Dillon Hall Diaries: Kooch

I have been told that the most luxurious hotel in the state of Oklahoma is not really a hotel at all.  It's Headington Hall, the lodging facility at Oklahoma University where Sooner scholarship athletes lay their weary heads at night.  To call it a "dorm" would be an insult to the OU athletic department.  Check out these amenities: a study lounge and a laundry room on every floor, open 24/7; a commons area on every floor, where social and educational programs are hosted; a dining hall with many food options, a game room containing pool tables and ping pong tables; a media lounge with HD flat screen televisions and surround sound, plus blu ray machines; a seminar room, a reading room and private study rooms; an academic lounge, a performing arts theater and a technology center.  Most of the sleeping quarters are suites with quality furniture and kitchenettes.   

Many other colleges with huge athletic budgets follow a similar track, although OU is probably the most extreme example of a place where scholarship athletes are afforded accommodations which set them apart from most of the general student population.  We also hear a lot about practice facilities and how they play a major role in the recruitment process.  The one year old Athletes' Village at the University Of Minnesota, with a price tag of $166 million, is an example of how schools which wish to be competitive must keep up with the Joneses.  It's all part of the arms race.   Other perks might include training table meals, first dibs on "Easy A" classes, individualized tutorial help, and even an eased admission policy for prospective student athletes with subpar academic credentials.  Athletes admitted under such eased conditions are sometimes called "exceptions."  Heck, the University Of North Carolina even gave credit for non-existent classes to some of their "student" athletes, a scam that went undetected for years.  We'd better not get into the hiring of strippers to entertain basketball recruits at the University Of Louisville, alleged to have occurred under the watch of former head coach Rick Pitino.

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You would be hard pressed to find an athletic dorm among the thirty residence halls at the University Of Notre Dame.  That's because no such thing exists.  The ND philosophy is that the student athletes should blend in with the rest of student body.  The athletes are sprinkled around campus and, to the extent their in-season team obligations allow, live much the same life as their "non-jock" classmates.

That is the background in which Bob Kuechenberg became my roommate in Dillon Hall during our senior year.  Well, okay, I'm guilty of a slight exaggeration; Bob was my suite mate, not my roommate.  It sounds a little more civilized to call him my suite mate than to say we, together with our roomies, Wayne and Mike, shared the semi-private bathroom which was between our two rooms.  Kuechenberg, better known as "Kooch," was a three year starter on the Irish football team.  This was the Era of Ara -- named for head coach Ara Parseghian -- when more often than not Notre Dame was in the running for the national championship, the only goal that mattered since we were (and remain) an independent.  (Mission accomplished in my sophomore season, 1966, and also 1973 under Ara.)

Kooch was born on October 14, 1947, making him sixteen days older than I.  He passed away unexpectedly a week ago today in Florida, where he had lived since 1970.  The family announced that he died in his sleep; a heart attack is suspected, although not yet officially confirmed.

Kooch was from Hobart, Indiana, a suburb of the rough and tumble steel city of Gary.  At six foot two and around 255 pounds, he was all muscle, and on the football field, all business.  When Kooch walked into your room it felt like the square footage of the space shrank exponentially.  He started his ND career as an offensive tackle.  In one of the most famous games in ND history, the 10-10 tie at Michigan State in 1966, he lined up across from Spartan All American defensive end Bubba Smith on virtually every snap.  As a junior Kooch moved to defensive end to fill in for an injured teammate, then back to starting guard on offense his senior year.  Kooch told a Miami sportswriter many years later that he thought his having to switch between O-line and D-line in college might have caused him to slip to the fourth round in the 1969 draft, especially since Ara then moved him from his old spot, tackle, to guard.  Admittedly, Ara had a valid reason for doing so.  The guy who'd slipped into Kooch's old spot was George Kunz, probably the best offensive tackle on any of Ara's eleven Irish teams, a consensus All American and the number 2 overall pick in the 1969 NFL draft (going to the Atlanta Falcons).

Kooch was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1969, and had a cup of coffee with the Falcons later that year.  He married his high school sweetheart the same year, and ended up playing for a semi-pro team in Chicago, the Owls.  After a tryout with the Miami Dolphins he signed as a free agent in 1970, and ended up playing fourteen years for the "Fins," all that time under the legendary Hall Of Fame coach Don Shula.

Kooch's accolades as a pro are too numerous to list in their entirety, but I would not be doing him justice if I didn't mention a few.  Most football fans of my vintage know that Kooch was a key contributor on three championship teams: Notre Dame's 1966 national champion, and the Miami Dolphins' Super Bowl champs of 1972 and 1973.  There is a little known but almost equally important fourth championship involving Kooch; I will describe it momentarily. 

