At this time of year, I often muse about what I would have done if I had been a parent with a child born on February 29. What would I tell him/her during the other three years? I hope without being too heavy about it, I would explain that keeping the equinoxes and solstices in sync with the calendar is important and you don't want to start summer in July.
I couldn't ask, of course, long gone figures how they dealt with Feb 29. People like Pepper Martin, sparkplug of the Gashouse Gang Cardinals, or Al Rosen, Cleveland's sllugging third baseman & later MLB general manager, or songstress Dinah Shore. I didn't have the access to call Tyrese Halliburton, 23, breakout star guard of Indiana Pacers, or Bligh Madris, 28, trying to make the Tigers in spring training and with that delightful name I hope he does.
Happily, I think I'll remember the Feb 29, 2024 Leap Day as a special day. Because I went down to New York University's dormitory-athletic facilities building in the former Palladium Theater on E 14th Street for the official opening of the Branca Family baseball training facility.
After a 40-year lapse without varsity baseball, NYU started playing Division III ball in 2015 but the team lacked convenient space to train. They had been traveling all over the city to find places to practice.
Enter John (Gregory) Branca, a prominent Hollywood entertainment lawyer who represents Bob Dylan, the estates of Michael Jackson and Otis Redding. Smokey Robinson, and many other notable artists. John is the nephew of Ralph Branca, the Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher and NYU baseball star who also played on the school's basketball team.
John's father, John R. Branca, two years older than Ralph, was a good athlete too, but he served four years on an aircraft carrier during WW II and never enjoyed a pro career. John R. instead went to NYU on the G.I. Bill and wound up getting two degrees from his alma mater.
He stayed close to baseball by running local athletic programs in the Branca family home town of Mount Vernon. Among the future stars who profited were Ken Singleton, originally a Met and then a great Oriole, and basketball's stalwarts Gus and Ray Williams, the former Knick, and Rodney McCray. He was the kind of community-oriented person who saw that lights were put on the playground courts so kids could play at night. John R. also served as a state assemblyman and later was New York State Boxing Commissioner.
When John Gregory Branca learned from his son Dylan Gregory Branca, a sophomore pitcher, of the team's travel woes, he acted swiftly. The result is a handsome state-of-the-art 4,400 sq. ft. facility with 3 mounds, 2 batting cages, and also the analytic prerequisites these days of Rapsodo and Trackman.
John Branca earlier gifted the UCLA baseball program with similar facilities at the Jackie Robinson Field near the campus. Ralph Branca and Jackie Robinson were teammates and close friends and John Branca has kept that connection alive as a member of the board of directors of the Jackie Robinson Foundation.
Things are looking up for NYU athletics. The baseball Violets have started the season 4-0 and their home season this year will be played at the handsome independent league Staten Island Ferry Hawks stadium just a short walk from the ferry.
Both NYU basketball teams are in their Division III playoffs. The men are hosting Husson College from Maine F March 1 at 645p with a game on Saturday if they win. The women open on the road also on Mar 1 playing Millsaps College from Mississippi at DeSales College in Center Valley, Pennsylvania. They could host more games the weekend of Mar 8-9 if they win F and Sa.
Meanwhile the Columbia women Lions won a thrilling 67-65 victory over their nemesis, the Princeton Tigers, last Saturday Feb 24 before an enthusiastic packed Levien Gym. They are tied for the Ivy League lead with Princeton with 3 games to play The Ivy League tournament this year will be hosted by Columbia starting March 15.
You can always tell a good NYC crowd when it arrives real early - it was Senior Day for the outstanding Abbey Hsu and her teammates Paige Lauder and Nicole Stephens - and the cheers of "De-fense! De-fense!" happened early and often.
Turning back to baseball, let me close this post with a remarkable quotation from super-agent Scott Boras after the Cubs' signing his client Cody Bellinger to a "measly" 3-year $80 million contract a few days ago. As reported by Jesse Rogers on a Feb 28 espn.com post, Boras said: "Free agency is like a turkey and a thermometer. You have to go in, see what the temperature is, evaluate it."
Quite a remarkable metaphor from an agent, given how many human turkeys have been lavished with big contracts by panicked owners. Don't get me wrong. I wish Bellinger well - after all, his father is Clay Bellinger from Oneonta, NY, home of the late lamented Oneonta Yankees owned by Sam Nader and his talented family. And Clay was the kind of grinder who won 3 World Series rings, 2 with the Yankees and 1 with the 2002 California Angels.
That's all for now. Always remember: Take it easy but take it, and stay positive test negative.