Lee Lowenfish

I have a ticket stub somewhere for the 1964 Father's Day Mets-Phillies doubleheader which I went to with my father at newly-opened Shea Stadium. It was the day that future Hall of Famer Jim Bunning pitched a perfect game but the Mets were still so bad that I don't remember much drama. I remember more Bunning exclaiming to Ed Sullivan on his TV show that night that he told his fielders to dive for everything to aid his chance at immortality.  

 

Father's Day June 20, 1982 is the one I really remember. The hated Yankees are hosting the Orioles and I'm watching a nail-biter on TV with my nephew Eric in his bedroom above the kitchen in my sister Carol's house in suburban Fanwood NJ. Bespectacled backup catcher Joe Nolan comes up to pinch-hit for Rick Dempsey in top of the 11th inning against fearsome Goose Gossage.  He blasts a two-run homer into Yankee Stadium's lower right field stands to break a 3-3 tie.  I leap from the couch cheering wildly (in those pre-arthritis days when I could get up quickly.)  I hear a crash below me in Carol's kitchen - a plate must have fallen off a wall.  "Eric, grow up!" she shouts at her soon-to-enter-college only child.  It is in a voice that could be heard two suburbs away. 

 

I would be 40 a week later (and 6 days from now, I will be 84.)  Maybe one of these days I will grow up, but it's not really on the calendar of my twilight years.  I think back to how 1982 actually didn't turn out too well for Joe Nolan and the Orioles although my Birds made a great run at the eventual AL champion Milwaukee Brewers.  I went down to Baltimore for all 4 of the games against the Brewers that the Orioles had to sweep to win the division.  They won the first 3 convincingly. but in the Sunday afternoon matchup of future Hall of Famers Don Sutton versus Jim Palmer, the Brewers won 10-2 behind two solo HRs by future Hall of Famer Robin Yount and six late insurance runs.  It was still a close game when Joe Nolan pinch-hit for Rich Dauer around the fifth or sixth with runners on base. But Ben Oglivie made a great catch in the left field corner to stifle the rally. 

i was seated high up in the left field upper deck and actually didn't see the great catch until watching it on TV that night.  What I did see before the game was Sutton and Palmer shake hands before they went to their respective bullpens to warm up.  Some years later I met Sutton when he was broadcasting for the Atlanta Braves and I had my occasional Shea Stadium press pass.  Don remembered that handshake and asked if I had a photo of it.  Unfortunately, I didn't but the memory lingers on.  Don is gone now and so is my sister Carol Ann Lowenfish Norton who did live to see my Branch Rickey biography come out in 2007.  In fact, in one of her great acts of thoughtfulness after she had moved to California, she arranged for us to stay at a guest house on the UCLA campus where pictures were prominent of Jackie Robinson and his fellow Black football teammates from the late 1930s, Woody Strode and Kenny Washington, the latter who would integrate the NFL in 1946.

 

I hope Wikipedia is right that Joe Nolan is still with us at 75.  Thank you Joe for the memories of a special Father's Day in my life as a fan. I don't have any children of my own but has maintained a shared baseball love with Eric.  And here's to more special memories for fans of all 30 MLB teams and other teams of all kinds.  I will have more to say later in the summer and early fall about the seemingly unavoidable lockout of the MLB players on Dec 1. I highly recommend savoring every pitch and possible memorable moment in what is left of the 2026 season.  And never forget that baseball will always live locally and in our minds.  

 

As for the 2026 Orioles, I have vowed not to get too enthusiastic until they make it to .500 and stay above it.  Before games on Mon Jun 22, they are still 5 under with almost half of the season gone. The starting pitching is improving as evidenced by a gritty Father's Day win for RHP Brandon Young in a rubber game rout of the Dodgers in LA. Young has the intriguing mien of a quiet Texas gunslinger and after a rocky rookie 2025 season, the 2024 Oriole Minor League Pitcher of the Year is showing signs of maturing.  I am close to the point of writing down the 5 current starters in the rotation: Young, Kyle Bradish, Shane Baz, raw rookie Trey Gibson, and the only southpaw Trevor Rogers.  But I must remind myself of my promise to myself in first sentence of this graf!!   

