Lee Lowenfish

There is certainly still a chance (mathematical) that Cleveland and the Mets can make a good series out of their matchups prior to the World Series.  But as of this writing on Thursday afternoon Oct 17, the Mets will have to clean up their game defensively and start their bats producing again. Even if they rediscover their magic sauce, down two games to one, they'll have to win it in LA. 

 

As for the Yankees-In-Guardians series (I've decided that since most of us folks of a certain age can't help calling them Indians, let's at least reclaim the

first syllable of the old name, OK?), Cleveland's lack of starting pitching has really been exposed.  I hope home-cooking allows at least one win and more chances for us to marvel at Steven Kwan, their great left fielder/leadoff man who has made Oregon State proud (in ways that the Orioles' Adley Rutschman could not duplicate this season). 

 

Here's the back story on why a Yankee-Dodger World Series is my least favorite of any Fall Classic.  I think my character was definitely shaped (warped?) by growing up a New York Giant fan when the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers were seemingly in every World Series - to be exact, 1947, 1949, 1952-53, 1955-1956. As a National League fan, I pulled for the Dodgers in the World Series, but it certainly wasn't like rooting for your team. 

 

1955 was the only World Series the Brooklyn Dodgers ever won. The outrageously entitled Yankee fans still insist that blip happened only because Mickey Mantle was injured.  In a wound in the heart that still exists in most of the Flatbush Faithful older generation, almost exactly two years after Johnny Podres shut out the Yankees in Game 7, the Dodgers were on their way to Los Angeles. 

 

The Giants accompanied the Dodgers to the West Coast settling in San Francisco. To give you an idea of how much of a blow the departure of the historic NL franchises meant to NYC fans, the Yankees with the NYC market all to themselves drew fewer fans in 1958 than they did in 1957.  It didn't stop the Bronx Bombers from avenging their 7-game 1957 World Series loss to the Milwaukee Braves by overcoming a 3-1 games deficit in 1958 to beat the Braves. 

 

Fortunately with expansion, a Yankee-LA Dodger WS matchup hasn't happened that often and the LAD in 1963 and 1981 actually won two World Series

over the NYY.  But the Yankees did beat the Dodgers in back-to-back 1977-1978 World Series.  I

 

I remember 1977 painfully because the Orioles won 97 games in the first year of free agency.  They lost Reggie Jackson to the Yankees and Bobby Grich and Don Baylor to the Angels, but they stayed in the pennant race until the last weekend of regular season. 

 

On Friday night as I watching the Tigers' lefty John Hiller beat the Yankees at the second incarnation of Yankee Stadium, the Red Sox eliminated the Birds at Fenway in a slugfest.  I was watching the score throughout the game whenever the scoreboard deigned to show it. Shortly after the Tigers won, I looked at the scoreboard and it read "Bost 12 Balt 8 - F".

 

It turned out it was fake news. As I was coming home in the subway, a fan told me that final score was 12-11 and Al Bumbry had made the last out with tying run on second. How much disappointment can a fan take?!  The next afternoon, the Orioles eliminated the Red Sox.  Elliott Maddox, only briefly with the Orioles, insouciantly caught the last out, a routine fly ball to center. 

 

I was so bummed out that I vowed not to watch the World Series at all.  During Game 1, I went to see Win Wenders' neo-noir movie "The American Friend".  But when every time I glimpsed the mustache of actor Bruno Ganz I thought of Thurman Munson, I decided, "If the Yankees are still on my mind at the movies, I might as well watch the games." I did but with little passion. Reggie Jackson hit 3 home runs in the final game.  Ho-hum. 

 

47 years after that 1977 World Series, I think I've attained A LITTLE philosophical distance from my earlier self.  I don't really hate any of the players on NYY/LAA. And I find it amusing that the boobirds at Yankee Stadium will have to cheer at the success of their targets in recent years who are really producing now, Gian-Carlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres, and Alex Verdugo (a former Dodger who will have extra incentive against LAA).

 

You never know in baseball so I hope that the remaining LCS games have some memorable moments.  Like the last two games of the Cleveland-Detroit division series. When David Fry's pinch-hit home run silenced Detroit's Comerica Park in Game 4 forcing a return to Cleveland's Progressive Field for Game 5.

And Lane Thomas, former Cardinals farmhand and Nats outfielder, hit a grand slam off the brilliant southpaw Tarik Skubal, this year's likely AL Cy Young winner. 

 

Two pitches in succession turned around Skubal's season. First, a bases loaded HBP to Jose Ramirez and then Thomas' line drive HR that gave Cleveland the lead they would not relinquish.  It pays to watch the game closely - things can happen in a twinkling. 

 

I heard a wonderful story from a friend whose mother-in-law lives in an assisted living facility in Cleveland.  She was dutifully going to 4p Saturday Mass when the game was not yet final.  The service was delayed slightly to make sure the team had won and then it opened with a nun on piano playing a rousing version of"Take Me Out To The Ballgame". 

 

Speaking of rousing performances, how about that WNBA final between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx!  On their sixth visit to the finals as a WNBA charter member, the Liberty need one more victory either Fri night Oct 18 or back home in Brooklyn on Sun night Oct 20 to earn their first title.

