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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > March > 13 > Entry
Baseball’s fun and games
If nothing else, camp is loose.
Four hours before a Thursday night game against the Phillies, Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker, wearing his baseball uniform, was in the clubhouse kitchen cooking ham hocks, collard greens and okra.
Inside the clubhouse, several young players arrived to find a letter attached to their lockers, signed by the Cincinnati Reds Elder Statesmen.
The letter informed them that they were guests of honor at a karaoke party after Sunday’s game against the Phillies. And each one was assigned a song.
Examples: Jay Bruce (Copacabana), Joey Votto (I Touch Myself), Johnny Cueto (Born in the USA), Bobby Livingston (Girls, Girls, Girls), Homer Bailey (Hollaback Girls).
They were told they would be judged and the winner would get a victory lap in Scott Hatteberg’s Toyota Prius.
Just a hint: Adam Dunn most likely is behind it.
Then, after batting practice, Ken Griffey Jr. spent two hours with a Special Wish teen from Xenia, Ohio, who is battling Stage Three melanoma. Two hours, for God’s sake. First he gave 13-year-old Andy Urschel the bat he was using (game used) and his batting gloves. And then they chatted and chatted and chatted.
They talked about siblings and food (Andy makes pancakes, Junior likes chicken but is allergic to seafood). They talked about Junior’s friends, Tiger Woods and Shaq (“I get on him about how bad he shoots free throws and he tells me it isn’t easy shooting free throws downhill”).
The kid handed him a stack of yellow index cards filled with questions and Griffey shuffled through them and answered each and every one. A wide smile never left the kid’s face and he said, “If they ever trade him, I won’t like the Reds anymore and I’ll root for the team that gets him.”
Baseball?
Things are fairly quiet at the midway point of exhibition games.
Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo make their next two starts in minor-league games so that Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto can start games and pitch more innings.
“Harang and Arroyo are veterans and they don’t mind it,” said Baker. “They’ll just get their work in.”
While Harang starts a minor-league game Sunday, Volquez starts the major-league game against the Phillies. While Arroyo starts a minor-league game Monday, Cueto starts a major-league game against the Tigers.
Oh … and Baker plans to take his 9-year-old son, Darren, bass fishing early Sunday morning.
Even though he is a newcomer, Dunn didn’t dare assign a karaoke song to his new manager, something from Van Morrison or The Doors. And Ryan Freel is a veteran, so he is exempt from singing Me and My Shadow, in honor of his former alter ego, Farney, who Freel once said resides on his shoulder.
Yep, fun and games, fun and games — with some baseball mixed in.
LHP Jeremy Affeldt, trying to break into the rotation, didn’t think it was so much fun and games in the second inning of Thursday’s exhibition game against the Phillies.
He couldn’t argue, after his last two starts, if somebody called him Jeremy Awful.
He gave up four runs in the second inning, including a three-run home run to the ninth batter in the order, a minor-league second baseman for the Phillies not named Chase Utley. It was Casey Smith.
Affeldt gave up seven runs and nine hits and was lifted after 3 1/3 innings - baqttered, beaten and embarrassed. One wondered if he was one of the guys Baker was talking about when he said some names were written in pencil and some written in pencil were fading. The Reds promised him a chance in the rotation. He’s had his chance. Now maybe they can convince him to return to his vocation of the past three years - the bullpen.
“Pitching like I’m pitching I’m not going to win a spot in the rotation, not after two straight bad ones like this,” said Affeldt. “I have to figure out how to fix it in a hurry. I threw 70 pitches in 3 1/3 innings and that’s embarrassing. I gave up a two-out three-run home run and that’s embarrassing.
“Saying it is spring training doesn’t make it better,” he said. “What I’m doing isn’t working and I have to figure out what to do to fix it.”
The Reds did rebound, scoring four in the third on a two-run single by Juan Castro (maybe he won’t start the season on the DL) and a two-run double by Brandon “The Run Machine” Phillips.
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Comments
By Wordman
March 19, 2008 9:30 PM | Link to this
Isn’t it time for the Reds to cut their losses with Stanton and Majewski? Both are liabilities. Merker’s a good guy, but it’s time for him to stay retired. There isn’t enough Geritol for Weathers to share.
By Wordman
March 19, 2008 9:29 PM | Link to this
Isn’t it time for the Reds to cut their losses with Stanton and Majewski? Both are liabilities. Merker’s a good guy, but it’s time for him to stay retired. There isn’t enough Geritol for Weathers to share.
By CJ
March 19, 2008 2:28 AM | Link to this
damn thats crazy