Lee Lowenfish

I was so riveted watching "Tender Mercies" on TCM's 31 Days of Oscar earlier this week that I forgot about the first innings of the USA-Italy game in the World Baseball Classic.  I had never seen "Mercies" before and Robert Duvall's Oscar-winning performance as a country music singer trying to recapture his mojo really moved me. Horton Foote's great dialogue provided the title for this post when a music fan asks Duvall, "Hey, Mister, were you really Mac Sledge?"  "I guess I was," he replies.  The exchange reminded me of the story of the old coach leaving a baseball clubhouse and an autograph-seeker asks, "Who did you used to be?"

 

Some might find the ending of "Tender Mercies" corny as Duvall has a leisurely catch with a football he had gifted his stepson who of course is named Sonny. But I thought it worked fine given the tragedy you knew was coming earlier in film when Sledge's daughter from an earlier marriage (acted by a memorable Ellen Barkin) dies in an auto accident.

 

TCM has a slate of baseball movies coming up tomorrow Friday night Mar 13 through 6A Sat morn Mar 14.  

8P "Field of Dreams" (1989).  I still think the biggest fantasy in the film is when Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones go to a concession stand at Fenway Park and there is no line and three people are ready to serve them.  

10P "Bull Durham" (1988) written and directed by former Oriole farmhand Ron Shelton who never made the majors because in the days before free agency he was stuck behind Bobby Grich in the Baltimore farm system. Shelton's book on the making of the film "The Church of Baseball" (Knopf, 2022) is a good read and rumors are still floating around of a possible musical in the works.

12 midnight "Bang The Drum Slowly" (1973) definitely on a short list of great baseball films adapted from Mark Harris' novel of same name.  The film that

made Robert DeNiro a star. 

145A "Pride of the Yankees" (1942) the Lou Gehrig story starring Gary Cooper with Teresa Wright as Eleanor Gehrig and Babe Ruth plaiying himself.  Crusty non-baseball fan Samuel Goldwyn was so moved by the story that he paid a sum in low five figures to Irving Berlin for use of "Always" in the film.

4A "The Stratton Story" (1949) the film that cemented Jimmy Stewart's stardom based on the real story of once-budding White Sox pitcher whose career

was curtailed by a hunting accident. 

Oscar night is Su Mar 15 and a week later Mar 22 at midnight Noir Alley returns.

 

Now let's talk real baseball not reel baseball. After "Tender Mercies" was over, I did eventually turn to the USA-Italy game and picked it up with the Italians, managed by former Yankee catcher Francisco Cervelli, surprisingly ahead 3-0.  Before long it was 5-0 and then 8-0 heading into the late innings.  FOX announcers Joe Davis and John Smoltz, the latter still looking for his funny bone, had all but given up and their moaning was annoying.  In a game played in Houston's cozy bandbox now known as Daikin Park, the lead didn't look insurmountable to me given the firepower on USA led by captain Aaron Judge. Sure enough, a home run barrage started by Oriole Gunnar Henderson followed by two blasts from Cub and former Met farmhand Pete Crow-Armstrong brought USA within 2 runs, 8-6.  But Red Sox and former Yankee reliever Greg Weissert did get the save for Italy by striking out Henderson and Judge for the final two outs.

 

The sighs of relief from USA manager Mark DeRosa must have overturned furniture in MLB and FOX television offices when Italy routed Mexico in their game last night (Wed Mar 11). DeRosa admitted that he didn't understand the rules of the WBC and he thought his team had already clinched a spot in WBC quarter-finals before the Italy game.  The quarter-finals are now set for the upcoming weekend with Italy a surprise and undefeated entrant - the other seven teams were all expected to make it to the closing rounds. 

