Lee Lowenfish

In my last post, dear readers, I was skeptical that the World Series could match Toronto's thrilling come-from-behind ALCS win over Seattle.  Boy, was I wrong!  The deep and plucky Blue Jays have once again shown their mettle.  After losing that 18-inning classic in Game 3 on old reliable Freddie Freeman's solo HR, they soundly beat on LAD's home turf the defending champions in Games 4 and 5. They now need just one win at home at the raucous Rogers Centre to become World Champs for the first time since their 1992-23 back-to-back titles. 

 

For the first time all post-season, I am rooting for Toronto to finish the job without a Game 7 when "anything can happen," to quote the old baseball cliche. What the Blue Jays have proven all season and now in October is that they know how to come back from deficits and hold on to leads. Hall of Famers Earl Weaver and Yogi Berra loved to talk about "deep depth" as the key to a winning team. Well, these Blue Jays are replete with efficient "next man up" players.

 

Game 5 provided a perfect example. When George Springer, leadoff man extraordinaire and igniter of the Toronto offense, was sidelined with an oblique injury incurred on a swing during the Game 3 marathon, others have stepped up. Like Davis Schneider in Game 5, who smacked big ticket LAD acquistion Blake Snell's first pitch for a home run.  Two pitches later, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. did the same thing and Toronto never gave up the lead in its 6-1 win. 22-year-old RHP Trey Yesavage, still listed as a rookie because he only arrived in MLB in September, was masterful, pitching 7 innings of 1-run ball with 0 walks and 12 strikeouts.  

 

When the Dodgers briefly cut the deficit to 2-1 on Enrique "Kike" Hernandez's 3rd inning solo homer, the Blue Jays immediately answered. Dodger right fielder Teoscar Hernandez (no relation to Kike and who will not make people forget Aaron Judge as a fielder) misplayed Daulton Varsho's single into a triple. Then third baseman Ernie Clement, one of the many unheralded players on Toronto, quickly drove in Varsho with a sacrifice fly to restore the 2-run lead.  (Varsho is named for the late Phillie catcher Darren Daulton who played with Daulton's father Gary Varsho on the 1993 Phillies that lost the World Series to Toronto.)   

 

Ernie Clement is a grinding player I liked when he played for Cleveland. I didn't realize he had actually been DFAed twice by the Guardians (designated for assingment) and once by another organization before finding a home in Toronto.  He's from Rochester NY - not far away across Lake Ontario - where he played high school hockey as well as baseball.  Intelligent scouts love to sign players who participate in other sports, especially ones where they may not be stars.  It can provide a sign on what kind of a teammate the baseball prospect may be in a situation where other athletes are better. 

 

Another of my favorites on the likable Toronto team is starter Chris Bassitt, the former Oakland Athletic and New York Met RHP who has pitched flawless baseball as a bullpen set-up man.  Bassitt is a thinking man's pitcher who doesn't light up the radar gun with triple digits but if the moment is right, the Toledo O native who pitched for Akron University will slip in a 72-mph pitch to confound a batter.    Bassitt is a free agent after the season and there are rumors that the Orioles are interested as well they should be. There could be a good competition for the hurler who will be 37 next season. 

 

Toronto shortstop Bo Bichette will be another, higher-priced free agent available 5 days after the World Series when free agency officially begins. I happened to be watching TV in early September when Bichette hurt his knee awkwardly sliding into home plate and thrown out on a great throw from Yankee right fielder Cody Bellinger.  A diminished but still dangerous Bichette certainly deepens the Toronto lineup. With a healthier former Met Andres Gimenez now entrenched at short, Bichette is playing second when he is in the field. He is likely to get huge ovations this weekend in what could well be his swan song as a Blue Jay.  BTW Bellinger is also going to be a free agent and should be highly coveted. 

 

But enough of the business side of baseball.  There will be plenty of time to discuss that in the months ahead. I for one believe that the owners may try to lock out the players after next season's World Series, but I also believe that the strategy won't work becaause nothing will stop the rich owners from spending.  The big problem remains that their weak partners don't want to spend on players and just covet the rising franchise values, the slice of revenue sharing from richer owners, gambling money, the supposed coming bonanza on TV streaming rights, and expansion money in the billions if two more franchises are added to make 32 teams, perhaps by the end of the decade. 

