Three Quick Sports Thoughts

Some "Sports Briefs" from this section of The Grandstand this morning.

Behold this item form the sports pages of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this morning about Auburn University basketball player Chad Baker-Mazara.

By my reckoning, and using all go my fingers and toes to count, Mr. Baker-Mazara, now 25 years of age, has now played five seasons at four different Institutions of Higher Learning (two at Auburn and one each at Northwest Florida State, San Diego State, and Duquesne) and is now looking to play one more season (at least) at yet another Institution of Higher Learning.

How does this happen?

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As a Steeles fan for over 65 years, nothing has been as off-putting to me as this dance that the Steelers have been doing for over three months now with Aaron Rodgers,  In HIS COLUMN in today's Post-Gazette, Jason Mackey details quite perfectly why this madness has to stop and why the Steelers should tell Rodgers that....

....and that he needs to shit or get off the pot soon, as in, say, yesterday..

My own thought is that if Dan Rooney were still with us and running the team, this circus would not have been tolerated and would never have happened.

*******

I usually wait to give an assessment of any given Pirates season until about thirty games, or 20% of the season, have been played.  The Pirates have played only 20 games, and despite having just won three of four from the equally bad Washington Nationals, the Bucs are 8-12 and are in last place in the NL Central, and they are giving off all indications that they will be posting a season that will be historically bad, with 100 losses being well within their grasp.

I will do a deeper analysis at that thirty game mark, but I will leave you with this photo of the box score from the game of two nights ago against the Nats,

Check out those batting averages, five guys batting below .200 and a sixth guy sitting right on the .200 mark.  Oh, and the guy with the highest BA among them, a robust .250, was batting eighth in the order.  I don't know if I've ever seen anything quite like that.

Yesterday, I attended my first game of this season, and I did enjoy seeing a Pirates victory, a 1-0 win in which the Pirates mustered five hits and went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.  The entire offense came when Oneil Criz hit a monster home run - the outfielders didn't even move when it was hit - on the first pitch of the game.  Glad we weren't late arriving or we'd have missed everything. Andrew Heaney pitched a nice ballgame, going 7.1 innings and lowering his ERA to 2.13, but Pirates pitchers can't be expected to have to pitch shutouts every time out in order to win games.  I mean...

(How's that for resurrectiong an oldie but goodie of a picture?)

What A Day At The Ballpark!

One of the great baseball cliches of all time is that "Every time you go to a ball game, you might see something that you've never seen before."  Such was the case yesterday  when old pal Bill Tarrant and I and 10,557 other paying customers ambled over to PNC Park to watch the Pirates play the  Cincy Reds.  Surely a ball game between two of the worst teams in the National League would produce nothing but ennui, but, hey, it would be chance for two old friends to catch up and bullshit with each other for a couple of hours.

Predictably, the Pirates lineup struggled with Reds hotshot 21 year old prime prospect pitcher Hunter Greene, who was throwing a lot of pitches, albeit many of them at 100 mph.  At the same time, Pirates journeyman hurler Jose Quintana was not doing bad either, and neither team had managed to put a run across the plate.

After the fourth inning, you took note of the fact that Greene had yet to surrender a hit to the Pirates.  I don't think that there is anything in all of sports that builds up drama and tension like the inning by inning progress of a pitcher working on a no-hitter, and that was certainly the case yesterday as Greene completely stymied the Pirate bats.   As the innings piled up, there were two questions: (1) Would the Pirates ever manage to get a hit against Greene, and (2) given how the game is played today, would Reds manager David Bell leave his team's prized pitching prospect in the game as the pitch count kept climbing into the 80's, 90's, and finally topping 100 in the eighth inning.

Well, by now you know what happened.   Greene came out to pitch the eighth where he would be facing the lower half of the Pirates lineup, hardly a Murderers' Row.  After retiring the first batter, he walked two batters, and Bell went to the bullpen.  After another walk loaded the bases, Ke'Bryan Hayes hits a slow grounder to second, which was bobbled ever so slightly on the throw to the short stop for the second out, and Hayes beat out the throw to first.  No double play, and the run scores on a fielder's choice.  Bucs lead 1-0 and still haven't recorded a hit.  David Bednar comes out of the Pirates pen to retire the Reds in order in the ninth.  The Pirates win the game while the Reds throw an no-hitter.

So, yeah, we went to the ball park yesterday and saw something that we had never seen before.  In fact, we saw something that, relatively speaking, very few people have ever seen.  Winning a game while being no-hit by the opposition is extremely rare.  Rarer than a perfect game.  Rarer than an unassisted triple play. Yesterday's game was only the sixth time in the Modern Era history of the game that this has been done.  The last time it happened was in 2008.

The beauty of baseball is that an insignificant game between two pretty bad teams still has the possibility of producing an amazing experience.  I'm glad that we were there for it.

 

"Let Us Come To Praise Ceasar....."

