Lee Lowenfish

The first Thursday of March was another freezing night during New York City’s winter from hell. Yet as always, just being in Jay Goldberg’s cozy Bergino Baseball Clubhouse made one forget the frigid conditions.

When you enter Bergino at 67 East 11 Street (in the northeastern corner of Greenwich Village), turn to the wall on your left and you note a colorful canvas. It says:
LOVE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD. BUT BASEBALL IS PRETTY GOOD TOO. Signed “Gregg, 8 years old.”
Immediately you know you’ve arrived in a magical space.

The program on Thursday March 6, “Baseball as Good Medicine,” certainly delivered on its promise. Six speakers gave five-minute talks on memorable incidents from their baseball-loving lives. After each presentation, two judges, cartoonist Mort Gerberg and actress/writer Kathryn Markey (co-founder of the comedy troupe, The Chalks) offered trenchant, mirthful comments.

Benjamin Hill, a writer for the minor league baseball website milb.com, got the evening off to a rousing start with stories about his food-eating experiences on the bush league ballpark trail. The turducken hot dog certainly caught my attention. (After the show, Hill assured me that the spam carving contest continues in Reading, Penna.)

Unfortunately before last season, Hill learned he had issues with gluten. Undeterred, the resourceful writer enlisted “designated eaters” to consume the foods he now can only write about. He’s looking for more “de’s” in 2014 and several in the audience volunteered.

Among the other highlights:
**Paul Lukas, who writes informative columns about baseball uniforms for espn.com, shared a touching story about how his much-older brother took him to his first Mets game even though the forecast called for rain.

**Greg Prince, co-founder of the blog faithandfearinflushing, delivered an appreciation for Closing Day not Opening Day in his life as a Mets fan. (As you probably know, the Mets have enjoyed great success over the years winning their home opener but the rest of their seasons have usually brought grief more than triumph.)

**Wearing a yarmulke with a Red Sox logo, Rabbi Jeffrey Sinkler ended the wonderful presentations with a story of his earnest if unsuccessful search for a “Boston Strong” T-shirt on his visit to Fenway Park last summer.

Kudos to New York-based photographer Annie Levy who hosted the evening as part of a benefit for her Photo ID Foundation. This worthy project has grown out of her work since 2010 with seriously ill young patients at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx.

She was moved when the youngsters defiantly declared that we are “NOT DEFINED BY DIAGNOSIS.” The Photo ID Foundation was created to allow patients to express themselves in creative and innovative ways.

For more information on PhotoID check out photoidfoundation.org and annie@photoidorganization.org.

For more information on the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse, check out www.bergino.com and/or contact Jay Goldberg at bergino@aol.com

That’s all for now. I’m off early Tuesday the 11th to the 21st annual Nine Baseball Magazine conference in Phoenix. Will be introducing our opening night speaker Janet Marie Smith, the architect/urban planner who was in at the creation of Camden Yards, Atlanta’s Turner Field, the renovation of Fenway, and now the renovation of Dodger Stadium at Chavez Ravine.

Until the next time we meet:
Remember always: Take it easy but take it!
 Read More 

I have long believed that bad winters create good baseball fans. If so, 2014 should be a banner season because we are enduring in New York City and much of the country the worst winter in recent memory. There is no relief in sight as March is coming in as a lion with more snow predicted for next week.

At least my Columbia Lions are providing thrills and hopes for the future on the basketball court. Picked for the basement by the pre-season "experts," Columbia has established itself as a first-division team with four games to play in the Ivy League season. With no seniors on the team, the prospects are seemingly bright for the future.

Under fourth-year head coach Kyle Smith, Columbia has an aggressive team with two possible All-Ivy players in forward Alex Rosenberg and guard Maado Lo providing consistent double-digit scoring. The roster is versatile and talented and Smith is using almost all of them. They provide "deep depth," to use Earl Weaver's wonderful phrase
to describe a winning team.

Columbia baseball won the Ivy League last year and beat New Mexico in a NCAA tournament game, a first-time achievement for a Lions nine. Those dreaded "experts" now pick us to repeat but it will depend of course on merit on the field beginning at U of South Florida in Tampa Feb 28 through Mar 2.

Coach Brett Boretti enters his 9th year as head coach with a balanced squad led by tri-captains, catcher Mike Fischer, shortstop Aaron Silbar and southpaw ace David Speer. It is very pleasant to be talking about successful Lions teams and not hearing the tired jokes about moribund Columbia football that has nowhere to go but up in 2014.

The cagers at my graduate alma mater the University of Wisconsin-Madison started the year with 16 straight W's, then lost five out of six in the tough Big Ten. They now have righted the ship with seven straight wins and look poised to give a good showing in March Madness.

Spunky 66-year-old Badger coach Bo Ryan has gone to the tourney every year since he became head man in Madison in 2001. I'm rooting hard for this year's edition to go all the way into April. The emergence of 7' foot center Frank Kaminsky as an offensive threat has given Wisconsin a very potent lineup.

I spent five winters in graduate school in Wisconsin in the 1960s and bigtime sports were mediocre until Cleveland-born Donna Shalala, the former president of Hunter College of the City of New York, arrived in the 1980s. Her hiring of Barry Alvarez as football coach brought the pigskin boys to national attention and Bo Ryan has done the same for basketball. On Wisconsin!

It's been a long time since my alma maters have done so well in college basketball and I'm savoring every moment. With the opening of the baseball exhibition season I am experiencing additional pleasure..

I'm sorry, marketers, they will always be exhibition and not pre-season games for yours truly. I still cherish memories from the 1950s of listening to games from Florida on the radio. Oh, how the sounds of bat on ball and softly buzzing crowds warmed me in my eighth floor apartment in midtown Manhattan.

The Orioles have suddenly been active on the free agent front, signing RHP Ubaldo Jimenez to a four-year contract and former Texas Ranger slugger Nelson Cruz to a one-year contract. I love the latter - I wish most players in baseball were on one-year deals because the desire to get another deal next year by playing hard this year would never be doubted. Wishful thinking I know. More on spring training and how the season looks in the next post.

That's all for now. Always remember - take it easy but take it!
 Read More