Lee Lowenfish

Although the coldness of the oppressive NYC winter hasn't yet gone away, it is still time to celebrate the coming of spring.  Whenever the blues hit me - a cursory glance at news of the world can do that these days - I hum to myself Freddie Hubbard's joyous jazz waltz "Up Jumped Spring" and my spirits leap  immediately. 

 

It helps that one of my favorite college teams, Columbia women's basketball coached by Megan Griffith in her tenth year at the helm of her alma mater, has morphed again into another exciting band of Megan's Marauders.  Recovering from the sting of two losses in a row to Harvard that allowed Princeton to dethrone my Lions as Ivy League champion, the Lions are determined to make the most of their participation in a consolation tournament, the WBIT (Women's Basketball Invitational Tournament).  It's good to still be playing - in contrast, Princeton lost convincingly its first round March Madness meeting with Oklahoma State.

 

In the first round of the WBIT, Columbia crushed St. John's of Queens NY in 74-26 in what would be their final home game. This past Sunday Mar 22, Columbia routed North Dakota State, a team with only 4 losses, 86-57 in a road game in Fargo ND.  The Lions had three 20 plus scorers, led by sophomore Mia Bloom with 26. Subbing for injured point guard Maria Avlijas, Broom like all her teammates played intense defense while sparkling on the offensive end.  Some of Broom's awesome long passes reminded me of Cecelia Collins' similar throws which provided highlight moments on last year's team that won the school's first game ever in March Madness.  (Cece is now playing pro ball in Germany.) 

 

Next up for the Lions is a Th Mar 26 quarter-final matchup at the University of California-Berkeley to be broadcast on ESPN+ at 10P EDT.  In another quarter-final, Harvard travels to my graduate school alma mater, Wisconsin-Madison, for a 730P matchup with the surprising Badgers who finished the regular season under .500 but have solid wins over Oregon State and Miami-Fla in the WBIT.  Given the disappointing loss of the men's team in the first round of March Madness - something I was not surprised by because they never played consistent good defense all season - I'm happy for Wisconsin's success in coach Robin Pingeton's first year.  But in women's basketball, I'm a Lion all the way.  In fact, I know Griffith and her marauders would love to face Harvard again in the WBIT Final Four that will be held in Wichita's Charles Koch Arena - yes, the home town of one of the Koch brothers - on March 30 on ESPNU. The final will be on ESPN2 on W April 1. The other bracket pits San Diego State against Kansas and Brigham Young vs. Stanford.  

 

On the Division III level in women's basketball, NYU's amazing 91-game winning streak came to an end last Thursday Mar 19 when in the semi-final game of the D3 Final Four, the U of Scranton Lady Royals led virtually all the way winning a battle of the undefeated 60-52.  But it was Denison College from Granville, Ohio that won the D3 crown beating Scranton, 55-41.  Nothing can take away from the achievement of Meg Barber's remarkable winning streak coaching her alma mater. She loses only one graduating senior Caroline Peper so look for some more potent basketball in Greenwich Village in future season(s).   

  

Here's a shoutout to another Wisconsin women's hockey championship, the 9th brought back to Madison by retiring coach Mark Johnson.  The Badgers came from behind to win a semi from Penn State on the Nittany Lions' home ice.  And then beat the Ohio State Buckeyes in the final, 3-2.  The winning goal was scored by fourth line wing Claire Enright late in the third period after Ohio State, just as their leader Joy Dunne predicted in a post-second period TV interview, roared back to tie the game with 2 goals in 2 minutes. I don't know of any team sport where the finals FOUR YEARS IN A ROW were played by the same two teams.  Fans and citizens in general can learn so much from the competitive fire of these great athletes in college hockey, many of whom now have the chance to play in pro hockey leagues in this country. 

 

I'll have March Madness schedules on many levels to share at the end of this post but now . . . 

IT IS TIME TO TAKE YOU OUT TO THE BALLGAME! 

