Lee Lowenfish

I am a rooter at heart. I can watch sports events dispassionately but life always seems more vibrant and hopeful when my teams are doing well. So let me begin with good news on my favorite basketball teams, Columbia women and Wisconsin men.   

On Fri night Jan 31 in a game televised nationally on ESPNU, the Ivy League-leading Columbia's women's basketball team virtually ran Harvard's contenders out of their own gym in an 80-71 triumph. If Jalen Hurts and Pat Mahomes throw long passes as accurately as Lions guards Cece Collins and Kitty Henderson did on the last day of January, it will be a helluva Super Bowl. 

The Lions' BST (Big Scoring Three) of sophomore standout guard Riley Weiss and senior captains Collins and Henderson accounted for 65 of the team's points, but the bigger story was the defense that forced Harvard senior star Harmoni Turner and her teammates into several early turnovers that set the tone early on.

Columbia junior forward Susie Rafiu has become a steady presence on the court on both sides of the ball.  

The next afternoon at Dartmouth (and kudos to the Ivy League for scheduling earlier weekend games these days), the Lions experienced a not surprising letdown after the intensity of the Harvard game.  They fell behind 17-10 after one period but quickly got control in the second quarter. Led by Weiss's 26 points they won 71-48. Many reserves played good minutes in the second half as the Lions coasted to the victory and didn't need help from the other members of the BST.  

It's hard to believe that the regular season is half over. After a 2P matinee at Brown on Sa Feb 8, Columbia returns to face Dartmouth again on Valentine's Night at 7P and the Harvard rematch will be Su Feb 16 at noon, again televised on ESPNU. The rematch with Princeton will be at Jadwin Gym Sa Feb 22 at 530P again with national TV coverage. The Lions end the regular season with 3 games at home: Brown Fri Feb 28 at 4P, Yale Sa Mar 1 at 2P and Cornell Sa March 8 at 2P.  The top 4 teams in the league play in the tournament on FSa Mar 14 & 15 at the Pizzitola Sports Center on the Brown campus this year. The men compete on SaSu Mar 15 & 16 with all games, men and women, broadcast on ESPN channels.

Meanwhile down in Greenwich Village, the undefeated NYU Division III Violets go for 50 in a row on Fri night Feb 7 at 730P against the University of Chicago

five who they beat in the Windy City last Friday.  Another reprise happens on Sun at noon when Washington U of St. Louis comes into the Paulson Center on Mercer Street.  The Violets host Carnegie Mellon and Case Western on Feb 21 730P and Feb 23 12N.  The first and second rounds of the Division III

tournament will be Mar 7 & Mar 8 (probably at NYU), Sweet 16 & Elite 8 Mar 14 & Mar 15 and the Final Four this year will be in Salem, VA, Mar 20 & Mar 22.  

An interesting trial balloon was sent up last week by NBA commissioner Adam Silver when he suggested that maybe the league should consider switching to 10 minute quarters like the WNBA and all international play.  It probably won't happen - the old guard seems happy with the 12-minute periods - but it is a testimony to how exciting the women's game has become.   It is such a fast-paced game - as is the men's game - that rests after ten minutes of playing time could allow for more recovery time and also give the players something to shoot for - like winning each quarter.  

Meanwhile my Wisconsin Badgers, picked for 15th in the geographically expanded 18-team Big Ten, are 7-4 in the league and 17-5 overall as they prepare to face Indiana at home on Tu Feb 4 at 9P (on Peacock).     The Wisconsin comeback victory against Northwestern on Sat aft Feb 1, aired on FS1, was very heart-warming because senior forward Carter Gilmore, a walk-on who only this season has earned a full athletic scholarship, set a career high with 15 points and added 7 rebounds.  Gilmore is a product of small town Wisconsin whose father Brian Gilmore played for retired Hall of Fame coach Bo Ryan when UW-Platteville won the Division III title in 1991.  Carter's mother is in the UW-Platteville Hall of Fame after her outstanding basketball career.  