Many NFL players have a career lasting ten or fifteen years and never reach the Super Bowl.  In the Dolphins' franchise history, they have made five Super Bowl appearances; Kooch was the starting right guard in the first four of them.   Kooch only had to wait until his second year with Miami to experience his first such start.  Unfortunately his team lost by three touchdowns to the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl VI.  Kooch's mano-a-mano adversary that game was Hall Of Fame defensive tackle Bob Lilly.

The following season begat one of the greatest teams in NFL history, the Dolphins, who ran the table for a perfect season, 14-0.  That team remains the only one which has ever gone undefeated throughout both the regular season and the playoffs, including Super Bowl VII, a seven point victory over the Washington Redskins.  You have probably seen pictures of Kooch and his old teammates lighting up cigars each year when the last remaining undefeated NFL team suffers a loss, thereby preserving the '72 Fins' place in history.

Then there was Super Bowl VIII, an easy 24-7 demolition of the Minnesota Vikings.  The Vikings featured their supposedly unstoppable defensive front four known as the Purple People Eaters: Carl Eller, Alan Page, Gary Larsen and Jim Marshall.  Page, a fellow Notre Dame alum (Class of 1967), lined up across from Kooch and never got a whiff of the Miami QB, Bob Griese.  The Dolphins' offense was so dominant that Griese only had to pass seven times during the entire game.

Finally there was Super Bowl XVII following the 1982 season.  The Dolphins came up short, losing to the Redskins by ten.

Despite his prominent role in helping Miami reach four Super Bowls, plus being a six time selection to the Pro Bowl and an Associated Press All-Pro three seasons, Kooch was never elected into the NFL Hall Of Fame.  It was little solace to him that he was a finalist for Hall induction eight times.  One explanation offered by many so-called experts is the fact that three of his Miami offensive line mates, Larry Little, Jim Langer (a product of Royalton, Minnesota High School) and Dwight Stephenson, were all voted into the Hall, thus diluting his chances.  Here is what Coach Shula had to say: "I've coached a lot of Hall Of Fame Players, including a number of offensive linemen, and Kooch was as good as any of them.  He gave everything he had on every snap."

The highest honor bestowed on Kooch occurred on December 15, 1995 when he was added to the Dolphins' Ring Of Honor.  At the time, he was just the eighth player so anointed, and the only one of them not enshrined in the Hall Of Fame.  He retired after the 1984 season after having played in 196 games, the third most in Dolphins' history.  An amazing Kuechenberg stat:  In his entire career, he was called for holding a mere 15 times.

***

And now for a description of that fourth championship I promised.  In the spring of 1969, a movement was started in Dillon Hall to conduct a beer drinking contest.  In order to appreciate the atmosphere, you have to realize that out of the dorm's 325 residents, aka Dillon Dirt Bags, more than 225 of us no doubt considered ourselves quite proficient in the art of beer drinking.  After all, what else (besides studying) was there to do when the cold March air was cutting across campus from nearby Lake Michigan?  [Note: That's a rhetorical question.  For a real answer check out my post from September 9, 2014, Dillon Hall Diaries: Kiwi Can Contests.]

The Dillon beer drinking contest had just one rule.  You had to drink a shot of beer every 30 seconds.  My friends and I scoffed at the leniency and ease of such a regulation.  Surely we could stick with that program for hours.  We were wrong.  When forced to drink beer at that rate, pretty soon it doesn't go down the hatch before it's time to quaff another.  I felt so humiliated when I had to throw in the towel after nine shots.  I didn't even feel a buzz, but my esophagus was about to rupture.

I was surprised Kooch was talked into participating.  Between football commitments and Vomit Comet trips home to the Gary/Hobart area, we didn't see a lot of him on weekends.  But once he signed up for the contest, it was almost inevitable he'd be crowned the champ.  As I recall, he put down 237 shots, one every 30 seconds.  The number sticks in my mind first of all because he beat the second place finisher by over 100, and secondly because I remember talking about his remarkable feat when I came home shortly thereafter for spring break.

***

Following his death, Kooch's family requested that memorials be forwarded to The Buoniconti Fund To Cure Paralysis, a non-profit organized to assist The Miami Project. The Miami Project is a spinal cord injury research center owned by and located at the University Of Miami.  The Project was co-founded by Nick Buoniconti thirty-four years ago following a spinal cord injury sustained by Nick's son, Marc, in a college football game.  Nick Buoniconti played football for Notre Dame, Class of 1962, and was Kooch's Dolphins teammate for six NFL seasons.

