Trading in a Lincoln

So, Neal pulls the trigger and sends relief pitcher Brad Lincoln to the Blue Jays for 24 year old outfielder Travis Snider.


My first thought is, THIS is the deal for "a bat" to boost the team in the stretch run?  On first blush, this is the kind of deal the Pirates used to make, acquiring an unproven young guy with great "upside" (Jeff Clement, Brandon Moss etc).


My subsequent thoughts are...

1. Trading a middle inning relief pitcher for a guy who can play every day and contribute is a good deal. 
2. This assumes that Snider can play every day and contribute.
3. The Pirates are no worse off with Snider in RF than they are with Alex Presley, Drew Sutton, or Jose Tabata.
4. Snider could be another Jason Bay.
5. Snider could also be another Andy LaRoche.
6. Will another deal be swung between now and 4:00 this afternoon to bring a more experienced rental player to help down the stretch?
7.  If this trade happened in the off-season, and not in the middle of a pennant race, everyone would be saying, "good deal" on the face of it for the Pirates.

And in an unrelated question, why was Kevin Correia (not that he's Cy Young or anything) the one sent to the bullpen and not Eric Bedard?  This may seem like classic Monday morning quarterbacking in light of Bedard's pasting last night by the Cubs, but I had this question in my mind even before last night's game.  Honest!

To Absent Friends: Robert W. Creamer

Writer and author Robert Creamer passed away last week at the age of 90.  Creamer was an original staff writer at Sports Illustrated when the magazine came into existence in 1956.  He was also a distinguished author of several terrific baseball books, including biographies of Casey Stengel and Mickey Mantle.  


His best known book perhaps was his 1974 biography of Babe Ruth titled "Babe: the Legend Comes to Life".  It is considered by many as the best biography of Ruth ever written.  I recall that when I worked in Cleveland, I lent my copy of "Babe" to a woman with whom I worked.  She wasn't a baseball fan, particularly, but she loved the book, as it described so well one of the true larger than life figures of the 20th century.


I would also recommend another terrific book by Creamer called "Baseball and Other Memories in 1941" (1991).  Now, only a baseball fan would enjoy this one, I think, but it really is a terrific book, almost a memoir, about following Brooklyn and the Yankees, DiMaggio and the 56 game streak, Williams and .400, all in the year when America was on the brink of war.  Truly a great book.


Finally, you may also remember Bob Creamer as a contributing talking head on Ken Burns' "Baseball" documentary.


RIP Robert W. Creamer.

"What in the Wide, Wide World of Sports is Going On....?"

The title of this post is dedicated to my breakfast companions of yesterday morning.


Some sporting thoughts on a Sunday morning.....

• It is frustrating to see the Pirates just eaking out wins over the Astros, a team that they should be hammering into submission, this weekend, but, hey, they ARE winning those games, right?  Just a sign, I suppose, about how far the Pirates have come this season.
• Those Astros, by the way, are really a bad ball club.  As bad a team as I've seen since, oh, the 2010 Pirates.   I'm watching these games, and I am unfamiliar with just about every player on that team.  And is it a coincidence that Brad Mills makes you think of John Russell as he stands expressionless in the Houston dugout?
• For the record, I liked the trade for Wandy Rodriguez.  Nolan Ryan, he ain't, but he will be an improvement over Kevin Correia, I think, in the long run, despite the fact that Correia has won his last six decisions.
• It should also be noted that Rodriguez is under contract, and not an inexpensive one, for, I believe, two more seasons after this one, so kudos to Nutting/Coonelly/Huntington for pulling the trigger on this one.
• If Colton Cain wins 20 games for the Astros in 2017, this will still have been a good deal, if the Pirates get to the post-season this year, or even if they stay in the hunt deep into September.
• I also like that Starling Marte is now here in Pittsburgh, and how can you not after that spectacular debut?  True, he is hitless in his last two games, but I do believe he will be an improvement over what Pirates left fielders/lead off batters have given the team so far.
• Now the big question:  Does GM Neal swing a deal to bring a hitter, or "a bat" as is now the lingo, to PNC Park for the stretch?  I will not pay attention to anything Neal might say on the subject between now and Tuesday - he will never say anything significant on such a subject - but I anxiously await that July deadline.
• In case no one noticed, and it is definitely a secondary story line in Pittsburgh this summer - the Steelers opened training camp  this week.  The highlight for me was hearing my first Mike Tomlin soundbite of the season.  I LOVE hearing those, and I am not being sarcastic.
• Mike Wallace learned a hard lesson this week: When you get into a contract hassle with the Steelers, you will lose.  Every time.  You think these guys would know that by now.
• One thing that guys like Wallace and their agents absolutely, positively need to remember:  the Steelers released Franco Harris in a contract dispute back in 1983.  They do that to one of the pre-eminent figures in franchise history, then guys like Wallace will never have a chance.
• It amazes me to hear that there are some folks in Pitt fandom who think that the Panthers should now forget about ever playing Penn State, even to the point of canceling the two games scheduled for '16 and '17.  "Who needs THEM now?", they sniff.  This makes those elements at Pitt guilty of the same arrogance and hubris that they have accused (and not without some justification, it should be noted) Penn State and Joe Paterno of having had ever since the series ended.
• My friend Dan Bonk, a major Pitt fan and supporter, has taken the opposite tack:  AD Steve Pederson should be on the phone RIGHT NOW to whoever is in charge at Penn State these days negotiating a long term home-and-home deal with Penn State. 
• Penn State has always been able to find a way to schedule teams like Ohio University.  Pitt has always found a way to schedule teams like the University of Buffalo.  They can find a way to make this happen, and don't forget, the one person who always prevented  this series from continuing, is no longer on the scene.
• The NCAA and other college "spokesmen" have talked very loftily about how the College football culture needs to change after it was allowed to run amok at Penn State.  Yet there were reports this week, the ink on the consent decree not even dry, of rival schools' coaches on the PSU campus recruiting the Lions' current scholarship athletes.  Do you REALLY think that that culture is going to change?
• In spite of all that has fallen upon Penn State, I find myself really rooting for Bill O'Brien and those kids who will choose to stay at Penn State this coming season.
• I learned very quickly this week, that if you want to watch the Olympics and not know the results of a given event, stay off of Facebook, Twitter, or the entire Internet itself over the course of the next two weeks.

