To Absent Friends - Ron Masak

The news just came across  my Facebook newsfeed that actor Ron Masak died at age 86, and this is the classic case of why I do these Absent Friends posts.

Who is Ron Masak, you may ask?  Well, the news articles about his death highlight his role as Sheriff Mort Metzger in "Murder, She Wrote".

Ron Masak

1936-2022

Masak appeared in over forty episodes off that series over the years, and he is one of those guys who makes you say "Who is that guy and what else have I seen him in?"  His IMDB profile lists 120 acting credits spanning the 1950's up through 2018.  Name any major television series from that era, and he probably made an appearance on it.  He also made over twenty-five feature films, and, like many such actors, he made a killing doing commercials.   His obits refer to him as the "King of Commercials."

However, what I remember about Ron Masak is his appearance in a film called "Second Effort".

In it,  Masak plays a stumbling, bumbling salesman, who, in the opening scene of the film, fails to make a sale to an unseen guy across the desk from him.  That guy turns out to be Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, who asks, "Ron, do you know why you didn't just make this sale?"  Lombardi then uses the rest of the film instructing Ron in what it takes to be successful in sales, showing that the same principles that made him and his Packers such successes on the football field can be applied to any walk of life, being successful sales person, in this instance.

"Second Effort" was made in 1968, and it instantly became the most successful sales motivational film of all time.  If you made your living as a salesperson, chances are you have seen this movie.  I probably saw it a half dozen times over the course of a thirty-five year career.  My biggest takeaway from the film?  The concept of Lombardi Time.  If the schedule says the team bus leaves at 8:00 AM, Lombardi Time says you better be on that bus by 7:45. So, if your next business appointment is for 10:00, not only should you not be late for it, you damn well better be there at least - AT LEAST - ten minutes before 10:00.

I once read an interview with Masak wherein he says that more people had seen him in that film than in just about any other role he ever had.

Like I have said before, stars are stars, but you can't make movies or TV shows - or sales motivational films - without people like Ron Masak.

RIP Ron Masak.

Speaking of Sports.....

I have to say that the football season thus far, both NFL and NCAA, has been nothing short of terrific.  (Caveat: this excludes the prime time games that the NFL has been feeding us on Thursdays, Sundays, and Mondays.  By and large, THOSE games have been clunkers.)  So much so, that I am going to start this little treatise by going back a week to the Sunday morning game in London between Green Bay and the New York Giants.

The Giants cemented their title as "Surprise Team of the First One-Third of the Season" by handing it to Aaron Rodgers and the Pack that morning (and what exactly is wrong with an NFL game to watch at 9:30 on a Sunday morning??), and they doubled down on it by beating the Ravens this past weekend after Lamar Jackson spit the bit not once, but twice, in the fourth quarter.  The Giants now sit at 5-1, and who saw THAT coming?   

The rise of the Giants also ties in with another unexpected rise, that of their Meadowlands co-tenants, the Jets, who now sit at 4-2 after beating those same Packers at Lambeau Field this past Sunday.  

Come to think of it, perhaps it's the Packers who are the "Surprise Team of the First One-Third of the Season", although not in a good way.

********

The best game of this past weekend was the marquis game between the KayCee Chiefs and the Buff Bills headlined by the QB match-up of Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen.  The Bills won this one 24-20 when Allen hit  tight end Dawson Knox for a touchdown with 1:04 remaining in the game.  This TD pass was preceded by a drive-preserving run for a first down by Allen that included this jaw-dropping move:

Yep, Allen did his best Edwin Moses impression by fully in stride hurdling the Chiefs safety.  Like I said, it was jaw-dropping, and Allen has clearly established himself as perhaps the leading MVP candidate in the League at this point.  The Bills and the Chiefs are also clearly the two best teams, certainly in the AFC, at this point, and we can all only hope that they meet once agin in the Playoffs come January.

********

This brings us to the local gridders, the Steelers.  After being handed a 38-3 loss to Allen and the Bills in Week 5, the Steelers had dropped to 1-4, and the season appeared to be headed to the dumper.  Especially with a Week 6 matchup against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers in Week 6.  The game appeared to be a hopeless cause for the Steelers in light of the fact that both TJ Watt and Minkah Fitzpatrick and their top three cornerbacks were out for the game as well.  Surely Brady would carve them up like a Thanksgiving turkey, right?