I have sent a check for $67 to the Buoniconti Fund, the significance of that dollar amount matching Kooch's Miami jersey, number 67.  If he and I ever meet at that Big Senior Bar In The Sky, he'll probably ask why I didn't make the dollar amount 69, the year we graduated from Notre Dame.    

Movie Review: "Green Book"

"Green Book": A-.  Two men who could not me more dissimilar set out on a road trip from New York to the Deep South.  One of them, Don Shirley, is a renowned classical pianist living in New York City, where he plays in Manhattan's most famous concert halls to silk stocking audiences.  Don is dignified, cultured, smooth and educated.  His only apparent problem is the color of his skin, black.  Why is that a problem?  Because this is 1962 and his record label has booked him on an eight week tour which will take him through the Jim Crow South.  Thus, Don needs more than a chauffeur; he needs a protector.  Enter Frank Vallelonga, better known as "Tony Lip."

Tony is a bouncer in a New York night club.  Within the movie's first ten minutes we are treated to two entertaining glimpses of what lies ahead.  Tony talks the club's gullible hat check girl into letting him have a hat which he knows belongs to a powerful guest, probably a mobster.  A few hours after the hat's owner goes berserk upon learning his hat has disappeared, Tony miraculously "finds" the chapeau and presents it to the man, who insists Tony accept a reward.  Also, disregarding threats upon his life, Tony punches out a hoodlum who was causing a disturbance at the club.  Despite these unsavory early glimpses of Tony, he manages to come across as kind of a lovable lug.

When the club temporarily closes, Tony needs a job, a predicament which fits nicely with Don's circumstances.  The interview in Don's plush apartment does not go well, but Don is smart enough to realize he may need some muscle to get him through the South.  This does not impress us as a match made in heaven, but crackerjack writing by a trio comprised of director Peter Farrelly, Brian Currie, and Tony's real-life son, Nick Vallelonga, coupled with the brilliant acting of the two leads, Viggo Mortensen as Tony and Mahershala Ali as Don, results in near perfection.

At the outset we figure that Tony's bad habits and uncouth manner may turn out to be more than Don can bear.  The smoking, the slang, the lack of "book smarts," the carefree attitude and approach to life.  Little by little it chips away at Don's patience.  But over the course of many hours together, whether it be in the car, their shared motel rooms, restaurants or elsewhere, Don comes to the realization that, beyond transportation and preservation, the relationship between these two men can be more of a two way street.  Some things Tony has to offer are actually worthwhile, if not beneficial to Don's better understanding of himself.  The two men go from a distant "putting up with each other" to a mutual admiration and friendship.

Even before I stepped into the theater I knew this film had two huge plusses in its favor.  First, I have somewhat of a predilection for so-called "buddy road trip movies."  (Okay, I loved Thelma And Louise too!)  The setup lends itself to character development, clever dialogue, and something else a linear guy like me appreciates: a beginning, a middle and an end.  Green Book checks all three boxes. Secondly, I consider Mortensen and Ali to be two of the finest cinema actors in the modern era.  (For confirmation, check out 2007's Eastern Promises and 2016's Moonlight, respectively, both of which I graded A-.)  In Green Book, Don transcends from coldly intellectual to approachable congeniality, while Tony's change is from tomato can to guardian angel.

There are several human touches in this film which deserve a shout out.  The Italian meals cooked by Tony's wife, Dolores (Linda Carelini), and served to a full table of family and friends made my mouth water and reminded me of Sunday dinners at my grandma's in Chicago.  The periodic letters penned by Tony to Dolores, little by little improving in quality and artistry to the point where authorship was obviously assisted by Ali.  And finally, Don's epiphany upon hearing Tony's claim that he, Tony, a man who grew up on the mean city streets, was in some ways "blacker" than Ali.

The film's title refers to a guide book written by a black man, Victor Hugo Green, for the benefit of African Americans traveling through the South.  It listed motels, restaurants and other facilities at which they were welcomed.  Many editions were published following Green's death in 1960, and, sadly, even after the first Civil Rights Act signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964.             

Movie Review: "A Star Is Born"

"A Star Is Born": B+.  After watching my oldest granddaughter, five year old Rosie, make her ballet debut recently at the beautiful Masonic Heritage Center, the thought occurred to me that I never posted my review of A Star Is Born.  In a way, the film's title serves two purposes.  First, it is a succinct summary of the story's arc.  Secondly, in real life it reflects the revelation of Lady Gaga as a legitimate actress, one who has already gained international fame as a multi-faceted singer.

A Star Is Born is a love story about two singers trending in opposite directions.  Bradley Cooper, who produced, directed, and co-wrote the script, plays Jackson Maine, a country super star.  He fronts his own band, performing before huge adoring crowds.  But Jackson clearly has his demons even though professionally he's at the top of his game. Jackson's M.O. is to cool down after each show by having his limo driver cruise the city streets while he mixes hard drugs and booze in the back seat.

