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, and it is usually just a big old laugh fest, fun for fans, er, excuse me, Patrons, and players alike.  In may respects, it is the equivalent of a baseball Old Timers game, and much of the ESPN attention is focused on these said old timers, most specifically the threesome of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player.  No one needs to be told of the greatness of this trio.  The reverence with which all golfers, from the best of the current touring pros right down to the weekend hacker, hold these three guys is understandable and unquestionably deserved.  I myself stand second to no one in my respect and admiration for these guys.

That said, I don't like watching these three guys playing now for the same reason that I don't like watching baseball old timers games.  Palmer is 82, Player is 77, and Nicklaus is 72, and they looked every bit of those years watching them play yesterday.  If you were behind this threesome on a Saturday morning at your local muni and didn't know who they were, you'd be bitching to the marshals to tell those old guys to speed it up or get off the course.  It was almost painful to watch, like watching Willie Mays with the Mets.

I have read for many, many years that Jack Nicklaus has long said that he would never allow himself to become a "ceremonial golfer", and I am betting that he hates going out there year after year and playing in the Masters Par 3.  I suppose that when Augusta calls, you do what they ask because you feel you owe it to them and to the game, but,from what I've read about Nicklaus, I am guessing that he would have rather been in his office in Palm Beach than on that par 3 course yesterday.

Hey, it's great when the Pirates bring Maz out to throw out the occasional first pitch, but I wouldn't want to see him try to go nine innings and try to hit off of Justin Verlander in 2013.  Same with these guys.  It's great to have Arnie, Jack, and Gary hit those "first drives" on Thursday morning, but they should be allowed to actually play golf on their own time these days.

Now, as for the Tournament itself, how can you not pick Tiger Woods to win?  That's my pick. Now settle back, put on your green jacket, smell the magnolias, have a pimento cheese sandwich, and enjoy A Tradition Like No Other.

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 have fewer than 200 friends on FB fairly exploded with posts and comments about Annette) caught me by surprise, but after reading the obituaries, perhaps it shouldn't have.

Discovered by the Disney folks in 1955, she became the breakout star among all of  the adolescent Mouseketeers.  Only a single name, Annette, was needed to identify her, and in that sense, she predated people like Cher, Madonna, Prince, and Bono by decades!  She went on to star in the benign Beach Party movies with Frankie Avalon in the early 1960's, and released a few record albums, but for the most part, TV commercials for Skippy peanut butter aside, she devoted most of the rest of her adult life being a wife, mother, and grandmother, and when she was dealt a bad hand and stricken with multiple sclerosis as an adult, she devoted much of her time and energy raising funds for medical research to find a cure for the disease.

It was an admirable life that ended way too soon, so no wonder this news created the stir that it did.

As it happens, I was at the car dealer this morning while my car was being inspected, and Paul Anka was on the CBS Morning Show to plug his newly released autobiography (which sounds like it will be a good read, by the way).  Anka and Annette were romantically linked as teenagers back in the 1950's - Annette was the inspiration for "Puppy Love" - and he spoke very warmly of her.

Now, if you live in Pittsburgh and were regular listeners of the O'Brien and Gary morning radio show, you know that Annette's fame received a sort of "rebirth" for local listeners when that regularly played one of her recordings from many years ago.  I present it here as a final tribute.

RIP Annette Funicello.

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 the show, and listened this morning.  Probably silly of me, but as a fan of the show, I found it a real thrill to be acknowledged in such a fashion.

If you're interested, go to iTunes, download Hour 2 of the April 5 broadcast of The Tony Kornheiser Show, and listen in.  My contribution can be found at the 16:42 mark of the segment, and again at the 30:45 mark.  (I include this info only because a Loyal Reader had requested it.)

I can't wait to get my coveted TK bumper sticker!

Lots to Talk About

Man, oh man, but it has been a busy few days in college sports.  Where to begin....

RUTGERS FIRES MIKE RICE

After 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 Rice coached for three years issue a bland "this was not indicative of Coach Rice's behaviour while at Robert Morris" statement and then throw a cone of silence around everyone in the athletic department.  Very disconcerting.  Rice, plain and simple, is a bully who abused his power, and did it to kids who were in no position to challenge him.  Good riddance to him, but I fear that while his behaviour may not be typical of every coach in college athletics, I am guessing that it is more pervasive than we may think.

