Lee Lowenfish

"Every season is different" goes the old sports adage that like most cliches survive because there is a lot of truth to them.  Getting the most annoying story out of my system early on, I didn't expect more than a .500 season from the Orioles and now that modest hope is fading. You have read many times on this blog that I never believed in the baseball acumen of "President of Baseball Operations" Mike Elias but as long as relatively new owner David Rubenstein believes that Elias, who has 8 years in a top role, is such a genius that he doesn't even need a general manager beneath him who just might just know a little more about analyzing pitching talent, the future seems bleak. 

For the next three nights (M thru W May 11-13) the Orioles do have a chance to avenge the embarrassing four-game sweep at Yankee Stadium earlier this month.  Perhaps it is a blessing that because the MLB schedule now limits head-to-head divisional matchups to only 13 a season, the Birds don't return to the Bronx until the last weekend of regular season.  Of course, there will be two series in Baltimore where if the Birds don't show more life, Camden Yards will likely become Yankee Stadium South.  But I still use the pronoun "we" and wear my Oriole jacket often and it leads to fruitful conversations with strangers who love the Orioles.  Like the young woman one-third my age who wondered, "What is Elias giving RHP Shane Baz a 5-year contract worth $65 million before he threw one pitch for us?"  So far his results have not been promising. I am tempted to shout, "Don't come back, Shane!"  (Stay tuned for more movie snark near end of this post.) 

To turn positive for a moment, we are only five games below .500 as I post on Monday morning May 11. Nobody in AL is comfortably above .500 except the first-place Tampa Bay Rays (who plucked 4 top prospects from the Birds in the Baz deal) and the Yankees. Yesterday on Mother's Day, we enjoyed a rare win over the improved Athletics. My boys did it mainly with pitching and defense - How about that?

In top of 7th inning after getting the first lead of the weekend on a clutch single by rookie outfielder Dylan Beavers, inexpensive free agent pickup center fielder Leody Taveras threw a one-hop strike to impressive 21-year-old rookie catcher Samuel Basallo to preserve the 2-1 lead. 37-year-old gritty RHP Chris Bassitt gave his best effort as an Oriole for 6 innings and the 2-1 score held thanks to a save by well-traveled interim closer Rico Garcia.  A native of Hawaii, Rico G wears #50 as a tribute to his home state and one of his heroes, former Mets outfielder Benny Agbayani.      

As for the overall outlook for MLB with a quarter of regular season games already as Mets broadcaster Howie Rose loves to say "in the books", Tampa makes their first visit to Yankee Stadium over the weekend of May 23 after sweeping the Bronx Bombers early last month at their domed dungeon called Tropicana Field that has been restored after severe hurricane damage.  The justly-maligned NL Central has all its teams over .500 as I post this in early May. The St. Louis Cardinals are nipping at the heels of the Chicago Cubs for first place and the Brewers after sweeping the Yankees this weekend are right in the mix, too. 

About 10 days ago, I watched FOX's Saturday "Baseball Night in America" and was impressed that the Cards started virtually an entire home-grown team with early Rookie of the Year contender second baseman JJ Wetherholt shining on both sides of the ball as the Cards beat the filthy-rich LA Dodgers.  Wetherholt is from the Pittsburgh area and I'm glad that the Pirates bounced back from a home sweep by the Cardinals to sweep the Reds. Pittsburgh is a great baseball town and the fans have suffered for so many years that they are still not drawing very well.  I hope many will return if the Buccos stay in contention.  

There have been many losses of eminent baseball people since I last posted.  I never had any real personal encounters with Yankee broadcaster John Sterling, 87, Atlanta Braves owner/champion yachtsman/media entrepreneur Ted Turner, 87, or Hall of Fame manager/former Yankee third baseman Bobby Cox, 84, but they certainly deserve to be remembered.  

Seattle broadcaster Aaron Goldsmith told on air last week a classic story about John Sterling whose love of the Great American Songbook was well-known. Goldsmith was a friend of slugger Matt Holliday and when Matt was a Yankee near the end of his stellar career, Goldsmith asked Matt if John Sterling was willing to narrate a tape that Aaron could use on his answering machine during the holidays.  Sure enough before Thanksgiving one year, Goldsmith received in the mail a tape of Sterling introducing Frank Sinatra singing "Happy Holidays". 

