Lee Lowenfish

"Playing Meaningful Games In September" should be the goal of any MLB team but I must admit that I didn't think my Orioles, never a .500 team all season, would give me any late thrills this season. I was wrong and maybe the biggest single moment came a week after Labor Day when Pete Alonso led the Birds into CitiField.  Greeted by delirious fans from the moment the former Met stepped on the field for batting practice, Alonso made the most of his only two hits in a 3-game sweep of the even more disappointing Mets. Both were solo home runs, the first one dramatically tying the Tuesday Sep 15 game in the top of the 9th. It led to a remarkable eruption by fans who insisted that their former hero take a curtain call despite wearing the gray uniform of an enemy.

  

The outpouring of love for a banished fan favorite reminded many oldtimers of the adoring greeting that New York Rangers goalie Eddie Giacomin received when the Detroit Red Wings in 1975 picked up the goalie on waivers and he immediately won his first game against the Blue Shirts. Mets fans had all season to build up the resentment against baseball operations honcho David Stearns who convinced multi-billionaire owner Steve Cohen not to give Alonso a five-year free agent contract. Alonso quickly directed himself 200 miles south where Oriole fans have fallen in love with the Polar Bear, an apt nickname for the massive first baseman who romps on the field with ursine delight and intensity. Alonso's second HR against the Mets was a first inning blast that set the tone for an easy victory that cemented the sweep.

 

Alas, the Orioles returned home last weekend to be swept by the impressive Milwaukee Brewers who with largely a farm-raised team and a modest payroll by today's standards will have the best regular season record for the second year in a row.  The Brew Crew shut down Alonso and his less potent teammates but Pete erupted for two homers last night (M Sep 21) against the Blue Jays in a comeback win.  Alonso has now hit 40 HRs and is leading MLB in RBIs. The Polar Bear is also playing Gold Glove-caliber defense. 

 

Adding to the emotion of last week for Mets fans was the farewell broadcast of Howie Rose who grew up a Mets fan in Queens, attended games in the upper deck at Shea Stadium, and rose to his dream job as a broadcaster on both TV and radio for both the Mets and the NHL Islanders.  Rose's call of Alonso's game-tying home run that prompted the curtain call was a model of concise information and professional passion. Thanks to the proliferation of so many other media outlets, I sure hope Howie Rose will emerge again in some other formats. 

 

With the Orioles likely to be eliminated within a day or two after I post, I now would like to see a World Series with the Brewers meeting the Tampa Bay Rays, another team with a modest payroll and a bunch of speedy, gritty, and powerful players developed by an astute organization. Of course, to coin a phrase, you can't always get what you want.  Whether the Brewers can dethrone the two-time defending world champion LA Dodgers will be one of the compelling story lines in the playoffs that begin next week.  LAD swept them in last year's playoffs, something that I am sure Milwaukee wants to avenge.  As always, the team that is hottest in October and that has enough pitching, defense, and timely hitting will be celebrating in a few weeks.  The pre-season favorites the Yankees and Dodgers may be somewhat vulnerable with the nagging injuries of  NYY's Aaron Judge and LA's closer, the former Met Edwin Diaz. The Padres and the Guardians look like they will enter the playoffs as the hottest teams but whether that lasts into October is the big question.   Whatever happens, let's enjoy the games because (a) the only reason to play baseball is to keep winter away and (b) the looming owner lockout of the players on Dec 1 could impact the start of the 2027 season.   More on that constant irritant in what should be MLB growth later this autumn. 

 

My visceral rooting chops until next spring now turn to my undergraduate alma mater Columbia's teams. Football won its opener last Saturday in overtime over formidable Lafayette. I'm looking forward to big things for our women's basketball team in 2026-27 as well as for perennially contending baseball in the spring. I'm also thrilled at the emergence of recent Columbia graduate Michael Zweng on the bigtime tennis stage.  And maybe Wisconsin, my graduate alma mater,

has a revived football team, too.  They play at Penn State this Sat Sep 27 at 5P EDT, only on the extra-charge Peacock network.

 

The one sports-related film ahead on TCM is Sa Oct 3 10P "The Set-Up" (1949) probably the best boxing movie ever with Robert Ryan as a journeyman boxer who refuses to take a dive.  Preceded at 8P by one of the early Noir classics "Out of the Past" (1947) with Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas sparring over Jane Greer. To me one of the rarely noted highlights is Dickie Moore as the mute gas station attendant at beginning and end of film. A decade earlier as an even younger child actor, Moore played the orphan that Joe E Brown wants to adopt in "The Gladiator", a far too rarely-shown Brown pic from his heyday in the 1930s.

This Sat midnight Sep 27 - repeated Su Sep 28 10A - Noir Alley presents "Ace in the Hole" (1951), Billy Wilder's searing take on mass culture's obsession with disasters.  Kirk Douglas again as the sensationalist newspaper reporter banished to New Mexico from NYC. He misses Yankee Stadium and the Gotham scene and grouses about local guys who wear belts AND suspenders. He makes up for it by milking a mine cave-in story for all its worth.  Wilder's wife singer Audrey Young reportedly thought that the reason Jan Sterling (playing the trapped miner's surly wife) gave for not attending church was the best line in all of her husband's films:  "Kneeling bags my nylons." 

