World Cup 2026 Comments

Before I start, a comment about last night's USA 3-2 loss to Turkiye.  Both the US position in the group (first place) and their slotting in Knockout round of 32 were known so the game meant nothing to the USA, win, lose, or draw.  And that's how they played it.  They rested guys to avoid injuries and for reasons involving yellow cards (which I think I understand, but am not totally sure about), and only played their best player, Christian Pulisic, for thirty minutes, and as a substitute at that.  It looked like the match was destined to be a draw, but then Turkiye scored, literally, on the last play in seven minutes of stoppage time.  Seemed like a devastating way to lose a game to me.  I only hope that this loss doesn't rob the USMNT of the momentum that was built up over their two earlier wins in group play.

Now for the what I really wanted to write today.

Over the past fifteen days I have found myself enjoying this FIFA World Cup Tournament more that I ever anticipated.  Let me spell it out in bullet point form.

WHAT I HAVE LIKE ABOUT 2026 FIFA WORLD CUP

• The Stars.  Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, and Erling Haaland, among others, have delivered beyond imagining.  Messi has all five of Argentina's goals, including a hat trick in the first game.  He established the all time record for career goals scored in World Cup play with 18. Mbappe, with four goals now stands at 14 career goals will surely pass Messi someday, possibly even this year depending on how the tournament plays out.
• The Coverage.  There have been anywhere from three to six games to watch on television everyday for the last two weeks.  You could - and I often have - been watching World Cup matches on any given day from 1:00 in the afternoon to midnight.
• The Announcers. Many if not most of the play-by-play announcers have been British, and, all due respect to the Jim Nantzes, Ian Eagles, Al Michaels', and Joe Bucks of the USA, no one can turn a phrase like the Brits.  Maybe it's the accents. Example:  One announcer, when chiding some player's somewhat relaxed style of play said that "he needs to put down his brandy and cigar and start playing some proper football."  Pitt needs to hire that guy to replace Bill Hillgrove.
• The Pagentry.  The packed stadiums, the way the teams march on to the field before the matches, the flags and the anthems.  Can't be beat.
• The Game Itself.  By watching so many games in such a concentrated period of time, I have come to appreciate its  nuances. Like how the defenders play. Like many Americans, I would always say "why don't they score more...why don't they shoot more....why don't they even try to score?", and I have come to learn that the reason for all that is that they CAN'T shoot or score more and it is because of the defensive play of these elite teams.   
• Rebecca Lowe, Thierry Henry, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic as Fox Studio hosts.
• The Fans From Other Countries. The Tartan Army from Scotland who completely overtook Boston with their marching and bagpipes, literally drinking Boston taverns dry, and taking over Fenway Park at a Red Sox game and singing in unison for the entire nine innings.  The Norwegians and their "Viking Row".  The thousands of people from countries that you, or at least I, would never have expected to travel to North America to attend these matches.  The singing and the organized cheering throughout the matches.  I heard some guy on a national radio sports show say that when you witness this, you realize that we in America just don't know how to be fans.  He might be right.
• The News Reports About The Visitors.  Social media has been awash with stories and reels about how wonderfully all of these folks from other countries have been received here in America.  The hospitality and kindness of the Americans.  And how the visitors have been in awe of things like American fast food restaurants, Buc-ee's stores, and, of all things, ranch salad dressing.  I was afraid that the current leadership of America would somehow manage to suck all of the joy out of hosting this global event, but, happily, it hasn't happened.  At least not yet.
• A Look at the Stars:

Messi

Mbappe

USMNT

Haaland

WHAT I HAVE NOT LIKED ABOUT THE 2026 FIFA WORLD CUP

• Alexi Lalas as a Fox Studio host.  I made comment in Facebook that pairing Lalas with Henry and Zlatan would be like doing a documentary on the New York Yankees and having it hosted by Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and Phil Linz.  The guy is a total putz.
• The general stink of greed, graft, and corruption that surrounds anything associated with FIFA.  Example:  Corporate names of American stadiums are verboten, so SoFi Stadium and MetLife Stadium have now become "Los Angeles Stadium" and "New York-New Jersey Stadium", and so on.  That's okay on the face of it, yet, the pitches themselves on which the matches are played are surrounded by electronic ad boards that run constantly throughout the match hawking some corporate sponsor or another.  Also, have you noticed that when a player of coach is interviewed after a match, they stand in front of a backdrop that is plastered with forty of fifty corporate logos.  Not even the International Olympic Committee, which is pretty shady itself, allows that.
• Alexi Lalas.
• Speaking of the FIFA punjabs, the TV cameras caught a shot of FIFA major domo Gianni Infantino and some of his henchmen during one of the recent matches:

• Doesn't it look like they're having a great time?  Probably wondering about what country or government they're going to shake down next.  As my old buddy, the late great Chuck Spatafore would have put it, they look like the Nuremberg Jury.
• Oh, and did I mention Alexi Lalas?

