Say Hello to the Russell Wilson Era

The shocking news broke yesterday - it will become official tomorrow - that the Steelers will be signing free agent Russell Wilson to "compete" for the quarterback job with incumbent Kenny Pickett is 2024.

I say "shocking" because if you are a long time fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers you know that a move like this has definitely NOT been the Steelers Way in the past.  Wilson's credentials are well known: a multiple All-Pro in Seattle, where he twice took the Seahawks to the Super Bowl, winning it once.  His last two years in Denver have been rocky, some of the blame for which can be placed on Denver's coaches, but despite being benched last year, he produced 26 TD passes and only 8 interceptions, and his stats in the Red Zone have been great (you can look them up).  I can also remember a game at Heinz Field a few years ago where the Seahawks beat the Steelers solely on the skills of Russell Wilson.  Because of contractual complexities, almost all of Wilson's salary will be paid by the Broncos, so the financial risk to the Steelers is minimal, so maybe this isn't so shocking after all.

What I was not aware of is that Wilson has the reputation of being a diva and not a "good guy to have in the locker room."  Mike Tomlin, it should be noted, got more out of guys like Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell than any other NFL coach ever did, so I'm thinking that Russell Wilson won't be too much for him to handle.

The Steelers and Tomlin have stressed that there will be a "competition" for the #1 QB job with Pickett being the incumbent, but you have to believe that Wilson will be the first among equals when they all report to St. Vincent's in July.

As for Pickett, I wrote THIS PIECE about him back in November, wherein I stated that I felt that there was rush to judgement among fans, columnists, talk radio gas bags, and ESPN talking heads that said Pickett was done, that he would never be a great, or even a very good, NFL quarterback, and that I thought it was way too soon to assign him to the "scrapheap of mediocrity."   Apparently, the Steelers brain trust have also had some doubts, hence the move to sign Wilson.  As someone who followed Pickett in his years at Pitt, I really want him to make it and make it with the Steelers.   2024, though, is shaping up to be a make it or break it year for Pickett as a Steeler.

Russell is 35 years old, so who knows how much he has left in the tank.   The Steelers obviously feel that he is worth the risk.  Can he help produce  10-12 wins and a run in the Playoffs next year?  We can sure hope.  

By the way, Wilson announced his intentions on his social media platforms by showing Steelers highlights with "Renegade" playing over top of them.  If nothing else, he is savvy to his new audience.

One wag on Facebook posted that if it doesn't work with the Steelers, Wilson, once a highly touted baseball prospect, could take his talents to the Pirates, where he probably wouldn't be any worse than the 5th or 6th best player on the team.   I'd laugh if that wasn't so close to being true.

Finally, some shots of two Wisconsin Badgers who will now be teammates.

To a Trio of Absent Friends

The Departure Lounge is backing up, so let us wish Melancholy Trails to these Absent Friends.

Ed Ott (1951 -2024)

Catcher Ed Ott enjoyed an eight year career, 1974-81, in the Major Leagues, seven of them with the Pirates.   He is recognized today because he was key member of the 1979 Pirates "We Are Fam-a-lee" World Series champions.  In that championship season, Ott appeared in 117 games, had 439 plate appearances, and hit .273 with 7 HR and 51 RBI.

That team was the last Pirates team to win a World Series, and that was forty-five long years ago.  Who knows when and if they will ever win another - not while Bob Nutting is calling the shots, for sure - so when one of those guys leaves us, it needs to be noted.

Chris Mortensen (1951-2024)

ESPN ace NFL Reporter Chris Mortensen died earlier this month, yet after victim of cancer.  He had been off the air for well over a year as he battled the disease.  Mortensen knew his stuff and dug into every story, so when you heard something on the "Mort Report", you could pretty much take it to the bank.  In their tribute to hm on PTI, both Kornheiser and Wilbon placed emphasis on Mortensen's skills as an old fashioned sportswriter, a species that is rapidly disappearing as print journalism heads to the graveyard.

On a personal level, the deaths of both Ott and Mortensen in the same week hit home harshly to me because both were 72  years old, the same age that I am currently.

Randy Sparks (1933-2024)

I missed seeing the news of Randy Sparks death at the age of 90 earlier this month, and I thank my pal, Dan, for pointing it out to me.

Back in the early 1960's, Sparks was a singer/songwriter on the folk music scene when he founded a group called the New Christy Minstrels.  That group became a big hit and were one of the forces largely responsible for the folk music boom of the early Sixties (then came the Beatles, but that's another story).  Two of their bigger hits at the time were "Today" and "Greene Green".  Most interesting were the array of artists who got their start as members of the New Christy Minstrels.  Do the names Kenny Rodgers, Kim Carnes, Barry McGuire, Steve Martin and John Denver ring a bell to you?  They all went through Sparks' group.  Kind of like the Bill Parcells coaching tree in the NFL.

