Lee Lowenfish

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. 

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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! 

My August started with another memorable week teaching Baseball and American Culture in the Special Studies program at Chautauqua, the adult education mecca located in southwestern New York State just past Jamestown. Our theme this year was baseball and comedy. Co-teaching with veteran literature teacher Mark Altschuler, we started with Abbott and Costello's evergreen "Who's On First?" Next up was the hilarious baseball scene in Buster Keaton's 1927 film "College" followed by Ring Lardner's "Alibi Ike" - originally written in 1914 and soon to become a phrase in the American language. We delved into both the short story and Joe E Brown's movie interpretation.

I had never taught "Damn Yankees" before and whatta revelation. That was Walter Mitty Me! in the opening scene of the movie when Joe Boyd, the frustrated middle-aged Washington Senators fan, is screaming at his black-and-white TV: "Don't try to murder the ball - just hit it up the middle!" Soon Boyd is transformed into slugging hero Joe Hardy played in the movie by Tab Hunter.  Ray Walston and Gwen Verdon recreated their Broadway roles in the film as the Devil and his assistant Lola. Costumed hilariously, Jean Stapleton, later to become immortal as Edith Bunker, has a memorable turn as one of the neighbors of Joe Boyd's wife. 

Douglass Wallop's novel "The Year The Yankees Lost The Pennant" fortuitously came out in 1954, the year the Yankees DID lose the pennant. The Broadway musical opened in 1955, the only year the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Yankees in the World Series. The show ran into 1957 including a London run as "What Lola Wants". '57 was also the year the Yanks lost in October to the Milwaukee Braves but the play has lasting power not because of its Yankee-bashing, but because of its warm and convincing take on the  life crisis of a middle-aged male.  It continues to be performed in high schools, and with a diverse cast, opens in the Washington DC area this fall. It is hard to match "You Gotta Have Heart" for a peppy optimistic number and "Whatever Lola Wants (Lola Gets)" for good clean seduction.  The lament of Lola and Joe Hardy, "Two Lost Souls" with Verdon also dancing with choregrapher Bob Fosse (and future husband), touched me.   

Whatta great name for a writer about baseball, Wallop. Douglass Wallop (1920-1985) was actually a onetime news service reporter who transcribed General Eisenhower's 1948 memoir "Crusade in Europe". He wrote several novels and a baseball history, but if remembered at all, it is for his whimsical novel which was reissued in 2004 in a new edition introduced by the first famous baseball analyst Bill James.  BTW, Mel Allen, the Yankee broadcaster who used to call home runs White Owl Wallops (and Ballantine Blasts), appears as himself in the film.

Other highllights of the class included the showing of the mirthful short subject "Gandhi at the Bat" based on Chet Williamson's "New Yorker" story and Harpo Marx playing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" on what was reportedly the most widely watched "I Love Lucy" show.  The claas ended with a showing of George Carlin's immortal "Baseball vs. Football" monologue that he performed on the first "Saturday Night Live" in 1975. Our surprise guest afterwards was Kelly Carlin, also a teacher at Chautauqua, a writer based in LA, and George Carlin's only child.  She has donated her father's archive to the National Comedy Center in nearby Jamestown, which is on its way to becoming a Comedy Cooperstown.      

Mark and I are talking about a Baseball Comedy Part II during Chautauqua's Week 5 at the end of July 2026. I'm lobbying for excerpts from Richard Greenberg's play "Take Me Out" in which the player agent who falls in love with baseball (and one of the stars) delivers this elegy:

"Baseball is better than democracy - or at least that democracy as it's practiced in this country - because, unlike democracy, baseball acknowledges loss.   While conservatives tell you, 'Leave things alone, and no one will lose,' and liberals tell you, 'Interfere a lot and no one will lose,' baseball says, 'Someone will lose.' Not only says it, insists upon it." (p34)  

Not exactly something that super-agent in the real world Scott Boras might say, but I believe this elegy is worthy of our.attention.  

And now for the sad tale of the return of the Woerioles.  In a year where there is no clear favorite for the World Series and a lot of surprise teams from the Heartland I think have a genuine shot - eg.  Milwaukee, Detroit, and Toronto - the O's never threatened.  I wish I am wrong but it seems like another "rebuild" is coming to Camden Yards as well as already-announced higher ticket prices and changes to the stadium that may spoil the acclaimed creation in the early 1990s that sparked the new wave of old-style baseball parks. 

