Lee Lowenfish

I must admit I don't watch the Mets on SNY very often.  I'm too busy draining my emotions rooting for the Orioles and when not doing that, I'm rooting against the Yankees on the YES Network.

 

Today Sunday August 6 the Yankees were not on YES network - the game must have been on a "premium" network so I was focused entirely on the Orioles successfully pulling off a sweep against the bedraggled Mets on the SNY network. (Without too much agonizing on my part, I let Houston salvage a split with the Yankees in a four-game series in New York.)

 

I also watched the Fri and Sat night games on SNY with Gary Cohen and Ron Darling providing a pleasant and informative listen. As the cameras zeroed in on Mets southpaw Jose Quintana kicking the dirt to create an ideal landing area, Darling said he used to imitate Gerry Cheevers clearing the goal crease with his skates for Darling's beloved Boston Bruins.  (Quintana deserved a much better fate than a 2-0 loss but such is life

these days for the unmoored Mets.) 

 

The Orioles put on a defensive clinic the whole weekend. Near the end of Sunday's 2-0 shutout, Jeff MacNeil

was shaking his head in disbelief when Ryan McKenna robbed him with a running catch in left field foul

territory. Every Oriole player this season has been flashing the leather which is wonderful to see, and virtually every batter hustles out of the box thinking extra bases.   

 

A sense of humility is also evident. On Sat night the camera caught Oriole starter Kyle Gibson saying "Wow!" when MacNeil pulled an inner half fast ball for a two-run homer just inside the right field foul pole.  It brought the Mets within a run but as they have done so often this season, the O's quickly answered the runs and went on to a relatively stress-free 7-3 win. 

 

Same was true of the 10-3 Friday night opener as 22-year-old shortstop Gunnar Henderson (who also plays a very good third base) delivered big hits. Vengeance was also sweet for backup catcher James McCann who had a five-RBI game against his former team that is still paying most of the salary from the Mets' four-year deal he signed.  

  

My only nitpick with the broadcasts was when Gary Cohen criticized the larger left field playing area at Camden Yards.  I still maintain the triple and being thrown out trying for a triple are the most exciting plays in baseball, and the new acreage in left-center adds to that possibility.  IMO, Cohen's criticism should be leveled at the bandboxes in the new stadia in Cincinnati, Philly, and yes the third Yankee Stadium, too.

 

There are still more than 50 games of regular season baseball left, and the Orioles must travel twice to the West Coast and also play 6 games with defending champion Houston beginning with a three-game series in Charm City, first game on Tuesday night Aug 8. 

 

But the Birds have met every challenge so far in 2023.  They possess the "deep depth" that Hall of Famers Yogi Berra and Earl Weaver emphasized as the key to success. 

 

So far the Orioles new right-handed mound additions, starter Jack Flaherty from Cardinals and reliever Shintaro Fujinami from Oakland, have looked promising. 

 

Over 10 years ago, Fujinami and Shohei Ohtani were considered the two best prospects in Japan.  Ohtani is already a deserved legend as hitter as well as pitcher. Alas, all the trade deadline additions to the Angels have not helped the team and the odds of Ohtani leaving for a better team after the season are increasing. 

 

As for Fujinami, after many years in minors, Fujinami failed as a starter in Oakland. The Orioles took a chance on his improved early summer work as a reliever and he almost threw an "immaculate" 8th inning in Sunday's 2-0 shutout.  He struck out first two batters on three pitches and then got an easy out after going 0-2 on the third batter. 

 

The caveats with Fujinami are his bouts of wildness and his high-strung nature that may make him only

successful when he starts a "clean" inning, i.e. with no runners on.  Lurking in the minors for my Birds is D.L.

Hall, once hailed as a can't-miss starter drafted out of a Georgia high school in 2017 (!).  He's now regaining his strength in Triple A and could be a wild card bullpen addition come September/October.   

