On Buccos and Bookstores

Was at PNC Park today to see the Pirates fail to sweep the Reds. Hey, that's OK, you can't win 'em all, and as someone (I think it might have been Beano Cook) once said, "the other guys get paid, too," and it was still a series sweep, and you'll take those every time, right?

Still, this three game series with the Reds showcased the best and the worst of the 2011 Pirates. On the plus side, the pitching staff gives up one earned run in 27 innings. On the minus side, the Pirates offense manages to score four runs in three games. Not easy to win 2 of 3 when that's all your bats are doing.

Without looking at the MLB standings as I write this, were the Pirates in any other division, we would be talking about their 51-46 record as a sort of gee-isn't-it-nice-that-they-are-over-.500. However, in the NL Central, they are in first place and have a real shot at winning this division. So, GM Neal has some decisions to make between now and July 31.

My own thoughts:

• Pedro Alvarez is hitting the cover off the ball in Indy. Get him up here and put him at third. He was the guy you drafted to be "the man" so let him have at it.


• The pending return of Steve Pearce does not excite me. Pearce has proven to be the proverbial "Quad-A" player over the years. He might be a better bat off the bench than Brandon Wood or Mike Diaz, but he is not the guy who will carry the team down the stretch.


• Ditto Ryan Doumit.


• Bloggin' Bob Smizik made a strong case today for acquiring Carlos Pena to play first base.


• The bullpen needs someone other than Jose "walk the first batter" Veras to get to Joel Hanrahan. Maybe Jason Grilli is that guy, but maybe that guy is Daniel McCutchen or Chris Resop.


• All the talk about Hunter Pence strikes me as nuts. Would I like to have Pence in the Pirates picket line? Damn right I would, but the cost would be way too steep, and I can't see Houston parting with him. He's the guy Houston needs to rebuild their team around. Of course, we Pirates fans said the same about Nate McLouth.


• Speaking of Daniel McCutchen, do you think the Yankees would like a do-over on that Xavier Nady trade?

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On the subject of bookstores, I note with sadness that Borders Bookstores will be going out of business within the next 60-90 days. That means that I will now have to leave the North Hills and drive to either Cranberry, Homestead, or Robinson the shop in a major bookstore, Barnes and Noble, and independently owned bookstores are rarer than hen's teeth.

Now I realize that as the owner of a Kindle, I am part of the problem that has contributed to the demise of Borders, but have you noted the irony that it was the jumbo chains such as Borders that killed the smaller independents? Hoisted on their own petard, as The Bard would have put it.

For Those of Us Who Never Left.....

As people run over each other jumping on the Bucco Bandwagon these days, Dejan Kovacevic has something for those of us who never left. As DK says, we know who we are.

Read on:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/pirates/s_747210.html

The Kids from James Madison University

Did an interesting tour today at the Heinz History Center.

A bus from James Madison University in Virginia arrived with a group of 40 high school age kids. The purpose was to get kids who might not be considering college to change their minds about pursuing a higher education. They were in Cleveland yesterday and Pittsburgh today - they were headed for Kennywood after they left the HHC - before heading back to Virginia tomorrow.

All of the kids were African-American, so that was the emphasis of the tour (Pittsburgh Courier, jazz in the Hill District, Negro Leagues etc). When looking over some of the baseball stuff in the sports museum, one of the kids asked me if we had any stuff from Andrew McCutchen. When another kid asked who that was, the first kid replied "that good dude from the Pirates with the dreads."

I also found it interesting that these kids from Virginia knew more about Franco Harris and the Immaculate Reception than I find many similar aged kids from Pittsburgh know. More than a few of them were also familiar with Roberto Clemente and his story. (On the other hand, very few of them knew the story of Jesse Owens. Can't win 'em all, I suppose.)

I really enjoy doing a tour with people who are NOT from Pittsburgh. You get a whole different perspective. And of course, a middle aged white guy like me really got a different perspective from this group of kids today. It was good experience.

First Place Pirates

It is only by mere percentage points, but, nevertheless, THE PIRATES ARE IN FIRST PLACE in the NL Central this morning. I could not let this moment pass without noting in this space.

First off, the game that Jeff Karstens pitched last night can only be called "masterful." Only 83 pitches and he didn't even seem, as John Wehner noted, to break a sweat. And the two RBI trip-trip-triple for Andrew McCutchen was another thing of beauty in that game last night.

There is so much stuff on Facebook today and in the blogs (please check out Bob Smizik in the PG and DK in the Trib), that there is not much that I can add here. Dejan noted a t-shirt he saw a young kid wearing in town yesterday that said: "I was a Pirates fan before it was cool." I want one of those!!

