Lee Lowenfish

I must admit I don't watch the Mets on SNY very often.  I'm too busy draining my emotions rooting for the Orioles and when not doing that, I'm rooting against the Yankees on the YES Network.

 

Today Sunday August 6 the Yankees were not on YES network - the game must have been on a "premium" network so I was focused entirely on the Orioles successfully pulling off a sweep against the bedraggled Mets on the SNY network. (Without too much agonizing on my part, I let Houston salvage a split with the Yankees in a four-game series in New York.)

 

I also watched the Fri and Sat night games on SNY with Gary Cohen and Ron Darling providing a pleasant and informative listen. As the cameras zeroed in on Mets southpaw Jose Quintana kicking the dirt to create an ideal landing area, Darling said he used to imitate Gerry Cheevers clearing the goal crease with his skates for Darling's beloved Boston Bruins.  (Quintana deserved a much better fate than a 2-0 loss but such is life

these days for the unmoored Mets.) 

 

The Orioles put on a defensive clinic the whole weekend. Near the end of Sunday's 2-0 shutout, Jeff MacNeil

was shaking his head in disbelief when Ryan McKenna robbed him with a running catch in left field foul

territory. Every Oriole player this season has been flashing the leather which is wonderful to see, and virtually every batter hustles out of the box thinking extra bases.   

 

A sense of humility is also evident. On Sat night the camera caught Oriole starter Kyle Gibson saying "Wow!" when MacNeil pulled an inner half fast ball for a two-run homer just inside the right field foul pole.  It brought the Mets within a run but as they have done so often this season, the O's quickly answered the runs and went on to a relatively stress-free 7-3 win. 

 

Same was true of the 10-3 Friday night opener as 22-year-old shortstop Gunnar Henderson (who also plays a very good third base) delivered big hits. Vengeance was also sweet for backup catcher James McCann who had a five-RBI game against his former team that is still paying most of the salary from the Mets' four-year deal he signed.  

  

My only nitpick with the broadcasts was when Gary Cohen criticized the larger left field playing area at Camden Yards.  I still maintain the triple and being thrown out trying for a triple are the most exciting plays in baseball, and the new acreage in left-center adds to that possibility.  IMO, Cohen's criticism should be leveled at the bandboxes in the new stadia in Cincinnati, Philly, and yes the third Yankee Stadium, too.

 

There are still more than 50 games of regular season baseball left, and the Orioles must travel twice to the West Coast and also play 6 games with defending champion Houston beginning with a three-game series in Charm City, first game on Tuesday night Aug 8. 

 

But the Birds have met every challenge so far in 2023.  They possess the "deep depth" that Hall of Famers Yogi Berra and Earl Weaver emphasized as the key to success. 

 

So far the Orioles new right-handed mound additions, starter Jack Flaherty from Cardinals and reliever Shintaro Fujinami from Oakland, have looked promising. 

 

Over 10 years ago, Fujinami and Shohei Ohtani were considered the two best prospects in Japan.  Ohtani is already a deserved legend as hitter as well as pitcher. Alas, all the trade deadline additions to the Angels have not helped the team and the odds of Ohtani leaving for a better team after the season are increasing. 

 

As for Fujinami, after many years in minors, Fujinami failed as a starter in Oakland. The Orioles took a chance on his improved early summer work as a reliever and he almost threw an "immaculate" 8th inning in Sunday's 2-0 shutout.  He struck out first two batters on three pitches and then got an easy out after going 0-2 on the third batter. 

 

The caveats with Fujinami are his bouts of wildness and his high-strung nature that may make him only

successful when he starts a "clean" inning, i.e. with no runners on.  Lurking in the minors for my Birds is D.L.

Hall, once hailed as a can't-miss starter drafted out of a Georgia high school in 2017 (!).  He's now regaining his strength in Triple A and could be a wild card bullpen addition come September/October.   

 

That's all the baseball for now.   Let me close with some TCM tips starting with

MON AUG 7 a cornicopia of Robert Ryan films starting at 6A with Fritz Lang's "Woman on the Beach" (1947) a triangle with Joan Bennett and Charles Bickford; at 730A Fred Zinnemann's searing "Act of Violence" (1949) with Van Heflin and Janet Leigh; 1030A Anthony Mann's "Naked Spur" (1953) with Janet Leigh and Jimmy Stewart; and also at 545P "Billy Budd" (1962); and 945P Robert Wise's "The Set Up" (1949) perhaps the greatest boxing movie ever, at 1115P Nicholas Ray's "On Dangerous Ground" with Ida Lupino, music by Bernard Herrmann, and ending at 430A Tues with "Secret Fury" (1950). 

 

TUES AUG 8 has three Busby Berkeley classics from the Great Depression 1930s:

315P "We're In the Money" (1935);  8P "Golddiggers of 1933" and "Footlight Parade" (1933) 

 

TH AUG 10 has three Noir classics back-to-back:

6P "Out of the Past" (1947) a triangle among Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas, Jane Greer

8P "While The City Sleeps" (1956) I believe Fritz Lang's last American film set in a newspaper office with Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, Sally Forrest, Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price

10P "The Killer Is Loose" (1956) - former Ohio State footballer Budd Boetticher directs Wendell Corey, Joseph Cotten, Rhonda Fleming

 

F AUG 11 a lot of Alan Ladd including: 

8P "Shane" (1953) with Brandon DeWilde wanting Shane to come back

10P "This Gun For Hire" (1942) an early Noir with Veronica Lake at height of pageboy craze - soon government urged her to get haircut because too many women were getting hair caught at defense jobs  

SA AUG 12 12A "Blue Dahlia" (1946)

2A "The Glass Key" (1942)

 

SU AUG 13 - A Paul Newman day starting at 6A

 

And coming on W Aug 16 8p "High Noon" (1952) 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

The youth, speed, and grit of the 2023 Birds have won me over. No more Woerioles but increasingly Wowrioles. I'm posting on the Monday off-day before they come into Yankee Stadium for three night games against the resurgent Yankees.