 

Here is the one TCM baseball tip.  W Jun 24 at 5AM - "Whistling in Brooklyn" (1943). Red Skelton as the Fox enlists some of the Brooklyn Dodgers to foil a

gangster's scheme.  Also with memorable character actors Ray Collins/Sam Levene/Rags Ragland. 

 

That's all for now.  Always remember:  Take It Easy But Take It and Stay Positive Test Negative!  

On Su August 22, Miguel Cabrera became the 28th member of the very exclusive 500 home run club when he homered to right field in Toronto off the former Met southpaw Steven Matz  (Not to worry about Matz who has had a fine year with double-digit wins for the Blue Jays.)

 

After the day game of Tu Sep 21, Cabrera is just 21 hits shy of 3,000 that when it makes it, probably early in 2022 season, he will be only the 7th member of that even more exclusive club. Albert Pujols was the last member to join, preceded (alphabetically) by Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray, Rafael Palmeiro, and Alex Rodriguez. 

 

Cabrera, a native of Maracay, Venezuela, rocketed on the scene as a 20-year-old on the 2003 World Series-winning Florida Marlins.  A Detroit Tiger since 2008, Cabrera's presence as a first baseman/DH has been an important factor in Detroit's return to respectability. 

 

The Tigers are ending the season winning series from all contenders. Though September results are usually suspect, Detroit has been playing over-.500 baseball since early summer. They may well have established themselves as a future contender in a wide-open AL Central. 

 

I recently heard MLB commentators John Smoltz and Carlos Pena rave about Miggy's preparation.  They said he goes to spring training with the goal of having experienced every kind of uncomfortable at-bat he will face once the regular season begins. 

 

Eg., a broken bat, a pitch on the hands, a pitch hit at the end of the bat, everything that will prepare him for the grind ahead. If you want to know why he is so calm at the plate on a two-strike count, he is prepared for everything.  No wonder he will finish his career with the very-rare-these-days batting average of over .300.

 

Here's another tribute -- to former Oriole (and earlier Met and Expo) outfielder Ken Singleton who since his retirement after the 1984 season has become an excellent color

commentator. 

 

On the Yankees' visit to Baltimore last week, Singleton probably delivered his last Yankee broadcast on the YES Network.  He almost retired after last season but was coaxed back with a shorter schedule in 2021. 

 

In an age of increasing happy talk in the booth, not often about baseball, Singleton was always an exception.  As a fan of the Orioles for over a half-century, I always ate up Singleton's stories about playing for irascible, savvy manager Earl Weaver. 

 

One year when he was barely hitting .200 on Memorial Day, Earl called Ken into his office.   "Are you sick?" Weaver demanded.

"No," Singleton replied.  

"Are you tired?"  

Same answer from Ken.  

"Well, I'm sick and tired of watching you at the plate," Weaver fumed.

 

Last week Singleton told two more beauties about teammates.  

 

One day when Nolan Ryan was scheduled to pitch, second baseman Bobby Grich phoned in sick. The day after, he returned ready to play.  Singleton said Grich's teammates dubbed his illness a case of 24-hour Ryanitis. 

 

Another time when the Orioles were mired in a losing streak, fiery catcher Rick Dempsey stormed into the clubhouse fuming about the team's lack of passion. 

"We're acting like this is a country club," he bellowed, throwing his glove into his locker. When it landed, Singleton chuckled, a bunch of golf clubs fell out of Dempsey's cubicle. 

 

I'm gonna miss Singleton's knowledge of the game and his stories and his refreshing lack of the entitlement that seems to be part of the Yankee DNA on all levels. 

