Lee Lowenfish

As readers of my blog know, I love sports quotes that have meaning transcending inspiration for athletes. The title for this post comes from Dick Bosman, once a no-hit pitcher for Cleveland, later an esteemed pitching coach for Orioles-Rangers-Rays and author with Ted Leavengood of the informative DICK BOSMAN ON PITCHING (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018):  "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery, today is a gift - that's why it's called the present."

 

Like most memorable quotes, Dick doesn't know where it came from. Perhaps from that mysterious multicultural androgynous Anon Ymous?  It doesn't matter - it's the thought that counts as in this observation:   "It's amazing how much good can be done if you don't care who gets the credit."

 

With March winds howling and temps changing violently here in the Northeast, this remains an exciting and hopeful time of year with college basketball playoffs nearing and baseball spring training in full flower.  Yesterday (M Mar 3) during an Oriole-Pirate spring training game in Sarasota, reliever Jose Bautista threw a perfect inning with two strikeouts in his first appearance in a game since August 2023 when he left the mound in Camden Yards soon headed for Tommy John surgery. 

 

Oriole manager Brandon Hyde says he will utilize Bautista conservatively, never pitching him for more than an inning and never on back-to-back days.  Nicknamed The Mountain for his imposing stature of 6' 8" 290 lbs, he needed years deep in the minor leagues and overseas before he developed command, control, and a consistent release point.   It's way too early in spring training to make any predictions about how the long season will play out, but it was a heartwarming sight to see The Mountain back on the mound. Tears of joy poured from his teammates, coaches, fans at Ed Smith Stadium and all over the Oriole universe.   

 

In yesterday game, switch-hitting catcher Adley Rutschman hit his first homer of the spring, another hopeful sign. He is more of a line drive hitter than a power bomber, but  in the last half of 2024, Adley endured the first slump of his storybook career.  He was mum about whether a hand injury affected his swing but if he is healthy again, his

presence in the lineup and behind the plate will be a definite asset for the Birds.  Waiting in the wings for perhaps a mid-season callup is the impressive Dominican backstop Samuel Basallo, barely 20 years old.  I saw him in the minors a couple of times and he is a commanding presence who reminds me of a left-handed hitting Orlando Cepeda. 

 

Another pleasant development was the announcement that the Orioles and Washington Nationals have settled their dispute over coverage of the teams on the MASN

stations (Mid-Atlantic Sports Network).  As it should be, the Nats will soon be on their own promoting the team on the air waves.  Previous Oriole owner, the late Peter Angelos, drove a very hard bargain and didn't accept prior arbitration settlements of the dispute.

 

David Rubenstein can now enter his second year as Oriole owner with this contentious dispute settled. He certainly brings to the table a fascinating background not common to ownership in any sport. Prominent as head of the Carlyle Equity fund, he is also a philanthropist with a genuine interest in history. On recent Mondays at the New York Historical Society on Central Park West, I heard him interview first Jeh Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security during President Obama's second term, and then Ken Burns, the indefatigable documentary filmmaker. (These interviews are available on line.)  Rubenstein is also often heard interviewing people on Bloomberg TV.  He was the chairman of the board of the Kennedy Center in Washington until he and others on the board were fired last month by President Trump.  

 

I won't make spring training myself this year but of course, I'll be following Oriole developments closely.  In this turbulent and perilous time of American history, it will be nice to follow one's team with a sense of hope. Maybe more moves should have be made to replace Anthony Santander, their 44 HR, 100+ RBI man and ace pitcher Corbin Burnes.  Santander is now a Blue Jay and Burnes a Diamondback but O's still have a world of young talent waiting to blossom.  Like young second baseman Jackson Holliday, not ready to shine last year after enormous hoopla.  And Heston Kjerstad, who can now even put more distance from his scary heart ailment of a few years ago. He seems to have a good baseball head on his shoulder.  At U of Arkansas, he said that he always makes his goals for any season extremely high knowing that he cannot achieve them.

