"Inherit the Wind"

Well, I took my own advice and watched "Inherit the Wind" on Monday night and am not sorry that I did.  What a terrific movie.  At the risk of giving in to Old Fogeyism, I will say that Hollywood just doesn't make 'em like Spencer Tracy and Fredric March any more.  Both of them turned in terrific performances, and I just can't imagine any contemporary actors doing nearly as well in these roles as these two did way back in 1960.

However, perhaps the thing that struck me most watching this is how relevant this movie still is in 2012, and I'm not so sure that that is a good thing.

Still sitting in the DVR bullpen from Monday night is "Judgement at Nuremberg".  Hope to get to that sometime this week.

Congratulations, Giants!

Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants for winning the 2012 World Series in a sweep over the Detroit Tigers.

Despite a back-and-forth, fairly exciting extra innings Game Four, and Pablo Sandoval's three round trippers in Game One, I will maintain that unless you are a fan of both the Giants and Tigers, this World Series will go down as one of the most unmemorable Series, if not of all-time, certainly in my experiences in watching Fall Classics since 1959.  However, if you are a member of the Giants, and if you are a Giants fan, you don't particularly care what me, or anyone else might think.

Congratulations and enjoy the celebrations!

By the way, did you catch the reaction shot of Jim Leyland after Miguel Cabrera struck out to end the game and the Series?  Turned around and headed straight for the clubhouse.  That ought to be a fun post-game interview for the reporters.

Steelers Overpower RG3, Redskins

Some quick thoughts immediately after Steelers 27 - Redskins 13....

• I think we can all agree that today was the best game the Steelers have put together this season on both sides of the ball, as the coaches say, or if you will as Mike Tomlin would say.
• I think Ben Roethlisberger was making a point as to exactly who the best quarterback at Heinz Field was today.
• I think the Steelers should stick with Jonathon Dwyer for the foreseeable future.
• RG3 was pretty much neutralized today, and maybe more so by his own receivers, who dropped ten passes, than by the Steelers defense.
• This might be considered a mortal sin by some, by I kind of liked Brian Billick as color analyst on the telecast.
• Didn't hear Ike Taylor's name called once today.  I'm guessing that means he was playing a pretty nice game.
• Again, I'll say that that was the Steelers best played game of the season.  Maybe it was the uniforms.  Maybe they should keep wearing them?

DVR Alert for Monday, October 29

Another in the Highly Popular series of DVR Alerts.

Monday, October 29 on Turner Classic Movies, two courtroom dramas both starring Spencer Tracy and directed by Stanley Kramer:

8:00 PM - "Inherit the Wind" (1960) Based on the famous Scopes "monkey trial". Also starring Fredric March and Gene Kelly in a non-singing, non-dancing dramatic role, and featuring Dick York. I never knew he did anything but "Bewitched".

10:15 PM - "Judgement at Nuremberg" (1961) What a cast in addition to Tracy: Marlene Dietrich, Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Judy Garland, Richard Widmark, Werner "Col. Klink" Kemperer, and, oh, yeah, Maximilian Schell who won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance. Screenwriter Abby Mann also won the Oscar for this screenplay.

Good movies!!

SABR Meeting Summary, Fall 2012

Thirty-three members and guests attended the Fall Meeting of the Pittsburgh / Forbes Field Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) on Saturday, October 27, 2012 at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh.

Our Special Guest Speaker was Alex Richert of KDKA-FM, 93-7 The Fan Radio.  Alex serves as the producer of the Pirates radio broadcasts, as well as a producer for many of The Fan’s talk shows.  Alex told us all about what goes into producing what we hear on the air, as well as providing us with some insights of not only the Pirates’ broadcasters, but of some The Fan’s other on-air personalities.

Member presentations included:

• Larry DiNino on the history of the involvement of US Presidents with the game of baseball with an emphasis on Presidential First Pitches.  Very appropriate during an Election Year.
• Craig Britcher and Emelia Boehm on Hall of Famer James “Pud” Galvin.
• George Skornickel on Racial Integration of Baseball in Pittsburgh.
• Joe Guzzardi on the 1952 Topps Baseball Card set.
• Fifteen top-notch World Series Trivia questions from Jim Haller.

As always, the Pittsburgh Chapter is extremely grateful to the Senator John Heinz History Center for allowing us to use their facilities for our meetings.  I doubt that any SABR Chapter holds their meetings in a more appropriate setting.

