Lee Lowenfish

Despite the over-commercialization of all sports, not least baseball, "pitchers and catchers have reported to spring training" remains one of the greatest

sentences in the English language.  l didn't make my first baseball trip to Florida until 1979 when I was starting my first book about the labor history of baseball, THE IMPERFECT DIAMOND. (Arizona would come a few years later). 

 

I will never forget that on the same day in early March, I met two Hall of Famers, Al Lopez (inducted in 1976) and Robin Roberts (inducted in 1977).  Nicknamed the Senor because he was born in Spain, Lopez greeted me in mid-morning at his home on a canal in Tampa's Ybor City. He had been a highly regarded catcher during his long playing career and became the only manager to break Casey Stengel's amazing streak of Yankee pennants, leading Cleveland in 1954 and the White Sox in 1959 to the World Series. 

 

Lopez professed that he had no memories of being part of the 1946 Pittsburgh Pirates that briefly voted to strike during the season over Pittsburgh management's failure to recognize the short-lived American Players Guild.  Lopez did share humorous stories about playing at Ebbets Field for the Daffy Dodgers in the 1920s.

 

He remembered one fan in particular who constantly razzed the Dodgers and manager Wilbert Robinson from the upper deck at Ebbets Field.  One day before a game, the harassed skipper summoned the fan to the dugout with an offer.   "Here's a box seat for the rest of the season," Robinson said, "if you promise to shut up."  In a thick Yiddish accent, Lopez recalled the fan's reply: "Uncle Robbie, you got a deal."   Of course, the truce didn't last for more than a game or two. When the fan renewed his bellowing, the ticket was taken away and without missing a beat the fan took his leather lungs back to his old perch in the upper stands. 

 

Later that day I met Robin Roberts, who was coaching baseball at the University of South Florida in Tampa. I'll never forget Roberts' first words to me: "Fire away!" meaning that I could ask him any questions I might have about his instrumental role in hiring Marvin Miller from the United Steelworkers of America to modernize the moribund Players Association. It is a part of baseball labor history that is not widely known that the players during Miller's first visit to Arizona spring training camps in 1966 rejected his candidacy. It took primarily the efforts of Roberts and pitchers Jim Bunning and Bob Friend, all training in Florida, to  rally the players in Miller's behalf.   

 

Roberts was easy to converse with on many topics. One of his sons was going to Michigan State where Robin had starred before signing a bonus contract with the Phillies. "Wait until you see Magic Johnson, Dad!" Robin recalled his son's awe.  Robin's career coaching USF would not last much longer. One of the issues

was he resisted the pressure  to call pitches from the dugout.  He wanted them to call their own games.  At the end of his playing career, Roberts had been the first roommate of Orioles rookie Jim Palmer, another future Hall of Famer.  His only advice to Palmer was "throw the hell out of the ball!"   

 

Another indelible memory from my visit with Roberts was his expressing surprise that southpaw Tommy John had recently left the Dodgers as a free agent to sign with the Yankees. Having played in the age of the reserve system that was perpetual but at times genuinely paternalistic, Roberts thought it almost shocking that John left the Dodgers after the team paid for the career-saving elbow operation performed by Dr. Frank Jobe.  Roberts sensed in 1979 that a new world was coming and he was glad that players were getting paid better but he also loved the traditions of the game.  He was almost wistful discussing the trip northward at the end of spring training when the Phillies (and most other teams) played games in smaller cities on the way North and each team let the varsity play five innings so the fans in the small towns could watch them.  

 

Roberts was one of the kindest and most thoughtful baseball people I've ever interviewed.  He expressed more of these thoughts in "We Would Have Played For Nothing," one of the oral histories that late commissioner of baseball Fay Vincent wrote after he retired.  Roberts mentioned to Vincent, who died on Feb 1 at the age of 86, that he still treasured the keepsake gift Phillies owner Bob Carpenter sent him when he was called up from the minors to make his major league debut.  The story brings back to mind a radio interview that I made 40 years ago with Mrs. Ron Hunt, the wife of second baseman Ron Hunt, the Mets' first All-Star.  She still treasured the silver spoon that Mets owner Joan Whitney Payson gave her when she had a child.

 

That's all for this post.  I'm heading to see Columbia women's basketball, riding a 9-game winning streak atop the Ivy League by itself for the first time.

Dartmouth is not a contender but youneverknow in any sport.  The matchup with Harvard on Sun at noon EST on ESPNU should be barnburner.

We'll see how my other team Wisconsin men do at Purdue at 1p tomorrow Sa Feb 15 on CBS.  And then Illinois on Peacock (alas) on Tu Feb 18.

