Calling B.S. on the Pitt Athletic Department

Since being named Athletic Director at Pitt in 2017, Heather Lyke has pretty much distinguished herself in that role, but a development this past week has caused me to call "bulls----" on the Pitt athletic department, and since the buck stops with her, well, sorry about that, Ms. Lyke.

I am speaking about the decision that Pitt has made to not play against Duquesne in the annual City Game basketball game next season.  "We just can't fit it on to our schedule next year" seems to be the word coming from Oakland.  Are you kidding me?  How many basketball games will be on Pitt's non-conference schedule next year? How many of them will be cream puff guaranteed wins against schools like East Overshoe State? 

Duquesne sits a few miles down Forbes Street from Pitt.  Duquesne is willing to play at the Peterson Center if PPG Paints Arena is somehow not available (which I find it hard to believe).  And Pitt can't see their way to playing this game?

I give credit to Pitt for agreeing to play Robert Morris next season in Moon Township for the opening of RMU's new on campus arena, but if they are using the scheduling of THAT game as an excuse NOT to find a way to play Duquesne, well, like I say....bull----!

All this is even more incomprehensible when one considers how the Pitt administration seems to be willing to crawl on its knees to schedule football games with Penn State, and then allows its fan base to bellyache and moan about Penn State's arrogance in not wanting to include the Panthers on its football schedule.  Looks like Pitt has learned a lesson from PSU and is doing the same thing to Duquesne in this instance.

Welcome to Pittsburgh, Jeff Capel

With the Pirates Opening Day game in Detroit postponed a day, let's talk about basketball, specifically, basketball at the University of Pittsburgh.

Pitt introduced its new Head Basketball Coach, Jeff Capel, at a news conference yesterday.  Capel was a player at Duke University under Mike Krzyzewski, and head coach at both Oklahoma and Virginia Commonwealth, and, for the last seven years, the Associate Head Coach under Krzyzewski at Duke.  The announcement has been greeted positively by the media and even by the unbelievably finicky Pitt Hoops Fan Base, although I have not checked into the comments on some of the more radical Pitt fan sites on social media.

When it was first reported that it was going to be Capel, I expected that the reaction would be "Euww, who wants anybody associated with Duke?"  You know, all the people who who reside outside of Durham NC who can't stomach Coach K, Jay Bilas, and just about anyone else associated with what is arguably the best and most successful collage basketball program over the last thirty years.  Yeah, who would want that?

Surprisingly, though, this hire seems to be well received and AD Heather Lyke deserves much credit for being able to pull this one off.  Apparently, neither she nor the rest of the University athletic department were behaving like the Keystone Kops as many people in the talk radio world were portraying them.  And I give much credit to Pitt for staying away from the guy that "the fans" seemed to really want most: Sean Miller.  It says something good about Pitt that they chose not to go that particular route.

As we all know, though, being an assistant under a great head coach does not necessarily guarantee success, but it's a good place to start, so let us all hope that this works out well for both Pitt and Jeff Capel.

I will close with an absolute classic call that I heard on The Fan yesterday morning.  Morning host Colin Dunlap was talking to "Sam from New Castle" who was, of course bitching and moaning about the hiring of Capel.  Among the many of Capel's shortcomings, according to Sam, was that he, Capel, was "known cheater" while at Oklahoma.  When Dunlap then asked who Pitt should have hired, Sam's first choice was Rick Pittino.  How's that for logic?

Welcome to Pittsburgh, Coach.  Enjoy the Primanti sammitches and Iron City's n'at.

The Axe Falls in Oakland.....

The news came about an hour ago that was unsurprising and inevitable.  Kevin Stallings has been fired as Head Men's Basketball Coach at Pitt.   After a season in which Pitt went 0-19 in conference play this move was, as I said, inevitable.    Pitt probably had no other practical choice.  It brings to a close a two year coaching tenure that was, to me, almost unprecedented in my sixty years (yes, sixty, as in 60, as in Six Zero;  I'm old) of following sports in Pittsburgh.