The schedule ahead for the Badgers is not easy.  After Indiana, they go on the road to Iowa on Sa Feb 8 at 1P on NBC, the following Sa Feb 15 they meet powerhouse Purdue in their raucous building.  On Tu Feb 18 at home 830P on FS1, they face Illinois, another title contender that has beaten Greg Gard's team NINE times in a row.  How they compete with these big boys will give us an indication of how far this team can go in March Madness. But to even have modest hopes in early February is a plus after all the dire forecasts and the wails and whines of the doom-and-gloom fair weather fans. 

Here's the rest of the schedule:  On Sa Feb 22 Badgers host Oregon at noon on the main Fox channel, Tu Feb 25 they host at 9P U of Washington on Peacock, Su Mar 2 at 130P CBS, host perennial power Michigan State, W Mar 5 visit Minnesota 830P on Big Ten Network, and end regular season vs. Penn State at home, Sa Mar 8 1P - all times in all the listings above EST  

AND NOW IN MEMORIAM FOR BASEBALL LIFERS WHO RECENTLY LEFT US:

BOB UECKER, 90, passed away on Jan 16 at the age of 90 after a long battle with leukemia.  I never met Uecker but from all accounts he was a memorable personage deeply devoted to his home area of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  He parlayed a career as a rarely-used backup catcher into a successful broadcasting and acting career. The latter was aided by his self-effacing appearances on Johnny Carson's NBC Tonight Show, the host dubbing Uecker "Mr. Baseball".

Uecker was hilarious as the play-by-play man in "Major League" and its two sequels and he also starred in TV's "Mr. Belvedere" series (and as a regular in the Miller LIte Beer TV ads), but in reality he was an excellent and underrated baseball broadcaster.  His call of Mets first baseman Pete Alonso's home run off the Brewers reliever Devin Williams (now a Yankee) that knocked Milwaukee out of the playoffs last October will be remembered forever. But I think that the measure of Uecker as a man is the story told that on the last days of their lives, Hall of Famers Hank Aaron and Bob Gibson phoned Uecker so they could get one more laugh from him.      

JEFF TORBORG, 83, died on Jan 19 after a multi-year battle with Parkinson's disease. I knew Torborg in the 1980s when he was a coach for 9 years with the Yankees and I was doing my WBAI "Seventh Inning Stretch" radio program.  Jeff was almost universally admired for his even temperament and deep knowledge of the game. He loved to talk baseball and when I quoted Muddy Ruel's lament that the catching gear were "the tools of ignorance," Torborg demurred with a laugh: "No, they are the instruments of the intelligentsia."

Signed for $100,000 out of Rutgers University by LA Dodgers scout Rudy Rufer (who later inked another NYC area product Bobby Valentine from Stamford CT),

Torborg never developed as a hitter but had an ten-year career as an outstanding defensive catcher. He caught three no-hitters - Sandy Koufax's 1965 perfect game, Bill Singer's 1970 gem, and Nolan Ryan's first no-hitter in 1973 when Jeff was catching for the Angels.

His greatest success as a manager came with the White Sox when he was voted 1990 AL Manager of the Year leading the Pale Hose to 94 wins.  He broke in as rookies the future Hall of Famer Frank Thomas and third baseman Robin Ventura who remembered him fondly when told the sad news. "I smile as I think of him in the dugout wearing his soccer cleats as he managed his team," Ventura wrote on legacy.com.  Thomas told the LA Times that he "gave me a chance to shine right away." Torborg's time as skipper of the 1992-93 Mets, immortalized as "the worst team that money can buy," was not happy and he didn't have great success later with the Expos and Marlins but his intelligence and good spirits will be his enduring legacy.        

In closing, there are not too many TCM sports movie tips in this post as the network plays Oscar films all month.  Noir Alley doesn't return until Mar 8.

But here are a few movies worth noting in the next two weeks:

W Feb 5 2P "The Stratton Story" (1949) the film that cemented Jimmy Stewart's place as a star.  He spent many weeks learning how to act and play ball with a brace on his leg to make believable the story of the onetime major league star pitcher Monty Stratton who got injured in a hunting accident.

