Lee Lowenfish

Just as I was beginning to give up on any improvement in the post-season fortunes of my Orioles - and consigned myself again to calling them the Woerioles - the Birds surprised me  on Wed aft Dec 10 by signing former Mets first baseman Pete Alonso to a five-year contract for a reported $155 million. It was not so surprisng that Mets owner Steve A. Cohen - like Orioles owner David Rubenstein someone who made his fortune in private equity funding - was willing to let Alonso walk. Cohen only reluctantly signed him last year at this time to a two-year contract with an opt-out clause after one year. Virtually seconds after the end of the Mets' disappointing 2025 season, Alonso activated the clause that made him a free agent. .

That the Orioles won the auction engineered by super-agent Scott Boras was more surprising.  Evidently Rubenstein and his President of Baseball Operations Mike Elias realized that they must act proactively after their own very disappointing 2025 season that saw them fall into the AL East basement 12 games under .500.  Count me in as someone who always thought that Alonso's bigtime power to all fields would be a perfect fit for Baltimore's Camden Yards with its cozy dimensions in right field and now left field where the fences are a little closer once Elias realized his moving them farther out had been a mistake.

Of course, as someone who was dubbed the Prince of Paranoia by the late great Batlimore sportswriter Jim Henneman, I did immediately think of other first base signings in Oriole history that proved disastrous:  Chris Davis who they are still paying through 2037 and earlier Glenn Davis (no relation) who cost them in a trade three good players, pitchers Pete Harnisch, Curt Schilling, and outfielder Steve Finley. 

I hope though that unlike Glenn Davis who may have arrived from the cavernous Houston Astrodome with injury issues, Alonso has been durable and has played almost every game in each season since he arrived in New York via the University of Florida and time in the Mets' minor league system.  There is no doubt that Alonso believed that the Mets kept him down on the farm for an extra year so his clock towards salary arbitration and the super-big bucks of free agency could be delayed. 

Time will tell if Alonso will begin to fade near the end of his contract.  For now the Orioles have filled one big need in their lineup - a power righthanded bat that drives in runs.  What to do with the incumbent first basemen -  injury-prone Ryan Mountcastle (whose power has mysteriously declined though he is still under 30) and younger Coby Mayo who has enormous power but is still unproven - will have to be determined.  There is also the highly touted young catcher Samuel Basallo, 21, who was slated to be an occasional first baseman. And let us not forget the holes that remain in the starting pitching rotation for the Orioles. 

Yet this early visit from Santa Claus is to be celebrated.  So the Prince of Paranoia will try to focus on the gift-giving and card-receiving of the holiday season. And pledges a hiatus to Woeriole grousing . . .at least until I get agitated next season about an Alonso 0-20 slump or perhaps a wild throw on a possible double play grounder. 

Here's more happy recent news on my favorite basketball team, the Columbia women's basketball team that produced a stirring victory at Seton Hall this past Tuesday Dec 9, the day before the Alonso trade.  Trailing for virtually the entire game with star junior guard Riley Weiss having an off night, the Lions used tough defense to stay in the battle though falling behind by 10 points a couple of times in second half.  Holding the Seton Hall Pirates to 2-15 shooting in the late going, the Lions won it, 54-53, on a layup by senior co-captain Perri Page.  Somehow with less than 9 seconds remaining in the game, she broke free from a triple-team to hit the big shot with 0.5 registering on clock. Kudos to junior Fliss Henderson for delivering the ball accurately to Page and her defense and rebounding.  And a shout-out to sophomore Mia Bloom who filled the scoresheet with 3 steals, 1 block, i assist, and only 1 turnover.

After a break for fall semester final exams, Columbia has one more home game in 2025, a Sat Dec 19 encounter at 1P with U of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).  On the same Tues night where the Lions prevailed at Seton Hall, the Columbia men lost in OT at Stony Brook but they enter exam period at a surprising and encouraging 9-2 while the women are 7-4. The men have one more December home game at 2P Dec 31 against Penn State at Abington and start the Ivy League season on M Jan 5 at 5P at Cornell. Men's home opener is Sa Jan 10 at 2P against Harvard..  The women open their defense of the Ivy League title on Sat Jan 3 at 2P home against Cornell.   

And now for some TCM tips: Very few upcoming films with sports themes but a boxing classic is on: 

Sa Dec 13 930P "The Harder They Fall" (1956) One of Humphrey Bogart's last films - he plays a press agent who becomes a crusader against  boxing corruption in a story written by Budd Schulberg based in part on the selling of the overmatched heavyweight Primo Carnera. With Rod Steiger.

Noir Alley follows at 12M (also Dec 14 10A). "Cash on Demand" (1961) a British Noir with Peter Cushing, Andre Morell, John Vernon. 

