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...Trading a middle inning relief pitcher for a guy who...
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Sunday, July 29, 2012
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...
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....
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...
Friday, July 27, 2012
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...
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...
Monday, July 23, 2012
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...
This past Friday, Marilyn and I traveled to Centre County to visit her brother George and Ann. Both of their kids, George and Bonny, their spouses and kids were in Centre Hall last week. With George III living in New Mexico and Bonny living in Durham, NC, it is a rare time when all members of that clan are together, so we were delighted to drive up and visit with...
Because this is such an emotional issue, and because I have many friends, as well as family members, closely associated with Penn State, I have tried not to get into the fray too deeply over the Penn State/Freeh/Sandusky affair, but with the announcement of the sanctions by the NCAA and Big Ten today, well, I do have to say something. I won't rehash everything - you all know what went down today - but will make a couple of random comments.I...
Thursday, July 19, 2012
It was a spur of the moment thing. We see a story yesterday morning in the Post-Gazette about Mary Chapin Carpenter's appearance at the Homestead Carnegie Library Music Hall last night. I go on-line to see if tickets are still available. They are, and I buy two, and we have a nice date last night to see one of our favorite singers!Carpenter is currently on...
Monday, July 16, 2012
On July 16, 1970, forty-two years ago tonight, Three Rivers Stadium opened. Given the two venues that replaced it, no one much misses it any more, but it was the centerpiece location for Pittsburgh sports for 31 years. As it was about to be imploded, I compiled a list of my Top Ten Memories of the place. No one asked me to do it, and it was greeted...
Sunday, July 15, 2012
The debate rages as to whether or not Penn State University football should receive the "death penalty" from the NCAA. I am of two minds on the subject and can see both sides of the argument. However, I am fairly certain of one thing that would most certainly not be right and proper following all that has happened and been revealed about the last 13 years, at least, at Happy Valley, and that would be 110,000 people at Beaver Stadium in full white...
Saturday, July 14, 2012
A belated and melancholy happy trails to Academy Award winning actor Ernest Borgnine, who passed away earlier this week at the age of 94. Those who remember Borgnine as the scheming but lovable Lt. Commander Quentin McHale of the 1960's sitcom "McHale's Navy" would be in for a shock if they tune into two of Ernie's better known movie roles in "From Here to Eternity"...
Friday, July 13, 2012
In about 45 minutes the Pirates will kick of the figurative - not literal - second half of what has thus far been an amazing season as they take on the Hated Brewers in that nemesis ball yard, Miller Park. Let's Go Bucs.However, the expected non-signing of number one draft pick Mark Appel became official at 5:00 this afternoon. The fact that the Pirates have played...
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
The old saying about truth being more remarkable than fiction is proven once again in this 2010 book by Hampton Sides that follows James Earl Ray as he stalked and killed Martin Luther King in 1968, and then went on the lam for over 50 days before he was finally captured in London, England.I remember the assassination of Martin Luther King, but I had forgotten the trauma that...
Monday, July 9, 2012
I know that I have been a bit quiet of late about the Pirates - somebody actually told me that they don't always read The Grandstander because they don't want to read about the Pirates all the time; can you imagine such a thing? - so a few opinions at the All-Star Break.Eleven games over .500 and in first place at the Break. Did you in your wildest dreams imagine such...
Here's a fun little game I like to play from time to time. Here are the stats of two ballplayers. Looking at these two guys, which one would you select for your team?Player AAB - 283H - 65BA - .230HR - 14RBI - 36OPS - .730Player BAB - 283H - 70BA - .247HR - 12RBI - 44OPS - .758Not a whole lot of difference on the surface, but if pushed, you would probably take Player B, and say, "what the hell, he's better, but not by all that much."OK,...
Marilyn and I wasted no time this weekend taking in the newest movie by Woody Allen, "To Rome With Love". This one follows Woody's recent trend of filming on location in different European cities (London, Barcelona, and Paris), and, as with those other locations, this movie wants to make you immediately board a plane and visit Rome. Really, having Woody Allen make...
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
The Beach Boys are back!I have to admit that when I heard that The Beach Boys were releasing their first studio album in like a million years, I had my doubts. I had the thought that The Beach Boys recording a new album FIFTY YEARS after their first one, and forty-six years after their epic, "Pet Sounds", well, I had visions that this would be the musical equivalent...
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
I recently became involved in a discussion on Facebook about the overuse of the word "iconic" in our everyday language. One Loyal Reader in particular constantly bristles when the term is used, and I don't disagree, but, really, is there any other word that can be used in describing Andy Griffith, who passed away today at the age of 86?"The Andy Griffith Show" (1960-68)...
Monday, July 2, 2012
My fears, expressed on Facebook yesterday, that going to see Johnny Mathis last night and worrying that he may have lost his touch at age 76-soon-to-be-77 proved, happily, to be unfounded. He looked great, sounded great, and in a one hour and fifteen minute set, backed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, sang everything that the audience wanted to hear. No new...
Sunday, July 1, 2012
No one will argue that the National Football League stands head-and-shoulders above all other North American sports institutions in terms of popularity, marketing, the ability to read the pulse of its fan base, and in a myriad of other ways. There are many reasons for this, and allow me to offer just one.NFL followers do not obsess and whine incessantly whenever a team...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
