Lee Lowenfish

I like to have fun with my birthdays.  I turn 79 on June 27 so I've called my residence this year 79 Wistful Vista in memory of Fibber McGee and Molly (Jordan)'s radio residence.

 

The year before I was spinning through the year at 78 rpm and prior to that I was riding on 77 Sunset Strip.  

 

The wonderful jazz bassist Ray Drummond once told me that when you are 59, you are In The Park, Central Park.  

 

That means, starting June 27, I will be at the center of the Museum of National History on Central Park West, where Teddy Roosevelt's statue with his Indian guide is shortly being removed.

 

(I think it is a wise choice as long as the statue is not destroyed or vandalized. We can't ignore dark sides of our history by simply deploring them and removing them from sight.) 

 

I've spent many of my signature birthdays watching the Orioles.

At 40 I saw Jim Palmer pitch seven strong innings in a rout of the Tigers.  Storm Davis, hailed as a successor to Palmer, mopped up the last two innings.  He never panned out as a solid starter.

 

At 50 I saw the KC Royals Kevin Appier beat Mike Mussina in a pitcher's battle.  At 60 Jason Giambi, now with Yankees, unloaded two homers on Scott Erickson in another losing game.

 

At least, these games were competitive.There is nothing except expletives to say about the 2021 Orioles and the so-called "rebuild" of the current regime. I knew this team would be bad but didn't think they'd be so unwatchable.

 

So I share the solace of watching former Oriole Manny Machado lead the Padres to a sweep over the Dodgers. It was worth staying up to the wee hours of the East Coast on June 24. 

 

Manny hit an early homer, hustled out an infield single to set up the winning run in the bottom of the eighth, and made three outstanding plays at third in the late innings to save the win.

 

The play he didn't quite pull off was the best one.  Playing short right field in the shift, he almost made a sensational running catch near the foul pole. A full-extension dive on the warning track came up just short. 

 

At times Machado's behavior is concerning, almost punk-like. But he is a great talent along with the young Fernando Tatis Jr. and the onetime Michigan Wolverine Jake Cronenworth who make a great double-play combo (when the shift allows for a double play).

 

One cautionary note about the Padres.  Closer Mark Melancon, leading MLB with 23 saves, is on the edge of being overworked. They better not burn him out too early.

 

As summer begins, there are some great races in MLB which is good news.  Giants-Padres-Dodgers in NL West, no one except Miami out of the NL East race and ditto the NL Central except for the Pirates.

 

In the AL East, the Yankees and perhaps Blue Jays might yet challenge Red Sox and Rays.  The Houston-Oakland race in AL West should remain a good one with Seattle possibly hanging around.  

 

Only the White Sox seem in firm control of AL Central, especially now that most of Cleveland's pitching staff is injured.  But never count out manager Terry Francona's teams and their good player development staff.  

 

In one of the interesting stories so far in 2021, Amed Rosario, almost a throw-in the Francisco Lindor trade, is actually hitting better than Lindor and flashing the form that never developed when he was a Met. 

 

That's all for now. Always remember - take it easy but take it. 

 

 

 

 

 

I celebrate my 78th birthday tomorrow Saturday June 27th. I think I was born around 530p in the afternoon because my mother told me her water broke when she was listening to "Information Please" on the radio and she had to miss the end of the show. (No head sets or new media back in 1942).  

 

(Last blog I raved about "Woman of the Year" that came out in 1942 and opens with an "Information Please" show being broadcast.  Could I have remembered that from the womb?

Cue "Twilight Zone" music, please.)

 

I'm not big on numbers except for computing batting averages in my head. To think that all year I've been talking about riding on 77 Sunset Strip when actually I completed 77 years on this planet a year ago. 

 

(For younger readers, "77 Sunset Strip" was a hit ABC TV show of the 1950s, starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr,. son of the world-famed classical violinist, plaiying a detective, of course.  His assistant was Edd Byrnes playing richly-coiffed Kookie and teeny boppers screamed at him, "Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb!")

 
So this year I was actually spinning my records at 78 revolutions per minute, hoping that of course I stayed on the spindle and didn't careen sideways. I got through year 78 OK although I do continue to have some issues about losing my balance when walking and had some minor plumbing repair done in September.

 

I'm ready for whatever the "new normal" this year brings. I hope to be comfortably residing  at 79 Wistful Vista, home address of radio's legendary Fibber McGee and Molly, known in real life as Jim and Marian Jordan from Peoria, Illinois.  

 

As you probably know by now, there will be some semblance of a baseball season starting on either July 23 or 24. It will consist of 60 games with all of them in both leagues played regionally to minimize travel in a still-raging time of Covid-19.

 

So the Mets and Yankees will play their four division rivals 10 times each and their five cross-division rivals four times each. Details of the post-season are still being ironed out.  

 

To call the final matchup a "World Series" annoys me. But that is a minor criticism compared to the health risks to the players and the continuing distrust between owners and players. 

