To Absent Friends: Bill Austin

The man who preceded Chuck Noll as the Steelers head coach, Bill Austin (that's him on the left above), died yesterday at the age of 84.  Austin served as Steelers coach for three seasons before he was canned, and Chuck Noll was hired.  His term at the helm was, shall we say, undistinguished.Austin serves as an object lesson for anyone who wants to see a successful...

Another Reason Why We Love Baseball...Pirates 5 - Tigers 3

I have just returned home from attending the Pirates 5-3 win over the Tigers with buddy, Len Martin.If you care enough to be reading this, most likely you know what transpired.  With one out in the bottom of the seventh inning, I was contemplating how I was going to write about the absolutely dominating performance of Tigers pitcher Annibal Sanchez, and while it was too bad the Pirates lost, but that you had to tip your hat to such a dominating...

Golfing, Falling, Pirates Winning, Neal Does Well, and a New Award

Cleaning Out the Mental In-Box, Memorial Day Edition.....Had a delightful round of golf today at Moon Golf Club.  Well, the company - Dan Bonk, John Coley, and Fred Shugars - was delightful.  The golf, not so much.  I have been playing golf for 30-some years now and am approaching age 62, so I am what I am as a golfer, so I don't get angry anymore when I play...

Tony Award Predictions from Our Man on Broadway

As long time readers know, each year we turn The Grandstander over to our Official Broadway Correspondent,  Hatboro, PA's (by way of Landview Street) Big Poppy for predictions on Broadway's Annual Tony Awards, which will be presented on June 9.Big Poppy is most definitely a man for all seasons, and his opinions on the American stage are highly valued.  He is coming...

"Romeo and Juliet" at Seneca Valley

More supporting of The Arts in area high schools.  Tonight, it was the Seneca Valley Thespians production of Billy Shakespeare's classic, "Romeo and Juliet".  The hook that got us there tonight was the inclusion in the cast of our nephew, Zach Stoner, as the "Friar".  He was brilliant, by the way.A very nice production, and it occurred to me as I was watching...

Book Review: "Silken Prey" by John Sandford (No Spoilers)

I have just finished John Sandford's latest Lucas Davenport novel, "Silken Prey", and, once again, Sandford and Davenport have hit one out of the park.The novel begins with a political dirty trick in a knock down, drag out US Senate race in Minnesota.   Child pornography has been found on the office computer of the incumbent Senator.  Is it his? Or, was it planted...

The Mt. Lebanon High School Percussion Concert

Our Spring 2013 Tour in support of "The Arts" at area high schools took us to Mt. Lebanon High School last night for the annual Percussion Concert.  We were there to support Ashley Hansen, daughter of our friends Roger and Denise Hansen.  This was the second year we have been to this event, and it was a bittersweet occasion because Ashley will be graduating in two...

To Absent Friends: Ken Venturi

Ken Venturi passed away yesterday at the age of 82.  As a PGA touring professional, Venturi won 14 times on Tour with his most notable win being the 1964 U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club in Washington DC.....,but he may be best remembered as the main analyst on CBS golf telecasts, including The Masters, for well over thirty years, working alongside Pat Summerall...

A Prize Winning Photo?

Surely, this picture from last night's game from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette should win some type of prize for 2013's Best Sports Photos.....

The Count is 0-2 on Pedro....

While watching the Pirates eventual 4-3 victory over the Brewers on Tuesday night, it occurred to me that there may be no surer thing in professional sports than a Pedro Alvarez strike out whenever he falls to an 0-2 count, but I wanted to know just how true that supposition actually is.  So, I went to the SABR Listserv and to Pirate Chat, and I was not disappointed.  Before I lay it out for you, my thanks to Pirate Chatters Tim Lehrian...

Observations on the Baseball Standings, May 13, 2013

I spent some time studying the MLB standings this morning, and there are some interesting observations to be made.....First and foremost, your Pittsburgh Pirates are five games over .500 at 21-16 and in third place in the NL Central, 2.5 games behind the Reds.  If the season ended today, they'd be in the playoffs, but it is WAY too early for that kind of talk (as the...

To Absent Friends: Jack Butler

Steelers Hall of Famer Jack Butler's career ended due to an horrific knee injury at about the same time I became aware of football and the Pittsburgh Steelers, so I have no memory of him as a player.  I know that my Dad always spoke highly of him, and that was good enough for me to know that he must have been pretty damn good.His death yesterday at the age of 85 brought...