 

There will be plenty of time to discuss this and I will try to shed light on this dreary and annoyingly repetitive subject which has been going on since professional free agency started a half-century ago. See the third and last edition of my first book THE IMPERFECT DIAMOPND: A HISTORY OF BASEBALL'S LABOR WARS.  For now I prefer to savor the coming end of an exciting October.  If the Dodgers score just a few runs for 6th game starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, they could well force Game 7. They still have Shohei Ohtaini to lead off and Mookie Betts to hopefully find his missing batting stroke. But I do think former Oriole number one draft pick Kevin Gausman will compete well against Yamamoto.  We'll find out soon enough.

 

Not much to report on TCM tips for early November but I do want to mention that Sun Nov 2 will be TCM's salute to the late Robert Redford.  So Noir Alley only appears at 12M not 10A.  It's a rarely shown British crime caper "The Great Jewel Robber" (1950). 

 

The Redford films start at 9A "Barefoot in the Park" (1967) with Jane Fonda; 11A "Downhill Racer" (1967) with Gene Hackman; 1P "The Candidate" (1972 with Peter Boyle and Melvyn Douglas; preceded at 1245P with "How to Vote" (1936) a hilarious and approprioate Robert Benchley short with Election Day coming on Nov 4; 3P "All The President's Men" (1976) with RR as Bob Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein; 530P "The Sting" (1973) with Paul Newman and Robert Shaw; 8P "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969) withl Newman; and 10P "The Way We Were" (1973) with Barbra Streisand. 

 

I once shook Robert Redford's hand at a Jackie Robinson Foundation dinner.  It was early this century at a time when Redford was being considered to play Branch Rickey in the movie "42," a role that Harrison Ford ultimately won and inhabited brilliantly..  Speaking of Robinson here is a note on an event of interest in New York City.

Th Nov 6 at 6P A forum on Jackie Robinson's Military Role and Legacy. Co-sponsored by the New York Statre Department of Veteran Services. It will be held at main offices of Jackie Robinson Foundationl, 75 Varick Street just off Canal Street and near #1 train.   Further information at jackierobinsonfoundation.org  

 

One last TCM film note:  Fri Nov 7 6P "Smart Girls Don't Talk" (1948) a crime picture with Bruce Bennett that came out in the same year he had a crucial if small role in "Treasure of the Sierra Madre". I argue that Bennett might have been the best American athlete ever to make a successful transition to a film career.  He played lineman for a Washington Huskies football team that lost the 1926 Rose Bowl to Georgia led by future western star Johnny Mack Brown.  Bennett became silver medalist in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics but failed to make the 1932 LA Olympics because of an injury suffered acting in a forgettable Hollywood film about football. He was in several Tarzan films drawing the praise of creator Edgar Rice Burroughs. He turned to serious acting in the later 1930s and among his notable roles were Mildred Pierce's first husband in the movie of the same name. He lived for over 100 years, remained married to the same woman, and in this age of NIL, get this: He said the only money he ever received for his sports ability was when an Olympic backer loaned him his car and filled it with gas so Bruce could attempt to make the 1932 American Olympic team.

 

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

 

  

   

I can't remember as wonderful a period of balmy weather in NYC as we have enjoyed since a little before Labor Day.  Nothing like acting like a Californian wearing shorts and short-sleeved shirts for days on end. 

 

The delight won't last, of course, and autumn officially arrived yesterday.  I just looked up the Johnny Mercer lyrics to the classic Woody Herman-Ralph Burns 1947 song, "Early Autumn".  How appropriate they feel for fans of the Baltimore Orioles and other teams struggling to make the post-season like the KC Royals, Minnesota Twins, and even the Atlanta Braves.

 

The song opens:  "When an early autumn walks the land and chills the breeze/And touches with her hand the summer trees/

Perhaps you'll understand what memories I own."   

 

Later on comes the lament: "That spring of ours that started so April-hearted/Seemed made for just a boy and girl/I never dreamed, did you, any fall would come in view."

