Book Review - A Swing and a Miss for Collins and Heller

Well, you all know what a big fan I am of the Nathan Heller detective novels by Max Allan Collins.  I've written about them before - Chicago cop turned private eye Nate Heller writes his "memoirs" about all of his cases that have involved famous people from throughout the twentieth century.  Al Capone, Huey Long, Charles Lindberg, Sally Rand, John Dillinger, Bugsy Seigel, the Black Dahlia, Marilyn Monroe, and even Jack and Bobby Kennedy...Nate Heller has been involved with all of them, and all of the novels have been terrific, in my opinion.

In "Flying Blind", however, Heller details his involvement with famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart (and those of you who have read any of these stories know exactly what I mean when I talk about Nate being "involved"), and the circumstances of her disappearance while on a round-the-world flight in 1937.  While you always have to accept with a grain of salt how one guy could have touched so many famous crimes in the twentieth century, with "Flying Blind" I felt for the first time that Collins was really reaching when putting this story together.  Hey, it happens. Even Sandy Koufax pitched a bad game every once in awhile, and even a disappointing Nate Heller adventure still makes for a pretty decent yarn.

With the reading of "Flying Blind", I have finished thirteen of the fifteen Heller novels that Collins has written.  Only "Majic Man" (1999) and "Chicago Confidential" (2002) remain, and I suspect that I will knock those off sometime over the summer.  The completion of this goal will leave a bittersweet feeling: What am I going to do when there are no more Nate Heller novels left to read?

Pirate Chat Goes to Altoona

Thanks to Pirate Chat member Tom Elling, it was "Pirate Chat Night"  (it was even recognized as such in the game program!) at People Natural Gas Park in Altoona, PA last night.  A group of twenty Pirate Chatters....

gathered on a beautiful late Spring evening.....

and watched the Pirates Double-A affiliate pound out 13 runs on 17 hits and defeat the Binghampton Mets, 13-4.

We got to see Curve pitcher Jacob Creasy boost his record to 6-0, and we saw highly touted Pirate prospect Josh Bell...

collect three hits and a bases loaded walk.  When Bell finally arrives at PNC Park in 2017 or so, I will now be able to say, in the tradition of my late grandfather, Bill Madden, "I seen that kid when he was a bush leaguer!"

As with most minor league ball games, the game itself was the least of the evening.  Last night was "Star Wars Night", as witnessed by these sights:

Star Wars Night also featured Curve players wearing special uniform shirts with Jabba the Hut on them.  Thankfully, I was unable to get a close-up photo of these, because they may well have been the ugliest shirts ever worn by a professional baseball team.

And coming up in July - "Bania Mania Night" featuring the guy who played comedian Kenny Bania on "Seinfeld".  Marilyn said that on the inside of the door of the stall she used in the ladies room, there was poster of Kenny Bania!  Think about that - Kenny Bania on the INSIDE OF A STALL DOOR IN A REST ROOM.  Creepy.

All in all, it was faun evening, marred only by the fact that what should have been a two hour trip took us three and half hours.  Thanks to our friends at PENNDOT, a small section of Route 22 being resurfaced in Murrysville,  it took us one hour to traverse about a four mile stretch of that road.  We then encountered a huge back-up getting off of I-99 in Altoona, that then took us another forty minutes to go about a mile.  We missed the top of the first inning, but all was well that ended well.  

I will close with a look at the signature view from the Curve's beautiful ball park in Altoona.

Potpourri - Bucs, Ballers, and Brady

Selected Short Subjects.......

The last time I wrote of the Pirates, they had played 31 games, just short of 20% of the season.  At the conclusion of yesterday's game, they had played 43 games, or just over a quarter of the season.

With a record of 21-22, I think that the best that could be said about the Pirates season is that it is "uneven."  A weekend sweep of the Mets was encouraging, but it followed another streak wherein they lost seven of eight games.  The good news is that the pitching of Cole-Burnett-Liriano (save that one awful game against the Twins), has been stellar, and that Andrew McCutchen is heating up BIG TIME.

Still, I will say that we have passed the "Hey, it's still early" phase of the season.  We are now in the "Hey, these guys better start picking it up" phase for the next fifty games or so.

