Lee Lowenfish

If there is one team that unites perpetually argumentative New Yorkers, it is the New York Knickerbockers. Pretty amazing given that the franchise has won only two NBA titles in a frustrating history dating back to the 1940s.  The first was in 1970 over the LA Lakers - in the dramatic Game 7, injured Willis Reed limped out of the locker room to give a morale boost to the team and after scoring a few points, Walt Frazier took over and contributed 37 points to the team's victory.

With essentially the same team except for the addition of sharp-shooting forward (and telephone book memorizer) Jerry Lucas and former Baltimore Bullet adversary Earl Monroe aka Earl the Pearl and Magic, the Knicks prevailed in 5 games. 

The 2026 Knicks have gotten hot at the right time.  They have won 11 in a row in the playoffs, the last two were sweeps of Philly and Cleveland. and the last 10 games set a NBA record for playoff point differential.  Their rebounding, fast break artistry and overall passing has been breathtaking to watch. Southpaw point guard Jalen Brunson - barely six feet tall - has done whatever is needed in any game - assisting, driving to the basket, or taking outside shots. Their domination has reminded me of Columbia's women's basketball 5-game streak just a few weeks ago to win the consolation WBIT tournament. (Here's a shoutout to other outstanding Lion women performances this spring season including women's golf. crew, national title-winning archery, and softball.)  

The Spurs will be a formidable opponent and I'm not surprised that they are slight favorites to win the title. They dethroned the Oklahoma City Thunder winning decisively the 7th game on the road.  How 7-footer Karl-Anthony Towns matches up against the wunderkind 7' 5" Victor Wembanyama might be a big key to the outcome. Also important will be the availability of backup center Mitchell Robinson who will be playing with a broken pinky on his right shooting hand.  The joke that immediately comes to mind is that the injury might help his absolutely dreadful foul shooting. 

I hope it is a competitive series and certainly it will help the Knicks if they at least split the first games in San Antonio. Here's the TV schedule with all games at 830P EDT on ABC:  Wed June 3, Fri Jun 5 in San Antonio; at NYC M Jun 8, W Jun 10. (Rumors have President Trump wanting to come to one of the Knick home games - sure hope someone can talk our petulant faux leader out of that bad idea but he and Knicks owner James Dolan share the same imperious temperament that too often comes with inherited wealth.) Game 5 goes back to San Antonio on Sat Jun 13 (if necessary). I AM SO GLAD THAT THE NBA HAS RE-INSTITUTED THE 2-2-1-1-1 format instead of the 2-3-2 setuip that put enormous pressure on the team with the supposed home court advantage because of best record.  Interestingly, though, the record in Game 7's lately favors the visitors 12-9.  Maybe travel is so luxurious these days that the road is not the obstacle it once was. If there is a game 6, it is at MSG on Tu 6//16 and Game 7 will be in San Antonio F 6/19. 

I hope it is a memorable series and that the Knicks win, maybe ideally in Game 6 at home. But San Antonio has plenty of feel-good stories, including Dylan Harper who emerged as a star against Ok C only a year removed from Rutgers where he only played one season.  (Dylan is the son of former Knick Ron Harper whose other son Ron Jr. stayed for a full career at Rutgers.) Former coach Greg Popovich remains a palpable presence in San Antonio. He presided over the 5-time NBA champion Spurs led by Tim Duncan-Manu Ginobili-Tony Parker. Slowly recovering from a stroke that forced his retirement from coaching, Popovich has been cheered by the presence of Duncan who attends some of his rehab sessions. 

Turning now to baseball, the college game rarely gets much coverage in the NYC area.  As readers of this blog know, I am an ardent Columbia baseball fan and we did make the Ivy League tourney this year as the #4 seed. The Lions beat Penn in an elimination tourney game after losing to eventual winner Yale.  A close loss to Brown ended their sub-.500 overall season but a lot of talent remains with undoubtedly reinforcements on the way. The Ivy League may have had a down year - Yale lost soundly to Oregon and Oregon State in the Eugene regionals - but league parity is becoming the rule which is fine with me and Lions coach Brett Boretti. Brown was a surprise second place regular season finisher and also finished second to Yale in the tournament.      

The big NYC college baseball story is Cinderella St John's who are heading to the Super-Regional in Tuscaloosa to start a best-of-three series Sat night with U of Alabama. The Red Storm swept the Tallahassee regional beating host Florida State twice. In the final game, redshirt sophomore catcher Adam Agresti's 5th inning grand-slam was the big blow. The Yorktown NY native was joined by four teammates on the tourney's All-Star team.  Quite an accomplishment for coach Mike Hampton (NOT the former Met reliever who bolted Gotham for the supposed better school system in Denver) but a man who served for 18 years as a hitting coach and recruiter for former head coach Ed Blankmeyer.    

