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!  

 

 

 

 

In this tumultuous time of history that fate has consigned us to, following sports seems more than ever a refuge from the torments of the world. I am not a huge football fan - the grisly regularity of that hospital bed on wheels, taking injured warriors from the field to the locker room always jars me. I've always loved the defense of football as "good clean violence", but it's the excess that now seems uncontrollable.

 

Yet I have started the new year watching a lot of college and some pro football playoff action.  Ole Miss captured my attention by their unexpected run to the post-season after their peripatetic coach Lane Kiffin bolted the team to accept more money and ostensibly more talented players at LSU.  He took a lot of his assistants with him, but several stayed including interim head coach Pete Golding who remained as defensive coordinator. 

 

In a quarter-final against perennial contender Georgia, Mississippi won one of the most thrilling games I ever watched, coming from behind in a topsy-turvy fourth quarter to oust the Bulldogs. The Ole Miss Rebels were led by Division II transfer quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and Western Kentucky transfer field goal kicker Lucas Carniero. But in the semis against the U of Miami Hurricanes, Ole Miss fell in another exciting game. Miami will now face unbeaten Indiana in the title game on Mon Jan 19 after 730P.

 

It has been a dream season for the Hoosiers under third-year coach Pittsburgh native Curt Cignetti who went to school at U of West Virginia and one of his prior coaching stops was at Indiana U- Pennsylvania (home town of actor Jimmy Stewart where I hope the museum in his honor is still open). At 64, Cignetti has turned around what has traditionally been a basketball school into a footbal powerhouse through judicious use of the transfer portal and well-organized player development.

 

As you know, dear readers, I bleed the Wisconsin red and white (as well as Columbia light blue and white), and there is a Wisconsin presence on both sides for the upcoming battle.

Riley Nowakowski played at Wisconsin as a rarely used running back before starring as a tight end at Indiana.  Miami first-year defensive back Xavier Lucas was supposed to play at Wisconsin but he transferred to Miami despite signing with the Badgers.  He dropped out of school in Madison and enrolled in Miami. Wisconsin is still pursuing litigation against him, but in the meantime Lucas has become a key defender for his hometown team. 

 

The transfer portal can indeed be chaotic, but I for one am glad that players can get a chance to play at other programs without sitting out a season which the NCAA had mandated under the old system. The NCAA stubbornly refused to make any adjustments to their controls over "student-athletes," a concept that the Supreme Court even in this polarized country rejected by a 9-0 vote. 

The days of NCAA standing for Never Compromise Anything Anytime are over, and I hope that some kind of sensible system allowing for players rights as well as team privileges can be negotiated.   

Although Wisconsin football has been unsuccessful the last three seasons with both transfer portal, especially at quarterback, and with player development, the news is better for Badger basketball. After a couple of blowout losses to Brigham Young and Nebraska that put Wisconsin out of the picture for any bid to March Madness, Wisconsin has won three in a row, the last two particularly memorable. On the road at Michigan on Sat Jan 10, they toppled the Wolverines from the undefeated ranks.  Down by 14 in the first half, they cut the lead to one by halftime and then went on a 3-point scoring binge to take control early in second half. 

 

In sports, there are very few verities, but in basketball nothing quite beats this one:

THE LAST FEW MINUTES OF THE FIRST HALF AND THE FIRST FEW MINUTES OF THE SECOND HALF ARE MOST IMPORTANT - the first tests your fitness near the end of a physically demanding 20 minute half and the second tests how you can recreate intensity after cooling off during a 15 minute intermission.

 

The Badgers' second win was at Minnesota a few days later on Tu Jan 13. Junior star captain John Blackwell hit a three pointer at the buzzer to win a hard-fought battle after poor foul shooting allowed the Gophers to tie the game on Cade Tyson's three-pointer with less than 5 seconds left.  After Blackwell hit the game-winner, he started leading a race with his teammates around the court with his teammates following him. They went at least two laps!  Better the players show their exuberance with a buzzer beater than fans running on the court.  A moot point is whether the Badger fans would have stormed the courts if it had been a home game.

 

Another great human interest Wisconsin story is the play of Nick Boyd, a graduate transfer guard from San Diego State who previously played college ball at Florida Atlantic and was a key member of the team that made the Final Four under coach Dusty May.   May now helms the Wolverines and so Boyd last week was able to beat his former coach. Another fascinating tidbit about Nick Boyd is that he is the nephew of legendary New Jersey baseball legend Fred Hill Sr who among his coaching stops have been both Rutgers and Montclair State.  Hill always encouraged Boyd to follow his dream that has led to his multiple stops that started in New Jersey at Don Bosco Prep and St. Mary's in Rutherford.  With Wisconsin's women basketball finally on the rise and both hockey teams high in national rankings, things are looking up for winter sports in Badger land.