      

With six games left in regular season, the Orioles are still on paper in a good position, four games ahead of Tigers/Royals for first wild card series and home field advantage throughout that one brief series.   I never expected the Orioles to duplicate their 101 wins of 2023 and certainly hoped - and still hope - that they win at least a game in post-season unlike last year when the Texas Rangers swept the Birds into winter on their way to a World Series title (this year the Rangers likely finish under .500 and will be playing golf in October).

 

As the season started, I also thought that the Yankees' amazing Aaron Judge if healthy would far surpass his "meager" 37 HRs of last season; he has 55 entering the final week of regular season and a partner in Juan Soto who last week hit the 40 HR mark and has 200 for his career and won't turn 26 until October 25.

 

After being 24 games over .500 in mid-June,  I didn't expect that the Orioles would limp to the finish line losing their last five series, including the last two weekends to the resurgent Detroit Tigers who have the best record in baseball since August 11, 27-11. They are young and hungry and with a shortage of starting pitchers - like most teams today, alas - they are using six or more pitchers almost every game. 

 

I sure hope this strategy by clever skipper A. J. Hinch is not the wave of the future. but it is up to the opposition to pick on the most ineffective pitchers.  Orioles didn't do it enough against the Tigers and anyone else recently. 

 

All of a sudden, the Tigers are in the driver's seat, in charge of their own destiny.  They are tied with the Royals for the second wild card and playing the last two series at home.  First, Tampa Bay, experienced in late season baseball and with a fraction of hope to still make it this year, is playing well so that could be a great series. 

 

But the Tigers wind up with White Sox who are destined to break the 1962 Mets' dubious record of 120 losses.  The one caveat in the Detroit picture:  Because of their slow start, Detroit will lose tie-breaker to both Royals and Twins.  

 

So now for Oriole fans, the Yankee series becomes anti-climactic. I will probably watch on TV but haven't been to a night game in the Bronx for some time and won't start now. Either tomorrow or Wed or Th, there will likely be a coronation of a new AL East champion. Never pleasant to see an opponent start a celebration in front of your eyes, but as the saying goes, it's part of the game. 

 

On the eve of this series, I can still dream of September 1976 when the Yankees held a double-digit lead on the Orioles when Baltimore came to town.  And in a show of defiance, Earl Weaver's crew swept a four-game series over Billy Martin's team, postponing the inevitable Bronx Bomber clinching. 

 

The Yankees went on to beat the KC Royals in a thrilling five-game American League Championship Series before getting swept out of the Bronx by the Big Red Machine.

I was at the last two games of the sweep sitting in the upper deck infield nosebleed seats in the first year of the mediocre renovation of Yankee Stadium.  It is both a fond memory of Yankee sense of entitlement denied, but also a bittersweet one because my companion at these games would become my first friend to die in the AIDS epidemic a few years later. 

 

Those were the days when there were only two rounds of playoffs, only four divisions, and no wild cards.  There are now 12 teams with a shot at the World Series, six divisions and three wild cards in each league.  It's too many and the regular season is too long but change isn't gonna happen this decade or probably in my lifetime.

 

I do have to admit that there are some exciting matchups this week before the circus of October-Into-Early-November Baseball begins with the best-of-three wild card series. The top wild card gets home field advantage for all the games (right now San Diego and Baltimore have seemingly comfortable leads but the word "comfortable" is not in Oriole fans' vocabulary right now.)

 

The most dramatic series starting tomorrow is likely to be the Mets at the Braves.  With the best record in baseball since June 3, 62-34, the New Yorkers have a two-game lead on injury-ravaged Atlanta.  But the Braves are tough in their own ballpark and have a history of coming up big at crunch time.  The Mets have a more checkered history in this area, but the great thing about baseball is its unpredictability - how you handle it is the key to success.

 

The Mets wind up the season with three at newly-crowned NL Central champion Milwaukee.  As much of an AL surprise as the emergence of Detroit and Cleveland, the newly-crowned AL Central champ, have been, the Brewers in the NL have been another feel-good story. 