Well, no sooner had my Opening Day post that excoriated the Pirates for their skinflint ways been published in the blogosphere than the news arrived that the team had reached a contract agreement with one of their young hope-to-be-star players, third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes, for $70 million over eight years, with a team option for a ninth year.  It is the largest guaranteed contract that the Pirates have ever given a player, surpassing the $60 million contract that they gave to Jason Kendall in 2000.  It took the team twenty-two years to surpass the amount of that contract, make of that what you will.

So, while we have been rightfully critical of the team for their penurious ways, it is only fair to give them an "Attaboy" for this one.  If over the life of this contract Hayes becomes merely a good and consistent player, never mind a superstar, the team has fallen into an incredible bargain with this deal.   By comparison, Cardinals third sacker Nolan Arenado will make $34 million this season, just about half of what Hayes will make over the next eight years.  The real mystery here is why Hayes agreed to this deal.  He obviously is not betting on himself  to become the superstar who will command Arenado-type money down the road.  Of course, that seventy mill will insure that several generations of Hayes descendants will never have to punch a time clock in their lives, so I won't feel too bad for him.

It should be noted that Hayes left the game yesterday with what appeared to be a wrist injury in the second inning.  You will recall that he was injured in the second game of last season, missed two months, and ended up hitting in the .250 range for the season.  Reports are that Hayes is okay and his removal from the game yesterday was purely precautionary.  However, should Hayes turn out to be a china doll and hurt all the time, that will once again fall into an "only the Pirates" stroke of disastrous luck.  Let's all hope that that doesn't become the case.

For a better analysis of this deal, I refer you to Joe Starkey's column in today's Post-Gazette.  You can read it HERE.

One more thing.  What are the odds that Hayes spends the entirety of that eight year contract with the Buccos?   God willing, I'll still be around in 2030 when that contract expires, but I wouldn't bet the mortgage, or even the car payment, on him still being a Pirate when it does.

Opening Day 2022

So I get a message last night from my friend Steve Ozbolt in Milwaukee that asks me "Are you looking forward the the Pirates season?"  It is a seemingly simple question, yet at the same time, it is a rather complex one for a lifelong Pittsburgh Pirates fan to answer.   

The simple answer is that, yes, I look forward to the opening of the baseball season today as I have every year since 1959, the year that I attended my first Pirates game.  It's Opening Day....all things are possible....every team is 0-0....everyone has a fresh start.  You know, all of the usual tired cliches that surround Opening Day.  Somehow, though, 2022 feels different for this Pirates fan.

We all know how administration of Bob "Ebenezer" Nutting has turned this team that we love into a national joke.  The team makes tons of money for Nutting, but they stink, have stunk for the last twenty five years or so (FACT: Since they last won a World Series in 1979, the Pirates have had the worst  winning percentage of all MLB teams over this forty-three-years-and-still-counting time frame).  They go into the 2022 season with the 29th lowest payroll in all of MLB.  The biggest story out of Spring Training was that they are taking Bryan Reynolds, their  best player, to salary arbitration over a measly $650,000 difference, thereby assuring that there becomes a very good chance that Reynolds becomes an embittered ball player, and an even better chance that he will be traded at some point between now and 2023.  What is the message  Bob Nutting, Travis Williams, and Ben Cherrington send to the fans of the team when they play hardball with their best player over relative pocket change in MLB terms?  

Then there was the case of Oneil Cruz.  Cruz did everything asked of him in Spring Training.  He hit the cover off the ball and he appears to be the most exciting prospect to come out of the Pirates system since Andrew McCutchen.  He's 23 years old, not a baby.  And the Pirates send him to Indianapolis two weeks before the season starts.  Like many of the moves the Pirates make, this can be defended in pure baseball terms and in a vacuum.  However, it is yet another case of Pirates management looking at a player that could get the fans (aka, the "paying customers") excited about, someone that they want to go to the ball park and see, and yet again, the Suits at 115 Federal Street seem to say "F--- you" to the ticket buyers.

On a national podcast earlier this week, sportswriters Richard Justice talked about the Pirates and asked "Are they even trying?"  Doesn't seem like it.

Last year the Pirates won 61 games.  The Over/Under line of wins for them this season has been set at 64.5.  I bet the OVER, but I'm not all that confident that it's going to happen.  I made a nominal bet out of loyalty and with the idea that I don't want to be in a position of rooting for them to lose games as the season draws to a close.  Either way, a 65th win, if it happens at all, isn't going to come for this team until the last days of the season.

Yes, I will be watching the Pirates on television throughout the year, and I will attend games at PNC Park, although far fewer than I have in past years.  I saw only five or six games in person last year, a low number for me.  There were other reasons for that, but the sheer lousiness of the team was foremost among them.  Can't see that changing much in '22.

That question that Steve asked me last night was followed by him saying that he is "positively giddy about the Brewers" for this coming season.  Must be nice when your team makes the effort to compete.

Play ball!!!

Bryan Reynolds

Enjoy him while he's here, folks.

Steelers and Pirates and Penguins, Oh My!

Time to catch up on the world of Pittsburgh's professional sports teams....

