"Mike Wallace Is Here"

We went off our usual move trail on Friday and took in this new documentary about former "60 Minutes" pit bull journalist Mike Wallace.

It covered Wallace's career.  He started in radio and TV reading news, acting in soap operas, and doing commercials for just about anything, including Fluffo shortening.  But when he began doing interviews, he found his niche.  Interestingly enough, when he joined CBS, he was looked down upon as a "pitchman" by the serious newsies like Ed Murrow, Eric Severeid, and Walter Cronkite, but he became a force when the still ratings challenged "60 Minutes" converged with the collective mess known as Watergate, and a legend and a career was made.

The doc shows clips of Wallace's highlights...interviews with people like Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, John Erlichman, William Westmoreland, Barbara Streisand, Kirk Douglas, and, perhaps the biggest coup of all, the Ayatollah Khomeini in the midst of the Iranian Hostage crisis.  It tells of Wallace's own battles with depression, and his ultimate impact on his profession.

It is a well done movie about one of the more captivating and compelling journalists in television history.  Wallace, by the way, was still working when he died in 2012, one month shy off his 94th birthday.

As movies in general go, it gets Two and One-half stars from The Grandstander, but in the documentary category, I'll go to Three Stars.

"What in the Wide, Wide World of Sports is Going On....?"

The title of this post is dedicated to my breakfast companions of yesterday morning.


Some sporting thoughts on a Sunday morning.....

• It is frustrating to see the Pirates just eaking out wins over the Astros, a team that they should be hammering into submission, this weekend, but, hey, they ARE winning those games, right?  Just a sign, I suppose, about how far the Pirates have come this season.
• Those Astros, by the way, are really a bad ball club.  As bad a team as I've seen since, oh, the 2010 Pirates.   I'm watching these games, and I am unfamiliar with just about every player on that team.  And is it a coincidence that Brad Mills makes you think of John Russell as he stands expressionless in the Houston dugout?
• For the record, I liked the trade for Wandy Rodriguez.  Nolan Ryan, he ain't, but he will be an improvement over Kevin Correia, I think, in the long run, despite the fact that Correia has won his last six decisions.
• It should also be noted that Rodriguez is under contract, and not an inexpensive one, for, I believe, two more seasons after this one, so kudos to Nutting/Coonelly/Huntington for pulling the trigger on this one.
• If Colton Cain wins 20 games for the Astros in 2017, this will still have been a good deal, if the Pirates get to the post-season this year, or even if they stay in the hunt deep into September.
• I also like that Starling Marte is now here in Pittsburgh, and how can you not after that spectacular debut?  True, he is hitless in his last two games, but I do believe he will be an improvement over what Pirates left fielders/lead off batters have given the team so far.
• Now the big question:  Does GM Neal swing a deal to bring a hitter, or "a bat" as is now the lingo, to PNC Park for the stretch?  I will not pay attention to anything Neal might say on the subject between now and Tuesday - he will never say anything significant on such a subject - but I anxiously await that July deadline.
• In case no one noticed, and it is definitely a secondary story line in Pittsburgh this summer - the Steelers opened training camp  this week.  The highlight for me was hearing my first Mike Tomlin soundbite of the season.  I LOVE hearing those, and I am not being sarcastic.
• Mike Wallace learned a hard lesson this week: When you get into a contract hassle with the Steelers, you will lose.  Every time.  You think these guys would know that by now.
• One thing that guys like Wallace and their agents absolutely, positively need to remember:  the Steelers released Franco Harris in a contract dispute back in 1983.  They do that to one of the pre-eminent figures in franchise history, then guys like Wallace will never have a chance.
• It amazes me to hear that there are some folks in Pitt fandom who think that the Panthers should now forget about ever playing Penn State, even to the point of canceling the two games scheduled for '16 and '17.  "Who needs THEM now?", they sniff.  This makes those elements at Pitt guilty of the same arrogance and hubris that they have accused (and not without some justification, it should be noted) Penn State and Joe Paterno of having had ever since the series ended.
• My friend Dan Bonk, a major Pitt fan and supporter, has taken the opposite tack:  AD Steve Pederson should be on the phone RIGHT NOW to whoever is in charge at Penn State these days negotiating a long term home-and-home deal with Penn State. 
• Penn State has always been able to find a way to schedule teams like Ohio University.  Pitt has always found a way to schedule teams like the University of Buffalo.  They can find a way to make this happen, and don't forget, the one person who always prevented  this series from continuing, is no longer on the scene.
• The NCAA and other college "spokesmen" have talked very loftily about how the College football culture needs to change after it was allowed to run amok at Penn State.  Yet there were reports this week, the ink on the consent decree not even dry, of rival schools' coaches on the PSU campus recruiting the Lions' current scholarship athletes.  Do you REALLY think that that culture is going to change?
• In spite of all that has fallen upon Penn State, I find myself really rooting for Bill O'Brien and those kids who will choose to stay at Penn State this coming season.
• I learned very quickly this week, that if you want to watch the Olympics and not know the results of a given event, stay off of Facebook, Twitter, or the entire Internet itself over the course of the next two weeks.

Some Off Season Football Thoughts

Wow, the cost of doing business in the NFL wide receivers sure went up yesterday, didn't it? $132 million over eight years for Calvin Johnson??? OK, so only $60 is guaranteed, but still. Plus the mega-contracts handed out to Vincent Jackson, Reggie Wayne, Pierre Garcon, Marques Colston, and even an ancient Randy Moss? It all spells out one thing for all us Steelers fans: Mike Wallace may play here in 2012 thanks to the arcane NFL salary/free agent/tender machinations, but don't expect to see him here beyond that. Same goes for Antonio Brown two seasons down the pike. In my wildest imagination, I can never see Rooney U. dishing out that kind of dough for a wide receiver.

******
Did you catch the TV commercials for Pitt Football that began airing this past weekend? It features Pitt players talking about "my school, my city" in promoting the 2012 football season. No extravagant promises and claims from a blowhard head coach. A hard Lesson Learned in the Pitt Sports Information office, I'd say.

Still, Pitt is going to need a lot more than nice commercials to get people out to a home schedule that has to be one of the least attractive in anyone's recent or even not-so-recent memory.

******
I never read stories about hotshot, can't-miss high school recruits, but a glance at recent headlines seem to indicate that Bill O'Brien is hooking some attractive prospects for Penn State, particularly quarterbacks. Penn State has an awful lot to overcome, including a late start by O'Brien, but I hope that he, O'Brien, is able to overcome all that and get the Lions into the elite soon. I also hope that the fanatics in Happy Valley give him a fair chance.

******
Anybody got any extra tickets for the Power's home opener? Anybody know when it is? Do the Power have any players, or have they all been fired again?