Lee Lowenfish

Opening Day in baseball is not as special as it used to be but what is these days? If I had my way, Cincinnati would host the home opener as it often did last century because the Reds franchise is the oldest MLB team, its roots going back to the Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869.

 

This year MLB actually opened in Seoul, Korea on Mar 20 & 22 with the Dodgers and Padres splitting games. During the Korean trip, the shocking news broke that over $5 million of the bank account of Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers' new superstar hitter-pitcher, was used to pay off the gambling debts of Ippei Mizuhara, his American-born interpreter/roommate/best friend since Ohtani's arrival in the USA as a member of the Angels in 2018.    

 

After Mizuhara initially told ESPN in an exclusive interview that Ohtani had full knowledge of the payments but the interpreter insisted that he never bet on baseball, 24 hours later word came from Ohtani's camp that the prior interview was inoperative.  Ohtani's people didn't actually use the word "inoperative" in their statement, but it is one of my favorite words from the Nixon White House as the Watergate scandal metastasized over 50 years ago.   

 

The Dodgers quickly fired interpreter Mizuhara and word came out that his resume claiming that he previously had worked for other baseball teams turned out to be George Santos-like in its falsehoods. The team is charging Mizuhara with "theft" of the 5 million from Ohtani's account.

 

How big this scandal becomes is up to how thoroiugh media coverage will be as well as the depth of the MLB investigation which was somewhat belatedly promised. I am among the large group of skeptics who wonder whether such a probe will actually happen given the status of the popular Ohtani who signed in the off-season a $700 million Dodgers contract for 10 years with the money heavily backloaded. 

 

The wits and wags are already having a field day with this story. My favorite so far is: "If Pete Rose had an interpreter, he'd be in the Hall of Fame." (Thanks to Jay Goldberg, creator of the "Memory of America" project taping reminiscences of people's first baseball game, for sharing that beauty.)

 

This case broke in California because it is one of only 12 that doesn't allow legal bookmaking. In the Murphy v. NCAA case decided in May 2018,  a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that the long-standing NCAA edict against players betting on its games violated the constitutional rights of the 50 states.  

 

As a historian needing to stay aware of the decaying civic life of his country, I cannot ignore this story. Yet I remain more devoted to the game on the field and the sagas of those who play this difficult and beautiful game. 

 

So let me turn now to my Orioles' promising start which actually began with a 23-5 record in spring training games, however meaningless the results were. With brand-new onwer David Rubenstein in attendance, Baltimore won its home opener on Th afternoon Mar 28, 11-3, over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, not exactly a prime opponent. 

 

New ace Orioles starter Corbin Burnes, a 2021 Cy Young winner for the Brewers, gave up a solo home run to Mike Trout in first inning and nothing more in six sterling innings that included 11 strikeouts.  

 

They took a 2-1 lead on Jordan Westburg's timely two-out single in bottom of the first and never looked back. How I love driving in the run from third with two out!  If I have a tombstone, it will read: AT LEAST HE DIDN'T DIE ON THIRD. 

 

Long home runs by right fielder Anthony Santander, a free agent after this season as will Corbin Burnes, and centerfielder Cedric Mullins added rich icing to the tasty cake of starting the year 1-0. 

 

It is a heady feeling for an Oriole fan to root for a genuine contender.  I like it, I like it.  Last year I put aside my alter ego Masochist Mel as the Birds soared to 101 regular season wins.  They couldn't handle the eventual world champion Texas Rangers in the playoffs but no team could. 

 

One other aspect of Opening Day that was especially heartwarming was the first ball thrown out by 10-year-old Aubree Singletary, the daughter of a Baltimore city postal worker.  The look of awe and bliss on her face as she walked on the field and gazed at the 45,000 people in the stands and the billowing Oriole flags on the field were enough to make a prince of paranoia forget his doubts about the future of his team and our great game itself. 

 

Cal Ripken Jr., who will be a part of the new ownership group, caught Aubree's short toss from in front of the mound.  What made this moment especially endearing is that David Rubenstein is the only child of a Baltimore city postal worker. 

 

Back to some reflections on the game. Westburg, a native of New Braunfels, Texas and a product of Mississippi State's fine program, was starting at DH but he should also see action at 2B and 3B during the year.  The Orioles seem loaded at almost all positions with a lot of hot young prospects - infielders Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo and outfielders Heston Kjerstad and Kyle Stowers, among them - starting the year in the minors. 

 

Thanks to my quick finger on the remote clicker, I was able to see Yankee newcomer Juan Soto's great throw from right field that prevented the Astros from tying their home opener in bottom of 9th innning. One out later, the Yankees could enjoy an impressive 5-4 come-from-behind victory.  If Soto's performance in the field picks up to match his offensive productivity, the Yankees may be a worthy adversary for the Orioles throughout 2024.

 

Of course, it is far too early to make any accurate predictions but the rest of the AL East could be very competitive making for a great race.  Unfortunately, the so-called "balanced" schedule has cut intra-divisional games from 19 to 13 so there will be fewer dramatic August-September matchups. 

