Lee Lowenfish

I don't have a vote in Baseball Writers Association of America awards, but everyone with a computer has an opinion so why not me? 

 

I can understand why Pirates wunderkind pitcher Paul Skenes won the NL award over everyday outfielders Jackson Chourio of Brewers and Jackson Merrill of Padres. Skenes possesses generational talent and he is out of central casting as a former pitcher at Air Force Academy who is thinking of Air Force career after baseball.  (Not even mentioning his girl friend Olivia "Livvy" Dunne the gymnast who he probably met at LSU where he finished his college pitching career).

 

But the vote should have been much closer. I would have voted for Jackson Merrill because from day one of the season, the converted shortstop had a sensational year in center field for San Diego as well as contributing big time with his bat. Chourio finished strongly after a slow start but I think consistency especially in the young and promising player should be rewarded. 

 

In the much closer AL vote, I would have picked Orioles left fielder Colton Cowser for the same reason of consistency although he endured some droughts at the plate. The winner, Yankee RHP Luis Gil, slumped badly in the latter part of season and was basically a non-factor in the Yankees' surge to the AL East title.  His teammate catcher Austin Wells proved to be a better receiver than advertised though he slumped badly at end of season.

 

There is always room for improvement in the infinitely hard sport of baseball so I hope that Cowser can now concentrate more on striking out less - 172 times is Aaron Judge country and Cowser only hit 24 HRs to Judge's 58 in 2024. 

 

The losers in this year's competitions can take heart that the ROY title doesn't guarantee a great career.  I did some checking and since both leagues started awarding a ROY in 1949 - Jackie Robinson was the first ROY in 1947 and his future NY Giants rival shortstop Alvin Dark won in 1948 as a Boston Brave - here are the names of people who were ROYs but didn't have memorable careers:

 

Starting with P Harry Byrd in 1952, it goes through P Bob Grim, P Don Schwall, OF Curt Blefary, OF Joe Charbonneau, OF Ron Kittle, SS Pat Listach, OF Bob Hamelin, OF Marty Cordova, OF Ben Grieve, SS Angel Berroa, SS Bobby Crosby, P Huston Street, P Neftali Feliz, OF Will Myers (2013), and P Michael Fulmer in 2016. 

 

AL future H of Fers who were ROYs in alphabetical order: Luis Aparicio, Rod Carew, Carlton Fisk, Derek Jeter, Eddie Murray, Tony Oliva, and Cal Ripken Jr.

I'm pretty sure that the list is shorter in the AL because its teams were late in racially integrating. 

 

Here's the larger list of NL future H of Famers in alphabetical order:  Jeff Bagwell, Johnny Bench, Orlando Cepeda, Andre Dawson, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey,

Frank Robinson, Jackie Robinson, Scott Rolen, Tom Seaver, and Billy Williams.   

 

There was no surprise in rookie Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt winning AL manager of the year in a landslide.  I think that the late season slump of the Royals cost Royals manager Matt Quatraro some votes.  I guess the consistent year of Pat Murphy's Brewers made him the NL choice but I certainly could argue for the Mets' Carlos Mendoza and the Padres' Mike Schildt. 

 

I wonder if it is time for two big awards to be given instead of one MVP.  Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani were unanimous MVPs in AL and NL but I'd call them

Players of the Year for their outstanding performances.  As for MVP, I think Juan Soto was just or more valuable to Yanks than Judge.  Ditto Teoscar Hernandez for the Dodgers.  Interestingly, both of them are free agents. 

 

We'll see how that plays out in this year's installment of the Scott Boras Media Show.  I don't doubt that he cares for his clients very much.  But the less I hear in the off-season about the tens of millions being thrown around at free agents, the better my psyche will be.  I like to believe I'm rooting for people who care about winning as much as I do!     

 

 AND NOW TURNING TO HOOPS . . . 

I always love it when my teams not predicted to do anything in a season surprise the pundits and elate their world-weary fans.  My undergraduate alma mater Columbia's basketball team, under veteran coach Jim Engles, has gotten off to a 5-0 start. 

