Larry Willows will be 82 years old in March, and he’s still playing softball in a league for 75-year-olds and up, with games three times a week, a total of 60 games from October through March down in St. Petersburg.

But that’s not the incredible part.

Willows and some of the age 80-plus players from his league who are also veterans of World War II—many of whom fought in the Pacific Theater after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor—are going back to Pearl Harbor this week to play three exhibition softball games against Japanese veterans of World War II.

Willows, who grew up in White Plains, lived for decades in New City, and still calls Garnersville home when he and his wife Doris aren’t in St. Pete, and who has been involved with the New City Fire Department for 49 years, has never been back to the Pacific since his Navy days in the 1940s.

I think he’s a fascinating guy, and I wrote a column about him for The Journal News and LoHud.com tomorrow. I’d like to hear what you think about it. Thanks.

You know, much was made about how many ex- and current Yankees and Mets were named in the Mitchell Report, and only a few places went so far as to draw the simple, accurate conclusion that there were so many Yankees and Mets because two of the key name-namers in the 21-month investigation came out of the Yankees and Mets clubhouses.

The real conclusion you can draw from this is that —if the Mitchell investigation team came up with those 77 names with the limited access to people willing to talk—there are hundreds and hundreds more current and former major leaguers who used steroids or HGH and weren’t named. They weren’t named because their suppliers weren’t busted and forced to cooperate.

The real conclusion you can draw is that, while a lot of players were outed to various degrees, there must have been a lot more—A LOT MORE—who went “whew!” yesterday. A lot more who were wondering if Mitchell had the goods on them, too.

And, really, now it is up to Congress and law enforcement agencies to follow up, since HGH and steroid use is illegal. Now they have to take Mitchell’s investigation and report and dig some more, and force people to testify and/or cooperate, to either get the dirty suppliers, or nail the dirty users. In most cases, right now, they don’t have nearly enough evidence against the vast majority of the players, if any, to take legal action that would stand a prayer in a court.

But I imagine they can use all these names as starting points to go get more of the dealers and suppliers, and once they start getting those guys, they’ll squeal, and once they start squealing, then the players will begin to fall. Then we’ll find out how deep this thing really goes, because yesterday was just more scratching of the surface.

Congress made its big stand a couple of years ago. Now the leaders of our country, who were so eager to do something about this problem in baseball and in sports have some ammunition. Now they ought to get busy doing what former Sen. Mitchell was unable to do—get people to cooperate, and get to the core of the problem. The real core.

I was shocked by nothing Senator Mitchell said in his report or his press conference, but I will be shocked if the MLBPA doesn’t threaten some legal action against the implications against some it its players.

Because, let’s face it, some of the sources of this information are dubious—guys in trouble with the law for the most part. But the players union had its opportunity to take part in the investigation.

I think baseball and its union might be further apart now than it was before the report was made public and names were named. It will be interesting to see what the association says tonight.

And can some of these talking heads please, please, please (Steve Phillips) stop using the “He’s been tested and never proved positive” line. You cannot catch guys who used HGH. And you pretty much have to be an idiot to be caught doing designer steroids, especially if you know when the test is coming.

The Mitchell report is about to be released immediately.

Every outlet claims to have a list of names in it, although most aren’t daring to publish those names.

But it sure looks like, from all reports, Roger Clemens is on it, along with non-surprises Miguel Tejada and Pudge Rodriguez and many, many others.

This is going to be one of the most interesting days in baseball history.
Stay tuned.

I just finished a column about the Sunday Jets-Patriots game for The Journal News and LoHud.com tomorrow. I wrote about this idea that evil Bill Belichick will run it up on the Jets if he can, and how we all love a good vendetta (well, maybe Jets fans won’t love this one).

I was out at Hofstra today and here is Eric Mangini’s take on the report about the Jets “spying” on the Patriots last year.

Mangini said that he asks permission from the home team every time the Jets play on the road, to set up a video camera in each end zone. He said it’s fairly standard operating procedure. Other teams regularly ask the Jets if they can do the same. Mangini said that hisa request has never been denied, nor have the Jets ever denied a visiting team permission.

The Jets filmed last year’s regular-season game at New England from the end zones, and Mangini said that they had received permission to film the playoff game at Gillette Stadium. But during the game, the Jets’ film guys were removed by security. Mangini said he never received a reason for the removal.

So he didn’t bother asking for permission from the Pats to film Sunday’s game, figuring it would be denied. Certainly, if Mangini’s account is true, you could see how that might fuel his decision to rat out Belichick when the Patriots’ guys were filming the Jets’ sideline, attempting to steal signals (that’s what they were busted for after this season’s opener).

If Mangini’s account is true, the Jets should be in no trouble, and in fact it was Belichick and the Patriots who were behaving badly long before Spygate.

That doesn’t mean the Patriots aren’t going to be eager to take it to Mangini’s team Sunday. The good news on that front is the Nor’Easter headed for New England Saturday night into Sunday afternoon. It might dump enough precip, especially the white stuff, to keep Brady and Moss and Co. from airing it out enough to pile up the 50 or so points they desire.

I got my Baseball Hall of Fame ballot in the mail today. It ain’t pretty.

Every year at this time it arrives in a brown envelope from the Baseball Writers Association of America and you get three weeks to go over it. You can only vote for those on the ballot—no write-ins, otherwise I’d be voting for Pete Rose and Roger Maris every year.

But some of the names really make you wonder how they get nominated. I mean, Chuck Knoblauch, Brady Anderson, Travis Fryman, Robb Nen, Todd Stottlemyre?

