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! 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

All the major MLB awards have been given out and I have no real problem with the award-winners.  I am a little concerned that there are repeat winners in three big categories - Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani as MVPs, the Guardians' Stephen Vogt and the Brewers' Pat Murphy as Managers of the Year, and the Tigers' Tarik Skubal and the Pirates' Paul Skenes as Cy Young winners.  The result suggests that there are no new teams and pitchers breaking into the limelight. 

 .

I certainly hope that Skubal stays with the Tigers at least through the end of 2026 when he will be a free agent.  His owner Mike Ilitch Jr., heir to the Caesar's pizza chain and according to a google bio "the producer of Christian movies," is not very visionary in his stewardship so there have been no hints of an extension being offered to Skubal and his omnipresent agent Scott Boras. 

 

Skenes is a different case in that he won't be a free agent until after the 2029 season and already rumors are floating that he wants to be a Yankee which he has denied. 

He is a remarkable athlete.  Was both a pitcher and a catcher in HS and attended the Air Force Academy to start fulfilling his dream of being a pilot serving his country. 

He was so good at the AFA that his coaches begged him to transfer to a top division I school to hone his talents against better competition.  All he did was to lead the LSU Tigers to the 2023 College World Series title.  Pittsburgh had no choice but to draft him number one in the country and he has not disappointed Sadly, the Pirates' lack of offense and very few winning players have left the loyal fans and Skenes himself frustrated. 

 

Skenes is a quick study in all he does. Recently he became one of the first players to sign baseball cards for the Japanese market in a rare language that combines Japanese and Chinese characters. Predictions for the price of those cards on the eBay market stretch into several hundred thousand dollars.  Skenes' girl friend Olivia "Livvy" Dunne, the star gymast he met at LSU, is also no stranger to creating big ticket marketing opportunities.  Late in the now-settled "House vs. NCAA" federal trial trying to establish a fair price for  the services of college athletes, Dunne was vociferous in charging that her economic worth had been grossly undervalued while at LSU. 

 

I predict that there is one happier note ahead. The World Baseball Classic - which stretches from early March until a week before the opening of the MLB regular season in late March - will be another feel-good story.  Almost every player wants to participate.  Skenes, who reportedly would like to start an Air Force career after his baseball work is done, was honored to be selected to the American team.  There were NINE nationalities represented in the just-concluded thrilling World Series and some of those players are also likely to be on WBC rosters.  

 

The WBC is reportedly the one enterprise in MLB that the owners and the players share equally in its production. But I also predict a more troubling occurrence once the MLB season starts:  the rise of a barrage of stories about a likely lockout of the players by the owners after the current Basic Agreement ends at the end of December 2026.  I don't think the lockout will work - rich teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Mets, Blue Jays - want the revenue from TV and the box office plus the glory of carrying a trophy around. (Although it pales aesthetically compared to hockey's Stanley Cup.) It promises to be a particularly ugly negotiation. Commissioner Rob Manfred has been openly telling players that the MLBPA has served only their richest brethren.  Recent stories have also been broken in major outlets like espn.com and The Athletic about misapproporiation of funds by MLBPA director Tony Clark. 

 

Baseball has a long history of owner-player struggles that I described in three editions of THE IMPERFECT DIAMOND, 1980, 1991, and 2011.  I made reference in the first edition of the late Mort Sahl's comment about Richard Nixon's memoir SIX CRISES - it should have come out in a looseleaf edition so you could add the crises.  Baseball has tried lockouts many times and they have not been successful. It is possible that saner heads may prevail sometime in 2026 before the deadline.

 

Here's some ideas: 

**Adjustment to the one-year qualifying offer for a player not yet a free agent is one area for reform.  Attached to a draft pick the signing team must surrender, the price tag of over $20 million seems quite high. Can it be reduced somewhat without players' claiming foul? 

 

**Establishing a salary floor that the non-big spending teams must obey is another area for possible reform.  Even reducing the number of years for free agency eligibility to 4 or 5 years seems like a workable idea from afar, but reason has never been a strong suit in baseball labor history.

 

One thing I will say in defense of the Phillies Bryce Harper who had a well-reported run-in with Rob Manfred when he visited the team during the season.  Harper noted that when he signed out of a community college in Las Vegas, he received a bonus of over $10 million as the number one pick in the country.  15 years later, that pick's bonus has not been any higher and for some players considerably lower.  Of course, no one is going to shed tears for the players in this battle.  It does show what monopoly rule by the owners can achieve as their franchise values soar and soar. 

 

 For now let's relax, prepare to enjoy the blessedly non-religious holiday of Thanksgiving, and become aware of some TCM highlights ahead.

 

Su Nov 16 12:15A & 10A - Noir Alley:  "High and Low" (1963) a classic Kurosawa film about a prominent father who has to cope with a serious legal charge against his son 

8P Jeff Bridges and John Goodman in the classic "The Big Lebowski" (1988)

Followed at 1015P Jeff and his brother Beau (sons of Lloyd Bridges)/Michelle Pfieffer in "The Fabulous Baker Boys" (1989) a believable take on struggling jazz musicians

 

M Nov 17 6P "M" (1931) the original German film about the hunt for a child killer played by Peter Lorre, directed by Fritz Lang

 

W Nov 19 from 6A-8P Films written by Billy Wilder, born in Vienna who as a teenager traveled to Berlin to write stories about the touring Paul Whiteman band and the great doomed trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke.   

6A "People on Sunday" (1930) Robert Siodmak follows young Berliners one Sunday cavorting in a park in what will turn out to be the last 3 years of the Weimar Republic. Siodmak in America in the 1940s will make some great Noirs including "The Suspect" with Charles Laughton, "Christmas Holiday" with Gene Kelly as a real bad guy snd Deanna Durbin, "The Killers" that made Burt Lancaster a star, and in a lighter vein George Sanders being overly protected by his sister the stunning Geraldine Fitzgerald (on a LIFE cover in the summer of 1945), "The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry".

 

9A "Ninotchka" (1939) Wilder works with Ernst Lubitsch on a hilarious and rather profound story set in Paris about the romance of an American, Melvyn Douglas, with a ultra-serious Russian commissar Greta Garbo - "Garbo laughs" went the promotional trailer and she does.  Sadly, she made very few films if any after this one.

 

130P "Irma La Douce" (1963) with Shirley MacLaine also set in Paris but the times in the 1960s were changing and Wilder doesn't really ride well with them

4P "Witness for the Prosecution" (1957) maybe Wilder's best last film - with Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich - ads at the time forbade fans to give away the ending, I won't either! 

6P "One, Two, Three" (1961) with James Cagney - A Coca-Cola executive travels to Berlin to prevent his boss's daughter from marrying an East German Communist. with Arlene Francis, yes that Arlene Francis of "What's My Line?" fame. 

 

Th Nov 20 Neo-Nors including

8P "Point Blank" with Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson

10P "The Late Show" (1977) with Art Carney, Lily Tomlin

 

Sat Nov 22. Nathan Lane introduces a classic noir and classic neo-noir:

8P "Double Indemnity" (1944). Edward G. Robinson under control without much screen time investigates Fred MacMurray/Barbara Stanwyck

10P "Chinatown" (1974) Polanski slices Jack Nicholson's nose, literally, but you keep watching. With Faye Dunaway.

1230A repeated Sun at 10 Noir Alley presents "The Strip" (1949) with Mickey Rooney as a struggling jazz drummer and Louis Armstrong playing and singing "A Kiss To

Build a Dream on". 

  

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