Lee Lowenfish

George Washington's 315th birthday - Sat February 22 2025 - will long live in the memory of this fan of Wisconsin men's and Columbia women's basketball.  The agony occurred in midday when on FOX national TV, the Badgers, ahead by 12 at the half and 15 midway through the second half, allowed Oregon's Ducks to go on a 13-2 run in the last six minutes of regulation and win in overtime, 77-73.  Oregon coach Dana Altman's suffocating defense forced the Badgers into a season-high 17 turnovers, many of them late in the game. Center Nate Bittle, back from two seaons of injury, led Oregon's offense with help from the Villanova transfer guard TJ Bamba (who was born in the Bronx but went to HS in Denver) and sophomore forward Kwame Evans, a fearless lefty who was born in Baltimore. 

 

Only positive thing about this loss is that it came in February not in March.  Having followed Wisconsin basketball intently for over a half-century, it seems we never play well when our national rankings increase.  We still have scoring machine John Tonge, the 6th-year transfer portal surprise, but only one real point guard, the undersized 6 0" senior Kamari McGee who doesn't even start but is one of the team leaders.  When we had the big lead on Saturday, I thought about how much McGee has meant off the bench and how his shot-making has improved.  Same story for senior reserve forward Carter Gilmore who even saved the Iowa game on the road with career-high offense. I can always root for sophomore big man Nolan Winter - great name for a Wisconsin player! - who hit a big 3 in OT to give us a brief lead against Oregon.  

 

Fans will blame inconsistent longtime center Steven Crowl for his six turnovers on Sat. and sophomore guard John Blackwell for his crucial late game booboos. And the haters of coach Greg Gard, silent during our winning streaks this season, always emerge after any loss. Yet the schedule ahead is not too bad for Badgers if they learn the lesson that Yogi Berra's line applies to basketball, too - it ain't over until it's over and you must play hard all game.

 

Up next is Washington at home on Tues Feb 25 9P EST on extra-priced Peacock. Then a biggie at Big 10 leader Michigan State on CBS next Sun Mar 2 at 130P. Followed by Wed Mar 5 arch-rival Minnesota at home on Big Ten Network at 830P and Penn State at home Sa Mar 8 1P BTN (all times EST).  The following week is the annual Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis.  This year the three teams with the worst record in the expanded Big 18 are sent home early so Washington, Penn State, and Minnesota cannot be overlooked because they are opponents with hopes alive for squeezing into the tournament.    

 

My ecstasy came later in the day when I got a ride to Princeton to see Columbia rally in the 4th quarter to beat the perennial-Ivy League champion Tigers, 64-60.  The Lions' victory moves Columbia into first place with a 10-1 record with a one game lead over both Princeton and Harvard with three

games to play before the conference tourney this year at Brown in Providence on FSa Mar 14-15.  

 

Down 6 points entering the 4th quarter on Sat., guard Maria Arrendola hit a 3-point shot that started a 13-0 run that gave Columbia the lead for good.  Sophomore Riley Weiss, who grew up in nearby Hewlett, NY, scored a career-high 34 points, 16 in the last period. Senior co-captain Kitty Henderson hit the dagger late in the 4th quarter that gave the Lions the cushion they needed. 

 

I was part of almost 200 ardent Lions fans seated behind the Columbia bench. Although we were outnumbered 10-1 by Princeton faithful, our chants of "DE-FENSE!" and "LET'S GO LIONS!" could be heard.  It was Princeton's first home loss in over 30 games and the first time we've beaten them twice in one season in almost 10 years.  Seated in the row behind me and rooting hard for her alma mater was Abbey Hsu, Columbia women's basketball all-time scoring leader who will be going to the Connecticut Sun's training camp in April. (Teammate Kaitlyn Davis, who played a graduate year at USC, will be going to the Liberty camp.)

I told Abbey she was almost as good a fan as she was a player. 

 

In addition to loving acronyms - Columbia coach Megan Griffith has coined a good one for her program:  EDGE:  Energy/Determination/Grit/Excellence - 

I'm somewhat of a sucker for inspirational slogans.  I saw a fan in the Princeton  crowd wearing a T-shirt that read:  LIFT/LAUGH/LOVE.  Pretty good one for the aspiring athlete in your family.  I've also loved the T-shirt I saw years ago worn by a Tampa Bay Rays baseball trainer:  CHAMPIONS ARE MADE WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING.  And here's an original one to remember the Five Towns of Long Island's Nassau County close to the NYC borough of Queens:   

WILCH - Woodmere, Inwood, Lawrence, Cedarhurst, Hewlett (home town as noted earlier of Columbia's budding star Riley Weiss).

