Lee Lowenfish

During my more than a half-century of being a loyal Oriole fan, I tried to see my team on major birthdays even though I have been living in my home town of NYC since 1976. I remember well my 40th birthday in 1982 when the Orioles behind Jim Palmer routed Jack Morris and the Tigers, 13-1, with Storm Davis, dubbed Cy Future by fellow Bird pitcher Mike Flanagan, mopping up the victory. (Davis never developed into an ace but he will be inducted into the Orioles Hall of Fame this summer along with slugger Chris Davis.) Ten years later in 1992, I saw Kevin Appier of the Royals shut out Mike Mussina in a 2-0 pitcher's duel. In 2002, Jason Giambi's 2 homers accounted for all the Yankee runs as David Wells bested Scott Erickson, 3-2. (Thanks as always to baseballreference.com for confirming my memories although I didn't remember the exact scores.)

 

I am proud to share June 27 with Jim Johnson, who earned 50 and 51 saves for the Orioles in 2012-13, and infielder-outfielder Jeff Conine who is better known for his earlier work for the KC Royals and the world champion 1997 Florida Marlins. Sadly, this year I didn't even bother to watch the Birds on TV on my birthday.  I chose instead good Cuban food at Guantanamera a couple of blocks south of Manhattan's Columbus Circle and then walked with special friend Maria Patterson (who celebrates her birthday today July 1) a half-mile south to hear a solid jazz quartet led by master tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm who exhibited astonishing range and sound on his impressive instrument that he told me dates from 1955. It was good to attend the new Jazzcultural venue just east of 9th Ave/46th Street (where Swing 46 once held forth). It was filled with a solid mixture of old folks and young'uns who are fueling the latest jazz resurgence in the Big Apple.  

 

As readers of this blog know, I never expected much from the current Orioles.  The mirage that this team is a wild card contender has vanished as June turns into July.  We have lost two series at home to surprising contenders Washington Nats and Chicago White Sox.  I'm happy for their long-suffering fans, especially the South Side Sox.  Maybe Pope Leo XIV's fandom has added magic elixir to a young, athletic, and hungry team. Whatta moment recently when the Pontiff received in an autographed jersey from his favorite Pale Hose player, retired slugger Paul Konerko who incidentally wore #14.  The White Sox on August 11 will giveaway Papal hats on what will undoubtedly be the hottest ticket in town.     

 

Meanwhile, the Woerioles have returned.  Incumbent "President of Baseball Operations" Mike Elias - who evidently convinced inexperienced new owner David Rubenstein that he doesn't need a General Manager below him in the management structure - has had eight years to prove that he isn't the man for the job. None of his top draft picks have developed into true stars. If only this drunk-on-analytics crew understood the wisdom of the scout that signed former Oriole star Adam Jones: "You are only a number one draft pick for one day." (Adam is listed as an adviser to the Orioles but I doubt he is consulted very much.) The Birds' top overall pick in 2019, catcher Adley Rutschman, 2019 second rounder shortstop Gunnar Henderson, and 2022 top overall pick infielder Jackson Holliday are not truly developing. (Holliday may deserve a pass because he is only 22 and still recovering from that enervating hamate bone hand injury.) 

 

Sadly, Gunnar Henderson is becoming a grouchy underachiever who cannot understand why he is not doing better.  Short answer, Gunnar: The opponents know you have difficulty with lefthanded pitching and so far you have not been able to adjust. On defense, too often you fall into the maddening category, The Guy That Makes The Great Play But Not The Basic Play.  Most of Elias's bargain basement mound additions especially in the bullpen have usually imploded after deceivingly promising starts.  Elias's forays into the free agent market have either been outright disasters like oft-injured outfielder Tyler O'Neill or trending negative like this year's addition, closer Ryan Helsley.       

 

One slightly encouraging news item is that Cal Ripken Jr. who owns a small slice of the team is becoming more actively involved with player development in the minor league system. This development is long overdue not just because of woeful W-L records throughout the system but because young players arrive in the big leagues with an astonishing lack of fundamentals.  But unless something drastic happens in the next two weeks, Oriole fans will have to watch Elias and minions supervising another draft on Sat July 11, televised nationally on Fox.  It will be part of commissioner Rob Manfred's ardent desire to make the All-Star Game on Tu Jul 14 part of an extravaganza matching Super Bowl week.  Lotsa luck on that. After the Minor League Future All-Star Game on Sun Jul 12, Netflix will be exclusively televising the Home Run Derby on Mon Jul 13 and paying more than Fox does for the ASG itself on Tu Jul 14.  Another sign of the times, alas. 

