Lee Lowenfish

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving Wisconsin's football season ended with a thud on a snow-covered field in Minneapolis. There was a brief hope in the third quarter that the Badgers might actually take the lead or at least tie this fierce rivalry game against Minnesota for possession of Paul Bunyan's axe, the oldest college rivalry game in the country. But in field goal range, reserve quarterback Hunter Simmons threw an interception that snatched away the last chance for victory as the Gophers won 17-7 in a game that wasn't really that close. Wisconsin has an improving defense but a woeful offense even on a dry field. The Badgers finished 4-8 and missed a bowl game, however minor, for 2nd straight year.

 

To be brutally honest, every one of the quarterbacks on the Wisconsin roster were "reserve QBs" and virtually all of them got injured this season.   I wouldn't dismiss the possible growth of the healthy true freshman Carter Smith from Fort Myers Florida who I doubt ever played in the snow before.  (I love the term "true freshman" as opposed to false freshman or lying, cheating freshman). Smith is a promising runner, but is a work in progress as a passer.  Yet how many times can Badger fans put up with bringing in via the transfer portal a supposed savior who is secretly injured? 

 

On a long-term very expensive contract, coach Luke Fickell will have at least another year or two to figure this out.   Ohio State people swear by the talent and character of the former Buckeye player and coach. Although I'm not a Buckeye fan, I have to tip my cap to Ryan Day's undefeated team that finally exorcised the 4 recent osses to Michigan with a convincing 27-9 win in Ann Arbor.  Coach Day said all the right things after the game, stressing humility and the importance of his team's love for brotherhood more than its hatred of an enemy.  

 

Wisconsin men's basketball is not looking too good right now either. They have only lost two games but they were bad losses in which they reminded me a little too much of the football team.  Just not ready for prime time.  Except unlike football, basketball defense is suspect and the team has not really been competitive in its two losses to Brigham Young, who ousted them from the Big Dance last year, and TCU.  The Horned Frogs under coach Jamie Dixon - who went to Texas Christian U - beat Florida, last year's national champion, in a Thanksgiving tourney, and then throttled Wisconsin handily. It's obvious that the Badgers cannot rely only on guards Nick Boyd, the San Diego St. transfer, and John Blackwell to be the chief scorers. I'm not throwing in the towel after 7 games but my level of concern is rising.  

 

I am happy to report that loyal Wisconsin fans have both men's and women's hockey teams to cheer on to good seasons this year.  And also that the top-notch women's volleyball team is getting hot at the right time as the national playoffs near. The Wisconsin women's basketball team is showing some promise too under a new coach.  The boo hounds undoubtedly will pick up their chorus for the ouster of men's coach Greg Gard. I say that after blowing up the football program by hiring the former Buckeye Luke Fickell, I would be careful about doing the same thing to basketball.  Especially if the deservedly embattled athletic director Chris McIntosh is making the decisions.  

 

Locally, there is better news about my other alma mater Columbia whose women's basketball team just completed its tough early schedule with a 4-4 record.   Coach Megan Griffith in her 10th year at her alma mater has a player of the year candidate in junior Riley Weiss who found her shooting touch in a Thanksgiving tournament at the Cancun resort in Mexico.  She tied a school record with a 19 point.4th quarter in a win over S. Dakota State.  She added 31 in a loss to nationally ranked UNC-Chapel Hill, a game that was close until the veteran Tarheels broke it open in final period.  What I love about Griffith's teams is their aggressive running style and commitment to defense. There is no better spokesperson for defense than co-captain Perri Page. Check out some of the interviews at gocolumbialions.com 

 

The women's team has 4 games in December in this area, two at home at the Levien Gym, just east of Broadway at 120th Street:  '

Sat Dec 6 at 2P against Wagner from Staten Island

Sat Dec 20 University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) 1p. 

