Lee Lowenfish

I'm gonna begin this post with the TCM tips because I just learned that Friday July 28 TCM (Turner Classic Movies cable channel) will air 10 Joe E. Brown films between 1930 and 1936 from 6AM until 8PM. 

 

It will include the baseball trilogy: "Fireman Save My Child" at 845A; "Elmer the Great" at 1130A; and "Alibi Ike" at 215p.  The latter two loosely based on Ring Lardner stories with Olivia DeHavilland debuting as Joe E.'s love interest and another genuine baseball nut William Frawley as Brown's manager.  

 

The last Noir Alley until September airs at Sat midnight July 29 (repeated Sun morning at 10A):

"Desperate" (1947) directed by Anthony Mann with Steve Brodie, and Raymond Burr still in very bad guy mold.   

 

Much of Tu Aug 1 will be devoted to early Lucille Balls films including "Easy Living" (1949) with Lucy as

LA Rams owner Lloyd Nolan's secretary and Jack Paar (!) as team publicist and much more.

 

Wed Aug 2 will be devoted to Anthony Perkins with Hitchcock's "Psycho" at 8P and "Fear Strikes Out" at 1030P with Perkins not really well cast as Jimmy Piersall and Karl Malden as his hard-driving father.

 

Now that's turn to the meat and potatoes of the 2023 baseball season rising to a boil as August nears.

 

It's hard to believe that after 100 games of the 2023 MLB season the Orioles were 62-38. They did lose leads in the last two games of a series in Philadelphia so as they prepare to face the Yankees at home the last weeknd of July, they still lead the struggling Tampa Bay Rays by a game and a half and three in the lost column.   

 

Don't look now, but it is conceivable that the three wild cards in the American League could come from the

AL East.  Boston is suddenly 8 games over .500 with a powerful lineup and a playoff-hardened manager in Alex Cora (you are allowed to snicker at Cora who was suspended for a year for his role in the sign-stealing scandal while coaching in Houston in 2017).

 

Preseason favorite Toronto is 11 games over .500 and even the Yankees could make a move with the imminent return of the mega-priced Aaron Judge and big ticket free agent Carlos Rodon already back in the rotation. 

 

Of course, either Texas or Houston would have to slide in the last 60 games, and the Angels with

the miraculous Shohei Ohtani assured of his spot in LA for the rest of 2023 could lead a rousing rush to the post-season.    

 

There is less drama seemingly ahead for the National League.  The Cincinnati Reds are clearly the feel-good

in the senior circuit - how easy it is for a lively octogenarian dincosaur like yours truly to lapse into hoary

sportsspeak.  The NL is "senior circuit" because it was founded in 1876 while the AL, "born in rebellion" as founding president Ban Johnson liked to say, didn't fully establish itself until 1903.

 

Sadly, because of the so-called "balanced" schedule that we are stuck with for the foreseeable future, there are now only 13 intra-divisional games instead of 19. The Oriole-Yankee clash this weekend is the last in the regular season.  The Reds-Milwaukee Brewers recently-concluded gripping series was their last of the year. 

 

The Atlanta Braves have a double-digit lead in the NL East even while being swept just now at Fenway Park.

The Phillies might be making a move towards the wild card with Bryce Harper back in lineup playing first base

 

In NL West, Giants surprised a lot of people including me looking like a contender until they fell on the non-contending Washington Nats.  Arizona Diamondbacks are in a deep slide that may have started when Tampa Bay rallied to beat them in 9th inning a few weeks ago.  Once again the Dodgers look like the team to beat in that division. 

 

Now let's turn to the team I care about the most. 

I had a memorable few days in Baltimore last week.  Many people think I'm a Baltimore native but I actually only lived there for a few years between 1968 and 1976. But I've been an ardent Oriole fan since 1970. 

 

I must admit the New Yorker in me was happy for the 1969 Mets but I surely understand the pain in Charm City for losing not only that World Series but seven-game classics against the Pirates in 1971 and 1979.

 

I loved Memorial Stadium with the trees beyond the outfield walls and the row houses beyond that.  It was  where a winning team was virtually a constant starting in 1960, but I understand why Oriole Park at Camden Yards was built to draw more from the DC area at a time when the baseball famine was acute in the nation's capital. And impatient owner Edward Bennett Williams, the big shot DC lawyer, was threatening to move the whole team down the beltway.  

 

Oriole Park at Camden Yards is now over 30 years old and it remains a great place to see a baseball game.