 

The dog days of summer are over and the sprint to the wire on closing day Sunday October 3 is at hand.  The Cardinals in the NL have seized the wild-card lead by three games.  

 

Although they are playing the Milwaukee Brewers in six of their remaining games, they already won the first one on Mon night Sept 20 at Milwaukee.  They seem to have the momentum with veteran starting pitching led by veteran Adam Wainwright.  

 

The 3-2-5 double play that Paul Goldschmidt, Yadier Molina, and Nolan Arenado turned against the Mets in a tied game in the bottom of the 9th during the Redbirds

recent sweep of the New Yorkers on the road was a thing of beauty.  

 

I don't think either the Dodgers or the Giants want to face Wainwright in a one-game wild card playoff but it looks like that might well happen.

 

Meanwhile another bird team is in flight in the AL.  Not my Orioles, who have been

swept EIGHTEEN times this year on their way to their third 100-loss season in a row, but the Toronto Blue Jays.  

 

If Toronto gets effective pitching, they could keep their current razor-thin one game edge to host the wild-card game against either the Red Sox or the Yankees.  I think the A's and the surprising Mariners have too much ground to make up. They still have to play each other five more times, perhaps knocking each other out. 

 

The winner of the AL wild card will face the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS best-of-five.

The other series is pretty much set - the slumping injury-riddled yet potentially dangerous White Sox face the Houston Astros with third baseman Alex Bregman recovered from injury and in the lineup and manager Dusty Baker vying for his first World Series championship ring.

 

In the NL, the wild card winner will face the NL West winner, either the Dodgers, who have to be favored now with Clayton Kershaw back on the mound and a fairly healthy Mookie

Betts back in the lineup. Maybe the Giants, who NOBODY picked to contend in 2021, can still work their amazing magic with its enticing mixture of veterans and youngsters.

 

In the other matchup, the likely NL East-winning Atlanta Braves should go up against the Milwaukee Brewers who coasted to the NL Central title.  

 

Meanwhile perhaps there is perhaps a glimmer of hope in the Orioles future.  We'll take any flicker these days.  The Double A Bowie Bay Sox knocked the Yankees' Somerset Patriots out of the playoffs by beating the Pirates' Altoona Curve.

 

Starting Tu Sep 21, the Baysox will now face the conquerors of Somerset, Cleveland's Akron Rubber Decks in a best-of-five series.   And in low Single A, the O's Delmarva Shorebirds destroyed the Salem (Virginia) Red Sox's playoff hopes though not making the dance itself. 

 

"Never grow accustomed to the emotions of continuous defeat" was a plea that Branch Rickey often invoked to keep the losing teams he shepherded at the beginning and end of his career.   So I'm glad that at least at the minor league level, there has been some winning going on as the Baltimore organization tries to arise from its sinkhole of ineptitude. 

 

Here's a quick reminder that on Th Sept 23 TCM shows the 1970s fantasy "Rollerball" at 8P  and "Kansas City Bomber" at 1015P.  

 

Sunday Sept 26 at 1130A "Easy Living" (1949) with Victor Mature as a LA Ram with a heart condition who cardiologist Jim Backus (!) urges to give up the game.  There is an excellent cast including Lucille Ball, Lloyd Nolan, Jack Paar, Lisabeth Scott, Sonny Tufts, and Kenny Washington playing himself  (Don't blame me for the last scene, puhleeze!) 

 

It precedes Noir Alley's "Hell Bound" at 10A, a 1957 72 minute feature aka "Cargo X" and "Dope Ship".

 

Tu Sep 28 at 8A Burt Lancaster as "Jim Thorpe All American" followed by a classic 1947 noir set in prison, "Brute Force" directed by Jules Dassin starring Burt Lancaster. 

 

Later that night at 630p there is the silent film classic "The Freshman" as Harold Lloyd tries his hand at football. 

 

That's all for now - always remember:  Stay positive test negative, and take it easy but take it!