Lee Lowenfish

The Orioles' magical 2023 ride hit a serious bump on Fri night Aug 25 when ace closer Felix "The Mountain" Bautista, one strike away from completing a save against the Colorado Rockies, stumbled off the mound after throwing a 102+ mph fastball.

 

Head trainer Brian Ebel and manager Brandon Hyde rushed to the mound and led Bautista away without him even throwing a practice pitch. Some kind of elbow injury was quickly diagnosed and Felix was put on the injured list. He will undoubtedly be lost for the season, and if he needs Tommy John surgery out for all of 2004 and maybe beyond. 

 

Danny Coulombe, a recently re-activated southpaw reliever also having a career year, completed the save on only one pitch.  In a cruel irony, Felix Bautista Bobblehead Day was celebrated the next night and over 42,000

packed Camden Yards to see another Oriole win. 

 

Bautista was present in the dugout to show solidarity with his teammates on a surprising Oriole team that continues to win despite the huge loss - both figuratively and metaphorically - at the back end of the bullpen. 

 

On the eve of their second West Coast trip in the last few weeks, the Orioles are 1 1/2 games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays, winners of 10 of their 12 games after a disappointing July in which they let the Orioles overtake them. 

 

Tampa has endured its share of injuries, too.  They lost their Cy Young Award-candidate Ryan McClanahan to Tommy John surgery and their pitching roster as always is a merry-go-round of other pitchers going and coming back from surgery. 

 

Even more seriously in the longer run, star shortstop Wander Franco has been indefinitely suspended with pay He is being investigated for several relationships with under-age women in his homeland of the Dominican Republic.  Earlier in the season, he had been briefly suspended by the team for behavior not worthy of "a good teammate." 

 

One wonders what was in the minds of Rays management when they signed Franco a couple of years ago to a 11-year contract reportedly worth upwards of $200 million. I guess the red flags about his questionable behavior faded when they considered what other owners might pay one day on the open market for his transcendent on-field talents.  

 

In spite of these distractions, the Rays have regained the winning touch that saw them begin the year with 13 straight wins and a 30-11 record.  Not the Detroit Tigers 35-5 of 1984 on their way to a wire-to-wire World Series win but quite impressive. They are now 30 games over .500 and for me a MVP-candidate in corner infielder Yandy Diaz.  

 

Fortunately, the crazy-quilt so-called "balanced" schedule at least allows for a big head-to-head matchup of Rays at Orioles Th Sept 14-Su Sept 17.  The inconsistent Red Sox, recently swept at home by defending World Series champ Houston and only 4 games over .500, will have a large say in how the AL East turns out.  They play Tampa 5 times and the Birds 7, including the last 4 games of the season at Camden Yards. 

 

Winning the division will not just be a psychological prize, especially for the Orioles who haven't been in the playoffs since 2016.  It gives the victor almost a week's rest by avoiding the best-of-three wild card round.  There is an argument that a team can get rusty with too much time off, but for me the ability to heal minor injuries and to set up one's pitching rotation are the great positives. 

 

The drama in the AL West is even greater than in the AL East because barring a total collapse, the Rays and Orioles should make the playoffs.  Before games of F Sep 1, Seattle and Houston were virtually tied although Houston had one more win and one more loss. Texas was one full game behind Seattle. 

 

For the sake of drama, I'm hoping that Texas with formidable hitting but questionable pitching stays relevant into the last 10 days of the season because the Rangers and Mariners play each other 7 times in last 10 days of regular season, the final 4 in Seattle.  Houston might have the edge overall because they are the only team that still plays the 2 worst teams in baseball record-wise, the Royals and the Athletics.

 

In the AL Central, the Twins had a chance to bury the Guardians this past week, but they couldn't do it

Minnesota is only four games over .500 but Cleveland is still 6 games under.  The NL Central is not much better but at least the Brewers have been playing much better baseball.

 

They are 15 games over .500,  but did lose a chance on Wed Aug 30 to win a series in Chicago against the surprising Cubs. They couldn't do it and their divisional lead in only 3 games. 

 

In the other NL divisioins, the Braves and Dodgers are running away with their division titles. But the race for the 3 Wild Cards is appropriately wild. The Phillies with the same record as Milwaukee, 74-59, has a 3 game lead on the Cubs.  The third wild card at this juncture is being tightly contested among the Giants who are 1 lost game ahead of the Diamondbacks, 2 lost games ahead of the Reds, and 3 lost games ahead of the Marlins. 

 

A wise person once described the MLB season as really 4 seasons:  spring training, April through August, September, and the playoffs.  We are entering September now and as the late legendary Mets announcer Bob Murphy used to say, "Fasten your seat belts!" 

 

Before I conclude this post, here are some sports-related movies coming up on TCM Turner Classic Movie

cable channel:

Tu Sept 5 features these boxing classics:

1145A "The Champ" (1931) - King Vidor directs irrepressible Wallace Beery and young Jackie Cooper

6P "The Prizefighter & The Lady" (1933) - W.S. "Woody" Van Dyke directs Myrna Loy and heavyweight

    boxers Max Baer and Primo Carnera

 

Wed Sep 6 for night owls or more likely for those can record them: 

215A "Knute Rockne All American" (1940) with Pat O'Brien in title role and Ronald Reagan as the Gipper

400A "Jim Thorpe All American" (1952) with Burt Lancaster in title role, the underappreciated Charles Bickford as Pop Warner, and directed by Michael Curtiz

 

The next two have no real sports connection but wanted to list them: 

Th Sep 7 10p "It Happened In Brooklyn" (1947) with Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante, Kathryn Grayson and the introduction for first time of Sammy Cahn's classic "Time After Time" - not much on baseball except likely brief shots of Ebbets Field - also of interest to Noir fans:  Gloria Grahame as a nurse! 