In 1965, Sparks sold his interests in the New Christy Minstrels in 1964 for $2.5 million, an equivalent of $19.5 million in 2024.  He them spent much of his time working with Burl Ives, but we probably shouldn't hold that against him.

RIP Ed Ott, Chris Mortensen, and Randy Sparks.

Oscar Predictions, or A Night at the Oppie-ra

It is that time of the year for The Grandstander's predictions for the Motion Picture Academy's big pat-ourselves-on-the-back party, the Academy Awards, or, for short, the Oscars.  As I have stated before in this space, this is a year where I have virtually seen 'em all: all 10 Best Picture noms, 17 of 20 acting noms. all five Director noms, and 9 of 10 screenwriting noms.

Awards shows are a dime a dozen these days, but THIS one, the Oscars, is the one that still matters, the one show that I will not miss.  So, without further ado, here is how I see it playing out:

Best……	Predicted Winner	For Whom I Would Vote	Possible Dark Horse  Winner
Picture	Oppenheimer	Oppenheimer	Poor Things
Lead Actor	Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer	Cillian Murphy	Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Lead Actress	Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon	Emma Stone, Poor Things	Annette Benning, Nyad
Supporting Actor	Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer	Robert Downey Jr	Ryan Gosling, Barbie
Supporting  Actress	Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers	Da’Vine Joy Randolph	America Ferrero, Barbie
Director	Christopher Nolen, Oppenheimer	Christopher Nolen	No One
Original Screenplay	Maestro	The Holdovers	The Holdovers
Adapted Screenplay	American Fiction	Oppenheimer	Barbie

Some random thoughts and comments....

• Going to be a big night for "Oppenheimer", and deservedly so.  I recently watched this for a second time, and it confirmed all of the opinions that I had of it when I saw it last July.  Both Murphy and Downey, especially Murphy, will be most deserving winners.  If any actor carried a movie in 223, it was Cillian Murphy.
• That said, I've loved Paul Giamatti in everything I've ever seen him in, and he was great in "The Holdovers".
• Lily Gladstone has won all the awards leading up to the Oscars, so this appears to be a no brainer.  However, I have seen all five of the Best Actress category, and in my opinion Gladstone ranks fifth among them.  Annette Bening, Sandra Huller, Carey Mulligan, and Emma Stone all were terrific in their roles, and each of them would be a deserving winner.
• "Maestro", which I have subtitled The Bradley Cooper Vanity Project, has garnered three nominations for Cooper: Actor, Director, and Original Screenplay.  I'm saying that the Academy gives Cooper his Oscar in the Screenwriting category.
• I say that the Academy recognizes the very good movie "American Fiction" with the Adapted Screenplay award.  However, following the same logic used for Cooper above, I won't be surprised if Greta Gerwig, who was one again snubbed in the Director category, will get rewarded for her work as the screenwriter for the year's biggest blockbuster, "Barbie".

Enjoy the show.  I'll be back on Monday with the Oscars Post Mortem.

Hillgrove Retires (Sort of), and Other Pittsburgh Play by Play Guys

A seismic change in Pittsburgh sports broadcasting occurred recent days with the announcement that after 30 years on the job and at the age of 83, Bill Hillgrove will be retiring as the radio play-by-play voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Bartenders throughout NFL cities visited by the Steelers are in mourning, but mixologists throughout ACC cities are still secure, because Billy will remain on the job as play-by-play man for Pitt football and basketball.   Bill has been on the job at Pitt since 1969, and let me reiterate, that he is 83 years old.

My thoughts on Hillgrove have been oft expressed, and I am not going to repeat them now, but I do have a couple of questions.  

In all of the glowing tribute pieces that have been written about Hillgrove in recent days, which I have not bothered to read, were either of these two facts mentioned?

1. Was it mentioned that Hillgrove has been, shall we say, pretty much incompetent as a broadcaster for the last 15 or so years, and that he should have given up the microphone at least that long ago? ("Ben throws to Mike Wallace who crosses midfield and is  brought down by a guy in the Bengals secondary.  Check that, that was Antonio Brown, not Mike Wallace.  Oh, and the pass was incomplete.")
2. Was any mention made of Billy's escapade of a few years back when he, while drunk, went to pick up a prescription, plowed into a plate glass window, went in to the store, got his Rx, then backed his car out of the display window and drove home again while still drunk?

Just curious.

********

This prompted me to wonder who have been the best play-by-play guys on the Pittsburgh sports scene in all of history?  (Ashamed to admit that I got this idea from listening to Mark Madden, God help me.)

Anyway, here are my top five, listed alphabetically:

• Jack Fleming
• Lanny Frattare
• Mike Lange
• Bob Prince
• Joe Tucker

Maybe Bill Hillgrove would have been on this list had he retired fifteen or twenty years before slipping into what he has become. 