It's DVR Alert Time!!!!

Some good movies on Turner Classic Movies in the week ahead, so get those DVR's programmed.  All times Eastern.Monday, 10:15 PM - "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942)  A movie bio of George M. Cohan starring James Cagney.  Yeah, it's corny and overly patriotic, but worth seeing for Cagney's Oscar winning performance as Cohan.  Worth watching just to see Cagney/Cohan dance down the White House steps at the end of the movie.Tuesday (actually...

It's Movie and Book Review Time!

My week with The Arts....We went to see "The Great Gatsby" yesterday.  Remembering the, shall we say, unique way director Baz Luhrmann did "Moulin Rouge" a few years back, I was expecting something different with this version of Gatsby, and that's what we got, at least for the first hour or so of the movie.  In that first hour, we got a full sensory overload of over...

Catching Up As the TV Season Winds Down

We came back from our Hilton Head vacation last week to a DVR that was almost, but not quite, 100% full, so much of our free time since then has been spent catching up on these recorded episodes of our must see TV shows.  Here's a recap.  As usual, no spoilers.The Americans.   I have not written about this FX series, because I discovered it almost by accident.  The show takes place in Washington DC in 1981.  It is the...

Joe Greene

Joe Greene announced yesterday that he was retiring from his front office/scouting/personnel position with the Steelers that he has held for the past nine years.  Greene also served as an assistant coach under Chuck Noll for five seasons, but, of course, Greene was a defensive tackle for the Steelers for 13 seasons, from 1969 through 1981.  A four time super Bowl...

The 2013 Pirates, 20% In

The Pirates have now played 31 games, one game short of the 20% mark of the season.  Time to take my first critical look at the team for the season.POSITIVESThe team stands at 17-14, three games out of first place and in a virtual tie for second place in the NL Central.  Given the schedule they faced in the first month of the season, they are much better, record-wise, than I anticipated.Starling Marte: .325, 5 HR, 16 RBI, .918 OPS.  Need...

Say Hey, Say Willie....Happy Birthday

Happy 82nd Birthday today to the guy who I consider to be the greatest baseball player that I have seen in my lifetime, Willie Mays.   To me, this is the guy to whom all outfielders, especially center fielders, should be compared.  The term "five tool player" was invented with Willie Mays in mi...

The Penguins Bandwagon Has Arrived

As my friends and regular readers, who may or may not be my friends, know, I am not a "hockey guy", and there are a number of reasons for that for which I will not bore you.  However, the Stanley Cup Playoffs have begun, following a shortened regular season in which the Pittsburgh Penguins gave a pretty fair impersonation of the 1927 Yankees, so I am jumping on the Penguins...

The Titanic, Jacques Futrelle, and "The Thinking Machine"

While on my vacation last week, one of the books I read was an interesting little bit of mental junk food (and I do not use that term as a negative) called "The Titanic Murders" by Max Allan Collins.  Collins is one of these incredibly prolific writers who has written hundreds of novels, short stories, screenplays, even comic books and comic strips over the course of...

And in "Greed Is Good" News from Chicago.....

We can rail all we want about greedy athletes in professional sports, but no one, NO ONE, in sports is greedier than the owners of professional sports teams.  This was proven true yet again with the announcement by Tom Ricketts, the gajillionaire owner of the Chicago Cubs, that the Cubs needed to put in a giant modern video scoreboard in Wrigley Field in order to generate sufficient revenues that are needed in order for the Cubs to be competitive...

Remembering Bryan Bullington

Hey, who here remembers Bryan Bullington?  Oh, you don't.  Well, back in 2002, the Pirates had the Number One overall pick in the player entry draft, and used it to select Bullington, an All-American pitcher at Ball State University. More on that choice in a moment, but Bullington, now pitching in Japan, found himself in the news again this week when this piece of video went viral, as the Kids Today say.  This even got a featured...

Hilton Head Memories and a Grandstander Milestone

"The Grandstander" first saw the light of day on January 8, 2010 when in search of something to occupy my time in my new found retirement, I decided to start blogging.  Didn't know if I would like doing it, didn't know if anyone would read it, had no idea if it would sustain itself.  Well, as it happens, this post that you are now reading is Grandstander....Thanks...