Lee Lowenfish

I have no complaints about the late August weather in my beloved home town of NYC.  Humidity has been a constant issue but, fortunately, temps have remained in manageable 80s.  I haven't posted too much since my return from another glorious week teaching about baseball culture at Chautauqua because I'm heading in for left knee replacement surgery on Fri the 28th. Getting my apartment cleaner and paths open for walking without stumbling have taken high priority. I'm approaching a 50th anniversary of living in the shadows of Riverside Park and a mere 1/2 mile from my undergraduate alma mater Columbia (where, incidentally, the always-contending women's basketball team just returned from 10 days in Japan, giving clinics, playing a very competitive exhibition against the Japanese national team, and exploring many of the remarkable points of interest in that island-nation.)  

What does "Laura" have to do with all of this?  Well, TCM devoted much of yesterday M Aug 24 to the films of Dana Andrews. I had seen at least a couple of times the 1944 film "Laura" (produced/directed by Otto Preminger with David Raksin's title tune and effective accompanying score) which was a breakthrough for both Andrews and Gene Tierney who played the title character. I've always been fascinated that in the film's first scene Andrews as a detective investigating a murder is doodling with a hand-held game "Baseball" as he interrogates supercilious radio personality Clifton Webb.  I didn't realize until last night that there is a second scene with the Baseball game during which Webb complains that the game is "getting on my nerves" and sneers that it must have been "something you confiscated in a raid on a kindergarten."  Andrews replies calmly, "It keeps me calm."  (Exploration for future research:  Whether Vera Caspary's original story had anything like a miniature hand-held Baseball game or any baseball reference.)

Baseball probably was simpler in the days of "Laura," especially diluted wartime baseball with most of the stars in military service.  Because there is nothing calm about the wacky MLB season especially in the under-achieving American League where there is a good chance that the third wild card might have an under-.500 record.  A longtime Tigers fan disses his division as the AL Comedy Central. As for me, I have basically given up any hope that my Orioles can ever reach .500 in the 30+ games remaining in the regular season.  Whenever I think they are ready to make a push towards the respectability of .500, they fall backwards. The biggest problem IMHO is that I see no hunger in the so-called "core" of players that Mike Elias the "President of Baseball Operations Who Needs No General Manager Below Him" claimed nearly three years ago were ready for "liftoff". 

I sometimes wonder if Elias picked up the term "liftoff" from his right hand man Sig Mejdal who prior to his baseball career worked for NASA.  I may be wrong but I don't think Mejdal has been very visible these days. The Elias crew does deserve credit for the addition of slugging Pete "Polar Bear" Alonso who has excelled in every aspect of the game, not least team leadership. Credit must also be given for picking up their utilityman Blaze Alexander from Arizona where he was stuck behind Ketel Marte (who unfortunately missed a Dbacks game recently and was discovered to be at a casino - all of MLB and its fans must hope that a gambling problem is not at the root of Marte's problem).  Despite the plusses of Alonso and Alexander (BTW Blaze is his real name, a homage his father paid to a minor leaguel teammate), I think a change after 8 years of this front office crew is merited after the season. 

The problem is that the lockout by the owners is almost definitely occurring on December 1.  If prior lockouts are any guide to the future, no baseball business of any kind will be allowed after December 1 until ?   I for one have never believed that the entire 2027 season will be wiped out even though the hard core owners want a salary cap and salary floor at any price.  But no one knows for sure.  Maybe the only truth about baseball has always been, "Every season is different," lockout or not.   

I want to close on a positive note.  There have been many great individual exploits this season, often associated with contending teams.  High on my list is 6' 8"

RHP Jacob Misiorowski of the Brewers. He is only 24 and in his FIRST FULL SEASON in MLB, he is setting astounding strikeout records. More importantly, Mis is showing a maturity rare in today's baseball  He doesn't want to keep throwing harder in the 100+ mph range.  I just hope he stays healthy and doesn't succumb to media pressure to break mph records.  The same good wishes to the young pitcher Mis has currently eclipsed, Pittsburgh's Paul Skenes.  Also only 24, Skenes seems to have a good head on his shoulders and more power to him as he tries to work out the reasons for his declining velocity. What may be a key is that Skenes may weigh around 260 pounds, more than 50 pounds heavier than Misiorowski.  It may be that his kind of huge athletic body needs somewhat of a reshaping.  Just a guess on my part.  As Tom Seaver said in THE ART OF PITCHING that I collaborated on over 50 years ago, "Every pitch has velocity, movement, and location, and velocity is the least important." 

See you sometime in September and always remember Stay Positive Test Negative, and Take It Easy But Take It!  

I am posting tonight just after the Yankees roared back from a 6-1 deficit to tie the first of possibly three elimination games on an Aaron Judge 3-run HR on an 0-2 pitch from the former Minnesota Twin Louis Varland.  Uncharacteristic errors by the Blue Jay infield has led to mostly unearned runs.  I finally had to turn down the sound on the Fox announcers, unctuous Joe Davis and monotonous John Smoltz.  The last straw was Smoltz saying that the pop fly that third baseman Addison Barger dropped prior to Judge's blasst was a play "he'd make 99 times out of a 100."  Gimme a break!  It came after a very long run and left fielder Davis Schneider should have but didn't call him off.  