 

Here's the TV schedule, all times EDT, all games on FOX channels with home team listed last:

F Mar 13 630P in Miami on FS2 - Korea v. Dominican Republic with red-hot Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 

   Mar 13 8P USA v Canada in Houston on FOX

Su Mar 15 8P FS1 Miami semi-final

 

Sa Mar 14 3P FS1 in Houston, Puerto Rico v Italy

     Mar 14 9P FOX Venezuela v Japan with Shohei Ohtani

M Mar 16 8P FS1 semi-final in Miami

Tu Mar 17 8P WBC final in Miami

 

Inevitably, the WBC has taken attention away from spring training games, but with a pitch limit of 65 in first rounds and under 90 in the last rounds danger of pitching injuries may be reduced.  Running bases is another story, however.  Italy lost its starting catcher Kyle Teel of the White Sox to a hamstring injury incurred as he was stretching a single into double against USA.  Yet so far Italy has shown depth in every area of the roster.

 

Before I close, here's a salute to the NYC area Division III basketball teams still alive in their version of March Madness. 

On F Mar 13 at 730P the NYU women host a frequent post-season rival Hardin-Simmons from Texas at their Paulson Athletic Center on Bleecker near Mercer Sts.  The Violets won their 89th in a row last weekend breaking the UCLA men's record.  At 5P U Wisconsin-Lacrosse meets Southern Maine.

 

Also on F Mar 13 at 7P U of Scranton, who lost to NYU last season, hosts Bates of Maine. I still quote a warmup T-shirt Scranton players wore last year:

EVERY DRILL, EVERY REP, EVERY DAY.  It's up there with the T-shirt I once saw in a Tampa Bay Rays baseball clubhouse:  CHAMPIONS ARE MADE WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING.  The Scranton regional opens at 430P when John Hopkins of Baltimore tangles with Concordia-Moorhead MN.

The D-III women's Final Four is at Roanoke College in Salem, VA Th Mar 19 and Sa Mar 21.   Check ncaa.com for streaming information because there is sadly next to no cable or regular TV coverage.  

 

Also on F Mar 13 at 1P, the Yeshiva University men in upper Manhattan travel to Emory U in Atlanta in their D-III tournament.  Unfortunately, the Montclair Red Hawks men's team that had won 24 in a row in regular season lost their last 3 games and their season is over.   

 

Tomorrow F Mar 13, I'm heading up to Ithaca to root on my Columbia women's team against Harvard in the 730P game of the Ivy League tournament.

My Lions lost the regular season finale to Harvard last Saturday enabling Princeton to become top seed in the tourney.  More details on my adventure on alumni bus in the next post.  My Wisconsin Badgers men start the Big Ten tourney against U of Washington today Th Mar 12 at 230P EDT on Big Ten Network.  An erratum from last post I want to fix now. Vital Wisconsin sixth man Carrington's first name is Braeden! 

 

In the meantime, always remember:  Stay Positive, Test Negative and Take It Easy But Take It!  

 

 

 

 

I really want to focus on this blog about the late rush towards the top of my Columbia Lions in the Ivy League baseball race. And the Orioles’ fine start to their season.
But I have to get this off my chest first.

The headline of a Buster Olney story on espn.com this weekend read: “Giants Wise Not To Punish Underpaid Bumgarner”. If you haven’t heard, SF Giants’ star southpaw hurt his shoulder seriously in a dirt-bike accident incurred on the team’s day-off in Denver. He will be out until early summer.

Yet I am sick and tired of sportswriters and pundits referring to any millionaire ballplayer as “underpaid”. Bumgarner has the security of a long-term contract through 2019 even though his annual reported salary of $12 million is only a little more than one-third of the money than the Dodgers’ ace Clayton Kershaw is reportedly making - $32=$33 million a year.

Even at a "paltry" $12 million a year Bumgarner is not going to the poor house any time soon.

Leaving aside the question of whether he should have been punished - it all depends on whether his contract prohibited such dangerous activity in season as well as out of season - Bumgarner’s action was dumb and reckless. It does not augur well for the Giants’ season to lose your ace until the early summer at best.

Now to happier baseball news. Let’s start with the late season surge of my Columbia Lions in the Gehrig Division of the Ivy League. They have won five league games in a row - six overall - including this past weekend’s two doubleheader sweep of defending Gehrig champion Princeton.

