Lee Lowenfish

As the days get colder but also happily longer, it is about time to issue my first YIBF - Yours In Baseball Forever – blog of 2015. It was a disappointment that the Orioles’ remarkable 96-win regular season did not lead to their first World Series since 1983.
After sweeping the bullpen-and-bench deprived Tigers in three games in the ALDS, the remarkable speed and bullpen arms of the Kansas City Royals turned the tables on the Orioles in the ALCS.

And the Royals certainly contributed to a memorable seven-game World Series before succumbing to the mastery of Madison Bumgarner of the Giants. It is hard to recall a Series where one player was so outstanding and dominant as Bumgarner.
Whether as a starter or five-inning reliever in the climactic Game Seven, the good young boy from North Carolina put himself in the record books forever.
Fully deserving of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED’s 2014 Sportsman of the Year award.

What does 2015 look like for my Orioles? Certainly much work is needed to replace the 40 home runs of Nelson Cruz (off to Seattle on a four-year deal) and the stellar southpaw bullpen work of Andrew Miller (off to the hated Yankees also on a four-year deal).

Those defections did not surprise me, but most surprisingly, the O’s will now have to replace the steady, daily grinding presence and great defense of Nick Markakis (off to Atlanta on another four-year deal). No doubt owner Peter Angelos felt burned by the long-term contracts he gave the now-retired second baseman Brian Roberts and Markakis.

Unlike the oft-injured Roberts, Markakis played every day and played hard even if his run production has fallen off year by year. He was an Oriole all his career and probably wanted to stay. But the Braves, having traded potential superstar Jason Heyward to the Cardinals for righthander Shelby Miller, needed Markakis, who grew up in the Atlanta area. Unlike Angelos and Oriole general manager Dan Duquette, the Braves under new gm John Hart did not seem concerned about Markakis’ pending neck surgery and came up with the better contract.

(I cross my fingers that Manny Machado, back from a second major knee injury in two years, Chris Davis, eligible to play in game 2 of the season after his adderall suspension, and catcher Matt Wieters back from Tommy John surgery can all pick up some of the offensive slack.)

Speaking of John Hart, he was one of the protégés of former Oriole general manager Hank Peters who died at the end of 2014. Peters, 90, had a distinguished career in the front office beginning with the St. Louis Browns, the Orioles’ lineal descendant.
He went on to work for Charlie Finley’s A’s in both Kansas City and Oakland. Peters was instrumental in signing the core of the Oakland great dynasty from 1972-1974 – Sal Bando, Reggie Jackson, and Joe Rudi.

Under Peters the Orioles survived the major defections of the first free agent class of 1976-77, notably Bobby Grich and Reggie Jackson, to stay in contention and win the AL pennants of 1979 and 1983. It was no coincidence that when Peters left the Birds for Cleveland after 1986, Baltimore sunk and the Indians rose to contention with such home-grown stars as Sandy Alomar Jr., Carlos Baerga, Manny Ramirez, and Jim Thome.

On the cusp of the new year, the baseball world also lost two notable nonagenarian scouts – the longtime Red Sox talent hunter Bill Enos and the Mariners’ Bill Kearns. At the age of 92 Kearns was still working for Seattle when he suffered a ruptured aorta and drove himself to a Boston hospital where he passed away quietly.

I had the pleasure of conversing with Kearns when in the spring of 2013 the scouting profession was honored with a permanent exhibition at Cooperstown.
He was courtly, incisive, and modest. “I’m just a guy,” he often said, but those who knew him will never forget his grace and intelligence.

Stay warm, dear readers, and back to you soon with another YIBF installment focusing on the post-season dinners and clinics I have attended. Here's a tease.

At the 42nd annual BeTheBest baseball clinic in Cherry Hill, NJ earlier this month, Grand Canyon University coach Andy Stankiewicz had one of the great comments.
The former Yankee and Diamondback second baseman said that he couldn't relate to pro golfer or pro tennis players.

"I liked to pick up my teammates and have them pick me up,"he observed. You can see why that scrappy little guy, who never signed more than a one-year contract in his 14-year MLB career, is considered a comer in the coaching ranks.

BTW Grand Canyon is in Phoenix and happens to be the alma mater of Ron Polk class of 1965, another clinician in Cherry Hill. The irreverent Polk is the only coach to take three teams to the College World Series and is now the volunteer assistant at UAB - University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Until next time - Stay warm, dear readers, and always remember: Take it easy but take it!
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“The only reason to play baseball is to keep winter away,” is one of my favorite sayings, exact origin unknown. On Wednesday October 15 the Orioles joined the sidelines with 27 other major league teams as the streaking Kansas City Royals swept them in four straight in the American League Championship Series. (As of this posting, the San Francisco Giants have three chances to send the St. Louis Cardinals to the sidelines in order to meet the Royals in the World Series.)

