To Absent Friends: Terry Lee

Saddened to hear of the death at age 70 of former Pittsburgh superstar disc jockey Terry Lee.  If you are of a certain age (mine) you remember listening to McKeesport radio station WIXZ to the distinctive "TL Sound", and you especially remember being with your girlfriend (or boyfriend) while listening to TL's "Music for Young Lovers".  Actually, if you were like me, you remember listening to TL's "Music for Young Lovers" and wishing that you actually had a girlfriend!

Reading Lee's obituary the other day, coupled watching the Buddy Holly musical at the CLO on Thursday night, made me remember the time when the deejays themselves were the stars who played such key roles in the shaping of musical tastes and making stars of the performers whose records they played.  In Pittsburgh, those deejays were people like Lee, Porky Chedwick, Clark Race, and Chuck Brinkman.  With the way radio and the music industry have evolved over the years, do deejays like that even exist anymore?

RIP Terry Lee.

Outer Banks Vacation Thoughts

You may have noticed the absence of Grandstander posts in recent days, and this was due to the fact that we took our annual vacation to Corolla, NC and the wonderful beaches of Currituck County on North Carolina's Outer Banks.

What can I say?  It was another outstanding week.  Good weather - we made it to the beach every single day.  Very hot on most days, and the ocean was very swimmable on all days but one, when high winds made it pretty choppy to venture into.  In fact, the only glitch we encountered was our trip in on Saturday from Williamsburg, VA to Corolla.  Normally, this is about a two and one-half hour ride, but for some ungodly reason, it took us SIX HOURS to make the trip this time around.  Maddening, but by that first Sunday afternoon at the beach, or maybe it was after that first beer at lunch when finally did get to Corolla, all was forgotten, and we settled in for another great week at the OBX. 

I read a great book down there, "Bad Monkey", the latest from Carl Hiaasen.  You just cannot go wrong reading a Hiaasen novel!  Also started to read a book by Max Allen Collins called "Bye, Bye Baby".  More on that one when i finish it.

This was the vacation of connectivity.  When you added it all up, there were five iPads and two laptops in the house that had a WiFi connection.  Not sure how I feel about this, but we were able to keep up with email, Facebook, and, thanks to the terrific MLB at Bat app, the Pirates!  A good thing about all these gadgets is that the television was hardly on at all the entire time we were there.

And speaking of Facebook, I left the mark of perhaps THE best group page on all of Facebook:

And if you are wondering what the "theme" was the night that Marilyn and I hosted dinner, wonder no more....

Yes, we saluted Hollywood and the movies, with a red carpet and everything.  As you can see, Marilyn arrived by limousine:

And while we (or at least me) always think of bikini-clad babes when we think "beach", I thought I'd do a little something for the ladies out there, by presenting a little beefcake for your pleasure:

Yep, we really love the Outer Banks. There is just nothing like a beach vacation.

On Ryan Braun

Even though The Grandstander went on a brief hiatus last week, the news doesn't stop, and perhaps the biggest news in baseball in thew past seven days was the acceptance of a 65 game suspension by Milwaukee's Ryan Braun.  While on vacation last week, I must have read close to a dozen different columns and stories surrounding this loathsome character, and the lame-ass "apology" he made, which did not, by the way, include any apology to the poor guy whose reputation and life that he, Braun, pretty much shattered last year by accusing him of tampering with his tainted urine sample.  Yeah, nothing like a hubris-filled, multi-millionaire ball player dumping on some poor guy whose job it is to collect your piss in a bottle!

One of my favorite stories was on some Jewish Cultural website that demanded that Braun be forever stripped of his nickname, The Hebrew Hammer!

Yep, in a field that includes the likes of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, it may well turn out that Braun may end up being the most contemptable PED Cheat of them all. 

For this, The Grandstander bestows an H.A. Citation upon Lyin' Ryan Braun.  Here's to you!

(Photo courtesy of Dan Bonk Enterprises)

Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Day

Yes, today is "Induction Day" at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.  There will be three Inductees:

Jacob Rupert - Owner of the New York Yankees from 1915-1939.  Rupert died in 1939.

Hank O'Day - Umpire in early 20th Century.  Umpired his last game in 1927.  Died in 1935. 

James "Deacon" White - 19th century player.  Played his last game in 1889, and died in 1939.

Really gets the blood flowing, doesn't it?  I wonder if any of these guys have any grandchildren still alive who can accept the plaques on their behalf?

