Buccaneers 31 - Chiefs 9, and Other Super Bowl Thoughts

The wailing and moaning began on social media last night about halfway through the Super Bowl...."boring"...."what a lousy game"..."terrible game"....yada yada yada.  You heard it all and probably said something similar yourself.

Well, I have often said, and written in this space, that sporting events do not come with a guarantee.  Some of the games that you watch or attend might be downright lousy, and most of them will be pretty unmemorable.  In a vacuum, Super Bowl LV won by the Bucs yesterday would fall into the latter category.  If it was played in the 1:00 time window on a Sunday afternoon in October, it would be forgotten pretty quickly, but this game was NOT played in a vacuum, and while the outcome was known pretty much by the end of the first half, this game WAS memorable for two reasons:

1. It was the Super Bowl.  I mean, C'MON MAN, and
2. Tom Brady was in it and won it.

Need I elaborate?  His tenth Super Bowl appearance.  His seventh Super Bowl win.  His fifth Super Bowl MVP Award.  And he's FORTY-THREE YEARS OLD!!!!  Will anyone ever even approach such accomplishments in the future?  Maybe, but it won't happen in my lifetime, and I certainly wouldn't bet on it.

I've also said this before:  Those of us alive today never had the chance to see Babe Ruth play baseball, but we HAVE gotten the chance to see Tom Brady play football.  Appreciate it, because we will never see his like again.

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Patrick Mahomes remains the most exciting player in football today, but there is no denying that he had a bad day, a very bad day, yesterday.  It happens.  It is almost inconceivable that the Bucs could have kept the high powered Mahomes and all of his weapons out of the end zone for the entire game, but it happened.  Makes me think that Eric Fisher, the Chiefs all-pro offensive lineman who got hurt in the AFC Championship Game and missed the game yesterday, might well have been the MVP of the entire NFL this season if his absence yesterday made THAT much of a difference. It also makes me think that every NFL coaching staff will be studying those game films from yesterday when they prepare to face Kansas City next year.

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No offense to The Weeknd, who is undoubtedly a talented and dynamic performer and entertainer, this is nothing against him, so I am not shouting at clouds here, but I do believe that Super Bowl Halftime shows have now passed me by.  Like the Grammy Awards, they have become a generational thing.  Nothing wrong with that.  My parents didn't "get" The Beatles or the Rolling Stones either.  It happens.  Time marches.

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I also didn't pay much attention to the commercials this year either.  The only ones that stick with me are (1) the Bruce Springsteen spot for Jeep, and (2) the Michael B. Jordan as Alexa spot. 

That's it.  That's the list.

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.

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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.

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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.

Movie Review - "Da 5 Bloods"

 Four Black Viet Nam veterans gather in current day Saigon.  Why?  Ostensibly, it is to recover the remains of their troop leader, Stormin' Norman, who was killed in action back in 1967, and return them home for an honorable burial in Arlington National Cemetery.   However, they are also going back to recover a chest from a downed CIA transport plane that was filled with gold bars, which the five of them - the five "Bloods" from the title - found and buried back in 1967 shortly before Norman was killed.

Of course, many other issues reveal themselves, including greed, black market forces, PTSD, racial inequity, and the scars of the American War in Viet Nam that still exist nearly fifty years after the fall of Saigon, among both the Americans who served there and the Vietnamese who still live there.  The lunacy and pointlessness of the Viet Nam War is brought front and center to all of us once again.

I had heard a lot of critical acclaim for this movie, but I have to say that I was completely blown away by this Spike Lee "Joint."  It's told in both the present day, and is filled in with flashbacks where we see the five platoon mates in action, including Stormin' Norman, the leader of the crew, and played by Chadwick Boseman.  It is yet another painful reminder of what we lost with Boseman's untimely death last year.  The first among equals of a terrific cast, though, is Delroy Lindo as Paul.  Paul is the guy who has assumed the leadership among the remaing four, and he is also the one who seems to be fighting the most demons from his multiple tours in Viet Nam.  Would not be surprised if Lindo scores an Oscar Nomination for this performance.

Oh, and as a bonus, there are several background musical tracks featuring Marvin Gaye, including a terrific a cappella rendition of "What's Going On."  How great is that?

This is a fairly long movie, two and one-half hours, and there is cursing, LOTS of cursing, and some graphic depictions of war time violence, so this one may not be for everybody.  With that proviso, though, I have to say that I loved this movie.  