At the beginning of his career as a baseball owner in the early 1970s, Ted Turner was very brash, even putting on a uniform to manage a game during a long Braves losing streak. Soon he wisely let solid baseball people make the vital scouting and developmental decisions that led the Braves towards constant contention by the early 1990s. I devoted a chapter of my book on scouting BASEBALL'S ENDANGERED SPECIES to such Braves lifers as Bill Lucas - the unacknowledged first Black GM - and scouting maven Paul Snyder.  After a down 2025, the Braves are back in clear NL pennant contention. Atlanta just won a series in LA and are the only team above .500 in what so far must be called the NL Least. After a horrenous start, the Phillies have moved to only 3 under .500 under new manager Don Mattingly.  The Mets languish at 10 under .500 and show few signs of a rebound.

On a personal note, I had a moving experience on the last Friday of April, the 24th.  After a showing at the Ferguson Public Library in downtown Stamford CT of the 2013 bio-pic "42," the film that starred Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey and the late Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson, I was part of a panel discussing the movie along with authors of two recent books about the crucial period of the late 1940s Keith Evan Crook who has written OPENING THE DOOR FOR JACKIE (McFarland) and Peter Eisenstadt, INTEGRATION AT SECOND BASE (U of Illinois Press).  Courtesy of author Crook, here is a YouTube link to the discussion that was hosted by Guy Fortt, president of the Stamford NAACP who over 40 years ago was the first Black firefighter in Greenwich CT.  

I never tire of discussing this period in American history which seemed hopeful for genuine and equitable social change.  As I say in the tape, 1947 was the high point of success in Branch Rickey's career even though the Dodgers lost a memorable 7-game World Series to the Yankees. Though there are some errors in the baseball history, I'm so glad that feisty Leo Durocher is an important presence in "42" and Chris Meloni does him justice. Understandably not in a film made for a mass Hollywood audience, we don't learn the later story after 1947.  In 1948, the Dodgers did not win the pennant and the signs of Walter O'Malley's coming takeover of the team were clearer than ever, reaching fruition after the 1950 season though the Dodgers returned to Series in 1949 and missed out on last day of 1950 season.  Rickey's post-Dodger career in Pittsburgh and later back to St Louis was not crowned by baseball success but I continue to find him a  fascinating figure, a grandfather that I never had I guess. Was delighted that several in audience remember fondly my bio BRANCH RICKEY: BASEBALL'S FEROCIOUS GENTLEMAN still in print from U of Nebraska Press. Hope you enjoy the link and can ride through some occasional sound glitches. Many thanks to Keith Crook for providing the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i03NKPZWp_M&t=17s 

 CLOSING NOTES:

**Ivy League Baseball Post-Season Tournament begins Fri May 15 at 12N with top-seed Yale hosting #4 Columbia followed at 4P by #2 Penn versus

#3 Brown.  Loser's bracket at 11A on Sa and winner's bracket at 4P  Tourney winds up either on Sun or a M 12 Noon game.  

Kudos to Columbia senior RHP Evan Kleinhans who has closed games, served as an "opener", and pitched 8 1/3 innings of shutout ball in a key late

regular season game at Cornell.  I have dubbed him "Every Day Evan" referencing the former Twins and Giants hurler Eddie "Every Day" Guardado.  

All Ivy League tourney games will be available on ESPN+. 

*"Grass Routes" is a fun MLBTV show that features a different minor league franchise each Sunday from 1-130P on MLBTV.  During a show about the Portland (Maine) Sea Dogs, a fan described his dream afterlife: "I don't want to be buried but bronzed holding an umbrella so the pigeons don't get me." 

During a recent show about the Asheville Tourists that play in McCormick Field that is over a century old, Connor Griffin, then a visiting minor leaguer and now the Pirates' 20-year-old wunderkind SS, expressed his genuine love of the game and the experiences he was having on the way up to the majors.  The show narrited by Jonathan Mayo is on every Sunday at 1P on MLB network

 TCM TIPS:

F May 15 630P "Baby Face" (1933) Barbara Stanwyck sleeps her way to the top and among the beaus discarded are uncredited Douglass Dumbrille and John Wayne. Black actress Theresa Harris is a friend of Barbara's and is treated in film as an equal.  I mention this film because it's directed by Alfred E. Green (1889-1960) who started in Hywd as silent movie actor and directed a lot of bio-pecs including the "Jackie Robinson Story" (1950).  BTW it should be watched along with "42" for different insights into that crucial period of our history.  Jackie Robinson played himself in the 1950 film quite convincingly though, of course, masking on screen his righteous disdain in real life for the racists in our midst.