 

One last note on women's basketball in the NYC area:  The NYU women are now at 55 wins in a row and counting.  They will host the first two rounds

of the Division III playoffs on FSa Mar 7-8 at their home court Paulson Center on Mercer Street in Greenwich Village.  So likely will the men's team under coach Dave Klatsky, a 2003 graduate of Penn. They sport a 23-1 record as they, too, enter the playoff season.  I find it hard to imagine any school in any division that has gone this far in one basketball season with only one loss between them.    

 

NOW IT'S TIME FOR BASEBALL!

The annual New York Pro Scouts Hot Stove League dinner in late January offered some memorable speeches and tributes.  Anthony Iapoce, a 33rd-round 1994 draft choice of the Milwaukee Brewers, received the Jim Quigley "Service to Baseball Award" (which I was honored to receive 15 years ago). Service to baseball is no exaggeration for Iapoce whose career in baseball included over 10 years as a minor league outfielder (reaching Triple A at the highest), scout for several organizations, minor league manager in 2023 for the Tiger's Triple AAA Toledo franchise, and now entering his second year as Detroit first base coach.

 

Iapoca offered his general praise for the scouts who have "mastered simplicity" by becoming "detailed observers" and "active listeners".   He then specifically praised Jim Fleming the scouting director who hired him for the Marlins and insisted that every scout go to high school games with him and give appraisals not mere judgments. Anthony also tipped his cap to Tony LaCava, who when he hired him for the Blue Jays, stressed: "I want you to give your opinions." 

 

Another speaker at the late January dinner at Leonard's Palazzo in Great Neck Long Island was Bruce Shatel, High School Coach of the Year from Delbarton Prep in Morristown, New Jersey (alma mater of Yankee shortstop Anthony Volpe and Rangers RHP Jack Leiter).  "Why do you coach?" Shatel said he is often asked. Because he gets the thrill of a double into the gap hit by one of his players, he answered.  He added that he loved the thrill of seeing a well-executed 3-2 pitch that leads to an out. 

 

One sad note that I just learned while preparing this post.  Bobby Malkmus, born on the Fourth of July in 1931 in Newark NJ, passed away on Feb 23.

He had major experience as a Milwaukee Braves second baseman in the 1950s before the trade of Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst in 1957.  Malkmus was a long time Cleveland scout and a minister.  His presence at scout gatherings will be greatly missed.  

 

As for news of baseball on the MLB level, I am glad that most of the ballyhooed free agent signing season is over.  I have never begrudged players making a lot of money in a career that usually is quite short. But let the buyer owner beware of handing out multi-year contracts.  I don't like seeing super-agent Scott Boras's mug day in and day out on the TV and computer screens, sharing the space with his clients. I also think that the MLB season is ridiculously long and the number of teams in the playoffs are far too many.  But there is too much grouching in this world.  I'm happy for the return of baseball and upcoming warmer weather and for now I'll leave it at that.

 

The upcoming TCM baseball movie tip not to miss is Th Feb 27 at 7A (EST): "Speedy" (1928) - Harold Lloyd's great silent movie about the misfortunes but optimistic resilience of a baseball-loving young man. The scene where awed taxicab driver Lloyd transports his hero Babe Ruth to a game at Yankee Stadium is must-viewing.

 

W Feb 26 at 8P "Going My Way" (1944) Bing Crosby as a priest and St. Louis Browns fan with Barry Fitzgerald & Frank McHugh, dir. Leo McCarey. There's more baseball references in this film that I recalled on first viewing.  Not just Bing wearing a Browns sweatshirt.  After 1944 was the year of the only all St. Louis

World Series, won by the Cardinals in six games.  And Bing made a cameo in the 1951 underappreciated baseball film "Angels in the Outfield" (1951).

  

M Mar 3 8P "Pride of the Yankees" (1942) returns again and it is always worth seeing for the great cast of Gary Cooper/Teresa Wright/Dan Duryea/

Walter Brennan and Babe Ruth and Bill Dickey appearing as themselves. 

