Lee Lowenfish

On Friday January 29 the New York Pro Baseball Scouts Hot Stove League held their 51st annual dinner. Usually this event occurs on a bitterly cold or snowy evening - just the Saturday before the baseball writers dinner was canceled because of Blizzard Jonas.

Happily, the scouts’ shindig this year was held on almost a balmy night. As usual Leonard’s of Great Neck, the well-known Long Island mecca for weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other happy occasions, provided the setting.

A recurring theme in the lively speeches was pride in the New York-area player who can hold his own with the more highly coveted prospects from Texas-California-Florida.

Main speaker J.P.Ricciardi, longtime assistant to the Mets gm Sandy Alderson and a former Blue Jays gm, praised passionately the work and commitment of the Northeast area scout. He lamented the increasing power of the national cross-checker in most organizations.

Yankees scout Matt Hyde, winner of the Bennie Borgmann Good Guy Award, noted a piece of good advice he received early in his career from former Met and Yankee Lee Mazzilli: “Remember that every player has a heartbeat.” (BTW Borgmann was a great basketball player, too, and he is honored at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.)

WFAN’s Ed Coleman, winner of the Dick Young award as media Person of the Year,
brought back some great memories of early television when he referenced George Gobel’s self-effacing remark that in the world he felt like brown shoes at a gathering of tuxedos.

Coleman’s modesty was not necessary because in this age of loud-mouthed media screamers his informative and measured work on WFAN is one of the treasures we older folks enjoy hearing.

Columbia’s baseball coach Brett Boretti won the Ralph DiLullo Metro Coach of the Year award for his remarkable run of three straight Ivy League championships. In 2015 the Lions won three games in the Miami regional of the NCAA tournament.

Boretti paid tribute to the leadership qualities of his players and his own willingness to hire people smarter than himself.

Mets rookie lefty Steven Matz won the Herb Stein “Star of the Future” award. He was already working out in Florida, but Matz’s father accepted the award gratefully.

Mets’ scout Larry Izzo, who signed Matz, received the night’s biggest ovation as the winner of the Turk Karam Scout of the Year. Izzo assured the audience that as promising as Matz looms on the mound, he’s even a better person.

Izzo quipped that he will forgo his expense account money to help the Mets pay returning outfielder Yoenis Cespedes. He said that in 200 years he then might get paid again.

Turning serious, Izzo said that he considers his biggest thrill when he can help a local player win a scholarship to college.

All in all, the scouts dinner as usual provided a wonderful evening. With February now having begun we can lovingly anticipate the sounds of bat on ball and ball in glove before the year's shortest month is even over.

So now more than ever remember: Take it easy but take it!
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Most Oriole fans had resigned themselves to the departure of slugger Chris Davis to free agency. To the credit of the sportswriters covering the drawn-out story in Baltimore and nationally, they always mentioned the possibility that Davis might stay.

After all, he likes living in Baltimore, he loves hitting in Camden Yards, and it was manager Buck Showalter who knew him in the Texas Rangers organization and was glad to obtain him in a trade in 2011.

When owner Peter Angelos removed the reported offer of seven years and over $150 million from the table late last year, it was made clear that lines of communications were still open between Davis, his super-agent Scott Boras, and the Orioles’ octogenarian often irascible owner.

I for one had no problem with how the Orioles handled the negotiations. Boras always likes teams to think there is a secret bidder salivating over a coveted free agent. In the past that strategy has worked – Alex Rodriguez got his huge $200 million-plus 10 year contract with the Rangers in 2001 when former owner Tom Hicks started bidding against himself.

Angelos called that bluff and when no mystery team emerged, Davis accepted the original offer that reportedly was only sweetened a little bit. The day before Davis signed, Showalter went public with his advice he had given to Davis some time before he became a free agent.

“Is there anything at a Target that you cannot afford?” Buck asked. Davis ultimately decided that the grass was not greener in other franchises.

When Boras was asked at the news conference welcoming Davis back to Baltimore if Chris had any other suitors, Boras did deliver one of his more humorous lines: “You don’t talk about ex-girl friends at a wedding.”

Left fielder Alex Gordon’s return to the Kansas City Royals, the only organization he has ever known, played out similarly. His local roots went even deeper than Chris Davis’s. He went to the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and was a number one draft choice of the team. Originally a third baseman, Gordon was billed as “the next George Brett.”

That was unfortunate, creating probably too much pressure. Gordon needed to return to the minors and learn the new position of left field. He has become a Gold Glover and a clutch player. The Royals’ chances of making a third straight appearance in the World Series in 2016 certainly weren’t hurt by his re-signing.

Yoenis Cespedes’ return to the Mets might be the most surprising. Reportedly he wanted six years in the $150 million total range. I stress “reportedly” because fans and writers outside the loop don’t really know what it is going on behind the closed negotiating tables. Numbers are thrown around loosely, usually by agents wishing for the highest number so they can get their cut immediately.

Cespedes came to realize that his streakiness at both the plate and in the field was costing him a long-term contract. So he signed for the reported $75 million for three years – not exactly chump change. He also has a buy-out of $27.5 million after one year if his value and consistency somehow increase in 2016.

Let me conclude this latest post with a nice baseball story that doesn’t involve money. Angels center fielder Mike Trout, arguably the best player in baseball today, has a passion for weather. The south New Jersey native discussed his passion in the media during the buildup to blizzard Jonas that brought the Northeast to its knees this past Saturday Jan 23.

That’s all for now – spring training is just a handful of weeks away. The college basketball season is heating up and both my alma maters Columbia and Wisconsin are showing signs of being contenders. A great time of year unfolds.

So more than ever always remember: Take it easy but take it!
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