Lee Lowenfish

I'm posting a little before midnight on Sunday Oct. 17.  The Braves just went 2-0 up on the Dodgers in the NLCS with another dramatic walk-off bottom of the 9th win. 

 

Former Minnesota Twin Eddie Rosario started the tying rally in the 8th with some daring base-running encouraged by third base coach Ron Washington.  And then Rosario stroked the single past Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager that won the game in the 9th.

 

The Braves lost 2-0 and 3-1 leads to the Dodgers in last year's NLCS so this series is not over.  Yet there is nothing like the exhilaration of a comeback win for player and fan alike.  

 

Once the Yankees were convincingly eliminated by the Red Sox in the AL Wild Card game,

I had no team to viscerally root against. But the Dodgers with their huge payroll can be an easy target. 

 

I will say this - until these last two games in Atlanta, they were behaving admirably like a defending champion.  They chased the surprising Giants all season, losing their quest for their ninth straight NL West title on the last day of the regular season.

 

After winning the Wild Card game over the Cardinals, LAD ultimately caught SF in the final game of the best-of-five NL Division Series on Th night Oct 14.

 

For eight innings it was an extremely well-played taut game. Scoreless until the top of the 6th, LA drew first blood with a double down the left field line by free-agent-to-be Seager. It scored Mookie Betts, the former Red Sox star, who went four-for-four and demonstrated that he is probably healthy again. 

 

I had hoped that the Dodgers might get too cute by starting an "opener" in Corey Knebel, the former Brewers reliever and University of Texas Longhorn.  But Knebel and successor Brustar Graterol put up one zero each.  

 

Julio Urias, baseball's only 20-game winner in 2021, entered in the 3rd. Urias, the young Mexican who arrived in the majors at the age of 19, was virtually flawless until Giants journeyman outfielder Darin Ruf led off the bottom of 6th and homered deep to center field to tie the game.  

 

Answering runs is SO important in baseball and this was an immediate response. I love stories like Ruf's, a onetime Phillie who played in Korea for three years and returned in 2020 and this year has become a key member of this year's Giants' many platoons.

 

Not known as a good defensive player at either first base or outfield, Ruf also made two fine plays to keep singles from becoming doubles. He epitomized the kind of under-the-radar players that made the 2021 Giants so appealing.

 

Young Giants starter Logan Webb threw seven solid innings giving up only the one run. 

He hails from Rocklin, California near Sacramento, only 100 miles from SF's ballpark. Honored earlier in the week at the elementary school in his home town, he didn't let his new-found fame affect his concentration on the mound. 

 

As many people feared (including yours truly), the Giants bullpen was not as effective as the Dodgers' group. The Giants dodged a jam in top of 8th, but Camilo Doval, the Giants newly-anointed young closer, hit Justin Turner to start the top of the 9th.

 

After a single by rookie Gavin Lux moved Turner to second, the former NL MVP Cody Bellinger drove in Turner with a solid single to right-center with what proved to be the NLDS-winning RBI.

 

In my last blog, I said that Bellinger might make up for his injury-plagued poor regular season by filling the void left by injured Max Muncy.  His reawakening may be happening.

 

The Dodgers won the game, 2-1, when Max Scherzer got his first career save despite an error by third baseman Justin Turner that gave the Giants hope with one out.  But there would be no more amazing show of Giants' resilience.  

 

After a routine second out, the Giants' season ended when versatile journeyman Wilmer Flores was called out on strikes by first base ump Gabe Morales.  Replay confirmed what most of us watching at home already knew - Flores did not swing.  

 

Yet I find it highly unlikely that the Giants could have rallied against Scherzer.  He wasn't sharp pitching on two days rest, but his arsenal of pitches kept the Giant hitters off balance.  

 

Scherzer is a free agent after the World Series, and he and his agent Scott Boras are lobbying for another big contract for the 37-year-old winner of 3 Cy Young pitching awards with perhaps a 4th in 2021.  