Okay, big match today involving France and Mbappe versus Norway and Haaland.  Can't wait for that.  Group play ends tomorrow and the Knockout Rounds begin with one match on Sunday followed by five straight days with three matches each that will whittle the field down to sixteen teams.

Keep on enjoying the futbol, everyone!

A Vacation Ten Miles From Home

Intriguing headline headline is it not?  

Some background.

On Wednesday, June 10, a longstanding friend of Linda's was getting married.  A wedding is a private affair between the husband and wife, so I'm not going to mention any names, but the backstory for this one could have been a Nora Ephron screenplay.  To wit:

• The bride and groom were each other's date for their high school senior prom in 1970!
• As often happens, life took them their separate ways, they married, had children and grandchildren, and, sadly, lost their spouses after long and loving marriages.
• Not sure how it happened, but they somehow got back together, and, long story short, they got married last week.
• When I first met this couple four years ago, I was amazed to learn that the groom grew up on block away from me on Saline Street in Squirrel Hill.  He went to Allderdice High School, I went to Central Catholic, so we never knew each other, but we no doubt crossed paths with each other at Murray Pharmacy, the Lorretto Avenue Giant Eagle, and Mineo's Pizza many times in our formative years.  Only in Pittsburgh, amiright?

The wedding was a traditional Jewish wedding, and this was the first time that either Linda or I ever attended a Jewish wedding, and we absolutely loved it.  The music, the prayers, the participation of the attendees was very moving, and the wedding reception was an absolute blast.  So much fun.  How great it was to experience this event.  

Okay, now about that vacation.  The wedding took place at the William Penn Hotel in downtown Pittsburgh, and when we got the invitation, we decided that we would make it an in-week getaway for us, and we booked a room for two nights at the William Penn, one of the great big city old-time luxury hotels, the kind that they just don't build anymore.

We checked in on Wednesday morning, and that day, of course, was spent with the wedding and the events surrounding it, but we awoke on Thursday morning (still not believing the 29 point comeback of the Knicks the might before) and decided to explore our home town.  We decided to walk into town and take a look at the newly remodeled Market Square.  In all honesty, we were unimpressed with the new look Market Square.  It was also 89 degrees so the several block walk was a killer.  We had a great lunch at the City Works Restaurant in PPG Place.  We then took a slow walk back in the heat, with a stop at a Milk Shake Factory.   Back to the William Penn for a mid-afternoon cocktail, then dinner at the Ritual House in the Union Trust Building.  Back to the Tap Room at the William Penn where we watched both the Stanley Cup playoff game and the Pirates-Dodgers game.  We concluded this getaway with breakfast at the William Penn's Terrace Room, where you can get the best Eggs Benedict anywhere, before checking out and heading home, but not before stopping at the new Arts Landing space and taking in the Three Rivers Arts Festival.

All in all, a terrific 48 hour whirlwind for Linda and Bob.

I will close by offering a commentary on a paradigm change that I found amazing.  I worked in dahntahn Pittsburgh for over thirty years.  To me, it was a bustling place with people shoulder to shoulder on the sidewalks and lots and lots of jammed traffic on any given business day between 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM, where a pedestrian took his life into his hands merely trying to cross a street.  I know that things changed when the COVID-19 pandemic closed things down and people began working remotely, but I was still shocked when I saw that the sidewalks were not crowded, and vehicular traffic was virtually non-existant.  Let me show you.

Here is a picture that I took from our hotel room at midnight on Wednesday.  Our room overlooked Mellon Square Park and Smithfield Streets and Sixth and Seventh Avenues.

Pretty picture and no traffic, but it was midnight, so why would there be?  This next picture was taken at 8:30 on Thursday morning.  Gotta be lots and lots of traffic going into work, right?

Nope.  You could have fired a cannon down Smithfield Street and not hurt anyone.  Just wait until evening rush hour at around 5:15 though.  That will no doubt be a madhouse.

Not so much.  At least I see a bus there at Seventh and Smithfield by what used to be Gimbels. Maybe there were some people on that.

Despite all of that, both the City Works for lunch and the Ritual House for dinner were filled.  Where did they come from?