As is usually the case, the Steelers dominate the Pittsburgh sports scene, regardless of what the calendar says, and March 2022 is no different.

The Free Agency signing period officially began today, and the Steelers have jumped in with both feet and with checkbooks open.  The team addressed specific needs by signing a cornerback and two offensive linemen, including a center, but the sexiest signing was, of course, five year veteran quarterback Mitch Trubisky.

In a Facebook post that brilliantly captured the true spirit of Steelers Nation, my pal "Mike in Burke, VA" predicted that this would enrage half of the Steelers fan base while the other half would begin making plans to travel to the Super Bowl next year.

While I expressed a belief in this space a few weeks back that Mason Rudolph deserved to head into training camp at the top of the QB depth chart, he also didn't deserve to be handed the job without competition, and, obviously, the Steelers coaches, who are in a lot better position to know such things that you or I, felt differently.  There will be competition for the starting position at QB, we are told, but by all indications, the job is now Trubisky's to lose.

I think that I am okay with this.  The Number Two overall draft pick five years ago, Trubisky has suffered when compared with two QB's who were taken after him in that draft, Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson.  Still, he had a winning record as a four year starter with the Chicago, and led the Bears to the playoffs in two of his four seasons.  Reports are that Chicago HC Matt Nagy didn't care for Trubisky, didn't want to draft him, and, subsequently, never properly coached him up.  Perhaps that may be one of the reasons why Nagy is now the ex-HC of the Bears.

Having signed a two year deal, perhaps Trubisky becomes a placeholder for the Next Guy.  The Steelers obviously didn't think that any of the QB's available in this year's draft, including Pitt's Kenny Pickett,  is That Guy and worth giving up what it would take to move up in the draft to obtain.

We shall see come this fall just how long the Mitch Trubisky Era lasts at Rooney U., and for whatever it might be worth, I understand that "Mitchburgh" t-shirts will soon be available at sports clothing stores all across town.  I'll have to get one to go with my Duck Hodges t-shirt.

Also for what it is worth, I can remember Trubisky having some big time performances agains Pitt in his years at North Carolina.  Then again, Mason Rudolph did the same thing to the Panthers when he was at Oklahoma State.

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The big news in baseball this past week was, of course, the fact that the lockout of players by the MLB owners came to an end when MLB and the MLBPA agreed to terms on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.  Spring Training could now begin and a 162 game season was preserved.  Joy reigned throughout the land!

Of course, there was no joy in Mudville, or Pittsburgh, because the new CBA did bupkis to provide anything for teams like the Pirates that might, just might, spur some form of parity in MLB between the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers et al and the Pirates, Reds, Marlins and teams of that ilk.  No salary cap, no salary floor.  The owners, including noted local tightwad and pinchpenny Bob Nutting voted 30-0 to accept the new agreement, so you have to think that Big Bob is okay with the status quo.  Pirates fans are already setting their alarm clocks for the time when Brian Reynolds and Ke'Bryan Hayes become too expensive for the Buccos and are traded for "prospects."  The beat goes on.

A story by Jason Mackey in Sunday's Post-Gazette took a position-by-position look at the Pirates now that Spring Training can begin, and the only conclusion that one could draw from it is that once again, the Pirates are going to be one God-awful baseball team.  I hope that I'm wrong, and I am glad that there will be baseball games to watch on television, but how much longer will even the most devoted of baseball fans in general and Pirates fans in particular be able to withstand getting the middle finger from MLB and, and this is important, the MBL Players before they say "Enough.  I'm done."

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Friends and readers know that hockey has never been of all that great interest to me, except when the Penguins are in the Playoffs.  However, Linda is a huge and knowledgable Pens and hockey fan. ("Some people are raised Catholic, some are raised Methodist.  I was raised Penguins.")  So, in sheer self-defense, I have found myself paying much closer attention to the Penguins this year, more so than ever in the non-playoff portion of the season.  I am happy to say that I am enjoying the action more than I expected.  Being able to place small wagers on the games helps maintain interest, as does the fact that the Penguins are pretty good.

Last Friday night, as my birthday gift to Linda, I bought Tim Baker's seats for the Pens-Vegas game, and saw my first shinny game in person since the days of the Civic Arena, at least twelve or thirteen years ago.   This was in fact the first time I had seen a hockey game at the now 12 year old PPG Paints Arena, and I really truly enjoyed it.   The seats were great, and being able to see a game in person and, almost as important, hearing the sounds of the game - skates on ice, pucks on sticks, players on players, and even the sound of a puck to the face - was just a great experience.  

Plus, the Penguins won, and I can now say that the Pens have never lost a game at PPG Paints Arena that I have attended, so, Mario, send me some freebies willya!

One other bonus: after watching games regularly on TV, I can say the in Steve Mears and Bob Errey, the Pens have, hands down, he best team of play-by-play announcers in Pittsburgh.  Admittedly, in a town where Bill Hilgrove announces for three different teams, that is not a particularly high bar to clear.  Still, Mearsie and Errey really make the games enjoyable to watch. 