 

I don't care what salary Scherzer will make, but I don't like players' economic demands rubbed in my face.   The Astros' Justin Verlander, out all year recovering from Tommy John surgery, tweeted the other day that Houston should give shortstop Carlos Correa anything he wants during his upcoming free agency.  

 

Verlander will be on the market himself after the Series with his full recovery uncertain but his competitiveness undoubtedly remaining very high.   But please don't rub all your salary and guaranteed year demands in my face. 

 

Given the long history of animosity between players and owners - see my three editions of THE IMPERFECT DIAMOND and works by many others - I'm not betting against a lockout after Dec. 1 when the current Basic Agreement has expired.  But not now for these tiresome discussions.

  

Turning to the ALCS, the series could well turn on the unavailability of Houston's ace Lance McCullers Jr.  Framber Valdez and Luis Garcia, the Astros starters used in the first two games, did not pitch well. 

 

Though Houston won Game One on timely home runs by their productive double play partners, Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa, the Red Sox rebounded in Game 2 with grand slams by J.D. Martinez and Rafael Devers in the first and second innings. Such a feat had never happened before in a post-season game.

 

I'd like to see manager Dusty Baker win his first World Series ring.  He has done an

excellent job of uniting his team after the sign-stealing scandal during the 2017 World Series, revealed two years later, cost general manager Jeff Luhnow his job and forced manager A.J. Hinch and bench coach Alex Cora to serve 2020 suspensions.

 

Yet the 2021 Red Sox are a likable team. Cora is back managing them (and Hinch led the Tigers to near-respectability this season).  Cora knows how to manage - he led the Red Sox to their 2018 World Series win over the Dodgers.

 

He understands how to encourage levity in the stressful world of major league baseball.

I've been getting a kick out of seeing a Bosox home run hitter get a ride on a laundry cart in the dugout.

 

The idea evidently was hatched last season when the Red Sox finished last in the shortened 60-game season, even behind the Orioles.  Coach Jason Varitek, and former Bosox star catcher, thought it might lighten the mood.  Now in a season of success, it continues to

be an amusing ritual.

 

It is hard to exaggerate the importance of genuine team-bonding activities.  The

Blue Jays, who just missed making October baseball, made a production of giving a glossy jacket with logos of the players' native countries to every home run hitter.  

  

Sometimes hijinks behind the scenes even help losing teams. The Orioles credited backup catcher Austin Wynn's buying of some sage on line for the end of their 19-game losing streak.  With the help of teammate Trey Mancini, the lighting of the incense in the clubhouse helped to lift the pall of defeat. 

 

The Dodgers will have to win four out of five now to return to the Series.  They could do that, but the Braves are pitching better than people expected, especially the bullpen.

 

The Red Sox have the next three games at Fenway so they have an edge on Houston even though the series is just tied at 1-1.  Maybe the off-day will cool off former Dodger Enrique "Kike" Hernandez who has been blasting homers and key hits at a record-breaking pace.

 

Houston must hope for that but the laundry cart rides will be ready for amazing Kike. He is starting to do to the Astros when he did to the eliminated 100-win Tampa Bay Rays. 

 

Whatever else happens in the next two weeks, I sure hope we continue to see stirring baseball. Because never forget - "the only reason to play baseball is to keep winter away."

 

Before I close, here are some sports and other movie tips from TCM for the rest of October, listed chronologically.  

 

Wed Oct 20  5:15A "This Sporting Life" (1963) - searing British drama about lower-class

rugby player with Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, dir. Lindsay Anderson, writer David Storey

 

Th Oct 21 Rodgers and Hammerstein Day starting with "State Fair" (1945) at 1245a and resuming in prime time from 8p through Friday 1145a. 

 

Fri Oct 22 3p "Two Smart People" (1946) Jules Dassin directs Lucille Ball/Lloyd Nolan/John

Hodiak - "conniving people involved in art forgery," Leonard Maltin has described it. 

He doesn't rate it highly but Dassin was a fine director who left USA during blacklist.

