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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 > 24
Saturday, May 24, 2008
From pole to pool to Korea
The team bus was parked at the curb and the marquee said, “New York Mets.”
It was 1984 and the bus company was contracted to haul every National League team from the Town & Country hotel in San Diego to old San Diego-Jack Murphy Stadium. So, the marquee, where city names appear on Greyhound buses, contained the names of all the teams.
Somebody pointed to the marquee, that this team was the Cincinnati Reds and not the New York Mets. Standing close by was pitcher Bob Owchinko, who pitched for six different major-league teams.
The driver dutifully began spinning the marquee to find “Cincinnati Reds” and all the names flew by - “Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros, Atlanta Braves…”
Owchinko, hands on hips, watched the names fly by and said, “That looks like my career flashing before my eyes.”
Speaking of careers flashing in front of one’s eyes, how about one’s life?
Bench coach and interim manager Chris Speier is a health advocate to the nth degree. Early every afternoon, long before most players wander into the clubhouse, Speier is in the stadium running up and down grandstand steps.
On Saturday afternoon, he was doing his daily step-by-step-by-step routine behind home plate in Petco Park. Suddenly there was a loud clanging. It started in the upper deck and moved downward toward Speier, sounding as if a wrecking ball was dismantling the Eiffel Tower.
When the noise finally stopped, a voice from the upper deck shouted down to Speier, “You all right?”
Speier said yes because it didn’t land near him - fortunately. It was a large metal pole.
“Man, I win my first major-league game (sitting in for suspended Dusty Baker Friday) and have a chance to make it two in a row (he manages again tonight) and somebody tries to assassinate me,” said Speier.
How about this one?
Righthanded pitcher Justin Lehr is headed for Korea. The Reds sold his contract Friday to the Doosan Bears of the Korea Professional League.
Lehr, 30, was 4-2 with a 2.41 ERA in eight starts for the Class AAA Louisville Bats, walking only nine in 52 1/3 innings while striking out 34.
“Lehr had a clause in his contract that said if a Korean club approached him, we had to let him go and that’s exactly what happened,” said general manager Walt Jocketty. “We had an opportunity to match their offer but it wasn’t something we wanted to do.
“This is happening more and more,” Jockety added. “Some players use it as a stepping stone to Japan and it gives them an opportunity to make some money.”
It isn’t like Lehr was going to turn this franchise around, though. He is 30 and he has made only 66 relief appearances (no starts) in the majors, going 4-3 with a 5.31 earned run average.
In the minors, he is 63-48 in 297 appearances, 110 starts.
And speaking again of life-threatening and the old Town & Country Resort Hotel in San Diego, one day I was standing pool-side at the deep end. Pete Rose walked up behind me and nudged me into the pool.
After I scrambled out of the pool, spluttering bubbles, I said to Rose, “What if I couldn’t swim?”
Said Rose, “I wouldn’t have jumped in after you because I can’t swim.”
I think he was kidding.
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TweetVolquez impresses Peavy
Edinson Volquez, as usual, was high voltage Friday night in Petco Park, only this time the Cincinnati Reds offense didn’t have his back.
Volquez struck out a career-best 12 in his six innings and held the San Diego Padres to two hits — and that wasn’t good enough for a victory.
Oh, the Reds finally scraped together a victory, accomplished when Adam Dunn crushed his 250th career home run, a down-range shot off San Diego’s Trevor Hoffman leading off the ninth inning.
It secured the Reds a 3-2 victory, ending their four-game losing streak on this West Coast matriculation.
So the Reds win and Volquez gets a no-decision, maintaining his record at 7-1 and his earned run average at a major-league best 1.34.
How impressive was he? San Diego’s best pitcher, Jake Peavy, is sitting on the disabled list but he watched Volquez Friday and said, “He’s electric. Wow.”
Said Dunn, “Volquez is so good. I catch myself being a spectator, thinking I’m in the stands and I have to say, ‘Hey, I’m in this game and I might have to catch a fly ball.’ “
Despite getting nothing for his hard work, Volquez called it the best game he has pitched this year, “Because I had all my pitches working. My last start (a win over Cleveland during which he gave up two runs and four hits in six innings) I wasn’t so good. I didn’t have my fastball.”
Asked when was the last time he struck out 12, he said, “Last year in the minor leagues — 12 strikeouts and a one-hitter in seven innings, also against the Padres (Class AAA Portland).”
For the Reds, it was overcoming poor baserunning. Again. It was overcoming poor offense again — just six hits.
While Volquez held a team to one run or less for the ninth time this season, the Reds could do little or nothing against 35-year-old left-hander Shawn Estes, who spent last year out of baseball recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Estes retired the first 11 Reds before Ken Griffey Jr. reached on first baseman Adrian Gonzalez’s error with two outs in the fourth.
Meanwhile, Volquez was striking out nearly everybody — his first six outs were whiffs and he had nine after four innings.
Rain began to fall heavily in the top of the fifth and Estes walked Adam Dunn. He then lost his no-hitter when Jerry Hairston Jr. singled to center. After Joey Votto struck out, play was halted and the tarp was pulled over the infield.
The last time the Reds had a game rained out in this city was 1971 — and this one continued after a 29-minute delay.
Both pitchers resumed work and Estes wiggled out of the two-on mess by striking out Paul Bako and getting Volquez to ground out.
Volquez tied his career high in strikeouts at 10 by whiffing Scott Hairston (Jerry Jr.’s little brother) to open the fifth, but he walked Luke Carlin and Estes bunted him to second.
Jody Gerut, a left-handed hitter, shot one just over the third base bag for a run-scoring double and a 1-0 Padres lead.
The Reds threatened in the sixth but bad baserunning, an Ohio Valley malady, surfaced again.
Ryan Freel led with double but was caught off second on a comebacker to Estes hit by Corey Patterson. After Brandon Phillips walked with two outs and with Adam Dunn batting, Patterson inexplicably tried to steal third and was called out by umpire Eric Cooper on a close play.
Interim manager Chris Speier was succinct about trying to steal third base.
“When you try to steal third in that situation, you know you have to make it,” said Speier. “It has to be easy, almost a gift, because you’ve got your boy (Dunn) up there. For our situation, it looked as if he was safe, but to be honest you have to make it easy, no question mark, almost a no-throw situation.
“But Dunn had another chance and picked us up again,” Speier added.
The Reds finally solved a tiring Estes for two runs in the seventh on a ground ball RBI by Bako and a run-scoring pinch-hit by Javier Valentin.
But they ran themselves out of the inning when Freel was unable to get down a suicide squeeze bunt and Bako was caught.
San Diego tied it, 2-2, in the seventh against Jared Burton on Khalil Greene’s single, stolen base and Hairston’s double.
Dunn, though, turned on Hoffman’s 3-and-1 pitch for his team-leading 12th homer and team-leading 30th RBI.
All that remained was for closer Francisco Cordero to do his thing — although he issued a two-out walk before getting the last out for his 10th save in 11 opportunities.
Equipment manager Rick Stowe walked up to Dunn after the game and flipped him a ball: “Number 250. Off Trevor Hoffman.”
Dunn caught it and said, “Right where I need to be — not even halfway to Ken Griffey Jr. That’s unbelievable. Not my 250, his 598. I’m ticked that it isn’t being celebrated more.”
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