Lee Lowenfish

It really helps to remember baseball cliches as the marathon of a baseball season turns into the upcoming September sprint. One of my favorite adages remains "Tomorrow is your best friend."  Especially when there are still 30 games left to play. 

 

Of course, being a fan means you can't be rational about your team because you can do absolutely nothing about influencing the outcome.  If you start thinking in macro terms about how the fates will do your team in, you wind up a total emotional mess. 

 

You have to remember that you signed up for this by becoming a fan. Think George C. Scott as Patton and Patton himself before D-Day:  "It beats shoveling shit in Louisiana." 

 

Saying all this, let me try to answer my question:  "What has happened to the Orioles?"  Injuries are clearly a factor for a team that is playing under .500 ball since late June. Here are some of the key ones to players that were leaders as well as statistical contributors: 

 

**Starter Kyle Bradish, gone until deep into next year with Tommy John surgery.

 

**Reliever Danny Coulombe, who might return in late September to provide steady bullpen work.  I'm pretty sure manager Brandon Hyde rues

having him pitch a second inning in his last appearance before the bone chips had to be removed from his left pitching elbow. But then again, winning the game at hand is the manager's first duty.  

 

**Second and third baseman Jordan Westburg whose broken throwing hand from an HBP may not heal until late in September.  Hard to put into words and certainly statistics what his scrappiness and will to win means to the Birds. 

 

**Second baseman Jorge Mateo out with a serious elbow ligament injury after a freak collision up the middle with shortstop Gunnar Henderson.  He may well need surgery that could end his career with the Orioles.  Originally signed as a 16-year-old by the Yankees out of the Dominican Republic, it took Mateo more than 10 years and a stint with the Padres organization to finally get a nearly-regular chance to play - his speed and baseball sense are sorely missed. 

 

Yet every team has injuries. For a variety of reasons, obvious and less obvious, the 101-win team of 2023 has not re-emerged. The macro view - "Every season is different," another favorite cliche - reminds us that the 2023 Orioles were swept in three games by the eventual World Series-winning Texas Rangers.  (The Rangers will not make the playoffs this season, another lesson in how hard it is to repeat in this age of free agent baseball and 24/7/365 media coverage that adds to the noise that can overwhelm struggling players and teams.) 

 

On the micro level, I don't what has happened to Adley Rutschman.  He hit only .132 in July and while his BA has doubled in August, he is not consistently driving the ball.   The George Steinbrenner in me - my Hobbesian view of human nature insists that we all have the angry boss in us somewhere - wonders why he is doing shoe commercials instead of finding his stroke! 

 

Adley did recently miss a couple of games with a bad back, perhaps from too much weight lifting. My guess - and it is just a guess - is that the serious injury to Bradish and to pitcher Grayson Rodriguez - still on the IL at this crucial time of season -  may have come from excessive lifting. 

 

When Adley is on, a switch-hitter with good gap power, the whole lineup seems better. Maybe he has a hidden injury not disclosed or the pressure of a pennant race and never failing at anything he has ever done in his heralded career has gotten to him.  He remains an easy player to root for. 

 

Meanwhile, backup James McCann has been invaluable for his courage exemplified by his unbelievable refusal a few weeks ago to leave the first inning of the first game of a doubleheader after being hit in the face with an errant pitch from a Blue Jay pitcher.  He suffered several nose fractures but after changing his bloody uniform top, he returned to the game to keep Rutschman from having to catch the whole doubleheader. 

 

The Orioles' remaining schedule is not particularly onerous although they must face the Dodgers in LA Tues thru Thurday Aug 27-29 and then go to tailend Colorado Aug 30-Sep 1.  I wrote down the September schedule eagerly not long ago, but now my anticipation has faded for the three games in New York against the Yankees Tu-Th Sep 24-26 for the AL East title. 

 

If we manage somehow to stay in the wild card race, those final three games at Minnesota Sep 27-29 may be even more important. Minnesota and Kansas City are very alive in the wild card race and both have a chance to knock Cleveland out of first place.  As a congenital supporter of the underdog, I hope the Royals and Guardians have a chance at October baseball. 

 

I haven't even gone into Oriole pitching woes - other injuries to starters and bullpen meltdowns. It is not all demoted closer Criag Kimbrel's fault either.  But enough of my whining! We still have a chance if the players believe. And forget the unexpected triumph of last year and maybe more important, forget the end of the streak earlier this season where they had not been swept in a series for over a year and a half.  

 

They did have two dramatic victories against Houston this past weekend:  An 8th inning grand slam by Anthony Santander and a pinch-hit bases-clearing double by 20-year-old Jackson Holliday (but his only hit in his last 24 ABs.)