 

That's all the baseball for now.   Let me close with some TCM tips starting with

MON AUG 7 a cornicopia of Robert Ryan films starting at 6A with Fritz Lang's "Woman on the Beach" (1947) a triangle with Joan Bennett and Charles Bickford; at 730A Fred Zinnemann's searing "Act of Violence" (1949) with Van Heflin and Janet Leigh; 1030A Anthony Mann's "Naked Spur" (1953) with Janet Leigh and Jimmy Stewart; and also at 545P "Billy Budd" (1962); and 945P Robert Wise's "The Set Up" (1949) perhaps the greatest boxing movie ever, at 1115P Nicholas Ray's "On Dangerous Ground" with Ida Lupino, music by Bernard Herrmann, and ending at 430A Tues with "Secret Fury" (1950). 

 

TUES AUG 8 has three Busby Berkeley classics from the Great Depression 1930s:

315P "We're In the Money" (1935);  8P "Golddiggers of 1933" and "Footlight Parade" (1933) 

 

TH AUG 10 has three Noir classics back-to-back:

6P "Out of the Past" (1947) a triangle among Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas, Jane Greer

8P "While The City Sleeps" (1956) I believe Fritz Lang's last American film set in a newspaper office with Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, Sally Forrest, Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price

10P "The Killer Is Loose" (1956) - former Ohio State footballer Budd Boetticher directs Wendell Corey, Joseph Cotten, Rhonda Fleming

 

F AUG 11 a lot of Alan Ladd including: 

8P "Shane" (1953) with Brandon DeWilde wanting Shane to come back

10P "This Gun For Hire" (1942) an early Noir with Veronica Lake at height of pageboy craze - soon government urged her to get haircut because too many women were getting hair caught at defense jobs  

SA AUG 12 12A "Blue Dahlia" (1946)

2A "The Glass Key" (1942)

 

SU AUG 13 - A Paul Newman day starting at 6A

 

And coming on W Aug 16 8p "High Noon" (1952) 

 

That's all for now.  Take it easy but take it and stay positive test negative. 

 

 

 

 

 

The Orioles' thrilling season continues on its merry way.  After being embarrassed 13-1 in the opening Fri June 23 game of a three-game home series against a Seattle Mariners team hovering around .500, they came from behind to win the next two games, 6-4 in 10 innings and 3-2 in Sunday's rubber match. 

 

If the 6-4 game Sat. game had been played during the post-season, a wider audience would have called it a classic.  Even though the Birds managed the dubious distinction of "running for the cycle" - 4 men were thrown out on the bases. 

 

Red-hot Anthony Santander hit a tying homer (did the same thing on Sunday and made a sensational catch) and Aaron Hicks, finding new life after trying times with the Yankees, hit a go-ahead homer.  But Yankee castoff Mike Ford, the undrafted slugger from Princeton, hit two long home runs, the second one tying the game with two out in top of the ninth off the huge Oriole closer Felix "The Mountain" Bautista. 

 

Julio Rodriguez, last year's AL Rookie of the Year, also homered and kept the game close by a sensational robbing of a two-run homer off the bat of Ryan O'Hearn.  O'Hearn is a KC Royals castoff who has stepped in productively for the injured and struggling Ryan Mountcastle who might be in danger of being Wally Pipp-ed although the farm system has younger, possibly more talented players than O'Hearn waiting in the wings.

 

The game was won in bottom of the tenth by a two-run homer by defensive replacement Ryan McKenna. It has been that kind of year for the Orioles - major contributions from unlikely members of the roster.  

 

Sunday's game-winning hit came off the bat of third-string catcher Anthony Bemboom who blooped the ball over second baseman Jose Caballero who kicked it towards the tarp and fleet shortstop Jorge Mateo scored all the way from first base on the error. 

 

Baltimore enters the last week of June 4 1/2 games behind Tampa Ray but only two in the loss column. They immediately host another even more surprising team the Cincinnati Reds who rolled off 12 wins in a row before losing two close games to the NL East leaders Atlanta Braves. 