The Panthers Hoops fan base never accepted Stallings as their coach.  There were calls for his head almost from Day One and certainly before he ever coached a game at Pitt.  Yeah, I get it that the Athletic Director Scott Barnes  probably botched the entire hiring process, and he was soon gone to greener pastures, and the people then took there wrath out on Stallings, whose biggest crime at the time of his hiring was that he wasn't Sean Miller, Archie Miller, or a resurrected John Wooden.  Over the years, even such Pittsburgh coaching failures as Bill Austin, John Russell, and any number of Pitt football coaches had honeymoons with the public.  Stallings never did.

Whenever a coach gets fired, I always recall one of Myron Cope's personal rules over the years when he conducted his talk show.  Whenever a caller would ask "Do you think the Pirates/Steelers/Penguins/Pitt ought to fire (insert coach's name here)?", Myron would always respond with words to the effect "I don't fire coaches on my show.  I've come to learn that these are guys with families and bills to pay just like me. If you want to call and say so-and-so should be fired, I won't stop you, but I'm not going to be the guy to make such demands."  It was kinder, gentler time in the sports talk radio biz then.  

Like I said, Pitt had probably had no other choice, and coaching on this level is a cruel business, and no one knows that better than Stallings himself, but I am also guessing that people who take such glee in demanding that someone be fired, and who rejoice when someone does lose his job,  as  Stallings did today, are people who never in their lives had the misfortune to be told by their employer that their services were no longer needed.  It is a devastating thing to have happen to you.  Trust me on that.

(As an aside, I also feel bad for Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings, Kevin's son.  Jacob has had a couple of call ups in the past two seasons, and will probably have others in seasons ahead.  I can picture him being called up again, being announced into a game at PNC Park and getting showered with boos from any Pitt fans who might be in attendance that night.  How fair will that be?)

So now another coaching search begins, and I can't wait to hear the speculation that will ensue among the Panthers fans.  Hey, Rick Pittino is available.  Pat Gallagher and Heather Lyke should go after him, whaddaya think?

Big Win for Pitt

Hey, anyway you slice it, a win over UNC in North Carolina is a BIG win.

Way to go, Pitt Panthers for putting that 80-75 win on the board against the North Carolina Tar Heels this afternoon in the quarter-finals of the ACC tournament.  After what can charitably be described as a sluggish second half of their ACC schedule, the Panthers performance in this tourney, regardless of what transpires from here on in, should serve to keep the "let's-get-rid-of-Jamie-Dixon" crowd quiet for awhile.  

Which brings me to a pet peeve of mine.  I heard the ESPN announcers, and saw it on the Pitt Basketball Chat Facebook page this afternoon, refer to the "Howland-Dixon" era of Pitt basketball.  I believe that Jamie Dixon has earned the right to no longer have his named coupled with Ben "I'm Staying at Pitt" Howland when discussing Pitt basketball.  True, Westwood Ben brought Dixon here as an assistant, and that can probably be seen as his biggest contribution to Pitt basketball, prior to him taking his dream job at UCLA.  In my mind, Jamie has surpassed Howland in accomplishments at Pitt and can stand alone whenever such things as "eras" are discussed.

Unrelated Topics - Baseball, Football, and Basketball

A quick shuffle through the Mental In-Box.....

• The announcement that Clayton Kershaw signed a seven year, $215 million dollar deal with the Dodgers was stunning to me, although perhaps it should not have been.  The team has signed a local TV deal that, according to some reports, is larger than the deal that the Yankees have, and an ownership group that thinks nothing of spending tons and tons of money. Few things in sports are as fragile as a pitcher's arm, so for their sake, here's hoping Kershaw doesn't encounter Kerry Wood- or Mark Prior-like arm miseries.

