The Roberto Clemente Museum

The generally "By Appointment Only" Roberto Clemente Museum in Pittsburgh's Strip District held an open house today, so Marilyn and I finally got a chance to see this dandy little enterprise.  It is privately owned and operated, and it boasts the largest collection of Clemente memorabilia and photos anywhere.  As I heard a docent say today, it's like having a little piece of Cooperstown right here in Pittsburgh.  As it is not generally open to the public, it's not easy to get in to, but it is also not impossible, either, and if you are a Clemente fan, a Pirates fan, or a baseball fan, you really should try to get to see the place.

A sample of some of the photos that I took there today.

Had to have proof that I was there!

 Cool painting with iconic photos on either side

A wall filled with Roberto's awards

More great photos 

Athletes from various other Pittsburgh teams

 and other MLB teams as well donate signed jerseys

 to be used as fundraising items.

Couldn't resist this one

 A completed "Build It Yourself" Forbes Field 

designed by my friend, Len Martin, from the book

 that he and Dan Bonk published in 1994.

 After hit #3,000

What Pittsburgh sports museum would be complete 

without an homage to Game 7 of the 1960 World Series?

The Museum is housed in an old fire house on Penn Avenue which gives the place a really cool look.  Attached to the Museum is a wine making operation that sells special edition wines, many of which are bottled under labels of other celebrities and sports figures who use the resultant bottles of wine to sell or auction for their own charities or foundations.  Among barrels that we saw that are still in the aging process are wines designated for Jerome Bettis, Mike Trout, and Yadier Molina, among others.  We also bought a couple of bottles for our own use.  The labels on the bottles should be self-explanatory:

It was a fun day rekindling memories of "The Great One".

Documentary Film - "Apollo 11"

Think you know all about the July 1969 Apollo 11 space flight when men first landed upon and explored the surface of the moon? (No, not really.)  Saw it live when you were a kid back then? (I did.) Read all about over the past fifty years? (Some, but, no, not much.) Saw the movie "First Man" last year?  (Well, yeah, I did.)

Regardless of how you answer those questions, you haven't seen anything yet until and unless you see the new documentary, "Apollo 11", from CNN Films.  It is complied from thousands of hours of film that was taken by NASA to document the Apollo 11 mission, and when you watch this, you will see it from points of view that you have never seen, or can probably even imagine.  I'll give you just two examples:

• The cameras in place at the foot of the rocket as the spacecraft is launched from the Cape Kennedy launch pad.
• The film from Columbia as the Eagle comes into view, approaches, and then docks with the the command module upon its return from the surface of the moon.

There is no narrator in this film.  No current interviews with participants looking back on the event.  Just films taken as the events were happening, from the transport of the rocket ship to the pad at Cape Kennedy to  Eagle's landing at Tranquility Base to Armstrong and Aldrin frolicking on the lunar surface to the splashdown of the ship in the Pacific.  

Seeing this movie from the perspective of fifty years after the fact makes you still marvel and wonder about the total magnitude of the entire undertaking.  "Apollo 11" is an engrossing and amazing look at perhaps the most significant scientific and technological event in all of history.  Awesome in the truest meaning of the word.

Four Stars from The Grandstander.

Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins 

each turned 39 years of age in 1969

That command module was 320 feet 

off the ground when on the launch pad

Opening Day 2019, and a Marte Par-tay?

Like baseball fans the world over, I am excited that today is Opening Day of the 2019 season.  Even as a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team whose ownership seems to try to crush your soul well before the first pitch of every new season, it is a time for excitement and hope.

How are the Bucs going to do in this new season?  Well, I'll address that momentarily, but first, a word about center fielder Starling Marte, the most tenured Pirate on this current roster.

While out driving yesterday, Poni and Mullsey on The Fan were interviewing Pirates broadcaster and Chief Propaganda Minister Greg Brown and asking his thoughts on the season. Among other delicious bon mots that Brownie delivered was this one about Starling Marte.  Marte, said Greg, was a player who was equal in talent to players like this past winter's big free agent signees Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.

Really?

That prompted me to head to baseball-reference.com and do a little research.