I know that both the city fathers and the business leaders are doing what they can to get people out of their remote locations and back into those office buildings, but will it ever again be like the City I worked in in the 80's, 90's and 00's?  Like I said, the whole scene amazed me.

To Absent Friends - Gene Shalit

 

Gene Shalit

1026-2026

Legendary movie and entertainment critic and regular on the Today Show Gene Shalit died this weekend at the age of 100.  Tributes to Shalit and the amazing way that he had with words and puns in his film reviews have been all over the media in the days following his death ("Ishtar ishterrible"), and they are great fun to read.

Tis post will be my story of one of his reviews  that sticks in my mind.  It was in 1977 for the Paul Newman hockey movie "Slap Shot".  Shalit didn't care much for the movie and I remember happening to be watching the Today Show when he said:

"Slap Shot is has an R rating, which means that no one under 18 can see this movie unless accompanied by a parent.  Any parent that would take a kid to this movie deserves to be slapped.  Or shot!"

How great was that?

RIP Gene Shalit.

They Are The Champions

Both the NBA and the NHL wrapped up their Championship Series this weekend, and both results were quite satisfactory in our home.

The New York Knicks won their first NBA title since 1973 in five games over the San Antonio Spurs in what can only be described as astonishing fashion.  Here was their Playoff run:

• Fell behind two games to one to the Hawks in the first round then won three straight games to advance to the second round
• Swept the 76ers in the second round
• Swept the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals; in Game 1, the Cavs led by 22 points with 7:00 minutes remaining in the game, and the Knicks tied it and won it in overtime
• Defeated Spurs in five games to win The Finals

But that last bullet point doesn't even begin to describe just HOW the Knicks won those five games.  The Spurs had double digit leads in all five games, and could have, and perhaps should have, won all of the games that they lost.  After losing the first two games, the Spurs rallied to win the third game in Madison Square Garden, and appeared to have a Game Four win in their hip pockets, a win that would have tied the series.  They held a 27 point lead over the Knicks at the half, and got that lead up to 29 points in the third quarter.  No NBA teamed ever overcame a 29 point deficit in an NBA Finals game.  Until this past Wednesday.

The Knicks kept chipping into the lead, while the Spurs, with perhaps the most dominant low post "big man" in all of basketball, Victor Wembanyama, kept attempting , and missing, long range jump shots and three point attempts.  The Spurs still held a seven point lead with a minute to play, but the Knicks kept at it, and the Spurs kept missing shots, and it all came to an end when OG Anunoby tipped in a missed shot by Jaylen Brunson with 1.2 seconds remaining to give the Knicks an unbelievably improbable 107-106 win.  

OG Anunoby becomes Bobby Thomson in Game 4!

We watched that game unfold from our hotel room at Pittsburgh's William Penn Hotel (why we were there will be the subject of another post coming in the next day or two), and simply could not believe what we were seeing.  As I often say, a game like that one is why you follow sports.

The real star of the Knicks was Jalen Brunson, who was named MVP of the Series.  After the Knicks fell behind by double digits is Game 5, Brunson willed the Knicks to overcome the deficit and scored 45 points in New York's 94-90 win.  He'll never have to pick up a check in a New York City restaurant for the rest of his life.

MVP

A couple of comments on two other key figures in these Finals.

I was tremendously impressed with Knicks Head Coach Mike Brown, and after pulling off that unprecedented comeback in Game 4, how could you not be, but more than that, his calm demeanor on the sideline throughout all of these games stood in sharp contrast to his coaching counterparts on all levels of basketball.  He never whined or screamed at the refs.  When he had a beef, he would calmly address it to the official in question.  Most of the time, he stood on the sidelines with his hands in his pockets.

In a profession that is filled with Danny Hurleys, it's refreshing to see a guy like Mike Brown on the sidelines.

Make no mistake, the San Antonio Spurs are a very good team.  Led by their star player, 22 year old Victor Wembanyama, and other young stars like Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, the Spurs will be back on this stage again and will win NBA championships over the next five to eight years.  Wemby is a force of nature and when you see how he can dominate a basketball game at this point in his career, it boggles the mind to think of how much better he will become as he matures, and I use the word "mature" purposefully here.  I love watching him play, but it was disappointing to see some of the, shall we say, churlish behavior on his part both on the court (Is he a dirty player?)  and in post game interviews and interactions with other players.  Hell, he's only 22 years old, so let's all hope that he outgrows some of that stuff as he gets older.  He will be, if he isn't already, the Face of the NBA, and he needs to realize that there is some responsibility that comes along with that. 

