3-vehicle crash in Clark County
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2008 OSU vs. Michigan
2008 Ebony Fashion Show
Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy is in his 36th year of covering the Cincinnati Reds, the longest tenure for any active writer covering one team. Counting spring training and postseason games, McCoy has covered more than 7,000 major-league baseball games, written close to 18,000 baseball stories and eaten enough hot dogs to give Babe Ruth indigestion.Home > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > April
April 2008
April Fool’s Month
A question for Bronson Arroyo as he does his pool laps: Can you cry under water?
The reason we ask is because what the Cincinnati Reds did the last two days in St. Louis is enough to push the most hardened Reds fans into crying jags.
A 17-loss April also means, well, maybe there IS crying in baseball.
Arroyo straightened himself out Monday and pitched the Reds to a victory over the St. Louis Cardinals for a three-game winning streak, the longest of the season. Three? The longest? You betcha, buddy.
Then the Reds play the next two games as if a baseball is a foreign object — hitting it or catching it. Once again they couldn’t buy an important base hit from a street person with a hundred-dollar bill.
Before Thursday afternoon’s yawn-inducer, somebody pointed out to manager Dusty Baker that the Reds hadn’t had a winning road trip since 2006, that they were 1-17 in their last 18 road trips.
“Really? Are you kidding me?” he said with a shake of his head. Yep, Dusty, it is how a team constructs seven straight years of losing — and don’t blame it on seven years of bad luck because Jack McKeon broke a mirror in the manager’s office when they didn’t bring him back after the 2000 season, the team’s last winning season (85-77).
Timeout while I light up a cigar in Jack’s memory, or go kick a base in Lou Piniella’s memory. Or maybe I’ll scribble Adam Dunn’s name on a lineup card in the leadoff spot in memory of Bob Boone.
During Thursday’s 5-2 loss, the middle of the batting order would have done just as well to take the capsule ride up to the top of the Gateway Arch.
Ken Griffey Jr., Brandon Phillips and Adam Dunn neither scored a run nor drove one in. Phillips was 0-for-4 with two punchouts and stranded four. Dunn had two hits that meant nothing and Griffey had a hit and a walk that also equaled nothing.
So, let’s see. Is there one ‘r’ in moribund? I know there is one ‘r’ in boring. And there is one ‘r’ in Harang but damn few w’s — and it isn’t his fault.
The guy is 1-4 with a 2.98 ERA in seven starts. He has six quality starts. The Reds have given him 22 runs (3.1 per game).
So for the second straight year the Reds have a four-time loser in April. Last year it was Eric Milton, who did NOT produce six quality starts and who did NOT have an ERA under 3.00.
The troupe is 3-3 on the trip. After resting in Buckhead (who can rest in Buckhead with its bars, bistros and restaurants?), the Reds open a three-game series in Atlanta Friday night.
Me? I get to go home tonight, rest a day in the abode, then cart my wife, Nadine, off to Atlanta with me, where her son, Chad, is a nuclear engineer. Hey, baseball writer/nuclear engineer? Same thing, right?
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Meet me in St. Louis
Anybody who plans to visit St. Louis, stay at the Westin on Spruce. And this is not a free commercial. I paid (well, the newspaper did) full boat for my stay.
But it is one of America’s great hotels, probably my favorite. Sweet, large rooms, marble bathrooms, plush carpeting and fixtures. And you can look out your window and see Busch Stadium and the Gateway Arch.
The MetroLink train runs right next door - one way to the airport and the other way across the Mississippi to the Casino Queen, for those inclined to contribute to the Illinois economy. I always hope I break even because I need the money.
Just down the street is Charley Gitto’s, my favorite out-of-town Italian restaurant and second favorite anywhere behind Momma DiSalvo’s right there in Kettering. Gitto’s is stuffed with photos of celebrities, including at least five of Tommy Lasorda, so you know it must be good Italian food.
Charley sends food to the visiting team’s clubhouse for the first game of each series, so the Reds celebrated Monday’s win with Gitto’s best.
Anyway, t’was a short night - back at the hotel after Tuesday’s horror show at 1 a.m., up at 7 to pack, check out and hit the clubhouse by 10 for a meeting with manager Dusty Baker.
As I passed the old Marriott near where the old park stood (now a large hole in the ground with visions of big things to happen - sort of like the big hole next to Great American Ball Park), I thought of the only time I missed the first pitch of a game.
It was a Sunday morning after a Saturday night game. I left the window cracked on my 18th floor room that overlooked the old Busch. As I awoke, I heard a spooky voice: “Now batting for the Cardinals, No. 23, Ted Simmons.” It was the bottom of the first and I made it by the top of the third.
Anyway, when I got to the park Thursday morning, that’s when it was discovered that Baker’s revamped pitching rotation has been revamped again.
Before Tuesday’s game, the rotation for a three-game weekend series in Atlanta was to be Edinson Volquez, Matt Belisle and Johnny Cueto. Bronson Arroyo was shoved back to Tuesday, seven days of rest.
Then Cueto was stuffed and mounted by the Cardinals Tuesday night - 1 2/3 innings, seven runs (six earned) and eight hits.
Quick change time.
On Wednesday morning Baker said the rotation in Atlanta now is Volquez, Belisle and Arroyo. Cueto is being moved back to Tuesday, giving him six days of rest.
To me, that makes sense. Arroyo pitched fairly well Monday and may have relocated his AWOL fastball. Cueto is struggling - 0-3 with a 6.74 ERA over his last four starts.
In addition, Baker and GM Walt Jocketty have put out a call for Mario Soto, Cueto’s mentor, to join the team for some reconstruction work.
“Mario practically raised him as a pitcher, taught him the change-up,” said Baker. “I said in spring training that I’d like Soto to join us about once a month to help Cueto and Edinson Volquez.”
Just leave Volquez alone, OK? Just pat him on the back and say, “Just keep on keeping on.” Or as Abe Lincoln once said when people complained about Gen. U.S. Grant’s drinking, “Find out what brand he drinks and give it to the other generals.”
Of Cueto, Baker said, “Based on his last couple of starts, moving Cueto back gives him a little more time to collect his thoughts and give him a couple of bullpen sessions instead of one. His change-up has been up and he has lost confidence in his slider. We’ll get Mario Soto on the case, big-time.”
