Lee Lowenfish

If you like bingeing on TV baseball, this coming week will be your cup of tea.  Starting tomorrow Tues Sep 29, FOUR best-of-three Wild Card series start on NBC and its pay channels Peacock and NBCSportsNetwork (NBCSN) with no days off.  Chicagoans may be upset at learning that the first two games featuring Windy City teams, White Sox at Astros (who enter post-season with only a .500 record, lowest ever in MLB history) at 5P EDT and Cubs at Padres at 10P EDT will only be shown on pay channels.  If there are 3rd games in any series, all will be shown on NBC as well as the pay channels.  

 

Not surprisingly, the Red Sox at Yankees will be on prime time 8P EDT.  Rosters are not finalized until tomorrow (Tu Sep 29) but Aaron Judge's availability for first round of playoffs has not yet been decided.  How effective he could even be is a big question after his missing most of the season with serious rib injuries. There is perhaps a better chance that another injury-prone slugger Gian-Carlo Stanton will return first - he has missed virtually the entire season with calf injuries.

 

Both NYY & Bosox got to the post-season with stellar starting pitching - youngster Cam Schlittler and high-salaried Max Fried and Gerrit Cole for NYY are slated to start the games. Boston probably will start veteran Sonny Gray, then the youngster with the outgoing personality Payton Tolle, and if necessary big ticket free agent acquisition Ranger Suarez.  Each team has an excellent closer, former Pirate David Bednar for NYY and seemingly ageless former Yankee Aroldis Chapman for the Bosox.  Where Boston may have the edge is in their setup man, another former Yankee Garrett Whitlock. 

 

As an Oriole fan who didn't exactly weep when Adley Rutschman was traded to Boston (although I have many doubts that his anointed replacement young Samuel Basallo is a mature replacement), Adley could be a key to Boston's hopes.  He never lived up to his billing as the number one player in the 2019 draft - . the number two pick that year, Kansas City shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., has been a far more productive player. I sense that the comparison has not helped Rutschman mentally who was one of the most heralded players ever to come out of the Pacific Northwest. I don't think that his Home Run Derby barrage before the 2023 All-Star Game with his father lobbing balls from 40 feet away did him any good. He is not really a home run hitter but a solid line drive hitter to all fields befitting a switch-hitter.  Never rooting for the Yankees, the original Evil Empire, I do wish Atley well and he certainly doesn't need to carry the Red Sox who possess a far more consistent lineup than the Orioles.  However, the Red Sox must be concerned about the questionable health of versatile center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela, another budding MLB star who hails from the tiny island of Curacao. . 

 

The winner of this series will face the Tampa Bay Rays who had the best record in the AL and will have home field advantage in the AL playoffs as long as they stay in the hunt.  The Rays are largely home-grown with an enviable scouting and development system that plucked from Cleveland top-of-the-batting order stars Junior Caminero as a teenager and Yandy Diaz after a few years in the majors.  The Rays could also be dubbed Orioles South because closer Bryan Baker, center fielder Cedric Mullins, and versatile setup man Tyler Wells all recently wore Baltimore uniforms.  

 

Cleveland is my other sentimental favorite in AL.  They finished strong and got the bye as AL Central winner nosing out the surprise team in all the majors, the White Sox. Rookie manager Will Venable, whose father played in MLB and who was a baseball-basketball star at Princeton, has to be the favorite for AL Manager of the Year. After losing over 100 games the last two seasons, the Chisox roared into contention this season.  I love a couple of their grinders, versatile left fielder Sam Antonacci, who caught my eye playing for Italy in the World Baseball Classic, and second baseman Chase Meidroth. Their pitching is suspect but so are the Astros' arms except for closer Josh Hader.  Houston has some potent veterans in the lineup including slugger Yordan Alvarez, aging second baseman Jose Altuve who remains a classic grinder, and shortstop Jeremy Pena, the MVP of the 2023 World Series. Winner of this series will face Cleveland in the second round, a best-of-7 as will be all the other future rounds.  

 

In the NL, the Phillies go to Atlanta in what promises to be another fierce intra-division tussle. NBC will carry these games starting at 2P EDT with a possible third game TBA.  Philly needed a strong outing from former Met (and Giant) Zack Wheeler to limp into the playoffs.  A key starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo has been injured but he threw an effective inning in yesterday's clincher.  Cristopher Sanchez is another good starter but Philly bats fell silent in the last weeks of September - I don't think their ghastly blue PHILLY Fri night City Connect shirts helped!  Bryce Harper is aging but he is still a big time player. The Phillies just took another blow when second baseman sparkplug Luis Arraez was ruled out of the Wild Card series with a sprained ankle.  