And on the road at Manhattan Riverdale NY, Wed Dec 3 7P 

Seton Hall, South Orange NJ - Tu Dec 9 6P 

Ivy League season begins on Sat Jan 3 2P against Cornell

 

Having lost only one game, the Columbia men's team is having a very exciting season under new head coach Kevin Hovde.  They have 4 remaining home games in December:

W Dec 3 Hofstra 7P

Sa Dec 6 U Albany 530P (part of a double admission doubleheader after women's game against Wagner)2P

Tu Dec 9 at Stony Brook 7P

W Dec 31 Penn State at Abington 

Ivy League home season begins Sa Jan 10 against Harvard 2P 

 

I''ll have more to say next post about MLB trades and free agent signings when there are facts and not rumors and hallucinations. I don't consider the Blue Jays' extravagant 7-year contract to former Padres RH starting pitcher Dylan Cease big news except to note that rich owners like Toronto's James Rogers love to spend money to bring home the proverbial moose on the wall for their living room and also satisfy hungry fans that think money alone brings championships.  Perhaps the Orioles are improved by trading for Taylor Ward, 31, and giving up on RHP Grayson Rodriguez who was always injured.  Perhaps Ryan Helsley will be a free agent signing that will help Bird bullpen.  I'm still waiting for the core of young players that all regressed last season to take steps forward.  I will try to be patient.

 

And now here's the cornicopia of TCM listings:

I don't know how much of a baseball fan Richard Pryor really was, but he does appear in a Cubs uniform early in this film. You can see for yourself:

M Dec 1 10P as Pryor stars in TCM's showing of "Brewster's Millions" (1985). He plays a onetime minor league pitcher who will inherit a rich relative's bequest of $300 million if he spends $30 million in 30 days.  John Candy plays a catcher and the cast includes Lonette McKee (who I saw as Rachel Robinson in the ill-fated Broadway musical a few years earlier in "The First" with David Alan Grier as Jackie Robinson and David Huddleston as Branch Rickey (younger readers will remember the actor for playing the richer Lebowski iopposite the "Dude" Jeff Bridges in the Coen Brothers' "The Big Lebowski").  Others in "Brewster" cast include Tovah Feldshuh and Pat Hingle.   

TCM's Pryor festival begins at 8P with "Silver Streak" (1976) co-starring Gene Wilder and continues at 1145P with Pryor "Live from Sunset Strip" (1982) and goes on until dawn.

 

Tu Dec 2 230P "Requiem for a Heavyweight" (1962) Not as good as the TV version 3 years earlier but this one about a boxer down on its luck turning to wrestling has an interesting cast:  Mickey Rooney, Jackie Gleason, Anthony Quinn. With cameos by boxers Jack Dempsey, Willie Pep, and wrestler Haystacks Calhoun.  Reportedly Rod Serling was a script writer.

  

Th Dec 4 6A "The Bob Mathias Story" (1954) the Olympic decathalon champion in both 1948 and 1952 playing himself

730A "Crazylegs" (1953) Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch" great Wisconsin player (and later Badger athletic director) creditably plays himself

 - directed by Harmon Jones who the year before directed Dan Dailey as Dizzy Dean in "The Pride of St Louis" (1952)

9A "The Babe Ruth Story" (1948) William Bendix miscast as Babe Ruth, veteran Charles Bickford who doesn't age as Brother Matthias in first and last scenes and Claire Trevor

not exactly memorable but always watchable as Ruth's missus.  It's not every film that you get to see onetime prominent newscaster H.V. Kaltenborn

11A "Jackie Robinson Story" (1950) in which JR plays himself, Ruby Dee as Rachel, and character actor Minor Watson (who played Katherine Hepburn's father in "Woman of the Year") as Branch Rickey

1230P "Knute Rockne, All American" (1940) Pat O'Brien in title role and a member of Warner Brothers acting stable named Ronald Reagan as George Gipp

215P "Jim Thorpe, All American" (1951) Burt Lancaster in title role/Reagan returns as George Gipp, Michael "Casablanca" Curtiz director

415P "Somebody Up There Likes Me" (1956) life story of boxer Rocky Graziano played by Paul Newman.  Rowland Barber adapts his biography for screen. A few years later Barber was co-author of HARPO SPEAKS the indispensable biography of the sweetest and most engaging Marx Brother.  Harpo was a huge New York Giant baseball fan watching his team for free from Coogan's Bluff high above the Polo Grounds' left field.  Harpo said his favorirte Giant was left fielder Sam Tertes the only Giant who he could see from his perch.