More of the Same from the Pirates

Well, our Pittsburgh Pirates have been much in the news this weekend and for all of the reasons that we have come to expect over the years of the Nutting Administration.

Catcher Jacob Stallings, one of the Bucs' most popular players, winner of this year's Gold Glove Award, and a guy that the team's Propaganda Ministry (I'm looking at you, Greg Brown) pumped up continually all season long was, surprisingly, or maybe not-so-surprisingly, traded this week to the Miami Marlins.   All the familiar reasons were trotted out.  Stallings is 32 years old and due to hit his downside, that team is getting three great young prospects for him (two pitchers and and outfielder) who have much more upside than Stallings, and, oh yeah, Stallings was eligible for salary arbitration this off season and would have commanded a healthy raise from the penny-pinching front office, a fact that was downplayed in the press releases coming out of 115 Federal Street.  Like all trades over the last ten or so years, this trade can be defended in a baseball sense and in a vacuum, but when it becomes just another brick in a wall with other bricks like Neil Walker, Andrew McCutchen, Jameson Taillon, and Gerrit Cole, it continues to paint a depressingly familiar scenario for Pirates fans.

In other Pirates news this week, the team DFA'd pitchers Steven Brault and Chad Kuhl, and infielder Colin Moran. Like Stallings, all three were eligible for salary arbitration this year.  What a coincidence.

Set your alarm clocks for when we will get to hear this same news about Brian Reynolds and Ke'Bryan Hayes.

And to top all for his off, the news arrives this morning that Major League Baseball has locked out their players as of today "in the hopes of accelerating the process of reaching a (new collective) bargaining agreement."  In the press release issued by the Pirates the team assures us that...

"While we are not able to able to make any Major League roster moves during this time, we will continue to work on the development of our talented minor league players. We remain laser focused on continuing to execute our plan of developing this next wave of talent that will fuel the future of our success in Pittsburgh."

Yeah, right.

Seriously, does anyone even care any more, especially in Pittsburgh?

Gone Goes Frazier

 Adam, we barely knew ye...

In what has become a depressingly familiar scenario, the Pirates yesterday traded a popular and quite good player for, say it with me now, prospects!

Like many of the deals that have sent popular players packing in recent years....Neil Walker, Andrew McCutchen, Gerrit Cole....the trade of Adam Frazier can be defended in a pure baseball sense, to wit:

• He will turn 30 years old this coming off season, an age when, or so the data tells us, players begin to decline
• The Pirates are a rebuilding team, targeting a window of contention that should begin to open in 2023 or so, by which time Frazier's skills really will be in decline, or so the data tells us
• Ding-ding-ding....He will be eligible for free agency after the 2022 season, he will no doubt test those waters at that time, so trade him now and get something for him 

We Pirates fans can recite this kind of shit in our sleep, and like I said, in a pure baseball sense, it is all true and defensible.  However, rooting interest in a team is an emotional thing.  Maybe it shouldn't be, but it is, and when you are rooting for a lousy team, a guy like Adam Frazier, a solid and good ball player, is someone for whom fans (aka, paying customers) can latch onto and cheer, and now....gone!

This is Adam Frazier in 2021:  125 hits (leads the league), .324 BA (second in NL), .836 OPS, Gold Glove caliber second baseman, a starter on this year's NL All Star team.  

Here is what the Pirates are getting in return:

• Infielder Tucupita Marcano (fifth best prospect in the Padres organization!!!)
• Outfielder Jack Suwinski
• Relief pitcher Michell Miliano

Are any of these guys any good?  Is this a good trade?  As a Pirates fan, I sure hope so, but we really won't know the answer to that for years.  Let's just hope that the plan of GM Ben Cherington works.

Hey, in the end, we're all just rooting for the laundry anyway.

Welcome to the Pirates, Henry Davis

Back in the Fall of 2020, when it became a fait accompli  that the Pirates would have the Number One overall pick in the 2021 Entry Draft, it was lead pipe lock that the pick would be spent on Vanderbilt University pitcher Kumar Rocker.  Best pitcher in college and a cinch to be an Ace #1 starter for any team.  Then it was well, maybe it'll be pitcher Jack Leiter, also from Vanderbilt and the  son of a former major league pitcher.  Either way, the Bucs would have pitcher around whom they could build a pennant winning pitching staff.

As months went on, other names began to surface.  This high school shortstop or that college outfielder and on and on.  Somehow, Pirates fans began to condition themselves that somehow, someway, the Pirates would screw up the whole deal.

Tonight they made the pick, and it was catcher Henry Davis from the University of Louisville.

Did, in fact, the Pirates screw it up?  I don't know, and neither does anyone else at this point.  Davis' college credentials are certainly solid, and God knows that the Pirates have lacked depth throughout their organization at the catcher position (among many other positions), so perhaps he'll be the goods.  The next Johnny Bench or Buster Posey or, and I'll settle for this, Jason Kendall.   Or maybe he'll fizzle like Brian Bullington or Tony Sanchez.  Judging a college or high school baseball player and projecting how he'll be three or four years later when he gets to the Majors is the biggest crapshoot in professional sports.