In a sign of the times, both Opening Day games for the Mets and Yankees will not be televised on either free TV or traditional cable.  The Yankees open at the

SF Giants tomorrow Wed Mar 26 in San Francisco at 805P EDT available only on Netflix or radio.  (In another sign of the times, a recent poll of media

listening of young people revealed that virtually 60% Gen Z youngsters don't listen to radio at all).  The Mets will open at home Th Mar 26 at 115P against ace pitcher Paul Skenes and the Pittsburgh Pirates.  It will be available only on NBC Peacock.  The Yankees don't open at home until Fri aft Apr 3 against the Miami Marlins. That game will be on YES.

 

I am not a fan of the so-called "balanced" schedule that has cut intradivision play from 19 to 13 games.  With 30 MLB teams to schedule, there is no way this schedule is balanced out of the division because teams don't play other teams the same number of times.  As a result, it won't be until May 1-4 a wraparound through Monday weekend with the Orioles that an AL East rival comes to the Bronx.  Red Sox don't come in until June 5-7.  Mets' NL East home schedule is even worse:  Non-contending Washington comes in Apr 28-30, then Marlins May 29-31. Braves don't arrive in Queens until Jun 12-14 and Phillies' first appearance at their arch-rival's home isn't until Jun 26-28.

 

I don't want this baseball part of blog to become a rant because I don't like scolds and I try to remember Schopenhauer's wise warning, "Show me what you hate and I'll show you what you are."  So with little expectations for the season for my Orioles, I welcome with open arms Pete Alonso to Camden Yards.

Already he and former Met RHP Chris Bassitt are showing senior leadership on a team that fell apart from the curse of too many expectations the last two

years. With injuries to infield mainstays Jackson Holliday- who should be back soon - and Jordan Westburg - who could be lost for the season - and a questionable bullpen, it is hard to see my Birds as a contender.  But they and 29 other teams are still 0-0 so there is that hope.   

 

And there is always the short intense season of college baseball in the NYC area.  Columbia opened its defense of the Ivy League title last weekend by taking 2 out of 3 from a good Harvard team.  It is a short Ivy League season - 21 games consisting of 7 3-game series and a four-team post-season tourney at the home of the first place finisher.  So every game is important. 

 

Big series are ahead at Coakley-Robertson-Satow Stadium in the Baker Field: always contending Penn SaSu Apr 4-5, Princeton 11-12, and Yale picked by some to dethrone my Lions, Apr 25-26.  Sa doubleheaders start at 1130, Su single game at Noon. There is no admission charge.

Readers of the blog who follow other college (and high school) teams in this area, you are invited to let me know about how your teams are doing, too.

And now in closing here's some more March Madness schedules:

 

Division II Elite Eight Schedule - Men - held at U of Pittsburgh-MC Cooper Fieldhouse

W Mar 25 12N #3 Gannon vs #6 Michigan Tech

230P #2 Cal State East Bay vs. #7 Oklahoma Baptist

6P #1 Nova Southeastern vs. #8 Black Hills State 

830P #4 Daeman vs. #5 Lander

Semis -F Mar 27 6 & 830P

Final Mar 28

All at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse

 

Women's Elite Eight at some Cooper Fieldhouse 

Tu Mar 24

Noon #3 Colorado Mesa vs. #6 #6 Minnesota Duluth

230P #2 Indiana Pa vs. #7 Holy Family

6P #1 Grand Valley State vs. #8 Carson-Newman

830P #4 Cal Poly Pomona vs. #5 UAH

Semis Th Mar 26 6p. 830P

Natl Championship F Mar 27 3P - Men's game follows around 6P

 

Division III Men's final between Emory of Atlanta Ga and Mary Washington College won't be held until Apr 3 in Indianapolis, site of the big boys of

March Madness final four.  As for the big boys of March Madness, I can do without the moaning and groaning of the coaches about the good old days before NIL and transfer portal. It seems the great coaches and the well-endowed schools get to the top anyway.  And I'm glad that they've been aided by some players who were blocked from playing time at other schools.  The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence, but sometimes it is.

