Lee Lowenfish

I have long believed that you shouldn't make prognostications about a season until Memorial Day at the earliest. But, after all, this season started in Korea before winter was over and already the White Sox, Marlins, and Rockies are not likely to ever glimpse .500 all season. 

  

As an Oriole fan, I like their record, solidly more than 10 games over .500 and perhaps the best is yet to come. But they remain very streaky offensively and the pitching staff remains a work in progress. 

 

Temporarily at least, closer Craig Kimbrel has lost his spot because of inconsistent performances.  He did give a refreshingly original explanation for his wildness and his penchant for giving up big hits: "I lost my lanes," he said, making a comparison to bowling.

 

I know that the Dodgers' Mookie Betts is a great bowler but I have never heard him connect the two sports. In this past weekend's series win over the Diamondbacks, the defending National League champion,  Kimbrel's two appearances in non-closing roles were far better. We'll see if he returns to the pressure-packed closing role soon.

 

During the series against Arizona, Anthony Santander, the switch-hitting right fielder from Venezuela, began to show signs of offensive consistency. He hit a 8th inning tying HR in Sat's extra-inning win and blasted an opposite field double in the Sun loss to Dback ace Zac Gallen. (Slumping 2023 NL rookie of the year Corbin Carroll came to life in that victory stroking the ball all over the field and running wild on the bases - he even beat out a relatively routine grounder to shortstop when in a rare lapse Gunnar Henderson, last year's AL ROY, took too much time throwing to first base.)

 

Santander (pronounced with emphasis on the "der") is a quiet but imposing leader of the Orioles and he is so easy to root for. (I wrote this before I saw his YouTube Mother's Day greeting to his mother which made him even more endearing.)   

 

His emergence as a run producer and underrated outfielder has been a longtime in coming. He was signed as a teenager by Cleveland and after six years in the minors, many of them plagued by injuries, the Orioles under the previous Dan Duquette administration plucked him out of the Rule 5 Draft. He doesn't turn 30 until Oct 19.

 

He will be a free agent after the season and there has been no indication that the current adminstration under Mike Elias and Sig Mejdal want to re-sign him. When the duo was running Houston, they let even more talented Carlos Correa and George Springer walk. 

 

This may be my wistful thinking but perhaps new owner David Rubenstein will see Santander's value to the team and take an active role in keeping him around long-term. Certainly Rubenstein's first moves as an owner have been deservingly well-received.  He has spoken genuinely about his love of the Orioles from his earliest days as a native Baltimorean who remembers the team coming from the moribund shell of the St. Louis Browns before the 1954 season. 

 

He is very versed in media performance from his longtime work as a Bloomberg News talk show host. During the Friday game against Arizona, he even took a turn in the Dr. Splash Zone in the outfield seats, joining fans in watery celebration of big Baltimore hits. 

 

Budding ace Corbin Burnes will also be a free agent after the season but I'm willing to let his and Santander's contracts play out after a deep run into the post-season and ideally through a World Series parade. 

 

As for the AL East race this season with Boston perhaps a surprise third right now, it looks likely that the Yankees are here to stay especially if Gerrit Cole returns to form after his elbow injury. And Juan Soto has certainly made a difference in the Yankee lineup and the team's overall upbeat presence. 

He has to be an early favorite in the MVP race.

    

On the college baseball front, more than a few people have expressed surprise to me about Columbia's excellence in baseball that I highlighted last post. It is no sudden emergence but dates back to 2008, the third season with Brett Boretti at the helm when the Lions won their first of six championships in his reign.

 

The field is set for the double-elimination tourney that begins Fri May 17 at 11A with 2nd seed Princeton taking on 3rd seed Cornell. At 3P top-seeded

Columbia faces defending champion Penn who got in when to no surprise to yours truly, Harvard eliminated Yale last weekend.  (Nothing like an ancient rivalry of the super blue-bloods and misery loving company! Yale had to sweep the 3-game series and the Crimson won the second game, 3-2.)   

 

The winners on Friday play Sat at 3P and the losers fight for survival at 11A.  The Friday winners play at 3P.  On Sunday at 11 the survivor of the early Sat game plays the loser of the 3p game.  The winner of that elimination game plays the undefeated team at 3P. 

 

If the undefeated team loses, there is a winner take all match at noon on Mon Feb 20.   All games are at Satow Stadium Robertson Field just north of the football field NW of Bway/2018 Street.  On Mon May 27 at noon, ESPN will announce the 64 teams going to the tournament that winds up in the College World Series 8-game tournament in Omaha in mid-June.  And what does Omaha stand for? 

Opportunity

Makeup

Attitude

Hustle

Always put the team first! 

 

Meanwhile Columbia tennis has earned its first entry into the Elite Eight of NCAA men's tennis.  The Lions will meet #1 seed Ohio State on Th May 16

at 12N on the campus of Oklahoma State in Stillwater Oklahoma.  Like baseball, Columbia tennis has built a winning culture for years, first under coach Bid Goswami and now under his successor Howard Endelman, a former star Columbia player. 

 

Other matches on Thurs will feature Kentucky v Texas Christian U followed by Tennessee v Texas and finally Virginia, trying for a three-peat v Wake

Forest.  Semifinals will be on May 18 and the final May 19. 