 

I close on an aching note. This past Sat Sep 25, my friend Ernie Accorsi, 84, died of cancer at his home in Hershey, PA.  A noted football executive, Ernie was probably best known as the GM that engineered the trade of Eli Manning to the Giants. He also had been the GM of two other successful NFL teams, the Baltimore Colts and the Cleveland Browns. He loved all sports. Growing up in Hershey, he still talked fondly about being an usher for the local minor league hockey Hershey Bears, a franchise still thriving in his home town.  He went to Wake Forest on a golf scholarship at the same time as Arnold Palmer, Jay Sigel, Lanny Wadkins, and others. A roommate was the late Pat Williams, another man destined to make his name as a noted sports executive. After military service, Ernie became a sportswriter in Charlotte where he interviewed Moonlight Graham but regretted that he didn't know at the time the full story of the man who briefly made a MLB baseball lineup and was immortalized in WP Kinsella's "Shoeless Joe" and the movie "Field of Dreams".  Ernie went on to work in sports information at St Joseph's in Philly when Jack Ramsay was coaching basketball and later at Penn State during the heyday of Joe Paterno. To know Ernie was one of the joys of my life. His insights, humor, and integrity were gifts to everyone who knew him. He has reserved a place in my heart forever. 

 

 

That's all for now - take it easy but take it and Stay Positive Test Negative!!        

It's been a while since I posted to you dear readers and I have to say it has been a rather eventful few weeks in both baseball and American history.

On July 20th, the day after I finished my stimulating class on baseball culture at Chautauqua, former president Trump narrowly missed assassination. 

 

A few days after that, President Biden wisely decided to give up his re-election campaign, and surprisingly with little of the Democratic Party's typical awkward chaos, current Veep Kamala Harris has picked up the mantle of a presentable Presidential candidate. 

 

At least in the early going she has clearly galvanized the Democratic base. Since I believe that most Americans don't take or should take an election seriously until after Labor Day, no more word on politics from me until then. (Or to be more accurate, until the end of this blog.)

 

As I post before the first games of the first full weekend in August, the Orioles and Yankees are in a flat-footed tie for AL East supremacy with the Red Sox still in the hunt only 5 games behind and the Rays only 3 games behind Boston. 

 

The Oriole injury bug is very serious with infielders Jordan Westburg and Jorge Mateo out until late September at the earliest. The closer situation is very unsettled with aging Craig Kimbrel in his second "reset" of the season.  The offense remains inconsistent.

 

If I felt truly comfortable playing the role of the Prince of Paranoia, I would have entitled this post, "Where Is Aaron Hicks Now That We Really Need Him?"  The scapegoat for Yankee failures in recent seasons really helped the Birds last summer with big hits, good defense, and veteran presence, but after being cut by the woeful Angels in late April this season, he has not resurfaced in the majors.

  

I will try to take the long view that the Orioles are still a young team and because of the infield injuries, they now have promising but raw rookie Coby Mayo getting a chance at third base and the ballyhooed still only 20-year-old Jackson Holliday getting another chance at second base. 

 

What I cannot abide though are the continuing injuries to pitchers.  It's an epidemic that affects every organization, including the best ones. 

Satire may be the only way to deal with it. 

 

Dan Bern, the gifted and prolific folk-rock singer/guitarist/composer, has given me permission to quote from two of his trenchant songs about the situation. 

 

"27 Pitchers Gettin One Out Each" begins: 

"I ran into Dave Roberts

The Dodgers manager

He had a faraway look in his eyes

I tell you sir

He said I'm lookin forward to my winter

On the beach

Dreaming of 27 pitchers getting 1 out each 

27 pitchers getting 1 out each" 

 

 A later verse laments:

"The pitcher's mound used to be an all-day chore

But now it's lookin more like a revolving door

Sandy Koufax used to throw all nine or more

That kind of ball has gone out with the dinosaur"

 

A few years ago, Bern penned "Tommy John Surgery" with this acerbic verse:

"Get your kid's tommy john surgery whee 

Before they know their abc's

Jump-start the process do it for your kid

You will not be sorry you did."

(You can hear more of the music and lyrics of Dan Bern, a native of Iowa with a national and international following, on Spotify and other

platforms listed at danbern.com) 

 

The sports world suffered a tremendous loss on July 17th with the passing of Pat Williams at 84 in Orlando, Florida, where he made one of his basketball successes as the founding general manager of the NBA's Orlando Magic.  He brought Shaquille O'Neal and Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway to Orlando where they made two championship finals before Shaq moved to the golden riches of LA. 

 

Earlier, Williams made a success with the pre-Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls but he had a a great love of baseball, too.  Scouts still talk reverently about his success at building a fan base for the Carolina League Spartanburg Phillies, a job that brought Pat the 1967 Sporting News Minor League Executive of the Year award.

 

At the time of his death, Pat was trying to put together a group to either bring the Tampa Bay Rays to Orlando or create an expansion franchise. 

His energy, vision, and genuine support for those like myself outside the loop of the entrenched power structure in sports will be sorely missed.

 

My closing thoughts come from Richael Greenberg's 2003 Tony award-winning play "Take Me Out" that recently enjoyed a NYC revival.  The speech near the end of the first act delivered by Mason, the player-agent who is falling in love with both baseball and the baseball player Darren who is preparing to come out as gay (thus the title of the play), reads in part: 

"Baseball is better than democracy - at least democracy as it is 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."   

 

Next time you are subjected to a screamer on talk radio going ballistic, think about this speech and the essence of our great game. 

 

Thanks all for now.  My mantras remain:  Stay Positive Test Negative and Take It Easy But Take It.