615P "When We Were Kings" (1997) Leon Gast's documentary of Muhammad Ali's "rumble in the jungle" against George Foreman in Zaire with plenty of good rock and soul music

745P "How To Watch Football" (1938) Robert Benchley ends this marathon with one of his priceless comedy shorts

NB at 945P "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941) Robert Montgomery plays a boxer who comes back to life with the help of a divine emissary Claude Rains/also with Evelyn Keyes

 

F Dec 5 doesn't have sports-themed movies but quite an impressive lineup: 

1245P "Johnny Belinda" (1948) Jane Wyman's Oscar as deaf young woman raised by Charles Bickford. Lew Ayres as her caring doctor and Stephen McNally playing a horrendous town bully, a character in today's America who would probably become a Trumpian Hollywood ambassador. 

4P "Citizen Kane" (1941)

8P "Cover Girl" (1944) a musical with Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth and songs by Jerome Kern/Ira Gershwin including "Long Ago and Far Away" 

10P "New York, New York" (1977) Scorsese's uncut version of a jazz band on road with DeNiro/Liza Minnelli/Lionel Stander

 

Su Dec 7 Noir Alley 12M, repeated at 10A. "Cry of the City" (1948) another intense and watchable Robert Siodmak film with Richard Conte, Victor Mature, Fred Clark. I became aware of things in the early 1950s when Fred Clark was one of the neighbors of George Burns and Gracie Allen.  Only recentily did I realize the range of his acting that included trying to save Montgomery Clift's life in "A Place in the Sun" and being a business associate of Fred Astaire in "Daddy Longlegs".)   

 

That's all for now.  My mantra remains: Stay positive, test negative, and Take it easy but take it! 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

First, here is the continuing good news about my two alma maters.  Columbia men's basketball continues undefeated before Ivy League play begins in early January. [Update: Columbia lost its first game of season at U of Albany, 88-73, after starting season with 8 straight wins. Before Ivy League season begins against Cornell at home on Sa Jan 11 at 2P, the Lions host Fairfield Sa Dec 28 at 4p and then visit Rutgers on M Dec 30 at 5P. It should be far more competitive than a 50-point loss that opened a Lion season a couple of years ago.]  

 

The Columbia women's basketball team is 7-3 playing a tough schedule that included a hard-fought but double-digit loss on Sunday Dec 1 to nationally-ranked Duke at fabled Cameron Indoor Arena. They hosted U of San Francisco at 11AM W Dec 4 in their last home game of 2024.

[Update: The Lions came away with a 81-79 victory before over 2750 fans on Education Day for city area school kids.  A 13-point halftime lead vanished in

less than 4 minutes of the 2nd half, but they regained their poise to come away with the nail-biting win over the never-say-die Dons from the Bay area.]

 

It took 63 years but unheralded Columbia football under rookie head coach Jon Poppe can call itself champions again.   The Lions finished strong with solid victories over Brown and Cornell to share the title with Harvard and Dartmouth.  They were a rare team that enjoyed wins led by three different quarterbacks.  

 

Injury ended Chase Goodwin's season during a Homecoming loss to Dartmouth. Cole Freeman took over for the next few games before first-year Caleb Martinez from the football HS powerhouse of St. John Bosco in southern California was at the helm for the last two victories. He could well be the QB of the future but the 2024 Lions will be remembered as a TEAM that came together at the right time.  14 Lions received recognition in the All-Ivy voting. 

 

The less said about Wisconsin football the better.  For the first time in over 20 years, the Badgers will not be going to a bowl game. After two seasons, head coach Luke Fickell is under fire and deservedly so although his lucrative contract has several more seasons to run. Fickell was always wearing a T.E.A.M. jacket on the sidelines but the obvious symbolism on the jacket was not put into practice in the locker room or on the practice and playing fields. 

 

Wisconsin basketball, on the other hand, both the proud men's program and the resurgent women under former UConn star Marisa Mosely, are exuding hope [and just announced that next year the squad will be augmented by two young Spanish players.]  Athletic director Chirs McIntosh wisely did not blow up the men's program the way he did football. Although the Badgers lost three key players from last year's team to the transfer portal - Connor Essegian to Nebraska, Chucky Hepburn to Louisville and peripatetic A. J. Storr to Kansas (Storr's 7th team in his last 7 years going back to HS!).

 

But veteran coach Greg Gard has utilized a key transfer of his own, John Tonge (pronounced like former MLB reliever Sid Monge) who hails from Hepburn's home area of Omaha, NE.   Holdovers John Blackwell, Steven Crowl, Max Klesmit, and Kamari McGee have provided continuity.  And lo and behold, the Badgers are scoring more than ever while handling the ball well. 

