Home of the Week
Madison graduation 2012
Warren County CC graduation
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
May 2008
You can’t make this stuff up
Everybody keeps asking: “In your 36 years, you ever seen anything like this?”
No, never. Nothing close. No, zip, nada.
There has never been anything like this. Not in real life. You have The Natural and you have Joe Hardy in Damn Yankees.
But this? This? This is real life what Jay Bruce is doing. You can’t do this in your first week of major-league baseball when you just turned 21.
Some folks want to start calling him Batman. Well, not bad. After all, wasn’t Batman’s real name BRUCE Wayne.
For those of you with your nose into the NASCAR race or an NBA playoff game, well, even Jay Bruce topped himself Saturday.
The Kid not only topped himself, he topped Ken Griffey Jr., and that’s tough to do when Junior hit his 599th career home run. Bruce hit a game-winning walkoff home run in the 10th inning to give the Cincinnati Reds an 8-7 win over the Atlanta Braves.
Hey, I saw Ken Griffey Sr. (not Junior, Senior) begin his career with nine hits in his first 17 at-bats, but no walk-off home runs.
This is why we in the media harped and harped and harped to get Bruce pardoned out of Louisville, where he was exiled after spring training for committing no crimes and no sins.
Heck, seeing this, I’m saying the Reds should have called him LAST SEPTEMBER when they called up Joey Votto, but not Bruce.
Big, bad mistake. Just think what he could be doing now.
When the Reds finally called up Bruce last Tuesday, one of the front office people said to me, “Well, you’ve got Bruce up here, now what are you going to start demanding?”
Well, now that you ask, how soon can you get pitcher Daryl Thompson up here. Tomorrow will be just fine.
Votto, one of Bruce’s friends, sensed it all along.
“Take a look at his month of May and he might be the hottest hitter in all of baseball,” said Votto. “It’s unbelievable. I hope he keeps it going. That was a big swing. That’s about as good of a home run as it gets, especially in front of a big home crowd.”
Told that it was Bruce’s first-ever walkoff home run, Votto said, “Even better. Obviously it was meant for the big leagues.”
No, no. Bruce was meant for the big leagues - a long time ago, even if he just turned 21.
Are we overhyping this kid. Expecting too much.
Hey, his teammate, Javier Valentin, calls him, “Babe Bruce.”
And manager Dusty Baker has seen them come and seen them go and he is mystified and mesmerized like all the rest of us.
Love this quote from Dusty: “A lot of times hype is overhyped, but this hype is real.”What a remarkable story for Jay Bruce,” said Baker. “That’s probably one of the best stories I’ve ever seen. If he is living a dream, I’d like to get into that dream.”
Remember Joe Namath’s famous quote and his book title: I Can’t Wait For Tomorrow Because I Get Better-Looking Every Day?
Bruce would never, never say that. He’s like Opie of Mayberry, mostly gosh and gee-whiz.
But me? I can’t wait until tomorrow because Jay Bruce gets better every day.
Permalink | Comments (27) | Post your comment | Categories: Jay Bruce
TweetJust call him Babe Bruce
Javier Valentin was seated in his new locker location, close to a hallway that leads to the field, when Jay Bruce walked by.
“There he goes, Babe Bruce,” said Valentin with a broad smile.
Hey, Javy. Good one.
Some folks want to dub Bruce “Batman.” Well, hey, wasn’t Batman’s real identity Bruce Wayne?
And why is Valentin occupying a different locker? He is now perched where Scott Hatteberg dressed before he was designated for assignment.
“Who else has been in this locker since Great American opened?” asked Valentin.
Let’s see: Barry Larkin, Joe Randa, Rich Aurilia, Jeff Conine, Hatteberg.
“And you know what they all had in common? Hits. Lots of hits,” said Valentin.
When it was pointed out that they all are gone, too, Valentin smiled and said, “Yeah, that too.”
Walked into Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox’s office this morning and he said, “Does Jay Bruce ever make a damn out?” Then he laughed.
“I see an energized team over there from the first time we played (a three-game Braves sweep in Atlanta in early-May). “Sometimes young kids can energize a team. Happens all the time.
“Bruce makes contact, looks like he can run, patrols center field pretty good,” said Cox. “With Joey Votto and Edinson Volquez this team is going in the right direction.”
So here we are awaiting the 3:55 start of this afternoon’s game and left fielder Adam Dunn dreads it. The sun peeks over the grandstand right into the left fielder’s eyes.
“It’s a great day, but I know Dunn doesn’t love it,” said manager Dusty Baker. “It’s a bad time, man. I can remember Ron Cey in the 1977 getting hit in the head by Goose Gossage, right around this time of day in the World Series.
“I was on deck when Cey got hit and they asked me if I was nervous,” said Baker. “Told ‘em, ‘Not at all because the changes of him hitting two of us back-to-back ain’t real good.
“On the west coast, almost every playoff and World Series game was played at 5 o’clock,” Baker added.”You couldn’t see. It’s a bad time, a time when there are a lot of car accidents. I used to be scared to death in left field in Yankee Stadium with the sun right above the roof.”
The phone rang is Dusty’s office and when the call was completed, he said, “That’s my old dentist from California. He’s originally from Fort Thomas, Ky., But he is in his 70’s and he is retired now. Man, he’s a trip. When there was full moon he would climb on his roof and play the accordian, wearing his bow tie. He’ll be at tonight’s game, but I don’t know if he’ll bring his accordian. If he does, you’ll hear him.”
Josh Fogg was Saturday’s starter for the Reds, hoping to bring his best stuff with him.
True story: The Reds had a big ol’ country boy pitcher in 1981 named Scott Brown, from DeQuincy, Louisiana. As Pete Rose used to say, “He could throw a baseball through a car wash and not get it wet.”
But he had no breaking ball at all. Didn’t even know what a curveball was. He saw one of the Reds pitchers throwing it one day. So he asked equipment manager Bernie Stowe how he should go about being able to throw that pitch.
“Go to a sporting goods store and ask them for a box of curve balls,” said Stowe. The guy did it. He honest-to-god did it. Amazingly, he made the team and pitched briefly and was doggone good - 1-0 in 10 appearances with one walk and seven strikeouts in 13 innings.
Then he disappeared. That was his major-league career. Perhaps he went on a scavenger hunt to find a box of curve balls.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Post your comment | Categories: Jay Bruce
TweetCall me the Fall Guy
It wasn’t that I was disgusted that the Cincinnati Reds got only two hits in seven innings off Pittsburgh Phil Thursday night — one a bunt, one an infield hit.
This was BEFORE the game.
As I stepped off the press box elevator, an employee was waiting with a long, low dolly. Of course, I didn’t see it. I took two steps and was suddenly on my face on the floor — tape recorder flying to my left, notebook flying to my right.
I hurt my left shoulder, my left rib cage, my left knee (the one surgically repaired last year) and drew blood from my left elbow, left knee and left ankle.
I hobbled through the rest of the day, took four Advil Thursday night and four more this morning. I seem to be OK, other than sore ribs. And I’m not going on the DL, no matter what my agent says.
And if you believe I have an agent, well, you don’t know much about a baseball writer’s salary.
Reminds me of 1975 (when you and I were young, Maggie) and how I helped put pitcher Don Gullett on the DL. And Sparky Anderson never knew.
We were in Philadelphia and the team hotel was behind the stadium parking lot. During the first game of the series, I discovered a short cut, a gate at the back of the lot that was open and was across the street from the hotel.
On the second night, as I left the stadium, pitchers Gullett and Gary Nolan were leaving at the same time. I saw them turn for the street and the long trip around the parking lot.
I said, “C’mon, guys. I know a short cut.” They followed. When we got to the gate, it was closed and locked. It was about eight feet high with barbed wire on top.
Rather than retrace our steps, we said, “We can climb over that baby.”
I was just over 30 (OK, 35) at the time and I slid my portable typewriter (your dad will explain about typewriters, kids) under the gate and climbed over. No sweat.
Nolan was next. He had on a new $500 suit (expensive in 1975) and he ripped it up the back of the jacket when he caught it on the barbed wire.
Then Gullett. He cleared the barbed wire easily and jumped to the ground — turning and twisting his ankle. As I recall, he missed a turn or two — but none of us ever told Sparky how he did it.
Fortunately, the Reds won the division, the playoffs and the World Series and I was never scolded for nearly ruining the team’s best pitcher.
I promise I will never suggest to Edinson Volquez or Bronson Arroyo or Aaron Harang that I know any shortcuts. Besides, at my age, I’d need a crane to get over an eight-foot fence — without barbed wire.
Now it’s the Atlanta series and the pitching matchups are a concern after tonight — Volquez vs. Tom Glavine. That should be a mismatch, but that’s what we thought with Harang against Pittsburgh Phil (Dumatrait).
