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!" 

My August started with another memorable week teaching Baseball and American Culture in the Special Studies program at Chautauqua, the adult education mecca located in southwestern New York State just past Jamestown. Our theme this year was baseball and comedy. Co-teaching with veteran literature teacher Mark Altschuler, we started with Abbott and Costello's evergreen "Who's On First?" Next up was the hilarious baseball scene in Buster Keaton's 1927 film "College" followed by Ring Lardner's "Alibi Ike" - originally written in 1914 and soon to become a phrase in the American language. We delved into both the short story and Joe E Brown's movie interpretation.

I had never taught "Damn Yankees" before and whatta revelation. That was Walter Mitty Me! in the opening scene of the movie when Joe Boyd, the frustrated middle-aged Washington Senators fan, is screaming at his black-and-white TV: "Don't try to murder the ball - just hit it up the middle!" Soon Boyd is transformed into slugging hero Joe Hardy played in the movie by Tab Hunter.  Ray Walston and Gwen Verdon recreated their Broadway roles in the film as the Devil and his assistant Lola. Costumed hilariously, Jean Stapleton, later to become immortal as Edith Bunker, has a memorable turn as one of the neighbors of Joe Boyd's wife. 

Douglass Wallop's novel "The Year The Yankees Lost The Pennant" fortuitously came out in 1954, the year the Yankees DID lose the pennant. The Broadway musical opened in 1955, the only year the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Yankees in the World Series. The show ran into 1957 including a London run as "What Lola Wants". '57 was also the year the Yanks lost in October to the Milwaukee Braves but the play has lasting power not because of its Yankee-bashing, but because of its warm and convincing take on the  life crisis of a middle-aged male.  It continues to be performed in high schools, and with a diverse cast, opens in the Washington DC area this fall. It is hard to match "You Gotta Have Heart" for a peppy optimistic number and "Whatever Lola Wants (Lola Gets)" for good clean seduction.  The lament of Lola and Joe Hardy, "Two Lost Souls" with Verdon also dancing with choregrapher Bob Fosse (and future husband), touched me.   

Whatta great name for a writer about baseball, Wallop. Douglass Wallop (1920-1985) was actually a onetime news service reporter who transcribed General Eisenhower's 1948 memoir "Crusade in Europe". He wrote several novels and a baseball history, but if remembered at all, it is for his whimsical novel which was reissued in 2004 in a new edition introduced by the first famous baseball analyst Bill James.  BTW, Mel Allen, the Yankee broadcaster who used to call home runs White Owl Wallops (and Ballantine Blasts), appears as himself in the film.

Other highllights of the class included the showing of the mirthful short subject "Gandhi at the Bat" based on Chet Williamson's "New Yorker" story and Harpo Marx playing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" on what was reportedly the most widely watched "I Love Lucy" show.  The claas ended with a showing of George Carlin's immortal "Baseball vs. Football" monologue that he performed on the first "Saturday Night Live" in 1975. Our surprise guest afterwards was Kelly Carlin, also a teacher at Chautauqua, a writer based in LA, and George Carlin's only child.  She has donated her father's archive to the National Comedy Center in nearby Jamestown, which is on its way to becoming a Comedy Cooperstown.      

Mark and I are talking about a Baseball Comedy Part II during Chautauqua's Week 5 at the end of July 2026. I'm lobbying for excerpts from Richard Greenberg's play "Take Me Out" in which the player agent who falls in love with baseball (and one of the stars) delivers this elegy:

"Baseball is better than democracy - or at least that democracy as it's practiced in this country - because, unlike democracy, baseball acknowledges loss.   While conservatives tell you, 'Leave things alone, and no one will lose,' and liberals tell you, 'Interfere a lot and no one will lose,' baseball says, 'Someone will lose.' Not only says it, insists upon it." (p34)  

Not exactly something that super-agent in the real world Scott Boras might say, but I believe this elegy is worthy of our.attention.  

And now for the sad tale of the return of the Woerioles.  In a year where there is no clear favorite for the World Series and a lot of surprise teams from the Heartland I think have a genuine shot - eg.  Milwaukee, Detroit, and Toronto - the O's never threatened.  I wish I am wrong but it seems like another "rebuild" is coming to Camden Yards as well as already-announced higher ticket prices and changes to the stadium that may spoil the acclaimed creation in the early 1990s that sparked the new wave of old-style baseball parks. 