 

New Yorkers are most interested in Rick Pitino's St John's Red Storm who face Duke at 710P on Th Mar 26.

U Conn-Michigan State battle of Dan Hurley & Tom Izzo is on F Mar 27 at 945.  I must remind myself it should be all about the players.

As a Big Ten guy, the Iowa-Nebraska matchup on Th 3/26 at 730P is interesting - Nebraska has never been this high and the former Chicago Bulls coach

Fred Hoiberg has found his niche on a campus and his son Sam is a scrappy guy and no nepotism hire. 

 

As for the women's Sweet 16, some interesting matchups;

F 3/27 5P UNC v heavily favored UConn

  same night at 10P Duke v LSU and its volatile coach Kim Mulkey - 

Sa 3/28 Kentucky v possible challenger to UConn, Texas 3P

   later at 5P Oklahoma v former champion South Carolina 

 

And what would my blog be without a couple of TCM Tips:

Sa 3/28 145P "Angels in the Outfield" (1951) with great footage of Forbes Field and a corny fantasy that somehow works.  One lesson from film though:

   Read the bottle on the oil before cooking. 

Followed at 330 by "Looney Tunes: Baseball Bugs" (1946)

 

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

 

Groundhog Day greetings from the polar vortex in New York City that has turned this winter into hoping that your long underwear survives and vigilantly taking short choppy steps to avoid disaster on icy sidrwalks and intersections. One consolation, of course, is that spring training is only 10 days away.  And 10 days ago in what I consider the unofficial opening to the new MLB season, I was delighted to attend the 59th annual dinner of the New York Pro Baseball Scouts Hot Stove League at Leonard's Palazzo restaurant in Great Neck. It was an evening as always filled with great camaraderie in spite of the stark reality that traditional eyes-and-ears scouts are "Baseball's Endangered Species." the title of my 2023 book about the mysterious but essential craft of scouting 

 

I dedicated the book "To Every Scout Who Wrote Down What Players Could Do, Not What They Couldn't Do."  Despite the analytical madness enveloping baseball, the spirit of positivity was in the air at the dinner.  Guest speaker Dave Sims, successor in the Yankee radio booth to John Sterling, spent many years broadcasting Seattle Mariners games (replacing another legend in Dave Niehaus).  Sims knows that he must keep abreast of the latest trend in statistics, but he said, "Grandma listening in Walla Walla is not interested in a hitter's expected batting average" - it's one of the modern stats that drives me crazy, too.  

 

In receiving the Turk Karam Scout of the Year award, Jim Cuthbert, now with the  Kansas City Royals, gave a spirited endorsement of the New York City scout who has to fight very hard to get into the exclusive ranks of the sport's evaluators. Once a backup catcher at St. Johns University in Queens, Cuthbert knew that playing pro ball was not in his future but he was spotted as a potential good scout by Cubs scout Billy Blitzer who has organized the dinner since the legendary Twins scout Herb Stein handed him the reins. Cuthbert used to work for Cleveland and he was lavish in his praise of manager Tito Francona (now skipper of Cincinnati) who treated him as an equal and read seriously his area scout reports.

 

The New York Hot Stove League has always honored local coaches and two of this year's award-winners, both from New Jersey, gave memorable speeches (all speakers tonight BTW came in under five minutes!). Don Bosco Prep coach Mike Rooney remembered the awesome feeling when Ralph DiLullo, another legendary scout, first gave him his card, it feeling like a passport to a future career. And how DiLullo mplored him to take care of his arm and wear his uniform the right way.   Johnny Johnson, winningest coach in the history of Brookdale Community College, urged up-and-coming scouts to always praise players when they made good plays.  "You're touching people's lives!" he said.

 

I couldn't help thinking of a line about scouting from Branch Rickey:  "If he makes a great play, he can do it again."  I am happy that I devoted an early chapter of BASEBALL'S ENDANGERED SPECIES  to Rickey's scouts who learned from and challenged the master.  Speaking of Rickey, one of his great grandnieces, poet and teacher Marjorie Maddox Hafer has just come out for a book for ages over 8, A MAN NAMED BRANCH: THE TRUE STORY OF BASEBALL'S GREAT EXPERIMENT (Loch Ness Books distributed by Sunbury Press, Mechanicsburg, Pa.). It is based on stories that she heard from family members about Rickey's longstanding commitment to racial equality that led to his signing of Jackie Robinson and other players of color. It includes many family photos.