*****

One night later, the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Las Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 to win the  NHL's Stanley Cup in six games.

I can sum up our actions to this by restating these comments from my June 2 post:

"Our rooting interest will be with the Hurricanes, not only because of her preseason wager, but because her sons  Jeffrey and Justin and their families reside in Raleigh now and are Hurricanes fans, and because she wants to see ex-Penguin Jordan Stahl win another Cup."

So the Canes checked all the boxes for Linda and I throughout this series, and Jordan Stahl even won the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the Series!   Oh, and the "pre-season wager" referred to above was a five dollar bet that Linda asked me to place for her back on October 3 that yielded a $52.50 payout on FanDuel.

*****

In other sports news, the FIFA World Cup kicked off last Thursday, and on Friday the USA began play in their Group with a rousing 4-1 win over Paraguay.

It was great fun to watch, and in fact, this whole tournament has been and will continue to be fun to watch play out over the next thirty-four days.  Every day during group play there will be as many as four games matches being contested, and it has been fun to watch throughout these first five days of competition.  I won't be glued to every contest, but I will be watching certain matches with great interest, like when the USA plays, or when Argentina, led by the great Lionel Messi, plays.  Their first match is Tuesday night.   The USA takes on Australia on Friday night.

Revisiting "The Great Gatsby"

In my younger and more vulnerable years, like when I was in high school, I, like every other high school student in America, read F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. I recall that I liked the novel at the time, liked it a lot, but in retrospect, I realize that at the age of 16 or 17, I really would have had no idea as to what the novel was really about. I have just finished rereading this classic work for probably the third or fourth time since those high school days. With each rereading, and with the wisdom (?) that I have gained from living life for the past fifty plus years,  I can conclude that The Great Gatsby is "about" many things, and I can glean something new from it with each reading. In 2026, how can one read The Great Gatsby and NOT think about a billion dollar ballroom, tacky gold leaf decorations from Home Depot all over the Nation's Capital, and a UFC arena being constructed on the lawn of the White House. But I digress. The point is, that some things are timeless and should be experienced multiple times over the course of a lifetime, and The Great Gatsby is one of them.  

As an aside, that F. Scott Fitzgerald could really turn a phrase. Several times while reading this, I had to go to the dictionary to look up a word. (Example: "pasquinade"; I'll let you look it up for yourself.) I once read a critic say that the reason none of the movie versions of this book have ever been all the great is because no Hollywood screenwriter could possibly capture Fitzgerald's phrasings. I believe it.

I will turn 75 years young later this year, so I wonder if there is another re-reading of The Great Gatsby is in store for me. So if or until that occurs, we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

(Did you see what I did, twice, in this post?)

My Most Ambitious LEGO Project Ever

There it is!  The FIFA World Cup as designed by the good folks at LEGO.

While I don't consider myself a LEGO Hobbyist, I have dabbled a bit with the colorful bricks in my retirement years, and have taken great pleasure in completing a few small projects, and I can say the same thing about this replica of the World Cup.  This was far and away my most difficult and ambitions LEGO project ever. It was over 2,800 pieces packaged in 20 separate bags. This made the step-by-step process  easier, but the project was not without its fits, starts, and frustrations, and God help you if you somehow miss a step somewhere along the line!   A couple of times I had to take apart one of the "bags" and start it over again.  There were some missing pieces (which was probably my fault) which I had to reorder, and upon completion, I did find a couple of imperfections, but I will probably be the only one who notices them, so for all practical purposes, this LEGO model is finished!

Now the question becomes, what do I do with it?  I will probably display by our television while the actual World Cup Tournament is being contested over the next several weeks, but after that....who knows?

I do know that this may well be the last big LEGO structure that I will ever do.  They seem to offer nothing but Harry Potter and Star Wars stuff, which doesn't interest me, but, like I said above, who knows?  Maybe they will come up with something else that will grab my attention for a 2027 project.

Enjoy the FIFA World Cup, folks.

Will Lionel Messi and Argentina win

 the Cup once again in 2026?

 

Finals Week Begins

The National Basketball Association's Finals and the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup Championship Series begin tonight. 

The NBA Finals begin tomorrow night, and it is a match-up that has to have the league office and its television partners simply ecstatic.  The New York Knicks who sit in the nation's largest television market will face the San Antonio Spurs and their star player, Victor Wembanyama. At the age of 23 and in only his third year in the league,  he has become the Face of the NBA, if not the Face of the Sport of Basketball itself.