"Sunset Boulevard", the Musical

You always worry when one of your favorite books/movies/plays is transferred to another art form:  book to movie, play to movie, or, in this case, Classic Movie to Andrew Lloyd Webber Musical Extravaganza.  


The 1950 Billy Wilder movie, "Sunset Boulevard", is by almost any source you care to sight, considered one of the Top Ten movies ever made in America.  It is the story of an aging silent screen movie star, Norma Desmond, who has been pushed to the Hollywood scrap heap with the advent of talking motion pictures, who meets up with down-on-his-luck cynical screenwriter Joe Gillis.  How the two meet, interact, and use each other makes for one of the most compelling movies you'll ever see.  The movie starred Gloria Swanson and the incomparable William Holden, and the thought of someone tampering with such a classic could seem almost sacrilegious.


However, Andrew Lloyd Webber provided the music and brought his story to the London and Broadway stages back in the early 1990's.  The musical was highly acclaimed and even Billy Wilder was pleased with it ("I think it would make a pretty good movie", he said), so seeing it has long been on my bucket list.


Anyway, the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera brought "Sunset Boulevard" to town this week at the Benedum, and we took it in yesterday.  We both liked it.  The show starred a Broadway actress named Liz Callaway as Norma, and  Matthew Scott (who looks a lot like Pirate Neil Walker) as Joe.  Joe is the character who holds the play together, he is in almost every scene, but it is Norma who draws all the attention, and the numerous dazzling costume changes almost every time she is on stage is just the least of the attraction.  Norma also has the two show stopping musical numbers, "As If We Never Said Good-bye" and "With One Look".


The show is true to the movie, and while there is very little spoken dialog, what there is taken almost directly from the movie, including it's two most famous lines:

• "I am big.  It's the pictures that got small."
• "are you ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille?"

Very good show, well staged by the CLO, and all of the actors.  It made for a great day at the theater.

However, one should never forget the source material, the great 1950 movie by the great Billy Wilder.  If you've never seen it, and you love movies, then make it a point to see it very soon.

Stonewall Resort

Marilyn and I took a mid-week break this past week and visited the Stonewall Resort in Roanoke, West Virginia.  What a find, and what an absolute gem of a place.  Only a 2 and 1/2 hour drive down I-79 from Pittsburgh, the resort offers a beautiful setting (picture above is the view from our room), lots of cool recreational activities, hiking trails, great food, and a gorgeous, yet player friendly Arnold Palmer designed golf course (well, the 17th hole may not be all that friendly, but I digress).

One activity involves feeding of fish from dockside:

There is a very nice pool area:

And did I mention the great food?

About 12 miles south of Clarksburg, the Stonewall Resort is located on Stonewall Jackson Lake inside of Stonewall Jackson State Park.  Want to take a guess at who is the most famous person born in that part of West Virgina is (although it was still Virginia when he was born)?

The resort also offers lots of both boating and fishing opportunities,neither of which are our particular cup of tea, but if that's what you are into, you can avail yourself of those activities.

It's a great place to spend a few days and recharge your batteries, it's not over-the-top expensive, and it's an easy drive to get there.

I'm sure that we will be back.

The Olympics Begin!

Not sure about all of you, but I plan to be in front of the TV tonight watching the Opening Ceremonies of the London Olympics tonight.  No doubt they will be overblown, very self-congratulatory, and will last too long, but they will also be colorful, fun, and in some ways inspirational.  Plus, the commercials will probably be pretty good, although we will no doubt tire of them by the time the torch is extinguished in two weeks time.


