Lee Lowenfish

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.

Spring has sprung in NYC in all its glory.  As I was marveling at the beautiful buds blooming all over my UWS neighborhood (Upper West Side) and sipping my morning coffee while sitting on a bench on an island on Broadway, I started to hum Otis Redding's classic tune, "Sitting On The Dock of the Bay". 

OK, my mind has odd synapses but you got a problem with that?!  You see, I was in Madison, Wisconsin on the foggy Sunday night of December 10, 1967 when word came that Otis Redding's plane crashed into Lake Monona three miles short of Four Lakes Airport. 

Otis was only 26, and seven of his bandmates perished with him. He had just recorded "Sitting On The Dock of the Bay" which according to many websites was the first posthumous #1 hit.  

It was a very sad day for American music and the best spirit of the 1960s.  RIP Otis - we will never forget you.

As for the baseball season so far, it's been pretty wonderfully wacky.  Unless you are fans of the Tigers and Orioles and Rockies and Diamondbacks and Marlins who are sinking fast as I predicted.

Believe me, I didn't want to be a prophet and don't want to be a prophet. But a new ownership in Baltimore can't come fast enough. Alas, until there is "cost certainty" on the business side of the franchise, all that's left is rooting for individuals.  

I hope southpaw John Means is morphing into an ace. He's already spawned a T-shirt, JOHN MEANS BUSINESS.  I like my idea of MEANS FINDS WAYS.  

I cross fingers that Trey Mancini doesn't think he needs the jump-start the offense all by himself.  Just great to see him recovered from colon cancer and ready to play every day.

I guess because the season is so long, there's always hope for a turnaround.  

The Oakland A's have proved that, starting 0-6 and 1-7 and then all of a sudden they have won 12 in a row.

With two more against the Orioles - and more next week in Oakland - they could be flying high by May. Don't think they are that good, but double-digit winning streaks cerrtainly mean something.  

Kudos to veteran manager Bob Melvin - to me somewhat of an Anthony Perkins-lookalike and always a calm presence  - who has steered the ship to far smoother waters. 

Returned Bosox manager Alex Cora also quickly turned around Boston.  After they lost three in a row at home to the Woerioles, they ran off nine in a row. Since then, it hasn't been so easy for them.  

Surprising Seattle has played everyone hard, including the Red Sox. Much too early to see any patterns in the season yet.  But nice to see Seattle and Kansas City playing so well.

One thing is clear - the Padres and the Dodgers are developing a fierce rivalry.  We'll see if the Padres can stay so intense against other teams.  In between their two series against the Dodgers they went home and got swept by the Brewers.    

The key point at this early time of season is staying near .500. And then get ready to surge in the warmer months.  Of course, easier said than done - like most things in life.

When the Yankees fell to five below .500, the angst in NYC was epidemic.  Suzyn Waldman, John Sterling's sidekick on Yankee radio broadcasts (and who hosts pre-game interviews),  has perceptively noted, "In NYC there are 162  one-game seasons." 

With the Yankees beating up on the Indians and soon the Woerioles, they could be at .500 by the time you read this.  (If you think I'm trying to jinx them, you're right.)

On the cultural scene, I went to see "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" in a real movie theatre last week, the venerable Paris Theatre just south of Central Park and the Plaza Hotel. "Venerable" meaning it was opened in late 1950s. 

The audience was sparse but to be expected on a weeknight with people wisely still cautious about going indoors to a theatre.  Free popcorn and soft drinks were available.

Chadwick Boseman's last performance is a don't-miss experience. His electricity opposite Viola Davis is mesmerizing.  Glynn Turman as the piano player in the band also shines as does the whole cast.  

Netflix now owns the Paris Theater and I hope it is streaming the movie all over the world.  The talkback at the end between the film's director George C. Wolfe and playwright Tony "Angels in America" Kushner is very stimulating. Not that I agree with everything they say.    

Do see the movie and discuss it and the talkback seriously.  If we can ever get beyond the cliche that "slavery is America's original sin," the works of the late August Wilson - who wrote the play on which the film is based - are an essential place to start.  

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