Lee Lowenfish

I must admit that I was one of those Knicks fans that gave up on the NBA Final Game 4 (W Jun 10) when they trailed the youthful Spurs by 27 at the half.  Even when the rally started in the second half, I was switching to baseball games.  Lucked into seeing Pirates outfielder Tyler Callihan in his first MLB game hit the game-changing 3-run HR in bottom of 8th against the Dodgers. I missed his first HR against none other than Shohei Ohtani.  Quite a debut for a Cincinnati Reds castoff. Just hope that Buccos brilliant rookie shortstop Conner Griffin recovers quickly from injury because Pirates are hovering too close to .500 line right now. 

I have to also admit that I even fell asleep in the fourth quarter of the Knicks' stirring comeback but was awake for the miraculous tipin by OG Anunody of Jalen Brunson's desperation shot that gave the New Yorkers a 107-106 victory and a 3-1 lead in games.  Kudos to Brunson who used a baseball analogy after

the game to explain the comeback. He said they needed "a lot of singles" to get back into the game.  The modest Anunoby - born in London but grew up in Jefferson City, Missouri and played college ball at Indiana U - said that he was just trying to help the team win.

Like Charles Barkley and I think many others, I'm having a hard time mastering OG's last name.  It is "an-uh-NOH-bee". As a baseball fanatic, I kept putting in a "d" near the end to make it resemble Larry Doby, the American League's Jackie Robinson, the future Hall of Famer that broke the color line in mid-1947 and didn't flourish until 1948, Cleveland's last World Series-winning season. Happily, there is a clear baseball connection on the Knicks.  Josh Hart, one of the three Villanova Wildcats on the team with Brunson and Mikal Bridges, is the grand-nephew of Elston Howard, who broke the color line for the Yankees in 1955. Howard died in 1980 so Hart never him but he is very proud of the family connection.

Before the series began, I hoped for Knicks in 6 so we could clinch at home.  Now I believe it is time to strike when the iron is hot.  Let's finish it off in San Antonio this Sat June 13 at 835P on ABC, channel 7 in NYC area.   If not, then Game 6 at MSG Tu Jun 16 and Game 7 in San Antonio F Jun 19. It won't be easy but getting off to a good start certainly will help.  Have not watched the finals closely in recent years. One oddity to me is that Knicks are wearing white unis and Spurs dark ones in every game. 

Turning to baseball, the Orioles continue to confound with their inconsistency. I tried to tell myself that I won't get emotionally involved with the team until they are at .500 and showing signs of staying above it.  I didn't succeed LOL.  As I post Fri morning Jun 12, they are still 4 under .500. Just when you think that their starting rotation is serviceable, would-be ace Kyle Bradish comes up with two straight clunkers of only 4 innings each. Then I have to read that he thought he pitched well mentally (if not physically). You don't know what you are getting from either Shane Baz - bestowed a 5-year contract before even throwing a pitch for Orioles - or Trevor Rogers from game to game.  Had to read Rogers saying after he gave up a game-losing 3-run HR that it was a good pitch but the batter was sitting on it (how can you call that a "good pitch"?!). Thank God for unheralded Brandon Young, who was the organization's Pitcher of Year in 2024 but was shaky last season. On the position player front, Gunnar Henderson remains in the worst offensive funk of his career and as a shortstop he often makes the great play but his overall mechanics and defensive game awareness are not elite. 

Every team has problems I know so enough of my whining.  It has been a weird MLB year in general with only a handful of teams with double-digit records over .500 - the Rays and the Yankees in the AL East, Atlanta in the NL East, Milwaukee in the NL Central, and of course the Dodgers in the NL West (even they have some eyebrow-raising issues with Mookie Betts hitting well below .200). The best news for fans of genuine competitive balance are the surprise St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central, the currently first-place White Sox in the AL Central, and a little less impressively the Washington Nationals in the NL East.   

The College World Series begins today at 2P EDT in Omaha with an entirely different group of eight teams from last season. Good for collegiate competitive balance.   Format is double-elimination in two four-team brackets winding up with best-of-3 series ending on June 21 or 22.   Today June 12 is Troy v West Virginia followed at 7P by Ole Miss vs UNC-Chapel Hill.  Sat matchups are highest seed standing Georgia vs Texas & Alabama vs Oklahoma.

Congrats to the PSAL NYC high school champions Tottenville from Staten Island that beat John Jay HS from Brooklyn, 4-2 in last weekend's title game. 

And program note for Su Jun 14 at 1P on MLB Network -  "Grass Routes" visits the storied minor league franchise, Rochester Red Wings.

That's all for now but always remember - Stay Positive, Test Negative, and Take It Easy But Take It.  

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!