Here are the things that I look forward to during this Olympiad:

• The men's basketball tournament.
• The Phelps-Lochte duels in the pool.
• Usain Bolt.
• Both men's and women's track events.
• Finding out what event and what athlete(s), heretofore completely off of my personal radar screen, will capture my imagination and captivate me during the Games.

Humorous Burning Question:  Now that they are permitted to wear more "modest" uniforms, will Women's Beach Volleyball be a less interesting sport, to both viewers and the NBC TV cameras?

Serious Observation:  Very disappointing that the IOC cannot find it in their hearts (assuming that IOC Members actually have hearts) to allow for a moment of silence to commemorate the slain Israeli athletes during this the 40th Anniversary Year of the massacre in Munich.  In point of fact, the IOC has NEVER had any such official commemoration of this event on the center stage of their ceremony, so I suppose that their continuing to spurn the requests of Israel shouldn't come as too big a surprise.  Keep this hypocrisy in mind while Jacques Rogge makes his speeches about the Olympic Ideal tonight.

Pirates, Jeter, Olympics, and Absent Friends

The Grandstander is going to be off the grid for a couple of days, so let's clean out the Mental In-Box (Penn State free!)......

• How about those Pirates?  The nice thing about where they are now is that we are concerned, not with being 14 games over .500, but, rather, with being 1/2 game out of first, or two games up in the Wild Card race.  Thank you, Fred Shugars, for making this observation.
• Trade deadline looms and the name that intrigues me the most is Shane Victorino.  He would be a two month rental, which means he wouldn't, or shouldn't, cost the Pirates a boatload in a trade, and tell me he wouldn't be a huge step up in that lead-off spot in the line up?
• Ichiro to the Yankees.  Interesting.
• Speaking of the Yankees, Derek Jeter celebrated his 38th birthday a few weeks ago, and one of the interesting, if not amazing, facts I heard was that Jeter had more career hits as of his 38th birthday than Pete Rose had on his 38th birthday.
• I got into an exchange with ESPN's Buster Olney a few weeks back on Twitter.  Now Buster has to have thousands of followers on Twitter, so I was very surprised that he actually responded to my Tweet, so good for Buster.
• That said, for a major media guy, @Buster_espn appears to have remarkably thin skin.
• Heard on PTI tonight that Andrew McCutchen is hitting .484 in the month of July.  .484!!!!  I have trouble wrapping my mind around a number like that.
• If you read John Mehno's column in Sunday's www.timesonline.com you may come to understand why the Pirates are not rushing to promote Starling Marte - yet.  Good stuff.
• Also, in that same column, John reports that Lacee Collins might be resurfacing at The Fan soon.  C'mon back, Lacee!!!
• The Olympics begin on Friday.  I am looking forward to taking in much of the 300,000 or so hours of coverage that NBC will be offering on it's various media platforms, and I will no doubt be commenting on it over the course of the Games.  What are you most looking forward to watching?  The elfin, robotic female gymnasts? The men's basketball?  Watching how fast Usain Bolt can, er, bolt from the starting blocks? Seeing how many weightlifters and wrestlers get banished for doping?  The bikini-clad beach volleyballers?
• Me?  I can't wait for the curling! Oh, wait, that's in two years in the Winter Olympics.  Damn!
• I confess to missing much of the British Open, excuse me, The Open Championship, this weekend.  Blame it on the time difference, and having other things to do in the mornings.  From what I can tell, it would have been painful to watch Adam Scott's El Foldo over the last four holes, so in a way I'm glad I missed it.
• If you are old enough, you can no doubt remember the dire warnings of 40 or so years ago over the creeping specter of Pay Television.  It would end our entertainment options and the American Way of Life as we knew it.  This thought came back to me when I realized that all live coverage of The Open Championship was on ESPN, and no one, apparently, thinks any thing about that.  ESPN, in case you don't realize it, is, in fact, Pay TV.  Much of the Olympics will also be on Pay TV platforms. That battle has been lost, and was lost, long ago.

Let us end with noting the recent passing of some Absent Friends:

• Pittsburgh radio man, Ted Atkins, aka "Cap'n Showbiz", as he was christened by O"Brian and Garry.  He was the GM of radio station WTAE who came to town, listened to the station and made the first note on his To Do List to "fire Myron Cope".  Atkins soon realized who Cope was, what he knew, and what he meant to Pittsburgh, so he changed his mind and installed Cope with his five nights a week talk show.  The rest is Pittsburgh radio history.  
• Tom Davis.  Those of us who can remember the first seasons of Saturday Night Live can remember that they sometimes featured on air performances by two of the writers, "Franken and Davis".  Al Franken is now a US Senator, and Davis went on to an itinerant career as a comedy writer and performer until he succumbed to cancer last week at the age of 57.  His obit noted that he was responsible for the classic skit where Dan Ackroyd played Julia Child.  Yes, "save the liver" came from the fertile comic mind of Tom Davis.
• And just in today, Sally Ride, America's first female astronaut, died today at age 61, a victim of pancreatic cancer. An inspirational figure.

RIP to all.