Later on Su Dec 14 Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" (1940) with his then-amour Paulette Goddard/Jack Oakie as a Mussolini character opposite Chaplin playing 2 roles, a Hitler character and a Jewish barber with amnesia after a World War I injury who returns to find the Nazi takeover of his village. The movie was the first full talking picture Chaplin ever made.  If never seen, it should be on anyone's list if only as a slice of cultural history at a time when US had not entered World War II yet but the horrors of Nazism were beginning to be known. 

After reading Diane Kiesel's masterful recent book "WHEN CHARLIE MET JOAN: The Tragedy of the Chaplin Trials and the Failings of American Law" (U of Michigan Press, 2025), it is hard to view Chaplin the man with great sympathy. He had many love affairs from his earliest times in Hollywood and blithely broke them off with the aid of an admiring entourage. Without the purest of motives and egged on by her mother and later Hollywood gossip hounds not thrilled with Chaplin's pro-Soviet politics, starlet Joan Berry fought back. To Diane Kiesel's eternal credit, she makes all these characters come to life.  She is a retired judge but also a gifted writer.

While I'm on this topic of films in large historic contexts, if you never watched this classic:

W Dec 17 5A "Ninotchka" (1939) is a light and hilarious putdown of Soviet Russia's ideology as only Ernst Lubitsch could direct. Melvyn Douglas romances commissar Greta Garbo in a film where "Garbo Speaks," as the ads proclaimed.  She was good in this film, too, but it was her last one. 

And how could I not list:

F Dec 19 1130A Billy Wilder's "Stalag 17" (1953) with William Holden as a cynical leader in a German POW camp in World War II who is trying to ferret out an informer.  I wasn't ready for it as a 11-year old when my mother took me and my sister to a double bill on the long gone 68th Street Playnouse on Lexington Ave.  (Other film was "A Place in the Sun").

I'm ready for it now. 

That's all this time.  Always remember:  Take it easy but Take it, and Stay Positive Test Negative! 

Here's to the Toronto Blue Jays for winning a classic 7-game ALCS over the Seattle Mariners. They have home field advantage over the Los Angeles Dodgers who swept the Milwaukee Brewers behind great pitching and a record-setting Game 4 in which Shohei Ohtani hit 3 home runs and struck out 10 in 6 shutout innings.  They will be clear favorites over the Blue Jays but don't count them out. They won the AL championship in a gripping Game 7 and will enter their first World Series since 1993 when they completed a two-peat on Joe Carter's walkoff homer. 

George Springer's 3-run-shot this past Monday Oct 20 was not quite a walkoff - it was only in bottom of the 7th - but it turned the dramatic Game 7 on its head because Seattle had been leading 3-1 since the early innings.  Former Met Chris Bassiitt, a veteran thinking-man's RHP and a free-agent-to-be, threw a spotless 8th and so did closer Jeff Hoffman in the 9th. But not before some drama.  

Signed as an amateur by Toronto 10 years ago, Hoffman was traded in 2016 and after stops in Colorado and Philadelphia, he returned home this season. Two organizations, including my Woerioles (I am holding my tongue or fingers in this post about how the axis of newby owner David Rubenstein and overrated GM now President of Baseball Operations no less may never be ready for AL East prime time). Back to Jeff Hoffman who could injured in the future - who couldn't? but this year he stayed healthy although he did allow 15 regular season HRs (though not many recently). In the top of 9th on Monday, Jeff needed almost 10 pitches before striking out Julio Rodriguez, leaving slugger Cal Raleigh waiting on deck. Both had homered earlier in Game 7 so it made the last AB an exquisite exercise in ultimate baseball pressure. 

Vladimir Guerrero Jr is red-hot at the plate, adequate in the field, and a definite leader in the clubhouse.  Though Springer hit the final big blow, Guerrero Jr was a worthy ALCS MVP. He walked into the clubhouse before Game 7 wearing Auston Matthews' #34 Toronto Maple Leafs jersey.  The hockey superstar has not delivered a Stanley Cup yet. Neither has any Leaf player since the mid-1960s.  The awful but funny joke (if you are not a Toronto fan) is "Toronto is the only city where the Leafs fall in April."  Guerrero Jr.'s gesture was as if to say, "We want none of that, we will win it for our city and country." 

It looks another longtime offensive threat for the Jays, shortstop Bo Bichette (another son of a major leaguer, former Rockies and Yankees outfielder Dante Bichette- Vlad Sr. was a star on Montreal Expos and LA Angels and is in Hall of Fame) will be on the World Series roster though it won't be finalized until this Friday Oct 24.  When he is hot, Bo Bichette is an extremely productive offensive player.  He is not the greatest defensive shortstop but to me he is not horrible.  He will also be a free agent after the season so he has a lot to play for, especially if he is healthy after banging up his knee sliding into home against the Yankees in early September.)   

