Lee Lowenfish

It's been a while since I posted a blog.  I'm in the home stretch of my book on baseball scouting that if all goes well will be out next spring and entitled BASEBALL'S ENDANGERED SPECIES: INSIDE THE CRAFT OF SCOUTING BY THOSE WHO LIVED IT. 

 

I have the deepest respect for scouts who are tasked with not only finding and signing talent but also using their experience and intuition to project what the youngster in front of them will become. In a sport as difficult as baseball, the challenges of the job are immense.

 

During my 10-day celebration of my June 27th 80th birthday - and my special friend Maria Patterson's 65th on July 1st -  I was able to see three games of Oriole farm teams. 

 

The first one was in Salisbury Maryland where the Delmarva Shorebirds in the Low A Carolina League are not having a good season, but perhaps there are possible prospects, especially from Latin America.  

 

The longtime GM of the Shorebirds is Chris Bitters and the assistant GM is Jim Sweet. Can there be a better tandem for the world of baseball in which someone must lose every day?

 

The Shorebirds had a chance to win the June 26th game against the Lynchburg Hillcats, but down two runs with one out and two runners in scoring position in the bottom of the ninth, the next two batters forgot about situational hitting.  They swung for the fences instead of shortening their swings and going up the middle or into the gaps.

 

I was impressed with Shorebirds starting pitcher Ryan Long, a 6' 5" righthander from Seattle who played college ball for Division III Pomona-Pitzer in southern California.  A 17th round draft choice, he worked quickly, evidently aware of the time limits between pitches. It is an innovation that may make the major leagues as early as 2023 and I have no problem with it.

 

I only wish that Long had been allowed to pitch out of a third-inning jam.  Was glad to see he recently worked into the sixth inning in a recent game.  

 

We got to see right fielder Heston Kjerstad, the top draft pick from two years ago whose career has been delayed because of a serious heart condition. He looked confident at the plate but shaky in the field.  He has since moved up to Aberdeen, Maryland, the Orioles High A team.

 

Later in my trip, we were able to see the Norfolk Tides twice against the Braves' Triple-A Gwinnett (Ga.) Stripers. We traveled both times by ferry from our base at the Renaissance Hotel across the river in Portsmouth.

 

Harbor Park is an underappreciated ballpark.  Built in 1993, you walk up a ramp to the main concourse, a journey that brought back memories of the New York stadia of my youth.  Most of the seats are below the wide concourse, but the infield upper decks brought back memories of Ebbets and Wrigley Fields and blessed Baltimore Memorial Stadium. 

 

The Tides were no match for Gwinnett in the June 30th day game, but on Fireworks Fourth of July Eve, the Tides rallied from an early 3-run deficit and brought their bats out.

 

Outfielder Kyle Stowers already has had a taste of the majors. He's been playing center and not too impressively from my brief views, but it looks like he can hit. He responded to the crowd cheering his name during a late AB by belting a home run.

 

There may be a good future too for infield prospects Jordan Westburg from Mississippi State and the 21-year-old Gunnar Henderson who does seem to have a great feel for the game and the talent to go with the makeup. Possibly second baseman Terrin Vavra, obtained from Colorado in a trade for Mychal Givens (now with the Cubs), will be part of the new wave, too.

 

I'm happy that the Orioles ran off a ten-game winning streak to bring them to .500.  I hope I don't have to use the term Woerioles again, but the AL East remains a very tough division to move up in.

 

I hope that staying above .500 remains an achievable goal for the rest of 2022.  I can still hear Earl Weaver moaning, "Whadya mean play .500 ball? You think we're gonna lose half our games?!"  Maybe it's fortunate that Earl did not live to see these recent years of bad baseball.

 

As someone who tends to root for underdogs, I just hope that there are successful challenges to both the Yankees and the Dodgers before the 2022 season is etched into the history books.

 

And speaking of history, did I learn some fascinating things on my trip.  Although Portsmouth, Virginia, was occupied by the Union early in the Civil War, it was never burned down.  

