1978

Can it be just a coincidence that the small-town charm and "Bull Durham"-esque grit of minor league baseball suddenly became fashionable around the time that Jimmie Lee Solomon became the director of minorleague operations for Major League Baseball? Jimmie points out that as pleasant as it is that the minors are enjoying a pronounced resurgence in popularity their main reason for existing is to develop a steady stream of talent for the majors. As it happens, Jimmie has also developed some significant talent within his own family: his daughter Tricia who was all everything in volleyball, basketball, and track at Woodrow Wilson High in Washington, D.C. turned down seven athletic scholarships to take an academic one to George Washington University. And Jimmie's nephew Mike Miller is a starting wide receiver for Notre Dame.

Talkmg about coincidence and baseball, has anybody noticed that since Tom Ostertag became general counsel for Major League Baseball we've seen Pete Rose banned, Fay Vincent ousted, George Steinbrenner shunned and unshunned, Marge Schott reprimanded, and TV revenues slashed to a fraction of what baseball was getting in the crazy eighties? Tom will not comment on any of the items above, but he did disclose that two-year-old Emily Ostertag's first sentence was "Daddy funny." Cast members of the Bourges and Hanover productions of Dartmouth Arrive (our Rassiasstyle version of West Side Story) should note that Tom still plays the piano for an hour every morning. In fact, Tom's wife, Judy Russell, does too. Not many houses in Tuckahoe have two grand pianos in the living room.

One town over, in Bronxville, Alvaro Saralegui first beheld Lisa DeCrane over the altar rail at St. Joseph's Church, when Alvaro was an eighth-grade altar boy and Lisa was taking communion. Twenty years later they were married at the same altar rail, and now they're back in Bronxville. Lisa, who's expecting their first child in September, is management supervisor on the Reebok account for Chiat Day; and Alvaro, who still looks like an altar boy, is general manager of Sports Illustrated. He's been working on the SI Sports Festival (an interactive show that will travel to all the Six Flags theme parks) and an interactive television service that will offer pay-perview events, a shopping network, instructionals, interactive games, interview shows, and educational specials showing swimsuit models discussing the works of Goethe and Kant.

In the June 14 issue of SI there was a nice story describing Nick Lowiy's off-season work with the White House Office of National Service, and picturing him chatting with Bill Clinton. After giving his time and energy to dozens of good causes over the years, Nick has established himself as one of the most socially conscious of pro athletes. "I want to give something back," he said in the article. "If you live for yourself, you're empty. If you help others, you're fulfilled." And, of course, going into his 14th season with the Kansas City Chiefs, Nick has kicked 306 NFL field goals, behind only lan Stenerud (373) and George Blanda (335).

For the past three years Jeff Ward has been assistant athletic director at Brown. Jeff met his wife, Margaret Broaddus, when he helped teach her a flip turn at the Columbia University pool. In addition to being a smooth guy, Jeff was the women's swimming coach at the time. They have two sons, Matthew 3 and Alexander 1.

Jeff would have seen Rob Ceplikas at the Ivy meetings this spring, if Rob's son, Luke, hadn't been born at the same time. (Rob and Lynn, who teaches ninth-grade English at Mascoma High, also have a two-year-old daughter, Holly.) In 1989 Rob left his job in Dartmouth's admissions department to get his master's in education at Stanford—just in time for the Giants-and-A's World Series and the earthquake. Three years ago he returned to Hanover as special assistant to athletic director Dick Jaeger, and speaking again of coincidences—we haven't lost an Ivy football championship since.

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