Lee Lowenfish

Are you ready dear readers?  The Prince of Paranoia boldly predicts that . . . The Days Will Continue To Get Longer Until The Summer Solstice! How about that for fearless prediction!  I guess I don't want to join the chorus of pundit naysayers who are sure that a year from now, the big MLB story will be: How long will the lockout last?  My guess is we'll know more about the lockout likelihood if the Tigers have traded ace Tarik Skubal to the Dodgers or perhaps another deep-pocketed owner before spring training. One of those owners could be Edward Rogers of the Blue Jays who I mistakenly IDed as James Rogers in a recent blog. My bad on that one.  Edward is one of the richest men in Canada as head of the big media combine Rogers Communications - he is the Rogers the Rogers Centre stadium is named after.   How far we have come from the days when Philadelphia A's owner/manager Connie Mack did not want Shibe Park named after him. 

 

I am crossing fingers that the recent acquisition by the Pirates of second baseman Brandon Lowe and outfielder Jake Mangum in a trade with Tampa Bay Rays and former Oriole All-Star first baseman/outfielder Ryan O'Hearn as a free agent increases the chances that Pittsburgh's great RHP ace Paul Skenes will stay on the beautiful hilly city on the three rivers (the Allegheny, the Monongahela, the Ohio) for at least another year.  Skenes won't be a free agent until after 2029 season but unless the Pirates improve on the field in 2026 - and even if they do - hard to see Skenes staying with Pittsburgh for another four seasons but the good baseball city of Pittsburgh deserves hope.

 

If I didn't know too well the bitter history of player-owner labor relations that traces back to the late 19th century, I'd like to think a possible compromise exists: A quicker route to free agency and a higher salary floor for the players in exchange for a limit on salary highs, the dreaded salary cap. Despite some disarray in the usually united Players Association, it is hard to see at this juncture any leaders on either side stepping forward with compromise on their mind.  It seems that the richest owner the Mets Steve A. Cohen has now seemingly joined the hard-line owner group.  He has replaced Phillies owner John Middleton on the 8-owner executive council that ostensibly advises commissioner Robert Manfred. Middleton was the owner who announced that he was going to do something stupid in free agency and in renewing his own players.  Now there is hardly a dove in that group that consists of John Fisher (Athletics), Ken Kendrick (Diamondbacks), John Stanton (Mariners), Greg Johnson (Giants), Paul Dolan (Guardians), Arte Moreno (Angels), and Bruce Sherman (Marlins). Keep this list handy because a miracle might happen and some owners not on the committee might step forward in the name of compromise. 

 

SAVE FRI NIGHT JAN 23!

The 59th Annual New York Pro Baseball Scouts Dinner will be held at Leonard's of Great Neck at 555 Northern Boulevard just off the Long Island Expressway.

Yankees radio announcer Dave Sims will be the guest speaker and several local scouts and coaches will receive honors including the Good Guy Award to Pirates associate scout Chris Clehane who is indeed a good guy and a highly regarded NYC area coach.  Tickets are $125 and checks should be sent to Billy Blitzer, 3759 Nautilus Ave, Brooklyn NY 11224.  No tickets will be sold at the door and checks must be received no later than Jan 16, a we before the dinner.  They should be made out to the NY Pro Scouts Association. Billy Blitzer can also be reached at bbscout1@aol.com 

 

LOCAL WOMEN'S BASKETBALL NOTES:

My favorite Columbia team entered Christmas break with a 8-4 record.  Their two most recent wins, against Seton Hall on the road and UTSA (University of Texas San Antonio) at home, weren't decided until the final seconds. Good experience for the players, a lesson in emotional control for the Prince of Paranoia.  Down in Greenwich Village, the defending Division III champion NYU Violets, unbeaten for well over 2 years, are rolling along with a 7-0 record, scoring over 100 points in 5 of the games and its closest competition came in a 90-48 win over Brooklyn College.  Here is their upcoming home schedule at their spiffy Paulson Center on Bleecker Street just west of Mercer Street.

M Dec 29 2P Hamilton College (from Clinton NY - not to be confused with Colgate University in Hamilton NY) [but game at tourney in Montreal].   

M Jan 5 2P Skidmore College (from Saratoga Springs, NY)

Home games against their league opponents in the UAA (University Athletic Association) start:

F Jan 16 730P U. of Rochester (NY)

Su Jan 18 Noon Emory U (from Atlanta)

 

TIME FOR TCM TIPS    

Christmas Night at 10P EST - Tune in for "Angels in the Outfield" the original 1951 film directed by Clarence Brown, the M-G-M director who made Greta Garbo a star among his many credits.  Even if you don't go for the fantasy of a little girl (Donna Corcoran in her debut) seeing angels in the outfield and hard-bitten manager Guffy McGovern (Paul Douglas) hearing them too, the photography of Forbes Field and its beautiful Pittsburgh neighborhood are worth seeing.  Morphing Phil Rizzuto, others in the cast are "not too shabby" either: Janet Leigh as the Household Hints writer for a Pittsburgh newspaper who tries to humanize Guffy/Keenan Wynn as a virulent sportswriter/Spring byington and Ellen Corby as nuns that bring little Donna to games/Bruce Bennett as veteran pitcher/and James Whitmore as the uncredited voice of the angel Gabriel. 

