Lee Lowenfish

"Creating a winning culture" is one of the most popular phrases these days in the world of sports - so easy to say and so hard to achieve. This past Sunday May 18, Columbia won its 6th Ivy League baseball title in the last 10 seasons with a convincing 14-6 victory over surprise finalist Harvard at Yale's George W. Bush Field.

 

I took MetroNorth to New Haven and then a cab to see my Lions roar undefeated through the double elimination tourney.  Wiping away the memories of being winless at home in the first two Ivy post-season tournaments in this format, the Lions won two extra-inning nail-biters - over defending champion Penn and surprise entrant Harvard - and then beat Harvard a second time, leaving no doubt after they built an early 10-0 lead. 

 

Senior southpaw co-captain Jagger Edwards, a reliever last season, pitched into the sixth inning and sophomore Will Harrigan got the 3 2/3 inning save, his fifth of the season.  The Cantabs had eliminated host team Yale earlier on Sunday with a come-from-behind 8-6 victory.  The Lions blasted 7 homers, including two each by senior right fielder Anton Lazits, the MVP of the tourney, and sophomore catcher Owen Estabrook.  

 

Columbia coach Brett Boretti always schedules the toughest pre-Ivy League competition and it pays off in the crunch time of the season. I am not sure how much was learned by a March 1 loss at perennial power Oregon 35-1, but it sure helps to understand how much improvement you need before you become a real contender. Columbia will learn on Memorial Day May 26 what regional they will play in - the news will be broadcast on ESPNU at 12N EDT. The goal as always is to make the 8-team College World Series in Omaha starting in mid-June.

 

When I visited the Oregon campus in Eugene 14 years ago (speaking about my Branch Rickey biography), there was a sign on the stadium outfield wall that read:

Opportunity

Makeup

Attitude

Hustle

Always Put The Team First

 

No Ivy League team has ever made a Super Regional that is played the weekend before the College World Series starts, but Boretti and other Ivy League coaches believe that one year it will happen.   As I've mentioned before in this blog, the topnotch Columbia women's basketball team led by coach Megan Griffith won its first ever March Madness game this season and also its first outright Ivy League regular season title.

 

The last chance to see this very special edition of the Columbia baseball Lions will be this Saturday May 24 when Holy Cross, winners of the Patriot League, comes down from Worcester MA to play a doubleheader at Satow Stadium just north of W 218th Street and Broadway. First game starts at 1230P. 

 

Here's also a shoutout to Howard Endelman's men's tennis team that made the NCAA quarter-finals for the second year in a row.  They lost to eventual national champion Wake Forest in a highly competitive watch in Waco, Texas.  The Lions won three matches in the new Milstein Bubble in the Baker Field complex. Attendance is free at the tennis matches (and at the regular season baseball games), and I've heard that the atmosphere is very lively.  No shushing for "silence!" from judges as in the pro matches. 

 

I am especially glad to spread the good news about Columbia athletics under the direction of AD Peter Pilling because it is hard not to despair about the political polarization on campuses these days. It is part of the Trump administration's crusade to punish Columbia and other Ivy League schools and higher education in general.  Sports can be such a unifying force if we allow it to be. So once again a huge hurrah to the players, the coaches, the parents, and the loyal fans of alma mater who have brought joy and distinction in these troubled times. 

 

And now some concluding thoughts on What Has Happened To The Orioles? At 16-32 with a series at Boston starting tomorrow Fri May 23, it is unlikely that

the 2025 Orioles are a playoff team.  But there is still a lot of baseball left, and if they start playing decent defense and straighten out a woeful starting pitching rotation,

I don't think they will need to start another painful rebuild.  Certainly long-suffering Baltimore fans won't flock to see more non-competitive baseball.

 

In my last blog, I implored new Oriole owner David Rubenstein to try to re-sign Cedric Mullins, the outstanding center fielder who is the longest tenured Oriole and

lived through the difficult 100-loss seasons before the team broke out with the 101-win season in 2023.  Alas, there is no sign that Rubenstein is willing to do this.

