Lee Lowenfish

There is certainly still a chance (mathematical) that Cleveland and the Mets can make a good series out of their matchups prior to the World Series.  But as of this writing on Thursday afternoon Oct 17, the Mets will have to clean up their game defensively and start their bats producing again. Even if they rediscover their magic sauce, down two games to one, they'll have to win it in LA. 

As for the Yankees-In-Guardians series (I've decided that since most of us folks of a certain age can't help calling them Indians, let's at least reclaim the

first syllable of the old name, OK?), Cleveland's lack of starting pitching has really been exposed.  I hope home-cooking allows at least one win and more chances for us to marvel at Steven Kwan, their great left fielder/leadoff man who has made Oregon State proud (in ways that the Orioles' Adley Rutschman could not duplicate this season). 

Here's the back story on why a Yankee-Dodger World Series is my least favorite of any Fall Classic.  I think my character was definitely shaped (warped?) by growing up a New York Giant fan when the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers were seemingly in every World Series - to be exact, 1947, 1949, 1952-53, 1955-1956. As a National League fan, I pulled for the Dodgers in the World Series, but it certainly wasn't like rooting for your team. 

1955 was the only World Series the Brooklyn Dodgers ever won. The outrageously entitled Yankee fans still insist that blip happened only because Mickey Mantle was injured.  In a wound in the heart that still exists in most of the Flatbush Faithful older generation, almost exactly two years after Johnny Podres shut out the Yankees in Game 7, the Dodgers were on their way to Los Angeles. 

The Giants accompanied the Dodgers to the West Coast settling in San Francisco. To give you an idea of how much of a blow the departure of the historic NL franchises meant to NYC fans, the Yankees with the NYC market all to themselves drew fewer fans in 1958 than they did in 1957.  It didn't stop the Bronx Bombers from avenging their 7-game 1957 World Series loss to the Milwaukee Braves by overcoming a 3-1 games deficit in 1958 to beat the Braves. 

Fortunately with expansion, a Yankee-LA Dodger WS matchup hasn't happened that often and the LAD in 1963 and 1981 actually won two World Series

over the NYY.  But the Yankees did beat the Dodgers in back-to-back 1977-1978 World Series.  I

I remember 1977 painfully because the Orioles won 97 games in the first year of free agency.  They lost Reggie Jackson to the Yankees and Bobby Grich and Don Baylor to the Angels, but they stayed in the pennant race until the last weekend of regular season. 

On Friday night as I watching the Tigers' lefty John Hiller beat the Yankees at the second incarnation of Yankee Stadium, the Red Sox eliminated the Birds at Fenway in a slugfest.  I was watching the score throughout the game whenever the scoreboard deigned to show it. Shortly after the Tigers won, I looked at the scoreboard and it read "Bost 12 Balt 8 - F".

It turned out it was fake news. As I was coming home in the subway, a fan told me that final score was 12-11 and Al Bumbry had made the last out with tying run on second. How much disappointment can a fan take?!  The next afternoon, the Orioles eliminated the Red Sox.  Elliott Maddox, only briefly with the Orioles, insouciantly caught the last out, a routine fly ball to center. 

I was so bummed out that I vowed not to watch the World Series at all.  During Game 1, I went to see Win Wenders' neo-noir movie "The American Friend".  But when every time I glimpsed the mustache of actor Bruno Ganz I thought of Thurman Munson, I decided, "If the Yankees are still on my mind at the movies, I might as well watch the games." I did but with little passion. Reggie Jackson hit 3 home runs in the final game.  Ho-hum. 

47 years after that 1977 World Series, I think I've attained A LITTLE philosophical distance from my earlier self.  I don't really hate any of the players on NYY/LAA. And I find it amusing that the boobirds at Yankee Stadium will have to cheer at the success of their targets in recent years who are really producing now, Gian-Carlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres, and Alex Verdugo (a former Dodger who will have extra incentive against LAA).

You never know in baseball so I hope that the remaining LCS games have some memorable moments.  Like the last two games of the Cleveland-Detroit division series. When David Fry's pinch-hit home run silenced Detroit's Comerica Park in Game 4 forcing a return to Cleveland's Progressive Field for Game 5.

And Lane Thomas, former Cardinals farmhand and Nats outfielder, hit a grand slam off the brilliant southpaw Tarik Skubal, this year's likely AL Cy Young winner. 

Two pitches in succession turned around Skubal's season. First, a bases loaded HBP to Jose Ramirez and then Thomas' line drive HR that gave Cleveland the lead they would not relinquish.  It pays to watch the game closely - things can happen in a twinkling. 

I heard a wonderful story from a friend whose mother-in-law lives in an assisted living facility in Cleveland.  She was dutifully going to 4p Saturday Mass when the game was not yet final.  The service was delayed slightly to make sure the team had won and then it opened with a nun on piano playing a rousing version of"Take Me Out To The Ballgame". 