Sa May 16 245A "Designing Woman" (1957) Vincente Minnelli tries to make Gregory Peck believable as a sportswriter. Doesn't work for me but Lauren Bacall/Dolores Gray are also in cast.

Su May 17 Noir Alley a little later 1230A and 1015A Hitchock's "Strangers On A Train" (1951) with some memorable footage at Forest Hills Tennis Club.

Robert Walker is out to get innocent Farley Granger. Also with Ruth Roman/and oh-so-reserved Leo G Carroll. 

Later on Sunday two memorable films that have nothing to do with sports but must be listed:

1215P "Humoresque" (1946) one of the best films about classical music with John Garfield/Oscar Levant/Joan Crawford

1030P "Moonstruck" (1987) J P Shanley's memorable script and Vincent Gardenia, who did play the NY Mammoths manager in "Bang The Drum Slowly", as

Olympia Dukakis's straying husband and of course Cher choosing Nicolas Cage over Danny Aiello. 

****Th May 21 330P. Joe E Brown in "6-Day Bike Rider" (1934) along with frequent pal Frank McHugh.  Joe E always deserves 4-stars. 

11P "Blazing Saddles" (1974). how can I fail to mention Mel Brooks' enormously politically incorrect hilarious classic!

F May 22 6A "Body and Soul" (1925) Paul Robeson as philandering minister

8P Gregory Peck tries his hand as "MacArthur" (1977) - not sure I can last through this one but Genl Douglas A is an important if flawed figure in our history.

How can I forget my remedial speech class in 3rd grade when I had to recite a poem in honor of MacArthur's young son returning from Japan after Truman fired his daddy:  "Arthur MacArthur/We welcome you home!"  Fortunately forget the rest of poem but not this ditty that Miss Frisch taught us: 

"Good, better, best/Never let it rest/Until the good is better/And the better is best."

That's all for now (whew!). Always remember:  Take it Easy but Take It, and Stay Positive Test Negative!" 

Just as I was beginning to give up on any improvement in the post-season fortunes of my Orioles - and consigned myself again to calling them the Woerioles - the Birds surprised me  on Wed aft Dec 10 by signing former Mets first baseman Pete Alonso to a five-year contract for a reported $155 million. It was not so surprisng that Mets owner Steve A. Cohen - like Orioles owner David Rubenstein someone who made his fortune in private equity funding - was willing to let Alonso walk. Cohen only reluctantly signed him last year at this time to a two-year contract with an opt-out clause after one year. Virtually seconds after the end of the Mets' disappointing 2025 season, Alonso activated the clause that made him a free agent. .

That the Orioles won the auction engineered by super-agent Scott Boras was more surprising.  Evidently Rubenstein and his President of Baseball Operations Mike Elias realized that they must act proactively after their own very disappointing 2025 season that saw them fall into the AL East basement 12 games under .500.  Count me in as someone who always thought that Alonso's bigtime power to all fields would be a perfect fit for Baltimore's Camden Yards with its cozy dimensions in right field and now left field where the fences are a little closer once Elias realized his moving them farther out had been a mistake.

Of course, as someone who was dubbed the Prince of Paranoia by the late great Batlimore sportswriter Jim Henneman, I did immediately think of other first base signings in Oriole history that proved disastrous:  Chris Davis who they are still paying through 2037 and earlier Glenn Davis (no relation) who cost them in a trade three good players, pitchers Pete Harnisch, Curt Schilling, and outfielder Steve Finley. 

I hope though that unlike Glenn Davis who may have arrived from the cavernous Houston Astrodome with injury issues, Alonso has been durable and has played almost every game in each season since he arrived in New York via the University of Florida and time in the Mets' minor league system.  There is no doubt that Alonso believed that the Mets kept him down on the farm for an extra year so his clock towards salary arbitration and the super-big bucks of free agency could be delayed. 

Time will tell if Alonso will begin to fade near the end of his contract.  For now the Orioles have filled one big need in their lineup - a power righthanded bat that drives in runs.  What to do with the incumbent first basemen -  injury-prone Ryan Mountcastle (whose power has mysteriously declined though he is still under 30) and younger Coby Mayo who has enormous power but is still unproven - will have to be determined.  There is also the highly touted young catcher Samuel Basallo, 21, who was slated to be an occasional first baseman. And let us not forget the holes that remain in the starting pitching rotation for the Orioles. 