 

Su Oct 24 10a Noir Alley presents North American debut of "The Beast Must Die" (1952)

   South American noir - (also on at 2a for the real night owls)

 

2p "Pat & Mike" (1952) Tracy & Hepburn in ladies golf scene with cameo by

Babe Didrikson and small key role for ex-first baseman future "Rifleman" Chuck Connors

 

345p "Sorry Wrong Number" (1948) really scary and well-done with Stanwyck 

 

530p Hitchcock's "North By Northwest" (1959) with Cary Grant/Eva Marie Saint

 

W Oct 27 930a "The Hard Way" (1942) Ida Lupino tries to protect younger sister Joan Leslie

 

4p "Shine On Harvest Moon" (1944) musical about Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth who wrote words to "Take Me Out To Ballgame".  Ann Sheridan/Dennis Morgan/Jack Carson are a good cast in undoubtedly a frothy film.

 

Th Oct 28 6:15a  "Woman of the Year" 6:15a (1942) the first Tracy-Hepburn collaboration with Tracy as sportswriter and Hepburn as influential world-traveling journalist/activist

 

Fri Oct 29  8a "Easy Living" (1949) Victor Mature (not Tyrone Power) as the football player with heart condition - some LA Rams play themselves incl. Kenny Washington

Dir. Jacques Tourneur - again, though, don't blame me for the ending.

(Audrey Young, wife of Billy Wilder, sings the title song by Leo Robin/Ralph Rainger.) 

 

12M "Invasion of Body Snatchers" (1978) 12M - the remake with Donald Sutherland/Brooke Adams directed by Philip Kaufman a few years before he directed "The Right Stuff"

 

Sat Oct 30 8p "Frankenstein" (1931) the original

930p "Young Frankenstein" (1974) Mel Brooks' take on it

 

Su Oct 31  12M & 10a "Cat People" 1942 - Jacques Tourneur directs Tom Conway (George Sanders' brother) and Simone Simon and Jane Randolph - this week's Noir Alley

 

330p "Pit and Pendulum" 1961 - Roger Corman directs Vincent Price

 

8p "Psycho" (1960) - not one of my favorite Hitchcock's esp. the preachy ending and

Janet Leigh's work was so much more varied than this, but still a classic film.

 

That's all for now - keeping remembering to Stay Positive, Test Negative, and

take it easy but take it! 

 

 

On the first Saturday in June I happened to flip the channel in time to see the top of the ninth inning of a close game between the Chicago Cubs and the SF Giants. With the Giants holding a two-run lead but the Cubs threatening, veteran third baseman Evan Longoria instinctively dove to his left on a hard smash towards the shortstop hole. 

 

Because of one of these new-fangled shifts, shortstop Brandon Crawford was positioned very close to Longoria who must have not been aware of it.  Crawford also went for the ball and the two veterans collided head-on.  Longoria got the worst of the deal, and he has shoulder damage that could keep him out for over two months.  

 

As far as I know, none of the Giants made a public comment questioning why Longoria and Crawford were aligned so close together.  Manager Gabe Kapler, one of more analytic-obsessed managers, did say afterwards that it was a "very emotional" clubhouse when they learned that team leader Longoria, the former Tampa Bay Ray with World Series and regular playoff experience, would be out for such a long time. 

 

Ballplayers are tough guys especially a gamer like Longoria so I hope he returns sooner than expected. But it raises the question of why so many players are abandoning traditional defensive positions in the supposed search for more statistical certainty.  

 

The basic double play is rarely seen now because infielders are shifting way out of their normal positions. There is now the frequent bizarre occurrence of a third baseman positioned near second base before a pitch. So to catch a routine foul ball, he must run like a 60-yard dasher to have a chance at corraling it. 

 

Analytics and shifting are getting out of hand and I don't know what it will take to bring that rarity known as common sense back to the game.

 

One thing I would do is to ban all players from carrying crib sheets of "tendencies" in their pockets and caps.   Baseball shouldn't be an "open book" exam!