Fortunately, this is Great American Ball Park and NOT Riverfront Stadium. At one point, Glavine had beaten the Reds 14 straight times in Riverfront.
Josh Fogg pitches Saturday and Thom Brennaman brought up an interesting point. Instead of Fogg pitching Saturday, why didn’t he pitch Thursday (he certainly hasn’t been overworked), then Harang wouldn’t have had to pitch Thursday on three days of rest?
Harang could have pitched tonight, Volquez on Saturday and Johnny Cueto on Sunday — giving the Reds better matchups against the Braves.
Manager Dusty Baker was asked this after Thursday’s loss and he said, “No, we didn’t give any thought to that. And hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it? If Harang had been able to pitch his normal game Thursday, nobody would have asked.”
Well … maybe.
Permalink | Comments (24) | Post your comment |
TweetCheer 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.
Permalink | Comments (15) | Post your comment |
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.”
Permalink | Comments (10) | Post your comment |
TweetThe Big Home Machine wins again
Some thoughts after watching the The Big Home Machine win its ninth straight — and OK, so it’s the Pittsburgh Pirates. Remember, though, the Pirates swept the Reds at PNC in early April.
And the Reds did beat the Marlins and Indians six straight on the previous homestand.
Paul Janish, a great kid, is here. Jay Bruce, a great kid, is here. Homer Bailey is not here. And notice I didn’t use the word great.
You wonder, just wonder, now that he has seen Janish and Bruce leave Louisville, along with Andy Phillips, can Bailey just adjust his attitude and work ethic, show some spunk instead of snarkiness and get himself up here.
It was no accident that Bruce got pie-faced and water soaked by his teammates after his debut and hardly any teammate paid attention when Bailey was here last year. Bruce is well-liked. Bailey is aloof. A loner. There is a reason for that.
Is there any way they can continue to pitch Bronson Arroyo on three days of rest? The guy is a throwback when it comes to pitching. The hair, though, keeps him off the throwback list, but he might be like Samson if they cut off those locks.
Seriously, the guy is unbelievable with only three days rest. But manager Dusty Baker can’t do it all the time because it messes up the rest of the rotation.
Some of us are old enough to remember when every team had a four-man rotation and everybody pitched on three days of rest, and most of them threw 150 pitches a game.
Call me geezer, call me old-timer, but aren’t training methods and diets and meds better these days? Heck, these guys should be able to pitch on two days of rest.
Just kidding, just kidding.
While we’re immortalizing Jay Bruce, how about some props for Jerry Hairston Jr. Yes, he is another of Dusty’s guys from his Chicago days, but Hairston is a guy who produces. Corey Patterson he isn’t.
Since Baker put him at leadoff five games ago, the Reds are 4-1 and Hairston has 10 hits. He isn’t really a shortstop, but he hasn’t burned the Reds badly while stepping in for Jeff Keppinger.
And how sweet is Bruce’s swing? Only one hit Wednesday, but it was a solid double. His first major-league out, after reaching base six straight times, was a liner to center.
Permit me to return to last spring when the Reds signed Corey Patterson to a $3.5 million contract. Once again, as I’ve written before, don’t blame fired general manager Wayne Krivsky for that one.
As he told me, “I was told to sign Patterson and get the deal done, no matter what it takes.” It took $3.5 million — $3.5 million wasted dollars.
All that did, of course, was delay the arrival of Jay Bruce, which is probably the saddest thing about this team’s early season. In two games, Bruce has done more than Patterson did in 29. Oh, Patterson did have a couple of big hits early in the season, but for what he didn’t do lately makes that ancient history.
And what used to be b-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o when Patterson batted is now b-r-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-c-e when Bruce bats.
Permalink | Comments (99) | Post your comment |
TweetPatterson demoted, Phillips arrives
Corey Patterson is gone. Gone, but not yet forgotten.
Instead of releasing him, the Cincinnati Reds today optioned him to Class AAA Louisville and promoted infielder Andy Phillips.
In addition, they placed much-troubled infielder Alex Gonzalez on the 60-day disabled list.
Patterson, 2 for his last 30, was 0-for-18 after a pinch-hit fly ball Tuesday against the Pirates and was heavily booed before he batted and after he batted.
He was brought into training camp in mid-spring, signed to a one-year, $3.5 million contract and he made the team instead of rookie outfielder Jay Bruce.
Bruce was called up Tuesday and had three hits and two walks in his debut against the Pirates. Instead of designating Patterson, the Reds designated first baseman Scott Hatteberg.
They made the move on Patterson today and promoted Phillips, a 30-year-old right-handed infielder the Reds signed as a free agent on Jan. 4. He had an outstanding spring, playing nearly every game, but was sent to Louisville.
Phillips was hitting .315 at Louisville with five homers, 22 RBIs and two stolen bases. He played first base, third base, second base and was a designated hitter, playing most of the time at first base or third.
He will be in uniform No. 46 tonight.
Permalink | Comments (37) | Post your comment |
TweetOf debuts and opening days
What a debut Jay Bruce made — probably the most glossy and glittery debut on a stage since stripper Sally Rand’s first ostrich-feathered fan dance at the New York Paramount in 1932.
OK, so exotic dancer isn’t politically correct these days.
That was some dance by Bruce, though — three hits, two walks, two RBIs, two runs scored.
SPEAKING OF debuts, I’m reminded of another former No. 1 draft pick and his debut. It was left-handed pitcher C.J. Nitkowski, drafted No. 1 by the Reds in 1994. General manager Jim Bowden couldn’t wait for his arrival and called him up in June 1995.
I can remember sitting in Bowden’s box and C.J. made his first major-league start — also against the Pirates — on June 6. With every out, Bowden was jumping out his chair and high-fiving everybody, knocking over a bowl of pretzels on one out, as if Sandy Koufax was reborn.
Nitkowski pitched six innings, gave up no runs and three hits, walking three and striking out one. Was a star born? Uh, no.
Nitkowski eventually pitched for Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, the New York Mets, Texas, the New York Yankees, Atlanta and Washington. His career record? 18-32. That’s a little more than two victories per team.
Nitkowski’s one claim to fame was that he was one of the first baseball players to have his own web-site, one he wrote himself, in the infancy of the internet.
And it is interesting that he finished his career at Washington, where Bowden is now the GM and gathers ex-Reds like numismatics collect Indian Head nickels — or is that Native American head nickels these days?
Bowden’s latest venture, after he signed and released Bret Boone (brother Aaron Boone still plays for the Nationals, along with Dmitri Young) is the signing of Pokey Reese.
Pokey Reese? He hasn’t played in a major-league game since 2004 with the Boston Red Sox. He was in camp with the Florida Marlins in the spring of 2006, but mysteriously disappeared and the Marlins released him in March.
It took two years, but Bowden found him. He is now playing at Triple-A Columbus.
MY FAVORITE story about Reese, the Reds’ No. 1 draft pick in 1991, does not concern his debut, but it was an Opening Day and Reese was playing shortstop.
He made four errors, three in one inning.
In those days, owner Marge Schott emptied the Cincinnati Zoo and brought the animals to old Riverfront Stadium for a pregame parade, including elephants. And, of course, the pachyderms did what most animals do in public. When ya gotta go, ya gotta go.
After his four-error game, Reese said, “Instead of playing shortstop, I should have been walking behind those elephants with a trash bag. Except I would have missed.”
I laugh every time I hear WLW’s Bill Cunningham play the sound bite from Reds owner Bob Castellini saying, “We’re not gonna lose any more.” Cunningham plays it over and over.
The sound bite comes from a question I asked Castellini the day he fired Wayne Krivsky and it irritated him. I asked about stability because of the steady stream of short-term managers and general managers since 2003 — managers Bob Boone, Dave Miley, Jerry Narron, Pete Mackanin, Dusty Baker and general managers Jim Bowden, Brad Kullman, Leland Maddox, Dan O’Brien, Krivsky and Walt Jocketty.
That’s when Castellini snapped at me at the press conference and said, “We’re not gonna lose any more.” He apologized to me in a corner later, but not publicly.
That’s OK, though. I understand. He is frustrated with the losing. He is a nice man and a great businessman. He is still learning the baseball gig, though.
After Castellini’s quote, I said kiddingly to Jocketty, “The owner says you’re not going to lose any more. That’s a lot of pressure, right?”
Jocketty, a man who smiles easily and has been through the baseball wars and understands the complexities of winning and losing, smiled at that and said, “The first thing I have to do is calm down the owner.”
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Jay Bruce
TweetBruuuuuuce, Bruuuuuuce
The Jay Bruce Era is upon us and it arrived with a bang, not a whimper.
Three hits. Two walks. A run-scoring double that nearly put a canon-sized hole in the right-field wall after nearly decapitating the right fielder.