For some reason, the St. John's-Alabama best-of-three series is the last game on ESPN's Super-Regional card. The Crimson Tide hosts the Red Storm on

Sa Jun 6 9P EDT, ESPN 2.  The second game will be on Sun aft Jun 7 game will be on at either 2 or 3p. The order of the other Sat games are Mississippi State at Georgia at 12N on ESPN; then the revival of a Big 12 rivalry, Oklahoma at Kansas 6P on ESPN2, Oregon at Texas 8P ESPN, and St John's at Alabama 9P ESPN.  But again better check your listings.

Here are the PSAL high school championship schedules with all games at the Staten Island Hospital Stadium, home ot the independent league Ferry Hawks just a short walk from the SI side of the SI Ferry:  Sat Jun 6 5P HS title game from the highest division, 3A, pits John Jay of Bklyn vs perennial contender Tottenville from SI. Preceded at 2P by the smaller school game between Port Richmond & East Side Community.

Su Jun 7 Noon A Division title game pits Kingsbridge Academy against Baruch HS 3P is the annual Exceptional Players All-Star Game 

Next blog will have more detailed thoughts on the MLB season.  The Orioles' improved starting pitching and some timely hitting have given this ardent Bird watcher some cautious hope that there will be a summer ahead of agonized pleasure watching games, after all.  But they are still 3 games under .500 before the Wed night game Jun 3 game against the currently cellar-dwelling Red Sox.  We'll see where things look later in the month of June which has been known for baseball swoons as well as lyrical moons. I'm happy that chronic recent losers like the White Sox, Pirates, and Nationals are above .500 and I hope that doesn't change drastically in the days and weeks ahead.   

Here's a TV note:  The MLBTV network on Su June 14 at 1P EDT: "Grass Routes" highlights the Rochester Red Wings. This show may only be on intermittently during the summer but I've enjoyed earlier shows on the Portland Sea Dogs and the Asheville Tourists. The Red Wings were home to the Cardinals for decades and then the Orioles came in for a long time.  Currently it is a Twins farm team.

And now it's time for TCM tips that doesn't include many sports movies but if you never tire of the classic Noir "Double Indemnity", on Fri Jun 5 at 10P, listen closely to what bored housewife Barbara Stanwyck is complaining about her husband during one of her early fateful meetings with insurance agent Fred MacMurray.  At 8p "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) is on and at midnight "Detour" (1945) which might be worth seeing once but I wouldn't make it a favorite.

Muller's roster on Fri Jun 12 is more appealing to me:  8P "Scarlet Street" (1945) Edward G. Robinson is played for a sap by Joan Bennett & Dan Duryea helps her out.  I got so annoyed by Eddie G's victimization but I guess it is a tribute to his depiction of what an unhappy husband is capable of feeling & doing.

10P "The Killers" (1946) the film that made Ava Gardner and Burt Lancaster stars and Hemingway said that the opening scenes were the best Hollywood ever

did with his original stories.

Midnight "Nightmare Alley" (1947) A grueling film set in a circus with Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell.  This one I must see again.

Eddie Muller's regular Noir Alley on Su June 7 at 12M, repeated at 10A, is the classic "Blue Dahlia" (1946) with Alan Ladd as a WW2 veteran returning home to find his wife dead.  On June 14 it's "Blackout" (1954) which I've never seen.

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

"Every season is different" goes the old sports adage that like most cliches survive because there is a lot of truth to them.  Getting the most annoying story out of my system early on, I didn't expect more than a .500 season from the Orioles and now that modest hope is fading. You have read many times on this blog that I never believed in the baseball acumen of "President of Baseball Operations" Mike Elias but as long as relatively new owner David Rubenstein believes that Elias, who has 8 years in a top role, is such a genius that he doesn't even need a general manager beneath him who just might just know a little more about analyzing pitching talent, the future seems bleak. 

For the next three nights (M thru W May 11-13) the Orioles do have a chance to avenge the embarrassing four-game sweep at Yankee Stadium earlier this month.  Perhaps it is a blessing that because the MLB schedule now limits head-to-head divisional matchups to only 13 a season, the Birds don't return to the Bronx until the last weekend of regular season.  Of course, there will be two series in Baltimore where if the Birds don't show more life, Camden Yards will likely become Yankee Stadium South.  But I still use the pronoun "we" and wear my Oriole jacket often and it leads to fruitful conversations with strangers who love the Orioles.  Like the young woman one-third my age who wondered, "What is Elias giving RHP Shane Baz a 5-year contract worth $65 million before he threw one pitch for us?"  So far his results have not been promising. I am tempted to shout, "Don't come back, Shane!"  (Stay tuned for more movie snark near end of this post.) 