 

More thoughts on today's baseball in later posts.  Glad I could share now some of the stories of baseball's rich past. 

 

Take it easy but take it and stay healthy and sane and test negative (for as long as we are allowed to have government health tests!) 

 

 

I've long believed that you cannot really analyze a baseball season until the Memorial Day weekend quarter-pole.  And obviously you cannot win a pennant in early spring, but you can sure dig a deep hole. 

 

As an Orioles fan for over a half-century, I have been thrilled by their early surge to more than ten games over .500.  Losing a series this weekend to the World Series-contending Braves in Atlanta was

disappointing, but they sure held their own in top-flight competition. 

 

I'm beginning to believe that if this young and spunky crew stays healthy, they could stay in the race all season.  Certainly into the summer when in a program note I'll be speaking about my new book 

BASEBALL'S ENDANGERED SPECIES on Tues afternoon July 18 at the Babe Ruth Museum.  A short walk from Camden Yards where that night the Orioles will host the LA Dodgers. 

 

If the Orioles keep on keepin' on, I will happily abandon my agonized Woeriole commentaries of past years and be glad to exclaim, "Wowrioles!"   

 

This past Saturday afternoon, I journeyed to the Brooklyn Cyclones' Maimonides Park to see the High-A Orioles Aberdeen Ironbirds win 7-2. They took charge in the first inning, scoring two runs without a hit against the Mets farm club. 

 

One of the big attractions for me was seeing Jackson Holliday, the 19-year-old shortstop and number one pick in last year's MLB amateur free agent draft.  I had seen Jackson, the son of All-Star outfielder Matt Holliday, show off his wares in late innings of a couple of Florida spring training games in March.   

 

On Saturday, he struck out his first two times but later contributed a sizzling opposite field double driving in a run through a drawn-in infield.  He also got another RBI on an infield hit.

 

He didn't have many difficult chances in the field but he handled a few easily.  I couldn't get a sense from one game how he was interacting with his teammates.  I do feel lucky I saw him on Saturday because he didn't play on Sunday in a 3-0 loss to the Cyclones that finished in two hours flat. 

 

I am pleased that games on all levels of pro baseball are shorter this year. However, I was not pleased that during the Aberdeen Saturday victory, they struck out 17 times! 

 

I had seen some of the same players at Low-A Delmarva in Salisbury, Maryland last summer. 

They showed a lack of knowledge of situational hitting last year, and, alas, they were no better on Saturday. 

 

On the positive side, I have my eye on Luis Valdez who played second base last year but now patrols right field and covers a lot of ground.  He may be hitting under .200, but it sure looks like his speed is a major tool, and repeat after me - "Speed never slumps." 

 

Hitting and hitting with power usually come last in normal player development, but a glaring example of how the bugaboos of "launch angle and exit velocity" have infected the game came late last month when the St. Louis Cardinals' ballyhooed rookie outfielder, Jordan Walker, just 21, was farmed out after a great start in early April.  His ailment?  Hitting the ball on the ground and not boosting his launch angle and exit velocity.  

 

Despite a significant payroll and playoff aspiritations, St. Louis has the worst record in the National League, 13 games under .500  They are evidently missing retired catcher Yadier Molina so much that they have at least temporarily removed free agent catcher Wilson Contreras from behind the plate.

 

They have sent him to outfield/DH purgatory. If there is a hot seat in baseball, it should be occupied by

"president of baseball operations" John Mozeliak.  His trades have not been successful.

 

He did get lefty Jordan Montgomery from the Yankees for Harrison Bader but he gifted Randy Arozarena to Tampa Bay for lefty Matthew Liberatore who has yet to contribute significantly in St. Louis.  He also fired manager Mike Schildt late in what was a very competitive 2021 season.

 

Meanwhile, neither the Yankees or the Mets have enjoyed good times recently, each hovering around .500.  The Yankees should get a big boost when Aaron Judge returns to the lineup this week from his stint on the injured list.

 

Judge hurt his hip sliding head first into third base, another sign that baseball fundamentals are being ignored by too many teams.  Judge's formidable partner in the Yankee lineup, Giancarlo Stanton, is likely out until the summer with a hamstring injury. This happened when he accelerated too quickly between first and second on a ball he was admiring because he thought it would be a home run. 

 

Whether the Mets can emerge as a contender is a good question.  They are not a young team and have invested enormously in future Hall of Fame pitchers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander who are both pushing forty.

