Lee Lowenfish

I hope the New Year brings you, dear readers, good health and some serenity in a very turbulent time

of history. Personally, I'm looking forward to the April publication of my book BASEBALL'S ENDANGERED SPECIES: INSIDE THE CRAFT OF SCOUTING BY THOSE WHO LIVED IT (U of Nebraska Press that published my Branch Rickey bio and the third edition of my labor history THE IMPERFECT DIAMOND.) 

 

I remain convinced that no organization can win without a good supply of eyes-and-ears scouting augmented but not enslaved to the endless modern technology and its search for certainty in a sport that defies it. I'm glad I'm giving props in my book to the people who deserve to be remembered for their largely selfless contributions of bringing good players and good people into the game.

 

The year 2022 ended with sadness for me with the loss of three dear friends, one of them being White Sox scout John Tumminia. He died at the age of 70 on December 4, 2022, after a long battle with auto-immune encephalitis, a form of brain cancer.

 

I met John not long after he started his scouting career in 1987. We were huddling from the rain in a shed back of home plate that disrupted batting practice before what may have been a minor league game of the Albany-Colonie Yankees. So began a friendship based on a love of the game in all its charms and mysteries.

 

John was named White Sox scout of the year in 2001 and was instrumental in giving the heads up

to many of the World Series winning 2005 team. John scouted Cuban baseball in its amateur heyday and at one time gave a positive recommendation to its entire national team.  Former Yankee champions Jose Contreras and "El Duque" Orlando Hernandez were part of the 2005 Chisox pitching staff. 

 

A native of Brooklyn, John was a graduate of the local St. Francis College where he made their baseball Hall of Fame.  How disappointed he was when many years ago his alma mater gave up the sport. 

 

He played pro ball in Italy in 1975 before returning to NY where for a while he taught theology at a high school in West Islip, NY.  From the mid-1980s through 2008, he was recreation director at the Shawangunk maximum security prison in Wallkill, near Newburgh.  

 

It was quite an experience to walk New York City streets or sit in a restaurant with John Tumminia. His ears and eyes were so attuned to the nuances of people's behavior that he picked up words and movements that I was oblivious to.

 

John was a practicing non-evangelical Christian who meditated every day and cared deeply about all of God's human beings. His compassion for the underprivileged led him to form the Baseball Miracles project to which he devoted his last years.  

 

He and his staff of volunteers sponsored baseball clinics and brought equpment to underserved youngsters all over the world, including Honduras, Kenya, South Africa, and Argentina. But he once told me that the worst poverty he ever saw was on a reservation in the Dakotas.  

 

In a touching piece that Scott Merkin wrote for MLB.com in December 2016, he described John as "a

thin version of Santa". He told the writer that "the expression on the kids' faces is like a light bulb."

 

Another loss last year was the passing of the superb writer and memoir teacher, Jean Hastings Ardell, who left us Oct 7 at the age of 79 after a courageous battle against multiple myeloma and long Covid.  

 

Jean and I met early this century at one of the NINE baseball magazine annual conferences in Arizona.  

She had already written an absorbing and informative book about women in our game, BREAKING INTO BASEBALL. The baseball bond and our shared New York City roots quickly led to us becoming fast friends.  

 

Unlike yours truly who returned in 1976 to NYC after some years in Wisconsin and Baltimore, Jean left our "home town" for college at Butler in Indianapolis and never came back except to visit. By 1965 she settled in southern California where she lived a vibrant life that included once playing bridge with John Wayne.  

 

I never found out more details about that experience or about her first job in SoCal as an assistant to the

renowned architect William Pereira.  She returned to college to get her BA at UC-Irvine in 1988 and

later got her master's in non-fiction writing at USC. 

 

Jean's last book was a collaboration with Ila Borders. MAKING MY PITCH, the story of the first

woman to pitch college baseball. Ila was the first speaker at the early December memorial that was attended by almost 300 people at Newport Beach St. Mark's Presbyterian Church.

 

I was among the many that tuned in via Zoom to hear Ila thank Jean for her gentle guidance as she worked towards the difficult process of coming out as a gay person.   

 

A deeply committed liberal, Jean was never dogmatic. Phil Lance, one of the friends of Jean and her husband Dan Ardell, noted that she taught us "how to open spaces where friendships can grow."