Reds 9, Pirates 6, Bruce 1.000.
And think of those hits that were wasted in Louisville before the Cincinnati Reds came to their senses and added this 21-year-old stud to their roster.
Everybody welcomes Bruce, and the fans (all 17,000 of them) got into it by chanting Brooooooce, Broooooce every time he batted.
But Scott Hatteberg will be missed — not on the field or in the batter’s box, but in the clubhouse. I don’t understand why it wasn’t Corey Patterson jettisoned to make room for Bruce — other than the fact Patterson is making $3.5 million this year and Hatteberg was making $1.85 million.
They won’t miss Hatteberg’s inability to pinch-hit (1-for-17) and they won’t miss his below-the-Mendoza LIne batting average (.173).
To the Reds he had become just another mouth to feed, but that mouth was important in the clubhouse.
What they will miss is his presence in the clubhouse, his savvy and his willingness to share his experiences. Those kinds of players are fast disappearing from the Reds roster.
Joey Votto took Scott Hatteberg’s job at first base and Scott Hatteberg helped him do it. Votto dressed next to Hatteberg in the Reds clubhouse and Hatteberg answered every question the rookie had.
And he did it for every young player.
Listen to Votto: “At the beginning, when I first got here, I tried not to cross any lines or ruffle any feathers as far as me being a rookie. If I did, Hatteberg would tell me and give me some advice.
“His thing was if you are a rookie and act like a rookie everybody will treat you like a rookie,” said Votto. “If you know how to do the whole baseball thing, they’ll leave you alone.”
Votto said goodbye to Hatteberg as he packed his gear early Tuesday after the Reds designated him for assignment.
“I’m going to miss him,” said Votto. “A real nice guy to play with. Baseball-wise, he advised me on some little things to look out for. He was more somebody to look up to and see how to act professionally. He was the epitome of a professional, a good guy, a role model.”
Votto said Jay Bruce is missing out on Hatteberg’s sage advice and that Paul Janish was fortunate to get a couple of weeks of it.
“You watch certain guys and you learn things,” Votto said.
About Bruce, Votto said, “You hope what he did in the minors translates to the majors and he is another body to help us get some wins. It’s a perfect situation for Jay. It doesn’t matter who comes up here as long he helps this team.”
(Pregnant pause)
“But I’m sure Jay can help this team,” said Votto.
OK, Mr. GM, Mr. Walt Jocketty. Why Hatteberg. Why not Corey Patterson?
“It was tough,” said Jocketty. “Scott is a class guy who has contributed a lot here. But he wasn’t going to get playing time because Joey Votto has proved he can play first base every day. So, right now, it was the best move to make.”
Jocketty said they’ve been trying to trade Hatteberg and still hope they might get it done, but there have been few nibbles.
“There are things we felt Corey Patterson can still contribute to the club,” said Jocketty. “His defense, his baserunning. Obviously he is not hitting and he knows it ,and there are things to work on. But we have a left-handed first baseman in Votto and it was the right thing to do now. It was unanimous with the staff and we’ll see how it works out.”
Yes, sir, we certainly will.
And if Patterson is EVER put in the lineup ahead of Bruce, then it must be like when Pete Harnisch used to pitch for the Reds and sometimes he would look at the lineup card and say, “Hey, Skippah, we tryin’ to win?”
Permalink | Comments (44) | Post your comment |
TweetAnother J.B. arrival
The media horde swooped into the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse early Tuesday and catcher David Ross looked over his shoulder and said, “Jay Bruce doesn’t catch, does he?”
No, he doesn’t, but Bruce’s arrival rivals that of another J.B. — Johnny Bench. Bench’s arrival happened with far less folderol, pomp and circumstance.
It was Aug. 29, 1967, against the Philadelphia Phillies. Bench caught that day and was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. He was 19 years old.
And he never looked back — focusing himself right into the Hall of Fame.
Now we have outfielder Jay Bruce, just turned 21. The clamor for his promotion was as loud as the Liberty Bell before it had a crack.
Asked if he knew about the fans and media demanding his promotion, Bruce smiled and said, “Yeah, I read and saw a few things.”
What should be of major concern to the Cincinnati Reds is that fans consider Bruce the savior, the man to lead the Reds from last place to first place in about a day-and-a-half.
“He is not the savior,” said manager Dusty Baker. “We just want him to be himself. Just let him play and be himself — no labels on him, no comparisons. Let’s just let him play, you know? You can’t help what people put on you and what people say.”
There is not doubt about Bruce’s make-up — and it has nothing to do with Revlon or Cover Girl or Mary Kay.
“He is a confident young man and he is a bright young man,” said Baker. “And very competitive.
“I’m going to protect him some, but not a whole bunch. He’s going to play most of the time,” Baker added. “Maybe not against some tough lefty, we’ll see. Right now, it is, ‘Go play.’ “
Bruce said all the politically correct stuff about taking until now to get here, but he also said, “I’m an impatient person and I wanted to be here yesterday.”
A lot of people wish he had been here the day before yesterday — or the day before the season opened.
“I just want to get things started,” he said before the game, spotting his name on Tuesday’s lineup card, batting second and playing center field. “It is pretty surreal and it still hasn’t really set in. Getting sent down after spring training, well, worrying about it wasn’t going to help get me here.”
As Bruce said, he took care of business at Louisville and waited. And waited and waited and waited.
“It is what it is,” he said. “They had a plan and you have to respect their decisions. I’m here now, so …,” he said. “I got to work on some little things and it helped me. It certainly didn’t hurt me.”
It might have hurt the team, though, with Corey Patterson stumbling along in center field — batting .201 with a .243 on-base percentage and perpetrating baserunning gaffes against the laws of nature.
OK, why is Bruce batting second?
“I don’t want to put the pressure on him to lead him off,” said Baker. “The third spot right now belongs to Junior. The fourth spot belongs to Brandon Phillips. The fifth spot belongs to Adam Dunn.
“So you could put him toward the top or put him underneath,” Baker added. “I thought it would be better to put him up top. I know most good hitters bat third in the minors, but Junior has 20 years at third. Just bide you time and everything will work out sooner or later.”
Bruce has done nothing but bide his time. Now let’s see how things work out.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment |
TweetBruce is in the lineup
Jay Bruce is in the Cincinnati Reds lineup tonight — batting second and playing center field — weather permitting. The tarp is on the field at 3:15 and rain is in the air.
The Fall Guy is Scott Hatteberg.
Instead of saying, “We made a huge mistake on Corey Patterson,” and cutting him loose, the Reds dumped Hatteberg on Tuesday to make room on the roster for Bruce.
Yes, Hatteberg was expendable. Both he and Joey Votto bat left-handed, and who needs two left-handed first basemen, especially one that is 1-for-17 as a pinch-hitter this year? When Votto doesn’t play first, Javier Valentin (a switch-hitter) can do it.
But the Reds also have a plethora of outfielders. Why keep Patterson? He is hitting .201, his on-base average is .243, mostly as a leadoff hitter. He went 0-for-8 in the 18-inning loss to San Diego Sunday. He is 3 for his last 34.
But Hatteberg, a guy who hit nearly .300 in his years with the Reds, up until this year, is the guy to go. One can say, “Well, Hatteberg plays only one position.” Well, Patterson plays only the outfield, so that’s a wash, too.
It is 3:15 Tuesday, 45 minutes before Bruce and GM Walt Jocketty meet the media.
I was going to take today off after the trip to the West Coast and the long ride home Monday, but how often does one gets to see the coming-out party of a second J.B., the first, of course, being Johnny Bench?
Did he have this much attention for his debut? Not even close.
Permalink | Comments (13) | Post your comment | Categories: Jay Bruce
TweetReds promote Bruce … finally
Jay Bruce is coming. Finally. For real.
The 21-year-old outfielder will be in uniform 32 with the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday when they open a three-game series with the Pirates.
And it made me a prophet. I told Marty Brennaman during a second-inning visit in Los Angeles on the just-complete 2-5 trip to the West Coast that I thought he would materialize when the Reds returned home.
After losing an 18-inning game Sunday to the last-place San Diego Padres, and watching Corey Patterson go 0-for-8, the Reds decided it was time to call up their No. 1 draft pick from 2005, who is wreaking havoc on Triple-A pitching.
General manager Walt Jocketty said all along that they wouldn’t call him up until they decided he would play.
So … let’s see if he is in Tuesday’s lineup. They say his position isn’t center field, but it isn’t likely they’ll bench left fielder Adam Dunn or right fielder Ken Griffey Jr. If he plays — and why else would they call him up — he’ll be in center.
Scouts tell me he CAN play center field. While he doesn’t have great speed, he gets good jumps on balls and gets to them. That’s all he needs to do, right?