It is during one of these late night binges that he stumbles into a drag bar.  There, he becomes fixated by the featured singer, Ally (Gaga), and uses his celebrity status to insist that the bar's manager introduce him to her.  She is star struck and he is smitten.  As their relationship grows stronger, he coaches her vocal efforts and invites her to join him on stage, thus putting her in a position to display her talents to arena and stadium crowds versus small clubs.  He even writes songs for her. This is the real deal, not just infatuation.

Every successful cinema love story requires the chemistry to work between the leads.  This has proven to be one of Cooper's skills as an actor -- witness 2012's Silver Linings Playbook (reviewed here November 24, 2012; B+) with Jennifer Lawrence.  No doubt his matinee idol good looks is a valuable starting point.  Gaga, an inexperienced actress, might have been a surprise casting decision, but as it turns out, a brilliant choice.  She has just the right charisma to mold into the character of Ally, a rags-to riches ingenue possessing outstanding vocal talent.

Aside from the discovery of Gaga as an exceptional actress, the greatest strength of the film is the wonderful music, one keeper followed by another.  Some of the concert footage was shot at Coachella, a humongous annual outdoor concert.  With several cameras situated behind Jackson and his fellow band members, we get a sense of what they are seeing and feeling as they go through their set list.  It impressed me as being similar to an Imax experience, without the Imax screen.

Ironically, even though the soundtrack is a definite plus for A Star Is Born, the "music side" of the story also is responsible for most of the negatives.  Biggest among them is the change in direction championed by Rez Gavron (Rafi Gavron), who becomes Ally's agent.  He convinces her to change her genre from folk/singer-songwriter tunes to a pop/dance party sound.  I could not buy into this shift, but alas, Ally did.  In the last stages of the movie, Rez also has a private conversation with Jackson which leads to unfortunate consequences.  Why anything said by Rez, a person Jackson has no reason to trust and whose opinion he'd be unlikely to respect, should have any impact on Jackson is a puzzle and defies logic.

The Cooper-Gaga version is the fourth remake of the original 1937 movie of the same title.  The challenge for Cooper as director and script co-writer is to maintain the interest of the thousands of viewers who are probably already familiar with the story's conclusion.  The aforementioned conversation between Jackson and Rez is problematic, but to give credit where it's due, the last ten minutes of the film partially make up for it.

Unlike my daughter Jill who has seen this film twice in rapid succession and may even go again, I predict that I will not feel the urge to rewatch it, but many songs from the soundtrack merit inclusion on one or more of my go-to playlists.

Movie Review: "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"

"Can You Ever Forgive Me?": B+.  As many skilled actors and actresses do, Melissa McCarthy steps out of her usual comedic comfort zone to take on a serious role in her latest film, Can You Ever Forgive Me?  McCarthy plays Lee Israel, a once popular novelist whose works are now ignominiously stashed on the bargain table in a few small independent bookstores.  Before we can muster any sympathy for Israel, we see her summarily dismissed from a menial clerical job for swearing at her co-workers without provocation.  Clearly this is an unsavory, angry woman who devolves into a pathetic criminal.

Even when she was employed, Israel is practically destitute.  The vet won't look at her sick cat until she comes up with the $90 she owes from previous visits.  Her landlord, although sympathetic to a degree, cautions her that she is close to eviction for past due rent.  She resorts to gathering up books scattered throughout her dingy apartment and carting them to a used book store.  There, a snotty clerk humiliates her in front of other customers, telling her in effect that Lee Israel books are so yesterday.

Although Israel is presumably intelligent and educated, she has convinced herself that the only feasible way she can make a living is by writing.  Her alcoholism no doubt clouds her judgment.  Her long-time agent, Marjorie (SNL veteran Jane Curtin), is bluntly honest with her, trying to convince Israel that there will be absolutely no market for her current writing project, a Fanny Brice biography.  Israel is not convinced.

It is during her research on Brice in a New York public library when Israel makes a discovery which sends her down the road to perdition.  Tucked inside a crusty old volume is a letter which is handwritten by Brice.  After looking over her shoulder to make sure no one is watching, Israel slips the letter into her purse and absconds with it.  A shop owner, Anna (Dolly Wells), whose acquaintance Israel has made, offers her a small sum for the letter, apologizing that she'd be willing to offer more if only the contents weren't so bland.  This apology sows the sinister seed in Israel's mind.  Why not forge letters from famous novelists, playwrights and actors of years gone by and then pass them off as authentic treasures?