Saturday's America *

* Title of this blog post shamelessly stolen from a terrific book about college football written by the great Dan Jenkins back in the early 1970's.

Some observations on a most interesting College Football Saturday......

• Pitt needed a win yesterday and they got a most convincing one over Temple yesterday, 47-17.  Paul Chryst's Panthers are now at  .500.  Temple is better than it used to be, but, still, a win over Temple doesn't exactly stir the heartstrings.
• Ohio State really thumped Penn State yesterday in what Gene Collier ingeniously called "The Battle of the Banned".  I fear that my praise of Matt McGloin last week may have jinxed him yesterday, as he showed some flaws yesterday.  On the other hand, Ohio State may simply be a better - much better, perhaps - team.  QB Braxton Miller sure was impressive.
• If there were any doubts that Notre Dame was the real deal this season, the Irish put them to rest with that convincing win at Oklahoma last night.  The biggest test before them now seems to be USC in Los Angeles, and now even that seems to be becoming less and less of an impediment.
• Looks like it is going to be a very long day for the Panthers in South Bend next week.
• Will be interested to see how the BCS standings shake out after #2 Florida's defeat.  My guess is that it will be Alabama, Kansas State, Oregon, and Notre Dame.
• I am guessing that ESPN would love to see an undefeated ND play in the BCS Championship game in January.  How will it that maneuvered if all four of those teams remain undefeated?
• How about Rich Rodriguez' Arizona Wildcats beating USC yesterday?  Rodriguez seems to have regained his touch after that less than successful stint in Ann Arbor.
•  Did you see where UCLA beat Arizona State yesterday.  As my buddy Dan Bonk says, ASU Coach Fraud Graham has no soul.
• Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, and Brian Kelly all coach undefeated teams yet you watch them during a game and hear them interviewed after a game, and they all seem to be a grouchy and dyspeptic bunch, and this is not untypical of college football coaches.  Why is that?  They are at the very top of their professions.  Can't they be HAPPY about that?

Big Football Weekend Ahead

I am looking forward to a couple of big football games this weekend:

• First, the so-called "Sanctions Bowl" between Penn State and Ohio State on Saturday.  We all know the story behind why THIS GAME is the biggest one of the season for both teams (well, maybe the Michigan game is bigger for OSU), so why rehash them.  Clearly, the job that Bill O'Brien and the Players Who Stayed at PSU in forging a 5-2 record is one of the more interesting ones in college football this season.  
• Also on Saturday, undefeated Notre Dame faces its biggest test of the season, Oklahoma in Norman, OK.  This will be the acid test for the Irish, to be sure.
• Finally, there is the Steelers and the Redskins on Sunday, and at 1:00 to boot!  First of all, the Steelers will be wearing those ridiculous throwbacks this week:

• For this week only, it will be the Steelers, and not the Pirates, who will be the laughingstocks of their League.
• More importantly, the Redskins will be bringing the most talked about and, arguably, the most exciting player in the NFL to town: Robert Griffin III, or RG III.  I listen to podcasts of Tony Kornheiser's Washington DC radio show, and as you can imagine, I hear an awful lot about RG III in the process.  I can't wait to see him, and, more to the point, how the Steelers deal with him.  Much has been made of the porous Redskins defense, and we know that the Steelers defense hasn't been so hot either when it comes to holding onto leads (until the met the Bengals, of course).  This has the earmarks of a 41-38 barn burner.  Should be fun!
• Pitt beat Buffalo in what was a pretty crummy game, but in watching it, did anyone take note of the Buffalo sidelines?  The two back-up QB's, wearing red baseball caps, were continually motioning to the QB on the field, constantly waving their arms in multiple and oft-times opposite directions.  Could that have possibly meant ANYTHING to the QB out there on the field?

And in non-football news....

• Did you catch the story about Lance Armstrong in last week's Sports Illustrated?  If not, you should take a gander at it.  Turns out that golden boy Lance was not only a drug cheat, but a bully as well, who let his teammates know in no uncertain terms that THEY had better juice up right along with him.
• Of course, cycling may just be the dirtiest sport out there, PED-wise.  Not sure why we should care about it.
• As for Game One of the World Series last night with Justin Verlander giving up five runs and getting knocked out after four innings.....I sure didn't see that coming.  Makes it pretty imperative for Detroit to take Game Two tonight, I should think.