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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 > 29
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Cheer up, Reds fans
Somebody said it was Chaucer who first said, “All good things must come to an end” and it was back in 1374 — just a few years before I covered my first game.
Chaucer, though, wasn’t a baseball fan, obviously, and he wouldn’t have said, “All Good things MUST come to and end.” If he were a Reds fan he wouldn’t want the nine-game home winning streak to end.
And he wouldn’t have wanted to see Jay Bruce wear a collar in his third major-league game — 0-for-3 with a strikeout, a hit by pitch, a grounder and a liner to right.
They tried to do with Aaron Harang what they did with Bronson Arroyo — pitch him on three days of rest. While that was just peachy for Arroyo, it was the pits for Harang — four innings, six runs, 10 hits (six doubles and a home run).
And the cruelest blow of all was that the Reds were held to two hits (a bunt and an infield single) by left-hander Phil Dumatrait, who the Pirates plucked off the Reds’ garbage heap last October.
The only time anybody on the Reds talked about Dumatrait was to ask, “How do you pronounce his name (Doo-Mah-Tray)?”
So it was a bad night on the river banks, a night both Ken Griffey Jr. and Edwin Encarnacion took a rest.
What we saw was a glimpse of the future — Jay Bruce batting third, a place that will become his territory the way it has been for 20 years for Griffey, who stays in No. 3 only as a reward for what he has done and out of respect.
How about some stories to cheer you up?
Remember when Houston pitcher Joaquin Andujar said, “I can sum it up in one word, ‘You never know.’ ” Of course, we clever newspaper fellows changed it to, “I can sum it up in one word, ‘Youneverknow.’ “
After former Reds No. 1 draft pick Pokey Reese was traded, when he came back to Cincinnati, he said, “The fans in Cincinnati know only one word, ‘You suck.’ ” Or, of course, “Yousuck.”
It was hilarious the day Reese explained how he got his nickname. “My grandmother thought I was a little pudgy when I was a kid and wanted to call me Porky Pig, but she couldn’t say it and called me, ‘Pokey Pig.’ Pokey stuck.
One more Pokey story. When the Reds moved Dmitri Young to first base and Reese was playing second, Young asked Reese what he should do on a ball hit to the right side. Said Reese, “Go up into the stands and get some nachos. I’ll take care of balls hit to the right side.”
Remember Pedro Borbon, the nutsy relief pitcher the Reds had in the 1970s, the one who picked up the cap of New York Mets outfielder Cleon Jones after a fight between the Mets and Reds?
Borbon put the hat on his head, but when he saw it was a Mets hat, he yanked it off and bit a piece off the bill. Oh, yeah. He did. His teeth were so sharp that equipment manager Bernie Stowe didn’t need scissors when he laced baseball gloves with new rawhide.
When he need the rawhide cut, he handed it to Borbon and he bit it in two.
The Reds took a week’s trip and Borbon had a big dog in his apartment and nobody to watch it. So when he left the apartment, he left a 25-pound bag of dog food, thinking the dog would eat a little bit a day.
Not only did the dog tear that bag to shreds in less than a day, he ate half the furniture and left, ahem, markings all over the apartment floor.
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TweetIt’s bye-bye to Belisle
What was tinkering seems to be a major overhaul by Cincinnati Reds general manager Walt Jocketty.
And that’s a good thing. More than likely, on the last trip, a 2-5 West Coaster when the Reds did too much coasting, Jocketty saw enough.
His latest move Thursday was a bit of a stunner.
Pitcher Matt Belisle is back in Louisville and his mission is to transform himself into a relief pitcher. The only suspect part of this is that Josh Fogg takes Belisle’s place — for now.
Kent Mercker was activated off the disabled list.
Said manager Dusty Baker of Belisle: “He throws strikes and he has guts. His trouble here was the second and third times through the batting order. If he pitches in relief, he won’t have to face teams a second and third time.”
That is Step 1 toward fixing the rotation. Step 2 probably isn’t Fogg, but we’ll see. The next fix probably comes from Class AAA Louisville.
Homer Bailey? Maybe. Maybe not. If Fogg can hang on (or somebody) for three or four starts, maybe Daryl Thompson will be ready. In his first start at Louisville on Wednesday after a promotion from Class AA Chattanooga, he gave up no earned runs (one unearned) and four hits over seven innings against Columbus.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw Thompson pitch. It was this spring — a night game against the New York Yankees with 11,000 in Legends Field.
If Thompson had stage fright, he masked it like a mime.
He pitched one inning and struck out the side. Whiff, whiff, whiff. He is a great kid with a great attitude and supreme confidence.
For those taking me to task about what I said about Bailey — hey, I like the kid. I don’t care if he talks to the media or treats us with disrespect or tries to kick my dog, Barkley (yeah, I do care about that one).
There was a time this spring when it was Homer and me, by ourselves in a clubhouse in Fort Myers, Fla., before he pitched against the Red Sox. We chatted and he smiled and he told me a joke.
But there are times when he isn’t personable and that’s fine, too — if it’s only with the media. Two of his teammates, both in the rotation, took him to task for a “big-league attitude” this spring and one said, “What he needs is for somebody to take him water skiing, without the skis.”
Somebody brought up Steve Carlton. No, he didn’t communicate with the media, but he did with his teammates and his teammates loved him.
And say what you want about Terry Reynolds saying Homer is getting a bad rap. With the Reds needing another starting pitcher right now, if they thought Bailey was ready would they be starting Josh Fogg on Saturday?
Enough. If Homer can pitch up here (but he has to do more at AAA right now), get him up here — cowboy boots, cowboy belt buckle, big ol’ truck, Bowie knife, cocky attitude, whatever.
Ken Griffey Jr. has a bad left knee, but that’s not the reason he wasn’t in Thursday’s lineup. The knee has bothered him for more than a month, but he complains not. How’d he do it?
“The Griffey family has been known to be clumsy,” he said. “I tripped over a chair in the clubhouse.”
Actually, Griffey fought manager Dusty Baker about the day off, but the Reds are in the midst of 20 games without a day off.
Baker said Griffey gets tonight off and the last game of the next trip in Florida, “Before we come home to play St. Louis and Boston and he won’t get days off. When we finish this homestand, we go to Philadelphia,” and, said Baker, “You almost have to can’t walk to take a day off in Philadelphia in that ball park.”
The pre-game clubhouse was loose — as most clubhouses are when a team is going good (nine straight wins at home).
Jay Bruce told Griffey he was going to stretch and Griffey said, “You’re 21 and you have to stretch. Did I stretch when I was 19? Hell, no. Now I have to stretch to get out of bed.”
A Louisville Slugger bat representative was talking to catcher Paul Bako and Bako said, “When are you guys going to send my some starter wood instead of that back-up wood you’ve been sending me?”
Somebody asked Baker about the speed at the top of his order with Jerry Hairston Jr. up there leading off and stealing bases.
“I love speed,” said Baker. “I love speed when you’re safe.”
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