 

The lord high commissioner Manfred just announced on June 15 a ban on foreign substances pitchers have been using on the baseball to increase movement and spin rates. Such a prohibition has been in the official rules for decades.  We'll see, of course, how it is enforced by the umpires.  

 

Let me repeat my call for another reform:  BAN THOSE CLIFF NOTES!  

 

Back to the Giants and how they may deal without Longoria for a good chunk of the summer. One of his replacements will likely be the former Met Wilmer Flores who is a versatile guy to have on your team. 

 

For me, Wilmer is the poster boy for "Yes, There Is Crying in Baseball!"  No one in the NYC area, Mets fan or not, can ever forget Flores weeping on third base when he thought he was being traded to the Milwaukee Brewers at the July 2015 trading deadline. 

 

It turned out to be a false alarm. He wasn't traded after all, and the valuable utility player, who had signed with the Mets as a teenager out of Valencia Venezuela, helped the team move on to the 2015 World Series.

 

Here's one last gripe against analytics.  Do we really need to know the percentage of swings and misses on different pitches from a pitcher?  Baseball is a very hard game and there is such a thing as TMI Too Much Information. 

 

TMI is a plague that is affecting writers, broadcasters, fans, and worst of all, players who forget about the "feel" of a game and how sight and sound are more important than those damned crib sheets they carry in their pockets and caps.

 

The fun element in baseball should never be forgotten. So let's hear it for one of the better new nicknames in the sport: the Jamestown (NY) Tarp Skunks in the Perfect Game Wooden Bat Collegiate League.

 

A tarp skunk is a regular denizen of that southwestern New York town near the Pennsylvania border and the Double-A Erie Sea Wolves.  The animal is an underdog that only sprays when faced with danger so it is an apt name for a scrappy team of collegians. They will be playing until the end of July, and early August if they make the playoffs.

 

THIS 'N' THAT FROM VARIED LEVELS OF BASEBALL:

**Update on Masahiro Tanaka still pitching well in Japan for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. In the last blog I did not give the full correct name of his team so here is the correction.  

 

Although his record is only 2-4 and he hasn't won since early May, he has been an innings-eater. He has averaged seven innings in his last five starts and his ERA is 2.90.  Most important, the Golden Eagles are in first place.

I leave it to Yankee fans to decide if he would have fared better than Jameson Taillon or the now-injured Corey Kluber. 

 

**Remember Mo'Ne Davis from the Little League World Series seven years ago?  She is now a softball infielder for the historical black college Hampton University in Virginia. In the off-season, she is broadcasting games of the DC Grays in a summer college league and aspires to go into the media business.

 

I learned about this story in Barry Svrluga's fine piece in the June 9 Washington Post..

Speaking of the WaPo, the brilliant columnist Thomas Boswell will retire on June 30 but hopefully not stay away from sports permanently.  He certainly has left an enviable legacy of game stories under deadline pressure and thoughtful commentaries.  Some appeared in such books as "Why Time Begins On Opening Day". 

 

**Here's hoping for a memorable College World Series starting on June 19-20 in Omaha.  I still find the sound of  aluminum bats jarring, but the pairings look very enticing.  All games to be aired on the "family" of ESPN networks.

 

The double-elimination tourney starts with red-hot Stanford vs. North Carolina State who knocked off #1 national seed Arkansas despite losing the first game 21-2.  Shades of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates against the Yankees! 

The second game will feature perennial contender/former champion Vanderbilt vs. Arizona. 

 

Sunday's pairings are Mississippi State, which came from an 0-1 deficit to knock out Notre Dame, vs. Texas

Followed by Tennessee vs. perennial contender/former champion Virginia.

 

**And here's a salute to Bryant (Rhode Island) catcher Liam McGill who led all of Division I with a .471 batting average.  The former Columbia star certainly put to good use his last year of eligibility.

 

Here's hoping that all Ivy League sports return starting in the fall.  The loss of two full Ivy League baseball seasons has been one of the most hurtful consequences of the pandemic.

 

That's all for now.  Always remember:  Take it easy but take it!