 

After a dismal 2025, the Braves bounced back under new manager Walt Weiss who New Yorkers take pride in because he is a local boy from the northern suburb of Suffern.  Their starting pitching has been banged up all year but they have veteran Chris Sale to anchor the rotation.  And some big bats to help like outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr., first baseman Matt Olson, and three outstanding defenders who are also good hitters, center fielder Michael Harris, versatile shortsop Mauricio Dubon, and another Curacao native, switch-hitting second baseman Ozzie Albies. When they won a series from the Orioles in August, Albies-Dubon-Harris made spectacular defensive plays.  Winner of this series will face the Evil Empire West, Los Angeles Dodgers. Unicorn Shohei Ohtani may not pitch again this season but he still leads off in a lineup that may be showing signs of age but don't be surprised if future Hall of Famers shortstop Mookie Betts and first baseman Freddie Freeman rise to the occasion. The Dodgers can throw some very high-priced starters at you, too, newcomer Tarik Skubal, back-from-injury Blake Snell, and Japanese wunderkind Yoshinobu Yamamoto, last year's World Series mound hero.  But big ticket free agent signing Edwin Diaz, the former Met, will only set up for former Oriole Tanner Scott as matters stand now and that could be a Dodger weakness.

 

The other NL matchup pits the Cubs against the Padres in San Diego.  The Friars - how we scribes love to use different nicknames for teams and players! =finished strong and have the formidable closer Mason Miller at the back end of a good but IMHO not great bullpen.  My occasional watching the Padres on TV makes me wonder about the consistency of lefty set-up man Adrian Morejon, a free agent after the season. They do have former Tampa Ray Jason Adam back from injury and likely plan to start series with former Yankee Michael King.  The Cubs have some big names in their lineup with big ticket free agent Alex Bregman enjoying a fine second half and recently overcoming a freakish facial injury.  Former Met farmhand Pete Crow-Armstrong has had a likely MVP season and how he reacts to his first post-season experience could be a big key in this series. Veteran shortstop Dansby Swanson has had a down year but he might emerge under the bright lights. I don't think any of the Cubs pitchers strike fear into the opposition so this could be an exciting offensive series. 

 

The winner faces the amazing Milwaukee Brewers, winners of 103 games.  They are the poster boys for how to run an organization and why there is no need for a drastic imposition of a salary cap.   Talk about good scouting and player development!  Two of the key Brew Crew pitchers, starter Jacob Misiorowski - a Cy Young award front-runner and versatile reliever Aaron Ashby, were signed out of the obscure Crowder Junior College in Missouri. I am sure Brewer scouts followed them in high school if not earlier.  My heart hopes for a Brewers-Rays World Series eventually won by the lads from Wisconsin. But to coin a phrase - LOL - You Can't Always Get What You Want. 

 

Speaking of the Badger state, what a pleasant surprise to learn early Sat night that beleaguered 4th year Wisconsin football coach Luke Fickell finally won a signature game this past Saturday afternoon in the hostile environment at Penn State's so-called "Happy Valley".  I didn't even bother to sign up for the exclusive Peacock broadcast and when my Upper Midwest heroes fell behind 17-0 in the second quarter I sighed, "Here we go again."  But recovering from the interception bug that led to two Nittany Lion TD's, transfer QB Colton Joseph led a 4th quarter comeback from a 20-10 deficit to win 24-20. It was nice to read online afterwards that the players turned the virulent home crowd into a positive team bonding experience. The rest of Wisconsin's schedule doesn't look so forbidding any more with homecoming against Michigan State this Sat Oct 3 at 1230P EDT looking like a winnable game. 

 

Coach Fickell admits that Wisconsin's transfer QB Colton Joseph may well take Badger faithful on a roller-coaster ride because he does pile up the interceptions. But he rebounds quickly from them and his teammates so far have his back.  The same story could be happening in northern Manhattan as Columbia football has won their first two games in overtime over non-league competition, Lafayette and Georgetown.  Senior QB Chase Goodwin has thrown his share of INTs

so far but also has made big plays. The Lions under 3rd-year coach Jon Poppe have their first Ivy League matchup coming up against Princeton coming up this Sat Oct 3 against Princeton at 12 Noon on ESPN+ and local SNY. 

 

With the tennis season starting and Columbia women's basketball opening its season at 11A against Davidson on M Nov 2, it looks like there will be plenty of excitement and winning teams to follow in the long months before baseball returns (at least on the college level) in March. On the men's basketball scene,

former Lion guard Kenny Noland has been cleared to join the Michigan Wolverines as a graduate transfer. Michigan hopes that he can have the same positive impact that another Lion transfer Mike Smith had a few seasons ago. I wish Noland the best but of course not against my Badgers. And I must say that I was thrilled that the unbeaten Iowa Hawkeye gridders beat Michigan this past Sat Sep 26 on the last play of a taut Big Ten battle at Ann Arbor's "Big House". How perfect an ending because this time the Wolverines couldn't find a phantom extra second to get a chance to win as they did in their home opener against perennial underdog Western Michigan.

 

That's all for now.  Thanks for your time, this time, until next time (sometime next month), remember to Stay Positive, Test Negative, and Take It Easy But Take It. 

    

 

 

 

The last weekend of January has always marked for me the beginning of the baseball season. Because it usually means the annual Hot Stove League dinner of the New York-area baseball scouts.

I have been attending this friendly informative gathering for about 30 years. For the quality of the pithy speeches, this past Friday's gathering at Leonard's of Great Neck ranks as among the best ever.