Or as he was known during his days in the Reds rotation: Mario Speedwagon.
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Cueto cuffed by Cards
When the media arrived in front of Johnny Cueto’s dressing stall Tuesday night, his clothes were gone and that meant one of two things:
ONE - Not only did the St. Louis Cardinals beat the bejabbers out of him on the Busch Stadium grass, but they stole his pants, too.
TWO - He had no hankering to rehash a personal train wreck.
It was the latter and there are only so many ways in Spanish to say, “I got mugged.”
In only 1 2/3 innings, shortest work day of the year by a Cincinnati Reds starter, Cueto gave up seven runs (six earned) and eight hits en route to a 7-2 defeat.
Cause for concern? How about a bit of dismay?
Since he held the Arizona Diamondbacks to one hit and struck out 10 in his major-league debut April 3, Cueto is 0-3 in his next four starts with a 6.74 ERA.
Not good, not good.
I didn’t mean to do it, but I started a war in the Brennaman family during the second inning on the radio when I pointed out that Cueto has not been good in his last four starts.
Young Thom jumped to Cueto’s defense, saying he is young (22) and that he shouldn’t be on a short leash just because this team wants to win this year, that he should be given a full chance.
Old Marty (Marty and I are very old) agreed with me that he should have a short leash. Don’t let the dogs eat him alive. Protect him, if need be.
Marty and I agree that if Cueto stays in the rotation regardless of what happens because he is young and learning, than the Reds can’t do it both ways. If they are going young, then where is Homer Bailey and where is Jay Bruce?
Reports indicate that Bailey still is too inconsistent and that Bruce is striking out way too much (21 times in 90 at-bats). But if they are going to stick with Cueto and make the major-league experience a learning experience, then Bailey and Bruce should be learning up here, too.
As I said to Marty, and he agreed, “You can’t have it both ways.” Thom was in the throes of apoplexy and Marty said, “Settle down, son. You’re going to have a heart attack.”
Maybe Cueto will settle everybody down and throw a gem next time. He has enough pressure on him, being a 22-year-old who speaks no English and was pitching at Class A Sarasota at this time last year.
To me there is added pressure. His best friend, his compadre, the guy he is always with, Edinson Volquez, is 4-0. Cueto sees that and wants to do as well. More pressure.
Maybe Edinson stole his pants.
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Of erors and mstkes
To Reds Authority (and other malcontents):
I wanted to send this message to you personally, Reds Authority, but you have your e-mail blocked (big surprise).
As for errors and mistakes on the blog, permit me some explanation. First of all, the blog is added work, something I love to do, but added work nonetheless - done in addition to what I write for the paper.
So, for example, when I could have left the press box at midnight Monday, I stayed to write the Arroyo/Encarnacion blog and got back to the hotel at 1 a.m. I have no editors. I write it and post it. I do it quickly so I can get it out there to you folks.
On Tuesday, I had lunch then went back to the hotel and wrote the Phillips blog and sent it before I went to the ballpark for my regular work.
As I said, I love doing it and I do it to try to inform and entertain, provide some insight and some material that doesn’t make the paper.
If there are errors and typos, I apologize. I don’t do it on purpose.
It kind of aggravates me, though - all the sniping and sometimes it makes me wonder if it is worth the extra effort. For 98 percent of you, it is worth it to me. It’s the two percenters who pick, pick, pick that make me think I should abandon and stick to the newspaper.
I don’t get paid extra to blog two or three times a day. I just love to do it. Then I read the comments and cringe.
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Brandon Phillips: the enigma
For those who are Brandon Phillips fans - and there should be legions because he is a multi-talented player who is a star headed for super stardom - this is not an anti-Phillips post.
I, too, am a Phillips admirer. The guy can play - hit, field, throw, run. What else is there?
His smile is dazzling and he loves the fans. He doesn’t smoke and he doesn’t drink and that, too, is admirable.
If only he would lighten up with the media - and I don’t just mean me. He is currently on an anti-media sulk. After hitting two home runs in San Francisco Sunday, he refused to go on the Foxsports/Ohio post-game show with Jeff Picaro. He refused to talk to the San Francisco writers after the game and he refused to talk to me, telling me, “Stay out of my space.”
That’s fine. I’ll stay out of his space. I don’t need his quotes to write about him. And I won’t hold it against him. Some will.
I did that once and still can’t forgive myself. In 1980, I had an NL Cy Young Award ballot. Steve Carlton was 24-9 with the Phillies. He would not talk to the media at all, ever. But he received every Cy Young vote but one.
Mine.
And I did it only because he yelled at me once when I tried to interview him. He did the same with other writers, but they still voted for him. I should have. I didn’t. I voted for LA’s Jerry Reuss, who was 18-6 with a 2.51 ERA. I used the lame excuse, “Well, I saw him beat the Reds four times that year.”
I wouldn’t do that now, but some might. Some out-of-town writers might hold it against Phillips if he is rude with them or refuses interviews. And he is good enough that there might come a time when he gets MVP votes.
The writers in Cleveland warned me. “Phillips is great as long as things are going good, but he’ll turn on you, just wait,” one said. The guy was right.
What probably started this was a column last week by my talented cohort, Dayton Daily News columnist Tom Archdeacon. I wasn’t there when this happened, but I’m told when Archdeacon asked about his slump, Phillips said, “I’m not in any slump.” And he was rude to Arch.
OK, so 5 for 36 isn’t a slump? If it isn’t, what is it? I saw Phillips react the same way when another writer referred to Brandon’s troubles as, “A slump.”
When I tried to talk to him Sunday, after he yelled to get out of his space, he said nobody talks to him when he is going bad (So it’s not a slum, just “going bad”), they just write crap about him. Then they want to talk when he is going good.
He should be happy about that. If nobody talks to him when he is going bad he doesn’t have to answer questions about slumps. Most players prefer to talk just when they are going good.
We won’t get into his habit of standing at home plate and watching home runs, as he did after his second home run Sunday in San Francisco. It infuriated the Giants - which I found a bit amusing, because their former teammate, Barry Bonds, was a master of the Home Run Stare.
But it is going to get Phillips and his teammates thrown at.