 

 

Now on to some brief basketball post-mortems for my favorite college teams:  The Wisconsin men and the Columbia women will have to wait until next year.   The Badgers landed with a thud on Friday Mar 21 when the upstart James Madison Dukes from Harrisonburg, Virgina rushed out to a 18-5 lead and never looked back.  But on the following Sunday, the blue blood Duke Blue Devils gave JMU a thrashing of their own to make the Sweet Sixteen against powerhouse Houston on Fri Mar 28. 

 

Wisconsin was led in scoring this year by St. John's transfer AJ Storr but he thinks he is NBA ready and will not return next season.  Thanks to an Ian Eagle comment on a CBS broadcast, I learned that Storr previously had attended FOUR high schools before choosing St. John's and then Wisconsin.

 

Whenever I throw up my hands at the transfer portal and the NIL opportunities for the players (Name, Image, Likeness), I remind myself that the coaches have always had the opportunity for free agency.  The latest example is Mark Byington, who led James Madison, will now coach at Vanderbilt.,  

 

It seems to me that Purdue and Connecticut are heading for a final matchup in the men's March Madness (spilling of course into April) but we'll see.  As Red Barber wisely advised us, "That's why they play the games." 

 

On the women's side, I was saddened to see Abbey Hsu's brilliant Columbia career end on a minor note as the larger and defensive-minded Vanderbilt Commodores held her to 13 points on 3-14 shooting in Columbia's debut in the NCAA tourney. The final score was 72-68 but the Lions never recovered from a big hole in the second period that led to a Dores' 10-point halftime lead.   

 

It was still thrilling to be part of a crowd of over a thousand that watched the game from the Virginia Tech home court on the big scoreboard screen in Columbia's Levien gym.

 

Vanderbilt was spanked by Baylor three days later and now the NCAA and the ESPN-ABC TV combine are hoping that Caitlin Clark's sparkling game can carry the Hawkeyes into the women's Final Four. 

 

Clark wasn't that impressive in Iowa's narrow win over West Virginia's plucky team that knocked out Princeton, the perennial Ivy representative.  It says here that Dawn Staley's undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks will be hard to dethrone but once again we'll see what happens. 

  

On the college baseball side, Columbia won two of three from Harvard last weekend and now faces defending Ivy champion Penn in a Sat doubleheader on Mar 29 and a single Easter Sunday game at noon, all games at Satow Stadium just north of Columbia's football field overlooking the Hudson.  In a short 20-game league season, these early matchups are especially crucial because only two teams qualify for the best-of-three playoff at the home of the first place team.   

 

Rutgers won a series over UConn last weekend and are on the road at Michigan State the weekend of Mar 28.  They return home to Bainton Field for local matchups against Hofstra Tu Apr 2 at 3p, Marist W Apr 3 at 6p, a weekend series against Purdue April 5-6-7 at 6p, 3p, 1p.

They travel to Seton Hall in South Orange on Tu Apr 9 at 4p and host Nebraska F-Su Apr 12-14 at 6p 3p, 12N. 

More on these programs and the perennial area powers St John's and Seton Hall and NYU's Division III team in the next post.

 

And now some TCM Turner Classc Movie tips into early April. The starred ones have some baseball and/or sports content.

*M Apr 1 1PM  Buster Keaton in "The Cameraman" (1928).  His baseball pantomime filmed at an empty Yankee Stadium is a special 4-minute masterpiece.

 

Tu Apr 2 Ann Dvorak day in the daylight hours. 

115P "Dr. Socrates" (1935) dir. William Dieterle and co-starring Paul Muni.

*645P "Racing Lady" (1937) Ann is hired by a well-to-do millionaire (a film so obscure it isn't even Leonard Maltin's indispensable guide!)

 

Th Apr 4 - two classics back-to-back

8P "Annie Hall" (1977) - Woody Allen and Diane Keaton and Christopher Walken as Keaton's weirdo Wisconsin brother 

10P "Diner" (1982) one of Barry Levinson's bouncy Baltimore-based films

 

F Apr 5

*1015A "Woman of the Year" (1942) the first Tracy-Hepburn film with Spencer as sportswriter and Katherine as international political influencer 

     Later in the evening come back-to-back Billy Wilder classics

8P "Double Indemnity" (1944) Stanwyck and MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson

10P "The Major and the Minor" (1942) Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland and a Robert Benchley moment early in film always worth re-seeing 

 

Sa Apr 6 more back-to-back classics

545P "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948) dir. John Huston with Bogart/Walter Huston/Bruce Bennett/Tim Holt

8P "Blood on the Moon" (1948) dir. Robert Wise with Robert Mitchum/Barbara BelGeddes/Robert Preston (pre "Music Man"!)

 

Su Apr 7 12M "Violence" (1947) Noir Alley brings you Michael O'Shea/Sheldon Leonard/Nancy Coleman

   later that evening two music-themed movies of interest

8p "Young Man With A Horn" (1950) dir. Curtiz. Kirk Douglas/Lauren Bacall/the great Juano Hernandez

10p "New Orleans" (1947) a bit too talky but good performances by Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.