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The Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers have each taken 3-0 leads in their Conference Finals playoff series, so the NBA Finals are not quite set in stone yet, but I am going to go out on a limb and say that it will be a Warriors-Cavaliers Finals, and I, of one, am really, really looking forward to the dual that will be played out between Steph Curry and LeBron James in that Series.

It should be Epic!


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I was going to write a lengthy piece about Tom Brady, deflated footballs, his pending suspension, and the penalties heaped upon the Patriots.  

Then I thought, "Who cares at this point, so to hell with it."

All I will say is that Brady is paying the penalty for the past sins of his employer and his coaches.  Had this happened to any other QB and team in the NFL, both the QB and the team would have received a cursory slap on the wrist and be told to be sure to never do this again.

Playing with the air pressure of the footballs is not much different than the Pirates watering down the base paths when the Reds come to town in order to slow up Billy Hamilton.

To Absent Friends - Kathy Kerestes

Kathy Kerestes

1954-2015

If you were a fan of the old O'Brien and Garry Radio show on WTAE Radio and 96.1 FM radio back in the day, you had to be saddened to hear the news yesterday of the death of news reporter Kathy Kerestes at the age of 61.

Fans of the show - and can you believe that it has been eighteen years since that show left the air? - will remember Miss Kerestes as the news reader and foil of hosts Larry O'Brien and John Garry.  It made for lively and entertaining radio while getting dressed in the morning and driving into work.  The obituary revealed how Miss Kerestes left WTAE after many years and became a spokesperson at Carlow University.  Several years ago, after being stricken with multiple sclerosis, she left Carlow and, along with her sister, started her own media relations company.

It was a good life for the famed "Newsette", and one that ended way too soon.

RIP Kathy Kerestes.

Movie Review: "Tomorrowland"

We kicked off the Unofficial Start of Summer today by contributing to what will undoubtedly be the big box office winner of this Memorial Day Weekend by seeing the new Disney movie, "Tomorrowland".  From what I have read, much of what this movie was all about was kept pretty much under wraps by the Disney Studios.  About all that anyone knew was that it was a science fiction feature of some sort and it starred George Clooney.  That and a positive review by the Post-Gazette's Barb Vancheri was enough to get us out to the movie theater.  

Normally, the sci-fi genre is not our particular cup of tea, but we made an exception here, and we are glad we did.  We may not have done so had it been anyone other than Clooney starring.  He was very good in it, as were his young female co-stars, Britt Robertson and Raffey Cassidy.  It was directed by and co-written by Brad Bird, who has two Oscars to his credit for a couple of Pixar animated movies ("The Incredibles" and Ratatouille").  I won't try to summarize the story, but I will tell you that it is quite entertaining, beautifully photographed, it does carries a Message, and it leaves you with a very positive conclusion.

Early in the movie, one young character asks the question "Why can't it just be for fun?"  "Tomorrowland" does, as I said, carry a message, but it is also a fun experience.  Good movie.

NBA Playoffs

The NBA Conference Finals tip off tonight, so let me call it now.

East - Cavaliers over Hawks

West - Warriors over Rockets

Warriors to win it all over the Cavs in the finals.

You heard it here first, and, as always, watch but don't bet.

Tonight: "Mad Men" Concludes (No Spoilers)

This past Friday evening was spent binge watching the last three episodes of "Mad Men" in anticipation of tonight's series finale.  For the most part, this final season has been disappointing, and we have found ourselves saying things like "I'm ready for this show to be over."  However, the penultimate episode last week seemed to be setting up conclusions to the stories of Joan, Pete, Betty, and, possibly, Peggy and Roger.    Still not sure where Don is headed, and I am betting that when the show ends tonight, we STILL won't know, which will lead to endless kvetching across the Internet about such an unsatisfactory conclusion to this long-running series.  Series creator Matthew Weiner and AMC will, of course, defend this as "art", but long time fans of the show will be left with a sense of dissatisfaction.  This seems to happen more often than not when long running series are sent off with a "Grand Finale".

Of course, the series could conclude with an open-enough ending so as to set up a "Mad Men" feature film to bilk fans of their money one last time.  

I could be wrong on all of this, of course.  We'll just be watching - in real time; not gonna wait to see a DVR'd recording - to see how it all ends.

I will say this, though - I am going to miss the spectacular Christina Hendricks (Joan Harris).  

And that isn't the type of picture of Miss Hendricks that you thought I would post, is it?