• The signing tells me one thing that is relevant for Pirates fans:  Let us enjoy and treasure Gerrit Cole for these next five years before free agency is granted to him.  If he develops they way we hope he can and if the going rate for such pitchers is now thirty million a year, well, he most likely will not retire as a Bucco.
• How about Alex Rodriguez with his 162 game suspension, saying that he still plans on showing up for Spring Training with the Yankees?  Can you imagine what a circus THAT will be?    
• As exciting as the NFL playoff games during Wild Card weekend were, the ones this past weekend were pretty lackluster.  The one significant take-away that I took from Round 2 was a giant WOW for the performance that the New England Patriots put on in handing the Indy Colts' heads to them.
• Back on September 5, I made the following statement in my Steelers preview post:  As for the Super Bowl, how about the Broncos to defeat the 49'ers in a New Jersey blizzard on February 2.  And it is still possible that that could happen!!!  To be honest, I'd have given long odds back then that that prediction would still be alive going into Championship Weekend. Not sure if the blizzard is still a possibility, though.
• I'm sure you all probably saw the comments made by Art Rooney II in his traditional post-season interview with the Pittsburgh media last week.  I can't take too much issue with most of what he said except for the comment that the Steelers "should have been in the playoffs".  Presumably he was talking about the missed calls by officials in that final game between Kansas City and San Diego.  Also presumably, he had forgotten about that 0-4 start to the season.
• Great exchange between Kornheiser and Wilbon on PTI on Tuesday:
• Tony: And what would the ACC be like right now without Syracuse and Pitt?
• Wilbon: It sure ain't your grandaddy's ACC this year.
• Remember all the talk among basketball know-it-alls saying what a tough time Pitt, Syracuse, and Notre Dame would have adjusting to the ACC?  A quarter of the way into the schedule, it sure looks like they all had that statement backwards.
• Listening to Pitt basketball games on the radio remains high comedy.  The game against NC State a few weeks ago is a prime example.  When Pitt fell behind 17-2 at the beginning, the pissing and moaning of Hillgrove and Groat was classic, and when the Panthers turned it around in the second half to win by 15, said pissing and moaning turned into unbelievable smugness and gloating.
• On the topic of college basketball, I watched the entire game between #1 ranked Arizona and UCLA last week.  It was a terrific game, won by Arizona despite a late charge by the Bruins, and was made all the more enjoyable, to me anyway, because of the color commentary provided by Bill Walton, who has an incredible ability to talk endlessly about almost anything.  As entertaining as he was last week, I get the feeling that if I was subjected to him more than two or three games a season, he would drive me to the point where I would want to throw a shoe at my television.

Thoughts on the City Game

As you know from a previous post, I attended the Pitt-Duquesne basketball game this past weekend, aka, The City Game, and I found it to be a bit of a lackluster event in spite of the best efforts of the schools' respective pep bands, cheerleaders, dance teams, and, oh yeah, the basketball teams.

Part of this is no doubt due to the fact that on Thanksgiving Weekend, neither school was in session so the student sections on both sides were virtually empty, and that the Consol Energy Center was only half filled.  Mainly, however, I think that this stems from the one sided nature of what this "rivalry" has become.  Pitt has now won this game thirteen years in a row, and 31 of the past 35 times it has been played.

This year, Pitt was tired, I believe, from two tough games earlier in the week in Brooklyn, and allowed the Dukes to make a game of it for awhile...

...but in the end, overall talent prevailed, and a 17 point Pitt victory was the result.

I have opined on this subject in the past ( http://www.grandstander.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-city-game-steel-bowl-and-special.html ), but this game just does not have the significance that it once held in this town.  Pitt upped its ante as a basketball school decades ago when it joined the Big East, and now the ACC, and somewhere along the way, Duquesne made the choice that they were not going to make the "All In" commitment needed to compete in the elite circles of college basketball, or even in the top echelon of the Atlantic 10.  Duquesne shouldn't be criticized if this is the direction they wish to take, and, in fact, perhaps they are placing athletics in the priority that people often SAY that they should be (except, of course, when your school loses all the time), so perhaps they should also consider stepping down, perhaps to the Northeast Conference, and compete with schools, such as Robert Morris and St. Francis, to name two local institutions, who seem to place athletics in a similar perspective.

Jamie Dixon and Jim Ferry can say all they want about how much this "rivalry game" means, but if they were REALLY honest, I am guessing the neither school would be too upset of this game was no longer scheduled.

