Lee Lowenfish

I saw a T-shirt with the above saying while watching workouts prior to a Hudson Valley Renegades game earlier this month. The wearer of the shirt, Tampa Bay Rays minor league catching instructor Paul Hoover, didn’t know the origin of the saying but it is a beauty - A testament to the hard work and long hours needed to make a champion in any sport.

Meanwhile on the MLB front, parity is the rule though I would argue parity=mediocrity. The number of regular players batting under .200 is astonishing.
Mario Mendoza, who actually was a career .215 hitter, is beginning to look like Roberto Clemente.

Dumbest play I saw on TV – Ervin Santana of the Twins, back from his PED suspension for the surprising Minnesotans, kept throwing to first base to keep a runner close with two out in the 8th inning of a game in which he led 5-0.

You have a solid lead and you have one of the greatest closers for the 9th inning Glen Perkins in the bullpen. And you are worried about a man on first stealing second on you?

Baseball fortunes can change in a twinkling. Perkins blew his first save of the year at Oakland on Saturday night July 18 and Sunday the A’s routed former Oakland lefty Tom Milone in a 14-1 romp.

Supposed pre-season contenders Oakland and Seattle are mired in the lower regions
of the AL West. The so-far-elusive winning streak could bring each near .500 and a shot perhaps at a second wild-card berth.

The build-up has begun for the trade deadline on July 31st. The MLB TV network will have a week of programming leading up to that date. I fear the pressure to improve teams will mount exponentially with the air coverage.

My Orioles finally won a series after losing four in a row and going 3-11. It destroyed the edge their 18-5 run in June had given them. Their mid-week series at Yankee Stadium starting Tuesday night July 21 will give them a better idea of where they will stand once the dog days of August begin.

The Yankees will not be easy to catch but a four-game lead is not an overwhelming obstacle. If the Oriole starters pitch well and the hitters rediscover how to hit with runners in scoring position. If not, then failure to hit with RISP will mean RIP 2015 season.

The Birds still have 8 pending free agents on the roster. They include big ones like Chris Davis, who has proven very agile and effective in right field, catcher Matt Wieters (slowly recovering from Tommy John surgery), starters Wei-Yin Chen and Bud Norris (recently demoted to the bullpen), All-Star setup man Darren O’Day, and at times useful relievers Tommy Hunter and Brian Matusz.

Of course, fans cannot control any of these decisions. For now I’m trying to enjoy the possibility of "playing meaningful games in September." The youthful powerful brilliant play on both sides of the ball of youngsters Manny Machado and Jonathan Schoop has been a joy to watch. Also the so-far-almost-flawless effectiveness of closer Zach Britton.

That’s all for now – this is Teny Ymota (The Earl of NY Your Man On The Aisle) reminding you always – “Take it easy but take it.”  Read More 

I am writing this entry overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee on Cow Island just a short boat ride from the small central New Hampshire town of Moultonborough in the Lakes Region of the “Live Free Or Die” state.

I am here to share a few days at a special friend’s bucolic cabin. But in our amazingly interconnected world, I haven’t been too far from my smartphone.

I was thrilled last night to follow a little bit of the Orioles’ come-from-behind victory over the Yankees. Always a double treat, my team winning and the Yankees losing in one swift stroke.

Despite the final 11-3 score, it wasn’t an easy win because the Birds trailed 3-2 going into the bottom of the 5th. But Chris Davis, trying unsuccessfully not to be overburdened by pressure to repeat his sensational 2013 season, hit a long home run to give Baltimore the lead and they won going away.

Davis was only in the game because he was substituting for Manny Machado whose right knee buckled during a third inning at-bat. Maybe fortunately, it was Machado’s right knee not the left one that was operated on during the off-season. The Birds were already missing shortstop JJ Hardy with a recent finger injury.

Any lengthy loss of Machado and Hardy, the cornerstones of the Orioles’ interior defense, would be a big blow to the Orioles’ pennant hopes. Yet the 2014 team has shown impressive resiliency.