 

Annie Quinn, a writer that Jean mentored, summed up best our aching loss when she quoted Eleanor Roosevelt: "Only true friends leave footprints in your heart." 

 

I quote Jean in the title of this post. I will always remember her saying, "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape."

 

I end in memory of another loss from 2022, Fred Herschowitz who died on August 24 two days before his 80th birthday.  Fred was the WBAI-Pacifica Radio broadcaster that brought me to the airwaves early in 1980 to discuss the first edition of my book, THE IMPERFECT DIAMOND.

 

I became a co-host with him on "Seventh Inning Stretch", the only long-running sports show that highly political leftist station ever scheduled.  I took over the show in late 1982 and remained for most of the decade.

 

Fred was the organizer of the WBAI softball team he aptly dubbed the Turtles.  I will always be

grateful to him for giving me the chance to play third base.  

 

What I lacked in arm and at the plate I tried to make up for with a chest willing to block a smash or two and having "just enough" arm to sling the ball to first base. 

 

Fred's enthusiasm and competitiveness on the softball field at times was overzealous. I'll never forget before a game against WQXR the classical music station, Fred took out a clipping of a violin and burned it.   

 

He was a big Mets fan and I have a feeling that he wouldn't be too thrilled with the team's

seemingly relentless pursuit of free agent shortstop Carlos Correa. Nor am I.

 

Yet Fred was a Queens native and very loyal to the Mets' orange and blue.  He was my neighbor on the Upper West Side and I will always feel the void when I walk up West End Avenue.  

 

That's all for now.  Always remember:  Take it easy but take it, stay positive test negative, and in this time of loss, the words of art and social critic John Ruskin resound more than ever: "There is no wealth but life." 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Su August 22, Miguel Cabrera became the 28th member of the very exclusive 500 home run club when he homered to right field in Toronto off the former Met southpaw Steven Matz  (Not to worry about Matz who has had a fine year with double-digit wins for the Blue Jays.)

 

After the day game of Tu Sep 21, Cabrera is just 21 hits shy of 3,000 that when it makes it, probably early in 2022 season, he will be only the 7th member of that even more exclusive club. Albert Pujols was the last member to join, preceded (alphabetically) by Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray, Rafael Palmeiro, and Alex Rodriguez. 

 

Cabrera, a native of Maracay, Venezuela, rocketed on the scene as a 20-year-old on the 2003 World Series-winning Florida Marlins.  A Detroit Tiger since 2008, Cabrera's presence as a first baseman/DH has been an important factor in Detroit's return to respectability. 

 

The Tigers are ending the season winning series from all contenders. Though September results are usually suspect, Detroit has been playing over-.500 baseball since early summer. They may well have established themselves as a future contender in a wide-open AL Central. 

 

I recently heard MLB commentators John Smoltz and Carlos Pena rave about Miggy's preparation.  They said he goes to spring training with the goal of having experienced every kind of uncomfortable at-bat he will face once the regular season begins. 

 

Eg., a broken bat, a pitch on the hands, a pitch hit at the end of the bat, everything that will prepare him for the grind ahead. If you want to know why he is so calm at the plate on a two-strike count, he is prepared for everything.  No wonder he will finish his career with the very-rare-these-days batting average of over .300.

 

Here's another tribute -- to former Oriole (and earlier Met and Expo) outfielder Ken Singleton who since his retirement after the 1984 season has become an excellent color

commentator. 

 

On the Yankees' visit to Baltimore last week, Singleton probably delivered his last Yankee broadcast on the YES Network.  He almost retired after last season but was coaxed back with a shorter schedule in 2021. 

 

In an age of increasing happy talk in the booth, not often about baseball, Singleton was always an exception.  As a fan of the Orioles for over a half-century, I always ate up Singleton's stories about playing for irascible, savvy manager Earl Weaver. 

 

One year when he was barely hitting .200 on Memorial Day, Earl called Ken into his office.   "Are you sick?" Weaver demanded.

"No," Singleton replied.  

"Are you tired?"  

Same answer from Ken.  

"Well, I'm sick and tired of watching you at the plate," Weaver fumed.

 

Last week Singleton told two more beauties about teammates.  

 

One day when Nolan Ryan was scheduled to pitch, second baseman Bobby Grich phoned in sick. The day after, he returned ready to play.  Singleton said Grich's teammates dubbed his illness a case of 24-hour Ryanitis. 