As a Pirates fan, I hope, I mean, I REALLY hope that this is the right pick and that Davis will be  star for the five or six years he'll be a Pirate before he becomes unaffordable to the Suits in the front office.  Let's also hope that among the couple of dozen players the Pirates draft over the next two days there will be five or six or seven players who can surround Davis and form a nucleus of teams that will contend for division titles, pennants, and reach the World Series.  Always remember, the Pirates didn't draft Dave Parker until the 14th round way back in 1970.

It will also be interesting to track the careers of Rocker and Leiter over the next decade or so.

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The name Henry Davis stirred a memory for me, as I am sure it did for others, of a former linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Davis played 56 games for the Steelers from 1970-73 as Chuck Noll was transitioning the Steelers from the worst team in the NFL to a team that would fashion a Super Bowl Dynasty.  He passed away in 2000 at the age of 57.

The Final GPR, Shirt Pocket Notes, and an Absent Friend, Grant Jackson

We are a little over 72 hours away from the ultimate game*, so it's time for the final Grandstander Power Rankings of the season.

Short and sweet:

1. Chiefs
2. Bucs

It's hard to differentiate these two teams at this point, and it's hard to put any team ahead of another team that has Tom Brady at quarterback, but there you are.  I think that this is a terrific match-up and that it's going to be a terrific game.  At this point, I am leaning towards the Chiefs, but will reserve my official prediction until Saturday or maybe even Sunday morning.

Patrick Mahomes vs. Tom Brady.  Couldn't get much better.

* I believe that it was Duane Thomas, the iconoclastic Dallas Cowboys running back of the 1970's, who said "If it's the ultimate game, why are they playing another one next year?"  I don't think that the powers-that-be in the NFL much appreciated that remark at the time.

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Now for some shirt pockets notes that have been accumulating over the last couple of weeks.....

The Jacksonville Jaguars made a huge off season splash by hiring Urban Meyer to be their new head coach.  It will be fascinating to watch Meyer, who was, and presumably still is, a total control freak as a college head coach, as a first time professional coach.  It has been reported that after completing seasons with records like 11-1 or 12-2 in college, not untypical for him, Meyer would spend the entire off season obsessing over the games that his teams lost. It would inevitably lead to "health issues" that would cause him to resign his coaching positions.  How is that mindset going to translate on the pro level with a team that will probably lose more games in 2021 that Meyer's college teams lost in any given five or six given seasons?  Meyer's worst season as a college coach was in 2010 at Florida, when the Gators went 8-5, a season which lead to Meyer's health issues and resignation.  In seven seasons at Ohio State, Meyer went 83-9, plus 5-2 in Bowl games.  Eleven losses in seven years.  That ain't gonna happen in Jacksonville, not anytime soon, anyway.

Also, Meyer will not be able to out-recruit the NFL as he was able to do in the Big Ten or SEC.  Plus, professional players making hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars are going to be more likely to tell him to pound sand with his my-way-or-the-highway approach to coaching than a bunch of scholarship student-athletes on college campuses.

Meyer can coach on the college level, no question about that, but he's never done it on the pro level, so  this is going to be an interesting lab experiment to watch over the next few seasons.  Not sure what the length of his Jax contract is, but I'm betting he won't serve the full term of it.

********

The Pittsburgh Pirates began making news starting on Christmas Eve when they traded current "Face of the Franchise" Josh Bell to the Washington Nationals.   There then followed January trades of Joe Musgrove to the Padres and Jameson Taillon to the Yankees.  These three trades netted ten  "prospects", some of them highly regarded, for the Pirates.  Throw in the 2020 trade of Starling Marte to the Diamondbacks for prospects, and it becomes obvious what GM Ben Cherrington is attempting to do: a complete teardown of any tangible assets the team may have in an effort to restock the farm system and then become serious contenders by 2023 or 2024.

It's a great idea, in theory, and I hope it works, but in the meantime, it is going to mean seeing some very bad baseball teams plying their trade at PNC Park over the next few years.  Also, it is sad to see guys like Bell and Taillon being sent packing, because once, THEY were the young stars of the future around whom the Pirates would be building championship caliber teams.  How did that work out?

All three of the players sent away by GMBC are going to teams that figure to be contenders this coming season, so they are no doubt thrilled with the opportunity to escape Bob Nutting's Ship of Fools.  Good for them.  For Pirates fans, 2021 just promises to be another Groundhog Day season where the team will struggle to avoid 100 losses.

********

Speaking of the 2021 baseball season, isn't it fun reading about how the owners and players are engaged in yet another pissing contest over the terms of the upcoming season in a nation that is still gripped in the clutches of a pandemic and public health crisis.  Just like the lead up to the shortened 2020 season.  And a preview to the Armageddon that is sure to ensue after the 2021 season when the CBA needs to be renegotiated.  It is almost as if the MLB Owners and the MLBPA actually want their sport to shrivel up and die.