 

We'll find out soon how real the Badgers' improvement has been. In their Big Ten opener last night (Tu Dec 3), the Badgers couldn't hold a six-point halftime lead to one-loss Michigan and fell 67-64 at home. It's been a heady few days for the Wolverines who upset Ohio State in football at Columbus last Saturday, thoroughly shutting down the Buckeye offense in a 13-10 win. 

 

When Michigan players tried to plant a M flag at midfield after the game, the Buckeye gridders ripped it out, leading to quite a skirmish between many players on both teams. The Big Ten has fined each school $100,000, but it say here that the action is only a wrist slap that is unlikely to stop future ruckuses in the aftermath of emotionally draining rivalry games.  Similar incidents occurred after games this past weekend between North Carolina-NC State, Arizona-Arizona State, and Florida-Florida State. Winning and losing with grace is increasingly a lost art. 

 

I hope Wisconsin cagers bounce back soon from the disappointing loss because another three road challenges loom: Sa aft Dec 7 at 130P in an nationally televised afternoon game at fierce local rival Marquette in Milwaukee. Perennial Big Ten power Illinois follows Tu Dec 10 at 9P. Always plucky Butler in Indy comes on Sa Dec 14 at 230P. 

 

Consult your TV listings and beware that many games might be on the extra pay networks like Peacock. For Badger fans in NYC area, on M Jan 6 at 7P, the Badgers will visit Big Ten rival Rutgers which is also off to a promising start. Last season the Badgers were routed in Piscataway but avenged the loss later in the year in Madison. 

 

Led by coach Steve Pikiell and with first year Dylan Harper, another basketball prodigy from the family that produced Ron Harper Sr. and Jr., already drawing raves, Rutgers this month hosts Big Ten rival Penn State on Tu Dec 10 at 7P.  On Sat Dec 14 at 3P longtime Big East rival Seton Hall is the opposition. 

The Winter Village will open three hours before each game outside Jersey Mike's Arena in Piscataway.  (It will always be known to longtime Scarlet Knight fans as the RAC, the Rutgers Athletic Center). 

 

I've found that fandom of pro sports doesn't necessarily spill over into college sports in the NYC area, but this season could be a little different. Our two pro football teams, the Giants and the Jets, are mired in sub-mediocrity, always finding new ways to lose.So there are good reasons to follow the cagers at Columbia, Rutgers and Big East member St. John's which is also off to a promising start under controversial but usually successful head coach Rick Pitino.  The Red Storm will be mourning all season the death of former coach Lou Carnesecca who passed away last weekend at the age of 99. 

 

On the pro basketball scene, the Knicks are likely contenders and the unheralded Nets are staying above water.  It is a testmony though to the long NBA 84-game season that the current NBA Cup games are drawing a lot of attention.  To me, it just shows how ridiculously long the NBA season really is.  But nobdy is seriously talking about shortening it.  And ditto the virtually-as-long NHL hockey season and the twice-as-long MLB season.    

 

There is not much hard news to report on the MLB scene.  By the time you absorb this post, dear readers, there should be news of signings at baseball's winter meetings starting Dec 8 and running through Th Dec 12.  Oriole fans are intrigued at the possibility, howevelr unlikely, that new owner David Rubenstein may shell out big bucks to keep ace righthander Corbin Burnes and slugging switch-hitting right fielder Anthony Santander.

 

It may not mean anything but I don't recall ever seeing a baseball owner having three of his books plugged in a full-page ad as Rubenstein's were in this past Sunday's New York Times Book Review (Dec 1). (Two history books and one financial book befitting a man who won at auction a rare copy of the Magna Carta.) We will find out soon whether Rubenstein's literary and TV celebrity on Bloomberg News leads him towards a place at the high roller table with the Dodgers, Red Sox, Yankees, and perhaps the Blue Jays and the Giants.   

 

There are conflicting reports about when the biggest free agent on the market, Yankee outfielder Juan Soto, makes his decision. Agent Scott Boras loves to draw out the process to get phantom bidders involved.  Gullible owners and equally gullible media people play along with this ploy. So to repeat, we might not hear about Soto's decision for some time about where he wants to "take his talents" - to use LeBron James' phrase after he left Cleveland for the tax-free charms of Miami.    

