Lee Lowenfish

NYC has been blessed with spring-like and even summery weather since late August.  It has made the the end of Daylight Saving Time less somber. I've made it a point to be outside as much as possible in the waning daylight - walking and reading on park benches often up to dusk.

 

Yet drought is now becoming a problem around here. Fires have raged this weekend in area parks, probably caused by a toxic combination of heat and dry leaves. Nothing is ever simple in life, is it? 

 

The election results on Nov 5 were not to my liking, in the understatement of the year, but it didn't really surprise me.  Kamala Harris turned out to be a better candidate and a more appealing personality than I expected, but hers was a hasty entry into the race after President Biden succumbed to pressure and withdrew from the race after a disastrous June 27 TV debate against Donald Trump.

 

It happened on my 82nd birthday and I was eating a great Cuban meal at Amor Cubano on 3rd Avenue and 111th Street. I wasn't gonna be bothered with the kind of TV situation that Trump knew how to manipulate. I sensed too that incumbent administrations would always take the blame for what happens on their watch.  (I don't think the government of any country where there was some kind of legitimate election since the pandemic has survived.)    

 

The role of television, and now even more perniciously the instant streaming services readily available online, is more insidious than ever. I picked a good movie to watch on TCM the Friday before the election, Hal Ashby's "Being There" (1979). 

 

It really holds up well with Peter Sellers as the illiterate gardener whose emotions are entirely dictated by what he sees on TV.  In one particularly memorable scene, Sellers reacts to Shirley MacLaine's amorous advances only when he sees a couple kissing on TV. Sellers delivers a bravura performance with some fine work by Melvyn Douglas as the dying chairman of a big corporation, MacLaine as his wife, and Jack Warden as the befuddled President of the United States. 

 

Speaking of TCM, on Tues Nov 12 there is quite a lineup of sports-themed films beginning early in the morning with:

6A "Crazylegs" (1954) starring football star Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch playing himself.  For those of you moaning and groaning about the new freedoms for college football players, I'm glad I learned that the great Wisconsin Badger All-American also played for U of Michigan when he was stationed nearby during WW2 

 

730A "Viva Knievel" (1977) - remember him? the crazy motorcycle rider specializing in stunts

 

*930A  "Speedy" (1928) Harold Lloyd's memorable silent film that includes Babe Ruth suffering thru a cab ride to Yankee Stadium by adoring Lloyd 

 

11A  "The Jackie Robinson Story" (1950) with JR playing himself and young Ruby Dee as his wife Rachel

 

1230P "The Greatest" (1977) a dramatization of Muhammad Ali's fight against his refusal to fight in Vietnam - starring Ernest Borgnine  

 

(*430P  "A Hard Day's Night" (1964)  Not a sports film but the Beatles' first film under Richard Lester's artful direction of a more hopeful age)

 

8P "Strangers On A Train" (1951) a Hitchcock classic with some wonderful photography at the Forest Hills tennis center; Part of Ruth Roman Tuesday

nights in November with Farley Granger as the tennis pro trying to avoid Robert Walker's eerie stranger 

 

On the college basketball scene, I am happy to report good news in the early going for Columbia basketball, both women's and men's teams.They are undefeated in the early going. There will be plenty of home action this month, esp. for the men, at the Levien Gym on Broadway just east of SE of 120th Street.

 

The women, expected to contend for another Ivy League title, routed Stony Brook in the home opener and won an overtime thriller at Providence, their 9th win over a Big East team in the last 10 tries.  Next home games are :

M Nov 11 7P against powerhouse Florida Gulf Coast U.

W Nov 20 7P against Pacific of Stockton, CA where Eddie LeBaron played QB and Janet Leigh attended

And mark down Sa Jan 20 2P for Princeton's visit to Levien.  

 

The Columbia Lions men upset Villanova last week on the road.  They are an experienced team with no defections for transfer portals and the like.

Tu Nov 12 7P Lehigh

Sa Nov 16 Mercyhurst 12N

W Nov 20 at LIU Brooklyn 7P

Sa Nov 23 7P Stony Brook

M Nov 25 New Hampshire 7P 

 

Down at the NYU gym at Mercer and Bleecker Sts, the defending Division III champion women Violets play:

Fri Nov 15 6P Kean of NJ

Su Nov 24 2P Colby from Maine

 

The men's home opener won't be until Dec 3.   

 

Wisconsin, my graduate alma mater, is also off to undefeated start against middling competition.  They were hit hard by losses in the transfer portal, but

they have enough veterans back and newcomers to perhaps make life interesting this season.  

 

On the other hand, the second season of football coach Luke Fickell has hit major bumps in the road.  At 5-4, with Oregon coming up this Sat Nov 16, they

are not assured of even a minor bowl appearance.  Tearing down a good but not great program under Wisconsin native coach Paul Chryst doesn't look like

a good decision right now.  I'm glad they have kept for the time being at least another local basketball stalwart, longtime coach Greg Gard.    

