Revisiting "The Boys of Summer"

The death of Duke Snider prompted me to pull from the shelf my copy of Roger Kahn's classic book, "The Boys of Summer." For those not familiar with the book, Kahn was a New York sportswriter who covered the Brooklyn Dodgers of the early 1950's, who he christened, The Boys of Summer. In the book, Kahn writes of growing up in Brooklyn, coming to cover the team he followed as a boy, and then he revisits them in their "middle and old age" to see how time has treated these men.

The story takes away some of the romance that we often associate with the heroes of our boyhood. They didn't play merely for "the love of the game", as we might tend to think. They played for the money, and if it may not have been purely business for the players, it surely was for the owners. It has always been thus. The players of today who strive for free agency and then shop themselves to the highest bidder, are fortunate to have been born when they were. Robinson, Reese, Campy, and Hodges (and from a local viewpoint Maz, Clemente, Groat, and Virdon) would surely have followed the same paths as the A-Rods, Sabbathias, and Cliff Lees of the 21st century had those means been available to them. And you don't have to read too many stories of the treacheries of the likes of Branch Rickey, George Weiss, and Walter O'Malley to be sympathetic to the plight of the players.

Having said that, it was interesting to read that when Snider spent his off-season in California, he would work at a clothing store selling sport coats during the Christmas season to make ends meet.

And on a mildly depressing note, when Kahn was traveling the country visiting the ex-Dodgers to write this book, these "old" Dodgers were younger than I am now. Jackie Robinson was 52, and Snider was in his 40's!

*****
Pictured above, from L to R, Reese, Furillo, Robinson, Erskine, Hodges, Newcombe, Snider, and Campanella.

Oscar Post-Mortems

Cleaning out the Mental In-Box, Academy Awards Edition......

• No surprises at the Oscars last night. None. (OK, maybe the guy who directed The Social Network had a shot, but he lost out.) Does that make for a more boring Oscar show? That is the existential question for the day.
• I liked Anna Hathaway as co-host. She's talented, can do comedy, and she certainly is pretty. I liked the bit when she made the tassels on her dress swirl. That was funny.
• As for James Franco, well, who is this guy? During the telecast, I used the word "wooden" to describe him, Marilyn used the word "bored", and Rob Owen in the PG this morning said he looked "stoned." No matter how you cut it, let's hope we never see him again as an Oscar host.
• Billy Crystal in his few minutes on stage made you really, really, REALLY wish he would come back for hosting duties.
• The "Low Class Award" of the night goes to Melissa Leo. First of all, to act "surprised" when she mounted what is said to be a totally offensive campaign in the trade papers was disingenuous to the point of being offensive, then to drop the F-bomb in her speech, well, that WAS offensive. Again, let's send her to whatever island we're sending James Franco and let her disappear.
• I liked seeing old war horse Kirk Douglas dragging out the announcement of the Supporting Actress Award. He should have kept going so as to further delay Melissa Leo's appearance.
• No totally outrageous gowns on any of the ladies last night. I suppose that's good, but isn't it a lot more fun when some babe comes out in something completely awful?
• The acceptance speeches for The King's Speech winners (Picture, Actor, Director, Screenplay) were totally gracious and classy. You gotta love the Brits.
• Best Actress Natalie Portman is only 29 years old, and started out acting as a child/teenager. Just like Lindsey Lohan. Looks like Ms. Portman has made the better life choices. Here's hoping that young Hailee Steinfeld does the same.
• That Best Song nominee from 127 hours...what the heck was THAT? Not exactly something you'd whistle to yourself while walking down the street. I guess it worked in a movie about a guy who cuts off his own arm.
• The necrology. Tony Curtis gets a few seconds of airtime at the beginning of the clip? Come on, now.
• And Lena Horne gets the coveted final shot? With all due respect for Ms. Horne, but when you say "Lena Horne" how many of you think of her as as movie person?
• Loved how Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock personally addressed the Actress and Actress nominees when making their presentations.
• Also loved the touch of Steven Spielberg listing the great movies that have lost the Best Picture Award over the years (Citizen Kane, The Graduate etc.). He left one off of that list - his own "E.T." which lost out to either Ghandi or Chariots of Fire, I can't remember which. I guess modesty prohibited him from doing so.
• Of the nominated movies that I haven't seen, last night's show is prompting me to make sure I now see "Black Swan" and "Inception." I suppose that I will see "The Fighter" eventually, but you won't be able to pay me to watch James Franco cut off his own arm in "127 Hours."
• The Oscar review show that I am most looking forward to hearing will come later today when I download the podcast of Tony Kornheiser's Washington, DC radio show.

That's it. See you at the movies!!!!

