Lee Lowenfish

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.   

I knew as an Orioles fan that this first year of full-scale rebuilding was going to be difficult.  Leave it to my Birds, though, and especially rookie utility man Stevie Wilkerson, to end the season in Boston with a vivid example of how baseball can turn ecstasy into agony with shocking suddenness.

Their 162nd and last game of the season against the Red Sox in Fenway was tied 4-4 with two out in the bottom of the eighth.  Stevie Wilkerson, playing right field for only the tenth time, made a sensational leaping twisting catch, robbing Jackie Bradley Jr. of a two-run home run though barely missing landing in the right field stands.  (Turnabout was fair play because Bradley had robbed Orioles MVP Trey Mancini earlier in season at Camden Yards of a game-winning HR.)

Yet one inning later, Wilkerson was slow returning to the infield a single by Xander Bogaerts.  Running on the pitch from first base, Mookie Betts circled the bases to end the Red Sox's disappointing season on a high note.

(It won't appear in any of the often indecipherable analytic charts, but it seems to me that the Red Sox season was doomed early when the team split between black and Hispanic players and manager Alex Cora who didn't go to the White House to celebrate their 2018 championship with Donald Trump, and the white players who did go.)   

 
I have a lot of respect for teams long out of the race that play hard in late September. The Bosox and Birds have a history of that kind of intense play that make "the integrity of the game" not just an empty phrase. 

 
I recall back in 1976 when both teams had been eliminated by the resurgent Yankees.  Yet on the last day in the proverbial "meaningless game," they played 15 innings at Fenway before the Bosox won 4-3.     

 
To those teams who last week played genuine spoiler in the pennant races, I tip my cap. 

**The White Sox who started the Indians on their slide out of the playoffs by two victories in Chicago.  It was a sad ending for Cleveland who had played very well until the last week despite injuries to both the pitching staff and key regulars. The Tribe continues to own the longest World Series-victory drought of any historic team - no title since 1948.

**The Colorado Rockies salvaged some respect in the last two games of a very disappointing season.  They beat the Milwaukee Brewers in two dramatic extra-inning victories.  They prevented the Brew Crew from forcing a tie or even winning the NL Central over the Cardinals who had swept the Cubs in Chicago knocking them out of contention (and manager Joe Maddon into the unemployment line though not likely for long.) 

**The Diamondbacks get an honorable mention for playing hard in beating the Cardinals two in a row in Phoenix. It started St. Louis on a four-game losing streak. The Brewers' losses and Cardinals' young ace Jack Flaherty shutout effort during the 162nd game finally clinched the NL Central for the Redbirds. 

Now the Brewers must face the Washington Nationals on the road in the NL Wild Card

game on Tuesday October 1.  The Brew Crew deserves great credit for playing so well in much of September without Christian Yelich, the reigning NL MVP whose kneecap was broken by a foul ball off his bat. (The injury reminded me of the broken leg suffered by Oakland A's outfielder Jermaine Dye in the 2001 playoff against the Yankees that sadly shortened his career.)

 
I don't bet and I rarely make predictions.  But I have a feeling that the clock has struck midnight for the Brewers and the Nats will finally come up with a victory in a big post-season game, even if it is just a Wild Card game.  How they will fare as underdog against the defending league champion LA Dodgers is another question to be dealt with later this month.

 
As to the American League Wild Card game on Wednesday October 2, the Tampa Bay Rays will visit the antiquated and sanitarily challenged Oakland Coliseum to take on the A's.  Both teams are resourceful and talented with limited payrolls. They rarely play before big crowds.

I sure hope Oakland has reason to open their upper deck for what could be an exciting game.  The A's have a youthful group of largely farm-grown players, many of them from California including three star infielders, Matt Chapman and Matt Olson at the corners and emerging Marcus Simien at shortstop.

Whether with the Rays or A's can deal with the Astros and their home field advantage in the best-of-five Division Series is doubtful. Though the A's played the Astros very tough in regular season. 

The Yankees will be favored in their ALDS against their perennial patsy the Minnesota Twins. The matchup between the Atlanta Braves and Cardinals looks like a tossup with Braves having home field advantage.  No one really knows. Sl as the late great broadcaster Red Barber used to say, "That's why they play the games." To find out who is best.

 
It's tough for me to deal with the absence of daily regular season baseball now until late March 2020. But I am fortunate to live in NYC.  Vernon Duke asked in his great song, "Autumn In New York/ Why is it so inviting? Autumn in New York, it brings the thrill of first nighting."

 
Well, I didn't attend the first performance of the new production of "Porgy and Bess" at the Met Opera, but I do go on the last night of September.  It was a thrilling evening of opera with kudos deserved for everyone.

From the new production by James Robinson with its revolving stage that recreates the fictional fishing community Catfish Row; to choreographer Camille A. Brown in her Met debut; to the powerful all-black "Porgy and Bess" chorus; to the fabulous orchestra conducted by David Robertson (not the oft-injured relief pitcher); to all the singers led by Eric Owens and Angel Blue in the title roles. With special mention of Leah Hawkins' brief turn as the Strawberry Woman.

 
I had not realized until this production how organically the famous songs in the opera are connected to the story and plot development.  Beginning with Clara's opening rendition of "Summertime" to Serena's mournful "My Man Gone Now" to Porgy's "I Got Plenty of Nuttin'" to Sportin' Life's "It Ain't Necessarily So" to the repetitions of "Bess You Is My Woman Now" to the achingly beautiful trio of Porgy, Serena, and Maria near the end of the opera that rivals anything that Verdi or Mozart ever wrote in that form. 

I couldn't help thinking how much more Gershwin could have contributed to opera if he hadn't been taken from us at the age of 38.  "Porgy and Bess" runs a few more times through Oct 13.  Check out metopera.org

 
At a time when there are more and more disturbing discoveries of blackface and brown face incidents in both the US and Canada, "Porgy and Bess" deserves our attention because it was a genuine effort by George Gershwin and the librettists DuBose and Dorothy Heyward to delve into the lives of this unique Gullah black community outside of Charleston, South Carolina.    

 
One final music note:  In mid-September I was blessed to hear Kelli O'Hara sing Samuel Barber's beautifully succinct 16-minute tone poem, "Knoxville: Summer of 1915" with the New York Philharmonic under Jaap Van Zweden.  

The lyrical piece, based on the prologue to James Agee's "A Death in the Family," is ideal for O'Hara's lilting and compelling mezzo-soprano. She is branching out successfully from her heralded work in musical theatre.  I heard her as Despina in Mozart's "Cosi Fan Tutte" last season and she owned that saucy crucial role of the maid who is a co-conspirator in the plot to prove that men are not loyal to their women and women are not loyal to their men.

 
That's all for now about my ardent loves of baseball and music. Until later this month as the playoffs take shape, always remember:  Take it easy but take it!