Last week I saw the last two games of a rare series with the LA Dodgers. I conveniently arranged to speak about my new book on scouting BASEBALL'S ENDANGERED SPECIES at the Babe Ruth Museum and Birthplace before the second game of the series. 

 

The cozy and very informative BRM is located at 416 Emory Street a short walk from Camden Yards on West Camden Street. It is opened most days from 10A to 4P and later when there are night games. Definitely worth a trip on jaunts to Camden Yards.  So is the amazing crabcake at Koco's Pub on 430l Harford Road not

far the campus of Morgan State University.  

 

After my talk, I saw a rare rout of the 2023 Orioles by the visiting Dodgers who picked on suddenly-slumping Tyler Wells for 5 runs in the first 2 innings and it was really no-contest from then on. 

 

The evening was saved by being with friends and finding refuge from the typical summer Baltimore heat in lower right field stands that happily reminded me of the great sightlines facing the pitcher at old Memorial Stadium.

 

The following afternoon, the Birds salvaged the final game of the three-game series against the Dodgers with another one of their come-from-behind victories, 8-5. They actually led 4-2 after one inning and held the lead throughout but not without some tense moments. They simply cannot win a game easily - I guess not in team DNA.

 

What I'll remember most were the field conditions.  The game started almost 45 minutes late because a freak rain storm during the night left the uncovered field a mess. But chief groundskeeper Nicole Sherry and her acclaimed staff worked feverishly to straighten things out. 

 

I had great seats two rows from the field along the first base line. It was fun to see Sherry between innings instructing the umps about areas in the infield that must be carefully watched. I also had a marvelous view of LAD first base coach Clayton McCullough whose back pockets were filled with all sorts of goodies for his base runners.

 

The downpour early in the game that didn't stop the action was a blessing because it was a very hot day with added discomfort from lingering smoke from the Canadian wildfires. What was weird is that it didn't seem to rain in the outfield or upper decks. 

 

The second base range of rookie infielder Jordan Westburg astonished me. It is not lost on me that Westburg, a 24-year-old from Texas who played for college powerhouse Mississippi State, came up to the bigs on June 26, one day before my 81st birthday. Not that I look for emotional connections LOL.

 

Second base is not even the regular position for the longtime shortstop who insiders think is more suited for other infield slots. it wasn't just his lateral range, but I was awed by his quickness and range on pop flies to right field.   

 

I don't know if the Orioles can keep up the above .600 winning percentage.  But it will be fun to watch them

try. Manager Brandon Hyde did not use closer Felix "the Mountain" Bautista in the Philadelphia series after his yeoman work in Tampa Bay.

 

Am hoping the strategy was to risk losing an inter-league battle to win the divisional war come October. Tampa Bay does come in for four games in mid-September and the now-second-place Rays will be primed

for revenge.  We have two series left with Toronto and Boston so we'll have to earn a playoff spot.  The way it should be. 

 

In closing, you must be wondering where the title of this blog comes from. I saw it stenciled on a street in the Harbor East section of Baltimore near the TruHilton where I stayed. It was put up by a local poet @Poetry by Boots. 

 

"We Are All Damaged.  It's All How We Still Love With A Broken Heart That Still Matters." Does that ever apply to the inner life of the marvelously addicted baseball fan.

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's a wonderful feeling in life when one's expectations are exceeded.  Such was my experience last week when I taught for the third time a Baseball and American Culture class in the Special Studies department of the Chautauqua Institution.

 

Chautauqua is an adult education and vibrant cultural mecca in the southwestern corner of New York State near the Pennsylvania border. It was founded shortly after the Civil War as a retreat for Methodist Sunday school teachers. (Am amazed that Branch Rickey evidently never came to Chautauqua though he was probably so busy with baseball and his Delta Tau Delta fraternal activities to come there.) 

 
There's nothing like teaching and talking about what you love in front of students who appreciate your interests and genuinely want to learn more.  I've long believed that a teacher always learns as much from students as they learn from him or her.

 

I felt good about talking about the rich if complicated history of baseball - from the late 19th century labor battles between John Montgomery Ward and Albert Spalding to the rise of the great management leaders Ban Johnson and his replacement as lord high commissioner Landis. And the pioneers Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson and the later labor wars surrounding Marvin Miller and Bowie Kuhn and Bud Selig.

 

But the happiest moments for me in teaching are always the unique responses of the students.  Here are some examples:

 

**During the opening session everyone introduces themselves. One woman from western Michigan described how she fell in love with Sandy Koufax when he was a bonus baby starting out with the Brooklyn Dodgers. There was something about seeing him struggle on TV that made her a lifelong fan.

