"Widows"

We had missed this highly acclaimed and highly recommended movie when it was out in the theaters late last year, so we finally caught up with it last night via Amazon Prime.  Glad we finally got to it.

Three women - Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, and Elizabeth Debicki - get caught in the crossfire of Chicago racial tensions and crooked ward politics when a heist-gone-wrong ends up in the death of their husbands and leaves them as, well, widows.  To save themselves, they have to pull off a heist themselves.  I'll spare you the details; just watch the movie.  A terrific cast also features Liam Neeson, Robert Duvall, Colin Farrell, and Daniel Kaluuya.  Consummate old pro Duvall pretty much dominates every scene that he is in.

Like a lot of heist flicks, it gets kind of murky at the end, you know, like what happened to all those bags of money, so you just have to take some of it on faith.  It is directed by Steve McQueen, who directed the Oscar winning "Twelve Years A Slave" of a few years back, and there are some terrific action scenes in it.  One of my favorite scenes, though, was a subdued one between alderman candidate Farrell and his assistant while they are driving down a street in a car, and all that you see is the outside of he car as it drives down the street.  You only hear the conversation.  Doesn't sound like much as I write this, but it's pretty neat on screen.  To me, anyway.    

The screenplay was by McQueen and Gillian Flynn, author of "Gone Girl", so the blood lines for this movie are pretty good.

Really good movie.  Three Stars from The Grandstander.

To Absent Friends - Frank Robinson

Frank Robinson

1935-2019

Baseball Hall of Fame member Frank Robinson died today at the age of 84.  Robinson was a former National League Rookie of the Year, won MVP Awards in both the American and National Leagues, and is historical because he was the first African American to be named a manager in the major leagues (Cleveland, 1975).

I can remember once reading a story by Pittsburgh sports writer Bob Smizik, written in 1999 when various "All Century " lists were being complied, that said that whenever lists of all time great players are compiled, the name of Frank Robinson gets frequently overlooked, and that is an injustice.  Can I interest you in these numbers compiled in a 21 year career....

Hits - 2,943

HR - 586

RBI - 1,812

BA - .303

OPS - .943

Prorated over a 162 game season, Robinson hit 34 home runs and drove in 105 runs per year.

When you were a contemporary of Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, maybe numbers like that do get overlooked, but they shouldn't have been.  I know this - when I was watching that 1971 World Series, the one Baltimore Oriole batter that I least wanted to see at bat against the Pirates was Frank Robinson.

RIP Frank Robinson.

A Week in The Arts

In the past week, I have taken in two movies, a musical play, and a streaming series.  Some quickie thoughts on each....

Oscar winning director Peter Jackson was commissioned by Britain's Imperial War Museum to take over 100 hours of film footage from the first world war, and "make something of it".  Jackson painstakingly restored film that was faded, blackened, and otherwise damaged from sitting in their canisters for over 100 years, colorized it, and turned it onto an astonishing documentary that tells of the horrors of war and its aftermath.  At the conclusion of the film itself, Jackson provides an additional film (think of it as an "extra" that comes on a movie's DVD release) that explains exactly how he and his team did what they did in creating this movie.  If you go to see the movie, please stay to see this additional feature.

Four Stars from The Grandstander.

Watching last week's Super Bowl prompted me to seek out and find this 1977 thriller from director John Frankenheimer.  In this one, the Palestinian terrorist group Black September decides to launch a terrorist attack on America by loading down the Goodyear blimp with explosives and attacking Miami's Orange Bowl during the Super Bowl.  Marthe Keller plays the Black September terrorist who is spearheading the plan, Bruce Dern plays a whacko American veteran who feels like he has been shit upon by "the system" who will pilot the blimp, and Robert Shaw is the Israeli intelligence officer who has to ferret out the plan and stop it.

One of the attractions of this movie was that parts of it were filmed on location in the Orange Bowl while the actual  Super Bowl, number X, between the Steelers and Cowboys, was being played.  So you get to see real plays from the actual game.  It also serves as a time capsule of sorts for a time before the Super Bowl became, for all intents and purposes, a national holiday.  At one point, Israeli agent Shaw looks at his FBI counterpart and says "What is this super bowl?"  Can you imagine such a thing?

Anyway, I had not seen this movie since it was new in theaters forty-three years ago, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it holds up surprisingly well as a thriller, a football time capsule, and, sadly, a preview of just what exactly terrorism was to become in our world.

Three and one-half Stars from The Grandstander.