 

Another time when the Orioles were mired in a losing streak, fiery catcher Rick Dempsey stormed into the clubhouse fuming about the team's lack of passion. 

"We're acting like this is a country club," he bellowed, throwing his glove into his locker. When it landed, Singleton chuckled, a bunch of golf clubs fell out of Dempsey's cubicle. 

 

I'm gonna miss Singleton's knowledge of the game and his stories and his refreshing lack of the entitlement that seems to be part of the Yankee DNA on all levels. 

 

The dog days of summer are over and the sprint to the wire on closing day Sunday October 3 is at hand.  The Cardinals in the NL have seized the wild-card lead by three games.  

 

Although they are playing the Milwaukee Brewers in six of their remaining games, they already won the first one on Mon night Sept 20 at Milwaukee.  They seem to have the momentum with veteran starting pitching led by veteran Adam Wainwright.  

 

The 3-2-5 double play that Paul Goldschmidt, Yadier Molina, and Nolan Arenado turned against the Mets in a tied game in the bottom of the 9th during the Redbirds

recent sweep of the New Yorkers on the road was a thing of beauty.  

 

I don't think either the Dodgers or the Giants want to face Wainwright in a one-game wild card playoff but it looks like that might well happen.

 

Meanwhile another bird team is in flight in the AL.  Not my Orioles, who have been

swept EIGHTEEN times this year on their way to their third 100-loss season in a row, but the Toronto Blue Jays.  

 

If Toronto gets effective pitching, they could keep their current razor-thin one game edge to host the wild-card game against either the Red Sox or the Yankees.  I think the A's and the surprising Mariners have too much ground to make up. They still have to play each other five more times, perhaps knocking each other out. 

 

The winner of the AL wild card will face the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS best-of-five.

The other series is pretty much set - the slumping injury-riddled yet potentially dangerous White Sox face the Houston Astros with third baseman Alex Bregman recovered from injury and in the lineup and manager Dusty Baker vying for his first World Series championship ring.

 

In the NL, the wild card winner will face the NL West winner, either the Dodgers, who have to be favored now with Clayton Kershaw back on the mound and a fairly healthy Mookie

Betts back in the lineup. Maybe the Giants, who NOBODY picked to contend in 2021, can still work their amazing magic with its enticing mixture of veterans and youngsters.

 

In the other matchup, the likely NL East-winning Atlanta Braves should go up against the Milwaukee Brewers who coasted to the NL Central title.  

 

Meanwhile perhaps there is perhaps a glimmer of hope in the Orioles future.  We'll take any flicker these days.  The Double A Bowie Bay Sox knocked the Yankees' Somerset Patriots out of the playoffs by beating the Pirates' Altoona Curve.

 

Starting Tu Sep 21, the Baysox will now face the conquerors of Somerset, Cleveland's Akron Rubber Decks in a best-of-five series.   And in low Single A, the O's Delmarva Shorebirds destroyed the Salem (Virginia) Red Sox's playoff hopes though not making the dance itself. 

 

"Never grow accustomed to the emotions of continuous defeat" was a plea that Branch Rickey often invoked to keep the losing teams he shepherded at the beginning and end of his career.   So I'm glad that at least at the minor league level, there has been some winning going on as the Baltimore organization tries to arise from its sinkhole of ineptitude. 

 

Here's a quick reminder that on Th Sept 23 TCM shows the 1970s fantasy "Rollerball" at 8P  and "Kansas City Bomber" at 1015P.  

 

Sunday Sept 26 at 1130A "Easy Living" (1949) with Victor Mature as a LA Ram with a heart condition who cardiologist Jim Backus (!) urges to give up the game.  There is an excellent cast including Lucille Ball, Lloyd Nolan, Jack Paar, Lisabeth Scott, Sonny Tufts, and Kenny Washington playing himself  (Don't blame me for the last scene, puhleeze!) 

 

It precedes Noir Alley's "Hell Bound" at 10A, a 1957 72 minute feature aka "Cargo X" and "Dope Ship".

 

Tu Sep 28 at 8A Burt Lancaster as "Jim Thorpe All American" followed by a classic 1947 noir set in prison, "Brute Force" directed by Jules Dassin starring Burt Lancaster. 

 

Later that night at 630p there is the silent film classic "The Freshman" as Harold Lloyd tries his hand at football. 

 

That's all for now - always remember:  Stay positive test negative, and take it easy but take it!