To Absent Friends - Duke Snider

News arrives this afternoon of the death of Baseball Hall of Famer Duke Snider at the age of 84. Snider's greatest years pre-date my time as a baseball fan, but he will, of course, always be remembered as one of the iconic "Boys of Summer" that comprised the Brooklyn Dodgers in their heyday, the decade before they left Brooklyn for Los Angeles.

He is also remembered for being one of the troika of great centerfielders in New York during the so-called Golden Age of Baseball (1947-57) - at least it is "golden" according to the New York-centric baseball establishment - when the argument was "Willie, Mickey, or The Duke."

Ironically, while Snider was identified with Brooklyn and referred to as The Duke of Flatbush, he was born in Los Angeles, and was probably quite happy when the Dodgers left Brooklyn for the West Coast. (I don't know that for certain, but it might be worth revisiting Roger Kahn's "Boys of Summer" to find out.)

RIP Edwin "Duke" Snider

A Look at the Oscars

As the world knows, tomorrow night is Oscar Night. Last year when watching the Academy Awards, I was seized with an all too familiar pain and ended up watching much of the show in the ER at Passavant Hospital while dealing with an attack of kidney stones. Let's hope there is no repeat of THAT particular performance.

As for the awards themselves, Marilyn and I are looking forward to watching them since we have actually seen many of the nominated films and performances....The King's Speech, The Social Network, True Grit, The Kids Are All Right, and Toy Story 3. So, we figure that, unlike the Grammys of a couple of weeks ago, we will actually get it while watching the Oscars.

We have not seen The Fighter which figures to cop both Supporting Actor awards. I know that absolutely everyone who saw this movie insists it is a GREAT movie, but I just can't get myself up for watching another boxing movie. Perhaps when the DVD comes out, maybe, but not before then. Also, I would really, really love to see an upset here and have the Best Supporting Actress Oscar go out to 14 year old Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit.

Natalie Portman is also being conceded the Best Actress award for Black Swan. We were all set to go out and see this flick this week, but, alas and alack, it was not playing at either the Robinson Cinemark or the Rave North, aka, the Dump of a Theater on McKnight Road, so we will have to wait to see Ms. Portman's soon-to-be-Oscar-winning performance.

(As an aside, the other chick in Black Swan, Mila Kunis, who is the actress who played the hottie, Jackie, in That 70's Show, a guilty pleasure show for me. Hasn't she come a long way? Who would have thought that she and Ashton Kutcher would have been the breakout stars from that series? Personally, I thought that Red Foreman was the the REAL star of that show.)

The Best Actor award is also being conceded this year to Colin Firth playing King George in The King's Speech. No argument there, although I really liked Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network. However, no way the Academy gives the Oscar to a 27 year old American actor going up against a 50 year old British Actor playing the King of England.

From what I am reading, the Best Picture Award seems to be coming down to The King's Speech and The Social Network. Both great movies and I wouldn't have a problem with either of them winning. I'll also say that I wouldn't have a problem if Toy Story 3 won. That was a great movie, and it will win the award for Best Animated Feature.

Another award that seems to have a strong favorite is the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The predictions seem to be that Aaron Sorkin will win it for Social Network. Again, I can't argue with the choice, the dialog in that movie really was great, but surely the Coen Brothers have to be a strong second in that category for True Grit.

Finally, there was an interesting story in the paper this morning about the always very popular necrology feature on the Academy Awards show, and speculation as to which dead actor will be the last one pictured in the five minute (up from three minutes in previous years; 2010 was big year for Hollywood deaths, apparently) tribute. This is THE coveted spot in the clip. Gotta be Tony Curtis, right?

Enjoy the show. I'll check in with some post-Oscar commentary on Monday.

Let's Go Bobby Mo

We finally made it out to the Sewall Center last night for our first Robert Morris hoops game of the season. Shame on us.

First off, the University has done a brand new paint job on the interior walls of the Sewall Center (which the school publicity machine is now calling "The Chuck", and appellation that deserves to die). The walls now sport the red, blue and gray colors of the team as well as the large Colonials logo, pictured above, on either end of the building. Very nice. Makes the place seem much more intimate.

On the floor, the Colonials posted a not very pretty 65-57 win over Mount St. Mary's that took their NEC record to 11-6 and assured a home game in the first round of the NEC tournament. A win on Saturday would assure a #3 seed for them in the tourney.

In truth, this version of the Colonials is not as good as the teams of the prior two seasons, and the news arrived today that an injured Karon Abraham is out for the rest of the season. That does not bode well for a team whose tallest player is 6'7".

Still, it was a fun night at the Sewall Center last night.

Go Colonials!

The House That Jeter Built

So, the buzz from the Grapefruit circuit yesterday was Hank Steinbrenner's thinly veiled shot at Derek Jeter and his "building mansions" instead of concentrating on the God-given mandate of having the Yankees winning the World Series last year.