As far as the Event went this past Saturday, my vote for most outstanding performance goes to this guy:

Yep.  The kid who played the bass drum in the Pitt Pep Band was more enthusiastic than any player on the court.  He would actually leave his feet and jump into the air as he beat hell out of that drum when the band played, and his spiked Mohawk hair style only added to his panache. Loved him!

A Sunday Morning Sports Brunch

A Sunday morning look at the wide, wide, world of sports.....

The NCAA tournament hopes for the Robert Morris University Colonials came crashing down at the Sewall Center yesterday with a 69-60 loss to Mount St. Mary's, and believe me, the nine point spread doesn't reflect the totality of the Mount's win.  RMU took a lead early and the Mount tied the game at 15.  Then the Mount took the lead and never again lost it.  Late in the second half, their lead went to over twenty points.   A too-little-too-late Colonial surge in the final minutes made the final score look closer than the game actually was.  Actually, from the very beginning, this game just didn't feel right for Robert Morris.  Poor Shooting + Tenacious MtSM defense = A Bad Day for the Colonials.

On the bright side, as regular season Conference Champion, the Colonials do get an automatic bid to the NIT, so they got that going for them, which is nice.

*****

The Pirates seem to be pretty much under the radar this Spring Training, and maybe that's a good thing.  If there are low expectations, then there's no where to go but up, right?

In taking a look at the averages in this morning's paper, however, let's ignore the fact that Jerry Sands, Neil Walker, and Pedro Alvarez are all hitting below .200, because Spring Training stats are meaningless, and instead look at the stats of Starling Marte and Jose Tabata, because good  Spring training stats offer Hope, right?

Marte is following up a torrid winter League campaign and is hitting .421 (8-for-19) this spring.  Tabata is hitting .333 (6-for-18) with four doubles, a home run, and five RBIs.  Both of these lines are encouraging, but the more intriguing story to me is Tabata.

After a disappointing season that saw him injured and sent back to the minors in 2012, he seems to be a forgotten guy, one who will be, at best, the fourth outfielder for the Pirates.  He is still, however, only 24 years old, and maybe being out of the spotlight has removed some pressure, or maybe he just gets it that this could be his last chance to make it with the Pirates, but what if this hot Grapefruit start isn't just another spring training flash in the pan?  What if this is the year that he breaks out and becomes the player that everyone hoped he would be?  How great would that be?

*****

The biggest sports story in the city today however involves, you guessed it, the Steelers, and their releasing of James Harrison.  He's 35 years old, he's been injured, and he was making too much money.  He was also, probably, still the team's best linebacker, but that third factor - "making too much money" - is what spelled the end for Harrison as a Steeler.   As all NFL teams do, they decided that it was time to reduce that contractual obligation, but Harrison balked, so bye-bye, James.

A one time Defensive Player of the Year, and the author of one of the greatest plays in Team and Super Bowl history, that 100 yard interception return for a touchdown, Harrison was also, how can I say this, a thug on the field, a guy with numerous illegal hits, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines to his dubious credit.  There are lots of guys in all sports who you like when they play for "your team" but you dislike intensely when that play for the "other team."  Steelers fans will realize this the first time Harrison, playing for another team, goes helmet-to helmet  with Ben Roethlisberger or Antonio Brown.

*****
The Pitt Panther hoopsters begin the Big East tournament this week in New York against much nostalgic weeping (literal and figurative) because this will be the end  Pitt's association with the Big East Conference.  Hey, it was great run, but please let's stop with the gnashing of teeth over this.  Last I looked, the conference to which they are headed has a pretty good reputation as a basketball conference, doesn't it?  I would think that games against Duke, North Carolina, NC State, and Wake Forest will soon be the equal of games against Georgetown, Connecticut, and Villanova.  Plus, Pitt will still play Syracuse, so we'll still have Jim Boeheim to  kick around.