 

I think Wisconsin is still on the bubble for March Madness, but its recent play on defense and offense has revived hope in the heart of this fan/alum/analyst. As for my other basketball passion,

the Columbia women's basketball team, they play two home games within three days:  Sa Jan 17 at 2P against Yale and M Jan 19 at 2P on Martin Luther King Day against improving Brown.

The amazing NYU Violets women's team extended its winning streak to 75 with a 75-54 win over U of Rochester on F Jan 16.

They take on Emory Su Jan 18 at Noon at the Paulson Center on Bleecker Street just a little west of Mercer Street in Greenwich Village.

More info on Columbia sports including the top-notch tennis team already playing home games in a bubble at gocolumbialions.com. 

More info on NYU at nyu.edu/athletics

 

And while I have no emotional involvement in the NFL's march to the Super Bowl, it would be nice for the Buffalo Bills and QB Josh Allen get to and win a Super Bowl.  I like the way Allen's parents

nurtured their son.  He played other sports in high school and didn't just focus on advanced training in football. He went to the University of Wyoming, not a football power to be sure, but he has risen to the highest echelons of his sport now.  Just hope he is healthy enough to make it all the way. Beating Denver in Denver will be a tall order.  In a wide-open race with no clearly dominant teams, I might like to see Bills play the Rams with their great helmet logo. 

 

And here are some TCM tips:

For the avid lover of all things New York:

W Jan 21 830P "The Taking of Pelham One-Two-Three" (1974) about a subway heist with Walter Matthau/Martin Balsam/Robert Shaw

Followed at 11p "Mean Streets" (1973) Martin Scorsese's classic about surviving in a rugged neighborhod with Robert DeNiro, Harvey Keitel

 

Th Jan 22 3A "The American Friend" (1977) Win Wenders' grim portrait of underworld characters with Bruno Ganz/Dennis Hopper/Nicholas Ray in an eyepatch in a cameo on decaying West Side Highway.  I don't usually list early AM films and don't think there is an iota of sports in this film.  But I list here because I saw this film during Game 1 of the 1977 World Series between Yankees and LA Dodgers.  I was so fed up with yet another Yankee-Dodger World Series that spoiled my youth as a New York Giant fan.  I vowed not to watch this damned remake again, but every time I saw

Bruno Ganz, he reminded me of Thurman Munson.  So I said, "What the hell? I'm obsessed with baseball," so I did watch most of the rest of the Series.                                 

 

F Jan 23 8P "A Letter to Three Wives" (1949). Inspired by a story by Stefan Zweig, Joe Mankiewicz directs a superb cast.  Probably the only film in which Kirk Douglas and Paul Douglas, unrelated, appeared together, Jeffrey Lynn is the third husband and the wives are Ann Sothern, Linda Darnell, Jeanne Crain. BTW, this is not the first film from the post World War 2-years in which a reference to baseball on the radio is made.  Just heard one the other night from bored Barbara Stanwyck early on in "Double Indemnity" and even from Joan Crawford in "Sudden Fear". 

 

And finally here's my Noir Alley closing section:

Su Jan 18 12M, repeated 10A, The classic French noir from 1954 "Diabolique" with Simone Signoret

Su Jan 25 1230A "Shield for Murder" (1954) with.the underrated Edmond O'Brien

Su Feb 1 12M "Talk About A Stranger" (1952) get this cast:  George Murphy, Nancy Reagan, Billy Gray (around this time also Robert Young's son Bud in TV's "Father Knows Best")

And last but not least!

Sa Jan 31 8p at 92nd St Y on Lexington Ave NYC - Eddie Muller and Rosie Perez LIVE discuss "Sweet Smell of Success" before the classic with Burt Lancaster/Tony Curtis is shown.

Tickets from $35 - info at 92NY.org

 

That's all for now.  Next time, I return to baseball talk with a plea - which likely won't do any good - to cease the gloom and doom about the Inevitable Baseball Lockout of 2027.

Talk about a "self-fulfilling prophecy".  Not here in these pages even if some kind of shutdown after this season is possible.  Season too long anyway.

 

Stay positive, test negative, and Take It Easy But Take It!