Now, I am no big Yankees fan, but for those of you who are, I would be interested in hearing from you on this proclamation from the Little Stein. It seems like the very last guy that the front office should be dissing is Derek Jeter, starting with their low balling him in this winter's contract negotiations.

A couple of questions from me on this:

1. Is it true that it is Hal Steinbrenner, and not Hank, who is really running the Yankees, and that he, Hal, basically told Hank to shut his pie hole over this Building Mansions nonsense?
2. Does Hank hang around with Rex Ryan up there in Gotham? They seem to have so much in common.
3. I hear that the house Jeter is building, or has built, in Tampa has 30,000 square feet. THIRTY THOUSAND SQUARE FEET!!!! Good God, has anyone seen pictures of this place? It must be as big as a Giant Eagle.
   

"Unbroken", Stan the Man, Bob Nutting, and Dick Groat

It has been awhile since I have checked in, so here goes an extended version of The Grandstander for today.

Let's start with a book, Laura Hillenbrand's #1 bestseller, "Unbroken." I just finished reading the incredible story of Louis Zamperini. Zamperini was a young member of the 1936 American Olympic track team in Berlin, who was looking to be right on track, no pun intended, to win a gold medal for the USA in the 1500 Meter race in the 1940 Olympics that were scheduled to be in Tokyo.

Of course, WWII intervened and those Olympics never took place. Zamperini enlisted in the Army Air Corps and therein lies an amazing story. In 1943, Louie's plane crashed over the Pacific, he survived for 47 days floating in a raft in the ocean, was captured by the Japanese and then spent two and one-half years in several POW camps.

It is a most compelling story of perseverance and the triumph of the human spirit, and an incredibly sad and depressing story of man's inhumanity to man. At times while reading the book, I felt like I couldn't take much more of this story, but in the end, you are in awe of what Zamperini and his fellow POW's withstood.

Not to give too much away, but here is one statistic that will give you some idea of this. In WWII, 1 in 100 American POW's held in Germany and Italy died. Of the Americans held as POW's in Japanese camps, 1 in 3 died.

No doubt, this is an important and worthwhile book, but Hillenbrand's book of a few years back, "Seabiscuit", was a lot more fun to read.

******

Last week President Obama awarded the nation's highest civilian award to 15 Americans, including two athletes, Bill Russell and Stan Musial. Hard to dispute either award, and I will focus only on Musial today.

Go to a baseball encyclopedia of any online baseball reference and look at the lifetime stats for Stan Musial. When great players of his era are mentioned, the names of Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio are always brought up, but rarely do you hear Stan the Man's name in the same conversations. Why is that?

Over the course of a career that lasted 22 seasons, Musial put together 475 HR, 1,951 RBI, and a .331 lifetime BA, 3,630 hits, and seven NL batting titles. Six times he recorded an OPS in excess of 1.000, and seven other times an OPS of .900 or more. Over those 22 seasons, he averaged 86 walks a year and only 37 strike outs. In fact, in only three seasons did he strike out over 40 times, and two of those seasons were his final ones, 1962 and 1963, when he was 41 and 42 years old. And to add some perspective, in that '61 season, at age 41, Stan hit .330 with 19 HR and 82 RBI.

Of course, Stan never had a "signature event" like Williams .406 average or DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak, so perhaps that is why he gets lost in history, but what a shame that is.

How can you not say that Musial is not one of the top ten players of all time?

*****

News came from Bradenton yesterday that Pirates owner Bob Nutting addressed the team. This is the year, Bob said, where things will change....merely being "good" is not enough....the only acceptable goal will be the National League Championship. I also believe that

the old Nutting buzzword, "accountability" was also tossed out there. Yawn.

We've sure heard this song and dance before haven't we?

I don't believe that any mention was made that the Bucs will open the season with a payroll in the bottom five (if not the bottom one or two) of MLB. This has been another hallmark of the Nutting Era.

*****

I know that Dick Groat is considered by many to be a hallowed institution here in Pittsburgh. After all, Dick Vitale always has the ESPN cameras pan in on him while he, Vitale, sings his praises whenever the four letter network is televising a Pitt game. So, at the risk of committing a mortal sin, I have to say that listening to Groat in the closing moments of Pitt's loss to St. John's while out running errands on Saturday was high comedy. Oh, the foolish turnovers, oh, the fouling of St. John's best free throw shooters, and, of course, the jobbing of Pitt by the officials. I thought old Richard Morrow Groat was going to start weeping at any moment during those final three minutes when Pitt was unable to make a basket. Even the biggest homer announcer of all, Bourbon -Nose Billy Hillgrove, was a model of journalistic comportment by comparison.