I will normally always take the sides of the players in these sports labor-management dustups, but I am getting so tired of these annual dances that surround Major League Baseball.  They will get around to playing games in 2021, and I will no doubt be watching intently, as I always have, but the day is surely coming when we will be subjected to these unseemly discussions, the game will come back, and the people are going to say "You know what?  I just don't care,"  and they will choose to watch NBA Summer League games and MLS instead.  I think that day has already arrived for people under the age of forty or so.

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Finally, we bid good-bye to former Pirates pitcher Grant Jackson, who died this week of COVID related symptoms at the age of 78.  Jackson was a member of Pirates 1979 World Series Championship team, the winning pitcher in Game Seven, and for that alone he deserves recognition.  Another fact that I had forgotten was that Jackson also pitched in the 1971 World Series against the Pirates as a member of the Baltimore Orioles.  Jackson spoke of several occasions to the Pittsburgh SABR Chapter, and he was always an entertaining and lively speaker.  He was a part of a panel discussion on the '79 team at the SABR National Convention held in Pittsburgh in 2017.  After his career ended, Jackson remained in Pittsburgh and served as a vital member of the Pirates Alumni, the Pirates Fantasy Camp, and in Community Relations for the team.

Farewell, Buck Jackson, and RIP.

Bob Gibson vs. The Pirates

 Bob Gibson pitching 

at Forbes Field

Just as the death of Tom Seaver last month prompted me to see how he pitched in his Hall of Fame career against the Pirates, so, too, did the death of Bob Gibson. Thanks to the terrific baseball-almanac.com website, it took about thirty minutes of research to find out.

My memories tells me that Gibson pitched against the Pirates about ten to twelve times every year, and completely dominated them every time.  However, in fact, Gibson made 54 appearances against the Pirates over a 17 year career, an average of 3.2 games per year.  Only twice, 1969 and 1972, did he appear  as many as five times against the Bucs.

Here is a side-by-side comparison of Gibson vs. the Pirates as compared to his overall career figures.  I also threw in the figures for his landmark 1968 season and his World Series stats, just for the "Wow Factor."

Bob Gibson	vs. Pirates	Career	1968	World Series
W-L	25-16	251-174	22-9	7-2
%	0.610	0.591	0.710	0.778
ERA	3.20	2.91	1.12	1.89
WHIP	1.233	1.190	0.85	0.889
IP	410.1	3,884.1	304.2	81
R	146	1,420	49	19
ER	125	1,258	38	17
CG	22	255	28	8
ShO	5	56	134	2
K/9IP	7.70	7.22	7.92	10.2

As you can see, Gibson's career winning percentage against the Pirates was slightly above his career percentage, as was his "K's / 9 IP".  Both his ERA and his WHIP were higher against the Pirates than his overall career numbers.  I will leave it up to the Analytics gurus to decipher exactly what, if anything, that might mean.

Two games jumped out at me when I was doing the research.  In an appearance on July 26, 1960, and gave up 2 hits and 2 runs in one inning, and on May 6, 1964, Gibson gave up 1 hit, 0 runs, and 1 walk and had 0.0 innings pitched.  Both appearances were No Decisions for him.  What was up with that, I wondered.

In the 1960 game, Gibson came on in relief of Curt Simmons in a game that the Pirates won 5-4.  In the 1964 game, Ray Sadecki pitched 8.0 innings, and Gibson came on in relief of him in the ninth.  The Pirates scored in the bottom of the ninth and won the game 1-0.  The run and the loss went to Sadecki, but no Pirate was credited with an RBI in that game, so I don't know precisely what happened there.  More research for another day.  For you Bucco fans out there, Bob Friend gave up six hits and got the Win in a complete game performance.

Gibson also had three No Decisions against the Pirates in his career wherein he pitched nine innings but left after that when those games went into extra innings.

In that remarkable 1968 season, Gibson was every bit as dominant against Pittsburgh as he was against the rest of the National League:  4 games, 3 wins, 1 loss, 1.00 ERA, four complete games, two shut outs, 41 strike outs, 6 BB in 36 IP. 

Finally, no mention of Gibson vs. The Pirates would be complete without mentioning the game of August 14, 1971, when Gibson pitched a no-hitter against the Pirates.  I can vividly remember listening to that game on the radio on our Saline Street front porch that long ago Saturday night.  The Cardinals scored 5 runs in the first inning, and it was 8-0 after five innings.  The Pirates winning that game was unlikely from the start against a pitcher like Gibson, so the only thing exciting was the possibility of a no-hitter, which Gibson, of course, recorded.  Gibson walked three batters and struck out ten that night.  It was the first time that a no-hitter had ever been pitched in Pittsburgh.  And it wasn't like Gibson was going up against a line-up of lightweights that night.  Willie Stargell, Al Oliver, Dave Cash, and Bob Robertson were in the line-up that night, although for reasons that are lost to history Roberto Clemente, Manny Sanguillen, and Richie Hebner were not.  It was also the team that would go on to win the World Series two months later.  Five Hall of Famers played in that game that night: Joe Torre, Ted Simmons, and Gibson for St. Louis, and Bill Mazersoki and Stargell for the Pirates.  The dugouts that night also featured manager Red Schoendienst and Lou Brock for St. Louis and Clemente for Pittsburgh.  Eight future Hall of Famers present and accounted for that hot August night.  Not bad.