 
As an adult she made pilgrimages to LA to follow him live.  She framed a photo of him and his onetime Brooklyn teammate Sal Maglie and placed it on her bedroom wall. Her husband wasn't too impressed - soon he was an ex-husband. (I don't do justice to her timing in telling this story.)

 

**Another priceless moment was a student writing down from my typed notes the words on an Irish towel that one of my first undergraduate students gave me as a present over a half-century ago: 

 

"Baseball (as explained to a foreign visitor).

YOU HAVE TWO SIDES ONE OUT IN THE FIELD AND ONE IN.

 

EACH MAN THAT'S ON THE SIDE THAT'S IN GOES OUT AND WHEN HE' OUT HE COMES IN AND THE NEXT MAN GOES IN UNTIL HE'S OUT.

 

WHEN THREE MEN ARE OUT THE SIDE THAT'S OUT COMES IN AND THE SIDE THAT'S BEEN IN GOES OUT OAND TRIES TO GET THOSE COMING IN OUT.

 

SOMETIMES YOU GOT MEN STILL IN AND NOT OUT.

 

WHEN BOTH SIDES HAVE BEEN IN AND OUT NINE TIMES INCLUDING THE NOT OUTS

THAT'S THE END OF THE GAME (EMPHASIS ADDED)."

 

**Then there was the moving sight at my last class when 15 students stood up to watch on my little laptop with a weak sound system Buster Keaton's baseball pantomime from "The Cameraman," his last great silent film. Buster had hauled his equipment to Yankee Stadium looking for a story but had read the schedule wrong. NO GAME TODAY appears on the screen.

 
So Buster takes the opportunity to walk to the mound and imitate the pitcher and catcher and umpire and other players on the diamond.  It's a classic clip of just a little over three minutes before a policeman chases him away. 

 
I felt it was particularly appropriate to show some baseball comedy in my class because it was Comedy Week at Chautauqua. It was an event co-sponsored by the newly-established National Comedy Center in nearby Jamestown NY - the hometown of Lucille Ball who, by the way, has recently been honored with a more accurate and artful sculpture. 

 
One of the great highlights of Comedy Week was the Smothers Brothers coming out of retirement to commemorate their law suit against CBS for kicking them off the air nearly 50 years ago. "I'm still pissed" were Tommy's first words to the appreciative audience.

 

Both he and younger brother Dick looked in amazingly good shape for people in their early eighties. They contributed a witty opening skit before discussing their careers with moderator NPR's David Bianculli.  A good selection of skits from their heyday were shown. 

 

It was announced that the Smothers archives will be going to the Jamestown center. The organization already has the papers of George Carlin and Richard Pryor and several other comedians. (By the way, I had to share the classic Carlin skit on "Baseball and Football" with my class.)

 
A panel on Ernie Kovacs, the great comic creator of early TV, was very informative and included trenchant commentary by "The King of Rant" Lewis Black and masterful veteran comic writer Alan Zweibel.  Sirius radio host Ron Bennington and Bianculli also contributed very helpfully to the evening at the Jamestown center. 

 

Also very valuable was a discussion of the legacy of Robin Williams that featured Lew Black again and Williams' longtime manager David Steinberg (not the Canadian-born comedian). During the question period Steinberg confirmed that Jonathan Winters had been a big influence on Williams during their "Mork and Mindy" days.  (Yes, I did share with students a few YouTube selections of Winters' crusty baseball characters.) 

 

I planned my Chautauqua gig this year around two musical performances that didn't disappoint. The first was John Corigliano's 1991 opera "The Ghost of Versailles" with a libretto by William Hoffman. 

 

"Ghosts" is a free-wheeling time-traveling exploration of what would have happened if doomed Marie Antoinette had been saved by "The Marriage of Figaro" creator Beaumarchais.  Happily, the fit-looking 80-year-old Corigliano was on hand to take some deserved bows at the end from the cheering throng at Chautauqua's impressive outdoor Amphitheater.   

 
Last but not least, I saw the Chautauqua Symphony's performance of two pieces that promised to and indeed stirred my Russian-American blood, Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony and Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto. 

 

Both pieces have melodies that are reminscent of pop songs - a "La Vie En Rose" descending melody in the first movement of the Prokofiev - and a haunting six-note melody in the adagio late in the Rachmaninoff that I am still humming as I conclude this blog. (I think Chet Baker may have recorded it at one time but I am not sure about that.)

 
Looks like there will be some great pennant race baseball building in the last weeks of the season.  More on that in the next blog.  For now, always remember:

Take it easy but take it!