Th Feb 6 915A "Strangers On A Train" (1951) vintage Hitchcock with some memorable scenes shot at Forest Hills Tennis Club as Farley Granger plays but

       tries to avoid demonic Robert Walker

               4P "Million Dollar Mermaid" (1952) an Esther Williams swimming flick with Walter Pidgeon, Victor Mature

W Feb 12 a boxing night starting with 8P "The Champ" (1931) with Wallace Beery and young Jackie Cooper

               945P "The Fighter" (2010) with Christian Bale

               12M "Raging Bull" (1980) Scorsese directs Robert DeNiro in the Jake LaMotta story

and the next three have nothing to do with sports but are true classics: 

Th Feb 13 8A "Naked City" (1948) Howard Duff, Barry Fitzgerald & others in the Mark Hellinger classic that he never lived to see in theaters but

    at least he saw in previews

              10A "Picture of Dorian Gray" (1945) with Hurd Hatfield, George Sanders, briefly Donna Reed - based on Oscar Wilde classic story

F Feb 14   10P "Marty" (1955) the surprise hit of the year with Ernest Borgnine but sadly the last film that Betsy Blair made in America - as I learned in the

      wonderful volume of interviews about the Hollywood blacklist TENDER COMRADES (1997) ed. by Patrick McGilligan and Paul Buhle, Blair never got another          Hollywood offer after this film despite its success - she made London her permanent home and married director Karel Reisz.  The greatness of

      TENDER COMRADES are the nuances brought out in the interviews.  She remained friendly with her ex-husband Gene Kelly whom she married when

      she was a teenager. 

That's all for now.  Always remember:  Take it easy but take it, and still despite everything STAY POSITIVE TEST NEGATIVE & STAY HEALTHY AND STAY SANE.

One of the well-worn yet correct cliches about the immense MLB season is that it is a marathon not a sprint.  Yet as autumn approaches, when there are barely 20 games left to determine division winners and wild card participants. each game takes on added importance. Only the mentally strong can balance the pressure of the schedule with the need to trust your own stuff and understand what you body is capable of doing on the given day. 

In the National League, two divisions have been long ago decided, Atlanta in NL East and LA Dodgers in NL West.  They are assured byes in the first round of the playoffs that will begin early in October with a best-of-3 wild card series in each league.   The third division champion doesn't get a bye but plays the third wild card in its league.  

For most of this season, the NL Central was surprisingly inept, the perennially contending Cardinals falling to the basement and no other team really excelling. But now two teams are comfortably above .500, the Brewers, before games of Mon Sep 11, leading the Cubs by 4 games and the surprising Reds also with a shot at the last wild card.

Defending NL champ Phillies have the lead in first wild card but only two games ahead of Cubs, narrowly holding 2nd wild card by two games over the surprising Diamondbacks who have a slight lead over Marlins with Reds and Giants still alive. 

You can't beat the drama of last weekend.  The Cubs salvaged the last game of a 4-game series against upstart Arizona at Wrigley Field.  Balls were flying unpredictably all over the ancient ballpark on Chicago's North Side, everywhere but towards the outfield stands as windblown home runs.  So pitching was at a premium and Zac Gallen, another onetime St. Louis Cardinal rashly traded, threw a complete game victory.

To me, the Cubs southpaw Justin Steele has established himself as a legitimate Cy Young contender - unlike Blake Snell of the vastly disappointing Padres, Steele wants to go deep into games and has 16 wins to prove it.  After a late season slump, Gallen may be back in the Cy Young conversation. His teammate, crisp speedy outfielder/leadoff man Corbin Carroll, looks like a Rookie of the Year favorite. 

In the inter-league matchup of the Brewers at Yankee Stadium (I must think twice to say "interleague" because I, for one, still consider in my bones Milwaukee an AL team and Houston an NL team), Milwaukee won the series but lost out on a sweep despite reigning Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes throwing a 8-inning no-hitter and closer Devin Williams putting up a zero in the 9th.

But the Brewers could do nothing against American League Cy Young favorite Gerrit Cole who threw a 7-inning 3-hitter and the Yankees' first bullpen pitchers kept putting up zeroes. Brewers twice took leads in extra innings but Yankees came back and ultimately won 4-3 in 13 innings.