It took too long for "President of Baseball Operations" Mike Elias to admit this week that the team had become mediocre and indeed under .500 since the middle of last summer. 

 

The firing of field manager Brandon Hyde who lived through bad times and led through the good times was inevitable. It wasn't that he "lost control of the team," a favorite cliche when a manager is fired, but he seemed stuck in the past, thinking that somehow the good times would magically return. It remains to be seen whether another young baseball lifer, third base coach Tony Mansolino, can lift the Birds at least to respectability. 

 

Despite the woes of the Orioles and the truly hapless franchises - the White Sox, the Rockies, and the Pirates - the season for most teams remains hopeful.  The Yankees and Tigers have leads of at least 5 games before games of May 22 and the double-digit winning streaks of the Twins and the Cardinals have brought both of them into contention.  Because of market size and congenital arrogance, I still hope for anything but another Yankee-Dodger World Series. But I don't always get what I want or

need.  So it goes.  Baseball remains the greatest game despite a century and a half of leadership issues. 

 

Oh yes that reminds me - what do I think of Pete Rose between taken off the ineligible list?  Yawn!  He was his own worst enemy though a great Hall of Fame worthy player.

But selling memorabilia in Cooperstown on Hall of Fame induction weekend and living the life of a gambler in Las Vegas didn't help his cause.  It remains for the writers to

decide his eligibility and there is plenty of doubt that he will ever get in. 

 

As for commissioner Rob Manfred caving in to Donald Trump's express wish in behalf of Pete Rose, Manfred is not the first executive in the USA to be very wary of what Trump wants to do. Baseball has been admirably in the forefront of the DEI programs which the new administration wants curtailed.  Manfred and the owners that pay him 

are hoping for a bonanza in streaming services.  They are not sure what policies the government will espouse in this area.  So Manfred played it cautiously.  I'm not going to get on a high horse to decry this.

 

That's all for now.  I'm heading to Cooperstown next week to talk on Frank Frisch the Fordham Flash at the Hall of Fame's annual Symposium on Baseball and American

Culture.  I'm calling my talk "Urbane Roughneck" because although Frisch was a fierce competitor on the field - known in his early years as "John McGraw's Boy" - he

was a genuine lover of classical music and good books and a devoted gardener.  His thoughts on baseball were mostly Old Guard but always delivered with intelligent passion.  

 

I have not run across any sports films on TCM but here is a list of some especially good ones being shown as part of Memorial Day programming:

Sat May 24 630P "The Steel Helmet" (1951) Director Sam Fuller's hard-hitting film set during the Korean War

Sun May 25 12M and 10A - Eddie Muller's Noir Alley presents "Cornered" (1945) Dick Powell, shedding again his bobby-soxer persona, searches for the Nazi killers of his wife

Sun May 25 8P "Bridge On the River Kwai" (1957) - the "Colonel Bogey March" will stay with you after seeing David Lean's direction of Allied prisoners of war in Japan

    during World War II with Alec Guinness/Jack Hawkins/William Holden

 

Tues May 27 1015P "Duel in the Sun" (1947) - Gregory Peck sheds his halo in a rare bad guy role with Joseph Cotten and Jennifer Jones

W May 28 215P "The Man Who Came To Dinner" (1942) - this film may be broadcast more often than any on TCM but it is hilarious with great performances by

Bette Davis, Ann Sheridan, and Monty Woolley in the title role based on the writer Alexander Woollcott.  Jimmy Durante plays Banjo a role based on Harpo Marx.

 

That's all for now.  Always remember: Take It Easy But Take It, and even with RFK Jr raising havoc with our health systems, Stay Positive Test Negative!

 

 

 

   

     

As readers of my blog know, I love sports quotes that have meaning transcending inspiration for athletes. The title for this post comes from Dick Bosman, once a no-hit pitcher for Cleveland, later an esteemed pitching coach for Orioles-Rangers-Rays and author with Ted Leavengood of the informative DICK BOSMAN ON PITCHING (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018):  "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery, today is a gift - that's why it's called the present."