As I alluded in this post few days ago, I found myself really getting into the NBA Playoffs this year, and found myself cheering for both the Knicks and the Spurs as they made their way through the East and West playoffs.  I find myself very excited at watching this Finals series play itself out, and I honestly can't say for which team I will root.  

The Knicks are a fun team to watch and Jalen Brunson is just a terrific player.  The Spurs have Wemby, and what more is left to be said on that front?

The Knicks have won eleven straight Playoff games, many of them by large margins.  The Spurs have come off of a grueling seven game series against the defending champion OKC Thunder.

The Spurs are a slight betting favorite (-190) over the Knicks (+160), but the Knicks look to be on one of those unstoppable rolls upon which teams sometimes find themselves.

The Knicks have Spike Lee, Ben Stiller, Timothee Chamalet, and Christopher and Bobby from The Sopranos.  The Spurs have the "Spurs Nuns" and those two young ladies with the low cut tops who sit in the second row right behind HC Mitch Johnson.

I hope it goes seven games.

The NHL's Stanley Cup Finals begin tonight between the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the Carolina Hurricanes.  As you know, my interest in hockey wanes when the Penguins are not involved, so I turned to Linda, my Hockey Fanatic wife (her vanity license plate is HOCKEE) for advice on this one.

Prior to the season, she had me place bets on both the Hurricanes and the Avalanche to win the Stanley Cup.  She was astonished that the Knights dispatched Colorado in four games, but not surprised at the Canes being in the Finals.  She is calling for Carolina to hoist the Cup when all is said and done. Our rooting interest will be with the Hurricanes, not only because of her preseason wager, but because her sons  Jeffrey and Justin and their families reside in Raleigh now and are Hurricanes fans, and because she wants to see ex-Penguin Jordan Stahl win another Cup.

Those are good enough reasons for me to root for the Canes.  That, and the chance to see numerous shots of Rod Brind'Amour and his smooshed up nose behind the bench.

How many times do you figure that proboscis got busted up 

over the course of a 21 year NHL career?

Enjoy these two Championship Series, folks!

To Absent Friends - Joe Negri

 

Jazz guitar virtuoso Joe Negri died over this past weekend.  He was ten days shy off his 100th birthday.

When I say "jazz guitar virtuoso", I am not exagerating for Joe Negri was known throughout the world of jazz music as one of the very best.  In his life, he has performed with a Hall of Fame line-up of jazz musicians from the 1940's to the end of his life. Born in the Mt. Washington section of Pittsburgh and a graduate of Taylor Allderdice High School, Negri served in the Army at the tail end of WW II, and, upon returning from the service, he toured with various bands and jazz groups, but he chose to stay in his native Pittsburgh, and you just cannot have grown up watching television or following The Arts scene in Pittsburgh over these last seventy plus years (like I have) without knowing who Joe Negri was.  

He appeared and played on children's shows like "Ricki and Copper" and "Paul Shannon's Adventure Time".  He was also in the house band at KDKA-TV, back when local television stations had such things, and appeared on locally produced programming like The John Reed King Show and Daybreak.  He was one of those people who become completely ingrained in the fabric of the community, and when such people leave us, you feel like you've lost a member of the family.

However, many of my not-in-Pittsburgh friends who may read this, people who have never lived in The Burgh, will, if they or their children grew up watching "Mister Rogers Neighborhood" on PBS, know of Joe Negri as "Handyman Negri", an regular visitor to Rogers' Land of Make Believe on that landmark children's program.  

Negri also passed on his musical gifts to countless Music and theater students over the years as an instructor at both Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne Universities in Pittsburgh.  His affiliation with Duquesne lasted over forty-five years.

He continued to play the guitar and perform right to the end of his life.  The world of jazz music has lost one of its very best performers, and Pittsburgh has lost one of its Legends. 

RIP Joe Negri.

Shirt Pocket Notes - Pittsburgh Pirates Edition

Some quick hit thoughts on the 2026 Pittsburgh Pirates, a topic upon which The Grandstander has been unusually silent thus far this season.  

On the whole, one has to be quite satisfied with how the team has performed this season, especially when compared to the abomination that was 2025.  This thought is born out by taking a look at the standings in the NL Central Division as of this morning:

Yes, the Buccos are in last place, but they are two games over .500 at 29-26, a pace that would produce 86 wins this season, and who wouldn't have signed up for that on Opening Day?  Significantly, they are only one game behind the second place Cardinals.  Much has been made of the fact the this division is the only one in MLB where all five teams are over .500.  In contrast, the American League West has all five teams playing under .500. These are statistical anomalies that will certainly sort themselves out as the season wears on, but, still, at this point, you have to consider the team a playoff contender.