All of the so-called young core of the team have had down years.  Some have mysteriously fallen into a baseball abyss like the switch-hitting catcher Adley Rutschman the number one pick in the country in the 2019 draft (Bobby Witt Jr now a Kansas City star shortstop was the number two).  Hard to pinpoint what happened to a former "can't-miss" prospect.  Probably the "high point" was his performance in the Home Run Derby at Seattle in 2023 when his father, along with his father scholastic coaching royalty in Oregon, pitched to him and Adley blastied home runs from both sides of the plate. It was just an exhibition and Dad was lobbing balls - and not real MLB baseballs - from 40 feet away.  

Adley is now on the IL with his second oblique injury of the year, supposedly not as bad as the first one on the other side of his body.  What I had long feared has come to fruition - the buildup for Samuel Basallo the heir apparent to Rutschman has begun.  After only FOUR GAMES IN HIS MLB CAREER, the Orioles with great fanfare held a press conference to announce that the 21-year-old from the Dominican Republic had been signed to a 8-year contract, meaning that his salary arbitration years had been bought out plus two more of his free agency.

Not surprisingly, Basallo has gotten off to a slow start with the bat while catching a little and playing some first base and DH-ing.  None of the other vaunted core with more MLN experience has provided much offensive help with the slight exception of shortstop Gunnar Henderson who has seemingly lost his power bat and who good pitching tends to stifle.  Sadly, fellow infielder and grittier Jordan Westburg must now be burdened with one of the worst adjectives in baseball parlance, "injury-prone". Jackson Holliday, the 2023 top pick in the country, has not shown much improvement and he might even miss playing shortstop.  Not sure he has the arm for that and he is still showing signs of feeling overmatched at the major league level.  

Recently, fired manager Brandon Hyde made his first comments since his ouster, expressing regret on how Holliday was rushed to the majors.  Sure hope that Basallo doesn't meet the same

fate.  

The only truly bright spot in 2025 has the outstanding pitching of southpaw Trevor Rogers whose performance has taken away some of the sting from the trade of power-hitting outfielder Kyle Stowers to the Marlins (along with power-hitting infielder Connor Norby). Though not yet a contender and with ownership (like Baltimore's) not seemingly committed to spending money wisely, the Marlins are developing a scrappy, dangerous young team - ask the Mets who just lost three out of four at home to Miami.   

I feel for the Baltimore fans who will not accept another rebuild and last week allowed the Red Sox winnite fans to take over the ballpark. Just like doing the dark years before Buck Showalter led the turn around in 2012.   Undoubtedly Yankee fans will do the same when they visit Camden Yards September 19-21. In another item of bad news, the 2026 schedule was just announced and like this year the Orioles will wind up the regular season at Yankee Stadium.  At least they don't play in 2026 7 of their last 10 games against their rivals as they do late this month.  

I don't want to end on such a sour note so here are some kudos to some baseball people who are flying under the radar.

** The defensive quickness of rival third basemen caught my eye when I attended the last regular season home game of the Brooklyn Cyclones against the Hudson Valley Yankees on the Sunday before Labor Day.  Juan Matheus (pronounced Matthews) for the victorious Yankees and Diego Mosquera for the Cyclones are both Venezuelans, Matheus from Lara and Mosquera from Valencia. Interestingly, they both have the same slender build, 5' 10 and 155 pounds -  it possibly projects them more to the middle infield.  

I love going to minor league games.  Pat O'Conner, the last president of the National Association of minor leagues before Rob Manfred took over and even more their offices to NYC, used to guarantee that at every minor league game you will see a future major leaguer.  I like to believe he was right.  The Cyclones, the Mets' top High Single-A farm club, are coasting to the playoffs in which they are likely to host Game 2 on Th Sep 11 and if necessary Game 3  F Sep 12.   For further info, check out brooklyncyclones.com     

**Third baseman Caleb Durbin, who come to Milwaukee from the Yankees in the Devin Williams trade, went to Washington U of St Louis, hardly a baseball factory. After doing a little digging, I realized that catcher and later baseball exectutive Muddy Ruel went to WUSL before World War I. After World War II so did Dal Maxvill who won World Series rings for the St. Louis Cardinals as both a shortstop and a GM.

**On Sept 4, YouTube will start showing a documentary about the late Jeff Torborg, the former Rutgers star and catcher of three of Sandy Koufax's no-hitters and later a highly respected manager and coach. 

That's all for now but as always Stay Positive, Test Negative, and Take It Easy But Take It!