Amazingly, I was dragging myself in the back door of my house after flying all day from San Diego when the phone rang with the news.
I left at 6:30 a.m. (9:30 Dayton time) and flew four hours to Atlanta, had a 90-minute layover, than an hour-and-a-half flight to Dayton, arriving home at 5 p.m.
Tired? Oh, yeah. But excited over the prospect of finally seeing Mr. Bruce in the flesh for the first time since spring training.
Bruce has been rated the best prospect in the minor leagues by Baseball America, Sporting News, most scouts, anybody with good baseball sense and fans of the Reds since last year.
He has spent the season at Louisville, where in 49 games he hit .364 with nine doubles, five triples, 10 HRs, 37 RBIs and eight stolen bases.
He leads the International League in hitting and hits (67) and ranks among the IL leaders in slugging percentage (.630, 3rd), runs scored (34, 4th), extra-base hits (24, T4th) and RBI (T5th).
All that was wasted in the minors. Now it’s time to put those numbers to good use.
A roster move to make room for Bruce will be made before Tuesday’s game.
Permalink | Comments (65) | Post your comment | Categories: Jay Bruce
TweetMisery loves lots of company
Some days it just doesn’t pay to flip back the covers and plop the ol’ tootsies on to the cold morning floor.
That’s the way I feel right now after a long, long Sunday and I’m certain that’s the way guys like Matt Belisle, David Weathers, Francisco Cordero, Bill Bray, Corey Patterson, Edwin Encarnacion and Joey Votto feel right now as they board a charter flight home.
They played 18 innings Sunday. They played for nearly six hours. There were 580 pitches thrown. And the Cincinnati Reds lost to the forlorn and woebegotten San Diego Padres, 12-9.
So the Reds wobble home after a normal West Coast trip - 2 wins, 5 losses.
The day began normally for me - arrived at the ball park at 10 a.m. (1 p.m. Eastern). Did a blog, then visited Dusty Baker and the players in the clubhouse. Came back to the press box for a nice special order omlette cooked to my specifications in the media dining room ($9, plus tip).
Wrote my Reds notebook as the game began at 1:05 (4:05 Eastern). Six cookies, two hot dogs, four combo Diet Coke-lemonades, a piece of pizza and two coffees later, it was after 7 p.m. (10 o’clock Eastern) and my deadline was creeping up.
And I hadn’t written a line. You aren’t supposed to write a game story ahead of time for a day game, even on the West Coast. But there it was. And the story line kept changing.
It was another bad day for Belisle - 4 1/3 innings, five runs, eight hits and early expulsion from the mound. It was a bad day for Weathers, Cordero and Bray. This team had blown only two saves all year and those guys each blew a save Sunday.
It was a bad day (make that miserable, awful, repulsive) for Patterson. He was 0 for 8 and would have been 0 for 9 had he not successfully sacrifice bunted once. It was nearly as bad for Encarnacion, who was 1 for 8 only because he beat an infield hit his last time up.
It was bad for Votto because his throwing error on what should have been the last out of the 18th extended the inning, enabling Adrian Gonzalez to hit a game-ending three-run walkoff home run off Edinson Volquez, pitching in relief when he should have been enjoying a day free of work.
Aaron Harang had to work four innings, too.
All this proved was that two bad teams - the last-place Padres and the last-place Reds can double the pain of one game by stretching it over the length of two games before somebody painfully prevails.
The Reds are off today, then play three at home with their Sisters-in-Pain, the equally inept Pittsburgh Pirates. But adjustments will have to be made because Baker was forced to use starters Harang and Volquez in relief.
Is there a Homer Bailey sighting ahead this week? Or maybe Daryl Thompson, who is on the 40-man roster and was recently promoted to Class AAA Louisville.
So now it is nearly 9 p.m. on the West Coast (midnight Eastern) and I’m packing up in the press box. My plans for a nice Mexican meal in Old Town are shot. My plane tomorrow morning is 6 a.m.
Some days it just doesn’t pay to slide back the sheets and face a miserable day. At least I’m coming home.
Permalink | Comments (22) | Post your comment |
TweetRandom thoughts in Paradise Lost
Another day in Paradise Lost. It is chilly and the skies are the color of Grandam Moses’s hair.
San Diego? More like Milwaukee. I once asked my friend, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, if they had summer in Milwaukee.
“Yes,” he said. “August 25th, from noon to four.”
AN ALL-STAR moment this year: Edinson Volquez (7-1, 1.34) facing Josh Hamilton (.337, 12 homers, 14 doubles, 53 RBIs).
THE HEAVENLY Beds in Westin/Starwood hotels are, indeed, heavenly, but the new ones in the Marriotts are awfully tough to get out of in the morning.
ONE MORE TIME: No more messages/comments/e-mails about trading Ken Griffey Jr. I’m going to say it here for the 598th time - Griffey has a no-trade clause. Griffey has told GM Walt Jocketty he doesn’t want to be traded. Ken Griffey Jr. will NOT be traded.
DID YOU KNOW that the 1999 Reds, a team I dubbed The Big Road Machine because of its success in road games, established a Major League record with 10 straight wins over first-place teams (3-0 at Arizona, 4-0 at Houston, 3-0 against Arizona again). This year’s team has five in a row (3-0 Florida, 2-0 Cleveland). Yes, the won three from Cleveland, but the Tribe was in second place for the third game.
WHAT’S UP IN SAN DIEGO? The Hilton hotel, just outside Petco Park, blew up last week. The Padres lost three players to the DL last week - top pitchers Jake Peavy and Chris Young, plus catcher Josh Bard.
Young and Bard were both eliminated in the same inning by St. Louis’ Albert Pujols. First Pujols lined a pitch off Young’s face and nose, shattering bones. Then he put Bard on the DL with a slide home.
Then the Padres struck out 30 times in two games against the Reds and in between those two games Reds interim manager Chris Speier was nearly maimed by a falling piece of steel pipe as he ran the stadium steps.
CAN YOU says cursed?
THREE THINGS Ken Griffey Jr. wants to see when he gets out of baseball: Indianapolis 500, Kentucky Derby, Sport Super Bikes in Europe.
“I used to hear the Indianapolis 500 when my daddy played Triple-A there,” said Griffey.
And he had a near-Indy experience not long ago at a test track in Savannah, Ga. when he rode with former Indy driver Bobby Rahal, “At 206 miles an hour in a Porsche Carrera.” Griffey was reminded of it when he saw Rahal’s 19-year-old son, Graham, crash in this year’s 500 as Griffey watched on a clubhouse TV.
“At one point, as we approached a turn, I was looking at him and her was looking at me and nobody was looking at the road,” Griffey said of his spin with Rahal.
THE SUBECT was players able to play a lot of different positions, like Jerry Hairston Jr. and Ryan Freel, “Two guys who are rare in that they can play both infield and outfield,” said manager Dusty Baker. “To me that’s the toughest thing to do in baseball. The best I ever saw was Derrel Thomas. He had eight gloves stacked in his locker like pancakes.”
AFTER BEING the invisible man for about a month, no playing time, few pinch-hitting assignments, Javier Valentin had a pinch-hit single Friday and a pinch-hit walk Saturday.
After Saturday’s game he said with a smile, “Back-to-back games. I’m going to need a day off. I’ll be sore Sunday.”
No day off, though. Because he is one of the few baseball players in captivity who wears out Greg Maddux, Valentin was in Sunday’s lineup at first base. For his career, Valentin is 8 for 23 (.348) with four homers against Maddux.
Why are the new $10 bills rust-colored?
Permalink | Comments (13) | Post your comment |
TweetDavid Wells returns
When Bronson Arroyo walked into the Reds clubhouse after Saturday night’s 7-2 victory over the San Diego Padres, an old friend was sitting at a table waiting for him - a very bald friend, a very heavy friend, a very - how shall we say it? - “different” kind of friend.
It was David Wells.
Wells, a San Diego native, pitched in Boston with Arroyo. He also pitched briefly with the Reds in 1995, helping them make it to the playoffs - 13 years ago - their last visit.
Wells also wrote in his book that he pitched his perfect game with a hangover. He once tried to wear a hat worn by his idol, Babe Ruth, in a game he pitched for the New York Yankees, but the umpires made him take it off.
Wells’ mother was part of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang. Hey, nothing wrong with that. It’s just part of the Wells legend.
He is out of baseball now. What is he doing?
“Being bored. Bored, bored, bored,” he said. “I’m here to yell at the umpires. I’m doing some golfing. Doing some surfing. Playing with the kids. I’m playing some with the Poker All-Stars. But I’m not doing anything that’ll pay me money. Guess I have to find a job.”
After Arroyo left the table, he said about Wells, “That guy will never change, right up until the day he dies.”