 

During the winter meetings, a veterans committee will announce its latest selecctions for the Hall of Fame.  It's possible that the recently deceased Luis Tiant gets in as well as Dick Allen.  Speaking of recent passings, Fernando Valenzuela's passing at the age of 63 on Oct 22 was extremely bittersweet happening a little over a week before the Dodgers won the World Series.  Another notable left-handed pitcher, Rudy May, passed away just a few days earlier on Oct 19 at the age of 80. 

 

May pitched for a lot of bad teams but when he played for good teams like the 1980 Yankees he led the AL in ERA.  His overall record was 152-156 but his career ERA of 3.46 was actually slightly lower than Valenzuela's who finished his illustrious career with a 173-153 record and career ERA of 3.54. 

 

On the TCM front, there are not many flms to list with sports themes, but every Thursday in December will be Mickey Rooney day.  

Th Dec 5 at noon "Death on The Diamond" (1934) will be shown with Rooney having a small part in a film about a murderer loose in the St. Louis major league ballpark. Young Robert Young is a star pitcher trying to solve the mystery, Madge Evans is the team secretary who Young has the hots for, and Ted Healy, who once employed Moe, Curly, and Larry before they became the Three Stooges, plays a key supporting role as does Nat Pendleton.  Edward Sedgwick, known for his work in comedy, directs.  And Ernie Orsatti, who later in 1934 will win a World Series ring as the St. Louis Cardinals Gashouse Gang center fielder, has a cameo as a base runner who is shot trying to score between third and home.

 

At 115P "Diamond" is followed by the 15-minute short, "Diamond Demon" (1947). featuring the acrobatic trickery of Johnny Price, a minor league pitcher.

Going backwards to 1030A on Dec 5, there is a boxing-themed film "The Life of Eddie Dolan" (1933) with Douglas Fairbanks in the title role and Loretta Young and Aline MacMahon as the women who support him as he escapes to a rural hideaway to avoid a murder charge.   

 

The high brow highlight on Th Dec 5 comes at 8P: Mickey Rooney returns as Puck in the lavish "Midsummer Night's Dream" (1935) with Joe E Brown as Flute the bellows maker and Dick Powell and Olivia DeHavilland (in her debut year) as the lovers Lysander and Hermia. And many others in this long extravaganza with James Cagney and Victor Jory in featured roles. 

 

Late Th Dec 12/morning Dec 13, 12:15A:  Rooney returns opposite Spencer Tracy as Father Flanagan in "Boys' Town" (1938-39).  

 

Every Sun night in December, Carol Burnett guests, bringing her satirical interpretation of a movie.

On Dec 8 after 8P's airing of the Noir "Born To Be Bad" (1950) Nicholas Ray directing Joan Fontaine, Robert Ryan, Zachary Scott, Carol will introduce and show her satire, "Raised To Be Rotten". 

 

After some lackluster recent Noir Alleys, Eddie Muller hosts a real classic earlier on Su Dec 8 at 12M, repeated at 10A.

Fred Zinnemann directs "Act of Violence" (1948) starring Robert Ryan and Van Heflin as onetime POW's in Germany whose post-war lives go in different

directions and Ryan is out to wreak vengeance upon Heflin.  Janet Leigh and Mary Astor have important supporting roles. 

 

That's all for now.  Next post I'll talk more about my off-season baseball reading which has featured a lot of Ring Lardner's baseball stories as well as reading Ring Lardner Jr.'s family history, THE LARDNERS: MY FAMILY REMEMBERED (1976).  Ring Sr has been too often belittled as a bitter and cynical writer who "only" wrote short stories and never a novel. In truth, there is a lasting quality to his wry humor and his austere personalty among strangers masked a deeply caring heart. "How can you write if you can't cry?" Ring Jr. remembers his father's defense of the writings of Charles Dickens.  

 

In this age of bullying and power running rampant and seemingly unchecked all over the world, I am finding solace in reading the works of great writers of all kinds, using the dead as allies until more hopeful days arise. I recommend finding some riches in our past culture and not allow ourselves to get tortured by the dreck of the daily news cycle. 

 

Stay positive, Test negative, is still my mantra, and always remember: Take it easy but take it!