Who knows where this will lead or how long it will last, but it sure is an amazing feeling on the morning of July 16!

"And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie

Last night I finished reading the Agatha Christie 1939 classic, "And Then There Were None." I first read this book when I was in high school, and I have probably read it at least a half dozen times in all of these intervening years. It is a book that made me an immediate and lifelong fan of both Agatha Christie and mystery, detective, and thriller novels. It is a "hobby" that I treasure to this day.

You probably know the story: ten people are invited to spend a weekend on a remote island off of the English coast. Upon arrival, each is accused of a crime from their past. Then, one by one, each is killed in accordance with the Ten Little Indians nursery rhyme. But who is doing it, how are they doing it, and why are they doing it? This may well be the most perfect mystery story ever written.

Earlier this year, I gave a copy of this novel to my 13 year old nephew, Nathan, and he loved it. I like to think that I have converted yet another generation to the genius of Agatha Christie.

By the way, if your only knowledge of this story is one of the many film adaptations of the novel, let me advise you that the book has an entirely different, and much more satisfying, ending.

Read the book if you haven't done so, and if it has been many years since you have read it, read it again. You won't be sorry.

Selected Short Subjects: Harrison, Ward, Schwartz, and Some "Enough Alreadys"

Back on October 18, 2010 (you could look it up), I posted the following comment in this space:

If James Harrison played for another team, he'd be the most hated man in Pittsburgh. That hit on Joshua Cribbs SHOULD have been flagged, and while I can't honestly say that I saw the second hit on the Browns WR, it sounded like it was even worse from reading the paper today.

Following the latest brouhaha over Harrison resulting from his Men's Journal interview, I stand by this comment more that ever. Enough Already with James Harrison.

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Speaking of Enough Already, let add the following:

Enough Already with the debate on what to do with the Civic Arena. Does anyone really, truly believe that if the Arena is preserved, it is going to be anything but a big empty building in dahntahn Pittsburgh.

And Enough Already with letters to the editor about no more jazz music on WDUQ-FM

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A speaking of the Steelers, the Hines Ward DUI arrest can only be described as something that is hugely disappointing. Ward has certainly been a good ambassador for the Steelers and within the community over the years (he has done great work for the Highmark Caring Place, e.g.), so an offense like DUI is, as I say very disappointing. Lucky for everyone that all he hit in his car was a curbstone, and that a police officer was there to prevent possible tragedies.

Ward's agent should shut up about how he wasn't impaired, and Ward should humbly accept his punishment and agree to serve as an example of what not to do, which I suspect he will.

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And Enough Already with sports agents weaseling about their client's boorish behaviour, as both Ward's and Harrison's have been doing of late.

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To Absent Friends. Did you see in the paper news of the death of Sherwood Schwartz? He was the creator of legendary TV sitcoms "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch", and he also was the writer of those shows' equally legendary theme songs. No one will ever confuse Schwartz with George Bernard Shaw, but I'll bet there are more of you out there than are willing to admit that can sing every line of those theme songs!

RIP Sherwood Schwartz.

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Maybe the Steelers need to institute a rule that prohibits their players from going to Georgia in the off season.

Book Review: "The President Is A Sick Man"

OK, until I read this book, this is what I knew about Grover Cleveland:

He was the only man to serve two non-consecutive terms as President.

He was married in the White House to a MUCH younger woman.

He was rumored to have fathered an illegitimate child prior to becoming President.

That's it; that's the list.

However, on July 1, 1893, four months into his second administration, he boarded a private yacht in Long Island Sound, and, effectively "disappeared" for five days. While on that yacht, a 19th century "dream team" of surgeons performed an operation and removed a cancerous tumor from the mouth of the President of the United States. Two months later a Philadelphia newspaper reporter named E.J. Edwards came up with the scoop of the century and reported that this surgery took place. The administration denied that this was so, and Edwards was pretty much vilified by the rest of the press. And these events occurred while the nation was in an economic depression while Cleveland was battling Congress to abandon the Silver Standard and return to the Gold Standard (remember that from your US History classes?).

Author Matthew Algeo writes a fascinating tale about this entire episode. In a day of 24 Hour News, where every Presidential move is reported upon endlessly and in never ending detail, it is hard to imagine that such an event could take place in such secrecy.

If you are a Presidency and/or a history buff, or just like a good story, you will find this book most interesting.

Oh, and as for the young wife....Frances Folsom was 21 years old when she married 49 year old President Grover Cleveland. She remains to this day the youngest First Lady in history, and the only First Lady to give birth while in the White House, which she did three times. She was also the first Presidential widow to remarry, and was the only one to do so until Jacqueline Kennedy married Aristotle Onassis.

Fun facts for today!