Arroyo held the Padres to two runs and seven hits over 6 1/3 innings for his part of the 7-2 victory. He struck out nine, which is usually a big deal. But the Padres struck out 17 times Friday and 13 times Saturday - 30 strikeouts in two games.
Joey Votto drove in four runs, three with his 10th home run. Paul Janish drove in two in the ninth with a bases-loaded single when matters were still precarious because the Reds stranded 14 baserunners.
So interim manager Chris Speier, serving as skipper during Dusty Baker’s two-game suspension, finishes 2-0. Baker, who swears he issued no help or a hint of a suggestion to Speier, returns to the manager’s chair today.
After holding his post-game press conference, somebody told him he was dismissed as manager and Speier said, “Thank you. My retirement decision has already been made for me right now and I think Dusty is definitely coming back. Hey, the guys played hard and it was fun. Two W’s is two W’s.”
Meanwhile, everybody was filtering out of the clubhouse and Wells was still sitting at the table, pondering, he said, a trip to Fiji.
Somebody - not me, honest - suggested that he tell all the Reds pitchers the correct way to obtain a hangover before pitching a perfect game.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: Bronson Arroyo
TweetFrom 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.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Post your comment |
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.”
Permalink | Comments (19) | Post your comment | Categories: Edinson Volquez
TweetBaker reacts to suspension
Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker will sit out tonight and Saturday after he was suspended for two games by Bob Watson, baseball’s Lord of Discipline.
Baker was suspended for “inappropriate actions that included the bumping of umpire Eric Cooper.”
Baker also was fined $1,500.
Baker was ejected for the first time as manager of the Reds Thursday night between the top and the bottom of the seventh inning after he ran onto the field in protest of the ejection of third baseman Edwin Encarnacion.
Encarnacion was called out on strikes in the top of the seventh and dropped his bat at his feet.
“The umpire (Cooper) told him to pick up the bat or he would throw him out of the game,” said Baker. “Edwin picked up his bat, but when he went to his position after the inning he made the peace sign at Cooper, meaning he thought Cooper missed two pitches.
“That’s when Cooper ejected him and he said Edwin said something to him,” Baker added. “The umpire was far away from Edwin and Eddie hardly ever says anything and when he does you can only understand what he says half the time. That’s when I got angry.”
Baker ran onto the field, removed his red and black Reds cap and threw it up in the air before he allegedly bumped Cooper.
While players can appeal suspensions and fines and put them on delay until a hearing, the managers have no union and have no source of appeal.
Baker was angry enough about being suspended for something he believes he didn’t do, but the fact there is no appeal process turns up the dial on his anger button.
What rankles Baker is that the two-day suspension was determined before Watson called Baker Friday afternoon, “And ruined my lunch. I’m p.o’d now, I’ll be more p.o.’d later and I’ll really be p.o.’d when the game begins.”
Bench coach Chris Speier serves as interim manager Friday and tonight but Baker was permitted to watch the game on TV from his clubhouse office.
“Isn’t this America? What kind of judicial system do we have when we don’t have an appeal?” Baker asked. “Players get appeals (because of a strong union), but coaches and managers don’t get an appeal. You shouldn’t have to have a union to get an appeal. Everybody gets to go to court, right? That’s the part I don’t understand.”
Baker smiled and said, “I’ve only been suspended twice in my whole life, 58 years, and never in school or anywhere else — just twice in 58 years by the same man (Watson).”
Baker said he was suspended when he managed the Cubs for inciting the Wrigley Field crowd and when somebody said the Wrigley fans came to the park already incited, he said, “That’s what I told him.”
This suspension was touched off when Cooper ejected third baseman Edwin Encarnacion between the top and bottom of the seventh inning after Encarnacion disputed Cooper’s calls.
Baker ran out to defend Encarnacion and appeared to do no more than remove his Reds hat and throw it to the ground.
“He (Cooper) told me I bumped him, but I didn’t see it and I didn’t feel it. And he told me I sprayed him with dip and tobacco and that I grazed him, made contact. I was trying everything I could not to make contact.”
After Cooper said, “You bumped me,” Baker did the moon walk to stay out of Cooper’s way.
Baker said he didn’t watch a replay and told his wife to watch it on ESPN. And he is surprised he hasn’t heard from his father, “For cussing on TV.”
Baker’s son, Darren, was in the room and said, “I saw it on TV.”
Did your dad bump the ump?
“No,” said Darren.
Baker said he told Watson, “Edwin never says anything to anybody and when he does he is so quiet that you can’t understand what he’s saying, plus he mumbles.”
And he asked Cooper why he ejected Encarnacion and Cooper said he made a gesture (the peace sign, signifying he thought Cooper missed two calls on him).
“I talked to Edwin and he said Cooper looked at him from the time he left the dugout all the way to his position and kept looking at him and that’s when Edwin made the sign that got him kicked out,” Baker added.
“I have to go defend Edwin and I don’t go out to argue unless I think I’m right and now they have me to the point where they are about to make a good man bad.”
Baker did inject a bit of humor when he said, “And I got fined $1,500.” Told it was usually $500 a day, he said, “Inflation. Everything else is going up.”
Permalink | Comments (31) | Post your comment | Categories: Dusty Baker
TweetHorses of different colors
It is kidney-cracking cold. The sky is gun-metal gray, the same color as the aircraft carrier squatting across the water. It is raining so hard that the walkway at Seaport Village is nearly deserted, an area usually overpopulated with camera-toting, bag-carrying tourists.
This isn’t San Diego. This is San Francisco-South. In 36 years of coming to San Diego in the spring and summer I’ve only seen it rain one other time and that was at old San Diego-Jack Murphy Stadium during a game.
They seldom had to use the tarp to cover the field so when they unrolled it that night it had deteriorated so much from non-use it came apart in large pieces.
Before I get into the heavy stuff, an interesting analogy between the Padres and the Reds - two last-place teams holding back their top prospect - permit me to tell you about the night I was nearly arrested in San Diego for assaulting a police officer.
It was after the final game of 1998 World Series, a four-game sweep by the New York Yankees over the Padres. Traffic was heavy in the parking lot and suddenly a mounted police officer was in front of me. His horse reared up, then landed front hooves first on my rental car’s hood.
The horse backed away and I drove a couple of hundred yards when suddenly I was surrounded by police cars, red and blue lights flashing. An officer approached my window and said, “Do you know you HIT a police horse back there and a police horse is considered a police officer? Wait here until I see if the horse is all right.”
Fortunately, just when I was envisioning explaining to my boss why I needed bail money and why the paper was receiving a bill for a crippled horse, another officer came on the radio and told the officer at my window, “Silver (or whatever the horse’s name was) is OK and it wasn’t that guy’s fault anyway. The horse reared up on its own.”
I didn’t dare ask who was going to fix the hoof prints on the rental car’s hood.
Now, a horse of a different color.
There is an interesting dynamic going on with the San Diego Padres that matches what is going on in Cincinnati.
The Padres have an outfielder as their top prospect, Chase Headley. As is Cincinnati’s top outfield prospect, Jay Bruce, Headley is shredding Triple-A pitching. The fans and the media are clamoring for his promotion.
San Diego promoted four players from their minor-league system Thursday, but not Headley.
General manager Kevin Towers sounded just like Reds GM Walt Jocketty when he said, “He’ll be up, but I hate to set a timetable. He is going to be up very shortly.”
Also like the Reds, the Padres said the decision is not financially motivated, money and arbitration issues are not involved.
Towers did say some interesting things that also relate to Bruce. Both the Padres and the Reds are in last place, stuck in the muck.
“The environment is not a very good environment right now,” said Towers. “You don’t want to be looked on as a savior. Probably the ideal time is if we come to the conclusion we can’t turn this thing around this season. The ideal time is when there is no pressure.”
Some fans believe Bruce can come up, wearing a cape with a big ‘B’ on it and save the season. That’s a lot of pressure on a 21-year-old, as good as he is. And the environment issue is a good one, too. Do you want him walking into a last-place situation where heads are hanging and negativity permeates the clubhouse?
From this seat, I believe it is not too soon to raise the white flag. This team shows few vital signs that would lead me to believe Chicago, St. Louis or Houston should put an ‘x’ next to Cincinnati with a reminder, “Watch out for this team.”
As soon as Jocketty can start making deals with other teams, it is probably time to cleanse the roster of the flotsam and jetsam, plug in deserving minor-leaguers (yes, Bruce) and begin a serious youth movement.
This roster has too many plus-30 and plus-35 guys for a team in last place, along with a plus-65 beat writer who is getting weary of watching ugly and futile baseball.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment |
TweetMitch puts needle to Griff
OK, a bad loss to a bad team. Make that a bad loss to a bad team by a bad team.