As I said, I do NOT hold this against Phillips. I’ll respect his space and leave him alone and I won’t withhold any votes for awards. But the guy can be so engaging when he wants to be engaging. And he can be one big turnoff.
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Everybody into the pool
So here we are in St. Louis, where from the rooftop press box in Busch Stadium III I can see Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania.
A moment ago an American Airlines flight on its glide path to Lambert Field flew UNDER us. I’m looking DOWN on the Gateway Arch.
On the field, it looks as if two armies of red ants are doing battle.
Nowhere do I see a swimming pool. Not one. Bronson Arroyo finds them, though, and uses them to his advantage. He may look like Ichabod Crane, but he is doing his best to be another Johnny Weissmuller (for the old folks) or Mark Spitz (for the younger set).
Those are swimmers, folks.
And that’s what Arroyo credits with the velocity he found Monday on his fastball that helped him record his first victory this year, 4-3, over the St. Louis Cardinals.
With his velocity drooping at 88 the last two starts, Arroyo decided to try something different in his training routine. Swimming. Find a Y. Find a Boys Club. Even a Girls Club. So he and strength/conditioning coach Matt Krause went swimming four straight days to strengthen Arroyo’s shoulders.
Suddenly his fastball was back to 90 and 91 and for the first time this season he finished six innings, giving up three runs and six hits.
Afterward, he felt like shouting, “Here’s a news flash! Cannonball,” then jumping butt first into the nearest bank fountain.
“I finally had some zip on the ball, much stronger than any other start,” he said. “It’s great when you feel you can beat guys by throwing a fastball by them, especially when you get behind in the count.
“I felt like my stuff was there, other than the lack of a fastball,” he said. “You look at guys like Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling, guys I played with in the past, and the times they were down three or four miles an hour on their fastball, even they had trouble getting guys out. You give guys a lot more time to react when you are throwing 84, 85, 86 miles an hour than if you get it up there 90 and 91.”
OK, are you ready for this? Manager Dusty Baker believes that in the near future third baseman Edwin (E as in Error) Encarnacion can win a Gold Glove. Know what? I agree.
EE makes incredible plays, out of the ordinary plays. Then he botches a 22-hopper right at him or picks up a routine ground ball and throws it to Pete Rose Way.
On Monday he made two wondrous plays. The first, a diving stop in the seventh with the Reds up one run with two runners on base, ended the inning. Then he ended the game with the tying run on base with an injury-defying slide against the dugout fence to snag a foul ball.
Said Baker, “Eddie saved the game with that play on Molina (in the seventh). That was a tough play, a great play, sliding into the fence to end the game. He has made some great plays. It’s just a matter of consistency and keep working. Because he works hard. He is conscious of it and does extra work and some day he has a chance to win Gold out there.
“Most of his errors are throwing or simple errors,” Baker said. “He guides the ball. But he has been playing some baseball.”
Encarnacion agrees.
“When you focus, you have opportunities to make plays like that,” he said. “On that last pop fly, I say in my mind, ‘I’m going to catch that ball no matter how.’ I don’t care if I hit the wall or the fence. Defense is how your team wins the game. That’s how we win tonight. Defense is part of winning games.”
Gold?
“I know I can do it, I just have to keep working, going forward, and I know I’ll play great defense the rest of my career.”
Maybe he can go swimming with Arroyo.
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Krivsky’s final say
Wayne Krivsky is finding it difficult to sever his ties with the Cincinnati Reds after he was fired and says, “I must be crazy because I hope the Reds win every game the rest of the year and I still get on-line every morning to check how the minor-league teams did.”
And before he fades into the woodwork, Krivsky wants to clear a few things off his desk and his mind.
One of the things he wants known is that Dusty Baker was his choice to manage the Reds and he told owner Bob Castellini at the time, “Dusty Baker is my man and he is the guy for the job.” And Krivsky added, “It was my recommendation and Bob agreed.”
Krivsky said he held the advance scoutomh job open for interim manager Pete Mackanin for if he didn’t find a job, but he hooked on with the New York Yankees.
Then there was the trade of outfielder Josh Hamilton for pitcher Edinson Volquez (a deal that so far works both ways) and the signing of pitcher Josh Fogg.
“When I’m told before the season that I better win, I’m going to get all the pitching I can get,” he said. “Fogg was a $100,000 gamble, what we would pay him if he didn’t make the team. He made it so it cost $1.5 million and I still think it’s a good deal.
“When Homer Bailey didn’t make the team and Matt Belisle was injured, who did we have for our fifth starting spot? Nobody,” he said. “That’s where Fogg fit in. He made $3.7 million from the Rockies last year.”
And then there was the $3 million paid to outfielder Corey Patterson.
“I was told to get him signed, whatever it takes,” said Krivsky, who signed him for $3 million. Patterson was paid $4.7 million last year.
And Mike Stanton? “Stanton and the $3.5 million is on me,” he said. “And Juan Castro ($975,000), but I had something going with the Los Angeles Dodgers when I was let go. I told (new GM) Walt Jocketty to please try to find something for Castro.”
Krivsky kept quiet about pitcher Rheal Cormier and it was thought the Reds had to eat his salary when they released him. But when the Reds traded outfielder Chris Denorfia to Oakland the A’s agreed to pay Cormier’s $2 million, “And, actually, with interest we got $2.08 million,” said Krivsky.
Well, hey, now that we’ve seen Toronto eat about $10 million to dump Frank Howard and the penny-pounding Pittsburgh Pirates pour Heinez ketchup on $10 million for Matt Morris and eat it, how bad is Stanton’s $3.5 million?
As Krivsky said, “If you haven’t had at least one bad contract or made one bad decision, then you haven’t been a general manager.”
So true, so true.
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Coffey, Bray trade places
Flights from Dayton to San Francisco, from San Francisco to St. Louis: 8 1/2 hours, 171 songs on an iPod while drinking one coffee, one orange juice and eating two cookies thoughtfully provided by the airlines.
And when I arrived in St. Louis I discovered that Todd Coffey didn’t make it, but Bill Bray did.
Coffey, the much-troubled righthanded relief pitcher, was optioned back to Class AAA Louisville, lugging his 6.48 ERA over 14 appearances with him. The final chapter was Saturday in San Francisco when Coffey came into the game in the ninth inning with a 10-5 lead and gave up two doubles and a walk, forcing manager Dusty Baker to go to closer Francisco Cordero to rescue a 10-9 victory.