 

The town had a significant role in the American Revolution.  We even ate at a "coffee shoppe" housed in a buildlng that once served as Benedict Arnold's headquarters.  But, no, it wasn't called Traitor Ben's.  

 

We ate a couple of times at Roger Brown's Sports Bar & Restaurant. The food was truly delicious and the family of the late NFL defensive lineman still runs the place. It has a gallery of memorabilia in the back of the spacious enterprise.

 

The restored Commodore Theatre also in downtown Portsmouth was showing "Elvis" with Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker.  The line of the older citizens of Portsmouth was stretching around the block.  

 

We took a day trip to Kitty Hawk NC where the Wright Brothers museum is well worth visiting.  I learned that the Wright brothers once published a literary magazine in Dayton, Ohio, called the Tattler.  

 

One of their colleagues was future poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (1892-1906) before he moved to Baltimore.  They gifted him with one of the bicycles they built. I'm proud to share June 27th with Dunbar.  

 

On our way back to Virginia, we drove over the Catfish Hunter Memorial Bridge near his home town of Hereford, NC.  There is a small museum in his honor, but it was too late in the day to visit.

 

So wraps up this installment of my first travels as an octogenarian.  Next time, I will be reporting on my upcoming week teaching "Reel Baseball and Real Baseball: Myth and Reality" to the wonderful students at Chautauqua in southwestern NY State near Jamestown NY and not far from Erie PA.

 

In the meantime, always remember to take it easy but take it, and more than ever, stay positive and test negative.     

There are some games when it is truly unjust that one team must lose.  Such was the case last Wednesday night June 12th when the Gregorio Luperon Generals nipped the Beacon Blue Demons, 5-4, for the Class AAA PSAL NYC high school title. 

 
In a 12-inning Yankee Stadium nail-biter that ended well after midnight, Beacon led for most of regulation and carried a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the 7th, usually the final inning in HS play.  But an overzealous throw from right field missed the cutoff man and allowed speedy Richard Vasquez, who pitched the first five innings, to reach second.

 

With the tying runs on second and third with one out, Beacon's RHP Adam Bogosian, in relief of fellow righthander Max Moss, notched a strikeout to bring the Blue Demons within one out of the school's first championship. He got ahead with two strikes on Luperon cleanup hitter Angel Castillo-Lopez who then dribbled the ball a few feet in front of home plate down the first base line.

 

Both Bogosian and catcher Greg Hurlbut instinctively went for the swinging bunt but there was no play at first as the third run scored. Operating on "pure instinct," Luperon coach Rico Pena said later, Vasquez never stopped running from second base.

 

With home plate still vacated, Bogosian dove for Vasquez who slid away from the tag to tie the game.

To Beacon's great credit, they fought Luperon on even terms for four extra innings until the bottom of 12th. Then Castillo-Lopez led off with a walk, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored the championship run on a a solid single up the middle by catcher Henry Pena-Mercedes.  

 

It was the first-ever title game for coaches Rico Pena and Beacon's Tom Covotsos of Beacon, two baseball veterans who really care about the game and the players.  Both schools are relatively new on the New York City scene and Covotsos and Pena are the only coaches the schools have ever employed.  

 

Talk about a sense of tradition. Rico Pena remembers he started coaching Luperon the same year Dellin Betances graduated from Brooklyn's Grand Street Campus - 2005. And Pena wears #24 in homage to Willie Mays who he never saw play but knows all about from reading and tales told him by his mentors. 

 
The first PSAL game last Wednesday also had its memorable moments. Competing for the Class AA title for schools with smaller enrollments, Brooklyn's Lafayette Patriots shut out Manhattan's Inwood Campus Gators,

2-0. Jason Jimenez hurled a complete game besting Inwood's Steven Santos. Lafayette flashy center fielder Brandon Prescod provided the key first RBI.  