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" the musical adaption of the Roald Dahl children's book and the Willy Wonka movie, was the fifth show in this season's Broadway Pittsburgh Series.  Honestly, of the shows in the series, this was the one for which I had the lowest expectations, and through the first act, I wasn't thrilled.  However, the second act, when the characters actually went inside Willy's chocolate factory, was terrific, and it turned the show into a most pleasant evening at the theater.  The performance of the Oompa Loompas alone, during the show and at the curtain call, was almost worth the price of admission, as was the performance of eleven year old Rueby Wood in the role of Charlie.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

I have always been a fan of Agatha Christie, and Amazon has shown some very good adaptations of Christie stories over the years, so I  was really looking forward to seeing this three part adaptation of "The A.B.C. Murders", a genuine Christie classic.

All I can say is that this proved to be three hours of my life that I will never get back.  The movie was so dark in tone and spirit as to be almost unwatchable.  John Malkovich, a very capable actor, played Hercule Poirot, and he would have been fine, i suppose, but whoever came up with this version - producers, writers, director? - gave him a version of the famous fictional detective that was nothing like you would expect.  They also gave Poirot a back story that was unconnected to anything that Agatha Christie devised to the point that the sound that you heard in the background was no doubt Dame Agatha spinning in her grave.

I have read that the Christie Estate is constantly commissioning these series and movies (the remake of "Murder on the Orient Express" of two years ago, for example) based upon her works in order to keep the name of Agatha Christie before the public, introduce younger generations to her works, and, not incidentally, keep her books moving off of bookshelves across the world.  I cannot imagine that the Estate was happy with this version of one of Christie's most famous works.

ZERO Stars from The Grandstander.

Patriots Win

The New England Patriots defeated the Los Angeles Rams, 13-3, to win the Super Bowl last night, and in the twelve or so hours since the game ended, it has become de rigueur for sportswriters, commentators, and people on various forms of social media to try to out-snark each other in proclaiming how AWFUL and BORING and LOUSY the low scoring game was.  Even people who have spent a season decrying how out-of-control offense had gotten in the NFL and how defense has been legislated out of the game (yeah, that's you, Michael Wilbon) are trashing this game.

I agree that this one might not have been as exciting as that Steelers 27-23 win over Arizona ten years ago, or the Pats come from behind overtime win over Atlanta two years ago, or last year's 41-33 Eagles win over New England, but when you consider what was at stake - the Super Bowl Championship! - there is some value in a low scoring game, when a 3-0 lead, which NE held at halftime and deep into the third quarter, could be wiped out and overcome on the very next play of the game (which didn't actually happen, but it could have).

Context is everything.  I will grant you that if that game yesterday was played at 1:00 on a Sunday afternoon in early October, it would have been written off as a desultory and boring game, but if you cannot find tension and value in  game like that when the league championship is at stake, well, then you're just looking for something to bitch and moan about.  You probably shouldn't be a sports fan at all then.

I have written much about the Belichick/Brady/Patriots Dynasty in the lead up to this game, so I won't belabor it in this post.  Simply stated: 18 seasons, 9 Super Bowl appearances, 6 Super Bowl Championships.  Greatest of all time, and we will ever see anything like it again, certainly not in my lifetime.  It is becoming part of the narrative that last night's Super Bowl win was the "last shot" for this particular Pats' dynasty.  Maybe so, but raise your hand if you would be willing to bet a lot of money on Coach Bill and the Golden Boy NOT being in the hunt for the Super Bowl next year. Anybody?  Didn't think so.

To Absent Friends - Bob Friend

Bob Friend

1930-2019

Bob Friend died peacefully in his sleep yesterday at the age of 88, and it can truly be stated that he was and remains one of the Pirates all-time greats.  A career record of 197-230, 3.58 (191-218, 3.55 in 15 seasons with the Bucs) might tell you otherwise, but if you were around and followed the Pirates and watched Bob Friend pitch, you know otherwise.

It is well known that for the first seven years of his career, the Pirates teams for whom he pitched were one of the worst, and sometimes THE worst, teams in baseball.  Friend went out every fourth day for this teams.  In three of those years, he led the league in starts and in one of them he led in ERA.  He won 22 games for the Pirates in 1958, and was a key starter for the 1960 pennant winning Pirates, winning 18 games with a 3.00 ERA.  Vernon Law won twenty games that year and the Cy Young Award, but if you asked around the NL, I'm guessing that opposing teams would have told you that Friend was the better pitcher.  He was a four time All-Star, and the winning pitcher in two of those games.  He had 163 complete games in his career.  He is still the Pirates all time leader in starts, innings pitched, strikeouts, and losses.  That last stat may not be something to celebrate, but it is a testimony to Friend's durability.  He was the Pirates opening day pitcher seven times, and never spent a day on the disabled list in his sixteen year career.  