Steelers 20 - Buccaneers 18.

This is why you play the games, and games like this are why you follow sports.

The improbable hero was much maligned QB Mitch Trubisky who came into the game for an injured Kenny Pickett, and led the team on a touchdown drive that culminated in a TD by the other offensive hero of the day, Chase Claypool, and another drive that ran out the clock to preserve a two point lead, a drive that featured two no-chance-in-Hell third and long conversions by Trubisky that maintained possession and allowed him to take a knee to end the game.

This still most likely will be a rebuilding year for the Steelers as Pickett, who will probably sit out this week's game against Miami in concussion protocol, develops into the quarterback the Steelers and their fans hope that he will become.  However, they are now 2-4, tied with the Browns and one game behind the 3-3 Bengals and Ravens in the AFC North, and this is the NFL, so you never know, do you?

Anyway, some scenes from a joyous Accrisure Stadium this past Sunday.

The heroes....

And some Heroes with the G.O.A.T.....

********

Okay, I've gone on too long to go into the college football scene, but the two games of most interest this past weekend were:

Tennessee 52 - Alabama 49

Michigan 41 - Penn State 17 (and the game wasn't even that close)

Both stunners.

Maybe next week will be the time for The Grandstander to delve into the NCAA doings.

********

One final sort-of-football note.

Billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft ("billionaire" being perhaps the key word here) married Dr. Dana Blumberg this past weekend.  Dr. Blumberg, you can see, is an attractive blonde and is 34 years younger than Kraft.  Blumberg is a doctor, so presumably she has a great degree of intelligence so maybe this isn't the embodiment of the cliche of Rich Old Goat Marries Hot Much Younger Woman Looking For A Sugar Daddy.

No word in any of the news stories as to whether or not attendants from the Orchids of Asia Health Spa served as bridesmaids.

To Absent Friends - McCullough, Wills, Lansbury

The Grandstander has fallen way behind in what has been transpiring in the Departure Lounge of late, so let me take this opportunity to catch up....

David McCullough (1933-2022)

I first became aware of historian David McCullough when he served as the narrator for Ken Burns' epic PBS documentary, "The Civil War."   I then read several of his books over the years, including his terrific first book, The Johnstown Flood. McCullough made reading and learning history both enlightening and entertaining.

Born in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Pittsburgh and educated at Shady Side Academy, McCullough was honored by his home town in 2012 when the 16th Street Bridge was renamed in his honor.  He is also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush in 2006.

Maury Wills (1932-2022)

If I were to make a list of the most transformative baseball players in my life as a baseball fan, Maury Wills would certainly be in the Top Ten, and probably in the Top Five of such a list.  A rookie with the Dodgers in 1959, Wills alerted the baseball world in 1960 of what was to come when he led the National League in stolen bases with 50.  Two years later he stole 104 bases, coming the first to ever crack the 100 mark and breaking a record held by Ty Cobb for 47 years.  Just like that, the stolen base once again became a key weapon in baseball, and it was Wills who paved the way and begat future players such as Rickey Henderson, Willie Magee, Vince Coleman, and, yes, Omar Moreno.  Wills was named National League MVP in 1962.

Following the 1966 season, Pirates GM Joe L. Brown shocked everyone by pulling of a major trade that brought Wills to the Pirates.

The acquisition of Wills was to be the final piece that would put the Pirates, pennant contenders in 1965 and -66, over the top.  It didn't quite work out that way, but Wills did his part.  In two seasons with the Bucs Wills hit .290 and stole 81 bases.

I remember that it was always thought that Wills had what it took to become a successful major league manager, but that didn't work out either.  He spent parts of two seasons as skipper if the Seattle Mariners in the late Eighties, and was fired after a tenure marked by gaffes and blunders on his part.  It also became known at the time that Wills was also battling substance abuse demons.

Wills never came close to election the the Hall of Fame, but a case for his inclusion there could be made.  There a certainly lesser players than he with plaques on the wall in Cooperstown.