Having visited Cooperstown many times over the years, I know how much this weekend means to the small businesses and other organizations in the community, and I know that they cannot be real happy about such a lackluster Induction Class.  I mean, I don't think that there are hordes of fans of the Cleveland Forest Citys, Buffalo Bisons, and Detroit Wolverines flocking Cooperstown this weekend to spend money and cheer for the induction of Deacon White.

I don't want to start up a Should They / Shouldn't They Debate over the Steroid Era players, and this is not to say that Rupert, O'Day, and White are undeserving, but, from a purely business standpoint, the HOF cannot be pleased to only be inducting guys who have been dead for three quarters of a century. I mean...

Perhaps this Class of 2013 will prove to be an anomaly.  One can only hope.

To Absent Friends: Simmie Hill

If you are my age, and can remember what might be called a Golden Age of High School basketball in Western Pennsylvania, then you probably remember the undefeated (28-0) Midland High School Leopards of 1965, the WPIAL and Pennsylvania state champions.  A fabulous team whose point guard, Norm Van Lier, went on to a distinguished NBA career with the Chicago Bulls, but the real star of that team was leading scorer and center Simmie Hill.  He was force to be reckoned with on the high school level.  He played at several different colleges, and had a journeyman career in the old ABA.  It is sad to learn of his passing earlier this week at the age of 66.

Ironically, I was at a function earlier in the week where I met a lady from Midland who was a cousin of Van Lier's, and she told me of Sim Hill's passing.  I was going to write it up the other night, but waited until it was actually reported in the newspapers.

RIP Simmie Hill.

A Not So Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Lunch Yesterday

So, I arrange to have lunch with friend and former co-worker Roger Hansen yesterday.  In order to avoid walking in this God-awful heat, we agree to meet at the Wheelhouse at the Rivers Casino.  After all, the parking is FREE, right?  I run an errand in the morning and arrive at the casino an hour early.  No problem, because I figure I can easily kill sixty minutes with sixty dollars at a five dollar black jack table.  Piece of cake.

Well, after about five minutes and seven or eight hands were dealt, I was down to only three five dollar chips.  Only on one hand did I beat the dealer. I felt like a high school quarterback after he just  faced Joe Greene and the Steel Curtain in their prime.  It was amazing.  I staggered away from the table with my three chips, and found myself looking at a roulette wheel.  What the hell, I think, so I put a chip on red.  You guessed it.  Black.  Did that two more times.  Five bucks on red.  Three straight times the ball lands on black.

Sixty bucks down the toilet in less than ten minutes.  Some days, it just ain't your day.

So now I had about fifty minutes to kill, and I spent it people watching, and let me tell you, you see all sorts of slices of life at a gambling casino, and I'll just leave it at that.

Anyway, had a great visit with Roger, and a great pastrami sandwich at the Wheelhouse, which, in the end, only cost me about seventy bucks, but, hey, the parking was free!

I love you, Roger, but next time, let's go back to SoHo for lunch!

All-Star Game: "It's Gotta Be The Shoes"

By all objective reckoning, last night's 3-0 win by the American League in the 2013 All-Star Game can at best be described as a rather desultory affair.  Although I was in awe of how Fox Sports and MLB in general handled Christ coming down from the Cross to play in the game.  Oh, wait, that was just Mariano Rivera's entrance from the bullpen and retiring the side in the eighth inning.  I guess I just got confused from all of the worshipful words bandied about.

Also, by the clock on my cable box, the eighth inning break took NINE MINUTES, thanks to the appearance of Neil Diamond (Was that really necessary? There are better ways to honor the victims in Boston.) and the milking of the Rivera Grand Entrance.  NINE MINUTES! I mean, C'mon Man!

And I would also be remiss if I didn't mention the impressive stint of Jason Grilli in his half inning of pitching.  Very nice.

However, the one thing that stood out to me last night above everything else was the shoes worn by the players.  It seemed that every player had flashy colorful shoes to match his respective team's colors.  Red shoes, blue shoes, orange shoes, neon yellow shoes (as worn by Andrew McCutchen).  It was a rainbow of footwear out there.  Now regular readers know that I am somewhat of an old school purist when it comes to baseball uniforms, but I have to tell you, I loved the colorful shoes.  LOVED them!  I  wish every team adopted them as part of their regular, every day uniforms.  

Somewhere up there, Charley Finley was smiling.