Bray has been ready for a while - probably since the minor-league season began. The 24-year-old lefthander missed the first half of spring training with shoulder inflammation, but has been impeccable at Louisville - 1.04 ERA in eight appearances over 8 2/3 innings, during which he has given up only four hits, walked three and struck out 14.
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High voltage Volquez
As soon as fans evacuate the glorious ballpark in San Francisco that is AT&T Park, the sea gulls swoop in. Scores of them. As I write this, at least 30 are walking around the infield, cawing and strutting.
Most of them are on the pitcher’s mound. On this day they recognized the locale of greatness, where earlier Cincinnati pitcher Edinson Volquez wasn’t cawing, but he certainly was strutting.
It is hard to lay that greatness label on a 24-year-old guy who has pitched in only 25 major-league games, five this year for the Reds, but the man is good. Real good.
He is 4-0 right now with a 1.23 earned run average in five 2008 starts after the Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 10-1. He gave up five hits. He struck out a career-best 10.
How good is he? He said his best pitch Sunday was a curve. His catcher, Paul Bako, said that, well, the curve was better than usual, but his fastball and changeup were better.
Three pitches from which to chose - and one zips up there at 97 miles an hour and another at 78 miles an hour.
What a contrast Sunday. On the other side, lefthander Barry Zito tried to pitch for the Giants, a guy that cost them $126 million. He wishes he had one of the three pitches Volquez displayed.
The Reds beat on him like raindrops from heaven for six runs in the first inning and it was as clear as the skies over San Francisco Bay that Zito soon would be 0-6.
Meanwhile, Volquez is 4-0 for his five starts, wearing the same No. 36 once worn by his fellow Dominican and his mentor, Mario Soto. Any veteran player knows Soto had one of the all-time best changeups, but he didn’t complement his with a 97 miles an hour fastball.
That’s OK, though, because 93 miles an hour was good enough for Soto.
The Reds hope that Bronson Arroyo paid attention. When the Reds open a three-game series in St. Louis tonight, Arroyo takes the mound, lugging a 0-3 record, a 7.56 ERA and no game pitched behind 5 2/3 innings among his six starts.
But back to the good stuff. Volquez. Everywhere he goes he leaves folks wide-eyed.
Said San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy, “That kid’s got a great arm. We knew it coming into the game. He’s been throwing the ball well and we knew we needed a well-pitched game because of the way he has been throwing.
“You’ve got a kid out there throwing 95 to 97 with that kind of change-up. That’s a tough job for a lineup. I’m not surprised looking at his numbers and why they are where they are because he has a really good arm.”
Now a smidgen of bad stuff. Second baseman Brandon Phillips has his nose out of joint. After getting three hits (two homers) Sunday, he refused to talk to any media, telling them, “Just get out of my space and leave me alone. I don’t feel like talking. Nobody talks to me when I’m going bad. They just write crap. When I’m going good, everybody wants to talk to me. So just leave me alone.”
And he was left alone. There was too much good to contemplate over the last two days, 10-9 and 10-1 wins over the Giants, to play games with a moody second baseman. That wide smile can fool you. It isn’t always there in the clubhouse.
But if he wants to be left alone, so be it.
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Baker and Bonds converse
Dusty Baker told a gaggle of Bay Area writers Sunday morning, “Don’t worry about Barry Bonds. Barry Bonds is fine. The man can disappear in plain sight. You wonder how a guy like that can do it, but he does. You never know where he might be.”
Baker smiled sheepishly, as if he knew that moment where Bonds was. And maybe he did.
Baker, who managed Bonds in San Francisco, said he talked to Bonds on the phone a couple of weeks ago.
Later, a writer asked Baker point blank, “Did Bonds ask about coming back and playing for you?” Said Baker, “No, not at all. That did not come up from him or me.”
And will Bonds play baseball again?
“We talked about a lot of things, not much about baseball,” Baker said. “Hey, the longer he is out, the less likely he will come back. And the longer he is out, who knows, the less likely he may want to come back. I’m sure he has enough money and if you have enough money and your time is being occupied by what you like to do, maybe you enjoy that.”
Asked about Ken Griffey Jr. approaching 600 home runs and the connection with Bonds and his chase of legends, Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron, Baker said, “Bonds called Griffey not too long ago. He asked Griffey how I was doing, but we’d just talked two weeks ago.”
Baker said he knows Bonds can still hit, but he also knows the longer he is away from the game the longer it will take for him to find his timing.
“Barry didn’t sound like he was missing the game to me, not at all,” said Baker. “Everybody misses the game, but there is some of the crap you don’t miss. In Barry’s case, he should have been the happiest man in the world. But he wasn’t. He had to read all that bad stuff about himself. You have to stop reading and don’t pay attention.”
That’s tough, though, when the whole world associates you with steroids and human growth hormone and lying to the grand juries.
“Barry is doing fine,” said Baker. “Don’t worry about him.”
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Belisle by the Bay
It has been 50 years? Wow. Time flies when you go west.
Fifty years ago Horace Stoneham took the New York Giants and fled west to San Francisco, talked into the deed by Walter O’Malley, so he could move his Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles.
To honor the deed (they think differently in New York and Brooklyn), the SF Giants are issuing commemorative tickets to honor events and people in the team’s 50 years in the Bay Area.
On Saturday, Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker’s visage was on 84 sets of tickets to honor his 840 victories as Giants manager, most of any manager in San Francisco.
And he won his first game in this town as Reds manager, beating the Giants, 10-9, despite another shoddy effort by Matt Belisle. He pitched five innings and gave up four runs and five hits.
He was the winning pitcher because his teammates bashed and battered a bevy of Giants pitchers for 14 hits, scoring in six of the nine innings.
Nevetheless, they tried to give it away in the ninth. Todd Coffey, trying to protect a 10-5 lead, gave up back-to-back doubles and walk, forcing manager Dusty Baker to go to Francisco Cordero with a 10-6 lead.
And Cordero made it dicey by giving up a two-run triple by Eugenio Velez and he scored on a ground ball to make it 10-9 and force Cordero to get two more outs - which he did.
