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 am posting tonight just after the Yankees roared back from a 6-1 deficit to tie the first of possibly three elimination games on an Aaron Judge 3-run HR on an 0-2 pitch from the former Minnesota Twin Louis Varland.  Uncharacteristic errors by the Blue Jay infield has led to mostly unearned runs.  I finally had to turn down the sound on the Fox announcers, unctuous Joe Davis and monotonous John Smoltz.  The last straw was Smoltz saying that the pop fly that third baseman Addison Barger dropped prior to Judge's blasst was a play "he'd make 99 times out of a 100."  Gimme a break!  It came after a very long run and left fielder Davis Schneider should have but didn't call him off.  

Will have to listen to Dave Sims and Suzyn Waldman on the radio for the rest of the game (as long as it remains close - Jazz Chisholm just homered to give Yanks its first lead tonight 7-6. ) I'll give Dave and Suzyn their due for being enthusiastic and more knowledgeable than the national announcers who are hired by the networks and know very

few local details. Unless the Phillies can win three in a row - the first two in LA on Wed and Thurs - the red-hot Dodgers will get into the NL Championship Series.  I hope Davis doesn't announce the NLCS but I know that Davis and Smoltz will work the World Series.  Radio, get ready!  

The likely opponent for LAD in the NLCS will be Milwaukee, the team with home field advantage throughout the playoffs.  They have done it all so far in the NLDS, thoroughly beating the Cubs in the first two games. With the lowest payroll left in the post-season, the Brewers are the favorite team of perpetual underdog rooters. But first things first - they must neutralzie the Wrigley Field crowd on Wed and Thu that could give the local heroes a boost of energy. Like the Yankees, the Cubs will have to win 3 in a row. One at a time, of course.

The disturbing thing about the state of starting pitching is that few teams have a full rotation any more.  The Yankees thought they did with highly paid Max Fried and Carlos Rodon  

but Toronto treated them both rudely. 

The Yankees have taken control of Game 3, leading 9-6 in top of 9th. A while ago, Dave Sims had a Phil Rizzuto moment.  Austin Wells singled in an 8th run for the Yanks and tried for two.  "He slides into second and he's safe," cried Sims. Pause. "They called him out!"  I fearlessly and accurately predicted when Toronto led 6-3, "That won't be the final score!"  Winner of this series will meet most likely Seattle which can eliminate the Tigers in Detroit tomorrow Wed. Seattle has never been in a World Series and it would be kinda nice that expansion teams dating back to 1977, Mariners and Jays, could meet in the ALCS.  But to coin a phrase LOL, "Anything can happen in a short series."   

Before I leave you, I want to list some TCM tips because tomorrow night Wed Oct 8, quite a tripleheader of Otto Preminger is showing on Turner Classic Movies cable channel:. 

8P "Laura" (1944)l that you must watch from the beginning.  As detective Dana Andrews is questioning possible murder suspect Clifton Webb, Dana is toying with a little hand game of ball bearings simply called Baseball.  I'm not a collector of autographs or memorabilia but boy, I'd love to know if that ball-bearing game still exists.

"Laura" has a great cast including Gene (Eugenia) Tierney in the title role, Vincent Price, Judith Anderson, as an odd couple and many others.

945P "Daisy Kenyon" (1947) with Joan Crawford at high point of her career fresh off "Mildred Pierce" and "Humoresque". This one with Henry Fonda and Dana Andrews.

1130P And if this is not enough, Preminger's "Anatomy Of A Murder" (1959) with Duke Ellington's score and an appearance by the master. Defense attorney Jimmy Stewart defends soldier Ben Gazzara from a murder charge. George C. Scott is a very antagonistic prosecutor and Joseph Welch - of Army-McCarthy Hearings fame - plays the presiding judge. Lee Remick plays Gazzara's somewhat supportive wife but her cooing to Stewart, "Call me Laura," is a slice of dialogue etched indelibly in my memory. Let's not forget Eve Arden as Stewart's secretary - she adds her always special touch. 

Sat Oct 11 has quite a triple-header, too, on TCM:  :

8P "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962, the original, accept no substitute). Thursdays in October feature Angela Lansbury as TCM's Star of the Month but she plays a key role in this one, too, as a mother from hell and a right-winger to boot.  With Frank Sinatra and Janet Leigh and many more and the great musical score of David Amram, still performing BTW in this 90s.  Don't miss near the end the rare footage of the Madison Square Garden of my youth - the 8th Ave and 50th Street version.

945P "The Sweet Smell of Success" (1957) Burt Lancaster at his snarly best and Tony Curtis not far behind. Virtually whole movie was shot indoors recreating the suffocating world of press agentry and gossip.  Only in the last scene do we witness daytime to suggest there may be a shred of hope for the life of Lancaster's over-protected sister.

12M (repeated Su at 10A) - Noir Alley presents "New York Confidential" (1955) drawn from the headlines of Washington's hearings investigating a New York crime family. With Richard Conte, Broderick Crawford, and Marilyn Maxwell.

I was neglectful not mentioning last week's "Noir Alley," the Damon Runyon-produced "The Big Street" based on his short story "Little Pink".  (It could be On Demand but I kinda doubt it.). Henry Fonda plays a milquetoast-ish busboy smitten with Lucille Ball who is a lounge singer with big dreams and even a bigger and meaner personality.  She's worth the whole film for those who remember her only as Lucy.  There is a pre-"Guys and Dolls" flavor to this one with Sam Levene playing a character actually called Nicely-Nicely Johnson.  Some of the uncredited guys are Millard Mitchell (who alas died not long after the embattledyet optimistic producer in "Singin' In The Rain") and Hans Conried. Barton MacLane is definitely credited playing a real bad guy(who would have been at home in Trump's America). 

That's all for now.  Stay positive, test negative, take it easy but take it.  Enjoy the remaining playoffs and as a Wisconsin alum, I even dream of their possibly beating Iowa on

Saturday night.  Check your listings.