 

Non-baseball movies worthy of seeing include:

M Feb 24 5P "When We Were Kings" (1996) Leon Gast's movie about the hoopla surrounding the Sept 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" between Muhammad Ali & Geoirge Foreman.  It is as much about the big music concert as it is about the fight. 

Later that night at 8P Hitchock's early classic "Suspicion" (1941) with Cary Grant

 

Tu Mar 4 highlights John Garfield movies from dawn to dusk. Most of them are from his heyday from the late 30s through the late 40s but his last film for Warners (and produced by his own company) "The Breaking Point" (1950) must be seen at 615P.  His blacklist started shortly thereafter and in 1952 he died of a heart attack at the age of 39.  (He suffered from a heart condition that kept him out of World War II service.) 

Cast includes Phyllis Thaxter as his wife, Patricia Neal as a femme fatale to end femme fatales, Wallace Ford, and Juano Hernandez.  By far the best film version of "To Have and Have Not" by Ernest Hemingway. 

 

That's all for now - stay positive test negative (for as long as the new Health czar RFK Jr. allows for tests) and take it easy but take it.  

 

     

Nobody can predict how a schedule made up in the summer of 2023 can create high drama in Sept 2024.  It turns out that the final two weeks of the baseball regular season will feature tremendous matchups that will affect not only next month's playoffs but could even lead to curtains for the losing teams.  

 

I'm sad to report that there is fear and trembling among the Oriole faithful that thought playoff participation was a lock and even advancement deep into October was a possibility. I must say that I never drank the Kool-Aid that we had the "best farm system in baseball."  I just hope that the failures of highly touted Jackson Holliday - ballyhooed as the "best prospect in baseball" whatever that meant - and almost-as-highly-touted Coby Mayo will not lead to permanent damage to their careers.

 

I'm not forgetting that injuries have crippled the Oriole offense: the HBP that broke the throwing hand of feisty 2b-3bman Jordan Westburg (he could be back next week); speedy savvy fellow infielder Jorge Mateo, gone for the season with an elbow injury caused by a freak collision with shortstop Gunnar Henderson (the only regular producing with the bat despite erratic shortstop play); and more recently the sprained ankle of versatile infielder Ramon Urias and sprained wrist of first baseman Ryan Mountcastle. 

 

Yet other teams have bounced back from even bigger injuries as we'll see below. Mediocre trades by top baseball ops man Mike Elias have not fortified the bench and the Birds' "deep depth" - that wonderful Earl Weaver/Yogi Berra phrase - has vanished. It's painful to watch the inexperienced Holliday and Mayo used as pinch-hitters late in games.  

 

There will thus be less drama for the much-anticipated Oriole visit to Yankee Stadium on Sep 24-26. Before games of tonight Sep 16 the Yanks held a 3-game lead on Baltimore and will play in Seattle with the Mariners only three lost games out of the third wild card currently held by Minnesota.

 

The Twins are in the most precarious wild card situation and face the Guardians in Cleveland for 4 big games starting tonight Sep 16 through Th Sep 19.  They then spend the weekend at the out-of-contention Red Sox and then return home for the final week, a series with the NL expansion Marlins and then one with the Orioles.  At least Minnesota and Baltimore have a deep history in the American League.  It could be a meeting of two teams desperately hanging on to a playoff dream.  

 

After their West Coast trip to Seattle, hanging on to the hope of catching Minnesota for the third wild card, and a final visit to Oakland, the Yankees wind up the season at home with the Orioles and then the Pirates.  This last series with Pittsburgh is one of the preposterous inter-league matchups that have marred the September schedule for too long. When the Orioles return home for their final week of regular season series, they will first face the SF Giants from Tu through Th Sep 17-19.  It says here that this crucial time of season is not the time for a matchup of teams unfamiliar with each other. 

 

The fast-charging Tigers come to Baltimore this weekend Sep 20-22.  Detroit just took two out of three from the Orioles at home and have the best record in MLB since early August. I wasn't thrilled that in the first two games of the series, the Tigers used an opener in the first inning, the same pitcher too, the immortal Beau Brieske. It's not against the rules to use an opener, of course, but it reveals to me the abject failure of most major league organizations to develop pitchers that can throw six innings or more. 

