Lee Lowenfish

Late 19th century Hall of Famer John Montgomery Ward once sagely noted that baseball without sentiment would be a very empty game.

Oriole players and fans in Baltimore proved that point again on Sunday afternoon Sept. 23 when they showered shortstop J.J. Hardy with multiple ovations at the last home game of the Birds. Blue Jay fans gave the same loving treatment to Jose Bautista likely playing his last home game in Toronto.)

The icing on the cake for Hardy was hitting a two-run homer to give the O’s the lead in a game they won 9-4 over the Tampa Bay Rays. The Bird season went up in smoke weeks ago when the combination of historically horrible starting pitching and a homer-or-bust offense exploded the myth of contention.

A healthy JJ Hardy might have somewhat stopped the slide, but he was out since mid-May after suffering a broken wrist on a pitch from the Cardinals’ Lance Lynn. Last year Hardy missed considerable time after suffering a broken foot on a foul ball.

Hardy is not that ancient in baseball terms, having turned 35 in August. But the injuries and the decline in his above-average-for-shortstop home run power has been evident for some time. The acquisition of 27-year-old shortstop Tim Beckham from Tampa Bay, the 2008 number one draft pick in the entire country, has likely sealed Hardy’s departure.

Though not blessed with great speed, Hardy will always be remembered for his understated defensive brilliance and quiet clubhouse leadership. O’s manager Buck Showalter has called him “the best tagger I have ever seen.”

I saw a vivid example of Hardy's team-first attitude on a recent Oriole telecast. The clip showed Hardy demonstrating in practice his tagging techniques to his likely successor Beckham.

After a record-breaking August offensively, Beckham came down to earth in September. But it seems likely it is his job to lose come spring training.

Second baseman Jonathan Schoop, the deserved Oriole MVP of 2017, has been effusive in his praise of Hardy's helping him grow defensively. So has Manny Machado.

I hope Hardy's career continues somewhere in 2018 because he brings so much to the game. The son of a tennis pro and a golf pro has really made a great contribution.

Before I close today, let me put in my two cents about the protests around the National Anthem. Americans love symbolic gestures and ceremonial solutions that in my humble opinion generate more heat than light.

If I had my way, I wouldn’t play a National Anthem before EVERY game. Doesn’t it mean more when it is played infrequently only on special occasions? Every now and then, a sports team has even had the creativity to substitute the martial song of Francis Scott Key for the far more lyrical “America the Beautiful.”

I know this is unrealistic blathering by yours truly so let me offer this suggestion: Let’s keep the National Anthem rendition to under 90 seconds, OK? And it should be about the song not the singer.

The best rendition I ever heard came at Yankee Stadium about 15 years ago. The brass section of the U. S. Air Force Band performed it in 75 seconds. They called themselves
The Players To Be Named Later.

That’s all for now. Next time more detailed thoughts on the playoffs with an explanation of my sentimental hopes for a Washington-Cleveland World Series.

In the meantime my visceral fan's focus is now on football rooting for my two alma maters. Columbia is off to a 2-0 start for the first time in 9 years. It faces its first Ivy League challenge at Princeton on Sept. 30.

Wisconsin after a bye week will be trying to up their 3-0 record at home against tough Big Ten foe Northwestern on Sept 30.

BTW during the Badgers' 40-8 shellacking of Brigham Young in Utah, one of the announcers said that freshman running back Jonathan Taylor has developed genuine admiration for science expert Neil DeGrasse Tyson. That's the kind of tidbit I like to hear.

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If you didn’t believe there was such a thing as baseball gods, think again. All summer long the building story was that the LA Dodgers might shatter the major league record of 116 for most wins in a season. Not so fast.

Though they have built up a huge cushion in the NL West over the playoff-bound Arizona Diamondbacks and playoff-contending Colorado Rockies, the Dodgers recently endured a 11-game losing streak.

The slide brought back comparisons to the World War II 1944 Brooklyn Dodgers (Branch Rickey’s second Brooklyn team was a ragtag outfit, waiting for the arrival of Boys of Summer Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, among others.)

LA’s ship has been somewhat righted recently. They won two of three over possible playoff opponent Washington Nats. But then improbably oft-injured ace Clayton Kershaw gave up a grand slam home run to Aaron Altherr in a loss to the last-place Phillies.

