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.

 

 

 

No doubt the schedule came at the right time to help my scuffling Orioles. Although my Birds couldn't sweep either the tail-end Colorado Rockies in Denver or the historically bad Chicago White Sox at home, at least they won each series. And even won 3 games in a row for the first time since June.  

 

It is a very strange AL East pennant race this season.  It's remarkable how since the early summer neither the Orioles or Yankees have managed to play like a real World Series contender. With the demotion of Yankee closer Clay Holmes and the season-long doubt on who really can close for Baltimore, both teams have question marks in a key area of the bullpen.

 

Since I last posted, the injury bug has again bitten the Orioles, two in the same Sat night Aug 31 game in Colorado. Third baseman Ramon Urias, who had provided an unexpected offensive boost in August, sprained an ankle when he stumbled on the third base bag trying to make a tag on a Colorado base stealer.

 

Earlier that game, starting pitcher Dean Kremer got smoked just above the wrist on his pitching hand by a 103-mph one-hopper hit by Colorado

outfielder Jordan Beck.  Rarely does a couch potato like yours truly see the swelling come up immediately on the TV screen but it did in this case.   

 

Kremer, the only dual citizen-Israeli-American player in MLB history, is vowing to not miss a turn which manager Brandon Hyde calls "incredible".

Sure enough he plans to start on Friday Sep 6 in the opener of a home series against the Tampa Bay Rays. 

 

I am not a big one for highlighting strength of schedule in the last month of the season. IT'S HOW YOU ARE PLAYING, NOT WHO YOU ARE PLAYING AT THIS TIME OF YEAR. 

 

After Tampa Bay, Orioles go on to Fenway to play fading Red Sox whose recent offensive drought has surprised me - their pitching and their overall defense doesn't seem ready for prime time.   

 

Over the weekend of Sep 13, Birds go on to Detroit for 3 games, a .500 team playing much better these days. The Tigers also have the leading contender for AL Cy Young award, southpaw Tarik Skubal.  The Baltimore final home stand consists of 3 with the SF Giants Sep 17-19 and then the final home games of the regular season against the Tigers. 

 

The Orioles wind up season on the road - 3 big night games at Yankee Stadium likely to determine AL East winner, Tu-Th Sep 24-26. Then to Minnesota to play an inconsistent, oft-injured Twins team fighting for a wild card with Kansas City.  Cleveland seems to be in driver's seat to win AL Central with 4 game lead on Minnesota, 5 over KC before games of Fri Sep 6. 

 

The Yankee September schedule starts with 3 at the Cubs Sept 6-8, then 3 big ones back home against the Royals, then 4 with the Red Sox Sept 13-16.  Then a road trip to the west coast at Seattle Sep 17-19, three at Oakland Sep 20-22 with the A's .

 

All things considered, Oakland has had a good season, given their pending move to Sacramento for three seasons until the supposed new stadium in Las Vegas is built.  Mark Kotsay will get some deserved Manager of the Year votes but I think Cleveland's rookie skipper Stephen Vogt has to be

considered the leading candidate. 

 

Yankees return home for the 3 big night games against the Orioles. Yankees have an edge in that they host fading Pirates for the last three games.  I kinda doubt that Pittsburgh will send out possible NL Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes in one of those games.  

 

At least the Pirates have announced that Skenes will pitch deep into September to get the experience of competing in the climactic month of regular season, something the Buccos have sadly not enjoyed first-hand for too long.  (As promising as Skenes looks, it will be hard to deny ROY award to the Padres' productive center fielder Jackson Merrill.) 

 

In the National League races, the Dodgers, Phillies, and Brewers have almost clinched division titles but there is quite a wild card crunch coming among Padres, Diamondbacks, Braves, and Mets. One of those teams will not make it - as of morning of Sep 6, only 2 games separated them. 

 

I have been tardy in not giving props to the Mets' resurgence.  Stuck at 22-33 in first half of season, they are now a bona fide wild card contender.

If Shohei Ohtani were not also in the National League, shortstop Francisco Lindor would be an MVP favorite.

 

He's been playing sensationally on both sides of the ball and even came up with a great quote after he won an eleven-pitch AB in the Aug 29 win over the also resurgent defending-NL champion Arizona Diamondbacks.   "I GET PAID TO HIT THE BALL FORWARD," Lindor said.

 

The arrival of veteran infielder Jose Iglesias has provided spark and levity to a team that seemed to lack it.  The starting pitching has settled in

with Sean Manaea and former number one draft pick David Peterson really looking good.  If Edwin Diaz at the back end of the bullpen can get

the saves, they could be a dangerous team in the playoffs. 

 

I've often been a critic of the so-called balanced schedule that reduced intra-division games from 19 to 13.  It turns out though that the Mets play 4 of their final series against NL East teams.   After the Reds at home Sep 6-8 and Blue Jays on road, they go to Philly and return to play Washington

and Philadelphia again, the last home regular season series Sep 20-22. 

 

Then likely a very big series at Atlanta Sep 24-26 - as I post on morning Fri Sep 6, Mets are tied with Braves for 3rd wild card.

Mets wind up with 3 with Brewers in Milwaukee, the runaway winners of the NL Central. There will likely be more pressure on Mets at this time because Brewers would only be playing for best record in the National League. 

 

Best advice for baseball in September still comes from legendary Mets broadcaster Bob Murphy:  "Fasten your seat belts."    

 

Now it's time for a new feature . . .  LEE LOW'S TIPS OF CAP!

**Mets cable channel, SNY.TV, featured a fascinating interview in late August with former Mets reliever/now broadcaster Jerry Blevins and Mets rookie third baseman Mark Vientos. In separate segments, they interviewed each other about their careers.  It was not typical pap but provided frank and revealing insights.  I hope it can be accessed on the sny.tv website.

 

**"I don't want flowers at my retirement," tennis star Danielle Collins explained last week after turning down an offering from tennis officials when she lost her singles match last week at the US Open.   She said she didn't want to be like the character Gaylord in "Meet The Parents," the 2004 film in which Ben Stiller plays the son of doting parents that fills his bedroom with runner-up trophies.

 

**Speaking of tennis, here's to the two Americans who made or will make the men's and women's finals for the first time since 2002:

Jennifer Pegula who plays Belorussian Aryna Sabalenka in the women's final on Sa Sep 7 at 4P EDT on ESPN

 

**And either Taylor Fritz or Frances Tiafoe who play each other on F Sep 6 at 7P on ESPN

The winner meets either highly-favored Italian Jannik Sinner or English southpaw Jack Draper on Fri Sep 6 an 3P on ESPN

Men's final will be Su Sep 6 at 2P on ABC network - rebroadcast at 830P that night on ESPN2. 

  

That's all for now - my mantras remain:  Stay positive test negative & Take it easy but take it.