Putting A Wrap on the 2020 Pirates

At lunch after golf last Friday, my buddy Dan asked me "Can you list something, anything, positive about the Pirates this year?"  Now this is a team that finished 19-41, a pace that would produce a 51-111 record in a full season, so let's just leave it at that, and concentrate on what Dan asked me.  So, what did I like about the 2020 Pirates?

1. First and foremost, the debut and performance of third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes, pictured above.   Called up in mid-season, Hayes played in 24 games, and in 85 At Bats he hit .376 had 5 HR, 11 RBI, and had an OPS of 1.124.  He also played third base like a guy who will be adding multiple Gold Gloves to his trophy case in the years to come.  He seems to be the best Pirates prospect since Andrew McCutchen, and he will be a great joy to watch in the five or  six years he'll be in Pittsburgh before he will no longer be affordable for the Suits in the front office.
2. The emergence of Jacob Stallings as a gold glove caliber catcher, and a fair hitter (.248, 3 HR, 18 RBI, .702 OPS).  He appears to be excellent at handling pitchers and a popular and respected clubhouse leader.  
3. Mitch Keller, when he wasn't injured, seemed to emerge as the top pitcher he was touted to be over his last couple of starts, including throwing 11 consecutive no-hit innings in his last two starts.  That doesn't make him Johnny Vander Meer, but it does offer something hopeful.
4. The Pirates willingness to try Cole Tucker in the outfield.  He appears to be blocked in the infield, and trying him in the OF shows that the team is not willing to give up on a former #1 Draft Choice.  It's not like playing him there cost them anything in 2020, right?  He seemed to get better in the outfield as the season went along, but it's up it's him to prove that he can hit in the major leagues.
5. Several strong performances by Steven Brault.  I have spoken before of why I personally root for Brault, so I was very happy to see this for him.
6. Derek Shelton. He is a likable guy and a guy that, of course, we all want to see succeed.  He began his managerial career in a nightmare of a season like none ever before, and with the worst team in baseball.  He managed to get through it without slitting his wrists and jumping off of the Clemente Bridge, so good for him.  Insofar as his performance as a manager, it is far, far too early to offer any kind of judgement on that.
7. The attitude of the team.  The players all seemed to maintain a positive outlook throughout the season.  This was a breath of fresh air in contrast to the turmoil and sourness that was a hallmark of the team in the last half of the 2019 season.
8. The goofy stuff that the bullpen would do whenever a Pirate hit a home run.  This is the kind of organic stuff that can spring up in a team and make them easy to root for.  And it is something that cannot be manufactured.  I hope that the Pirates PR Machine doesn't try to do so.
9. They're getting the Overall Number One pick in the entry draft, presumably wunderkind pitcher Kumar Rocker.  Let's hope they don't screw it up.  (Can you say "Brian Bullington"?)
10. The fact that the Pirates and MLB were able to pull off any kind of season at all in this Pandemic Year.   Back in April, May, and even into June, I didn't think it was going to happen.

Okay, that's it.  There will be plenty of time to hash out the other not-so-positive aspects of the '20 squad, so we'll just leave it on a happy note.

And the sixteen team MLB Playoffs begin today.  In the great tradition of The Grandstander, let me predict that the Atlanta Braves will defeat the New York Yankees in the World Series this year.  A part of me, however, would perversely love to see the 29-31 Brewers take on the 29-31 Astros in the World Series, mainly because it will drive the Baseball Purists and Traditionalists positively batshit crazy!

Enjoy the post-season, and see you in Spring Training.

Oh, and one more image to give you some hope for the future....

 

A Whirl Around the World of Sports

It's been quiet here in The Grandstand of late, but it hasn't been quiet in the wide, wide world of sports.  Some thoughts.....

GOLF

Is there anything better than one of professional golf's major championships being staged on the West Coast?  For four nights over this past weekend we were able to watch the PGA Championship, the first Major to be staged in over a year (I don't have to explain why, do I?), and it was compelling sport and television deep into Eastern Time Prime Time.

To restate, at one point on the back nine on Sunday, six players were tied for the lead.  We were looking at the very real possibility of an aggregate three hole playoff with as many as six guys playing in the same group.  On the fourteenth hole, that logjam was broken when 23 year old Colin Murikawa, staring a bogey in the face, chipped in from off the green for a birdie.  Two holes later, he drove the green on a Par 4 hole to within eight feet and calmly sank the putt for an eagle and a three stroke lead.  It was a truly remarkable shot, and, at that point, everyone else was playing for second place.