 

As far as what to expect from the upcoming MLB season, I welcome real games starting in spring training before the end of the month and especially during the World Baseball Classic from Mar 6 through 17.  There is SO MUCH false info out there on the internet about trades and coming signings. Let's wait for real news on that front.  Sadly, more and more established sportswriters are writing about the inevitability of another owners' lockout of players when the current Basic Agreement expires in early December.  I refuse to believe in that inevitability, but more speculation about that in future blogs.   I need to read first what the Atlanta Braves balance sheet looks like because they are the only MLB franchise that must release accurate financial figures because it has legal status as a public enterprise.  

  

And now it's time to salute the NYU women's basketball team that won its 80th game in a row yesterday Feb 1, a rare one-point nail biter over Carnegie-Mellon of Pittsburgh. The Violets with only one senior Caroline Peper on its roster have been blowing away most opponents.   NYU goes on the road for the next two weekends including a Sun Feb 8 noon rematch at Carnegie-Mellon. They return on Friday night at 730P against Washington U of St Louis that holds the record for most Division III wins but the streak could be history by Feb 20. That's what I love about sports, the unpredictability. Sunday afternoon Feb 22 at noon, Violets play at home U of Chicago,  Only one regular season game left Sa Feb 28 against Brandeis at 3P, preceded by alumni game at 1045A. First round of post-season tourney will undoubtedly be at home in the Paulson Center on FriSa Mar 6-7.   

 

This remarkable Violets team is finally getting media attention. In an excellent piece the Athletic's Eden Lasse wrote in the Fri Jan 30 print NY Times, head coach Meg Barber, who played for NYU early this century, observed, "Basketball is basketball. Division III does not mean third rate." She added admiringly, "These kids are insanely talented at other things.  But right now, at this moment in time, they see themselves as basketball players."  For more info on NYU basketball where the men's team is also doing very well, check out nyu.edu/athletics

 

Meanwhile in the Ivy League women's race, my Columbia Lions on Fri night Jan 30 briefly rose into a first-place tie with Princeton by beating the Tigers on their home court, 73-67,  for the third time in the last four years. Unfortunately, the next night at Penn they fell to the Quakers, 66-57, and fell back into second place after Princeton beat improved Cornell.  The Lions play in Ithaca this Sat Feb 7 at 2P and will try to avenge their loss to the Big Red that opened the Ivy League season.  The big rematches with Princeton and Penn will be at home at Levien Gym on Fri Feb 13 at 6P - televised on ESPNU - and against the Quakers on Sat Feb 14 at 5P.  The top four teams will qualify for the Ivy League post-season tournament in mid-March held this year at Cornell.     

 

There is not much to report about sports in film on TCM in early Feburary except for one special comedy short.

Th Feb 5 1030P. "Baseball Bugs" (1946) Bugs Benny takes on a whole baseball team! 

For Marx Brothers fans, there is the rarely shown:

Su Feb 9 115P "The Big Store" (1941) with Tony Martin singing "The Tenement Symphony"  

The last Noir Alley for over a month as TCM's 31 Days of Oscars commences on March 13 will be

Su Feb 8 12M repeated at 10A "Vice Squad" (1953) an oddity that might be somewhat interesting with Edward G. Robinson/Paulette Goddard

Su Feb 15 2P Hitchcock's "Strangers On A Train" (1951) with memorable scenes taken at the Forest Hills Tennis Club

and at 8P "White Heat" (1949) James Cagney's memorable turn as gangster Cody Jarrett, Virginia Mayo as his moll, and a memorable late cry, "Top of the world, Ma!"

 

That's all for now.  Stay Positive, Test Negative, and Take It Easy But Take It!