Israel uses her writing talents for this very purpose.  She has the ability to concoct expressions and phrases which closely approximate the actual writings of the deceased persons she's imitating.  Her specialties include Dorothy Parker, Noel Coward and Edna Ferber.  This introduces us to a fascinating world I knew little about: dealers who buy and sell collections and various artifacts of former celebrities.  Israel's plan works brilliantly, until it doesn't.  And when it doesn't, things spiral south in a hurry. 

As much as I admire McCarthy's risk-taking for delving into a new (for her) type of character, my favorite of the film's several features is the performance of Swazi-British actor Richard E. Grant.  He plays the role of Israel's complex friend, Jack Hock.  Wearing a long scarf and a tweed jacket, Jack initially gives the appearance of a bon vivant, seriously interested in literature and Israel's resume as a once-popular author.  We find out, simultaneously with Lee, that Jack is, in fact, homeless, a street person whose confidence and presence belie his true lifestyle.  When Lee realizes that she may have gone too far in her game of forgery, she enlists Jack as her partner in crime.  This enhanced level of their relationship leads to both humorous highs and unfortunate lows.

There is an old saying that truth is stranger than fiction.  Can You Ever Forgive Me?, which is based on the memoir of Lee Israel, furnishes strong support for that adage.

Movie Review: "The Wife"

"The Wife": C.  When Sony Pictures distributed The Wife it chose a promotional campaign focusing on the acting talents of Glenn Close who plays the title character, Joan Castleman.  Most of the national reviewers, some of whom rarely have a discouraging word about any film whatsoever, followed along a similar vein, emphasizing the work of Close and writing relatively little about the story itself.  After having seen the picture in question, I can see why.  The film is a slogging dud, and the only reason to fork over your admission fee is to ascertain whether the veteran actress deserves the Oscar nomination she is likely to receive.

The plot involves a married couple, Joan and her husband Joe (Jonathan Pryce), who first meet illicitly when she is a student at Smith College and he is her married writing professor.  From their earliest years together she has served first as his editor and eventually as his secret ghost writer.  If not for Joan, it's likely Joe would have never been able to get his first novel, The Walnut, or for that matter any of his subsequent offerings, published.

Joe is a philanderer, a chauvinist, a phony and an unsupportive father, yet Jane, a bright woman, sticks with him.  We learn both from flashbacks and the present narration that he owes every bit of his success to her.  But her help goes beyond what is ethically acceptable; she is the person actually doing the writing for which he is accepting all the credit, even going so far as to tell the press that his wife does not write.  Jane seethes covertly, but when her husband wins the Nobel Prize for literature, things between them come to a boil.

There are several things wrong with this film, the most important being that lack of a surprise element.  I got the feeling that the filmmakers' plan was to stun the viewers with a late revelation that the real writer whose books were universally acclaimed was Jane, not Joe.  The problem with that plan is that anyone who saw the trailer for The Wife already knew going in that Jane was the one penning the stories.  (By the way, the trailer played in theaters and on television for weeks before its Twin Cities release on August 31.)  Even if you never saw the trailer, the cat is let out of the bag with the very first flashback to Jane's days in the sixties as a serious and potentially great writer at Smith.  The part of young Jane is played by Close's real life daughter, Annie Starke.

A second fault with the film is its dearth of realistic, interesting side characters.  Christian Slater plays Nathaniel, a non-fiction writer who practically stalks the Castlemans with the goal of writing an authorized (or, failing that, an unauthorized) biography about Joe.  He knows his preys' secret and tries to get an admission from Jane.  Slater comes across as a weasel.  Max Irons, the real life son of actor Jeremy Irons, plays the Castlemans' son David.  I am going to give Irons the benefit of a doubt and conclude that it was a weak script, not his acting, which made me wish his character had been left on the cutting room floor.

Finally, screenwriter Jane Anderson, adapting an original work by Meg Wolitzer, gets a thumbs down.  Besides the miscalculation on the audience's ability to unravel "the secret" before the half-way point, the script has many sections which deserve criticism.  The low point is a scene in the Castlemans' Stockholm hotel room where Joe, who had minutes earlier failed in his seduction attempt with a beautiful young photographer, Linnea (Karin Franz Korlof), accuses Jane of deserting him, even though it is 4:00 in the afternoon!  The dialogue imposed upon the actors here is anything but sharp, and who could not have correctly predicted that the walnut -- yes, the walnut!-- on which Joe had inscribed a sentiment to Linnea was going to be uncovered by Jane while grappling with Joe?