In Murikawa, the PGA Tour has an attractive and exciting young player who is now a major champion.  How many times did you hear it on Sunday? "Colin Murikawa becomes only the fourth player in history to win he PGA Championship at the age of 23, joining Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and Rory McIlroy." Before we get too over wrought about it though, consider this note that popped up on my Facebook Memories last week from 2014.  McIlroy had just won the PGA, his fourth Major in three years.  My buddy and golf maven Joe Riesacher posted a comment to the effect "is it time we put McIlroy in the discussion of chasing down Nicklaus' record of 18 Major Championships?"  That was six years ago, McIlroy was then 24 years old, and in the intervening years he has been consistently ranked in golf's Top Ten and has frequently been ranked  #1 in the world as well, but he has yet to win his fifth Major.  Winning these things is hard, and it makes the astounding accomplishments of Nicklaus and Woods all the more remarkable.

For his sake, because he seems to be a very nice young guy, I hope that Colin Murikawa has a terrific career ahead of him, but don't bet on him becoming the "next Jack" of the "next Tiger."

FOOTBALL

The biggest news in football this week is about what will NOT be happening in 2020, and that came when the Presidents of the schools of the Big Ten and Pac-12 announced that due to safety concerns surrounding COVID-19, they would not be playing football in the Fall this year.  They kicked the can down the road by saying that they would consider playing in the Spring, but don't bet the mortgage on that happening for reasons that go beyond the issues raised by the pandemic.  An interesting conversation on PTI yesterday between Michael Wilbon and Frank Isola pretty much defended the decisions made by the conferences.  Nobody wants to not have football, least of all the schools themselves, but there really seemed to be no other choice.  The virus is real, folks.

And how about the University of Nebraska.  They have been members of the Big 10 for about five minutes, have willingly accepted the gajillions of dollars that that membership has brought to them, and now they say that they are thinking about defying the B1G's decision and would be happy to set up a schedule on their own.  If I was a President of any of the other Big Ten schools, I would propose an immediate motion to kick the Cornhuskers out of the Conference.

BASEBALL, and THE PIRATES

We are now a little over two weeks into the abridged MLB season, and two teams, the Marlins and the Cardinals have been forced to miss multiple games - the Cardinals have only played five games - due to rampant numbers of positive COVID tests.  The Marlins couldn't stay out of the hotel bars and the Cardinals couldn't stay away from a Casino while both were on the road.  Boys will be boys, I guess.

The completion of this season is certainly not a sure thing at this point, and a strong possibility exists that not all teams will play the full complement of sixty games.  To do that, the aforementioned Cardinals, for example, would now be required to play 55 games in forty-four days.  Good luck with that.

Then there are the Pirates.  Until this week's series with the Cardinals was COVID-postponed, they had played sixteen games, and sport a 3-13 record.  They are on a pace that would give them, over the course of a full season, a record of 30-132.  They are on pace not only to the worst season, percentage-wise, in Pirates history, but in all of baseball history.  I think we all knew that it wasn't going to be good in 2020, but this?

It's easy to pick on the players, who have been awful, no doubt about it, but the real villain here, I think, is our boy, former general manager Neal Huntington (FGMNH).  Upon his firing, he left to his successors an organization so bereft of talent, that the team has been forced to go down to the local YMCA's and sign anyone who can throw a baseball sixty feet, six inches just to fill a roster.  The fact that Doyvadas Neverauskas is leading the team in appearances for pitchers, the fact that he is even on the team at all, is a testamant to just what a colossal mess FGMNH passed on the GMBC (Ben Cherrington).  

It's easy to bitch and moan about guys like Neverauskas, Miguel Del Pozo, Chris Stratton, and Geoff Hartlieb.  They're not actually trying to stink up the place, they just plain don't belong in the Major Leagues.  The fact that this is the best the Pirates can do at this point, is a withering indictment of the one time "Best Management Team in Baseball, If Not All of Sports."  Thank you, Bob Nutting.

What about new Bucco skipper Derek Shelton?  He has got to be saying night after night "I waited my whole career to be a big league manager and THIS is what I get?"  First off, 16 games is too soon to pass judgment on anybody as a manager.  So hold the hot takes on that issue, please.  It also has to be taken into account the truly awful collection of trinkets and trash he has been given to manage.  Factor in the delayed start of the season, the bastardized season that is scheduled, and, to be fair, the unbelievable number of injuries that have plagued the Pirates, and, well, I just feel plain sorry for the guy.  Conclusion:  Let's see what GMBC can do in a more normal off-season in 2020-21, see what kind of team can be put together for a full spring training and a full 2021 season, and the see what we get, and even then, it might not be fair to expect anything from a rebuilding (whether they want to say it or not) team until at least 2022.  Then we can pass judgement on "Sheltie."

Oh, and of course it will all depend on how much the MLB Owners and the MLBPA eviscerate each other in the upcoming Collective Bargaining sessions. Those will be fun to read about, won't they?