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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 > May > 14
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Janish a big hit — literally
Let’s talk mostly about good stuff because there usually isn’t much good stuff to talk about.
Let’s get this out of the way first. The negative baloney — the 6-0 lead the Reds had in the ninth inning Wednesday night before Mike Lincoln and Francisco Cordero gave up six runs, enabling the Marlins to tie it, the tying runs coming off Cordero on a three-run homer by Cody Ross (a member of the Reds for about 30 seconds two years ago).
It was Cordero’s first blown save this year. End of gloom, doom and sadness.
The Reds came back to win it, 7-6, with a heart-pounding finish. It was rookie Paul Janish, called up Tuesday night after Jeff Keppinger broke his kneecap, who ended the game with a single to right field, driving in pinch-runner Johnny Cueto (should the Reds be using valuable pitching beef to run the bases?).
What a story. Janish gets the game-winning hit in his second major-league at-bat. And a bloody nose from a teammate in the raucous celebration.
“I’ll take another bloody nose tomorrow if we can win it again,” said Janish, who came into the game in the eighth for defensive purposes and was the offensive star.
“It’s hard to explain the feeling, and I could say I hope it only gets better, but that’s pretty hard to beat,” said Janish. “It was pretty ideal. The bloody nose was well worth it, and I’d doing it again tomorrow if I got the chance.”
Manager Dusty Baker said he not only felt Janish would come through, he predicted it.
“Like Yogi (Berra) always says, ‘It ain’t over ‘til it’s over,’ and he ain’t lying,” said Baker. “To get a game-winning hit in your first major-league game? That’s heaven-sent. I said in the dugout, ‘Janish is going to win this game.’ You know, sometimes it’s your day and circumstances couldn’t be prevented because it might have been his day. It certainly was his day.”
It was starter Bronson Arroyo’s day, too. Then it wasn’t. It was his 6-0 lead that Lincoln and Cordero spit up, costing Arroyo a win. But his effort was magnificent.
Remember in St. Louis when Arroyo won a game and revealed that he added swimming to his workout routine, you know, “Swim to win.”
He wouldn’t say it, but after his one-run, four-hit effort Saturday in New York I wondered if the day before he swam across the East River and the Hudson River?
Then before his start Wednesday night against the Marlins — on only three days of rest — I spotted a large bag of dog food in front of his locker, something called Innova, and I asked, “Change your diet?”
He laughed and said, “That’s for my dog. I share custody.”
Then he took custody of the Great American Ball Park grass and treated the Florida Marlins like Yorkies — no runs, five hits, two walks, five strikeouts.
“I felt stronger as I went along,” said Arroyo. “I’ve been working out harder and I just feel like I can manage the game with 120 pitches and still be strong enough to beat guys in the seventh and eighth innings. I really couldn’t prior to a start in St. Louis.”
And he was performing on only three days of rest instead of the usual four.
“Three days rest? I think you feel better,” he said. “The command is there, you feel strong. You haven’t had that much time off and first thing you know you’re back on it again and that’s great. I was happy with seven zeros, that’s for sure.”
Florida came to town on a seven-game winning streak and in first place in the rugged National League East. The Reds have now whipped them three straight times, tying their longest winning streak of the year (3), done once before when they took three straight in San Francisco.
Are the young, no-name Marlins impostors? Is this the start of something big for the Reds?
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Tweet150,000 pennies for your thoughts
You’ve heard of Three Coins in a Fountain, right? How about 150,000 pennies in a locker?
That’s what Josh Fogg found in his locker when he came to work in the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse Wednesday. There were 60 boxes of pennies, $25 worth to a box, stacked in his locker — top to bottom like cereal boxes in Kroger’s.
Fogg immediately looked at Ken Griffey Jr. and said, “That’s good, Griff. That’s funny. Kick me while I’m down.”
Griffey had told Fogg he was going to pay off the $1,500 he owed him in pennies, but Fogg didn’t believe it.
“I’m a man of my word,” said Griffey. “And when you owe a man $1,500, you pay him. And I’d like to thank the lovely people at National City Bank for helping me with this joke. There isn’t a whole lot you can do with pennies. Just think, each box weighs 16 pounds, so the man has 60 bowling balls in his locker.”
Fogg was mystified and mesmerized and finally said, “I’m going to take them out to the bullpen and count them. I have a lot of time on my hands out there. I’m sure these were delivered by Brinks truck and Griffey had his paycheck in there, too.”
THE MRI on Jeff Keppinger was as expected. His kneecap is fractured. Estimation of healing time is four to six weeks. And for those who asked about shortstop Alex Gonzalez and his broken knee, he still can’t run and is a long, long way from playing fitness.
Paul Janish, called up from Louisville arrived at the ballpark at noon and wasn’t in Wednesday’s lineup. Jerry Hairston Jr. was at shortstop.
“We’ll ease him in,” said manager Dusty Baker. “Hairston is playing well and hitting. Janish will be used in double switches and for defense and he will start some games. I’ve talked to (Louisville manager) Rick Sweet about his hitting and we’ll get him in there when we think he has the best chance to succeed.”
Said Janish, “I’m fired up and antsy. Didn’t get much sleep last night. But I’m ready to go.”
MARLINS FIRST base coach Andy Fox has a quaint hobby. Before every game, he uses a stop watch to record the length of the national anthem and records them in a log.
Well, the Reds set a Fox record Tuesday when anthem singer Brandi Kegley took 2:32 to sing it — two seconds longer than Fox’s recorded record. Her rendition was excellent and wasn’t given any personal interpretations — as so many anthem singers do — but she stretched out each note and attained the record.
SPEAKING OF oddities, the Marlins and Reds are the only teams in baseball (we think) with cheerleaders. Florida’s are the Mermaids. The Reds are the, er, Reds Cheerleaders.
BRANDON PHILLIPS must not be mad at me any more. Before Tuesday’s game he said, “Excuse me, Hal,” as he ran past me in the tunnel. And later he answered my question about shaving off his Mohawk-style haircut.
WORD OUT OF Seattle is that the Mariners have no concern over the $8 million they’d have to pay Ken Griffey Jr. the rest of this season if the acquired him now and the $16 million option for next year with a $4 million buyout.
When you want something — really, really want something — money is not much of a deterrent, is it?
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