San Diego, owner of the worst record in the majors and the lowest batting average in the NL, emasculated the Reds, 8-2, hitting four home runs and clipping 14 hits Thursday night.
It was uglier than Throw Mama From the Train. Even Aaron Harang was bad - five runs, 10 hits (two homers) in 5 1/3 innings.
So, this roaming band of rogues have lost 11 of their last 12 road games and now they are getting their behinds reddened by a real bad baseball team.
Time for something off the wall to soothe the pain.
Kevin Mitchell, a storied player with the New York Mets, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Indians, Oakland A’s and the Cincinnati Reds, was in the Reds’ clubhouse before Thursday’s game.
Always one with the snarky tongue, Mitchell was sitting at Ken Griffey Jr.’s locker, the needle razor-sharp.
“You ever gonna get off 597?” said Mitchell. “I see they got you in right field, the old man’s position.”
“Naw, first base is the old man’s position,” said Griffey.
“You’ll be there soon,” said Mitchell, his gold tooth flashing under the clubhouse lights. He was hefting Griffey’s bat and said, “Man, why are you swinging a toothpick?”
Said Griffey with a smile, “I’ll tell you what I told Dave Parker when he got all over me: I got this far, didn’t I?”
Griffey then showed Mitchell how he got to 597, although it took him 90 at-bats to get from 597 to 598.
In the first inning Friday night against the Padres, Griffey crushed one that sounded like a Browning Automatic Rifle, “c-r-r-r-r-r-r-a-c-k-k-k-k.” Gone. No. 598 in the books.
It was his 200th as a member of the Reds and Randy Wolf became the 382nd pitcher to feel the sting of Griffey’s home run wand.
In the stands, Mitchell smiled. He once caught a fly ball barehanded with his back to the infield. He once punched Reds manager Davey Johnson when the two argued over Mitchell’s late arrival for a practice after the All-Star break.
Mitchell said his two best friends were, “Big, Fat Stinky Mike and Japanese Tony. Mike was so fat he took the front seat out of his Cadillac and drove it from the back seat.”
Mitchell once owned a club in suburban San Diego at which an old USA Network show called “Silk Stalkings” was taped. He built a house in San Diego that had a sliding board from his upstairs bedroom into a swimming pool. “I can’t slide anymore. I have to crawl,” he said.
While he seemed in constant trouble and turmoil, he was so good with the Reds media that one year they awarded him The Good Guy Award. When we gave him the trophy it brought tears to his eyes and he said, “I ain’t never won an award like this.”
When I saw him Thursday, one of the first things he said was, “You got me that award, sir. I really appreciated that.”
Before Griffey homered, he told Mitchell, “I’m just like Big Brown. I let ‘em all get out in front and then I sneak up on them and pull away. And by the way, Mitch, ANYBODY can catch a ball barehanded.”
Speaking of Big Brown, one of the nation’s prettiest horse tracks is Del Mar, not far from San Diego. Lou Piniella loves the sport of kings and the last year he managed the Reds he and I went to Del Mar on a Saturday afternoon.
You had to wear a sport coat in the clubhouse. I wore one, Lou didn’t. So they brought him an usher’s jacket - a blue blazer with an orange Del Mar logo on the pocket. So there was the manager of the Cincinnati Reds sitting at a table checking out his program in an usher’s blazer.
He hit three out of the first four races and it was time to go - Piniella needed to make out a lineup card for batting practice. But he was running hot with the ponies and wanted to stay. “One more, one more,” he said.
I nearly had to drag him out of Del Mar, and as we sped down the interstate toward the ball park I said to him, “We’re going to be late. Batting practice starts soon and they don’t even have a lineup.”
It was early September and Piniella wanted a contract extension from owner Marge Schott, but she wouldn’t talk to him during the season. So, at that moment, on the freeway, Piniella said, “To hell with them. I’m not coming back next year anyway.”
And that’s how I got the scoop that Piniella wasn’t returning for another season.
Oh, for the good ol’ days - back in the day …
Permalink | Comments (30) | Post your comment | Categories: Ken Griffey Jr.
TweetTrains, planes and coyotes
It’s a boring three days in Los Angeles when the most exciting occurrences are spotting two coyotes crossing the road not far from downtown and a train ride to San Diego.
A lot of that has to do with watching three poorly played baseball games by the Cincinnati Reds (“To err is human, but to make bunches of errors is to lose”) and a losing argument with a couple of Dodger Dogs (Dodger Dogs 9, McCoy’s Stomach 0).
So after Game 3, the Reds’ ninth straight loss in Dodger Stadium, the cab was winding down Stadium Way To Elysian Park toward Sunset Blvd. when a coyote crossed the street, followed three seconds later by another bushy-tailed creature.
I looked for the Roadrunner but he must have been purchasing supplies at Acme so Wile E. couldn’t buy them.
What a pleasure riding a train. No security lines. Just walk on board. Plush, comfortable recliner seats with much more leg room than you get on First Class on an airplane.
No seat belts, you can get up and walk when you want to get up and walk, you can play your iPod and work on your computer from the time you board until the time you depart and no flight attendant interrupting your sleep with an announcement like, “In the unlikely event of …”
I’m aboard Amtrak’s Surfliner #768, seeing LA’s industrial side. The first thing one sees on the left side after leaving beautiful Union Station (how many times have we seen this place on TV and in movies?) is the Los Angeles River. It isn’t really a river. It is the world’s largest, longest drainage ditch - a concrete riverbed and the sides are covered with gang graffiti.
The train is a double-decker and I’m on the second floor. Juice, coffee, muffins and rolls are at the front of the Business Coach car, free for the taking. Cost from LA to San Diego (with Senior Citizen discount, something else the airlines don’t offer): $38.65. With the cost of gas, you can’t drive it that cheap.
The ride is unbelievably smooth - no clackety-clack, no bumps, no sudden dips from air pockets, just the occasional whistle as he come upon crossings and soft jazz music playing in the background.
There are a few stops, but they aren’t really stations - more like big bus stops with cover shelters. Fullerton, Anaheim Stadium (right at the edge of the baseball park, Santa Ana, Irvine (it’s raining and the conductor says to those deboarding, “Watch those raindrops, folks”).
I pull out my cellphone and call my friend, John Robison. Hey, yeah. You’re allowed to talk on cellphones while the train moves without fear of derailing the thing.
We pause briefly at San Juan Capistrano, not to look for swallows, but to let a northbound train whiz past. It’s the northbound Surfliner. But they fibbed. Two trains went by. Something called the MetroLink also held us up.
The woman across the aisle is reading The 6th Target by James Patterson. I love James Patterson. When I write a book, my chapters are going to be that short, too.
Nadine bought me a new laptop two Christmases ago to start my book. It’s still in the box, but I have a head full of stuff to write about. Just need to find time to get it in order and put it on - well, it used to be put it on paper. What do you put it on now?
Just below San Juan Capistrano, the Pacific Ocean comes into view for the first time - the train actually a few feet from the surf on the beach. A fabulous ride the rest of the way.
I sent my luggage ahead Wednesday night with the Reds, but forgot to keep my toiletries. So to hide my rat’s nest hair Thursday I had to buy a hat, and all I could find to wear on the train was a Dodger hat, thinking I’d check in at the hotel quickly and nobody would notice.
As I walked in the door the first person I saw was Dusty Baker, who looked at my head and said, “Oh, a Dodger hat?”
Well, at least they’ve won five in a row.
The Reds need to sweep four from San Diego to avoid their 19th losing road trip of the last 20 they’ve taken — and as bad as they played in LA, it’s possible because San Diego is crippled and has the fewest wins in the majors (17).
But four? Not likely.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Post your comment |
TweetCueto needs tough love
You’ve been worried about the wrong guy all along.
While we all wondered why Matt Belisle kept getting chances despite awful outings, it’s really Johnny Cueto who is the center of concern.
After Belisle pitched a good one Tuesday night in a losing cause, Cueto had his ears removed Wednesday night by the Dodgers.
It was a dreary five innings watching him labor. He needed 114 pitches to get through the fifth, giving up seven hits, four runs (two earned - one of those unearned runs scoring on his pickoff throw that landed in Pismo Beach), three walks, two strikeouts, one wild pitch.
Now he is 2-5 with an earned run average of 5.56 and the look in his eyes of a cornered coyote with the roadrunner sticking his tongue out at him.
Remember the kid who made his debut with a one-hitter and 10 strikeouts against one of the league’s best teams, the Arizona Diamondbacks?
There is not a shred of evidence that guy exists now. The 22-year-old Dominican has lost his way and Mario Soto isn’t around to help him. His body language says, “I’ve lost my way and I can’t find the right way.”
With Soto gone, maybe Dick Pole can get in his face the way he got into Matt Belisle’s face before Tuesday’s start.