“Didn’t want to go to Cordero, but whew, if we had lost that one it would have been Heartbreak Hotel,” said Baker.
That’s where Coffey should be right now, a one-night stop there before he goes to Louisville for some major adjustments. Can Bill Bray be far away. Maybe in St. Louis Monday?
Belisle, who is on a leash so tight it has to feel it around his throat, staggered early. Every time the Reds gave him a lead he handed it right back.
The Reds scored one in the first on a single by Brandon Phillips, but Belisle gave it right back in the bottom of the first via a leadoff triple by Fred Lewis and a ground ball.
Incredibly, Belisle had opposing pitcher Brad Hennessey 0-and-2 with two outs. After running the count to 3-and-2, Belisle fed Hennessey a fat fastball and he lined it for a run-scoring hit and a 2-1 Giants lead.
The Red scored two in the third to take a 3-2 lead, one scoring on a wild pitch and the other on Phillips’ double - and it appears B.P.’s batting doldrums are over.
But…Belisle did it again, giving up a run in the third for a 3-3 tie.
By now one might think the Reds are thinking, “Why try? This i9s monotonous.”
Nevertheless, Joey Votto led the fourth with a double and scored on Paul Bako’s single. and the Reds were back in front, 4-3.
Then an amazing thing happened in the fourth. Belisle didn’t give up a hit. Zip, zero, zilch. In the first seven innings he pitched for the Reds this year he had given up at leaswt one hit in every inning.
Can we call that progress?
The Giants brought in a 39-year-old pitcher named Keeichi Yabu, who was 84-106 for his 11 years with the Hanshin Tigers. Now there’s a free agent worth pursuing.
Anyway, he walked Adam Dunn with two outs in the fifth, balked him to second and gave up a run-scoring double to Edwin “Good-Hit, No-Field” Encarnacion. In the previous half inning EE booted a ground ball, his seventh.
Now it was Belisle’s turn again. And he was up to it. The first Giants hitter in the fifth, Fred Lewis, drowned a Rawlings in McCovey bay - the 46th ball to land in the drink on the fly (35 by Barry Bonds) and the first by a Giants hitter this year. That cut it to 5-4 after five.
When Paul Bako homered to lead off the sixth, manager Dusty Baker had seen enough and pinch-hit for Belisle, who had given up four runs and five hits in his five innings.
Is that good enough to run him out there again? His turn comes up again Thursday, an off day. If Las Vegas laid odds on it, I’d say it is 6 to 5 that Belisle gets skipped.
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Stuff from real life
What you see during an eight-block walk to the ballpark on a bright, cloudless San Francisco day with the temperature in the 80s:
Traffic on Third Street was stopped when a long parade of marchers filled the street, singing and chanting. They were protesting rape. Huh? Who is the world is FOR rape?
During a short cut through a public botanical garden, I watched a man and his big faun-colored dog stop at a drinking fountain. The man turned on the water, not for him, but his dog, Gretchen. The pooch put her front pays on the rim of the fountain and slurped from the faucet a couple of times and jumped down.
The man felt the stream and detected it was warm. He ran it a while until he got cold then said, “C’mon, Gretchen. It’s cold now.” The dog put its paws back on the fountain and slurped away.
Meanwhile, as I watched this, puffing my cigar, a security woman walked up and said, “Sir, there is no cigar-smoking in the botanical garden?” Meanwhile, Gretchen slurped away.
I was thirsty. I didn’t drink. And I put out my cigar.
When I got to the park, Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker and his son, Darren, were getting out of a car. Baker walkekd over and said, “I just visited my aunt and my father. Both are in bad shape. My dady (Johnny Baker Sr.) is coming to the game tonight, but I know he won’t be able to stay the entire game. Man, it’s tough. It’s really tough.”
Baker said when he and Darren left Dusty’s father, Darren looked up and said, “Daddy, grandpa can’t talk.”
Sometimes - well, most of the time - baseball is not as important as real life. Baseball is a diversion. Life is reality. Too many of us forget that.
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Westward, ho - or ha?
All semblance of his residence here is gone. No photos. No memorabilia. No historical markers in plain view.
You know who we’re discussing here. Barry Bonds. The Giants let him go after last season and it is as if he never existed. He is the all-time leader in home runs, but as far as the San Francisco Giants and AT&T Park are concerned, he was a figment of some marketing guru’s imagination.
He was swept away like a dead fish in McCovey Cove.
OK, so there is one concession. After the local media fussed about it, the Giants put up a small barely visible orange shield on a brick wall in deepest center field, unreadable and unnoticeable from most locales inside the park.
But they took down the Splashdown Count, a running total of the home runs that landed in McCovey Cove, saying Bonds was the only one who drowned baseballs anyway.
With that little bit of historical data, the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants began a three-game series in AT&T and the Reds didn’t care about the Bonds landmarks, they are just happy he wasn’t in San Francisco’s lineup.
Meanwhile, on the Louisville front, Homer Bailey had his worst start of the year Friday against Indianapolis, giving up four runs and six hits in six innings, with two of the six hits home runs. He also walked three and hit a batter while striking out six.
Time out while I run outside the pressbox before the game starts to purchase a churro. Love churros. Maybe I’ll get two so I’ll have one for the seventh inning.
I’m back. Got two. Now I need to keep the sugar away from the keyboard or this PowerBook G4 will be doing some sweet-talking.
Brnadon Phillips isn’t in the lineup. He’s 6 for 38 over his last 10 games and is having difficulty discerning the difference between whether he should takes strikes and swing at balls or take balls and swing at strikes.
Manager Dusty Baker had Edwin Encarnacion batting cleanup for the first time this year, hoping to take advantage of his 14-game hitting streak. But he chatted with EE before the game, imploring him not to change what he has been doing.
“I hated to bat cleanup,” said Baker. “All of a sudden you’re saying, ‘Hey, I’m THE cleanup hitter. I gotta do something special.’ Nah, it’s just a spot in the order and you shouldn’t change. But I couldn’t transfer that to my process.”
Encarnacion led the team with six homers, mostly with nobody on, and Baker hoped by placing him fourth in the order that there might be some people occupying bases when he connects.
The Reds were facing a lefthander, Jonathan Sanchez, and Baker’s 10-year-old son, Darren, had a scouting report for his dad: “He’s tough, dad. We have to get to him early.”