 

This series has not been for the weak in heart.  The Liberty blew double-digit leads in the first two games at home, salvaging a split. The Lynx led all the

way in Game 3 until they didn't late in 4th quarter.  Only a 28-foot straight away jump shot by Sabrina Ionescu kept Game 3 from going into overtime. 

 

Another star from the Northwest like Steven Kwan, Ionesco, the former Oregon Ducks sensation, gave credit to her preparation for her ability to sink 

that shot.  It reminds me of the saying I once saw in the Tampa Bay Rays clubhouse or maybe on one of the their T-shirts:

"Champions Are Made When Nobody Is Looking." 

 

That's all for now - stay positive, test negative, still my mantra, and take it easy but take it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I never expected it to happen in 2022 and was skeptical about future years.  And yet

with 32 games left, 20 at home, as Labor Day weekend starts, the Orioles are 1 1/2 games behind the Blue Jays for the third and final wild card spot.  Seattle and Tampa Bay hold

down the first two spots with the Birds three lost games behind them. 

 

My long-held views that Every Baseball Season Is Different and There Is At Least One

Surprise Team Each Year have come true in the most pleasant and heart-warming manner. 

 

The Birds have 10 games left with Toronto, seven of them at home including an old-fashioned Labor Day doubleheader.  The Blue Jays were one of the pre-season favorites in AL East but they have not played very consistent baseball.  

 

Nor have the Yankees who just endured an August that was its worst since Stump Merrill's 1991 team. The Red Sox are in the AL East basement, following their recent pattern of boom-bust-boom-bust. 

 

I saw the Orioles twice last month during SABR's 50th convention held this year in downtown Baltimore a short walk to Camden Yards.  The Birds lost the makeup day

game with the Cubs, 3-2, but unheralded castoff RHP Spenser Watkins pitched well.

 

Before an enthusiastic crowd of over 30,000 on Friday night, including many of the SABR attendees sitting in the right field bleachers, the Orioles blasted the Red Sox, 15-10,

belting five homers.  It was a rare offensive outburst by a team whose rise to contention has been fueled by vastly improved pitching and often sensational defense. 

 

I had never sat in the outer reaches of Camden Yards and it brought back memories of Fenway Park's fabled section.  In both places, you feel a bond with the third base and left field fans, creating the kind of shared community that is ballpark viewing at its best.

 

The remarkable resurgence of the Orioles got an added boost in late August by the play of 21-year-old Gunnar Henderson, a second round draft choice who was signed after his graduation three years ago from high school in Alabama.  

 

All he did in his first game was hit a long home run in his second AB after being victimized in his first AB by Guardians' left fielder Steven Kwan's great catch. In his second game, Gunnar made two outstanding defensive plays at shortstop and stole his first base.

 

I've seen him play in the lower minors and twice earlier this season at Triple-A Norfolk.  He has that "it" quality, the art of making a difficult game look easy. And you can see his

love of the game is not an act.  

 

Ditto for catcher Adley Rutschman who was drafted a round ahead of Henderson.  Adley is scuffling at the plate now, but his catching and leadershp skills are not suffering.  

 

The Orioles suddenly look like they have a bright future. The 2023 option on the contract of   manager Brandon Hyde was quietly picked up earlier this year.  So was the same 2023 option on injured southpaw John Means' contract.  Nothing like stablility in an organization once there is light at the end of the tunnel

 

It will be a challenge for Hyde, Joe Maddon's bench coach when the Cubs broke their 108-year World Series-championship drought in 2016, to get playing time for all the players

arriving.  Jorge Mateo remains the incumbent shortstop, the former Yankee prospect who

has been a revelation in 2022 once given regular playing time. It is a nice problem to

have, too many good players, but I think Hyde will find a way. 

 

As for the SABR convention, a highlight for me was Boog Powell in conversation with local sportswriter Dan Connolly of the Athletic.  He shared warm reminiscences of playing for 

the Orioles and how after his retirement he hustled to get the Lite Beer commercial that featured him and umpire Jim Honochick. The lines for Boog's BBQ at the ballpark are deservedly long.

 

Before I close this return to blogging, here's a tip of the cap to the Mets Old-Timers Day that owner Steve Cohen organized last Saturday August 27.  Cohen is a genuine Mets

fan and many original Mets returned for the first Old Timers Day in almost 30 years.  One of them was Jay Hook who won the team's first game.

 

In a TV interview with SNY broadcaster Steve Gelbs, Jesse Orosco shared the moving story of what happened to the glove that he threw towards the Astrodome roof when the Mets

won the epic 16-inning game over Houston that propelled them into the 1986 World

Series.  He said he gifted it to Steven McDonald, the NYPD officer who was paralyzed in

the line of duty. 

 

The National Anthem played on Old Timers Day was a recording by Jane Jarvis, the team's only organist from its first days at Shea Stadium in 1964.  I was fortunate to get to know Jane during her career as a jazz pianist when she left the team after the 1979 season.

 

Jane had been a child prodigy on both piano and organ in Indiana, proficient in classical music but loving jazz and all kinds of music. She later lived in Milwaukee where, among her other gigs, she became the Braves' ballpark organist.  

 

That's all for now.  But here's one TCM tip - Thursdays in September will be devoted to the

many films of Humphrey Bogart, some of them real classics.  

 

Always remember - take it easy but take it!