The scouts have a sense of history, naming the awards after departed brethren.
Here are some of the highlights from the evening:

The Turk Karam Scout of the Year Dennis Sheehan, now with the Diamondbacks after a long career with the Braves and as a NY area coach, urged young scouts "to fight to the end for your kid." He also wryly predicted that his son Joseph Sheehan, now a VP for the Cleveland Browns, would win at least one game in the next NFL season.

Ralph DiLullo College Coach of the Year Dom Scala from Adelphi in Garden City LI said eloquently, "Only scouts can judge the pulse and heart of a player." The onetime 6th round choice of the Oakland A's, Scala was a Yankee bullpen coach for nine years earning a 1978 World Series ring. He then went into scouting and then college coaching.

"I'm proud to be a baseball lifer," he said. Like Sheehan he told the young scouts in attendance, "I hope you find your dream player."

When it was announced that the Marlins as well as the Mets and Yankees had bought tables for the dinner, Scala quipped, "Does Derek Jeter know [this]?" A reference, of course, to the onetime Yankee hero (and heartthrob) who has gotten off to a miserable start as the face of the Marlins' cost-cutting fire sale of star players.

The Herb Stein Future Star award winner Zack Granite was a pleasant surprise. Often young players don't come to the dinner, but the Staten Island Tottenville HS and Seton Hall college star Granite talked movingly about the thrill of his callup in midseason to the Twins - a team, incidentally, that Herb Stein served ably for decades, signing Hall of Famer Rod Carew, Frank Viola, Gene Larkin, and many others).

The biggest plus so far of being a major leaguer, outfielder Granite said, was wearing the single-flap helmet instead of the hockey-like double flap required in the minors.
He created laughter when he told the story of his uncle Tom who braved the wrath of the Yankee Stadium bleacher creatures by wearing a full Twins uniform during their wild card game loss last October.

Last but not least in the evening was Billy Altman's eloquent acceptance of the Jim Quigley Service to Baseball award (that I was thrilled to receive in 2010). Altman memorably covered the Mets for the "Village Voice" and now is one of the
official scorers for the Yankees and Mets. (This Renaissance man is also a pioneering rock 'n' critic who is serving in key capacities for the new St. Louis blues museum and the forthcoming African-American music museum in Nashville).

Altman remembered his first experience at a World Series in 1981 when he stood behind home plate alongside Howard Cosell and Jim Palmer and watched Sandy Koufax in full uniform pitch batting practice for the Dodgers.

Altman suggested that the beauty and democracy of baseball was exemplified last year when during the World Series 6' 7" Aaron Judge stood as a baserunner at second base next to Astros second sacker 5' 6" Jose Altuve.

I didn't go to the baseball writers dinner the following Sunday, but I read that the genuinely humble Judge paid a touching tribute to his parents seated in the audience: “I could never repay you guys for all the baseball tournaments you’ve driven to, the times I forgot my cleats at home and you had to go back and get them.”

I did attend another late January event that is becoming a fixture on the New York baseball, the annual meeting of the Casey Stengel chapter of SABR. Among the highlights were a friendly and refreshing hour with Tyler Kepner, the excellent national baseball reporter for the New York Times.

Tyler passed around the self-published baseball magazine that he created as a teenager in Philadelphia that led him to become one of the youngest credentialed sportswriters in the country. He has never lost his love for the game and the talented players - it surely shows in his writing.

Before I close, let me say that I have no real objections to the six new Hall of Famers players that will be inducted into Cooperstown in the last week of July. It is the largest number since the initial class voted in during the late 1930s. I don't want multiple inductions every year because the Hall of Fame should be for the truly great not just the very good.

But Atlanta’s Chipper Jones was clearly a no-brainer - a switch-hitter with power and a fine third base glove. He even showed some humor by naming a child Shea in honor of the Mets fans who booed him lustily out of grudging respect.

Second in the voting was Vladimir Guerrero who never played in a World Series but his lethal bat and astounding right field arm deserve immortality.

Closer Trevor Hoffman lost the one World Series he played in for the Padres, and on other big stages he always seemed to come up short. But his accumulation of regular season saves and the nice backstory of his conversion from weak-hitting infielder to the mound contributed to his selection.

Slugger Jim Thome’s career number of 612 HRs made him almost a lock for the Hall of Fame. He also was never tainted with suspicion of PED use, maybe because he was such a giant of a man from early on.

His back story is rather neat too. A 13th round pick of the Indians, he was signed as a shortstop out of Illinois Central college near his home town of Peoria. Scout Tom Couston had followed the power bat of Thome since high school and knew he couldn't let him get away. Charlie Manuel as Thome's hitting coach and later manager helped develop Thome's skills, and Jim gave him due credit when he learned of his selection.

Joining these four in Cooperstown in late July will be two Detroit Tiger stalwarts picked by a Veteran's Committee, pitcher Jack Morris and shortstop Alan Trammell. They were teammates on the 1984 World Series champs that went wire-to-wire in the regular season and lost only one post-season game. They were also models of consistency throughout their careers.

That’s all for now. Always: remember - Take it easy but take it!
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