Seventy-one year old Close is thought of by many in connection with her contemporary Meryl Streep, who is two years younger.  Close's film career began in 1982 with The World According To Garp, and she has had very steady work ever since.  Streep got her first break with 1977's Julia, and is one of the most highly acclaimed film actresses of all time.  Streep has been nominated for twenty-one Academy Awards, winning once for Best Supporting Actress and twice for Best Actress.  Close has been nominated six times, three in each of the two aforementioned categories, but has not caught the brass ring.  It would not come as a shock if Close is not only nominated for her work in The Wife but also, as a sentimental acknowledgement for a solid and long career, is sent home with the gold statuette.

Baseball's Newest Innovation, Openers

The World Series ended last night with the Red Sox out-classing the Dodgers, four games to one.  I did not have a dog in the hunt although I must admit that, in virtually any contest involving a California team versus non-Cali, I pull for the latter.  As for a reason I'll just say it has something to do with my nine post-merger years working at Wells Fargo, and let it go at that.  Now I must wait five cold months for the best sport to resume play.  Before bidding farewell to the season I'm going to write about the game one more time.

***

Depending on your resource, the game of baseball is believed to have originated toward the end of the nineteenth century.  For decades it was commonly labeled "America's favorite pastime" even though today the sport's enthusiasts would have to admit professional football has surpassed baseball for the top spot.  The undeniable popularity of fantasy football accounts for much of the pigskin prevalence.

MLB's executives have tried tweaking baseball's rules to make the game more interesting to viewers, especially young people.  But it's hard to accomplish that goal without incurring the wrath of the purists and traditionalists who think the rules are fine as is.  It is interesting to note that most of baseball's changes during the last ten years have been what you might call "cosmetic" rather than integral to the sport's core.  For example, since 2008 first and third base coaches have been required to wear batting helmets, the catalyst being the death of Mike Coolbaugh, a coach for the Denver Rockies' Class AA affiliate, Tulsa, in July 2007.  He was struck by a line drive while coaching first base.  Concern for safety has also led to the installation of protective netting in front of the infield seats from dugout to dugout (and in some stadia, beyond).  This came about only after several fans were seriously injured by screaming line drive foul balls.

Other more recent rules changes include waiving an intentionally walked batter to first base rather than going through the formality of the pitcher tossing four balls out of the strike zone, and limiting the number of mound visits, excluding pitching changes, to six per nine inning game.  Both of these revisions are intended to speed up the game.  The latter change has noticeably served its intended purpose; the former is more form over substance.

Since the advent of the designated hitter by the American League in 1973 there have been only two changes which clearly affect managerial strategy and the way baseball is played. It is pretty hard for a manager to come up with a unique concept or innovative approach which hasn't already been tried by the hundreds of managers who've come before, including those like Hall Of Famers Whitey Herzog, Sparky Anderson and Earl Weaver.  The first of those two changes was the employment of exaggerated defensive infield shifts.  Although infield shifts have been around since the 1940's, no one paid much attention to them until the last five years or so.  Now shifts are a prominent part of game planning, with several teams even going so far as to change their infield alignment once or twice during the same at bat, depending on the pitch count.  I'm going to save discussion of infield shifts for another day. 

The second major post-1973 change was created this season, specifically on May 19, 2018.  It was in the Tampa Bay Rays game that day against the California Angels that Rays manager, forty year old Kevin Cash (at the time MLB's youngest manager), came up with an idea that has been copied numerous times in the remaining five months of the season:  the "opener."  An opener, not to be confused with a "starter," is a pitcher who begins the game for the express purpose of throwing only one or (at the most) two innings.  His job is to face the top three to six players in the opponent's batting order, after which he is replaced by a teammate who usually functions as a regular starter in his team's five-man rotation.  The regular starter them pitches as long as he is able, which in today's style of play usually means anywhere from five to seven innings.

In that historical spring game, Cash had Sergio Romo open the game.  The thirty-five year old veteran had appeared in 588 games during his long career, but never as a starter!  Romo was unfazed by his new job description, striking out the side in the bottom of the first.  Then, according to plan, Rays regular starter Ryan Yarbrough took over the pitching duties to begin the home half of the second, hurling six and a-third innings of four hit ball, yielding just one earned run to pick up the win.

Why do managers use an opener to pitch the first inning or two instead of simply going with one of their regular starters?  There are a handful of reasons, but the two I'd place at the top both have to do with the opponent's batting order.

Third Time Through Order:  Statistics show that starting pitchers are less effective the third time through the lineup.  This is the result of a combination of arm fatigue and batters' familiarity with the pitcher's "stuff."  By the time a lineup has turned over twice, most starters, if they are still on the mound, have thrown more than seventy pitches.  Their fast ball tends to lose a little velocity, and their breaking ball isn't spinning as much.  When the fast ball is slower than it was in the early innings, not only is it easier to hit, but the difference in speed between fast ball and changeup diminishes, an advantage for the hitter who is sitting on a fastball but can more easily make an adjustment if he gets a changeup.