I recognize that no one reading this younger than me will know who Joe Tucker was (I'm sure that Mark Madden doesn't).   I also think that a guy like Steve Mears could earn his place on such a list depending on how much time he puts in in this market, but for now, That's It, That's The List.

The Final Three Oscar Nominees

Over the last three days, we have taken in the final three movies that have been nominated for Best Picture of the Year by the Motion Picture Academy.

Here are capsule reviews of those last three films.

"Past Lives"

Two twelve year school classmates in Seoul, Korea, a boy and a girl, develop a liking for each other, and they go on date together arranged and supervised by their mothers.  Soon thereafter, the young girl and her family emigrates from Korea to the United States for her father to advance in his career.

Twelve years later, he is still in Korea, she is now in New York City pursuing a career in writing.  They find each other on social media and resume a long distance relationship.  After a bit, she realizes that it is not going to work and suggests that they take a break.

Twelve more years later, she is now married, and he is taking a vacation to New York in hopes of actually seeing her once again.   

I've left out a lot of details here, of course, but when the two discuss their past lives, as well as the present, we are presented with  touching movie that is a sweet, touching, funny, and heartbreaking all at the same time.  Had this film not been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, I would not have been inclined to see it, but I am so very glad that we did.  It's terrific, and I would urge you all to see it.

Three and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

"Poor Things"

I had never heard of this movie until the Academy Awards nominations were announced and this one led the way with 11 different nominations.  After seeing it this week, I'm not really sure that I can tell you what it is even about.  It is a take on the Frankenstein tale, that tries - sometimes a little too hard - to make pronouncements on morality and the human condition.  Through the first  twenty minutes or so, we were both thinking "Are you kidding me?" and were we even going to be able to sit through it.  But we stuck it out and are glad we did.

Visually, it is an amazing movie to look at, and Emma Stone, long one of my favorites, was terrific in it.  She probably is not going to win the Best Actress award for which she is nominated, but she is certainly deserving. (More on that when I do my Predictions Post later this week.)  There is scene on a dance floor with her and Best Supporting Actor nominee Mark Ruffalo, that is terrific.

It's a strange movie.  I liked it, didn't love it, and it's probably one that I'll never watch again, but we are both glad that we saw it, if for no other reason that the awesome performance of Emma Stone.

Two and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

"The Zone of Interest"

And then there is THIS one.

I can picture the "pitch meeting" for this one.  

Hey, let's take a look at the private lives of the Nazi Commandant of the Auschwitz death camp and his family.  Commandant and Aryan looking wife live with there five kids in a more-than-modest home with beautiful lawns and gardens, and even a swimming pool, just outside of the walls of the infamous concentration camp.  They even have house servants recruited from among the camp inmates, and they get the first pick of the clothing, jewelry, and other personal effects confiscated from the prisoners.  Only trouble is that there is the constant noise of those trains coming in everyday, plus all the smoke that belches out of those smokestacks with accompanying ashes 24/7.  And let's not forget the stress on the poor Commandant as he struggles to keep up the production machine required in killing thousands of people week after week after week.

So, who green lighted this movie, and did they want us to feel sorry for this guy, his wife, and his Hitler Youth kids?

I think that you can gather that I did not like this one.   Had I only seen seven or eight of the nominated for Best Picture movies, I'd have skipped this one, but having seen nine of  the ten, seeing this one and going 10-for-10 became a priority, but man, I hated this one.

We must always be reminded of and never forget the horrors of Nazi Germany, but please let's not disguise it as motion picture  "art".

Zero Stars from The Grandstander.

*******

So, for the first time ever, I believe, I (Linda took a pass on "Zone of Interest")  have now seen all ten Best Picture nominees prior to the actual presentation of the awards.  In addition to that, I have seen seventeen of the twenty Acting nominees, all five of the Director nominees, and nine of the ten Screenplay nominees.   It has been an interesting and fun experience.

Later this week, I will be delivering my Grandstander Oscar Predictions, but until then, as a possible sneak preview, here is how I rank the ten Best Picture nominees;

1. Oppenheimer
2. The Holdovers
3. Anatomy of a Fall
4. Killers of the Flower Moon
5. Past Lives
6. American Fiction
7. Poor Things
8. Barbie
9. Maestro
10.  The Zone of Interest

To Absent Friends - Andy Russell

Andy Russell

1941-2024

Steelers All-Time great Andy Russell died last week at the age of 82.  

Russell began his career with the Steelers in the bad old days, the era of the Same Old Steelers, who were never any good, and you probably have to be as old as I am to remember those days.  When Chuck Noll became head coach, he told that group of 1969 Steelers that one day "we're going to be good, but when that day comes, most of you won't be here anymore."  Linebacker Russell and his buddy Ray Mansfield survived Noll's transformation of the team, and both of them went on to become important leaders on Super Bowl championship teams.  After a storied career with the Steelers, Russell became a successful businessman in Pittsburgh and his work with local charities was exemplary.  

