Lee Lowenfish

There are almost 150 games left in the regular MLB season so reason should dictate not to jump to any conclusions on such limited evidence.  But as Shakespeare's King Lear cried, "Reason not the need." Yours truly, the Prince of Paranoia, is not ready for a full-bore rant after the Birds opened the season 5-8 (before they resume play at home on Fri Apr 11).

 

However . . . There are disturbing signs that last year's mediocre second half slump and a second straight early exit in the playoffs were not an aberration.  The front office, led by Mike Elias and Sig Mejdal, a former NASA analyst who was bestowed the title of Director of Decision Sciences for the Houston Astros and now the Orioles, had to know that losing to free agency last year's ace Corbin Burnes and 44-HR man Anthony Santander left gaping holes in the roster. 

 

So far in the early going of 2025,  Burnes for the Diamondbacks and Santander for the Blue Jays haven't done much. But their track record indicates they will produce wins on the mound and at the plate, respectively.  As always, I fear the spurned player coming back to haunt his former team. 

 

Santander will get a deserved ovation from Oriole fans when he comes into Baltimore this weekend (Apr 11-13). He didn't do much in their first series in Toronto but I don't expect that drought to last.  Consider that Vladimir Guerrero Jr, fresh from signing his 15-year-$500 million contract, loves hitting in Charm City.  At least the O's don't have to face Kevin Gausman this time - another Oriole castoff, Gausman pitched yesterday as the Jays completed a sweep of the Bosox in Boston..

 

Meanwhile, the new (and holdover) Orioles have been underwhelming except for Zack Eflin who pitched three good games but is now on the injured list with the same shoulder issue that IL-ed him last season.  Former number one draft choice Grayson Rodriguez hasn't pitched all year and won't be available for a few more weeks and maybe longer. 

 

Santander's replacement in right field, Tyler O'Neill, was bestowed with a "modest" by today's standards 3-year $49 million free agent contract by Elias and company. O'Neill possesses a great arm, but relatively new to right field, he has needed a refresher course on what base to throw to.  And his base running has the subtlety of what you might expect from the son of a onetime Mr. Canada body builder.  It was so bad in St. Louis that his Cardinals manager Olli Marmol called him out publicly.

 

Well, I said I won't go full bore Prince of Paranoia. (You have a right to ask what full bore would sound like!) So instead, cue Mendelssohn's "Spring Song" and Beethoven's "Spring" Sonata while I tell you about the celebration of NYU's exceptional women's basketball team.  On Sat March 22 they completed their second straight undefeated season by beating Smith College of Northamapton MA for the second straight year in the Division III final, this year held in Salem, VA.

 

Yesterday (W Apr 9) they were celebrated at the Paulson Center gym on Mercer and Bleecker Streets in the heart of Greenwich Village. Deserved kudos for a team that has won 62 games in a row. That kind of winning has to be celebrated on any level in any sport. It's the 7th longest winning streak in the history of women's basketball on any level.  They are the 4th double champion in NCAA history. The 2024-2025 team won its games by an average of 37 points and their closest margin of victory was 19 points. The seniors were part of a team that went 112-5 in 4 years - perhaps not coincidentally because they were a pandemic team recruited by Zoom, including 3 from NY State, 3 from New Jersey, 2 from NYC, 1 from Australia.

 

Several NYU administrators and District 2 NYC Councilwoman Carlina Rivera spoke glowingly, but I think it was head coach Meg Barber's words that I will most remember.  Addressing her team, she said, "You willed it when no one was watching . . . and when everyone was watching."  

 

A winning culture is one of the great cliches of our age, so easy to say and so hard to achieve. Meg Barber listed some of its attributes that fans don't see:

*A freshman that finally gets a drill right in practice

*A player that learns to get a bad game out of her head while preparing for the next game

*Working well with the men's team [that made the Final Four too this season] - "I learned so much from them," Barber said.

*The off-court bonding of players that means so much once on the court

*The bond-building of parents and the importance of parents of veteran players explaining the ropes to parents of new players

 

Before the Mets' 710P game against the Diamondbacks on W April 30, Meg Barber, a former NYU player and a Mets fan, will have the honor 

of throwing out the first ball.  It is also Bark in the Park night.  So Violet and Mets fans and dog lovers, mark the date down.

 

In closing, some sad RIPs: Former Mets pitcher Octavio Dotel, 51, died in the roof collapse at the Santo Domingo night club early in the morning of Tu April 8.  Nelsy Cruz, a prominent goverment official in the DR and sister of retired slugger Nelson Cruz, also perished.  As did Tony Blanco, Washington Nats first baseman in 2005. Members of the family of Hall of Famer pitcher Pedro Martinez are still unaccounted for.  