11:45P the 15-minute short "Donkey Baseball" (1935). Promoter Ray Doan's novelty sport. 

I don't see any other sports films of note in the days ahead but some major ones need mention: 

F Dec 26 8P "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979) Robert Benton [NOT Sidney Pollack] directs Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep as they go through a nasty divorce

Sa Dec 27 8P Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941) some sports in here as Robert Montgomery is a onetime boxer who gets reincarnated with the help of Claude Rains

945P "Network" (1976) Paddy Chayevsky's diatribe against TV with stellar cast including William Holden/Faye Dunaway/Peter Finch who delivers the memorable line,

"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!"  Does that line still resonate as 2025 careens to its end. 

Followed at 1215A repeated at 10A Noir Alley brings you "Odd Man Out" (1947) Carol Reed directs James Mason/Robert Newton in story set in Ireland during IRA troubles

 

Two Woody Allen films of note:

Su Dec 28 1215P "The Purple Rose of Cairo" (1985) a big part of it set in movie theatres during Great Depression and filmed just north of NYC in Piermont, NY. With Mia Farrow.

M Dec 29 6P "The Front" (1976) Martin Ritt, who lived through the Hollywood blacklist, directs Woody who plays a front for a blacklisted writer.  Zero Mostel who also endured the blacklist is not to be missed.

[M DEC 31 Marx Brothers Marathon:  

530A "Room Service: (1938)

7A "At The Circus" (1939) with Eve Arden and memorable song "Lydia The Tattooed Lady"

830A "A Day At The Races" (1937) the passing of producer Irving Thalberg who did the earlier one is felt here 

1030A "A Night At The Opera" (1935) one of the immortal ones with the famous state room scene and Kitty Carlisle's most famous role

1230P "The Cocoanuts" (1929) the very first one filmed in Queens after its success on the stage

215P "Animal Crackers" (1930) Groucho as Captain Spaulding the African Explorer 

400P "Monkey Business" (1931) the next two have talented blonde beauty ill-fated Thelma Todd (instead of the more stately hilarious Margaret DuMont)

530P "Horse Feathers" (1932) college football was never the same after this one

645P "Duck Soup" (1933) the wonderful mirror scene and the most anti-war in politics - a 7-letter word causes war.  Can any reader ID it?  

 

That's all for now.  Happy and healthy New Year to all, Stay Positive and Test Negative, and Take it Easy But Take It!  

 

 

All the major MLB awards have been given out and I have no real problem with the award-winners.  I am a little concerned that there are repeat winners in three big categories - Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani as MVPs, the Guardians' Stephen Vogt and the Brewers' Pat Murphy as Managers of the Year, and the Tigers' Tarik Skubal and the Pirates' Paul Skenes as Cy Young winners.  The result suggests that there are no new teams and pitchers breaking into the limelight. 

 .

I certainly hope that Skubal stays with the Tigers at least through the end of 2026 when he will be a free agent.  His owner Mike Ilitch Jr., heir to the Caesar's pizza chain and according to a google bio "the producer of Christian movies," is not very visionary in his stewardship so there have been no hints of an extension being offered to Skubal and his omnipresent agent Scott Boras. 

 

Skenes is a different case in that he won't be a free agent until after the 2029 season and already rumors are floating that he wants to be a Yankee which he has denied. 

He is a remarkable athlete.  Was both a pitcher and a catcher in HS and attended the Air Force Academy to start fulfilling his dream of being a pilot serving his country. 

He was so good at the AFA that his coaches begged him to transfer to a top division I school to hone his talents against better competition.  All he did was to lead the LSU Tigers to the 2023 College World Series title.  Pittsburgh had no choice but to draft him number one in the country and he has not disappointed Sadly, the Pirates' lack of offense and very few winning players have left the loyal fans and Skenes himself frustrated. 

 

Skenes is a quick study in all he does. Recently he became one of the first players to sign baseball cards for the Japanese market in a rare language that combines Japanese and Chinese characters. Predictions for the price of those cards on the eBay market stretch into several hundred thousand dollars.  Skenes' girl friend Olivia "Livvy" Dunne, the star gymast he met at LSU, is also no stranger to creating big ticket marketing opportunities.  Late in the now-settled "House vs. NCAA" federal trial trying to establish a fair price for  the services of college athletes, Dunne was vociferous in charging that her economic worth had been grossly undervalued while at LSU. 

 

I predict that there is one happier note ahead. The World Baseball Classic - which stretches from early March until a week before the opening of the MLB regular season in late March - will be another feel-good story.  Almost every player wants to participate.  Skenes, who reportedly would like to start an Air Force career after his baseball work is done, was honored to be selected to the American team.  There were NINE nationalities represented in the just-concluded thrilling World Series and some of those players are also likely to be on WBC rosters.  

