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.

I've always felt that baseball fans are reborn with the slowly increasing daylight in January that makes the wintry weather bearable - this too will pass, nature is telling us. And soon the rousing sounds of gloves catching balls and bats thwacking those spheroids will be heard on the diamonds all over our land and increasingly all over the world. 

Before I bring the good news of TCM's festival of huge baseball fan George Raft movies starting every Tuesday in January, let me admit that an Oriole fan cannot be too hopeful about what this offeseason has wrought so far.  We knew that Corbin Burnes was likely a one-year rental and not likely to return.  Reportedly we did offer more money to the gifted pitcher but the Arizona Diamondbacks worked successfully on Burnes' desire to be playing half his games near the home for his young family in Scottsdale.  Six years with an opt-out after two years is not as outrageous as the eight years the Yankees gave the equally gifted but more fragile southpaw Max Fried. 

I won't even mention the money because it staggers the imagination these days. (I understand the argument that all franchises now have money and team valuations are going through the roof, but I don't have to like this constant discussion of millions here for that player and millions there for that player.) 

To try to replace Burnes, the Orioles are bringing over from Japan Tomoyuki Sugano, 35, and just plucked 41-year-old Charlie Morton from the Braves.  So far in his career Morton has been healthier than his recent teammate Fried and has also pitched far more regularly than the young wunderkinds the Braves have developed - Ian Anderson, Spencer Strider, among them - who have been wracked with injury. I repeat though - Morton is 41 and all the analytical geniuses in the world cannot come up with a new algorithm to deny that fact. 

Oriole fans have been braced for a while with the realization that Anthony Santander will not return to Birdland. He only turned 30 in October and we have watched the raw Venezuelan Rule 5 pick from the Cleveland organization develop into a power switch-hitter and decent defender.  Maybe right-handed-hitting free agents Tyler O'Neill and catcher-DH Gary Sanchez can deepen the offensive lineup that went into deep funks in the second half of 2024. Maybe the return from injury of closer Felix "The Mountain" Bautista and defensive and base-running wizard infielder Jorge Mateo can help restore true contention to Baltimore.  A return to productivity by catcher Adley Rutschman is a must but a top catching prospect Samuel Basallo is waiting in the wings. 

Enough of these early January speculations.  Yours truly The Prince of Paranoia is trying to pick his spots this year.  Too early, my friends, to wring my hands.     

Now . . . here's the shout-out to TCM's (Turner Classic Movies cable channel) salute to George Raft as Star of the Month every Tuesday in January.

He was born George Ranft in 1901 just south and west of Times Square in the tough Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of NYC.  Both George's father and grandfather had experience in operating carnival and other entertainment venues, and by the age of 12, George quit school and began earning a living in many trades in entertainment and sports.  He probably wasn't - as rumors claimed - a batboy for the NY Highlanders and I have my doubts that he even played minor league ball, but he was a lifelong baseball nut. 

He first genuine claim to fame came in the early 1920s as an expert dancer, ballroom, tango, whatever the situation called for.  He appeared at some of the same NYC venues where Rudolph Valentino made his name. Raft was considered the best Charleston dancer in NYC. I like to think that after he moved to Hollywood in 1927, he probably had a lot to share with Ginger Rogers because she won a Texas Charleston contest before she moved to tinsel town.

Raft would make southern California his home until his death in 1980.  He never lost his love of baseball and he had written into his contract a stipulation that he never had to work during the World Series.  Other stars like Joe E Brown and William "Future Fred Mertz" Frawley insisted on similar clauses.

One of my favorite fun facts about Raft's love of baseball is that Tigers outfielder Leon "Goose" Goslin gifted him with the broken bat that he used for his game-winning hit that won Game 7 of the 1935 World Series over the Cubs. Raft was a good friend of Leo Durocher who also loved the night life and made friends with top gamblers.  They even swapped apartments in New York and Hollywood - and reportedly clothes and girl friends - which became a huge blot on Leo's reputation and influenced baseball commissioner Happy Chandler to suspend Durocher for the entire 1947 season. 

There are no baseball themes in the Raft movies being shown this month but here is a partial list of the films.

