"Silver Linings Playbook"

The New Year's Eve date movie is in the books.  Yeah, I know, it gets earlier and earlier each year, so hold the smart aleck comments, but at least we won't be out on the streets tonight on "amateur night."The movie was "Silver Linings Playbook" and there is a reason it is making so many Ten Best  Lists for 2012.   Funny, sad, touching, and ultimately, uplifting....

The Steelers Close It Out

Well, the Steelers win over the Browns certainly was fitting - a mediocre game between two mediocre teams.  It took them 15 games and three quarters to do it, but the Steelers defense finally was able to force turnovers and the offense was able to take advantage of them and turned a 10-10 slog into a 24-10 win, thus preventing Mike Tomlin's first losing season to finish with an 8-8 record.  Like I said, mediocre.In summarizing the season,...

Happy New Year

Please celebrate responsibly!And thank you for continuing to visit The Grandstand in 2012.  Will be seeing you in 20...

Free-Falling Mountaineers

In a Tri-State Area sports year that saw major second half collapses from both the Pirates and the Steelers, did any local team fall quite as far as the West Virginia Football Mountaineers?  From an offensive juggernaut that looked unstoppable, led by a sure-fire Heisman Finalist to a 6-6 team that gets pasted by 24 points in a Who Cares? Bowl by a middle of the pack...

Winter Wonderland

Check out this view from our bedroom window this morning.  Awesome (as the kids today sa...

The Books of 2012

The final tally is in.  I read 56 books in 2012.  Some old, some new, some may be out of print and only be available at your local library.  In looking back, here are the highlights and the ones that I would highly recommend.Non-Fiction"Destiny of the Republic" by Candice Miller - The story of the assassination and death of President James Garfield in 1881.  You will learn that it was not so much the bullet that killed the President,...

It's Official: The Hammer is Gone

The news reports from the weekend are now official:  the Pirates have traded Joel Hanrahan, All-Star closer, who is the victim - in the Pirates point of view - of his own success.  He performed so well that he became too expensive for the Pirates to keep.Hanrahan and infield prospect Brock Holt are off to the Red Sox and the Pirates receive these four players in return: pitchers Mark Melancon and Stolmy Pimentel, infielder Ivan DeJesus,...

The Absent Friends of 2012

Christmas is behind us, New Year's Day is just ahead.  A time to look back.In 2012, The Grandstander noted the loss of 43 Absent Friends, those who left us in this year whose mark on history, society, popular culture or just on me personally was such that I felt it noteworthy to comment upon their passing.  Here is a final look back on all of them.  Oh, and I cannot do this without saluting the great sportswriter, Red Smith, who always...

To Absent Friends: Jack Klugman, Charles Durning

The sad news arrived on Christmas Eve and on Christmas morning of the passing of two "old pro" actors, Jack Klugman, 90, and Charles Durning, 89.Klugman is best remembered for his TV roles as Oscar Madison in "The Odd Couple" and as Quincy in "Quincy M.E.", hit shows that ran in the 1970's and -80's.  His acting credits trace back to the Broadway stage and the early days of television drama.  He also appeared as one of the jurors in Sidney...

Season Ends for the Steelers

This is what The Grandstander had to say back on September 9 in concluding my thoughts about the Steelers and their upcoming season:Maybe this is a season where the team just takes a step backwards while retooling for another sustained stretch of Super Bowl caliber seasons down the road.  With a QB like Ben you can never count them out, and the Bengals can always be counted on to be, well, the Bengals, so you never know, but let's call it a...

TO ALL LOYAL READERS

A Merry Christmas and a Most Blessed 2013 to you all!  Thank you for visiting the Grandsta...

A Day in Oakmont - Books, a Movie, and Dinner

With no holiday obligations before us yesterday, Marilyn and I took a drive out to the little town of Oakmont yesterday afternoon, and had ourselves a delightful little Christmas Season adventure.The first stop was the Mystery Lovers Bookshop.This is a nationally known independent bookstore specializing in mystery titles that has been in business for over twenty years in Oakmont....

Neal Does It Again

Events have kept me away from the keyboard these last few days, but my plan was to blog this Sunday morning on the Pirates signing of free agent pitcher Francisco Liriano.  Then I come home last night to find that the Buccos madcap GM Neal Huntington had worked his magic once again and engineered a deal that will send All-Star relief pitcher Joel Hanrahan to Boston for, yep, you guessed it, prospects.  So far, a pitcher and an "outfielder/first...

King Art II Goes to Court

It was reported in the business section of the Post-Gazette this morning that the Steelers are going to court to sue someone (the Sports and Exhibition Authority? the City? Eric Holder?  who really cares?) over precisely who should be paying for the addition of the 3,000 seats that are to be added to the now somewhat inadequate 12 year old Heinz Field.  One thing for sure, Art II wants to make certain that the lion's share of the cost of...

Happy Birthday, Keith Richards

Happy 69th Birthday today to Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.Think about it, in 2012 alone, Whitney Houston, Davy Jones, Donna Summer, Robin Gibb, Marvin Hamlisch, and the guys who played Epstein and Horschak have died, and Keith is still rolling along. (And we could play this game all day long with names like George Harrison, Elvis Presley, and Michael Jackson!)I mean,...

No Fun and Games Today

...