 

Here's TCM Tips on sports movies: 

Th May 16 9A  "The Set-up" (1949) one of the great boxing movies with Robert Ryan as a battered but proud pugilist

 

Sa May 18 930A "Rookie of the Year" (1955) directed by John Ford/with John Wayne, his son Patrick Wayne, Ward Bond, Vera Miles

  originally a Screen Directors Guild half-hour TV show - aging sportswriter finds a story in son of banned ballplayer playing the game

  Script co-written by W. R. Burnett (who wrote among other classics "Little Caesar" and "Asphalt Jungle")

 

Th May 23 4p "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" (1949) with Sinatra/Gene Kelly/Esther Williams as owner of an early 20th century team

 

That's all for now.  Always remember:  Take it easy but take it, and Stay positive, test negative.  

Playoff-starved Baltimore Oriole fans know there will be post-season games in October for the first time in 9 seasons. Pennant fever is so high in Charm City that I've heard that the city is already getting decorated in Oriole orange and black. 

 

But the race for the AL East division title against Tampa Bay with the coveted first round bye at stake was still undecided as the last week of the regular season began. Yesterday (Sunday Sept 24) the Orioles salvaged a split in a 4-game series with the Guardians with a relatively easy 5-1 victory behind 7 strong innings by veteran starter Kyle Gibson. 

 

Gibson managed to contain former Met second baseman Andres Gimenez at the plate although the brilliant Venezuelan was a marvel in the field the

whole series.  He constantly robbed our hitters in the same spectacular way as our infield - and outfield - defenders have displayed all year.   

 

Even more encouraging for Oriole hopes was southpaw John Means who hurled one-hit 7 & a 1/3 innings on Sat night.  Out because of Tommy John surgery for almost two whole seasons, Means had a no-hitter until the 7th when that man again Gimenez homered for Cleveland's only hit. 

 

The weekend proved yet again the wisdom of the old baseball adage, "The best bullpen is a starter that goes 7 innings." Since Baltimore's breakout

closer Felix "The Mountain" Bautista went down in early August with a partial tear of his UCL (ulnar collateral ligament), the Bird bullpen has become

unsteady.   

 

By the end of the 17 games in 17 days road trip that mercifully ended on Sunday, you could sense the fatigue on the bullpen arms, not to mention the agita of those of us in front of our TV sets.  I don't even want to think about what it might have felt like if a playoff position hadn't already been secured. 

 

As it turned out, a righty-lefty combo of Yennier Cano and Cionel Perez secured the 4-1 Sat victory for Means and two lefties Danny Coulombe and DL Hall locked down the Sunday 5-1 win for Gibson.  Felix The Mountain has been throwing bullpen sessions but I would consider it very doubtful that he can return this season.  He is traveling with the team and though on the IL, you know the presence of the 6' 7 280 pounder who was signed by the Marlins at 16 and is only 28 means a lot to his teammates. 

 

AL and NL wild cards are still be determined this week and it is still wide open with only Tampa Bay definitely in although they will miss two recently injured stars, first baseman Yandy Diaz and second baseman Brandon Lowe.  The schedule has the Red Sox in the spoiler role, playing two at home with Tampa Tu and W and then four on the road in Baltimore. 

 

The Orioles play two at home with Washington before greeting the divisional rival Bosox for the last four at home.  The earliest Baltimore can clinch is Wed with a magic number of 3 (any combination of Balt. wins and TB losses).  

 

Oriole manager Brandon Hyde has been critical of the schedule that put Birds on the road for those 17 games in 17 days.  He hopes for a correction in

the future but how about the Diamondbacks having to make TWO trips to New York in the last weeks of the season. 

 

They didn't too well in the Big City and now find themselves in tie with Cubs for last wild cards with the dangerous Phillies already assured of a place in the tournament. The Reds and Marlins still have chances too, the Giants much less so. 

 

Toronto could be the sleeper team in the AL.  They have been winning series in September and just took a big one at Tampa.  They end season at home against Tampa Bay but first must play the Yankees who are likely to pitch Gerrit Cole on Wed or Thurs.  Stay tuned for some great drama in the AL East.

As well as the AL West where Houston, shockingly swept at home by 102-loss Royals, and Seattle are basically in a Survivor series before Texas

visits Seattle and Houston goes to Arizona to end season. 

 

Let me close with a couple of TCM sporting tips. 

Th Sep 28 8p "A Night At The Opera" (1935) the Marx Brothers classic with a memorable rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"

 

Su Oct 1 1215A repeated at 10P - "Whiplash" (1948)   A Noir Alley presentation with as seemingly as preposterous a script for even Noir.

But could be a lot of unintended fun.  Dane Clark is a painter turned boxer gets into a triangle with Alexis Smith and Zachary Scott who becomes Clark's manager and names him Mike Angelo. You can't beat the supporting players, Eve Arden and S. K. "Cuddles" Sakall. (Obviously this film has no relation to the "Whiplash" of a few years ago about music that won an Oscar for J. K. Simmons.)

 

Su Oct 1 1015P  "On Moonlight Bay" (1951) - Doris Day as the tomboy who falls in love with next door neighbor Gordon McRae.  In addition to the title tune, we hear "Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag, and Smile, Smile, Smile".  Those of a certain age will remember this song as I believe the theme song on WOR Radio's morning "Rambling With Gambling" show. 

 

That's all for now.  Take it easy but take it and stay positive, test negative.