Angela Lansbury (1925-2022)

When Angela Lansbury died this week a few days short of her 97th birthday, she left behind a memorable career on stage, in the movies, and on television.  While many if not most people will think of her as Jessica Fletcher in the CBS TV series "Murder, She Wrote", I think of her as the scheming, traitorous, evil, and possibly incestuous, Eleanor Shaw Iselin in the terrific 1962 movie, "The Manchurian Candidate".

She also made a huge splash in 1966 when she opened on Broadway in 1966 as the lead in the smash hit, "Mame".  In fact, were it not for the  long run on "Murder, She Wrote", her role as Auntie Mame in that musical would no doubt have been the lead item in her obituaries.

I read a cute anecdote about her just today.   When "Murder, She Wrote" was about to premier, Lansbury made the rounds with TV critics to promote the show.  One critic asked what other plans she had, and she told him that she had been approached about starring in soon to be developed musical stage version of the movie "Sunset Boulevard."  The critic, thinking of the demands involved in doing a Broadway show and weekly TV series, asked if she has signed the standard five year contract with CBS.  Lansbury got a concerned look on her face and asked "You don't really think that this show will last five years, do you?"  It ran for twelve seasons.

RIP David McCullough, Maury Wills, and Angela Lansbury

Football in The Burgh At The (Approximate) Quarter Pole

Pitt has played five games, the Steelers four, so it's time to take a look at the State of the Union of Pittsburgh Football.

First, the Steelers.

After a sloppy, but encouraging overtime win over the defending AFC Champion Bengals in the season opener, the Steelers have lost three games in a row, are 1-3 and in last place in the AFC North.  In truth, it has become apparent that this 2022 edition of Rooney U is just not a very good team, made even more so since that have played the last three games without their best player, linebacker T.J. Watt.  You can find all sorts of places to point fingers....the offensive line is poor, OC Matt Canada is a dunderhead, Mike Tomlin is a bigger dunderhead, Mitch Trubisky is who we thought he was.  I could go on.

However, in yesterday's terrible loss to the Jets, a ray of light appeared in the person of the first round draft pick.

Yep,  at halftime, with his team down 10-6 and needing a spark, Tomlin gave the car keys to Pitt's Kenny Pickett.  Pickett did indeed provide that spark, completing passes, several of them to rookie George Pickens, whom had appeared to be invisible when Canada was calling the plays for Trubisky, laughing when he got knocked on his ass by a Jets lineman (after completing a pass downfield), and scoring two rushing TD's himself.   On the downside, he threw three interceptions, including one that came on a poorly thrown pass, a pass that never should have been thrown, which the Jets used to begin their game winning touchdown drive. That was a bad interception to be sure, but this loss fell squarely on a defense that couldn't get off the field in the fourth quarter while allowing the Jets, another bad team, to drive the field twice for touchdowns that produced a 24-20 come from behind win for them.

It is apparent to me, among many, that the Steelers aren't going anywhere this season, post-season-wise, so it becomes obvious that if Pickett is going to be your quarterback of the future, as you would hope your first round draft pick will be, you let him play the rest of the season.  We've all read in recent weeks how Peyton Manning and Troy Aikman spent their rookie seasons at the helm of double digit loss teams, and if I recall correctly (too lazy to look it up) the Steelers won and five and six games in Terry Bradshaw's first two seasons.   If Pickett is the guy that we all think that he is, he will take his lumps, learn from them, and grow into the Franchise QB that the Steelers think he will become.

As for the coaches,  I'm a fan of Mike Tomlin, and if he experiences his first losing season in 16 years as the HC, then so be it.  It happens, and he's earned the right to shake it off and get better next year,  As for Matt Canada, I'm not a coach so I can't say whether he's a good or a bad coach.  He's forgotten more about football than I'll ever know.  That said, some of the offensive play calling sent into Mitch Trubisky has been bewildering, to say the least.

The 1-3 Steeles now head into a brutal stretch of scheduling: @Bills, Bucs, @Dolphins, and @Eagles.  Most people are conceding that the Steelers will be 1-7 after that stretch.  However, I'm willing to bet that they will win at least one of those games.  It may only be one game, but I predict that they will not go 0-4 in that stretch.

