To Absent Friends: Richie Havens

Another pop culture left us yesterday when Richie Havens passed away at the age of 71.  A tremendous guitarist with a most distinctive voice, Havens was the opening act at Woodstock in 1969, and I remember him fondly from my college years.Here he is in the song that was his biggest commercial hit, George Harrison's "Here Comes the Sun".RIP Richie Have...

Selected Short Subjects

Lots of odds and ends to deal with this Sunday morning, but before getting to the fun-and-games that are the usual topics here, I must comment on the events that took place in Boston this past week.  Like most of you, we were spellbound while watching the horrific events unfold.  Salutes all around to the people of Greater Boston, all of the first responders, and...

The Great 2013 Hamburger Quest - Part 7 - A New #1

It has been a while since I've talked Burgers here, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy scarfing them down.  Two weeks ago, after a matinee at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, we stopped at the Atria's at PNC Park.  As it happened, the Pirates had played an afternoon game that day as well, so we  ordered from the special "Game Day Menu".  Of course, I went for the burger and it was terrific.  In fact, the only thing that...

To Absent Friends: Pat Summerall and Frank Bank

Pat Summerall died this past week at the age of 82.  Most know Summerall as one of the great TV Network play-by-play guys, but you have to be up there in years to remember him as football player, and a pretty good one at that, so let's let the picture here depict him in his playing days.  He retired as a player after the 1961 season, and became a play-by-play guy,...

10,000th Win Contest Closed

The entry deadline for the Pirates 10,000th win contest has passed.  A total 21 entries were received and will compete for the (mythical) Jim Haller Trophy and a small, as yet to be determined, prize with a small monetary value.Here is a look at the names of the entrants and their prediction as to what game the magical 39th win will occur: Name Game Number Don Lancaster 65 Mike Jones 76 Ted Knorr 77 Meg Minard 78 Mark Ecklund...

To Absent Friends: Jonathan Winters

The great, and I do mean great, Jonathan Winters died yesterday at the age of 87.  I found it a bit unsettling that many of the stories I read about Winters' death led with the fact that Winters had a continuing role in the sitcom "Mork and Mindy".  I made a comment on Facebook today that that is like saying that Willie Mays was an outfielder for the New York Mets....

"42"

We spent this afternoon at the movies seeing the just released "42", the story of Jackie Robinson's first season in the major leagues.  I have long felt that the story of Jackie Robinson is one of the most important pieces of American social history in the 20th century, and Robinson himself one of the most important persons, not just an important ballplayer, but important...

Cue the Schmaltzy Music, It's Masters Time

Hello, Friends (as Jim Nantz would say), it is time once again for The Masters.Before commenting on this year's event, allow me to comment on what I saw while watching the telecast of the traditional Par 3 event, held every Wednesday at Augusta National before the tournament tees off on Thursday.  All players and all past Champions are invited to play in the Par 3 event,...

To Absent Friends: Annette Funicello

In the world of the Internet and Social Media, the 18 hours or so since the death of Annette Funicello at the age of 70 was announced can seem like a million years ago.  If you are at all interested, you already know of her death, and I am breaking no news here.  However, the mere fact that the news of her death was so ubiquitous (my own Facebook news feed, and I...

My Fifteen Minutes of Fame

An email I received from a friend in the Washington DC area advised me that a letter that I had sent to the Tony Kornheiser Radio Show was received, acknowledged, and read on the air on Friday's show.As I listen to the show via delayed podcast,it might have been several days until I heard this, but, thanks to "Jerry from Virginia", I immediately went to the laptop, downloaded...

Lots to Talk About

Man, oh man, but it has been a busy few days in college sports.  Where to begin....RUTGERS FIRES MIKE RICEAfter video of Coach Rice physically and verbally abusing his players in practice, pushing and shoving them, kicking them, firing basketballs at their heads, and shouting all sorts of homophobic slurs at them, Rutgers officials fire Rice, and justifiably so, in my opinion.  Officials at my alma mater, Robert Morris University, where...

To Absent Friends: Roger Ebert

Chicago film critic Roger Ebert passed away yesterday at the age of 70.   He and his Chicago newspaper rival critic Gene Siskel became famous in the 1980's and '90's, of course, with their syndicated TV show of movie reviews and criticism, "At the Movies", and their famous Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down judgments on current movies.  Siskel passed away in 1999, and Ebert went...

Happy Birthday, Marvin Gaye

On what would have been Marvin Gaye's 74th birthday, let us revisit his special interpretation of our National Anth...

Announcing A Contest for All Loyal Readers

This is a first for this Blog.  The Grandstander is using the occasion of Opening Day of the baseball season to announce a contest that I hope will be fun for all.  The name of the contest is...."THE 10,000th WIN CONTEST"As out favorite baseball team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, embark upon the 2013 season this afternoon, the franchise, according to www.baseball-reference.com, has recorded 9,961 victories.  That means that with their 39th...