It was a tough ALCS loss for the Mariners, still the only one of the current 30 MLB franchises never to play in a World Series.  It is hard not to criticize manager Dan Wilson for his Game 7 pitching decisions. I would have let Game 7 starter, 4-year veteran George Kirby originally from nearby Rye NY, pitch more than 4 innings. I certainly would have let Bryan Woo pitch out of the jam in the 7th inning.  (With that name, pitching Woo is a baseball romantic's dream.) 

When Wilson chose one of his lower leverage relievers, well-traveled Eduardo Bazardo, to replace Woo with two runners in scoring position and Springer coming up, I sensed trouble.  And sure enough on Bazardo's second pitch,  Springer unloaded a long 3-run HR to left center.  So went up in smoke Seattle's 2-0 and 3-2 game leads in the series.  In hindsight, their offense left too many men on base and their defense and base-running betrayed them at key moments. Although a vital contributor on offense, first baseman Josh Naylor was the culprit twice on the bases.  In game 4 as the Mariners were rallying, Naylor made the third out trying to go from first to third on a single that cut their deficit to one run.  In Game 7, he foolishly tried to break up a double play by standing up going into second and let the shortstop's throw hit him. After the umps huddled, he was called out.  

But enough of this post-mortem. Seattle has so much to be proud of in its season, not least finally conquering the almost-perennial AL West champions Houston Astros in a September sweep. And then winning a dramatic  15-inning elimination game against the Tigers in the prior round of the playoffs.  I want to give the last word about the ALCS to Northwest Baseball blogger Amanda Lane Cumming.  She fell in love with baseball when she was a young teenager, a time when the Mariners of Ken Griffey Jr.-Randy Johnson-Edgar Martinez literally saved baseball in Seattle when voters chose to support funding to build a new stadium to replace the dreary Kingdome. 

Amanda has since lived through the ups and downs of Mariners baseball - mainly downs - but shortly before Game 7 began, she posted this moving entry.  With her permission, I am quoting a couple of her passages describing how she has fallen in love again with her local team:   "Baseball still has magic . . . between the layers of dirty laundry, underneath the filth of billionaire owners, and right-wing players.  There is still magic."  She concluded: "It's not about winning. It never was. It's about believing."

As for picking a World Series winner, I'd like to see Toronto win it at home either in the sixth or seventh game.  Since I'm not emotionally involved, I will vote for a Game 7 which will fall on Sa Nov 1 assuming no rainouts in LA. (Toronto's Rogers Center, formerly known as the Skydome, has a retractable roof.)  A couple of hours later at 2A on Su morning Nov 2, we lose a hour of daylight with the return of Standard Time.  How fitting that if it goes seven, darkness sets in.  As the late former baseball commissioner (and Yale University professor and university president) Bartlett Giamatti memorably said, "Just when we need the game the most, it is taken away." 

As we head towards the free agent frenzy that officially starts after the end of the World Series, expect lots of false rumors and bad signings as well as the occasional good ones. There will plenty of chances to discuss these thorny issues than many people think will lead to a lockout after next season.  I try to accentuate the positive in this blog (except admittedly when my team the Woerioles will fall out of indefinite non-contention under current management). But here are two gestures from late in the regular season that were such beautiful human interest stories that they deserve mention.

 **MIKE TROUT hit his 400th HR at Denver's Coors Field in mid-September.  A Rockies fan caught the ball in the bleachers and was glad to give it to Mike as a souvenir.  He asked for very little swag except a chance to play catch with his hero.  And guess what? After the game there was Mike and the fan having a catch along the third base line.

**Kudos to STEPHEN VOGT Guardians manager and Tigers LHP TARIK SKUBAL a likely two-peat winner next month of the AL Cy Young award (though Bosox lefty Garrett Crochet could nip him). Tarik expressed deep concern when Cleveland batter DAVID FRY fouled a Skubal pitch into his face in a taut ALDS Guardians-Tigers game.  Skubal, normally a cool customer on the mound, was so shaken that he lost the lead in that inning, ultimately getting a No Decision (ND). After the game, he insisted on going to the hospital to see how Fry was doing.  And manager Vogt drove well out of his regular route home to take Skubal to see his injured player.  Fortunately, it seems that Fry will have a full recovery.   

Now - it's time for some TCM tips for the the last days of October. Not many baseball references in them, but these films are worthy of seeing.

Th Oct 23 545P "The Great Dictator" (1940). Chaplin plays double role as a barber returning from years of amnesia after a WW I injury to find that the Nazis have taken over his shop. Chaplin plays a second role based on Hitler, Adenoid Hynkel, Jack Oakie was Oscar-nominated for his Benzino Napaloni, a character based on Mussolini, and Paulette Goddard plays the daughter of the leader of the under-siege Jewish community. 