Marte is now 30 years old, and has played seven seasons in the major leagues.  He has accumulated exactly 3,400 plate appearances and 3,108 at bats.  On a "per 162 game" basis, Mate has hit 17 home runs, driven in 67 runs, has a .286 batting average and a .783 OPS.  He has made one all-star team, and has won two gold gloves.  He has hit 20 home runs once in his career.  One area where Marte truly has excelled is in stealing bases.  He has stolen 42 bags per 162 games, and when he has played a full season, which he has done five times, he has never had fewer than 30 steals.

Something that baseball-reference cannot quantify, but if you watch the Pirates regularly you know it, is Marte's penchant to, shall we say, make lots of mental mistakes and at times just not appear to be fully present during the course of a ball game.  And there is also that 80 game PED suspension on his resume.

Conclusion:  A talented ball player, no doubt, but after seven seasons and over 3,000 at bats, what we have seen from Starling Marte is what we are going to get, and in fact, he could begin to decline now that he has crossed into his thirties.  

And this note to Greg Brown.  For all of Marte's skills and talents, he ain't no Bryce Harper or Manny Machado.  In case you were wondering, each of the players has also played seven seasons, and here are their "per 162 games" stats:

Machado  31 HR, 90 RBI, .282 BA, .822 OPS

Harper  32 HR, 91 RBI. .279 BA, .900 OPS 

**********

As for the '19 Pirates, I do believe that they could well be a better team than the one that won 82 games last year, but I fear that they could have a very difficult time obtaining that same victory level this season.  The team played fairly well within the Central Division last year, but other teams in the Central did a lot to improve themselves, while the Pirates did very little.  Example:  The Cardinals new acquisitions were Paul Goldschmidt and Andrew Miller.  The Pirates signed Lonnie Chisenhall and Jordan Lyles.  See what I mean.

Quick random thoughts from this part of The Grandstand:

• The starting pitching will be the key to the team's success. Taillon, Williams, Archer, Musgrove.  If these four guys click, it won't matter who they will use in that fifth spot.
• Jung Ho Kang sure has produced in the Grapefruit League.  If he can do that in the regular season, his signing will have proved to be the most important one that the team made in this past off-season.  
• Which Josh Bell?  The guy who hit over twenty bombs and drove in over 90 runs in '17, or the guy with the reduced numbers in '17?
• I look forward to seeing this Erik Gonzalez kid play short.  Maybe that Cleveland trade will prove to have been a steal for GMNH.  
• I'll also be watching what Cole Tucker is doing at SS for Indy as the year progresses.
• How soon will Gregory Polanco get back on the field?

While in Las Vegas last January, I placed a small ($15) wager on the Pirates to win OVER 79.5 games this year.  Logically, I don't think that they will, not necessarily because they are a bad team, but because they will have tough time winning that many games in a tough NL Central Division.  However, I didn't want to place a bet that would put me in the position come the final week of the season of rooting for the Pirates to lose ballgames.  I could never go that.  I do think that that small bet will definitely put a lot of interest in those final weeks of the season as the Pirates strive for 80 wins and beyond.  

Clint better be playing his A-team that week!

Enjoy the Opener.  Enjoy the Season.  And as always....LET"S GO BUCS!!!!!

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.

More on Mehno

The recent death of John Mehno, noted in this space six days ago, prompted me to head to my book shelves and retrieve this little volume:

This book was written by John and was published in 2007.  It is great book chock full of fun little argument starters like.....

• What were the Steelers five most memorable games?
• Jack Ham or Jack Lambert?
• Were the 1979 Pirates really a "family"?
• How did the Pirates go from powerhouse to laughingstock?
• Do Al Oliver and Dave Parker deserve to be in the Hall of Fame? (Die hard Bucco fans might not like his answer to this one,)
• What were the Pirates worst signings?
• Was Barry Bonds really that bad a guy?
• Who was the Penguins best player before Mario Lemieux?
• Was Forbes Field really that great?
• Was Three Rivers Stadium really that bad?
• Who were the best Pittsburgh teams that didn't win championships?

You get the idea, and there are 100 of these little gems in this book.  I'm not even sure if this book is still in print, but it really is a must for Pittsburgh sports fans.  Like I said, it is now a twelve year old book.  How great it would have been to have had John write a second volume that would include topics that have popped up on the 'Burgh Sports Scene since 2007.  He could probably have done whole thirty or forty questions on Neal Huntington and Pitt football coaches alone!