To turn positive for a moment, we are only five games below .500 as I post on Monday morning May 11. Nobody in AL is comfortably above .500 except the first-place Tampa Bay Rays (who plucked 4 top prospects from the Birds in the Baz deal) and the Yankees. Yesterday on Mother's Day, we enjoyed a rare win over the improved Athletics. My boys did it mainly with pitching and defense - How about that?

In top of 7th inning after getting the first lead of the weekend on a clutch single by rookie outfielder Dylan Beavers, inexpensive free agent pickup center fielder Leody Taveras threw a one-hop strike to impressive 21-year-old rookie catcher Samuel Basallo to preserve the 2-1 lead. 37-year-old gritty RHP Chris Bassitt gave his best effort as an Oriole for 6 innings and the 2-1 score held thanks to a save by well-traveled interim closer Rico Garcia.  A native of Hawaii, Rico G wears #50 as a tribute to his home state and one of his heroes, former Mets outfielder Benny Agbayani.      

As for the overall outlook for MLB with a quarter of regular season games already as Mets broadcaster Howie Rose loves to say "in the books", Tampa makes their first visit to Yankee Stadium over the weekend of May 23 after sweeping the Bronx Bombers early last month at their domed dungeon called Tropicana Field that has been restored after severe hurricane damage.  The justly-maligned NL Central has all its teams over .500 as I post this in early May. The St. Louis Cardinals are nipping at the heels of the Chicago Cubs for first place and the Brewers after sweeping the Yankees this weekend are right in the mix, too. 

About 10 days ago, I watched FOX's Saturday "Baseball Night in America" and was impressed that the Cards started virtually an entire home-grown team with early Rookie of the Year contender second baseman JJ Wetherholt shining on both sides of the ball as the Cards beat the filthy-rich LA Dodgers.  Wetherholt is from the Pittsburgh area and I'm glad that the Pirates bounced back from a home sweep by the Cardinals to sweep the Reds. Pittsburgh is a great baseball town and the fans have suffered for so many years that they are still not drawing very well.  I hope many will return if the Buccos stay in contention.  

There have been many losses of eminent baseball people since I last posted.  I never had any real personal encounters with Yankee broadcaster John Sterling, 87, Atlanta Braves owner/champion yachtsman/media entrepreneur Ted Turner, 87, or Hall of Fame manager/former Yankee third baseman Bobby Cox, 84, but they certainly deserve to be remembered.  

Seattle broadcaster Aaron Goldsmith told on air last week a classic story about John Sterling whose love of the Great American Songbook was well-known. Goldsmith was a friend of slugger Matt Holliday and when Matt was a Yankee near the end of his stellar career, Goldsmith asked Matt if John Sterling was willing to narrate a tape that Aaron could use on his answering machine during the holidays.  Sure enough before Thanksgiving one year, Goldsmith received in the mail a tape of Sterling introducing Frank Sinatra singing "Happy Holidays". 

At the beginning of his career as a baseball owner in the early 1970s, Ted Turner was very brash, even putting on a uniform to manage a game during a long Braves losing streak. Soon he wisely let solid baseball people make the vital scouting and developmental decisions that led the Braves towards constant contention by the early 1990s. I devoted a chapter of my book on scouting BASEBALL'S ENDANGERED SPECIES to such Braves lifers as Bill Lucas - the unacknowledged first Black GM - and scouting maven Paul Snyder.  After a down 2025, the Braves are back in clear NL pennant contention. Atlanta just won a series in LA and are the only team above .500 in what so far must be called the NL Least. After a horrenous start, the Phillies have moved to only 3 under .500 under new manager Don Mattingly.  The Mets languish at 10 under .500 and show few signs of a rebound.

On a personal note, I had a moving experience on the last Friday of April, the 24th.  After a showing at the Ferguson Public Library in downtown Stamford CT of the 2013 bio-pic "42," the film that starred Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey and the late Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson, I was part of a panel discussing the movie along with authors of two recent books about the crucial period of the late 1940s Keith Evan Crook who has written OPENING THE DOOR FOR JACKIE (McFarland) and Peter Eisenstadt, INTEGRATION AT SECOND BASE (U of Illinois Press).  Courtesy of author Crook, here is a YouTube link to the discussion that was hosted by Guy Fortt, president of the Stamford NAACP who over 40 years ago was the first Black firefighter in Greenwich CT.  