It gets Four Stars from The Grandstander.

"The Mystery of Mrs. Christie" by Marie Benedict

Fans of mystery writer Agatha Christie are no doubt familiar with the mystery in her own life:  her  disappearance in 1926 that created a sensation in the British press and led to massive manhunts in search of her.  She was discovered after eleven days in a spa registered under the name of her husband's mistress.   She claimed that she had suffered a bout of amnesia, but, really, she never did give a satisfactory explanation  to the whole affair.  In her own autobiography, Mrs. Christie mentioned not a single word about it.

Local Pittsburgh area author Marie Benedict (from Sewickley, to be precise) has taken a crack at it in  this story and posits her own theory as to how, what, and why this whole disappearing act took place.

The novel is told in alternating chapters and points of view.  One point is told in first person by Agatha herself and it traces from the time she met the dashing RAF pilot Archibald Christie at a fancy-schmancy upper crust English dance, how she was swept off her feet, proposed to, and ultimately married Christie.  It also tells the story of Archie Christie's domineering, narcissistic personalty which led to the unravelling of the marriage.

The alternating chapters are told in the third person and focus on Archie Christie as he becomes aware of his wife's disappearance, his dealing with the police, the press, and general public opinion, and becomes a suspect in the possible foul play disappearance of his wife.

Benedict ties the two points of view together over the last quarter of the book and presents her theory as to just what happened back in 1926.  It is a work of fiction, to be sure, but it's as plausible as any other theory that has ever been put out there.  Marie Benedict has specialized in writing historical fiction about real women.  Her subjects have included Albert Einstein's first wife, Andrew Carnegie's maid, Clementine Churchill, and Hedy Lamarr.  I have read the Lamarr book and found it most interesting (https://grandstander.blogspot.com/2019/07/what-have-i-read-lately.html).  I didn't find this one quite as good, but it held my interest nonetheless.  I finished it in less than three days.

It earns Two-and-One-Half Stars from The Grandstander and a recommendation to all fans of Agatha Christie to read it, if only to gain another perspective on the author who has sold more books than anyone in history, save William Shakespeare.

To Absent Friends - Cloris Leachman

 Cloris Leachman

1924 - 2021

Originally, I wasn't going to do an Absent Friends post on Cloris Leachman, but after making some mention of her on Facebook today, I decided, Nah, she needs the full treatment.

Cloris Leachman died earlier this week at age 94. Everyone's remembrances of her seem to center upon her roles in the Mary Tyler Moore Show, Phyllis, Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein", and even her stint on Dancing With The Stars. However, in reading about her, I learned that she appeared on Broadway in "South Pacific", replacing Mary Martin in the role of Nellie Forbush, and was once a contestant in the Miss America Pageant. Quite a resume. My first thought of her, though, always goes back to her Oscar winning role in Peter Bogdanovich's "The Last Picture Show" (1971) when she played frustrated and unappreciated small town Texas housewife Ruth Popper. It was a gut wrenching performance. I watched "The Last Picture Show" a few years back, and it still holds up remarkably well as a period drama. If you've never seen it, you should. It's not necessarily an "easy" movie to watch, but it is a good one.

And in case you've forgotten, here is why Cloris Leachman won an Oscar for that movie:

https://youtu.be/WBdiNbSNVbw

RIP CLoris Leachman

To Absent Friends - Bruce Kirby

Bruce Kirby

1925 - 2021

Noted character actor (144 credits per IMDB) Bruce Kirby died this week at the age of either 93 or 95, as different sources show birthdates of both 1925 or 1928. Regardless of that fact, Kirby was one of those "where-have-I-seen-this-guy-before" actors that are always showing up in movies and television shows.  He is also the father of the late Bruno Kirby Jr., a fact that I commented upon early last year when I happened to see both of them on an old episode of "Columbo" from the 1970's.

Here is in part what I wrote last February:

Anyway, an episode called "By Dawn's Early Light" featured a very young Bruno Kirby as a teenaged military cadet.  You remember him, right?  He portrayed young Peter Clemenza in "Godfather - Part II" in 1975, when he was billed as "B. Kirby Jr.", as he was in this particular Columbo episode.  He appeared in a couple of Billy Crystal's 1980's comedies, "City Slickers" and "When Harry Met Sally" when he was billed as "Bruno Kirby." At other points in his career, he was sometimes billed as "Bruno Kirby Jr."  From 1971 through 2006 he amassed 69 credits on television and in the movies. He was a most familiar face in those years, right up until his death from leukemia in 2006 at the way too young age of 57.  So it was no surprise when he jumped right off the screen in this bit part in the Columbo episode.  (In fact, seeing actors in bit parts in shows like this who later went on to big things is one of the fun parts of watching them.)