Then there is the Pitt Panthers.

After an exhilarating win over West Virginia in the season opener, Pitt won two of the next three and took a 3-1 record into Saturday's first conference game of the season.  They were at home against a Georgia Tech team that was in shambles, having fired their coach just five days earlier.  Pitt was a 21.5 point favorite.   And they redefined the derisive term "Pitting" by losing that game 26-21.  Despite losing their quarterback to the pros and their best wideout to the transfer portal, Pitt had hoped to present a rigorous defense of last season's ACC Championship.   They still may, but at this point, that appears to be a long shot.

Oh, and the Robert Morris Colonials are 0-4.

Tough season in western PA, football-wise.

Sir Elton John at PNC Park

It has occurred to me that I need to do a "catch-up" blog post, as there is much about which to talk.  However, one of those topics concerns the concert last Friday night's concert at PNC Park given by Sir Elton John, and that topic deserves its own separate post.  (Don't worry, the Catch-up post will follow in, I hope, the next 24 hours or so.)

The announcement of the Elton John concert was made in June 2021.  It would be Sir Elton's final appearance in Pittsburgh as a part of his "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" retirement tour.  (Never mind that he made a similar "final appearance" in The Burgh in 2019.)  I remember telling Marilyn at the time that the concert would be on her 70th birthday, September 16, 2022.  "Get tickets" was her enthusiastic response.  What a great way to celebrate such a milestone birthday, was her feeling.  Again, we all know that that was not to be, but I am now certain that her enthusiasm at the time was for me to be there to enjoy the show and dedicate it to her memory, which is exactly what we did.

As it happens, I was the Elton John virgin among our group.  Dan and Susan had seen him in Las Vegas.  Linda had seen him three times, the first time at the Civic Arena when she was only 15 years old.  I had never seen him, and I was looking forward to it, and I was not let down.  Linda warned me that at 75, Elton can't sing like he used to, but he still sounded plenty good to me, from the opening piano chords of "Bennie and the Jets" in a darkened ball park to the encore performances of "Your Song" to his wonderful and heartfelt parting words to his Pittsburgh audience to "Farewell Yellow Brick Road".  And the 20+ songs in between and the three costume changes.  He was a consummate performer, and his show last week immediately rises to the Top Five of live concerts that I have seen in my life.

And it served, too, as a wonderful way to remember Marilyn on her birthday.

Sir Elton John earns the full Four Star accolade from The Grandstander.

A few other photos from the night.....

 

An Old Movie and An Even Older One

It's been awhile since Ive written about movies, so let's take a look at a couple of older flicks.  One from 2018 and one from 1954.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" (2018)

This was the musical biopic of the British rock band Queen and, more specifically, its lead singer, Freddie Mercury.  I skipped this movie when it came out despite all of the Academy Award buzz that it received.  The reasons?  I was not that big a fan of Queen,  and some critical voices that I respect were, at best, lukewarm about the movie.  Even when Rami Malek won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Mercury, I just shrugged it off.  Anyway, last night was a movie night here at our house, and Linda picked this one, insisting that I would like it.

Did I?  Well, yes, I did.  The acting was quite good, and so was the storytelling.  I'm sure there were liberties taken.  I don't expect that "We Will Rock You" came about as easily as it was portrayed in the movie.   The music was good.  It seems I was more familiar with Queen than I recollected.  The final scenes of Queen performing at Wembly Stadium in the 1985  Live Aid concert were simply incredible.  As for Malek's Oscar, he certainly did do a terrific job as Mercury, and when you look back at his competition* that year, it was a well deserved award.

It was quite entertaining and worth Two and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

*Who did Malek beat out for that Oscar, you ask?  Christian Bale, "Vice"; Bradley Cooper, "A Star Is Born"; Willen Dafoe, "At Eternity's Gate"; Viggo Mortensen, "Green Book"

"River Of No Return" (1954)

One of the places that we visited when on my Canadian Rockies vacation this summer was the Beau River Falls on the Beau River in Jasper National Park near Banff.  Like much of what we saw on that trip, it was spectacular and breathtaking to behold.