Ryan Freel led the game with a single, a quick start. But when Jerry Hairston bunted Freel to second, after Hairston was thrown out at first Freel overran second base and was picked off.
Then nothing. Sixteen Reds went down feebly before Reds start Aaron Harang tried to take matters into his own bat, slashing a two-out double in the sixth. But Freel struck out.
The Reds were down1-0 at the time after a one-out opposite-field excuse-me double over the third base bag in the fourth by Eugenio Velez and a two-out, two-strike double by Bengie Molina.
San Francisco added two runs in the eighth, one on Ken Griffey Jr.’s throwing error and another on a sacrifice fly, for a 3-0 lead.
That’s the way it stood - two hits for the Reds - until Phillips led the ninth with a pinch-hit home run and Freel singled, ending Sanchez’s night. Brian Williams came on to strike out Jerry Hairston and get Encarnacion on a pop up, ending the game and his 14-game hitting streak.
The Reds lost the opening game of a series this year for the ninth straight time.
Sanchez was a 27th-round draft pick in 2004, but on this night he looked like a lefthanded Nolan Ryan, striking out 10 Reds while giving up four measly hits. But then it is the Reds, who are the moment are as danerous as a banana slug.
Poor Aaron Harang. He is 1-3 despite a 2.74 ERA. When he pitches the Reds feel as if they don’t have to score runs. They don’t, then they lose.;
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Jocketty’s first days
Walt Jocketty knew it was coming because he is getting the same thing from all sides:
“What about Homer Bailey and Jay Bruce, Walt? Are you going to bring them up soon?”
The Cincinnati Reds new GM is neither going to make a rash judgment nor a judgment by himself.
He is on this trip that begins tonight in San Francisco and by the time the team gets to St. Louis Monday he will be joined by most of the front office staff for a summit meeting.
“What I want to do is set up meetings, I’ll have some here and some in St. Louis,” he said. “I’m going to talk to front office people like Scott Nethery (Assistant GM), ‘J’ Harrison (Director of Professional Scouting), Bob Miller (Vice President and Assistant GM), is here in San Francisco and Dick Williams (Director of Baseball Business Operations) is coming tomorrow.
“I had a conference call today with Terry Reynold (Director of Player Development),” he added. “I want to talk to Dusty and the coaches, too. Those guys, but everything. That’s one of the things I believe in - soliciting the opinions of a lot of people. In time you learn who to rely on more than others. I don’t think it’s healthy to take it all on yourself - both physically and mentally.”
On the day he was named GM, Jocketty said he was contemplating a talk in front of the team, sore of a State of the Walt meeting to get a feel and to try to inject positive thinking into what right now is mostly negative vibes.
That’s on hold.
“I’m going to wait and get Dusty’s opinion on that, see if he thinks it’s needed,” said Jocketty.
Asked if he felt like a GM again, if he was back in the ol’ GM groove, Jocketty said, “The way the phone has been ringing, I sure do,” he said. “Mostly it is well-wishers and people looking for jobs.”
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Any heart in San Francisco?
The bags are packed and the alarm clock is set for 4 a.m. for a long, long flight Friday to San Francisco.
What was that old novelty song? “Please, Mr. Custer, I don’t wanna go.”
Well, I do. I love San Francisco and dinner at the Cathay House is worth the uphill jaunt up the steep hill under the main entrance to Chinatown and the breath-absorbing trek halfway up California Street.
And then there is whatever it is they are calling the San Francisco ball park — AT&T Park is the latest name, I believe. My favorite park.
Maybe Friday night the Cincinnati Reds can win the first game of a series for the first time this year. Maybe. They are 0-8 so far.
Before the game there will be a lovefest for Reds manager Dusty Baker. Unlike Chicago, where the fans turned on him, San Francisco still loves him.
Then they have to play the game. After going 3-6 on a three-city trip and 2-5 at home, the Reds have lost 11 of 16 and look as lively as a jar full of bees in a freezer.
A team never looks good when it loses, but the Reds are taking it to dizzying heights. They are falling so far behind in the wafer-thin NL Central that they need field glasses and a Sherpa to show them first place.
Last place is a lonely place. And it is time for people to stop saying, “It is only April?” As Baker says and as Jeff Brantley says and as I say, “Losses in April count the same as losses in September and all those defeats cannot be retrieved in September.”
The Reds, of course, are being pushed by media and fans to bring up Homer Bailey - right now - and Jay Bruce - right now.
Baker would like to see them, too - when the organization thinks they are ready. He doesn’t want to rush them and abort the progress of two 21-year-old futures.
The question? Are they ready? Will they be better than what now occupies the roster, where a lot of dead weight squats.
Bailey is 3-1 with a 1.03 ERA at Class AAA Louisville with 16 strikeouts and four walks in 26 1/3 innings. I’ve been told that Bailey was instructed to pretty much toss his curve ball into File 13 and go with his fastball, slider and changeup. That’s a tough thing because Bailey always relied on that curve and likes to revert to it when he gets in trouble.
The main thing, though, and Baker mentioned this, is that reports indicate Bailey has cut down on his pitch-count, which killed him this spring and got his ticket punched to Louisville.
Bruce is hitting .315 with three homers and 12 RBIs at Louisville. One of the last things Wayne Krivsky said, AFTER he was fired and before he walked out the door, was about Bruce.
“Everybody in our organization agreed it was the right thing to do to send Bruce to Louisville,” he said. “What most people forget is that two-thirds of Bruce’s at-bats last year were at Class A Sarasota. Give the kid time.”
How much time? Is it time? Do the Reds go for it now with the two kids or do they hold back and make sure they are ready for the bigs?
I say, “Bring ‘em up. Now. They certainly can’t hurt what this team is doing right now. Who knows, they might help.” If they’re overmatched, they can always be returned to sender.
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Krivsky: a clarification
A few of you who read this blog have misinterpreted something and perhaps should read things a little closer.
A few took me to task on my first Wayne Krivsky firing blog, saying my opinion was influenced because he didn’t communicate with the media.
Nothing is further from the truth. If you read closely, you would have seen that I said Krivsky was a good friend BEFORE he got the Reds job, WHILE he had the Reds job and STILL remains a friend.