Th Oct 23  8P "Death on the Nile" (1978) Peter Ustinov as Inspector Poirot tries to solve a murder/with Mia Farrow/Bette Davis

F Oct 24 6P "The Sunshine Boys" (1975) Richard Benjamin tries to induce old comics George Burns/Walter Matthau to return to the stage - a Neil Simon classic 

The next two films go directly against Game I of the World Series starting on Oct 24 after 8P on FOX

8P "Suspicion" (1941) Hitchcock thriller with Joan Fontaine/Cary Grant/Cedric Hardwicke

10P "The Fury" (1978). a Brian De Palma thriller about a distraught CIA operative with John Cassavetes/Kirk Douglas/Charles Durning who BTW once acted in a one-man show about Casey Stengel which is hard to find in print or video - Please contact me with leads if you have them.

Sa Oct 25. quite a feast of films, here are some of the highlights:

12N "Tales of Hoffmann" (1951) another Powell/Presburger classic based on the story of a man lamenting three of his loves - "Tales" was also, of course, a 19th century Offenbach opera still in the corpus of many opera companies all over the world.  The film stars Moira Shearer who was a huge hit in the Powell-Presburger 1948 film about ballet "The Red Shoes" 

415P "The League of Gentlemen" (1961) Basic Dearden directs bankers who plan a big heist

615P "Dr. Strangelove or How I Stopped Worrying And Learned to Love the Bomb" (1964)  TCM plays it a lot and it is always rewarding in a macabre kind of way fitting for 2025  

And for more counter programming in the middle of the World Series:

930P" "Rosemary's Baby" (1968) Roman Polanski's horror film based on true story written by Ira Levin about a woman fearful of giving birth to a child who might grow up to be Satan/with Mia Farrow/John Cassavetes/Ruth Gordon 

12M - repeated Sun Oct 26 10A. Noir Alley presents "Southside 1-1000" (1950) with Don DeFore, a year after he unravels Lisabeth Scott's dirty doings in "Too Late For Tears" (1949) and two years before he settles in as Ozzie and Harriet's neighbor in TV show of the same name.  I hope informed readers know that before Ozzie became a national big band leader, he played football at Rutgers "the state university of New Jersey".

Later on Sun Oct 26 following Noir Alley, there is an unusual back-to-back noir:

1145A "The Unfaithful" (1947) starring a rather talented trio:  Ann Sheridan (who hated being called by publicists the "oomph girl" because "oomph" reminded her of the sound a fat man made when he sat on a couch)/Lew Ayres who became a pacifist as did many others who worked on Lewis Milestone's searing "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1931). Ayres did work in a miitary medical corps in WW II. Another fun fact is that Ben Alexander, a child actor at 6, was around 18-19 when he played a German soldier eager to go into World War I. In the 1950s, Ben played Officer Frank Smith opposite Sgt. Jack Webb in the first TV "Dragnet". Also appearing in "The Unfaithful" is Zachary Scott who made a good living playing particularly smooth cads, notably in the classic "Mildred Pierce" (1945).  

No baseball on Sunday night but TCM brings two classic Hitchcocks back to life:

8P "Psycho" (1960) Bernard Herrmann's engrossing if unnerving score and Anthony Perkins doing in Janet Leigh who to me had far better roles in her career but she is too often mentioned for this one

10P "Shadow of A Doubt" (1943) Joseph Cotten after "Citizen Kane" and before "The Third Man," and Teresa Wright after "Pride of the Yankees" and before "Best Years of Our Lives"

M Oct 27. these films go head-to-head with Game 3 of World Series, the first one in LA

8P "Going My Way" (1944) actually most baseball references in this selection of TCM films appear here - young priest Crosby wears St. Louis Browns sweatshirt and utters several baseball comments  After World War II, he became a part owner of Pittsburgh Pirates (and Bob Hope also owned a slice of then-Cleveland Indians)

1015P "Papa's Delicate Condition" (1963)  Have not seen this one but talk about odd couples - Jackie Gleason is described on TCM as "small-town family man" with drinking issues.  British actress Glynis Johns . gifted with good looks and a notably husky and haunting voice - presumably tries to help Jackie. 

Tu Oct 28 here's an early morning one I must list and must see.

8A "Tennesse Johnson" (1942). One of Hollywood's post-Civil War historical dramas made at a time when we were trying to look to our history for inspiration for our fight against the Nazis.  How quaint today.  As a Branch Rickey biographer, I have a special interest in this film because TIME Magazine when they prolifed Rickey in early 1940s compared his speaking style to "Lionel Barrymore playing [arch-abolitionist US Senator] Thaddeus Stevens" in this film.  With Van Heflin as Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's successor and Ruth Hussey as AJ's wife.  William Dieterle directs.

That's all for now - always remember: "Stay Positive, Test Negative, and Take It Easy But Take It!"