 

The Reds have caught the nation's attention because they have been downtrodden for so long.  Some impressive rookies led by shortstop-third baseman Elly de la Cruz have fueled the surge and the return of future Hall of Famer Joey Votto will undoubtedly help.  Votto is one of the most thoughtful and team-oriented players in MLB and I hope he stays healthy now (but not too healthy against the Orioles). 

 

Maybe the most encouraging development this weekend was the solid seven-inning starts by young Oriole starters Dean Kremer, the first dual Israeli-American citizen in MLB history (and the last Oriole remnant of the

Manny Machado fire sale of 2018), and Kyle Bradish obtained as a minor leaguer in a trade for the fading

Dylan Bundy (last seen pitching for the Mets' Triple-A farm club in Syracuse).  

 

Nothing like the feeling of hope for one's team and the inevitable anxiety - can't have one without another - as summer moves on. On the local NYC high school baseball scene, congrats to Tottenville of Staten Island and Hunter of Manhattan's East Side for their triumphs at Yankee Stadium on June 12 in the AAA and AA divisions. 

 

More next time on the law suit brought by older MLB scouts against the MLB hierachy that may have committed age discrimination violations by severing many experienced veteran scouts. As I stressed in my new book BASEBALL'S ENDANGERED SPECIES, there is no substitute for the informed opinions of those who have worked in the trenches trying to evaluate and project the success of aspiring young players. 

 

The saddest entry this post focuses on the passing last week of two outstanding pitchers and baseball personages, Roger Craig, 93, who died on June 4, and Dick Hall, 92, who died on June 18. 

 

I will never forget Craig coming up with Don Bessent in the middle of the 1955 season to help the Brooklyn Dodgers win their only World Series. After winning another ring with 1959 LA Dodgers, Craig went on to become an anchor on early Mets staffs. 

 

He managed the San Diego Padres in 1978 and 1979 and later became a great pitching coach for the 1984 world champion Tigers. He managed mainly contending SF Giants teams from 1985-1992, losing the 1989 "earthquake" World Series to the Oakland A's.

 

Craig was a renowned teacher of the split-fingered fastball, the pitch du jour of the 1980s. He looked like a more avuncular and kinder former President Lyndon B. Johnson. His signature phrase will be remembered as "Humm baby!" but he was more importantly a wise dispenser of wisdom learned in his home state of North Carolina.  

 

Dick Hall was a lanky young outfielder-third baseman on Branch Rickey's young Pittsburgh Pirates teams in the 1950s before his conversion to the mound.  He blossomed as a relief pitcher for the Orioles in the 1960s winning two World Series rings in 1966 and 1970. 

 

The only Swarthmore graduate who made the field in MLB history (Larry and Lee MacPhail made the Hall of Fame as executives), Hall became an accomplished accountant and a persuasive advocate for the game.  

 

Hall grew up near NYC in Haworth NJ and I met not long ago one of his neighbors who remembered the sound of Hall's practicing his throwing on a cushioned wall or maybe a barn near my friend's house.  The sound of ball on wall night after night became the percussive musical background of my late friend's youth.    

 

In closing let's also cross fingers that the recent termination of several TCM (Turner Classic Movies) executives doesn't lead to a diminuition of that valuable cable channel's programming of classic films.

 

There have been a lot of layoffs at TCM recently, and chief executive David Zaslav is trying to dampen criticism by saying he believes in the station.  For now, my favorite show on TCM - Eddie Muller's Noir Alley Sat at midnight, rebroadcast at 10A Sun - remains on.  Even if the Noir formula grows tiresome and predictable, Eddie's intros and outros are must-see watching.

 

That's all for now. Next post comes from Chautauqua where I'm teaching a class from July 3, 5-7 on "Can Baseball Survive the 21st Century?"   Always remember:  Take it easy but take it, and stay positive, test negative.