 

The Orioles, of course, are not the only organization in disarray.  Record-wise, the Mets are even worse but at least their young players like

outfielder Carson Benge and first baseman Jared Young have the makings of future contributing MLB players. I am not sure that I can say that about any of the Elias-drafted crew. There is no guarantee, of course, that blowing up an organization will succeed.  But I think it is time for the self-styled "patriotic philanthropist" owner Rubenstein to make a philanthropic gift to us frustrated fans of a new front office that understands psychological makeup in evaluating players and will not be afraid to practice "tough love" throughout the entire system.  With the lockout looming on Dec 1 that will shut down all MLB baseball activities indefinitely, it would be a good idea to act sooner than later.  

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ALL HAIL TO BASEBALL'S O'BRIEN FAMILY:  The print issue of the New York Times on Mon June 30 had Tyler Kepner's lovely piece about Riley O'Brien, the surprisingly effective closer for the equally surprising St. Louis Cardinals who are definitely in the NL Wild Card race.  Riley is the grand-son of Johnny O'Brien and the grandnephew of Eddie O'Brien, the O'Brien twins who starred at Seattle University and then played middle infield for the Pirates in the 1950s. Kepner tells us that they returned to the Northwest to have notable sports lives, Johnny as manager of the Mariners' first stadium the Kingdome and Eddie as athletic director at his alma mater.  In my happily never-ending research on Branch Rickey, I received some years ago a nice letter from Eddie who remembered the  Catholic Bible signed by the 1953 Pirates to Branch Rickey Mr. Methodist. It miraculously turned up at a flea market on the central California coast and now resides in Rickey's home area of Portsmouth, Ohio. It was probably the idea of Fred Haney, baseball lifer in Southern California who worked in Pittsburgh organization and later managed the 1957 world champion Milwaukee Braves and was GM of the first California Angels franchise and probably with his wife created the team's halo cap.

   

Here are some TCM BASEBALL MOVIE TIPS:

Th Jul 2 930P "Diamond Demon" (1947) - 15 min display of onetime minor leaguer Jackie Price's dexterity decades before the Savannah Bananas  

 

F July 3 6P "Take Me Out To the Ball Game" (1949) with Frank Sinatra/Gene Kelly/Esther Williams/Betty Garrett.  A lively musical set in early 20th century with

Esther Williams as a baseball owner wooed by Frank and Gene.

735P "Donkey Baseball" (1935) another showing of Ray Doan's novelty event during the Great Depression

750P "Looney Tunes: Baseball Bugs" (1946)

Followed by 3 great Film Noirs hosted every Friday in July by Eddie Muller, host of the Sunday Noir Alley.

8P "Force of Evil" (1948) Abe Polonsky directs brothers John Garfield and Thomas Gomez in a gangster film with Marie Windsor

930P "Act of Violence" (1948) Fred Zinneman directs Robert Ryan out to avenge POW incident by superior Van Heflin with Janet Leigh as Heflin's wife

11P "Criss Cross" (1949) the great Robert Siodmak directs Burt Lancaster trying to save ex-wife from Dan Duryea

 

After some recent weak choices, Muller's Noir Alley has some classics coming up:

Su July 5 12M, repeated at 10A "Angel Face" (1953) Otto Preminger directs Robert Mitchum/Jean Simmons/Mona Freeman

Su July 12 "Blues In The Night" (1941) Anatole Litvak driects jazz band members trying to help a member fight addiction with Priscilla Lane/Richard Whorf/Betty Field/Elia Kazan very effective as band clarinetist.

 

For NYC folks who love the adventure of going to movies:  July 4 thru July 10: The classic Paris Theatre now owned by Netflix, located at 4 W 58 St just west of 5th Ave, will rotate showings of 5 baseball film classics: "42", "Field of Dreams", "A League of Their Own", "Eight Men Out", and "The Sandlot".  Check paristheaternyc.com for exact times.  

And then starting F Jul 10, Paris Theater will start a Noir Film festival hosted by Eddie Muller.

The first night features "Blues In The Night", followed by a live band, and then "Dark Angel" (1946) with a Cornell Woolrich script, with Peter Lorre/June Vincent/Constance Dowling.  For more on this series, again check out paristheaternyc.com  

 

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

 

Baseball’s exciting, wildly unpredictable season came down to Game 162 with a real possibility that there would be play-in games before the wild-card Winner Take All playoffs. It didn’t happen because the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles won their final series on the road at Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium, respectively.

After taking advantage of Macy's "greatest sale of the year," I strolled the big blocks from 7th Avenue and 34th Street to Foley's bar not far from the Empire State Building where I took in the proceedings I knew that on a football Sunday there would be many TVs tuned to baseball.