 

What a thrill it must have been for all of the players to compete on the hallowed Yankee Stadium ground (even though the grandeur of the 1923 original is long gone).  Win or lose, the memories will always remain.

 

Beacon's star pitcher-second baseman Max Moss and center fielder Harper Diliberto-Bell are planning on playing at Clark University, the Division III school in Worcester, Mass. Already highly recruited by colleges, junior Adam Bogosian will return for his senior season. As will versatile shortstop-catcher Leo Jenkins, who kept the game alive by solid relief pitching in the extra innings and throughout the playoffs. 

 

Lafayette stars Jason Jimenez and Brandon Prescod are both heading north of the city to Dominican College.

 

In my continuing desire to watch baseball on lower levels - away from the overly noisy major league stadia -  I also enjoyed my first visit recently to the Soet Patriots independent Atlantic League franchise in Edgewater, New Jersey.  TD Bank ballpark may be twenty years old but it still looks spiffy. 

 

Independent league rosters are filled with older players hoping to get an another chance at affiliated baseball and the level of play can be spotty.  But I saw a well-played Patriots victory over the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. Check the website somersetpatriots.com for the upcoming schedule.  

 

Before the summer is over, I hope to venture out to Suffolk County to see the Long Island Ducks, Somerset's big rival in the Atlantic League who beat the Jerseyans out for the league title last season. 

 
One last note on grassroots baseball:  On a tour of Oriole affiliates Maryland last weekend, I was pleased by the atmosphere at Perdue Stadium in Salisbury, home of the Delmarva Shorebirds, the Single A-affiliate of the Orioles in the South Atlantic League (the Sally League).  The team is playing well and has an outstanding record, a rarity for any Oriole team these days.    

 

The Shorebirds' veteran gm Chris Bitters has a commitment to a baseball experience that is not overburdened by an ear-splitting sound system.  Last Saturday night, he even opened the gates at 4p for batting practice. 

It may not become a regular event because attendance was rather sparse, but Bitters deserves a tip of the cap for trying to create an atmosphere that reminds a fan of what the baseball experience used to be. 

 

Here's an another tip of the cap to the Michigan Wolverines who though unrated in college baseball's top 25 is undefeated so far in the College World Series in Omaha.  They have an ace southpaw pitcher Austin Henry who actually hurled a 100 pitch 3-hit shutout to get them close to the final best-of-three series.

 

Unheralded but gritty Michigan will make the final if they win a rematch against Texas Tech on Friday afternoon June 21 at 2p EDT.  Vanderbilt plays at 7p June 21 and makes the final if they beat winner of 7p Louisville-Mississippi State elimination game on June 20.  

 

Double-elimination tourneys can be confusing but they are simple in the later rounds.  Undefeated teams like Michigan and Vanderbilt need just one win to make final round.  Their opponents must beat them twice to get in. 

 

Before I close, though 2019 has started with major losses of my ex-wife to cancer and my beloved calico cat Sheba to kidney disease and old age, I have found that experiencing live arts in NYC remains a great consolation.

 

I saw a memorable production by the New York City Ballet of George Balanchine's choreography for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with Felix Mendelssohn's music.  The brilliant humorous dancing of Sara Mearns was truly outstanding.  

 

I also caught the Philadelphia Orchestra led by charismatic Yannick Nezet-Seguin at Carnegie Hall in a program of Stravinsky-Prokofieff-Rachmaninoff.  Rachmaninoff's First Symphony is rarely heard because its debut was such a disaster in Russia that the 24-year-old composer withdrew it from performance. 

 

It starts very traditionally Russian, almost as if the 24-year-old was writing Tchaikovsky's Seventh Symphony. Later movements veer into the realms of the unique brooding and yearning that Rachmaninoff would plumb more effectively later in his career.  Still glad I heard the 45-minute symphony, especially in the hands of Yannick who really cares about the music and draws out astonishing sounds from the wonderful Philadelphia ensemble.   

 

That's all for now.  As summer officially nears, always remember: Take it easy but take it!