Lee Lowenfish

I call this time of year in the baseball calendar the "silly season".  It's filled with bestowing awards and moaning about awards not bestowed.  It's filled

with speculations on trades and free agent signings more than actual trades and free agent signings.

 

It's also filled with the copycat talk of young executives in this Age of Analytics.  I am particularly amused at the similarity in the chatter of new Mets

president of baseball operations David Stearns and beleaguered longtime Yankees honcho Brian Cashman. 

 

When Stearns were introduced to the press last month by Steve Cohen, MLB's wealthiest owner, he quoted one of Cohen's favorite phrases as the owner looked on approvingly:  We are trying to find "the best in class" as his goal for Mets' future fromt office hirings. 

 

A few weeks later, Cashman responded by defending his staff even if "it doesn't mean we're best in class" (quoted by Bob Nightingale in USA Today, accessed on line November 12, 2023).  Cashman angrily accused the media of overplaying the Yankee reliance on analytics, but there is no doubt they

are still searching for "the next best thing" in advanced logorithms designed to addle the traditional fan who I argue is not dumb but skeptical.      

 

Fortunately, there will be substantial baseball news shortly.  A clue to where organizations are headed will be this coming Tues Nov 14 when 40-man rosters for every one of the 30 MLB organizations will be announced.  

 

As an ardent Oriole fan, it will be interesting to see who is protected and who is "non-tendered" a contract and thus can become a free agent.  I have loved the contributions in recent years of Bird bargain basement infielders Ramon Urias and Jorge Mateo, but it is hard to see both returning next season.  

 

Mateo has spectacular speed, base running talent, and infield savvy but a very erratic bat.  If it comes down to an either/or, Mateo might get the nod

over Urias whose power numbers slipped in 2023 and occasionally had rare defensive lapses. 

 

Ramon was a 2022 Gold Glove third baseman though he played less than 90 games there. He is also a fine defensive second baseman and came up to the Cardinals primarily as a shortstop. His younger brother Luis was traded from Milwaukee to Red Sox late in 2023 and his Boston roster spot might be as precarious as Ramon's.  

 

Ramon and Jorge are endangered because the Orioles are blessed with young talented infielders.  22-year-old Gunnar Henderson, signed as a high schooler in Selma, Alabama, starred at both shortstop and third baseman in 2023.  He will likely be voted the American League Rookie of the Year although Josh Jung has strong credentials from the Texas Rangers world champions.

 

I don't get carried away with that award - along with Manager of the Year awards, which will likely go to Baltimore skipper Brandon Hyde, the award does not guarantee longevity of career. 

 

Waiting in the infield wings are two rookies who excelled in the minors in 2023.  Joey Ortiz played at New Mexico State, the same alma mater as budding Oriole ace Kyle Bradish. I am drawn to players who come from unheralded schools and have something to prove.  Ortiz won't be 26 until July. 

 

Another infield stud is Jackson Holliday who won't turn 20 until Dec 4. Son of 7-time All-Star outfielder Matt Holliday, Jackson was number one MLB pick in 2023 after graduating from high school in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He rocketed through four levels of the minors in 2023.

 

Already on the Oriole roster, and a solid contributor since late June to the 2023 AL East champion, is Jordan Westburg who starred at perennial college power Mississippi State.  He is another shortstop that can play second or third base and he will only turn 25 on February 18, just as Oriole spring training is heating up. 

 

The competition among those infielders will be fierce.  So will it be betwen upcoming outfielders Colton Cowser, Heston Kjerstad, and Kyle Stowers. They will try to unseat at least one of the incumbents, Austin Hays and Cedric Mullins, and Anthony Santander who will be a free agent after 2024 season.  

 

It's quite possible before I file another post before baseball's winter meetings in Nashville in early December that some of the Baltimore core and some prospects are traded for starting pitching, bullpen help, and/or a solid run-producing bat.  I just caution people to read carefully headlines in the blogosphere.  Many posts are about what writers want and not actual news. 

 

As for other news about my favorite non-baseball teams, only Columbia's women's basketball team looks promising.  They lost six solid contributors

from the 2022-2023 team that won their first Ivy League title. Snubbed by the NCAA selection committee, the Lions went on to play a competitive WNIT final against Kansas at the historic Phog Allen field house in Lawrence.

 

Senior Abby Hsu returns and she is developing into a complete player not just a sharpshooter with the enviable quick release. 

The Lions are playing a very tough pre-league schedule with most of the games at home at Levien Gym, Broadway W 120 Street SE corner.

Upcoming are Duke Tu Nov 14 6p.  

Towson Th Nov 16 7p.  