By using an opener for an inning or two, the starting pitcher's third time through the lineup is more likely to begin with opponents at the bottom of the order (say, those in the 7, 8 and 9 holes) than the top.  A team's weakest hitters usually occupy the bottom third of the order.

Professional Courtesy:  As you know, baseball has many so-called unwritten rules.  For example, it is deemed unsportsmanlike to lay down a late inning bunt in an effort to break up a no hitter.  Another no no is to steal a base in the last inning or two if your team is winning by more than seven runs.

An unwritten rule germane to this post is the practice of each manager announcing at least one day ahead of time who his starting pitcher -- i.e., the one designated to pitch the first inning -- is going to be.  Although managers are not mandated to make such a proclamation, it is nevertheless offered as a professional courtesy.  Most managers will set up their batting order to utilize and emphasize left handed batters facing a right handed starting pitcher, and visa versa.

The use of an opener makes the rendering of such a courtesy almost useless.  When the opponent uses an opener followed soon by a regular starter who pitches with the opposite arm, a manager's best laid plans can be thrown asunder.  For example, let's say a manager stacks his lineup with left-handed batters because the opponent's announced starting pitcher is a righty.  If a different pitcher, this time a southpaw, enters the game in the second or third inning, that manager must choose between two poisons: use pinch hitters early in the game, or be stuck with his original lineup which he drew up thinking that it would work well against the guy who turned out to be merely an opener.

Other Reasons:  A team might choose to use an opener if no one in its regular five man rotation has had the standard four days of rest between starts.  This can result from double headers or previously postponed games which now have to be made up.  On the flip side, a manager might choose to use as an opener a relief pitcher who hasn't pitched in a week, just to give him some work.

The Rays ended up using an opener fifty-four more times this season after May 19.  Seven other teams, including the Twins, experimented with the innovation as well.  The Brewers manager, Craig Counsell, took the concept to an extreme in the final week of the season when he used relief pitcher Dan Jennings as the opener, then replaced him with another pitcher after Jennings had faced only one batter, the Cardinals' Matt Carpenter, whom he retired.  One clever Twitter fan opined that Counsell brought in Freddy Peralta for Jennings to preserve the no hitter.  No wonder baseball games last so long!

Kevin Cash and Craig Counsell, ages 40 and 48, respectively, are both youthful managers.  Young managers are more likely to think outside the box, bucking methodologies which have been around for more than a century.  Last week the Twins hired Rocco Baldelli as their new field general.  At age 37, he supplants Cash as MLB's youngest.  It would not surprise me to see Baldelli use openers for around 20% of the Twins games next season, especially given the fact that the team has only two regular starters, Jose Berrios and Kyle Gibson, whose places in the rotation are etched in stone.

Quarterly Cinema Scan - Volume XXXIII

Look out for Miss Lotte Lenya,
And ol' Lucy Brown- Mack The Knife (Bobby Darin, 1959)


Movie lovers who claim that the best James Bond movies were those in which Scottish actor Sean Connery played Agent 007 (pronounced "double-O seven") typically receive little argument.  There have been twenty-four Bond films going back to 1962, with the chic, debonaire Connery starring in the first seven.  The first four in the series set the bar high: Doctor No (1962), From Russia With Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964) and Thunderball (1965).  Since they were released during each of my high school years, I consider them main elements in the pop culture of my youth.

Bond was a creation of British novelist Ian Fleming, who unfortunately died at the relatively young age of fifty-six in 1964, just as his fictitious hero was becoming internationally famous via the silver screen.  You might say that James Bond was Sean Connery's alter ego.  Connery became so identified as the secret agent that it took years for audiences to accept him in other roles.  The handsome Bond character exuded confidence, calmness, bravery, a sense of derring-do, and most importantly, a keen wit on display especially at the end of certain scenes.  [Bond after the bad guys' helicopter crashes and burns: "I'd say one of their aircraft is missing."]  With those attributes in mind, perhaps Connery was born to play Bond.  And of course, Bond was a lady killer.  Some of the most ravishing actresses of the day were "Bond Girls," including Ursula Andress, Honor Blackman and Jill St. John.

Last month I had the chance to watch From Russia With Love, which I had not seen since my Minot days.  Almost all of the several rankings of Bond films available on the internet have From Russia With Love graded as one of the top three.  Inquiring minds want to know, "Why?"