The identical 2-1 scores in the last two games at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City meant that one pitch could have turned each game around. But these games were psychologically never that close. The Orioles had a lead for only two and a half innings in the entire series. Fans felt the team was playing uphill the entire time and I sense the players were experiencing similar feelings.

The Royals’ victory was no fluke. They had been a sleeping giant in the American League with three young former number one draft picks not even in their prime years peaking at the right time: first baseman Eric Hosmer, third baseman Mike Moustakas, and left fielder Alex Gordon.

The Royals’ bullpen arms from the seventh inning on were virtually unhittable: Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis, and closer Greg Holland. Davis came from Tampa Bay in a trade along with ace starter James Shields to bring their experience and fierce competitiveness to a team needing to learn how to win.

Some observers saw in the Orioles’ loss an analogy to the 1969 World Series when after an opening victory over Tom Seaver, the Birds were beaten four in a row by the Miracle Mets. In this analysis center fielder Lorenzo Cain played the role of Tommy Agee.

Cain was deservedly voted the MVP of the ALCS for his all-around play. A one-time third baseman and Milwaukee Brewers farmhand who didn't play baseball until high school, Cain bunted on his own to sacrifice two runners into scoring position in the first inning in Game 4. Both scored on a tough error charged to Oriole catcher Caleb Joseph who couldn’t quite catch the ball thrown by first baseman Steve Pearce after Hosmer’s ground ball.

Why players rarely bunt these days is a good question to ask about today's baseball. The explanation, though, is really simple - salary arbitration awards are not bestowed on bunts and sacrifices. That’s pretty sad because well-placed bunts can win games as in Game 4 and in Game 2 when Moustakas, who had homered earlier, laid down a sacrifice to set up the winning run.

The finality of the end of a season is always stark. And a sweep is one of baseball’s more painful indignities. However, in the long view the Orioles’ season was a success. They played virtually all season without all-star catcher Matt Wieters – who had Tommy John elbow surgery. Third baseman Manny Machado, last year’s platinum glove winner as baseball’s best defender, missed the first month of the season recovering from knee surgery and then in August had surgery on his other knee.

In early September first baseman Chris Davis, who turned out to be an adequate replacement for Machado at third base, was suspended for 25 games for using the amphetamine Adderall without a prescription. That suspension will end the day after Opening Day 2015.

Despite these key losses, the Orioles ran away with the AL East flag and swept the favored Tigers three in a row in the AL Division Series (ALDS). That was an improvement over 2012, the rebirth year of Buck Showalter-Dan Duquette’s Orioles when the Yankees won a very competitive five-game ALDS over Baltimore.

In my opinion, the outlook for 2015 became brighter when just before the start of the post-season, the Orioles signed shortstop JJ Hardy to a three-year contract worth reportedly $40 million. This contract makes a lot of sense because Hardy is the quiet but effective captain of the defense, someone who makes everyone better. It also suggests that Machado, hopefully fully recovered by spring training, will remain at third for the foreseeable future. That’s fine by me.

The fate of other key Oriole free agents won’t be known for a while. Steady right fielder Nick Markakis has been an Oriole all his career and wants to return and probably will.
Left fielder/dh Nelson Cruz was the one-year steal in free agency in 2014 and he’ll want a long-term contract that the Orioles may not want to offer. Ditto for southpaw reliever Andrew Miller who bolstered the bullpen immeasurably after his arrival at the July 31 trading deadline.

We’ll see what happens. There will likely be a bevy of trades as the Hot Stove League picks up. I hope the Tampa Bay Rays, my second most favorite team, can bounce back from their sub-.500 season. The Rays’ presence is, of course, felt on the World Series-bound Royals with James Shields as the ace and Wade Davis as the almost unhittable eighth inning specialist.

When they fell out of contention in July, the Rays traded another ace pitcher David Price to the Tigers but it seems like they found an able replacement in southpaw Drew Smyly. It remains to be seen how they adjust to the departure of their youthful general manager Andrew Friedman who recently became the president of baseball operations for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

FINAL NOTE: Congrats to Jeff Banister, new manager of the Texas Rangers who overcame the threat of amputation as a teenager to become a minor league baseball player and more recently a longtime coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

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