Of course, the "Big East" will survive as a basketball-only conference consisting  of, for now at least, the seven Catholic universities in the conference, and this, Ironically, is what the Big East started out as in the first place way back when.  I heard sportswriter Bob Ryan on the radio the other day saying that he absolutely loves this, and that the fact that this is occurring at all is the extension of a huge middle finger by college basketball to the "Football Is Everything" culture of college athletics.  Great line.

*****

I have been trying to watch the World Baseball Classic, but it's hard to get into.  Maybe if the USA advances that will make it pick up the interest quotient.  On the other hand, it seems that the WBC may best be remembered for that Pier Six brawl between Canada and Mexico yesterday.  If that is the case, perhaps the concept needs to be re-thought.

The City Game, the Steel Bowl, and a Special Anniversary

Earlier this week, Pitt easily defeated Duquesne in this annual "City Game".  My friend, Fred Shugars, was in attendance and offered the following observation on Facebook:

If you've never been to The City Game, you can't call yourself a Pittsburgh sports fan. Best spectacle around--both student sections, both bands, both sets of cheerleader and dancers, and a mascot dance-off!

Well, who am I to disagree, and I am sorry to say that I have not yet been to a "City Game" as it exists in its current iteration, but I will say to Fred, and to anyone else who (a) may not be a long time resident of Pittsburgh, and (b) may be under the age of, say, 60, and as such has no memory of when Duquesne was a significant player in the world of college basketball, and was, in fact, far superior to Pitt in the sport, both nationally and locally, that the Pitt-Duquesne  Rivalry has changed quite a bit over the years.  

The rivalry between the schools used to  manifest itself in the annual Steel Bowl Basketball Tournament.  For those who don't remember, two schools would be invited to play in the Steel Bowl, which was, if memory serves, held in December.  Pitt would play one opponent, Duquesne the other.  The hope would be that both teams would win their opening round game, and then face each other in the Championship.  It didn't always work out that way, but it usually did.  While I can't say this for certain, I am guessing that my first trip to a college basketball game was probably to a Steel Bowl event, where I, the son of two Duquesne grads, would furiously cheer for the Red & Blue.

Over the years, I know that I saw the University of Miami's Rick Barry play in the Steel Bowl, and I also saw the UCLA Bruins play in the event.  Unfortunately, I caught the Bruins after Lew Alcindor and before Bill Walton.  Yes, I was witness to a game during the glorious Steve Patterson Era.  Although after the game, I did go down on the floor and shake hands with John Wooden.  True story.

Pitt and Duquesne used to compete and recruit the same players, usually local kids like Bill Knight, Bill Zopf, Mickey Davis, and the Nelson Twins.  At some point in the mid- to late 70's, thew rivalry may have hit its peak when Tim Grgurich coached at Pitt and Mike Rice coached the Dukes.  Both were alums of their schools, and the rivalry was most intense.  Then Pitt joined the Big East, the basketball program took off and they never looked back, while the fortunes of the Dukes have been in a decline that with few exceptions, has been going on for well over thirty years.  I seriously doubt that either the players or the coaches, if they were honest with themselves, care a whole lot about this "rivalry" game.

I will say that I plan on taking up Fred's call next year, and be there at the 2013 City Game, but at the risk of sounding like a hey-you-kids-get-off-of-my-lawn old timer, I will hold fast to my belief that games between Pitt and Duquesne just ain't what they used to be.

How does all of this tie in with that "Special Anniversary" mentioned in the title?  Well, you see it was forty years ago today - December 8, 1972 - that Marilyn and I went out on our first date.  And where was that first date, you may ask?  Well, it was at the Civic Arena for the, you guessed it, Steel Bowl opening round doubleheader.  I  can't recall who the two opponents were, I do remember that Billy Knight played for Pitt, and I'm pretty sure that both Pitt and the Dukes won their games.  You can forgive me, I hope, if I'm fuzzy on the details, but I had more important thoughts on my mind that night than the results of a couple of hoops games!

Happy Anniversary, Marilyn!!!! 

A Day at "The Pete"

Yesterday was not my first visit to Pitt's Petersen Events Center, but it was the first time I had been there for a Big East Conference game, and what a fun and terrific experience it was.