 

The WBC is reportedly the one enterprise in MLB that the owners and the players share equally in its production. But I also predict a more troubling occurrence once the MLB season starts:  the rise of a barrage of stories about a likely lockout of the players by the owners after the current Basic Agreement ends at the end of December 2026.  I don't think the lockout will work - rich teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Mets, Blue Jays - want the revenue from TV and the box office plus the glory of carrying a trophy around. (Although it pales aesthetically compared to hockey's Stanley Cup.) It promises to be a particularly ugly negotiation. Commissioner Rob Manfred has been openly telling players that the MLBPA has served only their richest brethren.  Recent stories have also been broken in major outlets like espn.com and The Athletic about misapproporiation of funds by MLBPA director Tony Clark. 

 

Baseball has a long history of owner-player struggles that I described in three editions of THE IMPERFECT DIAMOND, 1980, 1991, and 2011.  I made reference in the first edition of the late Mort Sahl's comment about Richard Nixon's memoir SIX CRISES - it should have come out in a looseleaf edition so you could add the crises.  Baseball has tried lockouts many times and they have not been successful. It is possible that saner heads may prevail sometime in 2026 before the deadline.

 

Here's some ideas: 

**Adjustment to the one-year qualifying offer for a player not yet a free agent is one area for reform.  Attached to a draft pick the signing team must surrender, the price tag of over $20 million seems quite high. Can it be reduced somewhat without players' claiming foul? 

 

**Establishing a salary floor that the non-big spending teams must obey is another area for possible reform.  Even reducing the number of years for free agency eligibility to 4 or 5 years seems like a workable idea from afar, but reason has never been a strong suit in baseball labor history.

 

One thing I will say in defense of the Phillies Bryce Harper who had a well-reported run-in with Rob Manfred when he visited the team during the season.  Harper noted that when he signed out of a community college in Las Vegas, he received a bonus of over $10 million as the number one pick in the country.  15 years later, that pick's bonus has not been any higher and for some players considerably lower.  Of course, no one is going to shed tears for the players in this battle.  It does show what monopoly rule by the owners can achieve as their franchise values soar and soar. 

 

 For now let's relax, prepare to enjoy the blessedly non-religious holiday of Thanksgiving, and become aware of some TCM highlights ahead.

 

Su Nov 16 12:15A & 10A - Noir Alley:  "High and Low" (1963) a classic Kurosawa film about a prominent father who has to cope with a serious legal charge against his son 

8P Jeff Bridges and John Goodman in the classic "The Big Lebowski" (1988)

Followed at 1015P Jeff and his brother Beau (sons of Lloyd Bridges)/Michelle Pfieffer in "The Fabulous Baker Boys" (1989) a believable take on struggling jazz musicians

 

M Nov 17 6P "M" (1931) the original German film about the hunt for a child killer played by Peter Lorre, directed by Fritz Lang

 

W Nov 19 from 6A-8P Films written by Billy Wilder, born in Vienna who as a teenager traveled to Berlin to write stories about the touring Paul Whiteman band and the great doomed trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke.   

6A "People on Sunday" (1930) Robert Siodmak follows young Berliners one Sunday cavorting in a park in what will turn out to be the last 3 years of the Weimar Republic. Siodmak in America in the 1940s will make some great Noirs including "The Suspect" with Charles Laughton, "Christmas Holiday" with Gene Kelly as a real bad guy snd Deanna Durbin, "The Killers" that made Burt Lancaster a star, and in a lighter vein George Sanders being overly protected by his sister the stunning Geraldine Fitzgerald (on a LIFE cover in the summer of 1945), "The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry".

 

9A "Ninotchka" (1939) Wilder works with Ernst Lubitsch on a hilarious and rather profound story set in Paris about the romance of an American, Melvyn Douglas, with a ultra-serious Russian commissar Greta Garbo - "Garbo laughs" went the promotional trailer and she does.  Sadly, she made very few films if any after this one.

 

130P "Irma La Douce" (1963) with Shirley MacLaine also set in Paris but the times in the 1960s were changing and Wilder doesn't really ride well with them

4P "Witness for the Prosecution" (1957) maybe Wilder's best last film - with Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich - ads at the time forbade fans to give away the ending, I won't either! 

6P "One, Two, Three" (1961) with James Cagney - A Coca-Cola executive travels to Berlin to prevent his boss's daughter from marrying an East German Communist. with Arlene Francis, yes that Arlene Francis of "What's My Line?" fame. 

 

Th Nov 20 Neo-Nors including

8P "Point Blank" with Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson

10P "The Late Show" (1977) with Art Carney, Lily Tomlin

 

Sat Nov 22. Nathan Lane introduces a classic noir and classic neo-noir:

8P "Double Indemnity" (1944). Edward G. Robinson under control without much screen time investigates Fred MacMurray/Barbara Stanwyck

10P "Chinatown" (1974) Polanski slices Jack Nicholson's nose, literally, but you keep watching. With Faye Dunaway.

1230A repeated Sun at 10 Noir Alley presents "The Strip" (1949) with Mickey Rooney as a struggling jazz drummer and Louis Armstrong playing and singing "A Kiss To

Build a Dream on". 

  

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