Roberto Clemente vs. Barry Bonds

Here is a very brief excerpt from the ESPN the Magazine article alluded to in my previous post.  Author Kevin Guilfoile. who interned in the Pirates PR Department in the early days of Barry Bonds' career, made the following observation in the article.  I hope that you take the time to read the entire article, but this part is too good not to highlight on it's own:When you're as talented and famous as Barry Bonds or Roberto Clemente, too...

Clemente's 3,000th Hit Bat: Am Incredible Story

My friend Nina Schreiner sent me this article from ESPN the Magazine, and Bob Smizik has a link to it on his blog today, and I feel compelled to do the same here:http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/page/Roberto-Clemente-bat/enduring-mystery-roberto-clemente-batIt is a story written for the Magazine by Kevin Guilfiole, son of former Pirates PR Director Bill Guilfoile.  It...

Channel 4 News

I don't usually get my news via the WTAE Channel 4 Action News team, but laziness kept me from grabbing the remote and changing channels at 11:00 last night, so I watched the team of Wendy Bell and Andrew Stockey anchor the news.  Two observations.One, Wendy Bell has to be the most SERIOUS and ANIMATED news anchor that I have seen in recent memory.  Wow!Two, both Bell and Stockey had a laptop computer and a tablet computer propped...

The Royals and the Pirates

Much like our Pittsburgh Pirates, the Kansas City Royals have become pretty much of an irrelevant franchise on the MLB landscape.  Aside from one outlier season a few years back when Tony Pena skippered them to a plus .500 season, thay have been pretty much the Pirates of the American League, but they were in the news this week when they traded super prospect and Minor League Player of the Year Will Myers and three other prospects to Tampa Bay...

A Musical Christmas Carol

Yesterday, we took in the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera's production of "A Musical Christmas Carol" at the Byham Theater.  You all know the story, so I won't recount it here, but I will say that it was a great show.  Pittsburgh's own Tom Atkins as Scrooge was terrific, and it was an added bonus for us to see Billy Hepfinger in one of the key supporting roles.  Billy,...

Bad Day at Heinz Field

Because I attended the CLO's production of "A Musical Christmas Carol" yesterday afternoon,  I knew I was not going to see the Steelers game "live".  I set the DVR for the game knowing that there would be two options for me later in the day.  One, I could fast forward through the game and enjoy the Steelers victory in about 45 minutes, or, two, in the unlikely event that they would lose to the crummy Chargers, I could immediately delete...

The Couch Slouch

One of my favorite reads each Monday morning in the Post-Gazette is Norman Chad's "Couch Slouch" column.  In today's column he lists "23 facts, tried and true, about the widening world of sports television".  I won't list them all, but here are a couple of my favorites.....Just saw previously unseen home video in which Skip Bayless, at age 8, is berating a school crosswalk guard for "choking.""Mike Mayock: Conversations with Myself" debuts...

The City Game, the Steel Bowl, and a Special Anniversary

Earlier this week, Pitt easily defeated Duquesne in this annual "City Game".  My friend, Fred Shugars, was in attendance and offered the following observation on Facebook:If you've never been to The City Game, you can't call yourself a Pittsburgh sports fan. Best spectacle around--both student sections, both bands, both sets of cheerleader and dancers, and a mascot dance-off!Well, who am I to disagree, and I am sorry to say that I have not yet...

Steelers, Pitt, the SEC, RMU, and More Conference Madness

As you can see from the title, a mixed bag from The Grandstander this morning.....Not much to add to what you have no doubt already read about yesterday's unexpected, but now euphoric, victory over the Ravens.  How can you not be happy for Charlie Batch about engineering this victory?  The picture below may well end up summarizing the Steelers season, and seeing...

To Absent Friends: Earl "Speedo" Carroll

For the second time in a week, the obituary page told of the death of a rock & roll / doo wop legend, Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the group, The Cadillacs.  He was 75 years old.This was a really interesting obit.  In 1955, one of the members of the group referred to Carroll as "Speedo", and he testily replied "my name is Earl".  Within a few hours, while the group was driving in a car to a gig, the following Lyrics were born:"Oh,...

Welcome, Russell Martin

The Pittsburgh Pirates and GM Neal "Smartest Guy in the Room" Huntington have struck quickly in the free agent market and signed catcher Russell Martin to a reported two year, $17 million deal.What do I think about that?  Well, right off the bat, let's stipulate that Martin is not Johnny Bench.  We can also agree that it stinks that the Pirates do not have anyone...

Johnny Evers

Yes, I am talking about that Johnny Evers of "Tinker to Evers to Chance" fame. I have always maintained that it is worth subscribing to Sports Illustrated because about a half dozen or so times a year, they will publish a terrific article, usually a long one that is the last story in the issue, that is so good that it is, as I said, worth the price of a subscription....

Tributes: Cary Grant and George Harrison

November 29 is an unlucky date, apparently, for the world lost two giants in their fields on this date. In 1986, Cary Grant passed away at the age of 86.  Readers know that I am a huge Cary Grant fan.  In my mind, no actor, before or since, has what Cary Grant had, but don't take my word for it.  Check out the TCM Tribute video narrated by Tony Curtis.And on this date in 2001, George Harrison passed away at the age of 58.  While...

"Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House"

At the urging of my friend, Mark Matera, I DVR'd this 1948 movie a few weeks back, and I finally got around to watching it last night.  What a comic gem.The movie stars the incomparable Cary Grant and Myrna Loy as a married couple with two daughters living in a tiny apartment in New York City.  The operative word here is "tiny".  They decide to buy a house in...