 

Early in Nov the Lions won convincingly on the road at Villanova, still adjusting to life without stellar coach Jay Wright who left the profession (at least for the time being) not being able to adjust to the new world of NIL (Name Image Likeness) benefits for players and expanded transfer portal rights.

Columbia plays Stony Brook at home on Sa Nov 23 at 7P followed by New Hampshire on M Nov 25 also at 7P. 

 

The Columbia women's team are defending co-Ivy League champion women's team. Plagued by poor foul shooting, they suffered their first loss last Saturday at Villanova but they bounced back at home against the University of Pacific. They play some big teams in the Bahamas this weekend including Indiana. 

 

Then they go to Duke on Dec 1 and return for their last home game in 2024 on Tu Dec 4 at 11A against U of San Francisco. Coach Megan Griffith has done a wonderful job of building a winning culture and this game is the annual game played in memory of coach Kay Yow with hundreds of NYC area school kids filling the stands to near-capacity.  

 

Last Friday, my graduate alma mater Wisconsin's cagers knocked over #10-ranked Arizona, 103-88, on the night that former coach Bo Ryan's banner was hoisted to the Kohl Center roof after his induction a few weeks ago into the National Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA. 

 

Many of the players on Ryan's 2014-2015 back-to-back Final Four teams attended the game including 7 foot center Frank Kaminsky. Graduate transfer John Tongi threatened Kaminsky's school scoring record of 43, settling for 41 points in another all-around effort.  Picked for the middle of the Big Ten pack this year after the losses of point guard Chucky Hepburn to Louisville and peripatetic AJ Storr to Kansas, the Badgers are undefeated in the early going. 

 

The mosh pit that is the Big Ten regular season has yet to begin so I'm not getting too carried away with optimism.  Wisconsin started well last season too and then folded down the stretch and was knocked out in the first round of the NCAA tournament.  But there is some cautious hope that the current team has a workable mix of veterans and newcomers to make the season exciting. 

 

They need more consistency from the front court. Ah that word again. It was a sport psycholgist that Greg Gard hired to speak to one of his teams a few years ago that famously said:  "If consistency were an island, it would be lightly populated.   

 

In the early going neither Hepburn nor Storr are doing great things for their new teams, Lousiville and Kansas, respectively. When you go back to his high school years, Storr is now playing for his 7th team in the last 7 seasons. 

 

Like stratospheric salaries for pro players, I don't begrudge amateur players taking advantage of the long-delayed freedoms from NCAA control, but many should realize that there is some truth in the old adage: "The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence." 

 

On the distaff side in Madison, I'm happy to report that under former UConn star Marisa Moseley, Wisconsin women's basketball is off to a 4-1 start. It's the early going of course but they beat Georgetown on the road and so far are undefeated at home.

 

I root vigorously for my alma maters but it's nice to report that in a NYC area where the pro football teams are in dire shape, other college hoops programs are off to undefeated starts - Rutgers and St. John's high among them.  And the NYU women are starting the season obviously determined to successfully defend 

the school's first national basketball title.  They play Colby College from Maine on Su Nov 24 at 2P in the heart of Greenwich Village on Mercer Street one block north of Houston Street and one block west of Broadway.

 

AND ABOUT THE GRIDIRON . . . 

Columbia under first-year coach Jon Poppe enters the Sa Nov 23 noon matchup with Cornell with a chance to tie for their first Ivy League title since 1961 when your correspondent was a callow sophomore.  Yale must upset Harvard in The Game for the tie to happen.  Whatever, at 6-3 the Lions are assured of a winning

season.  

 

On Sat night Nov 16 before a national TV audience, Wisconsin Badger football almost pulled the major upset of the season, leading #1 in the country Oregon by 7 points going into the 4th quarter.  But the resourceful Ducks rallied for a tying touchdown not long after the sold-out crowd did the Jump-Around at the beginning of the final quarter.  Dan Lanning's team had prepared in practice by playing an approximation of the noise generated by the longtime Badger tradition. 

 

Once again Luke Fickell's team, especially the offense, proved not ready for prime time.  Firing his hand-picked offensive coordinator Phil Longo after the Oregon loss smacks of desperation.  We'll see how they do in their last games against Nebraska and Minnesota.  Their 22-year consecutive bowl streak is in jeopardy as if a program that dreamt of the college playoff should be satisfied with the sub-runnerup bowls. 

