re: Wayne. The Searchers & Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance are probably his best Westerns, so you could argue they’re his best performances. I just think his character in Quiet Man was his most interesting, and I loved the story, the setting and Maureen O’Hara (I’m a sucker for a pretty redhead) in that one. I agree with you that Ward Bond was great in that too, and Barry Fitzgerald (another regular sidekick and Duke drinking buddy) but I maintain Wayne showed bonafide leading man chops here.

Wayne’s Westerns and World War II movies sorta blur together for me. Seen one, seen ‘em all. Quiet Man stands alone.

I’ve made a note to check out Viva Zapata. Early Brando’s a ham, but I like his brand of ham.

[22] and on a tip from pugzilla sounds like I gotta hunt down Will Penny.

Any movie with Alec Guinness in those days is worth seeing! Especially “Kind Hearts & Coronoets” where he plays 7 characters…amazing black comedy.

I did see some of those movies; Viva Zapata was interesting, as Brando was always interesting when he was young, The Bad & The Beautiful was excellent and Jose Ferrer is riveting in just about anything, so don’t run away from this Moulin Rouge. I don’t quite remember The Lavender Hill Gang, so I reserve comment. High Noon is top shelf Gary Cooper and indeed one of the best westerns straight up and down. Still, I prefer Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns, so in terms of the top shelf, I include it with them, but don’t think it’s better than The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.

The Quiet Man? I think he’s done better; I seem to remember Ward Bond more in that movie than John Wayne…

Another good western of the vein of High Noon, if not the same echelon, is The Gunfighter with Gregory Peck. I would love to do a modern adaption.

I mean, Toriiii Huunter? Golden Glove. Oy.

For what it is worth, I didn’t think Tex was being dissed in the piece, I thought Goldman was (rightly) suggesting Jeter’s season, in overall context was a more valuable one. I’d have put Tex 4th, myself, behind Cabrera until the last weekend. Think Cabrera got hurt by the drinking disaster? I do. And I think he deserved to be. This is ‘most valuable’ not ‘best’… you don’t show up on the last weekend?

If “great” is defined as one of the 15 best 1B seasons of all time, (then one cannot call Tex’s season “great”, because there are at least 15 other, better seasons at first base (such as Pujols, 2009, among others). Thus, viewed in such a way – or that is to say, comparing what Tex 2009 did against all 1B across all time – Tex’s 2009 season was not great, and Goldman is absolutely correct.

FWIW, I think this is exactly what he was saying, and it makes sense to me.

Now, if one defines “great” as william does in [15], that is, an OPS+ (ugh) of 150 or better while playing gold glove defense at 1B, then being strict Tex is still not great, because his OPS+ was 149. ;) But in any case, by william’s definition, “great” is much broader than how Steven defined and used it, and he clearly means it to include Tex.

Thus whether or not Tex had a “great” season depends (duh) on how you define
“great”.

Nothing more to see here, move along . . .

1) Cabrera had a 142 OPS+ on a team with an OPS+ of 93. When considered relative to his team, Cabrera does close the gap on Mauer.

2) Was Arod responsible for Tex’ revival and the Yankees surge? If so (reasonable), he is a worthy MVP candidate. If not, missing 5+ weeks is a serious demerit (also reasonable).

3) Mariano Rivera is a closer who pitches high leverage and imparts a psychological advantage to the Yankees (i.e., the game is reduced to 7+ innings). If one believes that statement, he is worthy of MVP votes. If not, they he isn’t.