 

Commissioner Rob Manfred wants to decree a six-inning minimum for starters but you can't meaningfully change pitching routines by fiat - it requires a change in philosophy that downplays raw velocity and humongous spin rate and stresses pitchability, i.e. the ability to change speeds and pitch to contact and rely on your defense.  There will have to be significant internal pressures to force these changes. Speaking truth to power is never easy, but there will be more thoughts on this important subject in off-season posts. 

 

Before their visit to Charm City, the Tigers have a huge 3-game series at Kansas City starting tonight M Sep 16. To give you a sense of how the Tigers are coalescing at the right time, in yesterday's (Sun Sept 15) 4-2 win over Baltimore, outfielder Riley Greene hit his first two home runs off a lefthander all season if not in his career.

 

The Royals are one of 2024's best feel-good stories, a team eagerly awaiting their first playoff experience since winning the World Series in 2015. They are only two games behind my Birds for the first wild card and a home field advantage in playoffs. 

 

The Royals have an MVP candidate in shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (although it would be hard to vote against Aaron Judge of the Yankees). KC also features a revived veteran catcher-occasional first baseman-leader in Salvador Perez.  The former Met Seth Lugo has had an excellent year on the mound. I find it hard not to root for someone who almost uses a full windup! 

 

After the Royals finish with the Tigers, they might catch a break with two inter-league series: the Giants at home this weekend and then the Nats in Washington.  But they end up with three at Atlanta, another inter-league series that sticks out like a sore thumb and yet could provide high drama. 

 

The Braves and Mets are currently tied for the third wild card in the National League.  Despite the early season loss of pitcher Spencer Strider and MVP outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr and more recently offensive producers, third baseman Austin Riley and second baseman Ozzie Albies, Atlanta has hung in there as a contender.  Rookie Spencer Schwellenbach has stepped up on the mound, and after many injuries center fielder Michael Harris II is back and has again shown his abilities as a game-changer.

 

Three cheers to Braves utilityman Whit Merrifield who has somehow bounced back from a serious finger injury from a HBP plus a batted foul ball off his leg to provide spark.  He also has had the courage to call for an investigation of the rushing of rookie pitchers from the minor leagues who may throw 100 mph but don't know where the ball is going.  Merrifield is on a joint player-management committee that discusses such issues. He has vowed to do something about the situation in off-season meetings.

 

Atlanta has one more game tonight - M Sep 16 - against the Dodgers at home and then play this coming week at Cincinnati, long out of the race but with enough offense and occasioinal good pitching to make trouble. For the weekend they go to Minnesota in another preposterous inter-league matchup but with great import for both teams.

The Twins are the third wild card as of this writing but they are wildly inconsistent in large part because three offensive stars, Carlos Correa, Royce Lewis, and Bryan Buxton, are regularly injured, especially the later two. 

 

The Braves return home for the final week to face the arch-rival Mets with whom they're tied before games of Sep 16.  And then they wind up with the Royals.

They are playoff experienced and their big three on the mound, Chris Sale, Max Fried, and Spencer Schwellenbach, would be a tough matchup in the playoffs.  But of course they have to get there first.  

 

The one NL wild card contender that has impressively improved its record recently is San Diego, 85-65 as of this writing.  They host AL Central leader Houston, a scary team in any playoff because of their vast post-season experience, and then the White Sox come in this weekend.  San Diego spends the last week on the road at the Dodgers and then the Diamondbacks, the second wild card leader as of now.  Lots of drama likely ahead for the Padres.  

 

One of the more perceptive points I've read recently on Oriole blogs is given the troubles of Holliday and Mayo, what a player young Manny Machado must have been to come up in August 2012 at the age of 19 under the guidance of manager Buck Showalter, playing a new position third base, and give Baltimore a boost into the playoffs after 15 years of non-participation.  Now at age 32 Machado is spearheading a revived Padres under former Cardinals manager Mike Schildt. In some ways, what Jazz Chisholm has done for the Yankees playing a new position, also third base, is comparable. 

 

I'm happy too for the resurgence of Jurickson Profar from Curacao, once a Baseball America cover boy as that Best Prospect in Baseball, who has found success as a solid run-producing left fielder after a long journey of mediocrity.  The Padres also feature young center fielder Jackson Merrill who to me should be a lock as Rookie of the Year of the National League. 

