Lee Lowenfish

I'm must confess that this blog was originally gonna be another embittered rant about the disappointing Orioles who since the early summer of 2024 have been an under-.500 team and perhaps haunted by never winning a game in five tries during playoff action in 2023 and 2024. Last week's trade of switch-hitting catcher Adley Rutschman, 2019's number one overall draft pick, to the arch-division rival Boston Red Sox no less, was a harsh blow to the Oriole faithful who saw Adley's departure as the waving of the 2026 white flag. Pete Alonso dispelled that despicable thought with a two-home run game on Sunday Aug 9 that sparked a rare 10-3 outburst to salvage one game over the current AL Third Wild Card leader Texas Rangers. Still 4 games under .500 and behind Houston, Detroit, Minnesota, Cleveland as well as Texas, there is a pulse, however flickering, left in my Birds.  

 

Having not lived in Baltimore since I returned in 1976 to my "home town" of NYC, the Rutschman trade hasn't affected me that deeply.  Adley had become injury-prone, winding up on the Injured List five times in the last two seasons. At the age of only 28, it does look like he is going into an enviable situation in Boston, providing experience to a speedy and talented young team that has rediscovered its offense but has needed a solid receiver.  If Adley finally realizes that he is a line drive hitter and stops swinging for the fences and fretting about his inconsistent "launch angle," he should be a great addition to a Red Sox team that roared from 14 under .500 at the end of June to more than 10 above .500 and the Second Wild Card position behind the Yankees. In the wonderful world of MLB where even the best teams lose at least 60 games a season and the worst ones win at least 60, the lowly Athletics (temporarily in Sacramento) punctured a little of the Bosox bubble by winning this past weekend the Sat and Sun games at Fenway. 

 

I must admit that I have a soft spot for the Tampa Bay Rays who are now loaded with a bevy of ex-Orioles including gritty center fielder Cedric Mullins, closer Bryan Baker, possessor of 35 saves, and Tyler Wells, a multi-purpose reliever who can also spot start. Another recent Oriole discard, veteran RHP Dean Kremer, is slated to pitch for the Minnesota Twins against his former team on Mon Aug 10. The Twins just lost the rubber match in an intense series against the Brewers, but the Brew Crew needed one of the best catches I've ever seen by rookie right fielder Luis Lara who robbed Koby Clemens of a second home run.  Koby, Roger's son who has found a home in Minnesota after not making it in Philly, had tied the game with a two-run shot off wunderkind Jacob Misiorowski who regularly brings 100 mph heat.  "Mis" seems to be pitching-wise beyond his young age - he understands that changing speeds is the key to sustained success.

 

It is barely mid-August and we are only at the top of the stretch with more than 45 games to play. Arizona just won its first regular season series since 2018 over the defending champion LA Dodgers. They needed a gritty 115-pitch 7-inning outing by LHP Eduardo Rodriguez in the Sunday rubber match - it was a resilient team effort after losing an extra-inning heartbreaker on Sat night.  With the Dodgers leading 1-0 in the bottom of the 9th, closer Edwin Diaz, just back from injury, gave up back-to-back triples to tie the game.  But the Snakes couldn't bring in the winning run and Shohei Ohtani broke the tie with a 10th inning single. Unheralded reliever Jack Dreyer got the save for LAD.

 

I do not believe that a three-peat is a shoo-in for LAD.  Age is creeping up on their roster.  Mookie Betts maybe is showing it the most, followed by Max Muncy, and Freddie Freeman a little less. I think Dave Roberts is a great manager because he understands the heartbeats of his players as well as anyone in his profession.  (In the late Scott Miller's marvelous book about managers SKIPPER, Roberts called his job two parts being a baseball man and one part being an emcee.) LAD still features the versatile grinding old pros Tommy Edman and Kike Hernandez, the latter just back from serious injury.They will be forces to reckon with but teams like the Cubs and certainly the Brewers and maybe even the Dbacks, Cardinals, and Phillies could give LAD a run for their money. 

 

I also don't think a lockout that wipes out a big chunk of the 2027 season is inevitable either. But at this point in time, neither the MLB owners nor

the MLBPA leaders feel like negotiating.  So I'm all for enjoying the intense action that will intensify as we approach the climactic days of late September.

As an Oriole fan living in NYC but with a heart still bleeding Orange and Black, I just hope that when the Yankees come into Camden Yards Aug 18-20 and the

Bosox the four days before Labor Day, there are enough Oriole fans in attendance to hold their own against the invading hordes of winnite Yankee and

Red Sox fans.   

 

The big TCM tip of this post is the Marx Brothers marathon including of course Margaret Dumont - it runs from 1030A W Aug 12 through a 245A Th Aug 13 showing of "Go West"

1030A "The Big Store" (1941) haven't seen it in decades.  Recall Tony Martin singing the "Tenement Symphony" and Groucho singing "Sing While

You Sell" with such lyrics as "Sell that birdie with some Verdi"

12N "At the Circus" (1939) with Eve Arden and "Lydia The Tattooed Lady"

130P "Room Service" (1938)

3P "A Day At The Races" (1937)

*5P "A Night At the Opera" (1935) with hilarious Sig Rumann as Gottlieb the impresario who Groucho tangles with.  And Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones.  Never

met Kitty but her advice on the secret to her long active life was a beaut:  "Every morning before my yoga, I look in the mirror and say, 'I forgive you.'"

Watch for the brief "Take Me Out To the Ball Game" scene.

*645P "Horse Feathers" (1932) The college football spoof is memorable 

*8P "Duck Soup" (1933) with Louis Calhern as Sylvania foreign minister tangling with the Fredonians 

915P "My Favorite Duck" cartoon short

930P "Animal Crackers" (1930) from whence cometh Groucho's theme for his 1950s "You Bet Your Life" quiz show, "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" ("the African explorer/did someone call me schnorrer?/Hooray, hooray, hooray!")