 

They clinched early and were on the verge yesterday of being swept by Arizona, the second wild card leader, when the Brew Crew rallied from a 8-0 hole to beat the Dbacks Su Sep 22, 10-9. [The Giants are playing spoiler, winning 2 of 3 at Baltimore, sweeping Royals at KC, and beat Dbacks M Sep 23 in Arizona.

Dbacks are closer to 3rd wild card leader Mets than top wild card Padres.] 

 

My hope is that what will keep the division winners playing reasonably hard this last week is that the best record in MLB will provide home team advantage through the World Series.  That race is wide open right now.   

 

As mediocre as the Oriole drift has been, it has not been the total collapse of the Twins and Royals.  I find it hard to believe that those teams won't bounce back a little this week but once the contagion of losing hits it can be hard to cure.  The Twins were non-competitive in a Sunday doubleheader loss to the Red Sox yesterday and after challenging Cleveland for the division lead, they are on the outside looking in, one game behind third place Royals-Tigers.

 

The Twins will at least wind up at home, playing the White Sox of the NL, the Miami Marlins. And then wind up with three against the Orioles.  For a long time, I've hoped those games wouldn't be meaningful. It sure looks like they will be. 

 

The Royals' decline has been even more shocking. They have lost 7 in a row, 6 at home, and are 7-16 since Aug 28.  They will have to win on the road, first at the Washington Nats and then in Atlanta. The Nats, and at times even the Rockies and the Marlins, have occasionally shown professional pride by competing hard against contenders.

 

The Washington front office will have to deal with the off-field breaking story about shortstop C. J. Abrams.  Only a few days before the minor league season ended yesterday, he was farmed out to the Nats' top affiliate because it was learned that after one recent night game, Abrams was seen at a gambling casino until 8AM. 

 

Before I close, I should note one other big matchup starting tomorrow:  San Diego visiting the hated big brother LA.  Padres have already won season series over Dodgers, but they'll have to sweep to tie for first. 

   

I am a perennial supporter of the underdog. If the Orioles cannot get a second wind and play deep into October, I'd like to see Cleveland finally win their first World Series since 1948 (and then maybe the flawed but filled-with-ballplayers "The Kid From Cleveland" (1949) can be re-shown!).  

 

IN MEMORIAM:

** Richard Moss, 93, on Sep 21 at an assisted living facility in Santa Monica, CA after a long illness.  A native of Pittsburgh, he grew up a huge Pirates fan. He attended Harvard Law School where one of his contemporaries was Bob Arum, later the boxing kingpin and rival of Don King.  In 1966, Moss entered baseball as chief counsel to newly-appointed executive director Marvin Miller. They both came from the Pittsburgh office of the Steelworkers Union of America to revitalize the Major League Baseball Players Association.

 

Moss was a vital, behind-the-scenes presence communicating to players the importance of sticking together to take on the baronial owners who were not used to facing organized players. He was an essential part of the miniscule Association staff that led to salary and grievance arbitration victories, the most notable being the Messersmith-McNally decision in December 1975 that opened the doors to free agency. When Moss became an agent in the late 1970s, he kiddingly told me that they needed two people to replace him, Donald Fehr, Miller's ultimate successor, and Peter Rose, not the ballplayer and someone who did not stay in the job for long. 

 

**Jazz lost one of its legends on Sept 21 with the death of saxophonist-composer Benny Golson, 95, in Manhattan after a short illness.  Golson was one of the great Philadelphia-bred giants, growing up with John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, the Heath Brothers: Jimmy, Percy, Tootie, and many others who all made their mark in jazz. He excelled as both a composer and saxophone player.  His memorable tunes include "Stablemates," "Blues March," and "I Remember Clifford" which he composed when he learned the tragic news in 1956 that Clifford Brown, the 26-year old trumpeter from nearby Delaware, had been killed in an auto accident. 

 

Golson was truly a musician's musician, loving all kinds of good music. As a youngster, he went to hear the Philadelphia Orchestra play Stravinsky and other modern composer, sitting high up in the rafters of the storied Academy of Music with Coltrane and the Heaths. RIP the peerless Benny Golson.

 

That's all for now.  Always remember:  Take it easy but take it, and Stay positive and test negative.