Also appearing in "By Dawn's Early Light" as Sgt. George Kramer, one of the plainclothes cops tailing after Lt. Columbo, was actor Bruce Kirby.  Bruce Kirby was and is - he's still with us and will turn 92 in 2020 - one of those character actors that you have seen a million times on television and in movies over the years.  IMDB lists 143 acting credits for him stretching from 1955 through 2006.  They included regular supporting roles on shows such as Car 54, Where Are You?, Kojak, and L.A. Law.  He appeared in nine separate episodes of Columbo.  Look him up in IMDB, and you will see the names of dozens of television shows, some long forgotten, some memorable, in which he appeared.

Well, it turns out that he is the father of Bruno Kirby, the "Senior" to Bruno's "Junior."  He was born in 1928 as Bruno Quidaciolu, and became "Bruce Kirby" when he went into the acting biz.  Fun Fact: In Rob Reiner's 1986 movie "Stand By Me", he played a character named "Mr. Quidaciolu."  In one of the Columbo episodes that I watched, his Sgt. Kramer had a fairly large speaking part, and if you might not have seen a physical resemblance between father and son, you could definitely hear a vocal and speech pattern in Bruce's voice that were definitely passed on to his son, Bruno.

Like I always say, Stars are Stars, but you can't make movies and television shows without actors like Bruce Kirby.

RIP Bruce Kirby.

Bruce Kirby with son

Bruno Kirby Jr.

(1949-2006)

To Absent Friends - Larry King and Walter Bernstein

 Larry King

1933 - 2021

By now, everyone is aware of the death of talk show king, Larry King, this past weekend at the age of 87.  Like most people, I first became aware of King on his overnight radio talk show on the Mutual Broadcasting Network, carried on, I believe, KQV here in Pittsburgh.  He went on, of course, to fame as the five nights a week talk show host on CNN, a show that ran for 25 years and was a show that played no small role in the success of the fledgling cable news network.

In time, King almost became a parody of himself, and he was the subject of a lot of well intentioned shots from comedians and pundits, including The Grandstander, who could never resist commenting on his frequent appearances behind home plate at Dodgers games.  And, as the tributes that have been appearing in recent days will tell you, no one enjoyed the ripostes more than King himself.

There may never be another media personality quite like Larry King.  "BUFFALO NEW YORK...YOU'RE ON THE AIR WITH BILL CLINTON"

Walter Bernstein

1919 - 2021

With Woody Allen on the set 

of "The Front" (1976)

Of lesser note, but of no less interest to me, was the death last week of screenwriter Walter Bernstein at the age of 101.  His obituary appeared in today's issue of the Washington Post.  Bernstein was one of the Hollywood figures of the 1950's who got caught up in the Red Scare Menace and was blacklisted by Hollywood in the Era of McCarthyism, one of the more shameful episodes of American History, but an era that fascinates me.

I have included his obit from the Post here.  It makes for great reading.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/walter-bernstein-scriptwriter-who-skewered-mccarthy-era-blacklist-in-the-front-dies-at-101/2021/01/23/01580a4a-5dbc-11eb-b8bd-ee36b1cd18bf_story.html

Bernstein took to making a living by cranking out screenplays for the movies and television, but having his work credited to others who "fronted" for him.  As he put it "(other writers') careers were made on my work."

It was this aspect of his life that he wrote of in his screenplay of the 1976 movie "The Front."  The movie starred Woody Allen in a rare dramatic role playing a "front" for blacklisted writers.  It is an interesting movie, wherein the Allen character goes along with the deal just to make a buck, but soon gets caught up in the extreme injustice of it all.  It is also interesting in that many the people who made this movie, including some of the actors, were victims of Red Scare blacklisting themselves early in their careers.  Be sure to watch the closing credits if you watch this movie.

Bernstein also wrote such notable films as "The Magnificent Seven", "The Molly Maguires", "Fail Safe", and "Semi-Tough."

RIP Larry King and Walter Bernstein