Several examples:
**Early in the season All-Star catcher Matt Wieters was lost to Tommy John elbow surgery. But unheralded career minor leaguer Caleb Joseph has stepped up to become a solid defensive player and timely hitter with home run power.

**Another career reserve Steve Pearce filled in admirably at first base when Chris Davis was injured and played solidly as a left fielder. “Give Pearce A Chance” was a clever slogan coined by David Simon, creator of the HBO series about Baltimore “The Wire,” in a memorable piece in a recent “Sports Illustrated” with LeBron James' return to Cleveland on the cover.

When Pearce’s production fell off, David Lough, a rare Oriole blessed with speed, shook off his season-long slump to contribute. Manager Buck Showalter has also deftly given left field playing time to designated hitters Delmon Young and Nelson Cruz, the latter whose bat carried the Birds early in the season and now may be heating up again. Cruz may be the ultimate streaky hitter - incredibly productive for a while and incredibly impotent at other times. And with a streak hitter you must ride it out good and bad.

On the mound, how about these unexpected examples of productivity?
**Brad Brach, obtained in minor league deal with Padres, fulfilling an important long relief role in the bullpen.

**Zach Britton, out of options after failing a few times as a starter, becoming very effective as a closer.

Britton has made manager Showalter a prophet because before the season started Buck suggested that Zach could emerge as a valuable piece of the puzzle. He compared him to starter Chris Tillman who last year was also out of minor league options and emerged as an ace. In recent outings Tillman is giving signs that he is ready to reprise that role in 2014.

PRESENT MEETS PAST!
The Orioles’ surge to the top of the AL East has coincided with the 60th anniversary of the modern franchise. On Friday August 8, I attended a celebration of the team’s rich history - a remarkable story of how the woebegone shell of the St Louis Browns arrived in Baltimore in 1954 and in 12 years became World Series winners. And from 1969 through 1983 were probably the most admired franchise in baseball.

The anniversary events began with a luncheon sponsored by the Orioles Advocates, a community group that has supported the team since the early 1960s. The Advocates are currently sponsoring a project to bring baseball equipment and coaching to the youngsters in Nicaragua who love what used to be called our national pastime.

Representatives from many decades of Orioles history relived their glory days at the luncheon. They later attended the series opener with the Cardinals in which Tillman pitched six and two-thirds strong innings and six Oriole homers punctuated a 12-2 rout.
After the game, a rare laugher for this year's Orioles, a laser light show of historical highlights entertained a near-capacity crowd.

At the Advocates luncheon held in the impressive Warehouse that adjoins Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Frank Robinson was particularly eloquent in saying that the six years he played in Baltimore from 1966-1972 were the highlight of his career. “You can’t get lost in this city,” Robinson fondly remembered about the adulation in most of the neighborhoods of what is called Charm City by local boosters and is indeed a "huggy city," as a friend of mine once expressed it.

Robinson had nothing but praise for how the current regime of general manager Dan Duquette and manager Showalter have welcomed the stars from the glory years of Oriole teams and urged them to mix with the current squad.

The theme of the rich legacy of the Orioles was picked up on by other luncheon speakers including:
**1960s reliever Eddie Watt who never expected to make the 1966 Orioles and had to give up his apartment already rented in Rochester the top minor league city then of the Birds

**current Oriole conditioning guru and former outfielder Brady Anderson who has been instrumental in improving the physical condition of key Bird relievers Brian Matusz and Zach Britton

**Frank Robinson’s fellow Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson – looking well after serious bouts with illness and injury.

**The unrelated but fellow pitchers on the 1979 and 1983 American League champions, Dennis Martinez and Tippy Martinez.

**Catcher Chris Hoiles and closer Gregg Olson representing teams that didn't make the playoffs but contributed on the field and made many fans off the field.

It is much too early to anoint the Orioles of 2014 as a division winner and a true playoff contender but their position is an enviable one. 7 games in the lost column over both the Yankees and Blue Jays as of this writing. “It is theirs to win,” Brooks Robinson said.

That’a all for now – always remember: Take it easy but take it!
 Read More