 

F Sep 8 10A "The Petrified Forest" (1936) directed by Archie Mayo from Robert Sherwood's play, a real classic with Humphrey Bogart as the outlaw Duke Mantee, Bette Davis the poems of Villon-reading waitress, and Leslie Howard as the disconsolate writer with a vague desire to see the Pacific Ocean and drown in it

 

F Sep 8 11:15P  "Boys Town" (1938)  Norman Taurog directs Spencer Tracy as Father Flanagan and Mickey Rooney as one of his charges.  

 

And happily Eddie Muller's "Noir Alley" returns before Labor Day

Su Sep 3 12 M/repeated 10A  "The Secret Fury" (1950) Mel Ferrer directs Robert Ryan and Claudette Colbert and keep eyes open for Vivian Vance before she inhabited Ethel Mertz! 

Su Sep 10 Alfred Hitchcock's "The Wrong Man" (1956) with Henry Fonda in title role

 

That's all for now - always remember: Take it easy but take it, and stay positive test negative. 

 

 

 

If you want an understanding of what baseball purism is all about, check out Gunnar Henderson's second double of the game in yesterday's (Sun Aug 20) rout of the lowly Oakland A's.  Seemingly all the broadcasters and even most of his teammates wanted him just to get a single to complete a cycle, having already gotten the triple, homer, and double.

 

Gunnar's baseball instincts, though, took over. His smash down the right field line "looked double," he said after the game almost sheepishly. He just couldn't turn off his highly competitive and wonderful-to-watch jets. 

 

Now, listen, I am not against any change in baseball.  I'm all for the pitch clock and the end of the infield shift that turned the right side of the baseball diamond into a grotesque facsimile of a football backfield. 

 

But if purism means endorsing playing the game hard, smart, and well, running out every at-bat, and hitting the cutoff man on outfield relays, call me a purist. And after sweeping the lowly Oakland A's to finish a West Coast trip with a solid 6-3 record, the AL East-leading Orioles got to enjoy the Monday off-day, three games ahead of (and four games in lost column) Tampa Bay. 

 

Tomorrow (Tu Aug 22) the Birds open at home their last series of the year with division rival Toronto. Although nine games out of first place with 38 to play, the Blue Jays still look formidable to me. They are coming off an impressive road series victory over the surprising Cincinnati Reds. Toronto's outstanding young shortstop Bo Bichette is back from a leg injury and he is always a bundle to deal with. 

 

Because of the so-called "balanced schedule" that downplays intra-divisional play, the Orioles finished with the Yankees at the end of July and now Toronto before end of August.  At least there are four left with Tampa Bay in Baltimore from Sep 14-17. 

 

One thing the Orioles should be proud of is their consistency which, of course, is the most hallowed hallmark in any sport. As a wise sports psychologist once said, "If consistency were an island, it would be lightly populated. 

 

The Birds have not been swept in any three- or four-game series since mid-May 2022, a record that is the fifth longest in MLB history.  Not coincidentally, the streak started at almost the same time as the MLB arrival of deservedly-touted switch-hitting catcher Adley Rutschman. 

 

I can here former Oriole manager Earl Weaver grousing from the Great Baseball Beyond, "What's the big deal? You are supposed to win most of your games if you are a good team."  That is true, Earl, but the stat does speak to keeping one's focus on each and every game.  And realizing that Nothing Is Guaranteed. 

 

It looks like there will be plenty of drama throughout MLB in the final weeks of the season.  It seemed likely that the runner-up in the AL West would be the second of the three wild cards, but this weekend both the Rangers and Astros were swept at home by the Brewers and Mariners, respectively. 

 

Despite losing to suddenly potent Milwaukee, leaders of the NL Central, Texas still has a four game lead on defending World Series-champion Houston. But Seattle spanked the Astros and is on a roll to at least capture the third wild card over Toronto.

 

The Mariners came on strong last season and made the playoffs and certainly they look tough with possibly the best starting pitching in baseball and a red-hot young star in Julio Rodriguez. The Red Sox cannot be counted out after sweeping the reeling Yankees on the road. 

 

The National League has quite a wild card race going on, too, with two surprising teams, the Cubs and the Reds, vying with defending NL champion Phlllies for post-season play.  The Braves and Dodgers have sewed up their NL East and NL West titles and the Brewers with less breathing room seem to have at last the NL Central under control.

 

I'm not the biggest fan of the expanded wild cards but as long as the teams are somewhat over .500 I can reluctantly accept them.  With Cleveland now 8 games under .500 and Minnesota four over, it looks like the AL Central is close to being settled. 

 

I must remind myself that the calendar still says August.  Yet there is that lack of dramatic intra-divisional matchups in September because of the so-called "balanced" schedule (sigh). 

 

In closing, a tip of the cap to three Rutgers baseball players who led the Bourne Braves earlier this month to their second straight Cape Cod Baseball League championship. They are outfielders Josh Kuroda-Grauer, the championship series MVP; Pete Cuifffreda, an incoming graduate transfer; and catcher Hugh Pinkney. 

 

It was the second consecutive year that 3 Scarlet Knights played for champion Bourne.   

 

That's all for now.  Always remember:  Take it easy but take it, and stay positive test negative.