In the tributes to Russell following his death last week, one constant alway mentioned was Russell's intelligence, on and off the field, and his leadership.   He also played 168 NFL games and never missed a game due to injury.  Honors followed him....four time All-Pro, seven Pro Bowls, Steelers MVP in 1971, two time Super Bowl Champion, and member of the Steelers Hall of Honor.  In a 1965 playoff game against the Colts at Three Rivers Stadium, he returned a recovered fumble 93 yards for a touchdown, an NFL Playoff Game record that stood until 2022.  (I saw it; I was there!)  The other two linebackers on this teams were Hall of Famers Jack Ham and Jack Lambert.  A case could surely be made for Russell's bust to be displayed in Canton, but like a couple of his teammates, he is no doubt the victim of "Too Many Steelers Syndrome" among the HOF electors.

RIP Andy Russell, one of the Best!

Mel Blount, Russell, Joe Greene, Jack Ham

Three Hall of Famers and one Should-Be

Steelers Hall of Honor Introduction

 

"The Big Time" by Michael MacCambridge

Please note the subtitle of this new book by Michael MacCambridge: "How the 1970's Transformed Sports in America".  If you are my age, the book will bring back some cool memories for you.  If you are much younger, say in your twenties of thirties, the book will open your eyes to world that is barely recognizable today.

Consider these conditions in the word of sports at the dawn of the 1970's.

• Player's Associations existed but were largely impotent when fighting the ownership in sports leagues.  
• Free Agency in sports did not exist.
• Women's sports, if they existed at all at the college level, were afterthoughts and not much more that intramural or club sports.
• The University of Texas, winner of the 1969 then-mythical National Championship in college football, did not have a single African-American player on it's team.  The same was true for such football powerhouses as Alabama, Arkansas, and Florida.
• The Super Bowl had only been played four times, and it wasn't even called  the Super Bowl.  It was the NFL-AFL World Championship Game.
• The American Basketball Association existed, but was struggling to meet payrolls and stay in business.  It did have Dr. J though, and that would prove to be most significant.
• The World Hockey Association had yet to be born.
• The NBA Playoffs were televised on tape delay.
• There was no Monday Night Football.  In fact, there were no sports on prime time network television.
• There was no internet.
• There was no ESPN

You get the idea.  Then several momentous events took place.

• In 1972, Congress passed and President Nixon signed into law the Education Amendments Act.  Tucked into that was a provision that contained were thirty-seven words, words that comprises Title IX of the EAA: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, or be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."  (There has been revisionist speculation that had he realized the full implications of Title IX, Sports Nut Dick Nixon would never have signed the bill.)
• Two days before Christmas in 1975, arbitrator Peter Seitz made a ruling in the case involving baseball players Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally that declared them to be free agents, ended the reserve clause, and opened the door to free agency, not only in major league baseball, but effectively, in all other professional sports in America.
• In September 1973, an exhibition tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs was nationally televised in prime time on ABC from the Houston Astrodome, drew record ratings and, when King dispatched Riggs handily, opened the door for women in sports in ways unimaginable at the time.  

MacCambridge, who wrote the terrific biography of Chuck Noll, "Hs Life's Work", a few years back, summed it up in the opening chapter of the book:

"The new decade would witness the emergence of spectator sports as an ever-expanding mainstream phenomenon, as well as show remarkable changes in the way athletes were paid, how they played, and how they were perceived.......By the end of the 1970's sports would become a decidedly big business, a microcosm of the larger social fabric, a social glue that crossed all demographic boundries.  One could also begin to see what was to become of sports as a transcendently lucrative profession that would serve as both the last big tent in American popular culture, and a stage upon which many of the nation's more nettlesome issues in morality, ethics, and values would be played out."

Here are just a couple of takeaways that I had from the book.

• I knew that Billie Jean King was an important figure in sports history, but I really never thought of just HOW important she was.
• Bowie Kuhn was as stuffed shirt horse's ass.  I knew that, but I never realized just HOW BIG a horse's ass he was.
• Marvin Miller.  Probably the most significant figure in sports history, outside of Jackie Robinson.  I did know that.
• And I learn about an absolutely astounding stipulation that Pittsburgh favorite Connie Hawkins had in his contract with the Phoenix Suns. Read the book.

If you're in my age neighborhood, the book will bring back a lot of memories.  Some good, but not all of them. And if you're one of those kids out there who consider Barry Bonds and Magic Johnson "old-timers", the book is a terrific and entertaining history lesson.  And for the local folks, lots of good Pittsburgh Stuff in there about the Seventies Steelers and the We are Family Pirates.

Four stars from The Grandstander.