Manager Dusty Baker insists that Belisle was not pitching for his rotation life Tuesday, that he already had Belisle listed for his next start.
That’s not how Belisle interpreted it, though, especially before Tuesday’s start when Pole stared him eye-to-eye and told him, “Step it up, pal. Right now.”
Belisle lost, but pitched as if his rotation life did depend on it — three runs seven hits, two walks, seven strikeouts over seven innings.
Pole smiled when asked if he put the fear of Abner Doubleday into Belisle and said, “That’s about right. That sums it up.”
Pole said Belisle thought he was going all-out during his starts, but it didn’t look that way to anybody else.
“I told him to pitch with a little bit of urgency, which he did Tuesday night,” Pole added. “The pitcher he is supposed to be is the pitcher he was Tuesday night. He has the stuff.
“He was aggressive and pounded the strike zone,” he said. “It looked to me in other starts as if he was trying to pace himself. He thought he was really getting after it and I told him to go look at video.”
The camera seldom lies.
“Just watching himself proved it,” Pole said. “Some guys feel like they’re getting after it but when they watch it they can see that they are really not.”
Baker saw it, too.
“A hungry man is a working man,” said Baker. “I’m very proud of him. He wants to keep that job. But I haven’t had him on a start-to-start basis.”
Cueto probably needs some of that tough love, too. If that doesn’t work, a dose of Louisville is probably dead ahead and there are plenty of candidates wearing Bats uniform ready to try their luck.
And for those counting, the Reds have lost nine straight in Dodger Stadium, last winning here in 2005. They’ve lost three straight in each of 2006, 2007 and 2008.
They boarded a pair of buses for the trip down I-5 to San Diego right after the game, with four games against the Padres dead ahead.
I’m taking the train Thursday morning. Can’t wait. Love the train. Don’t know how much fun it will be watching four games in Petco Park with two teams who can’t hit at the moment.
Petco? No dog food jokes, please.
Permalink | Comments (27) | Post your comment |
TweetShack on the beach: $2.43 million
It’s another pleasant day on the left coast, a gentle breeze wafting into the press box at Dodger Stadium with the giant Golden Bear California state flag flapping in the wind above center field.
Unfortunately, the Cincinnati Reds have another game scheduled against the Dodgers tonight, hoping not to play The Nine Stooges for the ninth straight time in Dodger Stadium.
Here’s a shocker for you - and the fact I’m even asking this question gives away the answer, but it stunned me when I heard it.
Ken Griffey Jr. and Omar Vizquel made their major-league debuts on the same day for the Seattle Mariners in 1989. Who has the most career hits?
Uh, Griffey, right? Wrong. Vizquel has 2,613 to Griffey’s 2,599. In fairness to Griffey, because of all the down time with injuries, he has 8,989 at-bats to Vizquel’s 9,543.
Speaking of Griffey, he and Adam Dunn would make awful West Coast real estate agents. They were in Santa Monica (on the beach) for lunch Wednesday with actor Tony Todd, Griffey’s friend, when they spotted a small house for sale - a very small house, “No bigger than this locker room,” said Griffey. The Dodger Stadium visitors clubhouse is about as big Everybody Loves Raymond’s living room.
“What do you think, $250,000?” said Dunn.
“Naw, “$600,000,” said Griffey.
Todd laughed out loud and said, “Let’s go look it at the papers.” They did. The price? $2.43 million. “And it wasn’t even in the GOOD part of Santa Monica,” said Todd. “It looked like a little old crackhouse.”
If Griffey’s home run drought hasn’t ended by Saturday, look out. Maybe. He has eight home runs in his career on May 24, most of any date along with Aug. 25.
Jerry Hairston Jr., starting at shortstop Wednesday, was pulling on his baseball socks when he looked at a TV screen.
“Who’s going to win American Idol tonight?” he asked. “I hope the old guy, the rocker, wins.” Hardly skipping a syllable, Hairston asked, “Are you going to vote for Sammy Sosa for the Hall of Fame.”
When I told him no, he was incredulous. “Why not? With what he’s done? And nobody ever proved he did steroids, not even a hint of it.” I told him I’d heard differently from good sources, but he was unconvinced.
“How about Mark McGwire?” he asked. Same answer. No - and don’t even ask about Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.
Meanwhile, manager Dusty Baker was poring over statistics in his office, a chore he does every day, making notes in the margin so small that a guy with 20/20 vision needs a magnifying glass to read them.
He already was working on the four-game San Diego series and said, “Damn, San Diego is hard to scout right now. Half their team is hurt.”
An LA writer asked Baker for his reaction to New York Mets manager Willie Randolph, who apologized after saying he was treated differently in New York because he is black.
Baker pointed a pen at his inquisitor and said, “Why is it when controversy comes around the media always goes to somebody from the same race for a reaction?”
Excellent point, Dusty, excellent point.
A TV in the clubhouse reported that former major-leaguer Willie Mays Aiken is getting out of prison, where he has been since 1994 on a crack cocaine conviction.
“That shows what happens when a man takes the wrong road,” said Baker. “He is a good man. I sent him a couple of letters while he was prison.”
Former Reds outfielder Eric Davis walked into Baker’s office, looking as if he could step into the batter’s box and whack one to Pasadena.
“Best baseball player I ever covered,” I told Baker.
“I hear you,” he said. “And a greater person.”
Too bad the Reds don’t activate him.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Post your comment |
TweetPlease stop the music
If I hear that song, “I Love LA” one more time I’m going to spit in the ocean.
Of course, the only way not to hear it after a game in Dodger Stadium is for the Cincinnati Reds to win a game here in Dodger Stadium so they don’t play it.
Not likely to happen. They don’t play it when they lose, but the Reds know nothing about that.
The Reds have lost here eight times in a row and it is to the point where it is like the Washington Generals vs. the Harlem Globetrotters - no matter what happens, the Trotters win.
Like it’s scripted.
Much-maligned pitcher Matt Belisle (deservedly so) finally cranked up a really good one Tuesday night after pitching coach Dick Pole got in his face and said something like, “Do it or you’ll be going away.”
Belisle gave up two cheap runs in the second inning, then retired 13 in a row, but all he got was another big fat ‘L’ next to his name, his fourth loss in five starts, this time by 4-1.
Had he tossed in another stinker klinker, I’d say ship him out to Louisville and bring in somebody from the Bats - and there are a plethora of candidates, with Homer Bailey only No. 4 on the list.
Starting pitchers’ records at Louisville: Tom Shearn (6-1, 4.14), Andy Pettyjohn (4-0, 4.71), Matt Maloney (5-2, 4.91), Justin Lehr (4-2, 2.41) AND Homer Bailey (4-4, 3.88).
Belisle, though, deserves another chance. Amazingly, with his back bowed and his mind focused, Belisle attacked the strike zone - 85 pitches, 67 strikes.
While talking about help, how about this kid named Jay Bruce. Anybody know about him? The statistics say over the last two weeks (14 games) he is hitting .529 (27-51) with five homers and 15 RBIs.
But it is as if he is a figment of some PR flak’s imagination. “There is not really a Jay Bruce. We’re just making him up.”
He IS for real. I know for sure. I saw him in spring training. With my eyes, as bad as they are. Hey, even I could see how good this kid is.
I’m not sure anybody with the Reds is aware of this, or why would he not be here, especially after watching another feeble offensive effort Tuesday - one run, four hits over seven innings against Chad Billingsley, who came into the game with a 3-5 record and a 4.34 ERA.
On the lighter side, and some levity is needed at this point: The first six pitchers to appear Tuesday night all had last names beginning with ‘B’ - Matt Belisle, Bill Bray, Jared Burton, Chad Billingsley, Jonathan Broxton, Joe Beimel.
Permalink | Comments (23) | Post your comment |
TweetGriffey laughs at TMZ
For those who have seen the short video of Ken Griffey Jr. on TMZ’s celebrity web-site and wonder if he is angry or ready to file suit, fear not.
He laughed at it. And then he said, “TMZ, baby, I made it.”
The video shows Griffey and his actor friend, Tony Todd, leaving a Hollywood steakhouse Monday night. As he walks toward a cab, Griffey trips on a curb. The headline on the web-site says, “Stumbling Home,” implying that Griffey was inebriated.
Griffey doesn’t drink. He can’t. He knows the reaction his father had to alcohol. Ken Griffey Sr. didn’t drink, either. But after the Cincinnati Reds won the 1975 World Series, somebody coaxed him into sipping half a beer.
Next thing you knew, Senior was reclined on top of a dressing cubicle, giggling non-stop. And that’s why the Griffeys don’t imbibe.