Northeastern Sa Nov 25 4p. 

Providence W Nov 29 11a - the annual game to which hundreds of NYC schoolkids are invited.

Villanova Sun Dec 3 2p.

Memphis Wed Dec 6 6p. 

Wagner Su Dec 10 2p.

Ivy League home season begins with Penn Sa Jan 6 2p. More informatioin at gocolumbialions.com

 

And now before I close, some tips on the upcoming TCM (Turner Classic Movies) schedule. All times EST.

The two sports-related movies in November are F Nov 17 5p "The Set-Up" (1949) maybe the best boxing movie ever.

Robert Ryan who was a boxer at Dartmouth gives one of his riveting performances. 

 

F Nov 17 is All-Noir from 730A "Too Late for Tears" (1949) with Lisabeth Scott as not exactly the girl next door LOL

Through 8p "Between Midnight and Dawn" (1950) Mark Stevens, Edmond O'Brien, Gale Storm

Among other highlights:  1215p "Detour" (1945) about as grisly as "Too Late For Tears"

130p "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) the first Bogart/Lorre/Greenstreet collaboration - we'd love to trust Mary Astor.  However, . . . 

315p "Born To Kill" (1947) - Lawrence Tierney almost typecast and Claire Trevor a year before she plays another Claire in "Babe Ruth Story"

615p "Naked City" (1948) the original, a film that producer/inspirer Mark Hellinger never lived to see completed 

 

Sun Nov 19 345p "Pat and Mike" (1952).  Set in a golf world with legendary Babe Didrikson Zaharias in a cameo appearance, look near the end

for Chuck Connors, former first baseman, at the start of a career that led to TV's "The Rifleman". 

 

Also on Nov 19 at 10p Belafonte's "The World, Flesh, and the Devil" (1959) by no means sport enters here but quite a film about aftermath of

a nuclear war with only Belafonte, Inger Stevens, and Mel Ferrer as survivors.

 

Every Tuesday in November is Gloria Grahame night - one of the queens of Noir who always attracted good directors:

Tu Nov 14 triple-feature starting at 8p "In A Lonely Place" (1950) with Bogart as writer with anger problem to put it mildly.

Directed by Nicholas Ray, then married to Grahame.   

Followed by two Cold War era films: 945p "The Glass Wall" (1953)  directed by Maxwell Shane with Vittorio Gassman

and 1130p "Man on A Tightrope" directed by Elia Kazan with Fredric March

 

Tu Nov 21 8p "Bad and the Beautiful" (1952) Grahame's Oscar that she should have gotten for "Crossfire" (1947)

"TBATB" is one of the best films about Hollywood, dir. Vincent Minnelli with the wonderful David Raksin title song

10:15p "Odds Against Tomorrow" (1959) minor role for Gloria but Robert Wise directs bank robbers Ed Begley Sr., Belafonte and Ryan whose

racial enmity sabotages the plans 

 

Tu Nov 28 8p "The Big Heat" (1953) dir. by Fritz Lang with Glenn Ford and co-starring Jocelyn Brando, Marlon's sister

10p "Human Desire" (1954) another Lang not for faint of heart with Ford and Grahame and Broderick Crawford

1130p "Naked Alibi" (1954) with Sterling Hayden, Gene Barry, Chuck Connors again - have not seen this one about police brutality.

 

That's all for now.  Always remember:  Take it easy but take it.  And even if recovery from ubiquitous covid is slow like mine,

stay positive, test negative.

 

 

 

 

   

 

The Orioles' thrilling season continues on its merry way.  After being embarrassed 13-1 in the opening Fri June 23 game of a three-game home series against a Seattle Mariners team hovering around .500, they came from behind to win the next two games, 6-4 in 10 innings and 3-2 in Sunday's rubber match. 

 

If the 6-4 game Sat. game had been played during the post-season, a wider audience would have called it a classic.  Even though the Birds managed the dubious distinction of "running for the cycle" - 4 men were thrown out on the bases. 

 

Red-hot Anthony Santander hit a tying homer (did the same thing on Sunday and made a sensational catch) and Aaron Hicks, finding new life after trying times with the Yankees, hit a go-ahead homer.  But Yankee castoff Mike Ford, the undrafted slugger from Princeton, hit two long home runs, the second one tying the game with two out in top of the ninth off the huge Oriole closer Felix "The Mountain" Bautista. 

 

Julio Rodriguez, last year's AL Rookie of the Year, also homered and kept the game close by a sensational robbing of a two-run homer off the bat of Ryan O'Hearn.  O'Hearn is a KC Royals castoff who has stepped in productively for the injured and struggling Ryan Mountcastle who might be in danger of being Wally Pipp-ed although the farm system has younger, possibly more talented players than O'Hearn waiting in the wings.