I never tire of discussing this period in American history which seemed hopeful for genuine and equitable social change.  As I say in the tape, 1947 was the high point of success in Branch Rickey's career even though the Dodgers lost a memorable 7-game World Series to the Yankees. Though there are some errors in the baseball history, I'm so glad that feisty Leo Durocher is an important presence in "42" and Chris Meloni does him justice. Understandably not in a film made for a mass Hollywood audience, we don't learn the later story after 1947.  In 1948, the Dodgers did not win the pennant and the signs of Walter O'Malley's coming takeover of the team were clearer than ever, reaching fruition after the 1950 season though the Dodgers returned to Series in 1949 and missed out on last day of 1950 season.  Rickey's post-Dodger career in Pittsburgh and later back to St Louis was not crowned by baseball success but I continue to find him a  fascinating figure, a grandfather that I never had I guess. Was delighted that several in audience remember fondly my bio BRANCH RICKEY: BASEBALL'S FEROCIOUS GENTLEMAN still in print from U of Nebraska Press. Hope you enjoy the link and can ride through some occasional sound glitches. Many thanks to Keith Crook for providing the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i03NKPZWp_M&t=17s 

 CLOSING NOTES:

**Ivy League Baseball Post-Season Tournament begins Fri May 15 at 12N with top-seed Yale hosting #4 Columbia followed at 4P by #2 Penn versus

#3 Brown.  Loser's bracket at 11A on Sa and winner's bracket at 4P  Tourney winds up either on Sun or a M 12 Noon game.  

Kudos to Columbia senior RHP Evan Kleinhans who has closed games, served as an "opener", and pitched 8 1/3 innings of shutout ball in a key late

regular season game at Cornell.  I have dubbed him "Every Day Evan" referencing the former Twins and Giants hurler Eddie "Every Day" Guardado.  

All Ivy League tourney games will be available on ESPN+. 

*"Grass Routes" is a fun MLBTV show that features a different minor league franchise each Sunday from 1-130P on MLBTV.  During a show about the Portland (Maine) Sea Dogs, a fan described his dream afterlife: "I don't want to be buried but bronzed holding an umbrella so the pigeons don't get me." 

During a recent show about the Asheville Tourists that play in McCormick Field that is over a century old, Connor Griffin, then a visiting minor leaguer and now the Pirates' 20-year-old wunderkind SS, expressed his genuine love of the game and the experiences he was having on the way up to the majors.  The show narrited by Jonathan Mayo is on every Sunday at 1P on MLB network

 TCM TIPS:

F May 15 630P "Baby Face" (1933) Barbara Stanwyck sleeps her way to the top and among the beaus discarded are uncredited Douglass Dumbrille and John Wayne. Black actress Theresa Harris is a friend of Barbara's and is treated in film as an equal.  I mention this film because it's directed by Alfred E. Green (1889-1960) who started in Hywd as silent movie actor and directed a lot of bio-pecs including the "Jackie Robinson Story" (1950).  BTW it should be watched along with "42" for different insights into that crucial period of our history.  Jackie Robinson played himself in the 1950 film quite convincingly though, of course, masking on screen his righteous disdain in real life for the racists in our midst.

Sa May 16 245A "Designing Woman" (1957) Vincente Minnelli tries to make Gregory Peck believable as a sportswriter. Doesn't work for me but Lauren Bacall/Dolores Gray are also in cast.

Su May 17 Noir Alley a little later 1230A and 1015A Hitchock's "Strangers On A Train" (1951) with some memorable footage at Forest Hills Tennis Club.

Robert Walker is out to get innocent Farley Granger. Also with Ruth Roman/and oh-so-reserved Leo G Carroll. 

Later on Sunday two memorable films that have nothing to do with sports but must be listed:

1215P "Humoresque" (1946) one of the best films about classical music with John Garfield/Oscar Levant/Joan Crawford

1030P "Moonstruck" (1987) J P Shanley's memorable script and Vincent Gardenia, who did play the NY Mammoths manager in "Bang The Drum Slowly", as

Olympia Dukakis's straying husband and of course Cher choosing Nicolas Cage over Danny Aiello. 

****Th May 21 330P. Joe E Brown in "6-Day Bike Rider" (1934) along with frequent pal Frank McHugh.  Joe E always deserves 4-stars. 

11P "Blazing Saddles" (1974). how can I fail to mention Mel Brooks' enormously politically incorrect hilarious classic!

F May 22 6A "Body and Soul" (1925) Paul Robeson as philandering minister

8P Gregory Peck tries his hand as "MacArthur" (1977) - not sure I can last through this one but Genl Douglas A is an important if flawed figure in our history.

How can I forget my remedial speech class in 3rd grade when I had to recite a poem in honor of MacArthur's young son returning from Japan after Truman fired his daddy:  "Arthur MacArthur/We welcome you home!"  Fortunately forget the rest of poem but not this ditty that Miss Frisch taught us: 

"Good, better, best/Never let it rest/Until the good is better/And the better is best."

That's all for now (whew!). Always remember:  Take it Easy but Take It, and Stay Positive Test Negative!"