 

Like most memorable quotes, Dick doesn't know where it came from. Perhaps from that mysterious multicultural androgynous Anon Ymous?  It doesn't matter - it's the thought that counts as in this observation:   "It's amazing how much good can be done if you don't care who gets the credit."

 

With March winds howling and temps changing violently here in the Northeast, this remains an exciting and hopeful time of year with college basketball playoffs nearing and baseball spring training in full flower.  Yesterday (M Mar 3) during an Oriole-Pirate spring training game in Sarasota, reliever Jose Bautista threw a perfect inning with two strikeouts in his first appearance in a game since August 2023 when he left the mound in Camden Yards soon headed for Tommy John surgery. 

 

Oriole manager Brandon Hyde says he will utilize Bautista conservatively, never pitching him for more than an inning and never on back-to-back days.  Nicknamed The Mountain for his imposing stature of 6' 8" 290 lbs, he needed years deep in the minor leagues and overseas before he developed command, control, and a consistent release point.   It's way too early in spring training to make any predictions about how the long season will play out, but it was a heartwarming sight to see The Mountain back on the mound. Tears of joy poured from his teammates, coaches, fans at Ed Smith Stadium and all over the Oriole universe.   

 

In yesterday game, switch-hitting catcher Adley Rutschman hit his first homer of the spring, another hopeful sign. He is more of a line drive hitter than a power bomber, but  in the last half of 2024, Adley endured the first slump of his storybook career.  He was mum about whether a hand injury affected his swing but if he is healthy again, his

presence in the lineup and behind the plate will be a definite asset for the Birds.  Waiting in the wings for perhaps a mid-season callup is the impressive Dominican backstop Samuel Basallo, barely 20 years old.  I saw him in the minors a couple of times and he is a commanding presence who reminds me of a left-handed hitting Orlando Cepeda. 

 

Another pleasant development was the announcement that the Orioles and Washington Nationals have settled their dispute over coverage of the teams on the MASN

stations (Mid-Atlantic Sports Network).  As it should be, the Nats will soon be on their own promoting the team on the air waves.  Previous Oriole owner, the late Peter Angelos, drove a very hard bargain and didn't accept prior arbitration settlements of the dispute.

 

David Rubenstein can now enter his second year as Oriole owner with this contentious dispute settled. He certainly brings to the table a fascinating background not common to ownership in any sport. Prominent as head of the Carlyle Equity fund, he is also a philanthropist with a genuine interest in history. On recent Mondays at the New York Historical Society on Central Park West, I heard him interview first Jeh Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security during President Obama's second term, and then Ken Burns, the indefatigable documentary filmmaker. (These interviews are available on line.)  Rubenstein is also often heard interviewing people on Bloomberg TV.  He was the chairman of the board of the Kennedy Center in Washington until he and others on the board were fired last month by President Trump.  

 

I won't make spring training myself this year but of course, I'll be following Oriole developments closely.  In this turbulent and perilous time of American history, it will be nice to follow one's team with a sense of hope. Maybe more moves should have be made to replace Anthony Santander, their 44 HR, 100+ RBI man and ace pitcher Corbin Burnes.  Santander is now a Blue Jay and Burnes a Diamondback but O's still have a world of young talent waiting to blossom.  Like young second baseman Jackson Holliday, not ready to shine last year after enormous hoopla.  And Heston Kjerstad, who can now even put more distance from his scary heart ailment of a few years ago. He seems to have a good baseball head on his shoulder.  At U of Arkansas, he said that he always makes his goals for any season extremely high knowing that he cannot achieve them.

