang.

"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

When it was announced last year that the Pittsburgh Public Theater would be performing Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". I knew that I wanted to see it.   I had never seen the play performed, nor had I seen the 1966 film version, but I knew vaguely what it was about, and figured when you get the chance to see a classic American play performed, you grab on to it, so there we were last night in front row seats at the O'Reilly Theater.

The Plot: and older married couple, George and Martha, following a college faculty party (George teaches there, Martha's father is the college president), invite a younger couple, Nick (he's a new faculty member) and Honey, to there home for some post party cocktails and conversation.   It is two o'clock in the morning. What follows is a three hour drunken descent into the living Hell that is the marriage of George and Martha.  

If you want to go to the theater for an uplifting and "feel good" experience, this ain't the play for you.  However, at some point in my formal education, either in high school or college, I recall some teacher saying that good drama is supposed to challenge you to think about what it is you are seeing, and it might even make you uncomfortable on several levels.  Using that criteria, "WAOVW?" hits it out of the park.  Twelve or so hours after seeing it, I'm still not sure what it I that I am supposed to take away from it.  And I know that I will spend time over the next several days researching some critical commentary on the play and pondering its message.

What the play also is is an opportunity for good actors to sink their teeth into some very meaty roles  and deliver bravura performances.  Such was the case in this production starring Daniel Jenkins (George), Tasha Lawrence (Martha), Dylan Marquis Meyers (Nick), and Claire Sabatine (Honey).  They were great in roles that have to be very demanding for an actor.

Seeing the play is also prompting us to seek out and watch the 1966 film version that starred Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis, and that was directed by the great Mike Nichols.  Taylor and Dennis won Oscars for their performances and Burton, Segal, Nichols, and the movie itself were also Oscar nominated.  Yep, that's a movie that I want to see, but I think that I'll wait awhile after just seeing the play.

A funny aside.  During one of the intermissions (there are two them over the course of the three hour play), we were chatting about what we were seeing with a young late 20's/early 30's couple sitting next to us.  Had you seen the movie, we asked.  No, they said, and who played the leading roles in the movie, they asked.  When we said "Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton", we could immediately tell that they had absolutely no idea who Taylor and Burton were, never mind George Segal and Sandy Dennis.  Time marches on and fame is fleeting.

Three Stars from The Grandstander for this performance at the PPT, and I will once again say that there is no better venue to see a play anywhere than the O'Reilly Theater.

Taking a Break

 

For various and sundry reasons, I have decided to take a break from Facebook.  We all know that social media can be a really good thing.  It can reconnect you with friends and family, talk about your vacations, share wedding photos and baby pictures, relive fond memories.

It can also be a pain in the ass.  Need I list all of the ways? I have also found that I am spending an inordinate amount of my leisure time here when I could be reading a book, watching television, or having cocktails and conversations with my wife. So I've just decided to take a break for a bit.  If nothing else, I can already feel my tension levels lowering because I won't be seeing the latest atrocities emanating from the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.

I have not deleted my account, and I may still post my Grandstander Blog posts there so that they can find a wider audience.  (You can also go the www.grandstander.blogspot.com and choose to "Follow" the blog.)

I am going to try a variation of the "one day at a time" school of thought on this.  My initial goal is to just stay away from reading and posting (other that the aforementioned Grandstander posts) through the month of April, at which time I'll reevaluate the whole thing.

See you on the other side and please stay in touch in other ways. It is possible, you know.

Bob, aka, The Grandstander

To Absent Friends - George Foreman

 

George Foreman, two time Heavyweight Champion of the World and at a time when that title still meant something in the sporting world, died last week at the age of 76, and what an amazing life story he had. Born in the rough part of Houston, Texas, Foreman, like many such youths, took to amateur boxing, and this is where that led him.

• He was the Golf Medalist in the heavyweight class for the USA in the 1968 Olympics
• Turned professional after the Olympics and in 1973, he defeated Joe Frazier for the Heavyweight Championship
• Lost the championship in 1974 to Muhammed Ali in the famous "Rumble in the Jungle
• Retired from boxing and became a Born Again ordained non-denominational Christian minister serving, mainly, at-risk youths in his native Texas
• After ten years of retirement, he returned to the ring - he needed the money to support his ministry - and, improbably, won the Heavyweight title again at the age of 46, the oldest man to ever win the title.
• Soon after one of boxing's alphabet soup governing bodies stripped him of his title, he retired again and began endorsing a line of indoor electric grills, and here is where a whole new life began for Foreman

The George Foreman Grill, the "Lean, Mean, Fat Burning Machine" took off like a rocket, and made Foreman wealthy beyond anything that boxing ever delivered unto him.  Raise your hands out there if you have never at one time in your life owned a George Foreman Grill.  Nobody?  Didn't think so.  

So it was that Foreman, a once brooding, foreboding, and not very likable prizefighter turned into one of America's jolliest and most lovable commercial pitchmen.  In the late 1990's he sold the commercials rights to his grills for $138 million, and it is estimated that over the course of his life, he made over $200 million from the grills.  No wonder he said "It's so good, I put my name on it."