All of the so-called young core of the team have had down years.  Some have mysteriously fallen into a baseball abyss like the switch-hitting catcher Adley Rutschman the number one pick in the country in the 2019 draft (Bobby Witt Jr now a Kansas City star shortstop was the number two).  Hard to pinpoint what happened to a former "can't-miss" prospect.  Probably the "high point" was his performance in the Home Run Derby at Seattle in 2023 when his father, along with his father scholastic coaching royalty in Oregon, pitched to him and Adley blastied home runs from both sides of the plate. It was just an exhibition and Dad was lobbing balls - and not real MLB baseballs - from 40 feet away.  

Adley is now on the IL with his second oblique injury of the year, supposedly not as bad as the first one on the other side of his body.  What I had long feared has come to fruition - the buildup for Samuel Basallo the heir apparent to Rutschman has begun.  After only FOUR GAMES IN HIS MLB CAREER, the Orioles with great fanfare held a press conference to announce that the 21-year-old from the Dominican Republic had been signed to a 8-year contract, meaning that his salary arbitration years had been bought out plus two more of his free agency.

Not surprisingly, Basallo has gotten off to a slow start with the bat while catching a little and playing some first base and DH-ing.  None of the other vaunted core with more MLN experience has provided much offensive help with the slight exception of shortstop Gunnar Henderson who has seemingly lost his power bat and who good pitching tends to stifle.  Sadly, fellow infielder and grittier Jordan Westburg must now be burdened with one of the worst adjectives in baseball parlance, "injury-prone". Jackson Holliday, the 2023 top pick in the country, has not shown much improvement and he might even miss playing shortstop.  Not sure he has the arm for that and he is still showing signs of feeling overmatched at the major league level.  

Recently, fired manager Brandon Hyde made his first comments since his ouster, expressing regret on how Holliday was rushed to the majors.  Sure hope that Basallo doesn't meet the same

fate.  

The only truly bright spot in 2025 has the outstanding pitching of southpaw Trevor Rogers whose performance has taken away some of the sting from the trade of power-hitting outfielder Kyle Stowers to the Marlins (along with power-hitting infielder Connor Norby). Though not yet a contender and with ownership (like Baltimore's) not seemingly committed to spending money wisely, the Marlins are developing a scrappy, dangerous young team - ask the Mets who just lost three out of four at home to Miami.   

I feel for the Baltimore fans who will not accept another rebuild and last week allowed the Red Sox winnite fans to take over the ballpark. Just like doing the dark years before Buck Showalter led the turn around in 2012.   Undoubtedly Yankee fans will do the same when they visit Camden Yards September 19-21. In another item of bad news, the 2026 schedule was just announced and like this year the Orioles will wind up the regular season at Yankee Stadium.  At least they don't play in 2026 7 of their last 10 games against their rivals as they do late this month.  

I don't want to end on such a sour note so here are some kudos to some baseball people who are flying under the radar.

** The defensive quickness of rival third basemen caught my eye when I attended the last regular season home game of the Brooklyn Cyclones against the Hudson Valley Yankees on the Sunday before Labor Day.  Juan Matheus (pronounced Matthews) for the victorious Yankees and Diego Mosquera for the Cyclones are both Venezuelans, Matheus from Lara and Mosquera from Valencia. Interestingly, they both have the same slender build, 5' 10 and 155 pounds -  it possibly projects them more to the middle infield.  

I love going to minor league games.  Pat O'Conner, the last president of the National Association of minor leagues before Rob Manfred took over and even more their offices to NYC, used to guarantee that at every minor league game you will see a future major leaguer.  I like to believe he was right.  The Cyclones, the Mets' top High Single-A farm club, are coasting to the playoffs in which they are likely to host Game 2 on Th Sep 11 and if necessary Game 3  F Sep 12.   For further info, check out brooklyncyclones.com     

**Third baseman Caleb Durbin, who come to Milwaukee from the Yankees in the Devin Williams trade, went to Washington U of St Louis, hardly a baseball factory. After doing a little digging, I realized that catcher and later baseball exectutive Muddy Ruel went to WUSL before World War I. After World War II so did Dal Maxvill who won World Series rings for the St. Louis Cardinals as both a shortstop and a GM.

**On Sept 4, YouTube will start showing a documentary about the late Jeff Torborg, the former Rutgers star and catcher of three of Sandy Koufax's no-hitters and later a highly respected manager and coach. 

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