 

I don't really believe in jinxes, but I hope Mets fans forgive me if I went a bit overboard in singing their praises in my last post. This past weekend, they lost two close games in Philadelphia. The Phillies now have a two game lead over the Dodgers for home field advantage throughout the playoffs.  The Mets play the improved pesky Nats and Phillies this week at home and then wind up with the big series at Atlanta and then at Milwaukee. 

 

The Brewers long ago clinched the NL Central and unless there is a good chance that they could have the best record in NL, they might just be playing the last series to stay in shape and set up their pitching rotation for the playoffs.  The Mets have to hope that the back discomfort of MVP candidate Francisco Lindor is minor and he can contribute mightily down the stretch. 

 

The loss of Jeff McNeil to another HBP is not helping their depth even if he is having an off-season. As I said last post, closer Edwin Diaz has to regain consistency. Of course, except for Emmanuel Clase of the Guardians, there has been no great closer in 2024 which is a major reason why there is no clear favorite in the playoffs. 

 

I've rarely tried my hand on prognostications. An exception: During my next-to-last year in graduate school at U of Wisconsin-Madison, I did predict in the mid-summer of 1967 that the Red Sox would overtake the Twins for the AL pennant.  I was right on with that one because I thought Boston playing Minnesota at home would have the pitching and the Fenway advantage to contain the power-happy Twins.

 

I haven't made any predictions since then. It was 20 teams in 1967 and two bulky 10-team leagues and then one World Series.  Now there are 30 teams and six divisions and 12 teams eligible for four rounds of playoffs. If the owners had their way in the last Basic Agreement, they would have pushed for 14 and of course higher-priced playoff tickets for every participant.

 

If this system remains in place indefinitely, some time in the lives of the younger readers of this blog, the regular season will have to be shortened.  For now, I don't want to begrudge the hopeful feelings for fans of those teams still in the wild card hunt.  Yet I cannot help thinking of how Russ Hodges, if he had lived into the Wild Card era, would have called the famous Bobby Thomson home run on Oct 3, 1951: 

"THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT, THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT, THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT, THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT, . . . AND THE DODGERS

WIN THE WILD CARD!!" 

 

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT . . . 

Don't have any major sports-related movies on TCM to share but here are some films of interest, some of which have a sports moment:

Tu Sep 17 945A - the Marx Brothers in "A Night At The Opera" (1935) with a crucial version of "Take Me Out To Ball Game" near the end

 

W Sep 18  715A Frank Sinatra debuts the song "Time After Time" in "It Happened In Brooklyn" (1947)

9a "The Story of Seabiscuit" (1949) fictionalized version of the underdog horse's story with Shirley Temple and Barry Fitzgerald

     and three classics back-to-back:

6p "White Heat" (1949) with Cagney in perhaps his last great role 

8p "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946) John Garfield & Lana Turner can't resist passion for each other in story by James M. Cain

10p "Born To Kill" (1947) brutal but absorbing drama with Lawrence Tierney and Claire Trevor (a year before she is forced to sing in "Key Largo"

   and then plays a sanitized Mrs. Babe Ruth in "Babe Ruth Story")

 

Th Sep 19 10P "Modern Times" (1936) - Chaplin's last silent movie with his then-amour Paulette Goddard

 

F Sep 20 9A "Strangers On A Train" (1951) Farley Granger as a besieged tennis player in a Hitchcock classic; nice scenes at Forest Hills tennis club

 

and talk about a couple of timely films:

2p "Berlin Express" (1948) A search for post-WW II Nazi operatives, with Robert Ryan/Merle Oberon/director Jacques Tourneur 

330p "The Tall Target" (1951) foiling of an attempted train assassination of Abe Lincoln with Dick Powell/Adolph Menjou/Paula Raymond/dir. Anthony Mann

 

8p "Dr Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb" (1964)  Peter Sellers in 3 roles/also George C. Scott/Sterling Hayden/Keenan Wynn

945p "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" (1940) Jimmy Stewart gets disillusioned in DC and tries to fight back - not my favorite Capra film

  but always worth seeing 

 

ERRATUM from last post:  It was Jessica Pegula who was runner-up at US Tennis Open earlier this month, not Jennifer.

 

That's all for now - always remember: Stay positive, test negative, and Take it easy but take it.