Washington like LA has run away with the far weaker NL East division. If their starting pitching remains healthy, Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez could be formidable in the post-season. But the Nats and their fans have their demons to deal with because they have endured many recent tough playoff losses without making the World Series.

Don’t count out the defending WS champions Chicago Cubs. They swept the St. Louis Cardinals last weekend and have a three-game lead on the Milwaukee Brewers. But the Brewers are only one game behind Colorado for the last playoff spot. They host the Cubs in a four-game series starting Thursday Sept 21. Talk about Midwestern baseball drama!

In the American League, the Houston Astros have run away with the AL West, but like the Dodgers they have endured some rough patches. Last-place Oakland recently swept them in four games. Astoundingly, the Astros gave up 9 or more runs in each game.

Yet the late August pickup of Tigers ace Justin Verlander has definitely boosted the Astros’ chances for a good playoff run. But they need a healthy 2015 Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel to augment Verlander and that remains to be seen

Las Vegas odds-makers and occasional sentimentalists like yours truly are making the Cleveland Indians favorites to win it all. After coming so close last year losing an extra-inning game seven to the Cubs.

The Indians just broke Oakland’s American League record 20-game winning streak by running off 22 wins in a row. Even more impressively, once Kansas City eked out a 4-3 win over the Tribe, Cleveland won the next two games and now are on a 3-game roll.

Another fascinating aspect of baseball's long long season is that winning streaks in baseball are often followed by losing streaks. It was a lesson ingrained in me when I was 11 years old in 1953 and the Yankees won 18 in a row only to lose the next nine. They still won their fifth World Series in a row under Casey Stengel.

A rewarding aspect of the 2017 schedule is that Cleveland and Houston will have a lot to say about the American League playoff participants. Cleveland visits the LA Angels this week and a week later they host the Minnesota Twins. The Astros visit the Red Sox for the final four games of the regular season.

As of this blog posting before games of September 20, the Twins lead the Angels by one game in the lost column. Kudos to Twins skipper Paul Molitor and Angels manager Mike Scioscia for keeping their unheralded teams in contention. The same shout-out goes to Brewers manager Craig Counsell.

There is a school of thought that says playing teams already in the playoffs is a break for the team trying to get in. I’m skeptical of that argument because no team wants to go into the playoffs on a losing streak (I know the Yankees limped into the 2000 post-season, but they were fortunate in playing an underwhelming though gritty Mets team in the World Series.)

Methinks that Boston wants to wrap the AL East before those final games against Houston. Three of the Red Sox’s last four victories on the road have been dramatic extra-inning wins, the last two in Baltimore. They need them all because the Yankees are only three games behind them and are also playing well.

Boston needs to win the AL East division outright to avoid the wild card single elimination game. If they tie, Yankees win the division because they won season series against Boston.

Friday night September it took 14 innings but Boston beat Tampa Bay on the road. Last night they rallied twice from five-run deficits to beat the Orioles 10-8 in the 11th. A clutch two-run single by the remarkable rookie Andrew Benintendi was the difference.

In the Tampa Friday win, the Bosox scored three in the 9th to tie the game. Only a sensational diving catch by the Rays gold glove centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier prevented them from winning in regulation.

Kiermaier made another leaping grab in extra innings and homered to avert a Tampa Bay loss in the 13th inning before Boston salted away the game with 7 in the 14th.

Kiermaier is a great testament to the importance of grass roots baseball scouting. The 2010 31st round draft choice from tiny Parkland College in Champaign Illinois, the Fort Wayne Indiana native has put himself on every team's and fan’s radar.

Speaking of scouting, I want to note with sadness the passing of three great baseball talent evaluators who recently left us within 10 days of each other: Cincinnati's Gene Bennett, Toronto's Mel Didier, and the Yankees' Gene Michael.

More on these irreplaceable men in the next post. They were so much more than the prizes they brought to their teams:
Bennett signed Don Gullett, Hall of Famer Barry Larkin and Paul O'Neill.

Didier, who remarkably helped to lay the groundwork for three expansion teams Montreal, Seattle and Arizona, signed Gary Carter and Andre Dawson for the Expos.

Gene Michael, who traded for Paul O'Neill and as general manager in the early 1990s during George Steinbrenner's suspension held on to the Yankees' core players Jeter, Pettitte, Posada, Mariano Rivera, and Bernie Williams.

That's all for now. Always remember: Take it easy but take it.
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