 

A last cultural note.  Went to my first NY Philharmonic concert of the season last week - Young Finnish conductor Matias Rouvali conducted a stirring version of his national hero Sibelius's Fifth Symphony which has opened new doors into my musical consciousness.  I am looking forward to the night before Thanksgiving when the program includes Chopin's Second Piano Concerto and one of my all time favorite pieces, Rachmaninoff's Symphony #2 with the lush and lyrical slow movement that inspired the popular song "I'll Never Love Again".  

 

Here's hoping you do love again, dear readers, and always remember:  Take it easy but take it! And still stay positive, test negative.

 

 

 

Nobody can predict how a schedule made up in the summer of 2023 can create high drama in Sept 2024.  It turns out that the final two weeks of the baseball regular season will feature tremendous matchups that will affect not only next month's playoffs but could even lead to curtains for the losing teams.  

 

I'm sad to report that there is fear and trembling among the Oriole faithful that thought playoff participation was a lock and even advancement deep into October was a possibility. I must say that I never drank the Kool-Aid that we had the "best farm system in baseball."  I just hope that the failures of highly touted Jackson Holliday - ballyhooed as the "best prospect in baseball" whatever that meant - and almost-as-highly-touted Coby Mayo will not lead to permanent damage to their careers.

 

I'm not forgetting that injuries have crippled the Oriole offense: the HBP that broke the throwing hand of feisty 2b-3bman Jordan Westburg (he could be back next week); speedy savvy fellow infielder Jorge Mateo, gone for the season with an elbow injury caused by a freak collision with shortstop Gunnar Henderson (the only regular producing with the bat despite erratic shortstop play); and more recently the sprained ankle of versatile infielder Ramon Urias and sprained wrist of first baseman Ryan Mountcastle. 

 

Yet other teams have bounced back from even bigger injuries as we'll see below. Mediocre trades by top baseball ops man Mike Elias have not fortified the bench and the Birds' "deep depth" - that wonderful Earl Weaver/Yogi Berra phrase - has vanished. It's painful to watch the inexperienced Holliday and Mayo used as pinch-hitters late in games.  

 

There will thus be less drama for the much-anticipated Oriole visit to Yankee Stadium on Sep 24-26. Before games of tonight Sep 16 the Yanks held a 3-game lead on Baltimore and will play in Seattle with the Mariners only three lost games out of the third wild card currently held by Minnesota.

 

The Twins are in the most precarious wild card situation and face the Guardians in Cleveland for 4 big games starting tonight Sep 16 through Th Sep 19.  They then spend the weekend at the out-of-contention Red Sox and then return home for the final week, a series with the NL expansion Marlins and then one with the Orioles.  At least Minnesota and Baltimore have a deep history in the American League.  It could be a meeting of two teams desperately hanging on to a playoff dream.  

 

After their West Coast trip to Seattle, hanging on to the hope of catching Minnesota for the third wild card, and a final visit to Oakland, the Yankees wind up the season at home with the Orioles and then the Pirates.  This last series with Pittsburgh is one of the preposterous inter-league matchups that have marred the September schedule for too long. When the Orioles return home for their final week of regular season series, they will first face the SF Giants from Tu through Th Sep 17-19.  It says here that this crucial time of season is not the time for a matchup of teams unfamiliar with each other. 

 

The fast-charging Tigers come to Baltimore this weekend Sep 20-22.  Detroit just took two out of three from the Orioles at home and have the best record in MLB since early August. I wasn't thrilled that in the first two games of the series, the Tigers used an opener in the first inning, the same pitcher too, the immortal Beau Brieske. It's not against the rules to use an opener, of course, but it reveals to me the abject failure of most major league organizations to develop pitchers that can throw six innings or more. 

 

Commissioner Rob Manfred wants to decree a six-inning minimum for starters but you can't meaningfully change pitching routines by fiat - it requires a change in philosophy that downplays raw velocity and humongous spin rate and stresses pitchability, i.e. the ability to change speeds and pitch to contact and rely on your defense.  There will have to be significant internal pressures to force these changes. Speaking truth to power is never easy, but there will be more thoughts on this important subject in off-season posts. 