1120P Bugs Bunny cartoon

*1130P "Monkey Business" (1933) the last one with the doomed Thelma Todd

*1A "The Cocoanuts" (1929) the first one, fresh from the NY stage

230A "Go West" (1939)

 

One other film of note for sports lovers:

Fri Aug 14 3P "The Fortune Cookie" (1966) Billy Wilder directs Walter Matthau as a cunning lawyer trying to win Jack Lemmon a big legal award for injury

incurred on a football sideline. Some of it filmed at Municipal Stadium, then-home of the Cleveland Browns

 

That's all for now.  Always remember:  Stay Positive Test Negative and Take It Easy But Take It! 

 

 

  

 

 

 

    

The Thursday July 23 off-day is very welcome for Oriole players, non-uniformed personnel, and fans.  The narrative as the All-Star Game approached was the under-achieving Birds had not won more than 3 games in a row all season.  Then, thanks to some very sloppy play by Kansas City, the young Maryland men in Orange and Black swept KC at home and went into the All-Star Game break with a 4-game winning streak.  They came out of the break by sweeping a just-as-sloppy Astros in Houston. Then, in a meeting of streaking teams in Boston, the Orioles competed decently but lost the first two games to the red-hot Red Sox that extended the Bosox streak to 15 games, tying the team record set by the 1946 Bosox world champions. 

 

Last night (W July 22) Kyle Bradish pitched like an ace to break that streak in a tidy 5-1 win.  He only went 6 innings but he was in command all game, proving at least for now that he has ace-like potential and is worthy of the 5-year extension he signed that reportedly is worth $90 million. (Two of his arbitration years and two of his free agent years have been bought out.)

 

The NL East-leading Atlanta Braves come into Camden Yards this weekend and they will certainly pose another formidable test although they have been battered by mound injuries. The Birds know all about injuries, too - both catchers Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo are on the IL. And the broken hand of Orioles breakout star Blaze Alexander - the result of an errant pitch by Royals closer Lucas Erceg just before the ASG break - has been a blow to the Birds sporadic offense, but it has provided a chance for Christian Encarnacion-Strand, once a top prospect for Cincinnati Reds who is only 26. He hails from Walnut Creek, CA and played at Oklahoma State where the brother of teammate second baseman Jackson Holliday, Josh Holliday, is the head coach and where Jackson's father Matt Holliday was a star after being the Gatorade High School Player of Year twice in both football and baseball. (Maybe living up to that family athletic royalty has been an obstacle in Jackson's uncertain progress but he is only 22.) 

 

Christian blasted a couple of home runs at Fenway and did OK at third base where he might compete for playing time with the younger Coby Mayo, one of the many highly-touted young Orioles who have not yet proven themselves as consistent major leaguers.  There is always room for humor in baseball, such a difficult sport to master and stay in rhythm with.  So I wonder when C E-S makes his home debut tomorrow, will his hyphenated last name appear on the back of his uni? It didn't on the road. He carries the longest name in baseball history, supplanting catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia who retired in 2018 after a 12-year MLB career.   

 

The trading deadline is M Aug 3 and IMHO the Orioles need to get to .500 to become buyers. The schedule after Atlanta has a visit to the Tigers, another team on the bubble in a weak AL Central, and then a weekend tussle with the Phillies who under interim manager Don Mattingly have emerged as a possible challenger to the Braves in NL East.  The Marlins have faded after reaching a 10-over .500 peak.  Sure hope they hold on to their ace Sandy Alcantara who seems fully recovered from TJ surgery.  Miami owner Bruce Sherman claims he wants Sandy as a core piece of his future team but he is also a hawk about the salary cap and is on commissioner Rob Manfred's Executive Council. 

 

My TCM tips salute the SEVEN Joe E Brown films that will appear on TU JULY 28 from 10AM through a little before 8P

10A "On With The Show" (1929) his first film and the first in technicolor - it's about the misadventures of a traveling theater troupe (Joe had been an acrobat, a vaudeville performer, and starting in early 1920s a big Broadway star) 

1145A "Sally" (1930) with Marilyn Miller - Joe sings a plaintive beautiful version of Jerome Kern's "Look for the Silver Lining"

130P "Going Wild" (1930) Joe pretends to be a pilot.  With a young Walter Pidgeon long before he is Mr. Miniver or the producer yearning for a kiss at the

end of a film with plenty of black on the bottom line in "The Bad and the Beautiful"

245P "Sit Tight" (1931) featuring a hilarious scene at a health spa with Winnie Lightner as his formidable adversary

415P "You Said A Mouthful" (1932) Joe as a swimmer. With Ginger Rogers in one of her first starring roles.  She paid homage in her memoirs to what a helpful mentor he was. 

545P "Elmer the Great" (1933) Joe's favorite of his baseball trilogy.  Opening scene is priceless.  Joe initially spurns an offer from the Cubs to disbelief of his younger brother Sterling Holloway.  Mike Frankovich, UCLA football star and later virtually an adoptive Joe son and soon to become big producer, has cameo

645P "Alibi Ike" (1935) the last and probably best put-together of his baseball films. With William "Future Fred Mertz" Frawley as his manager, Olivia DeHavilland in her first year of stardom as love interest, underappreciated Ruth Donnelly as her sister. 

 

That's all for now.  My next post could well be from Chautauqua where I'm co-teaching the last week in July a class "Baseball Couples: Odd and Other".

Always remember:  Stay Positive, Test Negative, and Take It Easy But Take It!