 

Holliday's hit came after the Orioles honored the three new members of the Orioles Hall of Fame.  So here's the good news from the stories of the new inductees.   

 

**Scout Dick Bowie who signed outfielder Al Bumbry, future major league pitchers Ken Dixon and Jesse Jefferson, and was the only scout in the

organization (and a rare one throughout baseball) that saw Cal Ripken Jr's future as an infielder not a pitcher.  Bowie's son accepted the honor.

 

**Terry Crowley, outfielder and pinch-hitter extraordinaire who became an outstanding hitting coach for Orioles and other teams.  I am proud to

mention Crowley was excelled at Staten Island's Curtis High School.   

 

**Right fielder Nick Markakis, one of Crowley's star pupils who collected 2388 hits with .288 BA, .780 OBP in a career mainly with the Orioles. He was another player that many scouts projected as a pitcher but Tony DeMacio, Orioles scouting director at the time, insisted that (a) Nick was a definite number one draft pick with the kind of swing that would make him an everyday player (and also the talent to become a fine defender), and (b) he held off the critics who claimed Nick was only being signed because then-owner Peter Angelos was also of Greek descent. 

 

BTW I added Markakis's OBP above, but I can do without the high-tech scoreboards like the one I saw at the NY Mets' CitiField during the recent Oriole series.  It lists first OBP (On-Base Percentage + Slugging Percentage) and BA is hard to find.  This is a rant for another time.

 

And I do want to thank the Mets for replaying a great defensive play that Gunnar Henderson made against the Mets in last

week's series. It is so rare for a home team to credit visitors with great plays!  

 

Here's a sad closing note that needs mention  - In today's NY Times (M Aug 26) I read Emily Schmall's story about the late night fire on Th Aug 22 at Jay Littleton Ball Park in Ontario, California, that destroyed the old wooden ballpark where "A League of Their Own" was filmed over 30 years ago.  Earlier John Goodman as the "Babe" and John Sayles' "Eight Men Out" had also been filmed there.  

 

For a commercial film, "A League of Their Own' has always rested in a special place in my heart for its love of baseball.  Many years ago I met Jon Lovitz at the US Open not far from the Mets ballpark (then Shea Stadium, now CitiField).  I told him I liked his portrayal of the scout and he was humble, saying it was a well-written part - I must add that in re-seeing the film recently I found the role a bit too stereotyped. 

 

In the lively recent book by Erin Carlson, "No Crying In Baseball," about the making of Penny Marshall's film, Tom Hanks, who played the team manager loosely based on Jimmy Foxx, said:  "Football is war.  Basketball is struggle.  Baseball is life." 

BTW Another tidbit in Carlson's book is that someone who tried out for the film and didn't get cast but did OK in her tryout was Marla Maples. 

 

RIP, Jay Littleton Ball Park, that according to Schmall's story was named after a former semi-pro ballplayer who became an MLB scout and passed on in 2003.  Am always glad to remember any scout devoted to the game.  

 

That's all for now - Stay Positive Test Negative and Take It Easy But Take It, still my mantras. 

 

 

 

On Lincoln's Birthday Feb 12 - it also would have been my mother's 119th birthday - I received my second Pfizer vaccine.  I was in and out of Mount Sinai Morningside - the former St. Lukes near the Columbia campus - in less than 45 minutes, including the 15-minute waiting period after the shot to make certain there were no adverse reactions.  

 

I really feel for the enormous number of people that have had to travel tens to hundreds of miles for their shots. Let's hope that a more streamlined public health service can be created under our new national Biden administration.

 

The nurse who gave me the second shot was very business-like and helpful.  I didn't really expect the unexpected praise that I heard before my first shot - when the nurse, a newcomer to NYC from Albuquerque, thought I looked closer to 50 than 78. If only it were true.  If only. 

 

It was fitting that I received the Pfizer vaccine because it brought back memories of John L. Smith, the Pfizer president in the 1930s and 1940s who was also an actively involved chemist.   Smith was also the treasurer and the wealthiest partner of the Brooklyn Dodgers as the internal war between the other partners, Branch Rickey and Walter O'Malley, began to build. 

 

While working on experiments to develop penicillin, Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming became a friend of Smith and fascinated by American baseball. Smith was reportedly first diagnosed with lung cancer in 1946 but evidently went into remission.  

 

Gifted NY "Herald Tribune" sportswriter Harold Rosenthal loved to discuss science and medicine with John L. Smith.  He thought it a tragedy that mass production of the miracle drug penicillin or perhaps some other new invention did not occur until it was too late to save the life of Smith whose cancer returned and he died during the AllStarGame break in July 1950.

   

When Smith's widow Mary Louise awarded her voting shares to O'Malley, Rickey's departure was foreordained and he left Brooklyn for Pittsburgh after the 1950 season.  The tragedy for Brooklyn Dodger fans occurred seven years later when O'Malley uprooted the franchise for the greener pasture$ of Los Angeles. 