M Jan 7 8P leads off with the classic "Scarface" (1932) with Paul Muni and Ann Dvorak, directed by Howard Hawks. Raft's flipping a coin in the air became

a signature gesture in his later films. 

Followed at 945P by "Night After Night" (1932) Hollywood's take on Texas Guinan's nightclub in the Prohibition era of NYC.  In her first movie role, Mae West portrays Texas.  In Jim Bishop's informative 1952 book, THE MARK HELLINGER STORY: A BIOGRAPHY OF BROADWAY AND HOLLYWOOD (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1952), Bishop quotes Guinan's instruction near her death to have her body lie in Campbell's prestigious NYC funeral home: "I want the suckers to get a last look at me without a cover charge." (p208)  Bishop soon became famous as the author of a series of "One Day In The Life of ... " books that included Abe Lincoln and JFK. 

11:15P features the rarely seen "You And Me" (1938) directed by German exile Fritz Lang with Sylvia Sidney trying to keep Raft from returning to his wayward life. Great composer Kurt Weill evidently makes a cameo as a singer.  

M Jan 14 has a powerful double-bill starting with 8P "Each Dawn I Die" (1939) with James Cagney as a fellow prisoner.  Cagney and Raft were buddies in the dance world of NYC before they became friendly rivals in Hollywood, often fighting with management for higher pay than the other. In case you didn't know, dear readers, economic rivalry was not limited to athletes.

945P "They Drive By Night" Raft and Humphrey Bogart (longtime pal of Raft in real life and Mark Hellinger for that matter) play truckdrivers. Film is worth it for just the opening ripostes between amorous Raft and saucy Ann Sheridan fending off his advances.  Also with Ida Lupino. Directed by Raoul Walsh who really knew how to keep the action moving.  TCM highlighted Ann Sheridan as Star of the Month a couple of years ago.  She fought her own battles with management and the outspoken Texan detested the nickname "the Oomph girl".  "Oomph" reminded her of the sound a fat man makes when he sits down.   

1130P "Invisible Stripes" (1939) another prison-influenced film with up-and-coming William Holden and Bogart

1A "Manpower" (1941) another Raoul Walsh direction with Edward G. Robinson and Raft vying for Marlene Dietrich.  Things were not smooth on the set and former boxer Raft and the more cerebral Edward G  engaged in some off-screen fisticuffs.

More details at tcm.com/schedule.  Gotta mention though that "Some Like It Hot" (1959) will air on the last night of the Raft Festival

1230A Jan 28th.   And since I have to admit that I'm an armchair Walter Mitty type, dreaming of athletic glory but realistic enough to be thankful I can rise

from bed every day, on Fri Jan 17 at 9P Danny Kaye stars in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (1947) based on James Thurber's classic story  

Here are some quick closing happy notes that my favorite non-baseball teams, Columbia women's basketball and Wisconsin men's basketball, did well in league play this weekend. Columbia knocked off competitive Penn this past Sat aft on the road, 74-59, with a balanced attack led by tri-captains, senior Kitty Henderson and junior Perri Page.  The first Ivy League home game will be against perennial champion Princeton on Sa Jan 20 at 7P (I erroneously reported it at 2P in an earlier blog).  Penn comes in for a rematch on Sa Jan 25, that game at 2P.  Columbia men open Ivy League season hosting Cornell Sat Jan 11 at 2P. 

After losing their first two close Big Ten games to Michigan at home and Illinois on the road, this past Friday Wisconsin hit a record-breaking 21 3-point shots to beat Iowa, 116-85. Graduate senior Steven Crowl and sophomore Nolan Winter are beginning to show some 7-foot muscle up front.  Graduate senior John Tonge has cooled off in scoring but he remains a top-notch foul shooter and hasn't lost confidence.  His name is pronounced Tahn-GAY, another correction I want to make from an earlier blog.  Sophomore swingman John Blackwell is beginning to emerge as a scorer and overall good player. 

So I conclude this blog as I started: On a note of cautious belief that sunnier days are ahead for me athletically if not politically.  And so as always I say: 

Stay positive test negative, Stay healthy stay sane, and Take it easy but take it!