There was time when boxing mattered in the world of sports, and for one brief era, it was dominated by three seminal figures: Muhammed Ali, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman.  Ironically, there are no doubt thousands, if not millions, of owners of George Foreman Grills who have no idea just exactly who George Foreman actually was. Another irony pointed out by Tony Kornheiser in his comments on him, that as great as Foreman was (he was only defeated five times), he is probably most remembered for a fight that he lost, to Ali that 1974 night in Zaire.

One more Fun Fact:  George Foreman married five times in his life and fathered twelve children, five of them sons, each of whom is named George.

RIP George Foreman. It was quite a life, and here are some pictorial highlights.

Olympic Champion

Mexico City

1968

"Down goes Frazier. Down goes Frazier"

A New Champion - 1973

Losing to Ali

The Rumble in the Jungle

Zaire - 1974

When giants walked the earth.

Frazier, Foreman, Ali

"It's so good I put my name on it."

RIP Champ

Sporting Thoughts on a Monday Morning

 

Like many of you, no doubt, I have just come off of a four day weekend spent in large part most part watching the first and second rounds of the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments.  These four days every March offer a truly unique bacchanalia of sports viewing pleasure.

This applies to me, but the highlight of the weekend was the terrific showing that Robert Morris put up against second seeded Alabama in the opening round on Friday, losing 90-81, a score that didn't reflect the close nature of the game overall, as shown in this screenshot from late in the second half:

Yes, the Colonials actually led Alabama for a (very) brief moment in the second half.

It was great showing by the team, and one in which everyone connected with the University can take pride, as reflected by this photo released by the school in its social platforms later that evening:

Under circumstances that used to exist in college athletics, the future would look very bright for the RMU hoopsters, but in this age of NIL and the transfer portal, who knows?  Foremost question:  the team's two best players, Alvaro Folguieras and Amarion Dickerson have eligibility remaining, but after seeing how they performed over the course of the season and post-season, they are prime candidates to be poached by bigger programs.  Good for them, but tough on the fans, but that's life in a mid-major conference.

Otherwise, the tourney offered no real Cinderella Stories, other than a #10 seed Arkansas knocking out #2 seed St. John's, but can you really label any team coached by John Calipari a "Cinderella"? Of the sixteen teams remaining twelve of them were seeded 1 through 4 in their regions.  All four #1's remain, along with three #2's, two #3's, three #4's, one #5, two #6's, and the aforementioned #10 Arkansas Calaparis.

Watching all of the various conference tournaments prior to the main event, I thought Florida was the best team that I saw, but watching Duke dismantle Baylor yesterday, I think that I am changing  my mind.  They are scarey good, and it's not just because of Cooper Flagg.  At this point, I will call for a Duke win over Florida for the championship come April 7.

Speaking of Florida, I took great delight in seeing them beat Connecticut in a terrific second round game yesterday, if only because it has knocked Danny Hurley out of the tournament.  His profane sore loser comments afterward only cemented my great dislike for him.

And the last game that I saw before heading to bed last night was the Colorado State-Maryland game.  In case you missed, Colorado State snatched victory away from Maryland when Jalen Lake hit a three pointer to take a 71-70 lead with :06.1 remaining, only to see Maryland snatch said victory away from them when Derik Queen hit a floater with time expiring to win it for the terms 72-71.  In the space of six seconds of game time, BOTH teams experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.  If you missed it, HERE is how it played out.

Best line I saw on social media this morning was that Derik Queen will soon be signing a huge NIL deal with Travelers Insurance.  Wish that I'd have thought of that one!

Eight games today from the NCAA Women to fill out the Sweet 16 of the women's bracket, and then the bacchanalia begins again on Thursday.

.

To Absent Friends - John Feinstein

"Junior"

1955-2025

The news of the death of author/sportwriter John Feinstein last week at the age of 69 was certainly a shock.  Feinstein was a longtime reporter and was still a contributing sports columnist (he filed his last column of the Post the day before he died) for the Washington Post, but he is perhaps best known as the author of over fifty books and novels.

His most renowned  book was 1985's "A Season On the Brink" which describes that season for the Indiana University men's basketball team, and which vividly described the profane and volatile temperament and coaching methods of its head coach, Bobby Knight.  It topped the best seller lists for over four months, and opened the door for Feinstein to write many other books on such varied topics as professional golf, pro tennis, the history of Army-Navy football game, minor league baseball, and the basketball program's of the NCAA's Patriot League.  He also authored a series of sports themed mystery novels for young adult readers, one of which won an Edgar Award.