Yet this early visit from Santa Claus is to be celebrated.  So the Prince of Paranoia will try to focus on the gift-giving and card-receiving of the holiday season. And pledges a hiatus to Woeriole grousing . . .at least until I get agitated next season about an Alonso 0-20 slump or perhaps a wild throw on a possible double play grounder. 

Here's more happy recent news on my favorite basketball team, the Columbia women's basketball team that produced a stirring victory at Seton Hall this past Tuesday Dec 9, the day before the Alonso trade.  Trailing for virtually the entire game with star junior guard Riley Weiss having an off night, the Lions used tough defense to stay in the battle though falling behind by 10 points a couple of times in second half.  Holding the Seton Hall Pirates to 2-15 shooting in the late going, the Lions won it, 54-53, on a layup by senior co-captain Perri Page.  Somehow with less than 9 seconds remaining in the game, she broke free from a triple-team to hit the big shot with 0.5 registering on clock. Kudos to junior Fliss Henderson for delivering the ball accurately to Page and her defense and rebounding.  And a shout-out to sophomore Mia Bloom who filled the scoresheet with 3 steals, 1 block, i assist, and only 1 turnover.

After a break for fall semester final exams, Columbia has one more home game in 2025, a Sat Dec 19 encounter at 1P with U of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).  On the same Tues night where the Lions prevailed at Seton Hall, the Columbia men lost in OT at Stony Brook but they enter exam period at a surprising and encouraging 9-2 while the women are 7-4. The men have one more December home game at 2P Dec 31 against Penn State at Abington and start the Ivy League season on M Jan 5 at 5P at Cornell. Men's home opener is Sa Jan 10 at 2P against Harvard..  The women open their defense of the Ivy League title on Sat Jan 3 at 2P home against Cornell.   

And now for some TCM tips: Very few upcoming films with sports themes but a boxing classic is on: 

Sa Dec 13 930P "The Harder They Fall" (1956) One of Humphrey Bogart's last films - he plays a press agent who becomes a crusader against  boxing corruption in a story written by Budd Schulberg based in part on the selling of the overmatched heavyweight Primo Carnera. With Rod Steiger.

Noir Alley follows at 12M (also Dec 14 10A). "Cash on Demand" (1961) a British Noir with Peter Cushing, Andre Morell, John Vernon. 

Later on Su Dec 14 Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" (1940) with his then-amour Paulette Goddard/Jack Oakie as a Mussolini character opposite Chaplin playing 2 roles, a Hitler character and a Jewish barber with amnesia after a World War I injury who returns to find the Nazi takeover of his village. The movie was the first full talking picture Chaplin ever made.  If never seen, it should be on anyone's list if only as a slice of cultural history at a time when US had not entered World War II yet but the horrors of Nazism were beginning to be known. 

After reading Diane Kiesel's masterful recent book "WHEN CHARLIE MET JOAN: The Tragedy of the Chaplin Trials and the Failings of American Law" (U of Michigan Press, 2025), it is hard to view Chaplin the man with great sympathy. He had many love affairs from his earliest times in Hollywood and blithely broke them off with the aid of an admiring entourage. Without the purest of motives and egged on by her mother and later Hollywood gossip hounds not thrilled with Chaplin's pro-Soviet politics, starlet Joan Berry fought back. To Diane Kiesel's eternal credit, she makes all these characters come to life.  She is a retired judge but also a gifted writer.

While I'm on this topic of films in large historic contexts, if you never watched this classic:

W Dec 17 5A "Ninotchka" (1939) is a light and hilarious putdown of Soviet Russia's ideology as only Ernst Lubitsch could direct. Melvyn Douglas romances commissar Greta Garbo in a film where "Garbo Speaks," as the ads proclaimed.  She was good in this film, too, but it was her last one. 

And how could I not list:

F Dec 19 1130A Billy Wilder's "Stalag 17" (1953) with William Holden as a cynical leader in a German POW camp in World War II who is trying to ferret out an informer.  I wasn't ready for it as a 11-year old when my mother took me and my sister to a double bill on the long gone 68th Street Playnouse on Lexington Ave.  (Other film was "A Place in the Sun").

I'm ready for it now. 

That's all this time.  Always remember:  Take it easy but Take it, and Stay Positive Test Negative!