*****

The team made significant efforts to improve offensively prior to the season, and some of these moves have already paid off.

Brandon Lowe, 2B. 14 HR, 36 RBI, .269 BA, .915 OPS.  He's an All-Star for sure.

Ryan O'Hearn, OF/1B. 7 HR, 29 RBI, .289 BA, .827 OPS.  Currently on the Injured List, his absence will hurt, but he too has been a very good addition.

Then there is Marcel Ozuna, DH. 5 HR, 21 RBI, .186 BA, .573 OPS.  He is also on pace to strike out over 150 times this season.  Apologists will say "well, he has a history of being streaky" but the season has passed the one-third mark and you have to wonder how much longer the team can carry a DH who is, let's be honest, stinking up the joint. 

*****

Oneil Cruz.  We all know about the latent talent, and in fact he is producing at the plate with 11 HR, 35 RBI, .260 BA, .777 OPS.  He has also struck out 89 times, on pace for a mind numbing 257 K's this season.  He is also a Capital T Terrible outfielder.  This is his third season playing in CF, and he hasn't improved a bit.  I always thought that Dave Kingman was the worst major league outfielder that I ever saw, but Cruz is worse.  He is not a good baserunner, and he tends to not hustle 100% at times.  I can recall a game where he nonchalanted it out of the batter's box when he hit a lazy short fly to the outfield, only to see the ball drop between the outfielders, just as he was reaching first base.  What could have been a double, turned into a single simply because of lack of effort.

Then there is his penchant for ABS challenges.  A challenge of a strike call when he was the leadoff batter in the first inning of a game?  Really?  Just last night he challenged a strike call that wasn't even close.  In both of these cases, the calls were upheld by the ABS system.  He is one player who should be expressly forbidden from registering an ABS challenge.

If ever a guy was born to be a Designated Hitter, it's Oneil Cruz.  The team should cut bait on Ozuna and install Cruz as the DH as soon as possible, and when they do, they should never let Cruz wear a glove and play in the field ever again.

*****

There is cause for excitement with the arrival of Konnor Griffen.  After a start where he was hitting below .200, he has goosed his average to .261 and is starting to exhibit some "doubles power" and has hit 4 HR.  He is also a very good defensive short stop. The team did the right thing when they signed him at age 20 to a nine year $140 million contract earlier in the season.

*****

The injury to O'Hearn has led to the Pirates calling up a couple of their younger outfield prospects, Esmerlyn Valdez and Jhostynxon "The Password" Garcia.  The two have accumulated only 37 AB's between them, so it's way too early to pass judgement, but early results are promising, and it shows that the Pirates are willing to bring up guys to replace guys who are not producing.

*****

Catcher Joey Bart was showing signs that he could be a productive hitter, but then he had to be placed on the IL.  Endy Rodriguez was called up and is hitting .316 but in a limited number of AB's thus far.  That leaves Henry Davis - say it with me, a "former Number One overall draft pick" - as the primary catcher.  

Davis is batting .139.

I don't care if he is as good a defensive catcher as Johnny Bench, nor do I care how much Paul Skenes likes to pitch to him, that simply cannot be allowed to happen.  If you are serious about contending, you cannot have a guy hitting .139 as a part of your everyday lineup.

I don't know what the answer is, but it can't be Henry Davis.

*****

Pitching.  The Pirates starting pitching has been good, maybe even very good.  Paul Skenes, despite two straight rough outings, is simply the best pitcher in baseball.  Braxton Ashcraft has been terrific, Mitch Keller has been solid and steady, and even Carmon Mlodzinski has been solid.  Bubba Chandler is still figuring it out, but the signs are there that he will be a good starting big league pitcher.  Oh, and Jared Jones will be returning a soon.

Paul Skenes and Braxton Ashcraft

Then there is the bullpen, which, after starting out well, has been an utter disaster in recent weeks. I am at the point where I have no faith in any of these guys that they bring in out of the pen.

*****

One guy that I have really come to like on the team is first baseman Spencer Horowitz.  Oh, he's not a superstar or an all-star, but he has proven to be a solid and steady player.  A "nice lookin' ballplayer" as by grandfather Bill Madden would have put it.  He is currently hitting .288 with an .850 OPS and has 6 HR and 25 RBI.  Maybe not quite the power production you want from your first baseman, but not all that bad, either.  That trade to acquire him prior to the '25 season is looking like a win for GM Ben Cherrington.

