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.  

 

 

 

 

How does someone root in this upcoming World Series when he feels the unfairness of the richest teams fighting for baseball's biggest prize?

My JCS - Jaded Cynical Side - thinks perhaps a sweep by either team might be enjoyable.  Because then one outrageously entitled fan base would be

miserable. Calls for beheading underachieving players and non-uniformed personnel would become constant and hilarious.

 

The late great college baseball coach Bobby Winkles - who was less successful managing in MLB - once said, "Half the fun of baseball is laying blame."

I remember vividly the days of my yout' (as Casey Stengel would pronounce it) when cartoonist Bill Gallo in the NY Daily News would name a hero and a goat after every game. 

 

However, as readers of this blog know by now, I have a PBF persona - Pure Baseball Fan.  In these stressful times with the end of Daylight Savings Time coming on Su Nov 3 at 2A and Election Day two days later, here's my wish for a well-played series with more heroes than goats. 

 

Although the Dodgers have many weapons starting with Shohei Ohtani at top of order, their starting pitching is in disarray.  And the Yankee offense though it has sputtered at times is formidable. 

 

It is hard to beat the symmetry of Juan Soto's season. On Opening Night in Houston, he threw out from right field the game-tying run at home plate.

Then in the 10th inning of the ALCS clincher at Cleveland, he climaxed a long at-bat against reliever Hunter Gaddis with a three-run HR.

 

lt was pure Soto exuberance that JCS LeeLow would call cockiness.  Soto just turned 26 and will sign a hefty long-term contract from some team in off-season.  Probably the Yankees I would say, but he and agent Scott Boras are likely to string it out for a while. 

 

Two Bronx Bombers have LAD connections, one direct and one indirect ,  LF Alex Verdugo, often a target of home boobirds, has come up big at least defensively, the most underappreciated and necessary trait in any winner. Verdugo was originally signed by the Dodgers and was included in the trade to Boston that brought Mookie Betts to LAD.  Verdugo may have extra incentive in this WS. 

 

So may Gian-Carlo Stanton who is from just north of LA and yearned to play for his home town team. But as author Dan Taylor explained in his

wonderful book about scout George Genovese, A SCOUT'S REPORT, the Dodgers let him slip to the Marlins in the second round of the 2007 draft. 

They used the lame excuse that they thought Stanton preferred to play football for USC. 

 

Like Dave Winfield, Stanton could have starred in any major sport but he loved baseball most of all.  Injuries have taken a toll during his career and he can be pitched to, but he provides a fearsome presence not far behind Soto and Aaron Judge in the batting order. 

 

At the right time, he's locked in both physically and mentally.  He told Bryan Hoch of mlb.com that the moment Yankees won the pennant, he turned off his cell phone. 

 

PBF LeeLow wishes no harm on other well-paid players that seem like good guys like Betts and Judge. Each has a vulnerable side that they are willing to express to the public.  Both have had post-season slumps and have felt that they are letting their teams down. By the end of the LCS's, though, they wre showing signs that their transcendant talent was coming back to the fore. 

 

Since the Yankees have played very well on the road this year, I see them in 6 at LAD. 

 

One Live Movie note to stoke the baseball hot stove league fires: 

Aviva Kempner's "The LIfe and Times of Hank Greenberg" will be shown at the New Plaza Cinema, 35 W 67 west of Central Park West:

F Oct 25 615P

Su Oct 27 230P

Sa Nov 2 1245P 

 

That's all for now.  Always remember:  Take it easy but take it, and Stay Positive Test Negative!