Will have to listen to Dave Sims and Suzyn Waldman on the radio for the rest of the game (as long as it remains close - Jazz Chisholm just homered to give Yanks its first lead tonight 7-6. ) I'll give Dave and Suzyn their due for being enthusiastic and more knowledgeable than the national announcers who are hired by the networks and know very

few local details. Unless the Phillies can win three in a row - the first two in LA on Wed and Thurs - the red-hot Dodgers will get into the NL Championship Series.  I hope Davis doesn't announce the NLCS but I know that Davis and Smoltz will work the World Series.  Radio, get ready!  

The likely opponent for LAD in the NLCS will be Milwaukee, the team with home field advantage throughout the playoffs.  They have done it all so far in the NLDS, thoroughly beating the Cubs in the first two games. With the lowest payroll left in the post-season, the Brewers are the favorite team of perpetual underdog rooters. But first things first - they must neutralzie the Wrigley Field crowd on Wed and Thu that could give the local heroes a boost of energy. Like the Yankees, the Cubs will have to win 3 in a row. One at a time, of course.

The disturbing thing about the state of starting pitching is that few teams have a full rotation any more.  The Yankees thought they did with highly paid Max Fried and Carlos Rodon  

but Toronto treated them both rudely. 

The Yankees have taken control of Game 3, leading 9-6 in top of 9th. A while ago, Dave Sims had a Phil Rizzuto moment.  Austin Wells singled in an 8th run for the Yanks and tried for two.  "He slides into second and he's safe," cried Sims. Pause. "They called him out!"  I fearlessly and accurately predicted when Toronto led 6-3, "That won't be the final score!"  Winner of this series will meet most likely Seattle which can eliminate the Tigers in Detroit tomorrow Wed. Seattle has never been in a World Series and it would be kinda nice that expansion teams dating back to 1977, Mariners and Jays, could meet in the ALCS.  But to coin a phrase LOL, "Anything can happen in a short series."   

Before I leave you, I want to list some TCM tips because tomorrow night Wed Oct 8, quite a tripleheader of Otto Preminger is showing on Turner Classic Movies cable channel:. 

8P "Laura" (1944)l that you must watch from the beginning.  As detective Dana Andrews is questioning possible murder suspect Clifton Webb, Dana is toying with a little hand game of ball bearings simply called Baseball.  I'm not a collector of autographs or memorabilia but boy, I'd love to know if that ball-bearing game still exists.

"Laura" has a great cast including Gene (Eugenia) Tierney in the title role, Vincent Price, Judith Anderson, as an odd couple and many others.

945P "Daisy Kenyon" (1947) with Joan Crawford at high point of her career fresh off "Mildred Pierce" and "Humoresque". This one with Henry Fonda and Dana Andrews.

1130P And if this is not enough, Preminger's "Anatomy Of A Murder" (1959) with Duke Ellington's score and an appearance by the master. Defense attorney Jimmy Stewart defends soldier Ben Gazzara from a murder charge. George C. Scott is a very antagonistic prosecutor and Joseph Welch - of Army-McCarthy Hearings fame - plays the presiding judge. Lee Remick plays Gazzara's somewhat supportive wife but her cooing to Stewart, "Call me Laura," is a slice of dialogue etched indelibly in my memory. Let's not forget Eve Arden as Stewart's secretary - she adds her always special touch. 

Sat Oct 11 has quite a triple-header, too, on TCM:  :

8P "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962, the original, accept no substitute). Thursdays in October feature Angela Lansbury as TCM's Star of the Month but she plays a key role in this one, too, as a mother from hell and a right-winger to boot.  With Frank Sinatra and Janet Leigh and many more and the great musical score of David Amram, still performing BTW in this 90s.  Don't miss near the end the rare footage of the Madison Square Garden of my youth - the 8th Ave and 50th Street version.

945P "The Sweet Smell of Success" (1957) Burt Lancaster at his snarly best and Tony Curtis not far behind. Virtually whole movie was shot indoors recreating the suffocating world of press agentry and gossip.  Only in the last scene do we witness daytime to suggest there may be a shred of hope for the life of Lancaster's over-protected sister.

12M (repeated Su at 10A) - Noir Alley presents "New York Confidential" (1955) drawn from the headlines of Washington's hearings investigating a New York crime family. With Richard Conte, Broderick Crawford, and Marilyn Maxwell.

I was neglectful not mentioning last week's "Noir Alley," the Damon Runyon-produced "The Big Street" based on his short story "Little Pink".  (It could be On Demand but I kinda doubt it.). Henry Fonda plays a milquetoast-ish busboy smitten with Lucille Ball who is a lounge singer with big dreams and even a bigger and meaner personality.  She's worth the whole film for those who remember her only as Lucy.  There is a pre-"Guys and Dolls" flavor to this one with Sam Levene playing a character actually called Nicely-Nicely Johnson.  Some of the uncredited guys are Millard Mitchell (who alas died not long after the embattledyet optimistic producer in "Singin' In The Rain") and Hans Conried. Barton MacLane is definitely credited playing a real bad guy(who would have been at home in Trump's America). 

That's all for now.  Stay positive, test negative, take it easy but take it.  Enjoy the remaining playoffs and as a Wisconsin alum, I even dream of their possibly beating Iowa on

Saturday night.  Check your listings.