 

I discuss the story in my essay, "The Two Titans and the Mystery Man," in the Joseph Dorinson/Joram Warmund edited volume, SPORT RACE AND THE AMERICAN DREAM (M.E.Sharpe), and in my biography, BRANCH RICKEY: BASEBALL'S FEROCIOUS GENTLEMAN

(U of Nebraska Press).  

 

(This is not the time or place to discuss whether Robert Moses was also a culprit in the Dodgers departure to Los Angeles. Sure he was, but I do firmly believe had Smith lived, that wound in the heart of Brooklyn might have been avoided.)    

 

I dearly hope that the Pfizer vaccine will take hold in the marrow of yours truly.  If it does,

I dedicate its healing graces to loyal Brooklynite John Lawrence Smith, who lived near Ebbets Field and was a great supporter of baseball, amateur sports, and local charities.   

 

He was a rare owner who wasn't into baseball to make money but to provide service to the local community. Rex Barney, Dodger pitcher and later Oriole public address announcer, told me that

Smith would come into the Sunday clubhouse waving pennants to lift up team spirits.  

 

Speaking of special owners, longtime Oneonta minor league owner Sam Nader passed away on Monday Feb 8 at the age of 101. In the 1980s, I fell in love with the New York-Penn League franchise located in the Otsego County seat scarcely a half-hour south of Cooperstown.  

 

When I first saw games in Oneonta, the staff of Sam Nader, previously a four-term mayor of the city, included his wife Alice and his three children, Suzanne, John, and Alice Adele.   Sam supervised the cooking of hot dogs, and "boy, they are good," I remember his justified praise.  

 

Oneonta was where Don Mattingly and Willie McGee broke into pro baseball.  Oneonta was where Buck Showalter first played and then managed.  I'll never forget Sam telling me at the time that Showalter one day would be Yankee manager.   

 

In 1982 John Elway hit .318 as a O-Yank right fielder, and led the team in every offensive category, including stolen bases.  Elway and his father Jack, a renowned West Coast football coach, were not happy that the Baltimore Colts had drafted John for football.

 

They did not like the methods of Colts coach Frank Kush when his Arizona State Sun Devils played against John Elway qb-ing Stanford. (In a fascinating aside, Jack Elway later coached Stanford with middling success but coaching San Jose State he beat his son's Stanford twice.)

 

If only the Colts had known about the Elways' antipathy towards Kush, a new coach could have been named, Elway signed, and no more Colts move to Indianapolis in the middle of the night early in 1984. Ah, "If" history yet again.

 

It was John Elway's only pro baseball experience but it was a memorable experience for him and the fans. There were few home runs evelr hit in Oneonta's spacious Damaschke Field but it was a great place to watch pitching and defense and savor the beauty of the restorative hill behind the left field fence.  Adding to Damaschke's charm, it was located within the picturesque public Neawha Park. 

 

Sam Nader was the youngest of six children of Elias Nader and Rose Rajah who emigrated from a mountain village near Beirut, Lebanon in 1909. As Mark Simonson noted in a long and moving article in the Oneonta "Daily Star," updated on Feb 13, Elias did not pass an American eye exam in France so the couple traveled to Brazil for two years where they had cousins.

 

Once he passed the exam, they settled in Oneonta where another cousin already lived. The Naders grew up not far from the railroad tracks, nicknamed the "lower deck" of the town. Through hard work and grit and an endearing love of people, Sam rose to become a pillar of the community.  An affordable housing complex, Nader Towers, honors him, and the Oneonta airport is named after him. 

 

Oneonta had been without minor league baseball since 1952 when Sam led the forces to bring the Red Sox to town in 1967.  In a time of social turmoil, Sam thought that baseball would be a unifying force for all ages.  

 

When the Yankees expressed interest in coming to town, Sam leaped at the chance because he was a longtime Yankee fan. He developed a close bond with George Steinbrenner once he bought the Yankees in 1973.

 

When Steinbrenner in 1998 as a favor to then-Mayor Rudolph Guiliani agreed to move the franchise to a brand new $70 million plus stadium on Staten Island in 1998, the Boss wanted Sam to come along.  No way lifelong Oneonta native Nader would leave.  

 

In its last years it became a Tigers franchise, aiding most famously in the development of future Yankee and Met outfielder Curtis Granderson. After 2009 the franchise was moved to Norwich, Connecticut on Long Island Sound. 

 

As Mark Simonson notes, Sam once expressed very beautifully his parting advice to Oneonta players:  "When you leave here, leave with a pleasant memory, and if you go on, always remember us because we'll always remember you."  

