Lee Lowenfish

Orioles just won a Fenway Park classic 9-7, spoiling the Red Sox April 11 home opener.
Chris Davis's mammoth two-out three-run homer to dead center off Red Sox expensive new closer Craig Kimbrel provided winning margin in top of 9th.

Mookie Betts homered to lead off bottom of 9th off O's closer Zack Britton and Bosox got the tying runs on with none out. But a great 4-6-3 DP started by Jonathan Schoop and strikeout of Hanley Ramirez cemented the O's sixth win in a row to start season.
The pundits who saw the O's as a sub-.500 team must be at their computers now coming up with explanations for this aberration.

One doesn't win a pennant in April but you can dig yourself a big hole by losing in April. The Minnesota Twins are facing that climb. Amazing how streaks can start and end suddenly. Orioles lost 7 in a row to Minnesota last year who essentially knocked them out of pennant race in mid-August. This year the Birds swept them to begin the season.

American League East looks like another dogfight all season so nice to start building up a little lead. If Orioles starting pitching goes deeper into games (Yankees have the same need), they could have a lot of fun in 2016.

And let's hear it for backup catcher Caleb Joseph who started both big rallies today for Birds - the five-run third against another Red Sox big ticket acquisition David Price punctuated by a Mark Trumbo 3-run homer, and the ninth inning rally that ended with Davis's mammoth shot. Earl Weaver is smiling somewhere tonight in Baseball Heaven or more likely in a very liquid passionate Baseball Hades.

Caleb Joseph is what Oriole baseball is all about. He toiled in the minor leagues for almost 10 seasons, living in the clubhouse in double-A at times. Hard not to root for a guy like that.

FINAL NOTE: I hope you can see Part I of the Ken Burns Jackie Robinson documentary. It airs on PBS tonight Mon Apr 11 with Part II on Tues Apr 12. There are three cuts of me in Part I talking about Branch Rickey's role in Robinson's emergence.

Thanks for your time this time until next time, this is Lee Low' (aka Teny Ymota) reminding you to Take It Easy But Take It.

PS Teny Ymota stands for The Earl of NY Your Man On The Aisle.
 Read More 

I first heard the phrase “Give Pearce A Chance” (a takeoff on a famous John Lennon song) in a July Sports Illustrated piece by David Simon, creator of the HBO series set in Baltimore, “The Wire”.

I use it all the time now – thank you David - because the saga of Steve Pearce, the 31-year-old journeyman who was even designated for assignment early this season (left off the active roster for a few days), is one of the best stories in the season.

Pearce hit a first inning three-run home run in the AL East division-clinching game that brought the Orioles their first title since 1997. For good measure Pearce hit another one the next night, bringing his seasonal total to 20, three more than he hit in his entire career. His batting average is on the cusp of .300 and his RBI total is nearly 50.

Pearce is now a fixture in the lineup, often protecting cleanup hitter Nelson Cruz as the #5 hitter. He also runs the bases hard, breaking up many a potential double play, and providing superior defense at first base.

What a godsend Pearce has been now that last year’s homer king Chris Davis has been suspended for 25 games for taking the stimulant Adderall without written permission. Davis had flunked one drug test already but for reasons known only to himself he continued to use the speed-like drug.

(Adderall is probably a performance-enabling drug not a performing-enhancing drug, but the collective bargaining agreement in baseball doesn’t make a major distinction – though the penalty for repeat violation is less drastic for Adderall than it is for steroids.)

Missing due to physical injury All-Star players third baseman Manny Machado and catcher Matt Wieters, the Orioles have stunned much of the baseball world by running away with the division flag in the usually hotly competitive AL East.

How have they done it? The answer can be found in one of late Hall of Fame Oriole manager Earl Weaver’s favorite phrases, DEEP DEPTH. When Wieters went down in May the Orioles brought up career minor leaguer Caleb Joseph who has been excellent. He receives well, throws out more than 40% of base stealers, and in one stretch hit home runs in five consecutive games.

Joseph is also known to be a good impressionist. He does one of manager Buck Showalter that breaks up the clubhouse. He also can mimic general manager Dan Duquette but he keeps that one to himself. “Buck can only send me to the minor leagues,” he has explained sagely. “Duquette can release me.”

Showalter and Duquette might be in line for Manager of the Year and Executive of the Year awards that are voted before the post-season begins. I don’t want to jinx the team’s chances of winning their first World Series since 1983, but the Buck and Dan show has been a pleasure to watch in 2014 as both seek to win their first World Series rings.

Showalter taught the Yankees of the early 1990s how to win but it was Joe Torre in 1996 who took them to the World Series victory stand. Buck was the first manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks expansion team but it was Bob Brenly who led them to the 2001 title. Showalter also was at the helm of the improving Texas Rangers last decade but it was the recently resigned Ron Washington who led them to the 2010-11 World Series.

When he took the Oriole helm late in the 2010 season, Showalter wryly noted that he looked forward to finally walking down the aisle with someone he raised.

He immediately embraced the Orioles’ proud past that made them the envy of baseball during their glory years from the late 1960s through the early 1980s.
Framed photos of the six Oriole Hall of Famers, in action photos with their teammates, now adorn the halls of the modern clubhouse at Camden Yards: pitcher Jim Palmer, manager Earl Weaver, the Robinsons – Frank and Brooks – and Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken Jr.

During the great 2012 season of rebirth (when they made the playoffs as a wild card but lost in the divisional round), the six Oriole Hall of Famers were honored by statues created by talented sculptor Toby Mendez. They now grace the area beyond the center field fence at Camden Yards.

GM Dan Duquette has a similar history of near-misses in his career. He built a contending team in Montreal under manager Felipe Alou but the 1994 strike wiped out the World Series that year (leaving Showalter's Yankees similarly frustrated). Later he ran the Red Sox, but he was his successor Theo Epstein who got to enjoy the end of the so-called Curse of the Bambino in 2004 with a repeat championship in 2007.

Away from major league baseball for nearly 10 years, Duquette never left the game. He created a summer college baseball league in his home area of western Massachusetts and remained interested in the international game.

Drawing on recommendations of veteran scouts Ray Poitevint and especially Fred Ferreira (who was with the Yankees when they developed the haul that produced Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera and Ramiro Mendoza in the early 90s), Duquette brought two key starting pitchers to Baltimore: Miguel Gonzalez from the Mexican League and Wei-Yin Chen from Taiwan via the Japanese pro leagues.

No one can predict how the playoffs will turn out. Some pundits think that the early clinching by the Orioles could make them rusty when playing for keeps begins again on Thursday October 2 against an opponent still to be determined.

Personally I don’t think that will happen. The team is too resilient and hungry. And there remains an outside chance that the Orioles could still nose out the California Angels for best record in the American League and home field advantage throughout all the playoffs.

For the moment as an Oriole fan for nearly a half-century it is time to celebrate and relax a little and be ready to turn on the faucet full-bore in early October.

And always remember to Take It Easy But Take It!
 Read More