Turning to the AL, the Central division is virtually decided with the Minnesota Twins holding a comfortable 7 1/2 game lead on the sub-.500 Cleveland Guardians.  They will not get a bye but will play the third wild card entrant in that 3-game series with home field advantage.

The other two AL divisional races are still up for grabs.  Prior to games of M Sep 11, the surprising Orioles led the perennially contending Rays by 3 games, 4 in the lost column. 4 big head-to-head matchups come up Th thru Su Sep 14-17 in Baltimore. Birds cannot afford to overlook at home 3 games with the disappointing-but-still-potent Cardinals and ditto the Rays playing 3 on the road in Minnesota.

The AL West has turned into a three-way tussle featuring defending World Series champion Houston, now narrowly in first place two lost games ahead of both Seattle and Texas.  As I mentioned in my last post, the Astros have likely the easiest schedule playing one series each against the A's and the Royals, teams on their way to over 100 losses.  The return to health of Jose Altuve, Jordan Alvarez, and Michael Brantley really deepens the Astros' lineup. Whether their overall pitching is as good as last year's will be something to watch carefully.    

In another dramatic series last weekend, Tampa Bay knocked the Mariners out of first place by winning at home the last 3 games of their 4-game series.  A controversy erupted after Tampa's come-from-behind Fri night victory when George Kirby, impressive young pitcher for the Mariners, emotionally confessed to reporters that he felt gassed after throwing 90 pitches in 6 innings and holding a two-run lead. 

He felt that he didn't want to pitch in the 7th and proceeded to lose the lead after giving up a 2-run homer to backup catcher Jean Pinto who like many Rays has emerged from minor league obscurity to be a big contributor.  Kirby immediately apologized the next morning, saying he never wants to be taken out of a game, but it was too late. 

The many pundit nay-sayers all over the baseball world, including former pitchers like hotheaded David Wells, branded Kirby as the poster boy for the spoiled 21st century starting pitcher who never wants to go beyond 5 or 6 innings in any game. 

I call myself a "lively dinosaur" because I, too, along with a lot of oldtime baseball fans, yearn for complete games by pitchers who want to complete what they started.  Yet I cannot overlook a lot of data that indicates after 100 pitches, pitchers tend to weaken. It was not the case in Cy Young award-winning Corbin Burnes' 8 no-hit innings against the Yankees on Sunday, but he was moved after throwing 109 pitches, 6 short of his career high.

Trying to look to the future dispassionately, the big problem is that today virtually every organization doesn't allow any minor league pitcher to work more than 5 or 6 innings. How can you develop major league arms that way?  Learning to pitch when tired to me is the essence of good pitching. And the essence of good coaching should be to teach pitchers to understand their arms and bodies and to help them understand the difference between being simply sore as opposed to be seriously injured. 

I know how hard it must be to make this distinction when adrenalin, testosterone, and competitiveness in service to the team all are in the mix.

Since common sense is so uncommon, especially in sports, you can see how this will be a long uphill struggle.  But one worth definitely worth exploring and fighting for sanity. 

Before I close this edition, here's a shoutout to another successful Kelly Rodman Memorial All-Star Game held on August 24th, a day early because of rain in the forecast at Worcester's Polar Park, home of the Red Sox Triple-A farm club the WooSox.  Spearheaded by veteran scouts Matt Hyde of the Yankees and Ray Fagnant of the Red Sox, the game features promising high school and college players from all over the country. 

The game is the culmination of a late summer program of clinics and intrasquad games that in its 14 years of existence has sent three dozen players into pro baseball.  Since 2020, the game has been dedicated to the memory of Yankee scout Kelly Rodman who rose quickly in the organization to become an advocate for amateur players like promising rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe.

She left us far too early at 44 years old, but her exhortation to aspiring players, "Be Great Today!," sums up the fiercely optimistic spirit that any successful player must exude.  I believe that telling her story was a perfect way to end my recent book, BASEBALL'S ENDANGERED SPECIES:  INSIDE THE CRAFT OF SCOUTING BY THOSE LIVED WHO LIVED IT.       

That'a all for now.  Always remember:  Take it easy but take it!  And don't forget - stay positive, test negative.