There are 115 games left in regular season so a lot can happen, good and bad, but a 31-16 record, to use Phil Rizzuto's term, is not too shabby.

 

RHP Kyle Gibson is at 35 the oldest member of the team and the veteran has become the leader of the pitching staff. 

The title of this post comes from an interview he gave last week to sportswriter Steve Melewski of masnsports.com 

 

In addition to urging his young teammates to avoid the madness of social media, Gibson shared some of the quiet advice he has given rookie teammate Grayson Rodriguez, billed as the best pitching prospect in the majors but who is yet to establish consistency.

 

Among Gibson's words of wisdom: 

**Triple-A hitters face you as an individual. They are not meeting beforehand as a team to help the team win by exposing your weaknesses. In the majors, "Your bad stuff at this level gets exposed."

 

He ended with this sage observation: "Here it's trying to figure out how to limit the damage when you are bad, how to maximize when you are average, and how not to mess it up when you are having a really good day." 

These almost fatalistic comments reminds me of the sub-title to Joe Maddon's fine new book, "The Book of Joe", written with Tom Verducci: "Trying Not To Suck At Baseball and Life." 

 

Gibson was once a number one draft pick himself, in 2009 by the Twins out of the University of Missouri, the alma mater BTW of Max Scherzer who turned pro in 2006.  Gibson doesn't have the stuff or the reputation of a Scherzer, but there is nothing like veteran leadership behind the scenes - it is maybe the key contribution to a winning culture. 

 

Here are some other impressions about the MLB season as we are past the quarter-pole of the regular season.

**The AL East could be the first division ever to finish with every team having a winning record.  Now in the basement, the Blue Jays, losers of 9 out of 10 recent games to Orioles, Yankees, and Red Sox, would be near the top in the AL and NL Central. 

 

Toronto might take solace in the old baseball adage, "You're never as good as you look when you are winning or as bad as you look when you are losing." But pessimists say: "You could be as bad as you look when you are losing."

 

Certainly Vlad Guerrero Jr. will certainly start to hit again and with George Springer and Bo Bichette ahead of him in lineup and Matt Chapman looming below that's an impressive group. Catchers Alejandro Kirk and Danny Jarsen are good bats,

too - Jansen's extra-inning home run against the Yankees won the only game Toronto picked up in this horrendous stretch.

 

(A wonderful detail I heard on an Oriole broadcast some years ago is that Jansen's parents housed retired Oriole star Adam Jones when he was starting out on his career as a Seattle minor leaguer.)  

 

Fans are filling Toronto's Rogers Center for a team that also looks pretty good on the pitching side.  They are dying to forget another hockey collapse in the playoffs that gave life to the old saying" "Toronto is the only city where the Leafs fall in April." (Sorry, couldn't resist a good joke.)   Toronto plays four in Tampa Bay starting tonight and they need a good showing against the top team in the division. 

 

**As for the other MLB teams, Oakland is an embarrassment with only 10 wins after games of April 21. For

Colorado, Kansas City, and White Sox, the playoffs already look out of sight.  At least Kansas City has some promising young players led by shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., drafted 2nd after Adley Rutschman in the 2019 draft. 

 

Speaking of my favorite subject and their star catcher, Adley has now played a full season from late May 2022 to late May 2023. The Birds are 90-60 since his arrival, not a coincidence. 

 

Mets fans will be surprised to learn that new backup catcher James McCann has played very well, too.  His good hitting seasons are probably in the past, but his skilled receving has added another effective piece to this year's team. 

Not enough can be said about the emergence of center fielder Cedric Mullins on both sides of the ball.  More on his achievements in later posts. 

 

On the college scene, Columbia lost to Penn and Princeton in the first-ever four team double elimination Ivy League playoff. At home on Tommy Lasorda Field at Meiklejohn Stadium, Penn pounded its way to the title and will ride a huge winning streak and 33-14 overall record (16-5 in the Ivies) into the regional tourney.  Seedings announced on Memorial Day Monday leading to the mid-June College World Series in Omaha. 

 

After a slow start to season, Rutgers finished strong and will open Big Ten Tournament as #5 seed against #4 Nebraska on Wed May 24 at 2p.  Top-seeded Maryland plays #8 Michigan State at 6p on Tues May 23.  All games will be televised on Big

Ten Network and available on Fox Sports app.  Games will be played in same stadium as the CWS final round. 

 

Finally on the NYC high school scene, the PSAL Triple AAA playoffs - representing the largest schools - open play on Wed afternoon May 24 after 330p.  The final will be on Mon June 12 at Yankee Stadium.  More on that in future blogs.

 

For now, take it easy but take it, and more and more these days, stay positive, test negative.