I didn’t care that much that he didn’t reveal secrets to the media. My point was that he was not a great communicator - not with the media, not with the people in the front office. Because this was his first GM gig, he was very protective of it.
Because he didn’t communicate with two top people in the organization, Larry Barton, Jr., and Johnny Almaraz, both of those excellent baseball people quit - big losses for the organization.
But to say I didn’t like Krivsky because he wouldn’t tell him club secrets is a misnomer. I merely used my experiences with him as an example of his problems communicating.
He was my friend and is my friend and I wish him well. To those who admonished me politely, I hope this explains it. To those who delve in character assassination, well, I laugh at your vituperation and hope other readers laugh with me.
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Arroyo assaulted again
What should the Cincinnati Reds do with Bronson Arroyo - and let’s play nice here…no vulgarities and nothing to do with guns, knives and garrotes.
Take away his guitar? Make him grow corn rows again the way he did a couple of years ago when he went 10 games without a win, vowing to wear the hideous hair-style until he won a game?
Send him back to Boston doesn’t work. They don’t want him. Nor does Pittsburgh.
For the fifth time this year, Arroyo couldn’t make it past 5 2/3 innings. This time he made it through only 3 2/3 innings, giving up eight runs and 10 hits to the Houston Almighty Astros.
His fastball, normally at 91, was at 88 and spun up there with a smile and a message, “Hit me, hit me, hit me.” And the Astros hit them.
Arroyo, a No. 2 on this team and probably a No. 4 or No. 5 on most other teams (we all know Johnny Cueto and Edinson Volquez are ahead of him) has a 7.56 ERA. Now I’m no pitching coach, but something tells me that isn’t very good.
For the moment manager Dusty Baker is making no noises about moving Arroyo out of the rotation, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the Dustman isn’t knocking on new GM Walt Jocketty’s door with his first request: “Homer Bailey, please?”
Arroyo, Baker and pitching coach Dick Pole all are dumbfounded.
“I don’t know how to do it, but I’ll try,” said Baker about putting corn rows in Arroyo’s hair. “They may not look like corn rows.”
That’s OK because Arroyo isn’t looking like a pitcher right now.
“Boy, I know he is going crazy and we’re trying to help him figure it out and right now we don’t have any answers,” said Baker. “He had better location tonight, but he didn’t have the velocity he had before.
“He’s looked at video, tried that, and I asked Dick (Pole), ‘What can we do?’ We’re all a little lost right now,” said Baker. Physical problems? “No, I don’t think so. I hope not. When he gets the ball up and makes a mistake, they’re not missing.”
Said Arroyo, “I can’t figure it out. I feel good physically, great physically. The velocity isn’t there. It’s hard to get the zip on the ball. I’ve watched video and there is nothing to see. I’m just getting beat, man, that’s all there is to it. That’s about all I have to say.”
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Starting over…again
The first thing that came to mind when Bob Castellini spoke was former Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev pounding his shoe on a podium at the United Nations and saying, “We will bury you.”
Castellini, his face a solid concrete etched in solemn passion, looked down when asked, “Why now? Why fire general manager Wayne Krivsky now?”
Then his head shot up and he said, “We’ve come to the point where we just aren’t going to lose anymore.”
You could almost see Krivsky’s successor, Walt Jocketty, cringe at those words, although he later said, “I’m not worried about it, I do it because I want to do it, not that I need to do it.”
Castellini said the reason for Krivsky’s dismissal can mostly be found in the won-lost column. Is that fair? 9-12? Twenty-one games. Even Tony Perez lasted longer than that into a season, 44 games as manager before Jim Bowden fired him.
“Nobody in the organization is happy with our 9-12 won-loss record,” Castellini said. “We’ve had two losing seasons under our new ownership and we’ve started out this season poorly, on a won-loss basis, and that’s the primary reason we made the change.”
Castellini was testy when asked about continuity - five managers and six general managers (two were co-GMs on an interim basis in the last six seasons.
“We haven’t had six, we’ve had two,” he said, using semantics. The organization has had six GMs since 2002 - Jim Bowden, co-interims Brad Kullman and Leland Maddox, Dan O’Brien, Krivsky and Jocketty. “The franchise has…yes.”
So is he concerned about continuity? “Absolutely I am. Absolutely. I respect the question, but this has been a very tough decision. Krivsky did a whale of a job in some areas.”
Jocketty jumped to Castellini’s rescue.
“I believe in continuity,” he said. “Very much so. But sometime it takes a little time to get thins the way you want. There are a lot of quality people and quite a few quality players here and now we have to find a way to make it work.”
Jocketty says he is impressed with the staff, on the field and in the front office, and doesn’t anticipate any changes.
Manager Dusty Baker, the fifth manager in six years (Bob Boone, Dave Miley, Jerry Narron, interim Pete Mackanin, Baker) addressed the continuity issue, too. Asked about the importance of continuity, he said, “I think it is very important. Wayne did some great things here. He built our farm system. It is very important to keep some consistency, which is one reason I kept the coaching staff.
“I mean, you listen to quarterbacks complain about four offensive co-ordinators in four years. Doesn’t work. Good organizations keep a lot of the same people for a long period of time,” Baker added.
Krivsky appeared in the back of the press box after the Jocketty press conference and said his removal was a shot out of the dark. He said Castellini asked him Tuesday night to meet with him Wednesday morning at 8:30 and Krivsky didn’t see the axe above the door.
“It came out of the blue, it really did,” said Krivsky. “Completely shocked. I didn’t see this coming at all. What hurts so much is not to be able to see the job through. I had visions of being in the clubhouse with people pouring champagne over everybody. I’m hugely disappointed I’m not able to finish the job.
“I fought for an hour to keep my job,” he said. “I fought hard for my job. I love it here. I loved my job. And I had laughs. You have to have laughs in this job and I did in two years. I only wish it was 22. It wasn’t my call. But I disagree strongly with the decision. I still think I’m the right guy for this job. But Bob will admit he is an impatient man. I’ll sleep good tonight…well, maybe not tonight.
“Look at an unbiased source like Baseball America, who had the Reds farm system rated 27th to 30th when I got here, now they rank us in the top three or four,” said Krivsky. “In two years? Dam right I’m proud of that. I’m damned proud of that. We’re one of the most respected organizations in baseball and I’m damn proud of that.”