For years I would hear Feinstein on an almost weekly basis as a guest on Tony Kornheiser's old radio show, but he stopped appearing once Kornheiser went to an exclusive podcast format.  I had assumed that the two had had a falling out of some sort, and I wasn't far from wrong, as I learned in reading about him after his death.  It seems that John "Junior" Feinstein was not an easy guy to get along with.  He could be abrasive and he always had to be right and to dominate every conversation in which he was involved.  In eulogizing Junior on his podcast on Monday with guest Michael Wilbon, both men praised him for being a great writer and reporter, but as a friend, there were times when you just had to step away from the friendship.  Sometimes you stepped away for few days or weeks, sometimes for a few months, and sometimes for a few years.  When he asked the Post sports editor for a six month leave of absence to write the Knight book, sports editor George Solomon said sure with the thought of "let him bother Knight for six months instead of bothering me."

About that nickname Junior.  I always thought that it was just a thing with Kornheiser, but I learned in his obit that the name was bestowed upon him by consensus in the Washington Post's sports department because Feinstein's comportment was similar to that of volatile and abrasive tennis star John McEnroe, Junior.

I have read a number of Feinstein's books, probably five or six of them, and found each of them to be very, very good.  Strangely enough, I never read "A Season on the Brink", mainly because of my great dislike of Bobby Knight, so perhaps I should do that soon.  My friend Fred says that it is a great book, although it will probably make me detest Knight even more that I already do.

RIP John Feinstein.

Book Review: "The Accidental Critic" by Arch Campbell

Editor's Note (courtesy of Mr. Campbell himself.)  Arch was not working on the day of the JFK assassination; he was still in high school at the time, but he came to know and work with many of those in Dallas who did cover that event.  He joined the Dallas newsroom in 1971, and volunteered to be the movie critic in 1973.

Before getting into this book, a little background.  I first heard of Arch Campbell when he was a frequent guest of Tony Kornheiser's on TK's old radio show.  Campbell was a golf partner of Kornheiser's at their Washington DC country club, but he was also a long time Washington television personality who reviewed movies and the DC arts scene and also served as the "resident zany" on the local NBC station's newscasts.  During those guest appearances, I loved hearing Arch's deep voice and booming laugh as he talked about current movies which often included this summary: "Didn't see it, don't want to see it."

Anyway, Campbell moved on from working after over 40 years at two different DC television stations and now does a movie themed podcast, which I highly recommend to any movie buffs out there.

He has now published a memoir of his life in television news, and I highly recommend it.  Now you might ask "Why should I read a book about local television newspeople from a city where I do not live and whom I have never seen?"  Good question, but one thing that I have learned from listening to the Kornheiser radio show and subsequent podcast, and Campbell's podcast is that every community, every city has a cast of characters in local broadcasting, newspaper, and the arts that become interwoven into the fabric of community that they serve.  They almost become a part of the family and when something happens to them, they move to another city, they retire, they pass away, you feel the loss on a personal level.

In this book, you will learn about a TV news team consisting of news anchors Jim Vance and Doreen Gentzler, sports anchor George Michael, weatherman Bob Ryan, and resident zany Arch Campbell who dominated the local television news scene in the nation's capital for over thirty years.   For those of us in the greater Pittsburgh area, I am guessing that similar stories could be told about people such as Bill Burns, Paul Long, Adam Lynch, Ray Tannehill, Marie Torre, Sally Wiggin, Sam Nover, and, well, you get the idea.  My point is, don't let the fact this book may be "local" to Washington DC keep you away from it.

Campbell tells his story from his days growing up in San Antonio, Texas where he started as a broadcaster at San Antonio College and the University of Texas, which led to position in radio and TV newsrooms in Dallas - he was working at a Dallas TV station on November 22, 1963 -  and on to his move to Washington where he worked for forty-three years and where he remains to this day.

That is the bare bones of the book, but Arch fills the narrative of the stories, both on screen and behind the scenes , that are hilarious and poignant, but mainly hilarious.  For example, one day in the newsroom in Dallas, the news director charged in and in desperation yelled "I need someone to review a movie."  After a brief silence, Arch raised his hand and said "I'll do it."  Thus, both a career and a book title were born.  There are stories about how the sausage gets made in delivering the nightly news into you living rooms, and tales of the days when most local TV did live programming You will see names of people you will know who's paths crossed with Arch's over the years (Willard Scott, Katie Couric. Savannah Guthrie, Howard Stern, Nancy Reagan, and I could go on and on).  And did I say funny?  A story is told about a trained monkey making an appearance on a live children's show called Claire and Coco that had me shrieking with laughter and had tears rolling down my cheeks. I won't begin to tell it here, but all Pittsburghers of a certain age, try to imagine the same thing happening on the Ricki and Copper Show.

You'll also read about how Arch once raised a pet pig for a feature story, and about how he had a monkey randomly pick stocks for investments and how it fared against noted economists, a wonderful story about Arch revisiting his home town of San Antonio (for which h won an Emmy Award), and movies.  Lots and lots off stuff about the movies.

You can get the book by ordering it online through the DC bookstore Politics and Prose.  That's how I did it.  You should also check out The Arch Campbell Podcast if you enjoy the world of movies and entertainment, available wherever you get your podcasts.

This one gets the full Four Stars from The Grandstander.

The Man himself.