 

The game was won in bottom of the tenth by a two-run homer by defensive replacement Ryan McKenna. It has been that kind of year for the Orioles - major contributions from unlikely members of the roster.  

 

Sunday's game-winning hit came off the bat of third-string catcher Anthony Bemboom who blooped the ball over second baseman Jose Caballero who kicked it towards the tarp and fleet shortstop Jorge Mateo scored all the way from first base on the error. 

 

Baltimore enters the last week of June 4 1/2 games behind Tampa Ray but only two in the loss column. They immediately host another even more surprising team the Cincinnati Reds who rolled off 12 wins in a row before losing two close games to the NL East leaders Atlanta Braves. 

 

The Reds have caught the nation's attention because they have been downtrodden for so long.  Some impressive rookies led by shortstop-third baseman Elly de la Cruz have fueled the surge and the return of future Hall of Famer Joey Votto will undoubtedly help.  Votto is one of the most thoughtful and team-oriented players in MLB and I hope he stays healthy now (but not too healthy against the Orioles). 

 

Maybe the most encouraging development this weekend was the solid seven-inning starts by young Oriole starters Dean Kremer, the first dual Israeli-American citizen in MLB history (and the last Oriole remnant of the

Manny Machado fire sale of 2018), and Kyle Bradish obtained as a minor leaguer in a trade for the fading

Dylan Bundy (last seen pitching for the Mets' Triple-A farm club in Syracuse).  

 

Nothing like the feeling of hope for one's team and the inevitable anxiety - can't have one without another - as summer moves on. On the local NYC high school baseball scene, congrats to Tottenville of Staten Island and Hunter of Manhattan's East Side for their triumphs at Yankee Stadium on June 12 in the AAA and AA divisions. 

 

More next time on the law suit brought by older MLB scouts against the MLB hierachy that may have committed age discrimination violations by severing many experienced veteran scouts. As I stressed in my new book BASEBALL'S ENDANGERED SPECIES, there is no substitute for the informed opinions of those who have worked in the trenches trying to evaluate and project the success of aspiring young players. 

 

The saddest entry this post focuses on the passing last week of two outstanding pitchers and baseball personages, Roger Craig, 93, who died on June 4, and Dick Hall, 92, who died on June 18. 

 

I will never forget Craig coming up with Don Bessent in the middle of the 1955 season to help the Brooklyn Dodgers win their only World Series. After winning another ring with 1959 LA Dodgers, Craig went on to become an anchor on early Mets staffs. 

 

He managed the San Diego Padres in 1978 and 1979 and later became a great pitching coach for the 1984 world champion Tigers. He managed mainly contending SF Giants teams from 1985-1992, losing the 1989 "earthquake" World Series to the Oakland A's.

 

Craig was a renowned teacher of the split-fingered fastball, the pitch du jour of the 1980s. He looked like a more avuncular and kinder former President Lyndon B. Johnson. His signature phrase will be remembered as "Humm baby!" but he was more importantly a wise dispenser of wisdom learned in his home state of North Carolina.  

 

Dick Hall was a lanky young outfielder-third baseman on Branch Rickey's young Pittsburgh Pirates teams in the 1950s before his conversion to the mound.  He blossomed as a relief pitcher for the Orioles in the 1960s winning two World Series rings in 1966 and 1970. 

 

The only Swarthmore graduate who made the field in MLB history (Larry and Lee MacPhail made the Hall of Fame as executives), Hall became an accomplished accountant and a persuasive advocate for the game.  

 

Hall grew up near NYC in Haworth NJ and I met not long ago one of his neighbors who remembered the sound of Hall's practicing his throwing on a cushioned wall or maybe a barn near my friend's house.  The sound of ball on wall night after night became the percussive musical background of my late friend's youth.    

 

In closing let's also cross fingers that the recent termination of several TCM (Turner Classic Movies) executives doesn't lead to a diminuition of that valuable cable channel's programming of classic films.

 

There have been a lot of layoffs at TCM recently, and chief executive David Zaslav is trying to dampen criticism by saying he believes in the station.  For now, my favorite show on TCM - Eddie Muller's Noir Alley Sat at midnight, rebroadcast at 10A Sun - remains on.  Even if the Noir formula grows tiresome and predictable, Eddie's intros and outros are must-see watching.

 

That's all for now. Next post comes from Chautauqua where I'm teaching a class from July 3, 5-7 on "Can Baseball Survive the 21st Century?"   Always remember:  Take it easy but take it, and stay positive, test negative.