Amazingly, Foley's is a big St Louis Cardinals outpost and many Redbird-clad fans gathered hoping against hope that the Giants would lose and the Cards would get in.
After the umpires on Thursday night shockingly didn't enforce a rule that a ball was a ground-rule double allowing the Cards to beat the Reds, I was glad the Cards were locked out of the 2016 playoffs. Like the Yankees, they are in there too much (but at least their manager Mike Matheny doesn't wear a number like Joe Girardi's 28 to tell the world about the inevitable next world championship.)

I was pleased when there was a family of Oriole fans from Towson, Maryland, where I started my teaching career way back then. We made appropriate noise when the O's took and kept the lead.

So now the O’s and Blue Jays will meet on Tuesday Oct 4 at 8:08 on TBS in Toronto for the right to play the Texas Rangers in the best-of-five AL Division Series. Boston, the AL East winner whose closer Craig Kimbrel is in a slump at the worst time, lost home field advantage to the Cleveland Indians who will host them in the other ALDS.

The Detroit Tigers, given up for dead a couple of months ago, made a valiant run at crashing the playoff party. But playing the role of spoiler to the utmost, the Atlanta Braves beat the Bengals on Sat. and Sun. to eliminate Detroit. The Braves in September also swept the Mets at Citi Field but the New Yorkers rebounded to win the first wild card.

It was unfortunate for Detroit that they couldn’t use their designated hitter Victor Martinez in the National League park but they had their chances to win each game. Just couldn’t come up with the big hit, a lament that is often heard when teams just miss out on the post-season.

A fascinating sidelight in the Tiger losses is that two former Oriole castoff relievers got huge outs for the Braves. Coming in with bases loaded and nobody out in the 8th on Sat night, Chaz Roe kept Atlanta's 5-2 lead by striking out fearsome Miguel Cabrera and getting stellar J.D.Martinez to hit into a double play. Former Oriole closer Jim Johnson got saves in each game.

Meanwhile the much-maligned Oriole starting pitching came up big in the last weeks of the season. Who would have thought that Ubaldo Jimenez would emerge as a consistent contributor?

Ramon Martinez, Pedro’s older brother and a special adviser to Oriole gm Dan Duquette, has become a confidant with fellow Dominican Ubaldo. Ramon has evidently helped to eliminate some extraneous movement from Ubaldo’s complicated delivery.

Things are going well in Ubaldo’s outside life that certainly hasn't hurt his performance.
**He recently became father for the first time.
**In early September he flew to Miami in between starts to attend a swearing-in ceremony to become an American citizen.

At a time when the national media is making such a big deal about journeyman quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem, most of the country doesn’t know about Ubaldo Jimenez’s unabashed affirmation of his adopted land.

He also has become the new spokesperson for the Cardboard to Leather philanthropic project of the Oriole Advocates, a longtime baseball-loving community service organization in Baltimore. Cardboard to Leather makes annual trips to Latin America bringing baseball equipment to the needy.

If the Orioles manage to beat Toronto in the wild card game, Jimenez will certainly get a start in the division series. The Orioles young veteran Chris Tillman is likely to get the wild card start with the finally healthy Dylan Bundy ready to aid in relief.

The Birds’ other young hard-throwing right-hander Kevin Gausman beat the Yankees in Game 162 to clinch the wild card bid. All of a sudden, with Bundy, Gausman, and Tillman, and one more year of revived Jimenez and maybe Yovani Gallardo and Wade Miley, Oriole pitching doesn't look so foreboding.

One of the interesting sidebars in the upcoming Toronto-Baltimore wild card tussle is that two sluggers on each team might be playing their last game for their current franchises. Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion of the Blue Jays and Mark Trumbo and Matt Wieters of the Orioles are all free agents at the end of the post-season.

All year on this blog I have refused to speculate on where these run-producers might go and I’m not gonna start now. Wieters, a switch-hitter and an excellent defensive catcher, probably has the most value. It certainly went up when he smashed for the first time in his career home runs from both sides of the plate in the O's Game 162 5-2 victory over the Yanks.

We’ll cross that bridge of free agency speculation after the World Series.
For now I’m just glad that we have at least this extra game to look forward to.

Ditto the National League Wild Card game that will pit the defending NL champion Mets against the Giants who swept the Dodgers in San Francisco to earn a chance to go for their third straight even-year World Series title. The Wednesday matchup between the Mets’ Noah Syndergaard and the Giants’ World Series hero Madison Bumgarner should be a beauty.

But it’s baseball - it could be a rout or a slugfest. We don’t know and neither do the stat heads. That’s why they play the games.

That’s all for now but always remember: Take it easy but take it.
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