 

The likes of Sam Nader will sorely be missed.  Please don't forget him at a time when not only is Oneonta long gone from the minor leagues, but the whole New York-Penn League has been disbanded as well as several other leagues and forty teams discarded in all.    

 

The Staten Island Yankees are defunct and its stadium now lies vacant. It is hard to envision much commerce flocking to the new shopping mall adjacent to the stadium.  

 

The owners of the S. I. Yankees are suing MLB for its abandonment. So are the owners of the Trenton Thunder whose Double-A franchise was moved to the more lucrative suburban Bridgewater NJ area and will play in the Somerset Patriots independent league ballpark.

 

MORE SADNESS IN THE NEWS:

We lost another special person in the world of sports last week with the death of basketball scout Tom Konchalski, 74.  I never met Tom but I would see him after games in the area. He always sat in the top row away from scrutiny. 

 

He never learned to drive but his knowledge of players was so encyclopedic that writers loved to volunteer as chauffeurs to be able to pick his mind.  His typewritten High School Basketball Report was must reading for coaches at all levels of the game.

 

He was responsible for many players getting chances at Divsion II and III schools.  He appreciated Jay Wright as much for his career playing at Bucknell than his national titles coaching Villanova.

 

Like so many great scouts, he never denigrated a player's ability. His most severe criticism was: "He wasn't a genuine fit" for a program.  

 

A fine column by Roger Rubin in newsday.com quoted from some of his pithy reports:

On Jamal Mashburn, who went to Kentucky (and whose son now is a Minnesota reserve): 

He has "the body of a blacksmith and the touch of a surgeon."  

 

On Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway:  "Dishes like Julia, delivers like Dominos."  

 

Another loss in the basketball world recently was John Chaney, 89, who brought Temple in Philadelphia to national renown.  I'm tired of learning about these departures, but at least these men lived full and rewarding lives. May our memories of them always be a blessing.

 

Before I end this post, here are some of my TCM recommendations for late Feb: 

 

Fri Feb 19 8P a classic 1950 noir "Gun Crazy" followed at 945p by a classic in women's awakening - "Thelma and Louise" with Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis (shortly before her

memorable take on Dottie Hinson in "A League of Their Own")

 

Sat Feb 20 12M, repeated Sun at 10A "Native Son" (1950) starring author Richard Wright in title role as Bigger Thomas. Remastered by Eddie Muller who will intro and outro film as part of Noir Alley series.

 

Sun Feb 21 3:15p  Billy Wilder's "The Fortune Cookie" (1966) first pairing of Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon with scenes shot on the Cleveland Browns football field at Municipal Stadium. Not vintage Wilder but hard to beat the Lemmon-Matthau timing. Matthau won Oscar for portrayal of shyster lawyer.  (I didn't have a vote - LOL.) 

 

Wed Feb 24 10A "Hollywood Canteen" 1944 USO film with soldiers returning on furlough to meet such movie stars as Bette Davis, John Garfield, Ida Lupino and Dane Clark.  Watch for Joe E Brown's dance and Jack Benny sparring on violin with Joseph Szigeti.   

 

Fri Feb 26 630A  Ernst Lubitsch's "Ninotchka" (1939) - Melvyn Douglas woos serious Russian comrade played by Greta Garbo.  Wonderful character actors Felix Bressart,  Sig Rumann add much to the flavor.  Billy Wilder worked on it and you can see how he learned from the master how to get comedy out of very serious material.

 

Later on Feb 26 at 5p Vincent Price in "The Mad Magician" (1954) - first time I will see it since it scared the hell out of me when I first saw on TV in the 1950s.

 

Sa Feb 27 12N  "Knute Rockne" (1940) Hollywood's take on the coaching legend starring Pat O'Brien with tramp athlete George "Win One For The Gipper" Gipp played by some actor named Ronald Reagan.

 

Sa Feb 27 12M repeated Sun at 10A - Robert Wise's "Odds Against Tomorrow" (1960) intro'd and outro'd again by Eddie Muller. One of the great NYC movies, jazz movies, and overall A-one movies.  Music composed by John Lewis of Modern Jazz Quartet. Harry Belafonte and Robert Ryan, genuine liberals off-screen, play bank robbers who hate each other for black-white reasons.  Ex-cop Ed Begley Sr. plays the mastermind. 

 

Su Feb 28  345p Blake Edwards's "Days of Wine and Roses" (1962) with Lemmon and Lee Remick as the alcoholic lovers and Charles Bickford as her stern father

 

month ends at 10p Martin Ritt's "The Front" (1976) - one of the best if not the best movie about the blacklist. Woody Allen fronts for Zero Mostel. Cast also includes Andrea Marcovicci and Michael Murphy.

 

That's all for now.  Always remember: Take it easy but take it!