While this can't be quantified, I also remember my Dad always saying that it seemed that whenever Friend pitched, he always went up against the other teams best pitcher - Warren Spahn, Robin Roberts, Juan Marichal, you get the idea.  He also is noted for giving up the first big league hit to eventual all-time hits leader Pete Rose, and I am guessing that Rose would be the first one to tell you just how good Bob Friend was.  Undoubtedly, had Friend pitched for teams early in his career that were even halfway decent, he probably would have had in the neighborhood of 250 wins and would have been a borderline Hall of Fame candidate.

I can remember at one point in the mid-1990's, I was representing Blue Cross and playing in some charity golf outing or another.  As I was getting changed in a near empty locker room, I looked over and who do I see getting ready to play but Robert Bartmess Friend, old #19 himself.  I walked over and introduced myself to him, and probably made some silly fanboy remark.  He couldn't have been nicer.  A real gentleman.  It was the type of encounter that Friend had probably endured thousands of times over the course of his life, but he made me feel like I was the first person who ever said anything like that to him.  It was a special moment for me.

RIP Bob Friend.

The Final GCR of the Season

The final Grandstander Confidence Confidence Ranking (GCR) of the NFL season is now in:

1. Patriots

The Grandstander went 8-3 in his NFL post season predictions.

Why I Am Rooting for the Patriots in the Super Bowl Tomorrow

Yeah, yeah, I know it can be viewed as treasonous and a mortal sin to root for the Patriots, but I am going to be doing so tomorrow as they take on the Rams in Super Bowl LIII.  Here's why:

1. Three weeks ago in Las Vegas I place a $15 bet on the Pats to win the Super Bowl and three and a half to one.  So there's that.
2. History has it's eyes on them.  What the Pats have done over the last eighteen season has been undeniably historic.  Nine Super Bowls in eighteen seasons.  We'll never see this again, certainly not in my lifetime, so I will always, in most instances, root for historical greatness.
3. Tom Brady.  Yes, he can be smug and annoying, and yes, the officials always seem to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he is also the greatest quarterback who ever played the game.  After tomorrow, he will have played in NINE SUPER BOWLS.  No other player - ever - has appeared in more than six.  This is historical greatness that must be appreciated and burnished.
4. If New England should lose tomorrow, Brady's record in the games will fall to 5-4 and there will be people who will say something like, "well, he's barely over .500 in those games, so he's no big deal."  A Brady/Pats win will cut off such patently ridiculous statements at the pass.
5. Bill Belichick.  As Brady is to quarterbacks, Belichick is to coaches.  He's the best there is and ever was.  Yes, he's crusty, arrogant, a poor loser, and a public relations man's nightmare, but there is something about him that appeals to me (and yes, I have gotten as PO'd over and at him over the years as many of you have).  I like his single-mindedness, and his penchant for sending a metaphorical middle finger at authority, especially the Suits in the NFL offices on Park Avenue.  For example, earlier in the season, Coach Bill appeared on the sidelines in his rumpled Patriots blue hoodie when every other coach, assistant coach (including the Pats' staff), and player was wearing those mandated military-style olive drab hoodies.  And if you tell me that you DIDN'T love seeing Bill hurl that Microsoft Tablet to the ground during the Chiefs game last week, I just don't believe you.  I mean, who among us HASN'T wanted to do something exactly like that at one time or another.
6. And how about that story that Bill Cowher told this week of Belichick's offer to help him, Cowher, and the Steelers out in preparing for the Broncos in the 2005 AFC Championship game, after Belichick's Pats had lost to Denver in the previous round of the Playoffs.  You gotta love him for that, right?
7. My cousin Janice Spencer lives in Maine and is a big Patriots fan, and she was a really good sport when the Steelers beat the Patriots in December, posing with a Terrible Towel on Facebook, so I am rooting for the Pats for her sake, too.
8. I don't really care that a sixth Super Bowl win will tie the Patriots with the Steelers for most Lombardi Trophies. Neither my civic nor sports fandom self-worth will be diminished by such a fact.  Also, nothing that the Patriots do, or any other team, for that matter, lessens the accomplishments of the Steelers over the years.  Let's all get a grip here.

Of course, the main thing I am hoping for is an entertaining and competitive game.  And if the Rams should win, that's okay by me, too, my fifteen buck wager aside, for a couple of reasons.  One, I would be happy for Pitt's Aaron Donald to get a Super Bowl ring, and two, I'd never feel bad to see Bob Kraft and his stuffed blue-shirt-with-a-white-collar come up on the short end, and if that conflicts with my History Has It's Eyes On You themes spelled out above, well, being a sports fan doesn't always have to be accompanied by perfect logic.

Enjoy the game tomorrow, everyone!