For starters, all the requisites for a bona fide Bond caper are present in From Russia With Love.  Beautiful leading lady who falls for the Englishman?  Check (Russian Tatiana Romanova played by the gorgeous Italian actress Daniela Bianchi).  A wicked mastermind with a distinctive accent and a memorable name?  Check (Lotte Lenya as Colonel Klebb, aka Number 3).  A cold blooded assassin?  Check (an almost unrecognizably young Robert Shaw as Red Grant, who appears throughout the film but doesn't utter a word 'till half way through).  Then we have other Bond staples such as the slightly older homeland secretary, Miss Moneypenny, who has a tongue-in-cheek office flirtation game going with Bond, all the while realizing that the chicks in whom 007 is romantically interested are at least ten years younger than she.  Lois Maxwell plays that minor yet essential role in the first fourteen films in the series.  And what would a Bond film be without some gadgets?  There are plenty of them here, such as a folding sniper's rifle with infra-red night vision capabilities and a flat throwing knife, the important difference being they are secretly contained in a single attache case which will explode unless opened in an unconventional way.

What sets From Russia apart from many films of its genre is the plot, which is more clever and layered than your typical spy action story.  Colonel Klebb has defected from Mother Russia to Spectre, an evil organization with designs on taking over the world.  She is called upon to execute a plan devised by creepy chess grand master Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal), whereby not only will Spectre gain possession of a top secret Russian communications device called a Lektor, but Bond will be permanently silenced as well.  Klebb dupes Romanova, a clerk in the Russian consulate office in Istanbul, into agreeing to pull off the Lektor theft, believing it to be an act of loyalty to the mother country and unaware of Klebb's defection.  Under orders from Klebb, Romanova convinces the Brits that she will turn over the Lektor to them, but only if Bond arrives in Istanbul to assist.  When Bond sees her photo, he does not need his arm twisted to accept the assignment.

From there we have Bulgarian killers working for the Russians, a pro-western Turk (Pedro Armendariz) with a secret telescope directly below the Russian consulate, a gypsy camp where Bond hides out and is immersed in a shootout, a ride aboard the Orient Express, a helicopter trying in vain to run down Bond (reminiscent of the famous crop dusting scene in North By Northwest), and gondola excursions on the canals of Venice.  It's all great fun.  There are even two scenes, following what I mistakenly took for the ending, where Bond comes face to face with imminent death.  Against all odds he lives for another day.

****

These are the movies I watched at home during the third quarter.

1. Charley Varrick (1973 drama; Walter Matthau and Andy Robinson rob a rural New Mexico bank only to find that their loot belongs to the mafia and hit man Joe Don Baker has been hired to retrieve it.)  B+

2. The Death Of Stalin  (2017 comedy; Steve Buscemi plays Nikita Khrushchev, the master plotter who out-schemes and out-maneuvers several Communist Party leaders to assume control of the Soviet Union when its dictator, Adrian McLoughlin as Joseph Stalin, dies in 1953.)  B-

3. East Of Eden (1955 drama; disillusioned James Dean tries to come to grips with the favoritism father Raymond Massey bestows upon older brother Richard Davalos, while Richard's girlfriend, Julie Harris, becomes the only person who sees Dean's good side.)  C+

4. Faithless (1932 romance; repercussions from the Great Depression wreak havoc on the relationship between heiress Tallulah Bankhead and marketing man Robert Montgomery.)  B

5. From Russia With Love (1963 James Bond thriller; Sean Connery goes to Istanbul to assist beautiful Russian Daniela Bianchi steal a top secret communications device.)  A-

6. The Girl He Left Behind (1956 comedy; college slacker Tab Hunter's lack of ambition turns off girlfriend Natalie Wood, resulting in Tab's military enlistment where he becomes an army slacker.)  D-

7. The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society (2018 romance; Lily James is an accomplished London author who immerses herself in the secrets of a book club started during the World War II German occupation of an English Channel isle.) A-

8. Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959 romance; a French actress, Emmanuelle Riva, has an affair with a married Japanese architect, Eiji Okada, while she is in Hiroshima to work on a post-war, peace-themed film.)  C+

9. Love Locks (2017 romance; New Yorker Rebecca Rominj accompanies daughter Jocelyn Hudon to Paris, where they unwittingly check into a hotel now owned by Rebecca's old college flame, Jerry O'Connell.)  B+

10. Tully (2017 drama; Charlize Theron is totally stressed out before and after giving birth to her third child, but things dramatically improve when a nighttime nanny, Mackenzie Davis, arrives.)  B

11. The Way We Were (1973 romance; Barbara Streisand, a left wing activist, and Robert Redford, an apolitical writer averse to stirring the pot, fall in love during their college days and proceed to have joy and heartbreak throughout the next decade.)  A-