One of the interesting factoids mentioned by the tour guide was that in 1954, and American film crew travelled to Banff and the Beau River to film a movie called "River of No Return".  It was western movie that starred Robert Mitchum and, get ready for the clincher, Marilyn Monroe.   Of course, having had someone like MM spend any length of time in your vicinity was a big deal, and no wonder it is still talked about today.  

Anyway, this prompted me to seek out the movie.   I simply had to see a movie that depicted such natural wonders like Miss Monroe and the Beau River Falls.  Yep, it was all about seeing those waterfalls on film.  It wasn't easy to find.  "River of No Return" is not available on any of the streaming services to which I subscribe, so I needed to seek it out from my local library.

The movie itself was no great shakes, although the Canadian scenery was spectacular. The plot involved, well, who cares, but the climactic scene involved Monroe and Mitchum, and young Tommy Rettig (Jeff, from Lassie) riding the Beau River rapids on a raft and going over the the powerful Beau River Falls.  Yep, I spent ninety minutes watching a so-so movie just to see that one shot of the Falls.  It was cool to see a place on film, albeit a sixty-eight year old film, that you just visited, and any chance to see Miss Monroe is well worthwhile. 

Two Stars from The Grandstander.

As for the Beau River Falls, take a gander at this video that I took of the Falls this past June.

Happy Birthday, Marilyn

Tomorrow, September 16, would have been my wife Marilyn's 70th birthday.  It is yet another of those dreaded "firsts" that we all must face after the loss of a Loved One, someone who meant so much to you.  I couldn't let this occasion pass without making mention of it in this space, but what to say?

Earlier this year, I was part of a support group for people who had lost a loved one to cancer.  At the end of the ten session program, we were asked to respond to these topics for a commerative program:

• Tell us a little about your Loved One
• Favorite memory

So I did, and I thought that the best way to observe the milestone birthday that she never got to see, was to share what I wrote at the end of that group support program.

Happy Birthday, Marilyn.  We will always celebrate your birthday and you.

MARILYN SPROULE

Tell us a little about your loved one.....Marilyn was bright and lively, smart, caring, and perhaps the most compassionate person that I have ever known.  The last person that she ever wanted to talk about was herself.   When someone would ask her how she was doing or what she had been up to, she had a knack for turning the question around and asking about how HE or She was doing and what HE or SHE had been up to lately.  When she died, many people would come to me and say, "I didn't even realize that she had been ill."  She never wanted her illness to define her.  To the very end, all she cared about was making sure that everyone else who loved her would be okay after she was gone.

She was pretty, she was funny, she was a wonderful lover, and my best friend.  She lit up every room that she ever entered.   She could throw a dinner party, a 4th of July cookout, or a Christmas Brunch that would make Martha Stewart envious, and our home looked like a Pottery Barn catalog, yet it was the warmest and friendliest home that you ever visited.  She made me laugh, or at least smile broadly, every single day, and THAT may have been the very best part of our 47 years together.  I still cannot believe that she is gone.

Favorite memory....Marilyn and I met in college in 1972.  We were married in 1974.  How can you have one, single favorite memory of almost fifty years of being together?  I suppose that her vary favorite times were our annual trips to North Carolina's Outer Banks with her extended family.  We made those trips for over thirty-five years.  Due to COVID, there was no trip in 2020, but we got back there in 2021, and Marilyn was determined to be a part of that trip.  She felt good, looked good, and we had a wonderful vacation, but I suspect that she knew that this was to be her last trip with me and her family, her last trip to the ocean and the beach that she loved so much.  I am so, so grateful that we made that trip.

There were also all the trips that we made together, just the two of us:  New Jersey, Virginia, Delaware, and Hilton Head Island beaches, Hawaii and Florida, and Las Vegas for her 50th birthday, a train trip to Chicago to see "Hamilton", Cooperstown, NY and so many others.  And in later years with our friends Susan and Dan to Florida, France, Great Britain, and Las Vegas.  Baseball games and football games and basketball games, and movies and plays, and dinner dates.

Then there is a memory of building a life together.  The excitement of moving into our first house in 1979 and subsequent moves in 1986 and 2010 and making each of those houses our own and the wonderful touches of hers that made them so special, that made them a home.

My favorite memory? The long and continuous fifty year ride together.