 

Before their visit to Charm City, the Tigers have a huge 3-game series at Kansas City starting tonight M Sep 16. To give you a sense of how the Tigers are coalescing at the right time, in yesterday's (Sun Sept 15) 4-2 win over Baltimore, outfielder Riley Greene hit his first two home runs off a lefthander all season if not in his career.

 

The Royals are one of 2024's best feel-good stories, a team eagerly awaiting their first playoff experience since winning the World Series in 2015. They are only two games behind my Birds for the first wild card and a home field advantage in playoffs. 

 

The Royals have an MVP candidate in shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (although it would be hard to vote against Aaron Judge of the Yankees). KC also features a revived veteran catcher-occasional first baseman-leader in Salvador Perez.  The former Met Seth Lugo has had an excellent year on the mound. I find it hard not to root for someone who almost uses a full windup! 

 

After the Royals finish with the Tigers, they might catch a break with two inter-league series: the Giants at home this weekend and then the Nats in Washington.  But they end up with three at Atlanta, another inter-league series that sticks out like a sore thumb and yet could provide high drama. 

 

The Braves and Mets are currently tied for the third wild card in the National League.  Despite the early season loss of pitcher Spencer Strider and MVP outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr and more recently offensive producers, third baseman Austin Riley and second baseman Ozzie Albies, Atlanta has hung in there as a contender.  Rookie Spencer Schwellenbach has stepped up on the mound, and after many injuries center fielder Michael Harris II is back and has again shown his abilities as a game-changer.

 

Three cheers to Braves utilityman Whit Merrifield who has somehow bounced back from a serious finger injury from a HBP plus a batted foul ball off his leg to provide spark.  He also has had the courage to call for an investigation of the rushing of rookie pitchers from the minor leagues who may throw 100 mph but don't know where the ball is going.  Merrifield is on a joint player-management committee that discusses such issues. He has vowed to do something about the situation in off-season meetings.

 

Atlanta has one more game tonight - M Sep 16 - against the Dodgers at home and then play this coming week at Cincinnati, long out of the race but with enough offense and occasioinal good pitching to make trouble. For the weekend they go to Minnesota in another preposterous inter-league matchup but with great import for both teams.

The Twins are the third wild card as of this writing but they are wildly inconsistent in large part because three offensive stars, Carlos Correa, Royce Lewis, and Bryan Buxton, are regularly injured, especially the later two. 

 

The Braves return home for the final week to face the arch-rival Mets with whom they're tied before games of Sep 16.  And then they wind up with the Royals.

They are playoff experienced and their big three on the mound, Chris Sale, Max Fried, and Spencer Schwellenbach, would be a tough matchup in the playoffs.  But of course they have to get there first.  

 

The one NL wild card contender that has impressively improved its record recently is San Diego, 85-65 as of this writing.  They host AL Central leader Houston, a scary team in any playoff because of their vast post-season experience, and then the White Sox come in this weekend.  San Diego spends the last week on the road at the Dodgers and then the Diamondbacks, the second wild card leader as of now.  Lots of drama likely ahead for the Padres.  

 

One of the more perceptive points I've read recently on Oriole blogs is given the troubles of Holliday and Mayo, what a player young Manny Machado must have been to come up in August 2012 at the age of 19 under the guidance of manager Buck Showalter, playing a new position third base, and give Baltimore a boost into the playoffs after 15 years of non-participation.  Now at age 32 Machado is spearheading a revived Padres under former Cardinals manager Mike Schildt. In some ways, what Jazz Chisholm has done for the Yankees playing a new position, also third base, is comparable. 

 

I'm happy too for the resurgence of Jurickson Profar from Curacao, once a Baseball America cover boy as that Best Prospect in Baseball, who has found success as a solid run-producing left fielder after a long journey of mediocrity.  The Padres also feature young center fielder Jackson Merrill who to me should be a lock as Rookie of the Year of the National League. 