I treasure my copy of this book, which I got John to sign for me when he spoke to the Pittsburgh SABR Chapter back in 2012.

"Mary Queen of Scots"

For the second time in a week, I delved into a cinematic look at female British Monarchs ("l'll take female British Monarchs for a thousand, Alex") from long, long ago last night.  Last week it was "The Favourite", which told about Queen Anne in 1706.  Last night it was "Mary Queen of Scots", the story of the titular Queen and her, not sure what you would call it - her battles, rivalry, intramural tussles? - with Elizabeth I.  It starred Saoirse Ronan as Mary and Margot Robbie as Elizabeth.  This one took place back in the 1580's or thereabouts.

I'll be brief with my takeaways on this movie:

1. It starred Saoirse Ronan, rapidly becoming one of my very favorite (as opposed to "favourite") actresses.  She alone makes a movie worth seeing, and she is the sole reason I watched this one. 
2. The filmmakers managed to do the impossible:  They made Margot Robbie look unattractive.
3. It was better than "The Favourite", but, that, admittedly, is setting a very low bar in this particular grandstand.

One and one-half stars from The Grandstander.

A College Football Time Capsule

When writing about the death of Dan Jenkins in this space ten days ago, I made mention of the book you see pictured here, "Saturday's America".  It was an updated collection of long form articles that Jenkins wrote when he was covering college football for Sports Illustrated.  It was published in 1970, and I read the book when I was in college.   Jenkins' death prompted memories of that book, so I went to the library, checked it out and re-read it last week.

1970.  This book truly is a time capsule for college football fans.  To give you an idea of just how long ago 1970 was, College Football-wise, consider the following:

In 1970, Joe Paterno was in only his fifth year as head coach at Penn State.  In fact, at one point in the book, Jenkins referred to him as "the young head coach at Penn State".  When was the last time you thought of Joe Paterno being young?

In 1970, Nick Saban was playing defensive back at Kent State University.

In 1970, Pat Narduzzi was celebrating his fourth birthday, and Dabo Swinney was celebrating his first birthday. 

You get the idea.

Anyway, the book covers some great stories from throughout college football's first 100 years, with primary emphasis on the 1960's.  Here are some of the highlights covered in separate chapters of the book:

• The arrival of Ara Parseghian in South Bend, and how he revived the storied Notre Dame football traditions after the moribund coaching tenures of Joe Kuharich and Terry Brennan.  Also prominent in this chapter was a young QB out of Butler, PA, Terry Hanratty.
• Stories of a various college whiz kids of the era such as Tommy Nobis, Dick Butkus, Joe Namath, and O.J. Simpson.
• A great chapter about the "Game of the Decade" - the 1966 game between Notre Dame and Michigan State that ended in a 10-10 tie. The game where, as Jenkins put it,  Ara "tied one for the Gipper".
• "Pursuit of a Blue Chipper", a story about college recruiting that focused on the pursuit of a  high school QB out of Abilene, Texas, Jack Mildren.  If anything, recruiting has no doubt become even more of a blood sport fifty years later than it was back in the 1960's.  Mildren eventually ended up at Oklahoma where he was the main cog in OU's wishbone offense.  I remembered being at the game when Mildren and his Sooners - Greg Pruitt was the featured running back - blasted Pitt out of Pitt Stadium with that wishbone attack in 1971.  The final score was 55-29 (I had to look that up), and Pitt was never in the game.
• A story about the history of the Heisman Trophy.  This chapter seems remarkably quaint here in the 21st century ever since the Heisman Trophy was co-opted by ESPN and Nissan.
• An entire chapter about Woody Hayes, many years before he punched that kid from Clemson on national television.  He still came across as a complete and total horse's ass.

There's lots more, and if you are a fan of college football and it's history, it would be worth your while to seek out this one, although you can probably only find it in libraries and on dusty shelves in used book stores these days.  

If I had one criticism, it's the fact that Jenkins often resorts to folksy, Texas dialect when writing.  You know, quoting guys  who say "dadgummit" in every other sentence and refer to the game as "fooball".    That's okay in the occasional magazine article, but it gets old when your bludgeoned with it for 290 pages in a book.

A Three Star rating from The Grandstander.