*****

Who is the most irritating member of this year's Pirates?  That's an easy one for me.  It is new pitching coach Bill Murphy.  He may or may not be a good pitching coach, time will tell on that front, but every time he makes that agonizingly sloooooowwwww walk out to the pitcher's mound, I would like to run on the field and punch him in the face.  Well, I would never do that, nor would I advocate that such a thing be done, so I just content myself with bitching about it as I stare at the TV set.

Oh, and he better figure out how get something, anything, out of his relievers.

*****

So, at this point in the season, I am giving the Bucs a solid "B" for their performance thus far.  Much improved over the abominable team of 2025.  Given their starting pitching, and the fact that six teams can now make the Playoffs in each league, I would give them a puncher's chance of doing so, or, at the very least, stay in contention for such a spot all the way through September.  And it they do make it to  the post-season?  Well, a team having to face Skenes-Ashcraft-Keller in a short series won't have an easy time of it.  

Way too early to be entertaining thoughts like that however.   In the meantime, I am planning to keep on enjoying this season.

Shirt Pocket Notes - Memorial Day and NBA Edition

Let's kick off this edition of The Grandstander with this picture that I took at the American Cemetery in Normandy, France when we visited there in 2018.

It was a group of French school children taking a tour of this remarkable place.  It was wonderful to see that the French continue to teach what happened there to younger generations of their citizens.  

This was perhaps the most moving visit to anywhere that I have ever taken, and it is a perfect representation of what Memorial Day is all about.

Now, on to less serious matters.....

I have gotten completely involved and immersed in the NBA Playoffs this year, especially so as the Eastern and Western Conference Finals commenced.  It is interesting that whenever I make a comment on social media about the NBA, I usually get hit with a bunch of "I-can't-stand-pro-basketball-the-college-game-is-better" or "If-the-NBA-Playoffs-were-being-played-in-my-back-yard-I'd-pull-down-the-blinds" type of comments.  Well, if that's the way you feel, all I can say is that (a) I don't agree, and (b) if you can't appreciate basketball as it is played at its highest level, then I just would tell you to do one thing:

Watch the San Antonio Spurs over an extended period of time, not just highlights, but entire games, and if you don't marvel over the play of Victor Wembanyama, then I don't know what to tell you.

On PTI the other day, Kendrick Perkins made the statement that 25 or 30 years from now, when the debate takes place as to who was the greatest basketball player ever, the debate will include only three names: Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Victor Wembanyama.  He's that great.  Only injuries can stop him.

Game One of the WCF between the Spurs and the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder was an epic.  It was a double overtime victory for the Spurs, and Wembanyama scored 41 points and had 20 rebounds.  It was one of those games that was the perfect example of why we all follow sports.  The fact that it was the first game what is, essentially, a semi-final series will mean that it might not be remembered.  A game like that should have been Game 7 of a Finals series.  It was that great.

In the East, I have found myself taking a liking to the New York Knicks. 

Led by Jalen Brunson and Carl Anthony Towns, they put out a starting line-up of five really good players.  I'm rooting for them.  Plus, it's fun seeing all the celebs at court side at the World's Most Famous Arena.  I mean, how can you not like seeing what Walt "Clyde" Frazier and Spike Lee will be wearing on any given night?

As it stands right now, the Knicks have a 3-0 lead over the Cavaliers, and the result of this series is a forgone conclusion.  Maybe Cleveland will snag a win at home tonight, but they are not going to beat the Knicks four straight games, so we can expect to see New York in the Finals.

The West Finals now stand at 2-2 after San Antonio's big win last night (33 points from Wemby), but OKC aren't the defending champs for nothing.  Two time MVP Shea Gilgeous-Alexander is a superstar who can win games all by himself.  I can see this series going seven games.  The winner will be favored in the Finals, but the Knicks are on one of those rolls that teams get on some times.  Whomever the Knicks end up playing, it's going to be a great Finals series.

Four Movies

I have watched four movies over the last week and want to share some thoughts on them with you.  Two are older movies, and two are brand new, released just this month on Netflix.

Marty, Life Is Short

This is a documentary about actor and comedian Martin Short, directed by Lawrence Kasden.   Short, of course, came to the attention of most people in the United States when he was a part of Canadian SCTV back in the late 1970's/early 1980's.  He went on to greater things on television (one season as regular on Saturday Night Live), guest appearances  on talk shows and acting roles in movies and countless television series.  I remember him in movies like "The Three Amigos" and "Father of the Bride", but I had no awareness of just how prolific an actor that he is (116 acting credits in IMDB), including his latest huge success in the streaming series "Only Murders In The Building".