 

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

 

        

Dear readers:  I get high and get by with a lot of help from my friends is a running theme in my life story. One of my dear friends recently sent me a new book of baseball poems, "The Ball Dreams Of The Sky." It more than lives up to enthusiastic blurbs from such notable baseball writers as Ira Berkow, Tims Kurkjian and Wiles, John Thorn, former MLB outfielder Shawn Green, Bobby Murcer's widow Kay, and many others. 

 

"Ball Dreams" is the first collection by Henry Schipper, a veteran Hollywood writer and profilic producer of documentaries. Like all good poetry books, it will reward many re-readings. Schipper, raised in Holland, Michigan outside Detroit, is the son of Holocaust survivors and several of the poems deal poignantly with his family history.  He always comes back to his love of baseball as mystery and consolation. 

 

It is hard to select a particular favorite because they are all so thoughtful. I must say that his conversation poems, "Bat to Ball" and the bawdy "Bat and glove talking about a ball" are particularly memorable.  So is his meditation on baseball's inevitable downer, "Slump". Schipper tosses us a nice curve when the title of his collection is not the title of a poem, but the closing lines to "Body and Soul":  

"Both bat and glove dream of the ball;

the ball dreams of the sky."     

 

A simple love of baseball is also conveyed in "Eephus," a sleeper indie hit by first time director Carson Lund.  The setting is small town Douglas, Massachetts, south of Worcester and an hour west of Boston. The time is probably the early 1990s when the local Soldier's Field will be torn down after the season to be replaced by a school.

Anyone who has played softball with aging ardent players will relate to the competition.  The mastery of Lund's direction is that we don't take sides for either team - it is just the game we are following as the autumn leaves are falling and watchers - not really fans - come by to observe. Lund has chosen his actors well, no names recognizable except to cineastes.

 

Bill "Spaceman" Lee does pitch a late inning as the tied game heads towards a climax.  Lee is very good playing himself.  (I'd like to believe he apologized to his onetime Red Sox manager, baseball lifer the late Don Zimmer, who he lampooned and nicknamed the Gerbil - I don't think he did.)  A pleasant surprise is Joe Castiglione, recently inducted Hall of Fame Red Sox broadcaster, who does a convincing turn as a world-weary food cart driver.  My only criticism of the film is that it drags in the later stages. It is one thing to experience as a player oncoming darkness on a field with no lights. As a moviegoer, there is nothing dramatic about approaching darkness.

 

I predict that Schipper's poems and Lund's film will stand the test of time. As for predictions for the upcoming MLB season, I don't have many.  With so many injuries on so many teams, I remain an ardent Joaquin Andujarist.  The late MLB pitcher memorably said: "There is only one word to understand baseball - 'Youneverknow!'"        

I will say that I expect former Oriole outfielder Anthony Santander will hit well in his new uniform for the Blue Jays.  Toronto plays the Birds seven times in the first weeks of the season - including later today Th Mar 27. The revenge element can never be ignored as long as the player sticks to his mechanics and doesn't try to do too much.

 

As for surprise teams - there are always a couple because of the long long season - I think the Athletics - temporarily in Sacramento until their move to Las Vegas by the end of the decade - will be improved. They have spent some money on experienced players and their youngsters played well in the last half of 2024.  I do hope that when and if that new stadium in Las Vegas opens, they will have made room for a visiting team's bullpen - at last glance, such a "little thing" had not been included in the plans.

 

FINAL NOTES ON COLLEGE BASKETBALL: 

*NYU'S Division III women Violets repeated as National Champions and their winning streak is now 62.

*NYU men's team lost its final to Trinity CT by 4 points.

 

*Coiumbia's women's team beat U of Washington in the First Four of Division I March Madness and lost to West Virginia by 19 in the second round.

 

*Wisconsin men cagers lost 91-89 in the second round to Brigham Young as all-Big Ten forward John Tonge could not get off a full shot because of superior defense by

Mawot Mag, the Australian graduate transfer who previously played at Rutgers.

**Wisconsin athletic pride was restored when the #1 seeded UW women's hockey team rallied from a 3-1 late deficit to beat Ohio State in OT. 

 

Here are some closing TCM tips:

F Mar 28 12M (Sa Mar 29)  "The Asphalt Jungle" (1950) John Huston directs a classic noir with Jean Hagen/Sterling Hayden/Sam Jaffe.  Based on the W.R. Burnett novel. 

 

Su Mar 30 1215A, 10A  Noir Alley debuts "Count The Hours" (1953) Don Siegel directs Teresa Wright/MacDonald Carey - Talk about relevance:  "A lawyer defends a migrant work in a sensational murder trial"

 

Su Mar 30 10PM "The Lady In Question" (1940)  Charles Vidor directs Glenn Ford & Rita Hayworth six years before their memorable tussles in "Gilda" 

 

Always remember:  Take it easy but take it, and stay positive test negative (at least for as long as RFK Jr allows it)