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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 > April > 11
Friday, April 11, 2008
Where does Belisle fit?
Norris Hopper’s telephone rang in his Pittsburgh hotel room Thursday night. Fortunately, he was in.
“Norris? Dusty here. You’re playing tomorrow against the Pirates.”
Baker likes to let his extra players know the night before that they are in the lineup, “Because it is tough for extra guys who don’t play for 10 days in a row or so. They might think they aren’t going to play the next day, either, and they go out at night longer than they should.”
Baker smiled and said, “I like telling players they are going to play more than telling them they aren’t.”
Why Hopper Friday? Baker did his homework. Hopper’s career average against Pittsburgh starter Paul Maholm is .455.
Baker and pitching coach Dick Pole solidified the pitching rotation for the three-game series in Chicago, but the weather may lay waste to it. If there are no postponements, and the forecast for this week in Pittsburgh is for ark construction, it could change.
Right now: Aaron Harang Tuesday on his regular fifth day, Josh Fogg (“We’re not going to skip him.” — Baker) Wednesday on his seventh day, Edinson Volquez Thursday on his sixth day.
More on that from The Weather Channel.
To say the least, Baker was ecstatic over Aaron Harang’s eight innings in Milwaukee Thursday, calling him the bullpen savior.
“What he did is what the No. 1 guy does,” said Baker. “Go eight innings, save my bullpen big-time for the next three games. Not only does your No. 1 win and stop losing streaks and extend winning streaks, he saves your bullpen.”
Harang hadn’t heard what Baker said, but his take on what he does was along those lines.
“I was OK with coming out after eight innings in a 4-1 game (Thursday in Milwaukee), but later in the year I might fight him on that. What I want to do every time I pitch is give the bullpen a night off.”
As this is written, an hour before game time, the tarp is on the field, it is raining and the Monongahela River behind the right field bleachers is creeping up the banks.
An assignment for you. Baker spoke of having Belisle pitch another strong game to strengthen his arm and gain endurance and then he could be back.
What do you do with him? Does he go into the rotation? Who goes? Josh Fogg? Bronson Arroyo? Or does he go into the bullpen. If so, who goes?
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TweetStuck in an elevator at Miller Park
If I looked like Aaron Harang, I’d understand the Milwaukee Brewers trying to kidnap me. But he’s 6-6 and I’m 6-2. He doesn’t wear glasses and I do. He has a nasty slider and I don’t.
Nevertheless, they tried to keep me in Miller Park after Thursday afternoon’s game. As I left the stadium (or tried to leave it) I used the elevator behind the press box. I stepped in and the door closed. I pushed the buttons.
Nothing. I pushed. Nothing. I pushed and pushed and pushed. Nothing, nothing and nothing. The elevator wouldn’t budge and the doors wouldn’t open.
After five minutes, I called my wife, Nadine, in Dayton and was told, “I’m in Dayton and you’re in Milwaukee. What do you want me to do?” Good point. Then I heard MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon outside the door, talking on his cellphone. “Mark!” I screamed. “Mark, Mark, Mark!” Nothing, nothing, nothing.
I found a button on the control panel and pushed and a voice said, “May I help you?” I was tempted to say, “No, I just like a little voice accompaniment when I travel alone on an elevator.” But I didn’t. I screamed, “Help.”
Twenty minutes later and three minutes from Cocosville, the elevator suddenly descended and the door opened. I saw Mark Sheldon walking down the concourse. “Did you hear me yelling from behind the elevator door?” Said Sheldon, “I wondered. I kept hearing my name but I didn’t know where it was coming from.”
Now it was on to the loading dock to await personal cab driver Joe (that’s his real name, honest), whom I had called when I escaped the elevator without a governor’s pardon. I waited 20 minutes and a cab from the same company as Joe’s pulled up. It was raining dogs and dogs (the drops were too heavy for it to be raining cats and dogs).
I jumped in, but it wasn’t Joe. “Where’s Joe?” I asked. “I don’t know,” he said. I figured Joe was busy and sent somebody else or this guy hijacked Joe’s fare. When my cellphone rang en route to the airport and it was Joe cheerfully telling me, “I’m here at the stadium,” I knew I’d been hijacked.
Now I’m at the airport, the Midwest counter. A cheerful young woman directed me to a kiosk and when I told her I was legally blind and those things confounded me she offered to help. When it didn’t work, Miss Congeniality fled and said, “Wait here, an agent will help you.”
Twenty minutes later (20 minutes was the magic time on this day) an agent who had been pecking the Magna Charta on her computer looked up and said, “May I help you with something?” I was tempted to say, “No, I just like standing here with this big black suitcase staring at the Departures/Arrivals on the wall.” But I didn’t. It took 20 seconds for her to “help me.”
After a nice flight to Pittsburgh, although it was longer than 20 minutes, I had a cab ride from the airport to the city. That also lasted longer than 20 minutes and cost nearly the amount of the flight from Milwaukee to Pittsburgh.
Usually when a cab driver asks me why I am in town, I say, “a plumber’s convention.” End of conversation. This time I told the guy I was a baseball writer and for the next 45 minutes I was recited the History of the Pittsburgh franchise from Honus Wagner to John Candelaria to Jumpin’ Jack Flash.
But it made the time fly, although it was now close to midnight and I expected the hotel to say, “No room at the inn.” Instead, I was between the sheets in 20 minutes.
The Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers never could have played Thursday without the roof. Some three inches of rain fell during the game and it was 37 degrees.
They’re expecting rain in Pittsburgh and lots of it this weekend. Although PNC Park is one of my two favorite parks (San Francisco’s is my favorite, although I’m not certain what its corporate name is this year), PNC does not have a roof. We might play, we might have a lot of 20-minute delays, we might have some postponements.
Said manager Dusty Baker, “I don’t think I’ve ever come to Pittsburgh when it hasn’t rained. And they have it timed. It always comes when it is our turn for batting practice.”
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