Lee Lowenfish

How does someone root in this upcoming World Series when he feels the unfairness of the richest teams fighting for baseball's biggest prize?

My JCS - Jaded Cynical Side - thinks perhaps a sweep by either team might be enjoyable.  Because then one outrageously entitled fan base would be

miserable. Calls for beheading underachieving players and non-uniformed personnel would become constant and hilarious.

 

The late great college baseball coach Bobby Winkles - who was less successful managing in MLB - once said, "Half the fun of baseball is laying blame."

I remember vividly the days of my yout' (as Casey Stengel would pronounce it) when cartoonist Bill Gallo in the NY Daily News would name a hero and a goat after every game. 

 

However, as readers of this blog know by now, I have a PBF persona - Pure Baseball Fan.  In these stressful times with the end of Daylight Savings Time coming on Su Nov 3 at 2A and Election Day two days later, here's my wish for a well-played series with more heroes than goats. 

 

Although the Dodgers have many weapons starting with Shohei Ohtani at top of order, their starting pitching is in disarray.  And the Yankee offense though it has sputtered at times is formidable. 

 

It is hard to beat the symmetry of Juan Soto's season. On Opening Night in Houston, he threw out from right field the game-tying run at home plate.

Then in the 10th inning of the ALCS clincher at Cleveland, he climaxed a long at-bat against reliever Hunter Gaddis with a three-run HR.

 

lt was pure Soto exuberance that JCS LeeLow would call cockiness.  Soto just turned 26 and will sign a hefty long-term contract from some team in off-season.  Probably the Yankees I would say, but he and agent Scott Boras are likely to string it out for a while. 

 

Two Bronx Bombers have LAD connections, one direct and one indirect ,  LF Alex Verdugo, often a target of home boobirds, has come up big at least defensively, the most underappreciated and necessary trait in any winner. Verdugo was originally signed by the Dodgers and was included in the trade to Boston that brought Mookie Betts to LAD.  Verdugo may have extra incentive in this WS. 

 

So may Gian-Carlo Stanton who is from just north of LA and yearned to play for his home town team. But as author Dan Taylor explained in his

wonderful book about scout George Genovese, A SCOUT'S REPORT, the Dodgers let him slip to the Marlins in the second round of the 2007 draft. 

They used the lame excuse that they thought Stanton preferred to play football for USC. 

 

Like Dave Winfield, Stanton could have starred in any major sport but he loved baseball most of all.  Injuries have taken a toll during his career and he can be pitched to, but he provides a fearsome presence not far behind Soto and Aaron Judge in the batting order. 

 

At the right time, he's locked in both physically and mentally.  He told Bryan Hoch of mlb.com that the moment Yankees won the pennant, he turned off his cell phone. 

 

PBF LeeLow wishes no harm on other well-paid players that seem like good guys like Betts and Judge. Each has a vulnerable side that they are willing to express to the public.  Both have had post-season slumps and have felt that they are letting their teams down. By the end of the LCS's, though, they wre showing signs that their transcendant talent was coming back to the fore. 

 

Since the Yankees have played very well on the road this year, I see them in 6 at LAD. 

 

One Live Movie note to stoke the baseball hot stove league fires: 

Aviva Kempner's "The LIfe and Times of Hank Greenberg" will be shown at the New Plaza Cinema, 35 W 67 west of Central Park West:

F Oct 25 615P

Su Oct 27 230P

Sa Nov 2 1245P 

 

That's all for now.  Always remember:  Take it easy but take it, and Stay Positive Test Negative!

  

 

 

One of the great things about baseball is more than any sport there is a living vibrant link to the past. Checking my old reliable Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia, I see that in early October 1916 the Red Sox beat the Dodgers in five games.

Babe Ruth was hitless in five at-bats but won game two, 2-1. He allowed only six hits, walked three and struck out four in a 14-inning complete game masterpiece. Ernie Shore won the first and last games and baseball's first Dutch Leonard won the fourth one.

Outfielders Harry Hooper and Duffy Lewis showed why they were a formidable regular season duo each hitting over .300 in the Series and future Hall of Famer Hooper led both teams with 6 runs scored.

Third baseman Larry Gardner only had 3 hits in the Series but two of them were homers, one of them a three-run job that won Game 4. Shortstop Everett Scott, another Bosox player who wound up with the Yankees in owner's Harry Frazee's fire seal deals, saved the first game win with a late game dramatic defensive robbery.

And let's not forget first baseman Dick Hoblitzell who did not contribute much offensively but has one of the great forgotten names in baseball history. The three games in Boston were played in Braves Field that had a larger capacity than Fenway Park. (A Boston-Milwaukee series would have delighted local historians because of the Hub town connection of each team but it was not to be.)

On the Brooklyn side, outfielder Casey Stengel tied for the team lead with 4 hits but produced only 2 runs. Jack Coombs won the only game for Brooklyn and would retire undefeated in Series action with a 5-0 record, the other four coming with Connie Mack's first Philadelphia A's dynasty.

The home run dominates the game in the 21st century and yet I firmly believe that pitching and defense still wins championship. Just look at LA Dodgers Game 7 win over the Brewers last night (Oct. 20).

Chris Taylor's sensational catch on Christian Yelich's two-strike screaming liner into the left center field alley preserved LA's precarious 2-1 lead. And let's not forget Manny Machado's remarkable 3-2 bunt that immediately preceded Cody Bellinger's game-changing two-run homer.

Little things still win baseball games. Appreciation of these nuances for me makes baseball the great game it is. I hope to live to see the day when the cutting comment, "Baseball is what this country used to be, football is what it has become," no longer is accurate.

As for the coming World Series, I like the Dodgers in six or seven. I think their starting pitching looks a little sharper than Boston's. Their bullpen too looks in better shape than Boston's, especially if closer Craig Kimbrel keeps near-imploding.
Winning the final game against Milwaukee on the road indoors has to also provide LA an amazing psychological boost.

The Dodgers accomplished what neither the Cardinals in 1987 or the Braves in 1991 could do in the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Silence screaming fans in a very hostile foreign environment. Whatever happens, let's hope they are good crisp games.

For five innings last night the drama of a game seven was priceless. Every pitch, every breath mattered. But when Yasiel Puig homered in the top of sixth off Jeremy Jeffress it was all over except for the countdown.

That's all for now. Always remember: Take it easy but take it. And also remember to vote on November 6!
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