 

I hope there will be no serious injuries to rusty players who might over-exert themselves at the beginning of a short season.  I think I will watch some of the TV games more as a clinician than a fan.  

 

I still don't see leadership on either side of a sport that has declined in attendance the last few years and has a fan base whose average age is 57. It remains the most beautiful of sports, but the length of games and a now-boring routine of strikeouts-home runs-walks are serious problems.    

 

John Sherman is one owner who deserves great credit for agreeing to pay all his minor leaguers for 2020 even though there will likely be no minor league season.  Interestingly, Sherman is the newest owner on the block.

 

He was wise enough to listen to his general manager Dayton Moore who won a World Series in 2015 and knows the importance of minor league development. Unfortunately, MLB still wants to terminate a quarter of the minor league teams and the first of what I'm sure will be several lawsuits was filed last week to protest the short-sighted policy.

 

According to thorough reviews of all 30 owners in an Andrew Baggerly piece in the "Athletic" and a two-part Axios Sports study, Sherman is one of the least rich owners. Worth "only" a little over a billion dollars, made primarily in the hydrocarbon business.

 

John Sherman should not be confused with another less financially endowed owner, Bruce Sherman of the Marlins. This Sherman made a lot of his money buying newspapers and ultimately dissolving their companies. Derek Jeter has a slice of the team but not that much.  

  

I like Baggarly's trenchant phrase to describe most of the 30 men who own MLB franchises:  "Inheritance plus the magic of compound interest." It may be hard to believe, but guess which team's ownership group enjoys the most longevity in today's game? The Yankees. George Steinbrenner bought the team in 1973 and his younger son Hal, 51, is the managing partner. 

 

Another interesting tidbit in Baggerly's chronicle is that Phillies owner John Middleton traces the origins of his wealth to a cigar store that his ancestors founded in Philadelphia before the Civil War. A century and a half later, Middleton was the owner who before the 2019 season openly admitted to spending recklessly to sign free agents Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto.

 

Enough about the owners.  Nobody ever paid to see them, did they?  

 

With no games to watch or listen to on radio, and already getting out of the habit of searching scores on my radio on the quarter-hour, my great companion has remained TCM.  And the Monday and Thursday evening "Jazz on Film" series throughout June didn't disappoint.

 

I misspelled director/photographer Gjon Mili's name in the last blog.  As host Eddie Muller says, Mili's 10-minute "Jammin' The Blues" (1944) is the best short introduction to jazz.  The effortless flip of drum sticks from Sid Catlett to Jo Jones in the middle of a blues number remains one of the most compelling moments in both jazz and film.

 

Papa Jo Jones had one of the great smiles in jazz and it was an elegant touch for "The End" to appear over his smiling face. 

 

While on the subject of my boo-boos, I was mistaken that Hoagy Carmichael's lovely song 'New Orleans" appeared in the movie of the same name that aired last night (June 25).  

"Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans" was one of the featured tunes.

 

Although playing a maid in her only real full film role, Billie Holiday acted convincingly and sang of course with great conviction. Louis Armstrong was a strong presence in the film playing himself.  (He was called "Satchmo" in the film and it was a popular nickname but he much preferred to be called "Pops".) 

 

One of the enduring pleasures of TCM is that you can stumble into a film with no knowledge and be totally enraptured.  I knew nothing about Howard Hawks's  "I Was A Male War Bride" 1949.  If you can believe Cary Grant as a French army captain in post-WW II Germany, you will enjoy the belly laughs in this film.  Its satire of military bureaucracy is also quite telling. 

 

It was part of Ann Sheridan Tuesday nights in June, and it may be the best role ever for that spunky, alluring, and talented Texas who fought the Warner Studios for better roles, even once being suspended for a year.  She and Grant worked well with each other; he was a real trouper as the victim of most of the pranks.

 

The last Ann Sheridan night in June will be Monday June 30 at 8p  "City of Conquest" 1940, also starring James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart as a prize fighter willing to risk blindness to help his brother pay for his education.  Elia Kazan makes a rare appearance as actor.

 

Here are some tips for the first 10 days of July with Mondays being Tony Curtis Night.

On M July 6 at 1145p "The Vikings" is on in which I believe the man born Bernie Schwartz in Brooklyn says, "Yonder is the castle of my father."  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

The weekend of July 10-11 has some juicy double bills.

F July 10 8p John Ford's rare comedy, "The Whole Town's Talking" 1935 with Edward G. Robinson playing a mousy bank employee AND a gangster;  followed at 10p "Arrowsmith" 1931 adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' powerful novel.

 

Sa July 11 8p "Dr. Strangelove" 1964 followed at 10p by the earlier more light-hearted but still pertinent satire, "The Mouse That Roared".

 

That's all for now--please keep your cool both physically and politically and always  remember:  "Take it easy it but take it!"