I had hoped to see a full doubleheader at Princeton’s sunken diamond Bill Clarke Field on Saturday, but unexpected rains limited the first game to only four innings plus one out in top of 5th. Columbia, behind solid pitching by junior co-captain Ty Wiest and surprising home run power from senior center fielder Shane Adams and sophomore shortstop Joe Engel, had a 8-2 lead when the day’s activities were suspended.

In much better weather on Sunday, Columbia was able to complete a sweep (without yours truly in attendance). They finished the first game with a resounding 15-2 victory and overcame an early 3-0 deficit to win the second game 21-5. Meanwhile in Ithaca, perennial contender Penn took three out of four from host Cornell.

With one weekend to go in regular season Penn leads Columbia by 2 games, Cornell by 3, and Princeton by 4. So the division title will be decided by two big doubleheaders between the Lions and the Quakers.

The first one starts Friday at 1pm at Columbia’s Satow Stadium just north of football’s Kraft Field in the Baker Field complex west of 218th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. The final two games of the regular season will start at 1pm Sat. at Penn’s Meiklejohn Field on the Philadelphia campus.

Those traveling to these games on New Jersey Transit or Amtrak should still expect delays. Train transit remains less than ideal on the north Jersey corridor.

Meanwhile, Yale took a giant step forward towards representing the Rolfe Division in the playoff by sweeping Dartmouth on Sunday and splitting on Monday. So the powerful Elis have clinched a tie for the half-pennant. They need only one victory over Brown or one Dartmouth loss to clinch their second straight Rolfe flag.
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If there is no Penn-Columbia playoff, the best-of-three championship series will start at historic Yale Field the first weekend in May.

As a Columbia alum, it has been great to see my young Lions coalesce into a winning outfit at the right time of the season. Shortstop Joe Engel has become steady in the field and is showing surprising pop - he had never hit a homer in his college career until last week when he belted his first at Fordham and his second at Princeton.

Two of the Columbia co-captains have become potent sluggers in the middle of the lineup: junior third baseman Randell Kanemaru and second baseman Kyle Bartelman are delivering big hits. So are the emerging sophomore first baseman Chandler Bengtson and freshman phenom DH-LF-IBman Liam McGill.

Those Penn games should provide stirring competition because the Quakers are real hot, too. They pounded Princeton four times in a row with their big bats and used their good moundsmen and timely hitting to win the series at Cornell.

On the pro front, I am happy with the Orioles’ 13-5 start. Despite the loss of semi-ace Chris Tillman to shoulder discomfort - he may return to the rotation in early May - they are getting surprisingly good starting pitching with Dylan Bundy looking like the ace-in-waiting they have dreamed of for years.

Their other former number one draft choice, Opening Day starter Kevin Gausman has not stepped up as hoped but he tends to be a slow starter, this blogger says hopefully. And the Oriole bullpen has been outstanding even with star closer Zach Britton on the DL with forearm issues.

Brad Brach, from Freehold NJ and Monmouth University, has filled in admirably. His four straight saves (through the 6-3 come-from-behind home victory overTB on Mon Apr 24) were achieved by a TOTAL of 44 pitches. The Birds make their first trip to Yankee Stadium in 2017 this coming weekend and I’ll be sure to share some thoughts on that series next time.

Before I go, I have two appearances ahead, one in print and one in person, to share with you, dear readers.

**Starting Wed Apr 26, check out the National Pastime Museum website - tnpmuseum.com - for a piece I wrote on silent film legend Buster Keaton’s love of baseball.

**On Sunday afternoon Apr 30, I will be on a panel discussing Josh Gibson and Negro league baseball after a performance of Richard Jones’ play “Josh: The Black Babe Ruth.” The play starts at 3p and the panel starts immediately thereafter around 445pm. Location: Theater for the New City, 1st Avenue and E. 10th Street in Manhattan’s East Village.

Always remember: Take it easy but take it.
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