The place was sold out, and the atmosphere was nothing short of electric. The Oakland Zoo student section was amazing. They never sat down, never stopped cheering, and, in a real departure from current day crowd behaviour, they kept it clean and tasteful. Not sure if that is the case at every game, but it was refreshing yesterday. They were almost as much fun to watch as the game itself - a great 72-60 wire-to-wire Pitt win over ninth ranked Georgetown.

While I do not want to diminish the Big East, I can only imagine what that place will be like in a few years when schools like North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, and Maryland start paying regular visits.

One more comment on the crowd. I was surprised at how much of the crowd joined the Pitt band in singing the National Anthem, and I was most pleasantly surprised to see that the crowd waited until the Anthem was actually completed before that began to clap and cheer, rather than about 2/3 of the way through it, as seems to have become the custom at sporting events in recent years.

Selected Short Subjects

Selected Short Subjects for a Monday Morning....

Glad to see that the Pitt Panthers secured a #1 Seed for the NCAA Tournament, if for no other reason than to avoid listening the three days of angst and despair if they had gotten a lower seed.

Did you miss Billy Packer on the Selection Show? How fun would it have been listening to him bitching about 11 Big East teams in the field and only 3 ACC teams (and one in a play-in game at that) in the Tourney?

For what it is worth, I have a Final Four of North Carolina, Duke, Notre Dame. and Pitt.

*****
I watched little of the golf tournament from Doral yesterday afternoon. Very good event with Nick Watney edging Dustin Johnson for the title. Good stuff, and it seems that a new wave of young golfers are starting to come to the fore on the PGA Tour. Tiger Woods did manage a Top Ten finish in this event, but through the first 2 and 1/2 months of the season, he and Phil Mickelson are appearing to be just two other guys out there. Of course, I don't expect that Tiger and Phil will no longer be relevant, but it's looking like their days of domination may be over.

What might have been even more disconcerting was seeing Aussie Adam Scott, once hailed as a Young Lion on the Tour, using a long putter. I hate those things.

*****
You want to see an example of abject greed? Read the statement that Art Rooney II released after the NFL labor talks broke down last Friday. It reinforces my long-held belief that no one surpasses sports team owners when it comes to greed.

This morning I'm reading the PG story of the Gerry Dulac's interview with Rooney over the weekend. Halfway through I asked myself "why am I reading this?" Just let me know when it's over.

I am guessing that not one regular season game will be missed when all is said and done.

*****

My newest addition to my DVD collection is a box set "Definitive Edition" if the old "Twilight Zone" TV series. All 156 half-hour episodes with Rod Serling and done in glorious black & white. In the last week or so, I have watched about 10 episodes, and, for the most part, the stories and the production holds up very well after 50 years. A couple of them have been clinkers, but a few are very good. "The After Hours" with Anne Francis was good, as was "The Eye of the Beholder" which starred a pre-Beverly Hillbillies Donna Douglas. And as it did 48 years ago, "Terror at 20,000 Feet", starring a very young William Shatner, can still scare the bejeezus out of you!

*****
For the second year in a row, I volunteered this past Saturday at the Heinz History Center for National History Day, and got to view the history projects and presentations of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders from throughout the region. If you worry about the direction kids are headed in these days, your mind can be put at rest when you experience something like this. These kids are amazing.

Some Quick Hit Thoughts....

• Different school, different conference, but Mike Rice gets jobbed by the officials for the second year in a row in post-season play.
• Two tough OT defeats by local schools within 14 hours: Robert Morris loses by 3 in OT to LIU, and Pitt gets nailed by a Kemba Walker buzzer-beater in the Garden.
• Up to Duquesne to salvage some local post-season glory in the A-10.
• First round Big East loss could cost Pitt a #1 seed in the NCAA. This will be agonized over by the pundits, but could anything be more meaningless?
• How about The Ohio State University suspending Jim Tressel for two games next year over his out-and-out violation of NCAA rules. Now, if the NCAA decides to not add any further punishment, then this will set all time records for hypocrisy by the NCAA. If some mid-level D-I school or coach did the same thing, the coach would be fired and the school would be put on two years probation. Let's see what happens to Coach SweaterVest.
• Pirates-Orioles on TV tonight. A chance to see John Russell in the coaches box for the O's. How great is that?