 

Because of injuries and Scherzer's 10-day suspension for using too much rosin on his throwing hand,  neither has been able yet to stabilize the rotation. I wonder if the rest of the lineup can ever become enough of an offensive force to make up for inconsistent pitching. 

 

Baseball's hottest team, the Tampa Bay Rays, spends a rare week in NYC starting on Thursday May 11, the first of four games at Yankee Stadium.  They just won two out of three closely contested games against the Yankees in Tampa. 

 

Their record of 28-7 is the best in MLB since the Tigers went 35-5 in their wire-to-wire 1984 World Series

winning season. (The numbers 28-7 remind me of one of my heroes, Robin Roberts' astonishing won-loss record in 1952 for a bad Phillies team.)  After finishing up in the Bronx, the Rays make a rare appearance in Queens for night games on TuW May 16-17 and a day game on Th May 18. 

 

On the college baseball front, my Columbia Lions need a lot of help from Yale if they want to host the first four-game Ivy League post-season tournament from May 19-22.  Penn and Harvard are tied for first with 13-5 records and Princeton just finished its season with a 13-8 mark and have made the tourney.

 

Columbia has fallen to 11-7 and needs one win against Penn this weekend or a Yale (9-9) loss at Harvard to get the fourth spot in a year the Lions were picked to finish first. 

 

Recent season-ending injuries to sophomore center fielder Skye Selinsky and junior third baseman Seth Dardar have hurt the team's record-setting offense and the pitching and defense have not been the team's strong suit in 2023. But the Lions have been consistent May winners in recent years so don't count them out yet. 

 

In other local college baseball news, Rutgers is closing the Big Ten season on a roll and has a chance

to make a push towards the College World Series.  The Big Ten tournament will be held this year from May 23-28 on the same field in Omaha where CWS will be played from Th June 16 thru M June 26, 

 

There is one more chance to see the Scarlet Knights at home.  It's this weekend against Illinois - Fri and Sat May 12-13 at 6p at Bainton Field in Piscataway and Su May 14 at noon in Lakewood NJ at ShoreTown Park, the home of the Jersey Shore High-A Phillies farm club. 

 

St. Johns and Seton Hall have not enjoyed outstanding years in the Big East, but they have often come big in May so keep your eyes open on their fortunes.   I'm not a big fan of aluminum bats but the competition is intense at this time of year and well worth watching. BTW if you must see wood bats,

the PSAL high school tourney starts shortly and more on that in the next blog. 

 

I close my first post in May in remembrance of Dick Groat, who passed away on April 27 at the age of 92 in his home town of Pittsburgh. In the latter stages of writing my Branch Rickey biography, I spent a very memorable afternoon at the golf course Groat built with Pirates teammate Jerry Lynch on the grounds of a former apple orchard near Ligonier, Pennsylvania, 60 miles east of Pittsburgh. 

 

He had warm memories of life lessons he had learned from the canny and philosophical Rickey. The 

Mahatma, or the ferocious gentleman as I dubbed him, talked Groat out of his pro basketball career, but he remembered the fun he had playing the sport where he became an All-American at Duke.

 

"Basketball was fun," he told me. By cotntrast, "Baseball does things to your coconut."  After a turnover in basketball, you can immediately make up for it with a steal or a good shot moments later.  In 

baseball you have to wait eight batters to get another chance on offense and you better not brood about it.

 

I thought about Groat's insight when I learned of the death from cancer of southpaw Vida Blue, 73, on May 6.  Blue rocketed to fame with Charley Finley's Oakland A's, but he let a contract dispute with the owner sap his love of the game.  

 

His full name was Vida Blue Jr. and he refused Finley's entreaties to legally change his name to Vida True Blue.  Vida never knew his father, Vida Blue Sr., but he was very proud of him and the family lineage in the northern Louisiana town of Mansfield. 

 

Blue's career record of 209-161 with a 3.27 ERA was certainly worthy of Hall of Fame consideration but his problems with cocaine that led to a prison sentence in the early 1980s did not help his candidacy. RIP both Vida Blue and Dick Groat.

 

Next time some more thoughts on baseball as we near the Memorial Day quarter-pole.  Also I'll provide some detail on one of the great cultural improvements in NYC, the renovated Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center. 

 

Since it is so hard to say goodbye, one last note:  I am glad to report that after a couple of months hiatus, Noir Alley with Eddie Muller has returned on TCM to its regular Sat midnight/repeated on Sunday 10am time slot. His new list all come from the heyday of Noir in the 1940s and 1950s. More details at tcm.com  

 

For now, always remember:  Take it easy but take it, and stay positive, test negative.