Jocketty is confident he can do in Cincinnati what he did in St. Louis, turning a similar market from moribund into a winner, seven playoffs in 13 years.
“This franchise is very similar to what we had in St. Louis, a winning tradition, great fans, great community, but they hadn’t won in a long time in St. Louis, either,” said Jocketty. “There are a lot of similarities between St. Louis and Cincinnati. This is a storied franchise with tradition. Dusty Baker and I are very motivated, guys with a vendetta and a little chip on our shoulder.”
That’s because Jocketty was fired in St. Louis after last season and Baker was fired in Chicago after 2006.
Asked about his basic philosophy, Jocketty said, “Win.”
That’s what they all say.
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Krivsky his own enemy
Bob Castellini is a businessman, the nation’s leading fruit and vegetable magnate, and if the price of lettuce and tomatoes has soared the last couple of years, it might be traced back to Wayne Krivsky.
Castellini, CEO of the Cincinnati Reds, fired general manager Krivsky today, replacing him with Walt Jocketty.
During Krivsky’s regime, the team has had to eat more dollar bills than the number of heads of lettuce Castellini sells.
Some questionable contracts that forced the team to pay money to players no longer playing for the Reds didn’t help Krivsky’s cause.
It started with when he signed pitcher Rheal Cormier to a two-year contract. When the team released him it had to pay him something like $3 million NOT to pitch.
When the Reds released pitcher Mike Stanton this spring, it forced them to pay him $3.5 million this year NOT to pitch.
And there is that curious contract he gave outfielder Corey Patterson, who was sitting at home doing nothing during spring training, pursued by no other teams. Krivsky signed him for $3 million when Patterson probably would have taken $500,000 and paid his own way to camp.
He gave utility player Ryan Freel a deal that pays him $3 million this year and $4 million next year and couldn’t trade him unless the team absorbed some of that money.
He gave pitcher Josh Fogg a $1.5 million deal mid-spring training when no other teams were pursuing him, a panic move when Krivsky wasn’t certain how good Johnny Cueto and Edinson Volquez would be.
The $46 million, three-deal for closer Francisco Cordero looked good at the time, but so far, after 21 games, he has had only two save opportunities. That contract may pan out, but right now one wonders.
All this could be overlooked by Castellini if the team showed a propensity for winning, which it hasn’t during Krivsky’s tenure. After all, Castellini signed off on all those deals, taking Krivsky’s advice. Castellini wants to win and he wants to win now.
He and Jocketty worked together in St. Louis when Jocketty helped piece together a team that was not contending to one that contended for more than a decade.
Krivsky and I were friends long before he was named Reds GM. When he worked for the Minnesota Twins, he traveled the country scouting other teams and I encountered him often. We had many lunches together and talked often.
His ambition, of course, was to be a GM and he would say, “If I’d get the Reds job, there are a lot of things I would do and we’d have a lot of fun.”
It wasn’t fun. Krivsky remained my friend, but he changed. He was not forthcoming with information to the media, not even on the most menial things. He was guarded, overly guarded.
Two years ago during the winter meetings in Orlando, I took him aside in his suite after another unproductive media meeting in which he divulged nothing about what the team was doing or trying to do.
I said, “Wayne, remember when we had lunches and chatted about your future and how much fun we’d have together with the Reds?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Well, I’m not having fun,” I said. “Remember when I told you how difficult it was sometimes getting information from your predecessor, Dan O’Brien? Well, you’re worse.”
Krivsky seemed to think about it, but nothing changed. And nothing changed with the Reds.
Nobody likes to see anybody lose his job, especially a friend. But Krivsky cut his own throat.
Jocketty is a good man, too, and a solid baseball man. Things should change, and much for the better.
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Jocketty replaces Krivsky
The Wayne Krivsky Era as general manager of the Cincinnati Reds is over and the Walt Jocketty era has begun.
The Reds confirmed this morning that Krivsky has been relieved of his duties and has been replaced by Jocketty. A media conference is scheduled this afternoon at 4 o’clock in Great American Ball Park before thee game with the Houston Astros.
Although Krivsky’s contract doesn’t run out until the end of the season, CEO Bob Castellini is unhappy with the team’s sluggish start.
It was almost a foregone conclusion that Jocketty would succeed Krivsky, but most thought it wouldn’t happen until after the season, if the Reds didn’t shed their seven years of losing.
Jocketty and Castellini worked together in St. Louis when Jocketty was GM of the Cardinals and Castellini was a minority owner.
When Jocketty left the Cardinals after last season, Castellini hired him as a special advisor in January and the handwriting was splattered all over the clubhouse walls.
There was a hint of something to come on the team’s last trip to Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Chicago when Jocketty was on the trip and Krivsky wasn’t.
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Hairston fills the bill
The Jerry Hairston Jr. experiment as the team’s leadoff hitter and center fielder seemed to be a Double Disaster before the game was three innings old Tuesday.
After perpetrating a couple of boneheads, Hairston recovered to be in the middle of things the rest of the night during an 8-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers, contributing four hits and driving in three runs.
Hairston led the bottom of the first with a single. Good start. But when Jeff Keppinger lined one directly at center fielder Matt Kemp, Hairston was at second base when Kemp caught the ball.
Kemp’s throw to first doubled off Hairston. Bad form.
Now it is the top of the third and opposing pitcher Hong Chih-Kuo ripped a double. Rafael Furcal lined one toward center field and Hairston came charging in - about five steps. Alas, the ball was out, not in. It roared over his head for a run-scoring double.
The opposition has scored first in seven straight games and in 13 of Cincinnati’s last 15.
Before the game, manager Dusty Baker said about the early scoring: “The other team scoring first all the time can wear on you. Getting down by a lot early really wears you down. The only people than can do anything about it is us.”
They did something about it. Something big and beautiful.
Hairston made up for his two faux pas in the third with a two-out double that sent Joey Votto to third and Votto scored when Jeff Keppinger lined one off the pitcher for a run-scoring single.
Then came the fouorth inning and Adam Dunn’s OPPOSITE FIELD home run into the left field seats. The Reds went on to score four runs in the inning, the last two scoring on