Lee Lowenfish

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!  

 

 

 

 

“Playing meaningful games in September” is all this baseball fan realistically wants.
Which is why the “outrageous sense of entitlement” of too many Yankee fans rubs me the wrong way, to put it mildly.

And lo and behold it’s possible after this weekend’s sweep of the Red Sox at Fenway that the Orioles might have a meaningful September after all. With 32 games to play, they are at back at .500 with a 65-65 mark.

Now carrying the remaining schedule in my wallet wasn’t such a bad idea after all. They return home for a 10-game home stand against Seattle, Toronto and the Yankees, the first and last teams with very realistic hopes for playoffs themselves.

Sunday’s 2-1 victory for O’s at Boston was the proverbial nail-biter. After outscoring Boston 23-3 in the first two games of the series, I expected a pitcher’s battle and got one.

I was happy that Doug Fister pitched well for Boston because he helped knock the Yankees out of the playoffs a few years ago, earning a special plaudit on our Yankee Elimination Day (YED) caps. It is always a special occasion when the Yankees are eliminated because they brag about their 39 post-season appearances but ignore their twice-as-many failures.

This Sunday August 27, the O’s made two runs in the first stand up against a suddenly slumping Boston offense that left 13 men on base.

My O’s still have many holes on offense and in starting pitching. Chris Davis and Mark Trumbo are not producing at bat but the slack has been picked up by talented second baseman Jonathan Schoop who just broke Roberto Alomar’s Oriole record for most RBI by a second baseman. And rookie Trey Mancini has been a godsend as a run-producer and near -300 hitter while adjusting quite well to his new position of left field.

Of course, any team with wildly inconsistent Ubaldo Jimenez in its rotation has mound issues. And last year’s star closer Zach Britton now has knee issues to go with his earlier forearm ailment.

Nonetheless there is hope in Charm City as the Labor Day weekend nears. A most lovely hopeful feeling that makes the foolish illusion of contention seem less foolish.

One final note on the series in Boston. The Red Sox NESN cable feed utilized former catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia as their color commentator. Though he made an interesting observation about location as a big factor in baserunners stealing signs from second base, he should be forbidden from using the word “great” until the next millennium. He also talked too much and too much of it was trite cheerleading.

Here’s a shout-out to the Milwaukee Brewers who beat the LA Dodgers in a series on the road this past weekend. It was the first series loss for the Dodgers since early June as they have a chance to break a regular season record of 116 wins.

Milwaukee is only two games behind the defending World Series champion Chicago Cubs. As someone with strong affinity for the Wisconsin Badgers (I got my master’s and doctoral degrees in American History at Madison in the 1960s), it’s nice to see the Brewers get into the hunt for post-season glory.

That’s all for this time. Always remember: Take it easy but take it!
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