RUSHEL SHELL LEAVES PITT

Highly prized recruit running back Shell, now a sophomore, and slated to be the #1 running back for the Panthers this season, announces that he will be transferring out of Pitt.  Hey, he's a 19 year old kid, he's entitled to change his mind, and if he doesn't want to be at Pitt, God bless him.  It will be interesting to see where Shell ends up.  There is much speculation that the evil Todd Graham, who recruited Shell to Pitt, is now manipulating him to come to Arizona State. Hard to imagine Graham being even more sleazy than he already is, but this would do it.  Shell's character and sense of commitment have come into question since these announcement.  I don't know what is true and what isn't, but history is littered with guys who thought they were bigger than the the Whole, and who were never heard from again.  Hope it turns out okay for him.  Pitt, while they may suffer a setback in the short term, will survive without him.

STEVEN ADAMS TO LEAVE PITT AND TURN PRO

Another blow to the Pitt basketball program with the seven foot Kiwi deciding to enter the NBA draft.  It seemed to me that in his freshman year, Adams was not quite ready to compete in the Big East, so I don't see how he's going to be ready for the NBA after only one season of college ball.  I think that another year in college could possibly have elevated Adams to Lottery Pick status in the NBA, and additional millions of dollars, but, as was demonstrated in the Louisville game on Sunday with the horrific injury to Kevin Ware, the end of a career is only one freak injury away, so let's wish Adams well.

It is interesting to note that Adams becomes the second big man to leave Pitt basketball, following Khem Birch last year.  Is this trend developing, and if it is, why is it happening?

PITT FIRES WOMEN'S BASKETBALL COACH AGNUS BERENATO

With her team winless in two consecutive Big East seasons, this move is as defensible for the Pitt administration as it was inevitable.  Still, I feel bad for Agnus.  I got to meet her two years ago at the WPIAL Sportsmanship Conference held at the Heinz History Center, and I found her to be charming and pleasant, and I thought her talk to all of the WPIAL athletes gathered there that day to be quite motivating and moving.  I don't know what the future holds for her, but I hope that better days lie ahead for Coach Berenato.

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 on to become perhaps the best known and most influential movie critic in the country, winning a Pulitzer Prize in the process.

The Internet and social media have been awash with tributes to Ebert since his death was announced yesterday, and who am I to add to the mix?  However, readers of this blog know how much I enjoy movies, and one thing I always enjoy doing, especially if I see an older movie for the first time, or if it has been many years since I had seen it, is going online and digging up Roger Ebert's reviews of that same movie.  His reviews are insightful and entertaining, and I almost always learn something after reading one if his reviews, and those reviews almost always add to my appreciation and enjoyment of the movie.  I did this just recently after I watched, for the first time, the 1994 movie, "The Shawshank Redemption".  Ebert's website contained both his original 1994 review, and a subsequent one that he wrote in 1999.

One great thing about the Internet is that writings such as these will always be available to anyone with access to a computer, and such informative and insightful criticism will never die.

RIP Roger Ebert.

Happy Birthday, Marvin Gaye

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

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 win in 2013 the Pirates will become only the sixth franchise in Major League history to reach that victory plateau. 

You would think that someone in the Pirates marketing / public relations department would be beating the drums over this, but, no, they have chosen to pretty much ignore this, if they are even aware of it at all.  The Grandstander, however, is not going to let this pass.  Thus, The 10,000th Win Contest.  It costs nothing to enter.  This truly is for amusement purposes only.

The rules are simple:

• Predict the game in which the Pirates will win their 10,000th game, or their 39th win of the season.  You do not have to state the date of the game or the opponent.  Just state something along the lines of "the Pirates will get their 39th win in the 60th (or 85th or 95th) game of the season".  Simple, right?

Of course, there will no doubt be ties, so the tiebreakers will be as follows:

• First tiebreaker:  Who will be the winning pitcher for the Pirates in the game?
• Second tiebreaker: What Pirate will record the Pirates first hit in the game?
• Third tiebreaker: What Pirate will hit the Pirates first home run in the game?
• Fourth tiebreaker: How many hits will the Pirates record in the game?

Please email your entries to me at rfsmms@verizon.net. I will record them all, track the contest, and report progress of the contest as the magic 39th victory approaches.  You have until April 15 to get your entries in to me.

Every contest should have a prize, right?  At this point, the only prize we know of for certain is that the winner will be the respect and admiration of all Grandstand readers and Facebook Pirate Chat members.  I will consider another prize in the days ahead, so long as it doesn't cost me a lot of money.  So far, though, only "bragging rights" are up for grabs.

My thanks go out to friend, SABR member, and Pirate Chat Founder Jim Haller who is the one who pointed out in the first place that the Pirates were on the brink of their 10,000th victory.   If there was a trophy for this contest, it would be called the "Jim Haller Trophy".

Thank you and get those entries in the email to me as soon as possible!!