 

I don't really believe in jinxes, but I hope Mets fans forgive me if I went a bit overboard in singing their praises in my last post. This past weekend, they lost two close games in Philadelphia. The Phillies now have a two game lead over the Dodgers for home field advantage throughout the playoffs.  The Mets play the improved pesky Nats and Phillies this week at home and then wind up with the big series at Atlanta and then at Milwaukee. 

 

The Brewers long ago clinched the NL Central and unless there is a good chance that they could have the best record in NL, they might just be playing the last series to stay in shape and set up their pitching rotation for the playoffs.  The Mets have to hope that the back discomfort of MVP candidate Francisco Lindor is minor and he can contribute mightily down the stretch. 

 

The loss of Jeff McNeil to another HBP is not helping their depth even if he is having an off-season. As I said last post, closer Edwin Diaz has to regain consistency. Of course, except for Emmanuel Clase of the Guardians, there has been no great closer in 2024 which is a major reason why there is no clear favorite in the playoffs. 

 

I've rarely tried my hand on prognostications. An exception: During my next-to-last year in graduate school at U of Wisconsin-Madison, I did predict in the mid-summer of 1967 that the Red Sox would overtake the Twins for the AL pennant.  I was right on with that one because I thought Boston playing Minnesota at home would have the pitching and the Fenway advantage to contain the power-happy Twins.

 

I haven't made any predictions since then. It was 20 teams in 1967 and two bulky 10-team leagues and then one World Series.  Now there are 30 teams and six divisions and 12 teams eligible for four rounds of playoffs. If the owners had their way in the last Basic Agreement, they would have pushed for 14 and of course higher-priced playoff tickets for every participant.

 

If this system remains in place indefinitely, some time in the lives of the younger readers of this blog, the regular season will have to be shortened.  For now, I don't want to begrudge the hopeful feelings for fans of those teams still in the wild card hunt.  Yet I cannot help thinking of how Russ Hodges, if he had lived into the Wild Card era, would have called the famous Bobby Thomson home run on Oct 3, 1951: 

"THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT, THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT, THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT, THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT, . . . AND THE DODGERS

WIN THE WILD CARD!!" 

 

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT . . . 

Don't have any major sports-related movies on TCM to share but here are some films of interest, some of which have a sports moment:

Tu Sep 17 945A - the Marx Brothers in "A Night At The Opera" (1935) with a crucial version of "Take Me Out To Ball Game" near the end

 

W Sep 18  715A Frank Sinatra debuts the song "Time After Time" in "It Happened In Brooklyn" (1947)

9a "The Story of Seabiscuit" (1949) fictionalized version of the underdog horse's story with Shirley Temple and Barry Fitzgerald

     and three classics back-to-back:

6p "White Heat" (1949) with Cagney in perhaps his last great role 

8p "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946) John Garfield & Lana Turner can't resist passion for each other in story by James M. Cain

10p "Born To Kill" (1947) brutal but absorbing drama with Lawrence Tierney and Claire Trevor (a year before she is forced to sing in "Key Largo"

   and then plays a sanitized Mrs. Babe Ruth in "Babe Ruth Story")

 

Th Sep 19 10P "Modern Times" (1936) - Chaplin's last silent movie with his then-amour Paulette Goddard

 

F Sep 20 9A "Strangers On A Train" (1951) Farley Granger as a besieged tennis player in a Hitchcock classic; nice scenes at Forest Hills tennis club

 

and talk about a couple of timely films:

2p "Berlin Express" (1948) A search for post-WW II Nazi operatives, with Robert Ryan/Merle Oberon/director Jacques Tourneur 

330p "The Tall Target" (1951) foiling of an attempted train assassination of Abe Lincoln with Dick Powell/Adolph Menjou/Paula Raymond/dir. Anthony Mann

 

8p "Dr Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb" (1964)  Peter Sellers in 3 roles/also George C. Scott/Sterling Hayden/Keenan Wynn

945p "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" (1940) Jimmy Stewart gets disillusioned in DC and tries to fight back - not my favorite Capra film

  but always worth seeing 

 

ERRATUM from last post:  It was Jessica Pegula who was runner-up at US Tennis Open earlier this month, not Jennifer.

 

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