 

Next time there may be news of baseball free agent signings though it looks like super-agent Scott Boras will string out his clients into the holiday season.

It didn't work out well for many of his players last off-season but we'll see.  I don't like the incessant talk of money so won't go into it here.

 

Instead, I will be relying on the saving grace of humor in the four years ahead - while keeping alive my love of good sports and finding where I can fascinating connections about people. 

 

Eg. Just found out ago moments ago from reading a Guardian.com post, that Susie Wiles, 67, Trump's campaign manager who will be his White House chief of staff, is the daughter of Pat Summerrall, former New York Giant place-kicker in their glory days and later the understated effective sidekick to John Madden on NFL broadcasts.

 

For now, always remember:  Take it easy but take it, and Stay Positive, Test Negative.  

 

 

 

 

Meet a new pseudonym from yours truly: Teny Ymota (The Earl of New York [for Weaver of course] Your Man On The Aisle.

2015 will go down as the first year I saw spring training games in both Arizona and Florida. First stop was mid-March in Phoenix - the 22nd annual NINE Baseball Magazine conference, probably the most stimulating one in its storied history.

In 2008 I was proud that the founder of NINE, the late social work professor and former Boston College running back Bill Kirwin, asked me to keynote the conference. I still like the title of my speech, “Whatever Happened To the Marvelous Importance of the Unimportant?” Of course, it is wistful thinking to think there can be a return to a time when baseball talk wasn’t obsessively focused on money.

My vote for the best sentence at NINE 2015 goes to Villanova law school professor Mitchell Nathanson who in an excerpt from his upcoming biography of Dick Allen said: “By saying so little he became the symbol of so much.” Hard to beat that pithy insight into the
U.S. of A.’s ongoing fractious racial discourse.

The NINE conference always includes two afternoons of “field work,” taking in MLB exhibition games. At the first game we attended the starting time was moved up to noon to accommodate Will Ferrell’s farcical attempt to play every position in several spring training games. It’s for an upcoming HBO special.

The startled look on Oakland starter Scott Kazmir’s face when he saw Ferrell playing shortstop in the first inning of their home game against Seattle was priceless.

I like much of Ferrell’s work, esp. his imitation of George W. Bush.
But it took retired football coach/TV analyst John Madden to take Ferrell publicly to task for such a publicity stunt.

Former San Francisco Warrior basketball star Rick Barry once tried something similar at Madden’s Oakland Raiders training camp and the coach made sure that his “gentlemen” defensive backs Jack Tatum and George Atkinson were prepared for Barry if he ran into their territory.

The NINE conferees also saw a ragged White Sox-Angels exhibition at Tempe’s Diablo Stadium. In truth, though, the great baseball-watching highlight of my trip was a thrilling 1-0 Oregon State Beavers victory over the Sun Devils of Arizona State.

Each starter tossed shutout ball into the eighth inning. Elapsed time? Under two hours. Then the bullpens took over and the last two innings needed nearly an hour to complete. The Beavers have an effective lefty reliever with a striking name – Luke Heimlich. Need I say what we should call his summons from the bullpen?
The Heimlich maneuver, of course.

My Florida trip was briefer, beginning with a Saturday afternoon game at the Braves’ home field at the Disney complex in Kissimmee outside Orlando. It was scorchingly hot and there is not much shade at the ballpark. Heavy-duty Neutragena sun screen sure came in handy. A highlight of the field is lawn seats back of third base that have an excellent sightline on the pitcher’s mound.

The Braves held off the Nationals in a close game. But it is unfortunate planning when many spring training games are played between teams in the same division. Who wants to let opponents know what you may be working on when games don’t count?

My trip ended with a Sunday afternoon game in Sarasota between the visiting Cardinals and the Orioles. For almost a half-century the Cardinals trained in St. Petersburg and seemingly more St. Louis fans than Baltimore rooters came out for the Cardinals’ first visit to the Florida West Coast since they moved to Jupiter several years ago.

Ed Smith Stadium is a great place to watch a game – more shade than in most spring training ballparks and reconditioned seats from Camden Yards give it a distinctly Baltimore flavor. Do wish that there were more leg room for yours truly. I did make a close survey for next spring of seats with double leg room!

In a very lackluster spring season for my Orioles, Adam Jones did provide a couple of home run highlights as did Manny Machado for one laser shot. Early in the game
huge Matt Adams belted a lazy 3-0 Bud Norris offering for a big Cardinal home run.
Fortunately I was on my way to the airport when St. Louis won the game with a Grishuk 9th inning home run.

I’m hoping that the 11-18-2 spring training record of the Baltimore birds (as of the morning of April 3) will not be indicative of a mediocre season. Won’t need much time to find out as the bell at long last rings on Sunday night for what should be a very unpredictable and exciting 2015 season.

That’s all for now – always remember: Take it easy but take it!

YIBF (Yours In Baseball Forever),
Teny Ymota (The Earl of New York, Your Man On The Aisle)
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