Speaking of rousing performances, how about that WNBA final between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx!  On their sixth visit to the finals as a WNBA charter member, the Liberty need one more victory either Fri night Oct 18 or back home in Brooklyn on Sun night Oct 20 to earn their first title.

This series has not been for the weak in heart.  The Liberty blew double-digit leads in the first two games at home, salvaging a split. The Lynx led all the

way in Game 3 until they didn't late in 4th quarter.  Only a 28-foot straight away jump shot by Sabrina Ionescu kept Game 3 from going into overtime. 

Another star from the Northwest like Steven Kwan, Ionesco, the former Oregon Ducks sensation, gave credit to her preparation for her ability to sink 

that shot.  It reminds me of the saying I once saw in the Tampa Bay Rays clubhouse or maybe on one of the their T-shirts:

"Champions Are Made When Nobody Is Looking." 

That's all for now - stay positive, test negative, still my mantra, and take it easy but take it.

Everything you have read about Brooks Robinson is true.  There never was a more modest and genuine athlete and person than the Orioles Hall of Fame third baseman who died in Baltimore on Tu Sep 26 at the age of 86.  The sad news arrived as the Orioles were on the verge of clinching their first AL East divisional title since 2014. 

On Monday Oct 2, Camden Yards hosted a public memorial for a man who truly believed that his admirers were "not fans but friends." Maybe the late AP sportswriter Gordon Beard said it best on "Thanks, Brooks" Day in August 1977 just after he retired. Reggie Jackson might have a candy bar named after him in NYC (briefly), but Gordon said that in Baltimore people name babies after Brooks. And Brooks made it a point to keep in touch with most of his namesakes.

In one of the touching remembrances that have poured out since Brooks' passing, Baltimore writer Michael Olesker remembered that Brooks' mother,

Ethel, told him that he grew up across the street from a school for children with disabilities.  He always played with those kids as if they were his equals. 

When I was working in the late 1970s on my book about baseball's chaotic labor relations THE IMPERFECT DIAMOND, I talked to Brooks about his role as an important leader in the nascent Players Association. One of the big reasons for my Oriole fandom that began in the late 1960s was that their great teams were not just excellent on the field but they had leaders in the MLBPA like Brooks and shortstop Mark Belanger. Even manager Earl Weaver didn't spew the owners' line of death to the game if the perpetual reserve system was reformed. 

Brooks told me the story about how he was signed after his high school graduation in 1955 by the Orioles.  The Birds' major domo Paul Richards had played in the minor leagues with Lindsey Deal, an Arkansas area scout for the club who projected Brooks as the future real deal at third base. 

Brooks' father, a fine semi-pro player who was now a fire department captain, was able to negotiate a major league contract and a $4000 bonus, just small enough to keep his son from being forced on a major league roster (under the bonus rules from 1953-1957). 

The Cincinnati Reds cried foul, claiming more money had been slipped under the table.  Brooks remembered that after he was flown to commissioner Ford Frick's office in New York, he had to put his hand on a Bible and swear that he didn't accept any additional money.

As the Players Association developed muscle starting in 1966 under Marvin Miller's leadership, Brooks emerged as one of the leaders wanting to get the players a fair deal. During the 1972 strike over payments to the players pension fund, Brooks offered his home to Miller for a meeting with the

entire team to explain the union's position. 

He would call that period "the worst ten days of my life" and he was even booed when the season started 10 days late. But that ill-feeling among the fans  couldn't last.  He was always so likable and genuine. Along with Baltimore Colts football quarterback John Unitas, he became one of the most revered people in the city.  And unlike Unitas, Brooks wound up playing his entire career in Baltimore. 

There has long been no other player wearing a #5 in a Baltimore uniform.  But his spirit will certainly be felt as the Orioles take on the powerful

Texas Rangers this weekend in the best-of-five ALDS (divisional series).   Fortunately I don't have to predict for a living and I just hope there is some memorable baseball ahead for us.  Because as I often say, "The only reason to play baseball is to keep winter away."

In closing, here is a link to a Zoom conversation about my new book on scouting BASEBALL'S ENDANGERED SPECIES.  I will be having it with Bruce Markusen of the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown on Thursday Oct 12 at 7p EDT.  

https://baseballhall.org/events/virtual-author-series-lee-lowenfish

It is a free Zoom, but you must register in advance. lf there is a problem with the link, go to baseballhall.org - Click Visit, then Events, then

Virtual Authors Series. 

As always, take it easy but take it, and stay positive, test negative.   I did test positive a couple of weeks ago but I'm on the mend but being more

cautious in public places.  Keep those masks handy!