This documentary includes home movies that Short himself made of both his family growing up and of his own family and friends.  And those friends are a Who's Who of show business today: Steve Martin, Stephen Speilberg, Catherine O'Hara, Tom Hanks, and many, many more.  The movie also tells of Short's resilience in the face of tragedy: his oldest brother was killed in an accident when Martin was 12, his mother died when he was 18, and his father died two years later.  Then, he lost his wife of thirty years, Nancy Dolman, to cancer in 2010.  His words about what he went through at that time and in the time that followed were particularly meaningful to me.  Not included in the film was the news of his daughter Katherine's  suicide earlier this year, which occurred after the film was finished.  It is dedicated to her.

Two great lines from the film that sum up Short perfectly:

Steve Martin: "Say you're having a dinner party and you invite Marty.  Then Marty tells you that something came up and he can't make it.  You then cancel the party."

Tom Hanks:  "Marty operates at the speed of joy."

You will laugh a lot watching this movie, and you will fell pain as well, but, ultimately, you will feel the "joy" to which Hanks refers.

Four Stars from The Grandstander.

Remarkably Bright Creatures

Sally Field plays a widow working as an overnight cleaning woman at a public aquarium in Washington state.  It keeps her occupied and active.  Lewis Pullman plays an unemployed musician who arrives in town on a mission to collect money that he feels is owed to him. They're drawn together when his crummy van breaks down and he has to take a job as Field's substitute cleaning person at the aquarium.  They become tied together by their affinity for the aquarium's star attraction, an octopus named Marcellus, who serves as the voice-over narrator of the movie.

I know, doesn't make a lot of sense and it sounds terrible when you spell it out like I just did, but, trust me, this is a charming little story, and how it ends and how the characters tie together make for a delightful movie. 

A word about Sally Field.  She will turn 80 later this year, and she is wonderful in this movie.   She has over seventy acting credits in IMDB dating back to 1962.  She has done comedy and drama. She has won two Oscars and three Emmys and is a Kennedy Center Honors awardee.  She played Mary Todd Lincoln for crying out loud! She has come a long way from Gidget and The Flying Nun, and, as this movie has shown, she continues to do wonderful work.  She is a real treasure.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

The Outlaw Josey Wales

(1976)

Back in March, I wrote THIS PIECE about movies that will turn fifty years old in 2026.  While researching for that post, one of the movies that I found on every list for that year, but that I had never seen, was this western that starred and was directed by Clint Eastwood, and I finally got around to seeing it, fifty years after the fact.

It is classic Eastwood stuff.  Josey Wales seeks revenge on a band of renegade Union soldiers who murdered his wife and son and burned down his home as the Civil War was coming to an end.  Along the way he meets up with an all-by-himself Indian and a family of settlers from Kansas who are seeking a better life out west.  He also has to fight off various bandits, hostile Indians, and, of course, those soldiers who killed his family.  Lots and lots and LOTS of people get killed in this movie and there is a lot of shooting and somehow lone man Josey/Clint manages to out wit, out shoot, and out kill all of them, no matter how outnumbered he always seems to be.  

Josey Wales is the 1860's precursor to the 1970's Dirty Harry Callahan. If, like me, you are a Clint Eastwood fan, then this is a movie for you.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

The Bride Wore Black

(1968)

French film director Francois Truffaut was an unabashed admirer of Alfred Hitchcock, and this 1968 movie was his tribute to him.  If you watch it, you will see the influence that Hitchcock had on Truffaut in scene after scene.  (FUN FACT:  The Bride Wore Black is based upon a novel of the same name by author Cornell Woolrich.  Woolrich also write the short novel "Rear Window", which was, of course, adapted by Hitchcock into my favorite movie of his.)  Jeanne Moreau played the title  character.  We learn early on that her husband was shot and killed on their wedding day, and she then sets out on a mission of revenge against five men responsible for the killing.

I recorded this one off of TCM.  It was in the original French with English subtitles. I was anxious to see it because back in 1968, this movie was shown at the Forum Theater in Squirrel Hill, where the then seventeen year old Grandstander was employed as an usher.  I can remember that I liked the movie because "it was like a Hitchcock movie".  However, the movie was especially memorable because of this scene that featured a topless Miss Moreau:

In watching the movie this week, I realized that this scene took up about two seconds of actual screen time.  It ain't much by today's standards, but to a 17 year old boy in 1968, it was pretty hot stuff.

All that aside, it is still a pretty good movie.  A suspenseful thriller and an apt tribute by Truffaut to Hitchcock.

Two and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.