 

Turning to college basketball, Columbia's women Lions continue to impress.  They have earned for the first time the top seed in the Ivy League tournament this year to be held at the Pizzitola Center on the Brown U campus in Providence.  Penn will be their likely opponent on Fri Mar 14 at 430P with Harvard and Princeton battling it out in

the second game.  The final will be on Sat Mar 15 at 5P televised by ESPNNews.  Over this past weekend, seniors Kitty Henderson and Cece Collins each had a triple double - Kitty in the win over Brown and Cece in the triumph over Yale.  If I were running the PA system, I would have found a recording of Irving Berlin's "Anything you can do, I can do better" from "Annie Get Your Gun".   

 

Meanwhile down in Greenwich Village at the Paulson Center on Mercer Street, NYU, winners of 56 in a row, will open its defense of the Division III title against Gallaudet from Washington DC F Mar 7 at 730P.  At 430p U Mass-Dartmouth faces Trinity from Hartford CT.  The winners meet at 5P on Sat Mar 8.   The NYU men, losers of only one game all season, play Cortland State in York, PA at 730P after Cleveland's John Carroll plays host York at 430P.  Winners meet on Sa Mar 8 at 5P.  On the Big Boy front, St.John's, now ranked #6 in the country, won the Big East regular season and enter the Big East tourney at MSG with high hopes of another big March Madness run under septugenarian coach Rick Pitino. 

 

My Wisconsin Badgers came up short against Big Ten leader Michigan State this past Sunday but it was a hard-fought game.  If they bounce back at lagging but

gritty Minnesota on W Mar 5 830P on Big Ten Network and on Senior Day against Penn State on Sa Mar 8 1P on Peacock, they should enter Big Ten tournament at Indianapolis with some momentum. 

 

I read earlier today online a very moving story by Greg Stiemsma about how retired Badger athletic trainer Henry Perez-Guerra basically saved his life.  Now an Badger assistant coach with a new title of Director of Player Development, Stiemsma endured a tough period as a young Badger frontcourtman from tiny Randolph, Wisconsin.

He was not doing well in school and felt he wasn't playing well either.  He was close to suicidal when an early AM knock on the door from Perez-Guerra essentially saved his life. A long talk began his hard road to recovery.  Greg went on to a NBA and overseas career and now a prominent role on the Badger coaching staff. Kudos to Greg for being courageous to share his story and to Henry for being there to help. 

 

In conclusion, here are some upcoming TCM movies with sports themes: 

Th Mar 6 245P  "Tennessee Champ" (1954)  Keenan Wynn is boxer battling with crooked manager.  Shelley Winters presumably helps him. 

 

F Mar 7 a lot of movies with horse racing themes:

6A "Sporting Blood" (1931) Robert Florey directs Clark Gable/Madge Evans

730A "Glory" (1956) David Butler directs Margaret O'Brien/Walter Brennan/Charlotte Greenwood

915A "The Story of Seabiscuit" (1949)  Butler directs Barry Fitzgerald with some help from Shirley Temple/Rosemary DeCamp

*6P  "A Day At the Races" (1937) Sam Wood directs a Marx Brothers classic 

 

Tu Mar 11 6A  "Three Ages" (1923) a Buster Keaton classic with Wallace Beery. A caveman baseball scene especially notable.

615P "The Cameraman" (1928) even more notable, Keaton's baseball pantomime at an empty Yankee Stadium

 

(Non-sports films to be noted:  Sa Mar 8 12N "Hard Day's Night" (1964) early Beatles that reminds me of a Marx Bros. film at their best

M Mar 10 545A "The Apartment" (1960) probably Billy Wilder's last great film with Jack Lemmon/Shirley MacLaine/Fred MacMurray.)

 

 

Coming up on Sa Mar 22 10P "Angels in the Outfield" (1951) - the underappreciated original with uncredited James Whitmore as the

unseen but powerfully heard Angel Gabriel.  Paul Douglas in the lead as crusty manaager Guffy McGovern domesticated by Household Hints

journalist Janet Leigh with underappreciated Bruce Bennett as veteran pitcher Saul Hellman.  More in the next blog.

 

For now, always remember:  Stay positive, stay healthy, stay sane, and take it easy but take it. 

 

   

 

   

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

   

 

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!