I am not sure what my final ballot is going to look like, but I will tell you that Jim Rice and Goose Gossage will be on it, and I will probably vote for Don Mattingly, because I believe he was a better player than a lot of those who have entered the Hall the last few years (last summer being the exception with Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn). But Mattingly in his prime was as good as those two guys, and better than guys like Paul Molitor and Kirby Puckett and some of the other recent Hall of Famers. He just didn’t last long enough because of his back.

Then you have those on-the-bubble players like Bert Blyleven, Harold Baines, Andre Dawson, Lee Smith, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy and Dave Parker.

That’s where it gets tricky.

Here’s where it doesn’t get tricky: Mark McGwire. He’s not getting my vote, ever. If he gets in, then so should Jose Canseco … who is no longer on the ballot.

Interesting circumstances at the end of Jets-Browns today.

Cleveland up 17-15 with 1:31 to go. Jamal Lewis, on third-and-four breaks through for a first down and keeps barrelling through missed Jets tackles. Soon he’s in the end-zone with a 31-yard touchdown.

In the TV booth, somebody brings up the question about whether Lewis was better off stopping short of the end zone. Once he had the first down, afterall, the Browns could just take a knee a couple of times and the game’s over. The Jets couldn’t do anything about it, because they couldn’t get the ball back.

Then there was some blabber about Lewis sticking the ”dagger in” the Jets and “you play to win the game.”

But, truly, Lewis in that situation would have been better off not scoring. By scoring, he put Cleveland up 24-15, but he also gave the Jets the ball. Granted, they needed two scores, but with the ball, a score and an onside kick, anything’s possible. Without the ball, Cleveland wins 17-15.

So the Jets, sorry as they are, drove down for a field goal that made it 24-18, and now could win by recovering an onside kick, getting a miraculous touchdown and an extra point. They didn’t get the onside kick, but the fact remains that Lewis’s touchdown gave them a chance they would not have had if he’d stopped and taken a knee after he got the first down.

The fact remains that the dagger would have been to take a knee. Playing to win the game would have been to take a knee. The game’s over that way. Not a prayer. Not the prayer the Jets got by Lewis scoring.

Interesting, huh?

I wrote a column for The Journal News and LoHud.com tomorrow about the White Plains High girls basketball team, which is going to have a very different look and feel to it this year.

The Tigers went 70-10 with three Section 1 AA championships and two trips to the state title game (and probably another last year if Kim Adams hadn’t suffered a bad shoulder injury in the regionals) the last three seasons.

But that dream run has but one key player left, Angelei Aguirre —daughter of Knicks assistant coach Mark—surrounded by a new, senior-laden but very inexperienced cast. It is also a much smaller group. When Aguirre arrived on the varsity as a freshman, and in her sophomore season as well, she was one of the smallest regulars on the team. Now, at 5-11, she’s the biggest.

The Tigers still plan on being a factor and competing for the gold ball at the end of the season, and there doesn’t appear to be a clear-cut dominant team in AA. But it will take a lot to transform this team into anything resembling the last three. Somebody said the other night, during White Plains’ season-opening loss to Maria Regina in the Tigers’ own tournament, that Aguirre will probably have to have as many points in the first 10 games this season as she had all of last season, when she was surrounded by Liz Flooks and Kim Adams and Paige Sprewell and Lauren McGuire (or the year before when the Tigers were even a completely different team with 6-footers Elize Bronzo and Danica Covington.

Plus the Tigers will have to deal with every team taking great pleasure in beating the team that has beaten so many of them so often the last three years. It’s going ot be tough. 

Barry Bonds went to court today and pleaded not guilty to all the counts against him in the federal perjury/obstruction case. He is not due back in court until February.

It seems to me that, for a guy who claims innocence, who has claimed all along that the feds have nothing on him, he sure is hiring a lot of high-powered lawyers. And to me, when you do that, it’s for a reason. Either you need a lot of legal help, or you’re trying to drum up some technicalities to get away with something you did. Or maybe not.

Anyway, for some interesting reading, the AP put out the actual indictment.

You can read it here:

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/_documents/bonds_indictment.pdf

Still up in the air whether Johan Santana is coming to the Yankees or going to Boston or elsewhere, or not going anywhere at all. Personally, I don’t think it’s the end of the world if the Yankees don’t get him, although it means Boston is the heavy fave to repeat.

What bugs me more than anything is this idea that Santana can demand $100 million or more in a contract extension in order to waive his no-trade clause. Not that he’s not worth it, not that any other player wouldn’t do the same, not any of that. It’s just that I’m sick of these silly numbers and demands which are showing no signs of slowing down … ever. What’s it going to be in 2015? $50 million a year? Then what is a ticket going to cost? $700 in the upper deck?

Anyway, this all brings me back to the Hall of Fame veterans’ committee vote on Monday, when only 25 percent voted for Marvin Miller, the players’ union guy most responsible for free agency and all its ills, all its rich-get-richer teams buying up the best players and still making the most money. I know, what Miller did was revolutionary. But I’m glad the Cooperstown door’s not opening to him, at least not now.

When they open the new stadium in 2009 and supply-demand means you can’t get a ticket, and if you could, you couldn’t afford to take the kids or family members or friends, and when you used to go to 20 games a year and now you can only afford four, and when that hot dog is repeating on you all night, reminding  you that it cost more than your seat used to cost, thank Marvin Miller. The revolutionary.