 

Turning to college basketball, Columbia's women Lions continue to impress.  They have earned for the first time the top seed in the Ivy League tournament this year to be held at the Pizzitola Center on the Brown U campus in Providence.  Penn will be their likely opponent on Fri Mar 14 at 430P with Harvard and Princeton battling it out in

the second game.  The final will be on Sat Mar 15 at 5P televised by ESPNNews.  Over this past weekend, seniors Kitty Henderson and Cece Collins each had a triple double - Kitty in the win over Brown and Cece in the triumph over Yale.  If I were running the PA system, I would have found a recording of Irving Berlin's "Anything you can do, I can do better" from "Annie Get Your Gun".   

 

Meanwhile down in Greenwich Village at the Paulson Center on Mercer Street, NYU, winners of 56 in a row, will open its defense of the Division III title against Gallaudet from Washington DC F Mar 7 at 730P.  At 430p U Mass-Dartmouth faces Trinity from Hartford CT.  The winners meet at 5P on Sat Mar 8.   The NYU men, losers of only one game all season, play Cortland State in York, PA at 730P after Cleveland's John Carroll plays host York at 430P.  Winners meet on Sa Mar 8 at 5P.  On the Big Boy front, St.John's, now ranked #6 in the country, won the Big East regular season and enter the Big East tourney at MSG with high hopes of another big March Madness run under septugenarian coach Rick Pitino. 

 

My Wisconsin Badgers came up short against Big Ten leader Michigan State this past Sunday but it was a hard-fought game.  If they bounce back at lagging but

gritty Minnesota on W Mar 5 830P on Big Ten Network and on Senior Day against Penn State on Sa Mar 8 1P on Peacock, they should enter Big Ten tournament at Indianapolis with some momentum. 

 

I read earlier today online a very moving story by Greg Stiemsma about how retired Badger athletic trainer Henry Perez-Guerra basically saved his life.  Now an Badger assistant coach with a new title of Director of Player Development, Stiemsma endured a tough period as a young Badger frontcourtman from tiny Randolph, Wisconsin.

He was not doing well in school and felt he wasn't playing well either.  He was close to suicidal when an early AM knock on the door from Perez-Guerra essentially saved his life. A long talk began his hard road to recovery.  Greg went on to a NBA and overseas career and now a prominent role on the Badger coaching staff. Kudos to Greg for being courageous to share his story and to Henry for being there to help. 

 

In conclusion, here are some upcoming TCM movies with sports themes: 

Th Mar 6 245P  "Tennessee Champ" (1954)  Keenan Wynn is boxer battling with crooked manager.  Shelley Winters presumably helps him. 

 

F Mar 7 a lot of movies with horse racing themes:

6A "Sporting Blood" (1931) Robert Florey directs Clark Gable/Madge Evans

730A "Glory" (1956) David Butler directs Margaret O'Brien/Walter Brennan/Charlotte Greenwood

915A "The Story of Seabiscuit" (1949)  Butler directs Barry Fitzgerald with some help from Shirley Temple/Rosemary DeCamp

*6P  "A Day At the Races" (1937) Sam Wood directs a Marx Brothers classic 

 

Tu Mar 11 6A  "Three Ages" (1923) a Buster Keaton classic with Wallace Beery. A caveman baseball scene especially notable.

615P "The Cameraman" (1928) even more notable, Keaton's baseball pantomime at an empty Yankee Stadium

 

(Non-sports films to be noted:  Sa Mar 8 12N "Hard Day's Night" (1964) early Beatles that reminds me of a Marx Bros. film at their best

M Mar 10 545A "The Apartment" (1960) probably Billy Wilder's last great film with Jack Lemmon/Shirley MacLaine/Fred MacMurray.)

 

 

Coming up on Sa Mar 22 10P "Angels in the Outfield" (1951) - the underappreciated original with uncredited James Whitmore as the

unseen but powerfully heard Angel Gabriel.  Paul Douglas in the lead as crusty manaager Guffy McGovern domesticated by Household Hints

journalist Janet Leigh with underappreciated Bruce Bennett as veteran pitcher Saul Hellman.  More in the next blog.

 

For now, always remember:  Stay positive, stay healthy, stay sane, and take it easy but take it.