"Unbroken", Stan the Man, Bob Nutting, and Dick Groat

It has been awhile since I have checked in, so here goes an extended version of The Grandstander for today.

Let's start with a book, Laura Hillenbrand's #1 bestseller, "Unbroken." I just finished reading the incredible story of Louis Zamperini. Zamperini was a young member of the 1936 American Olympic track team in Berlin, who was looking to be right on track, no pun intended, to win a gold medal for the USA in the 1500 Meter race in the 1940 Olympics that were scheduled to be in Tokyo.

Of course, WWII intervened and those Olympics never took place. Zamperini enlisted in the Army Air Corps and therein lies an amazing story. In 1943, Louie's plane crashed over the Pacific, he survived for 47 days floating in a raft in the ocean, was captured by the Japanese and then spent two and one-half years in several POW camps.

It is a most compelling story of perseverance and the triumph of the human spirit, and an incredibly sad and depressing story of man's inhumanity to man. At times while reading the book, I felt like I couldn't take much more of this story, but in the end, you are in awe of what Zamperini and his fellow POW's withstood.

Not to give too much away, but here is one statistic that will give you some idea of this. In WWII, 1 in 100 American POW's held in Germany and Italy died. Of the Americans held as POW's in Japanese camps, 1 in 3 died.

No doubt, this is an important and worthwhile book, but Hillenbrand's book of a few years back, "Seabiscuit", was a lot more fun to read.

******

Last week President Obama awarded the nation's highest civilian award to 15 Americans, including two athletes, Bill Russell and Stan Musial. Hard to dispute either award, and I will focus only on Musial today.

Go to a baseball encyclopedia of any online baseball reference and look at the lifetime stats for Stan Musial. When great players of his era are mentioned, the names of Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio are always brought up, but rarely do you hear Stan the Man's name in the same conversations. Why is that?

Over the course of a career that lasted 22 seasons, Musial put together 475 HR, 1,951 RBI, and a .331 lifetime BA, 3,630 hits, and seven NL batting titles. Six times he recorded an OPS in excess of 1.000, and seven other times an OPS of .900 or more. Over those 22 seasons, he averaged 86 walks a year and only 37 strike outs. In fact, in only three seasons did he strike out over 40 times, and two of those seasons were his final ones, 1962 and 1963, when he was 41 and 42 years old. And to add some perspective, in that '61 season, at age 41, Stan hit .330 with 19 HR and 82 RBI.

Of course, Stan never had a "signature event" like Williams .406 average or DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak, so perhaps that is why he gets lost in history, but what a shame that is.

How can you not say that Musial is not one of the top ten players of all time?

*****

News came from Bradenton yesterday that Pirates owner Bob Nutting addressed the team. This is the year, Bob said, where things will change....merely being "good" is not enough....the only acceptable goal will be the National League Championship. I also believe that

the old Nutting buzzword, "accountability" was also tossed out there. Yawn.

We've sure heard this song and dance before haven't we?

I don't believe that any mention was made that the Bucs will open the season with a payroll in the bottom five (if not the bottom one or two) of MLB. This has been another hallmark of the Nutting Era.

*****

I know that Dick Groat is considered by many to be a hallowed institution here in Pittsburgh. After all, Dick Vitale always has the ESPN cameras pan in on him while he, Vitale, sings his praises whenever the four letter network is televising a Pitt game. So, at the risk of committing a mortal sin, I have to say that listening to Groat in the closing moments of Pitt's loss to St. John's while out running errands on Saturday was high comedy. Oh, the foolish turnovers, oh, the fouling of St. John's best free throw shooters, and, of course, the jobbing of Pitt by the officials. I thought old Richard Morrow Groat was going to start weeping at any moment during those final three minutes when Pitt was unable to make a basket. Even the biggest homer announcer of all, Bourbon -Nose Billy Hillgrove, was a model of journalistic comportment by comparison.