“When I came out of the restaurant the guy asked me a dumb question,” said Griffey. “I guess he was mad when I didn’t answer. He asked, ‘What do you think of the Roger Clemens indictment?’ “
If you don’t go to the celebrities, the celebrities come to Dodger Stadium. Charlie Sheen and Rob Reiner are regulars. On Monday night, Desperate Housewives actor James Denton was on the field during batting practice.
And, of course, if you are a baseball celebrity and wander out to dinner, some foof with a camera is going to catch you picking your nose and pulling the underwear out of your crack.
Too bad they didn’t have web-sites and phonecams back in the ’70s.
One of my funniest memories of Dodger Stadium was back in the 1970s when Sparky Anderson did something I had never seen before nor have seen since.
In the top of the first inning, the Reds had a rally going and light-hitting third baseman John Vukovich was due up. Anderson pinch-hit for him - and he hadn’t even been on the field yet.
Vukovich was a bit miffed. As he walked up the tunnel from the dugout to the clubhouse, he used the bat he didn’t get to use in the game - knocking out every light bulb from dugout to clubhouse.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Ken Griffey Jr.
TweetSome things make me sick
Can anybody out there recommend a good heartburn medication?
OK, so it’s my fault. I’m going to antagonize a lot folks here. Even I have been a big, big fan of the Dodger Dog, the long hot dog they serve off the grills in Dodger Stadium.
I had two last night (they serve them in the press box). At 5 o’clock this morning I awoke in a cold seat and felt as if a heart attack was upon me. I stayed in bed until 1 in the afternoon, except for occasional dash to the bathroom.
So … NO MORE DODGER DOGS. Ever.
I almost didn’t come to the game, but I’m now sitting in the press box, avoiding the media dining room and reading more diatribes about Ken Griffey Jr. and how it is his fault this team isn’t very good.
OK, so it is time to address Griffey. Yes, I like Ken Griffey Jr. As a human being there is no better person. If all of us were half the person he is in what he does for people this world would be a much better place.
I’ve kept quiet for a long time about the postings about Griffey - even when a supposed friend accuses me of protecting him because he is a friend or some moron accusing him of giving me a car.
No. 1 - Griffey does not loaf. No, he doesn’t run hard. Why? The guy has two screws keeping his butt attached to his leg. He has had surgery on every ligament, muscle and moving part in both legs. It is a miracle he can run as fast as he does.
Nobody said he didn’t care or had a poor attitude when he was a superstar. His attitude was exactly the same then as it is now. He is not an outwardly emotional person. Does he have to jump up and down and do somersaults to show people he cares. I know he cares. Losing kills him. Not doing well, not helping his team, hurts him even more.
What do people want him to do, apologize because he isn’t hitting home runs or driving in runs?
No. 2 - He is not a cancer in the clubhouse and he is not a bad influence. He is one of the most positive guys in that room and shares his thoughts and experiences with all his teammates, young and old. He is probably the best-liked guy in the clubhouse by his teammates.
And let’s quit saying trade him, move him to Seattle. He isn’t going. Understand that. He isn’t going. He has said he won’t go to Seattle. So it is moot and it is a waste of effort and breath to keep saying trade him.
He’ll be with the Reds the rest of the season and then he’ll be gone. The Reds aren’t likely to pick up his option.
And if I like the guy, so sue me. He has meant an awful lot to this game and meant an awful lot to scores of people he has helped - without making a big issue out of it or seeking publicity about it.
I’ve never covered a guy who likes to talk about himself less than Griffey does. Talk about other people, fine. Talk about his accomplishments? Go talk to somebody else.
Unfortunately, most baseball fans can only see the surface. What is the guy doing for me now? That’s true, to a point. Are Griffey’s skills diminished? Yes. Injuries and age have taken the inevitable toll.
But the Reds won’t take him out back and shoot him. He’ll be gone after this year and the fans who are always looking for a fall guy can turn their sights on somebody else.
And he has never bought me so much as a cup of coffee, let alone a car. Besides, I can’t drive a car, remember?
Permalink | Comments (35) | Post your comment | Categories: Ken Griffey Jr.
TweetHomer Simpson and Homer Dunn
I knew it, I knew, I knew it. I just knew it wouldn’t be long before Homer took the mound in front of the Cincinnati Reds. It happened Monday night in Dodger Stadium.
Homer Bailey? Uh, no.
It was Homer Simpson, or a guy dressed up like Homer Simpson. He threw out the game’s first pitch. He bounced it and I won’t make any derogatory comments about it resembling something Homer Bailey is throwing lately.
Anyway, it was Bronson Arroyo pitching for the Reds — the new, improved Bronson Arroyo. He had the Dodgers digging dirt with ground balls in the first two innings, getting the first four outs on grounders.
But it didn’t last. After leading 4-0, Arroyo gave up four straight one-out hits in the fifth inning for three runs and a 5-5 tie.
The Reds scraped one hit over the last four innings and lost, 6-5, on a walk-off bases-loaded single off David Weathers by Blake DeWitt.
It was the first loss by a member of the Reds bullpen since April 19, and this one really wasn’t Weathers’ fault. The inning started with a ground ball that shortstop Paul Janish made a nifty play on, but he threw the ball on the fly into the Reds’ dugout.
The official scorer ruled it a single and an error, but had Janish made a good throw, the runner would have been out. It should have been a straight two-base error.
Anyway, that forced manager Dusty Baker to issue two intentional walks to fill the bases and DeWitt, a left-hander, poked one between short and third to end it — and end the Reds’ six-game winning streak.
Welcome to the West Coast.
Arroyo gave up a couple of hits in the second, but got another grounder for an inning-ending double play and had thrown 14 straight scoreless innings at that juncture.
Meanwhile, the Reds chomped away at LA’s Brad Penny in the third three innings — four runs and six hits. Didn’t Penny used to be good? How about decent?
And guess who homered for the fifth straight game? Yep, that guy who isn’t worth all that money they’re paying him to hit 40 homers, drive in 100 and score 100.
Yep, Adam Dunn’s 11th homer of the season drifted into the right-field bleachers, tying him with some high-falutin’ people for hitting home runs in five straight games, a club record — Ted Kluszewski, Johnny Bench, Ken Griffey Jr.
“Some pretty good company,” said Dunn.
It also gave Dunn at least one RBI in eight straight games. Can we have a hamster dance for the big guy?
Oops! Sorry I mentioned Arroyo’s scoreless streak. It end at 14. The Dodgers scored two in the third, but it wasn’t entirely Arroyo’s fault — except he had two outs and nobody on.
He walked Juan Pierre and Andre Ethier doubled. But that should have been it. Russell Martin tapped a slow roller toward shortstop. Jerry Hairston Jr. charged in erratically, then threw low and ugly past first base, a two-run throwing error.
Time out for a quiz: Why in the name of Phil Rizzuto isn’t Paul Janish playing shortstop? Seriously. Uh, maybe that ninth-inning throw by Janish answers that question, too.
Baker said it is because both Hairston and Janish are playing well and by holding back Janish he can use him late in the game to double-switch, moving Hairston to left field and Janish to short, removing Dunn for defensive purposes.
“I do worry about Dunn’s spot in the order coming up in a tie game or if we fall behind,” said Baker. “That’s always on my mind.”
Dunn, probably whistling that old Jerry Reed song under his breath, “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot,” produced another run in the fifth, following a Phillips triple with a hard-shot single to right field to make it 5-2. Right now Dunn seems dead-center on every pitch
Arroyo caved in the fifth, again swith two outs. He had two outs and one on when he gave up four straight singles to three runs and a tie game, 5-5.
Then came the ninth and a long, quiet bus ride back to the Century Plaza.
Permalink | Comments (22) | Post your comment |
TweetA day in LA-LA land
As I sit in the Dodger Stadium pressbox writing this, awaiting the Cincinnati Reds-Los Angeles Dodgers game Monday night, I peer over the right field bleachers and see the San Gabriel Mountains.
It is close to 80 degrees and a girl with a violin is screeching a practice rendition of the National Anthem behind home plate. Hope she failed the audition. She sounds like Reds Authority trying to make a point.
By the way, most of you use your real e-mail addresses to post comments. Reds Authority hides behind xxxx@xxx.com. What a coward. Anybody out there think I should block his comments?
The Reds stay at the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City, a nice hotel in a great location - Ronald Reagan’s favorite hotel, when he could remember how to find it.
But the place is far, far way from Dodger Stadium, which is why I stay at the LA Marriott on Figueroa, five minutes from the stadium. Figueroa. Love that name ever since as a kid I heard Jack Webb (Joe Friday) say it over and over on Dragnet.
And this even happens nearly every time the Reds are in LA.
Jeremy Affeldt and Paul Bako had lunch and Bako, a wise veteran, said to Affeldt, “I’ll pay for lunch and you pay for the cab to the park.”
Affeldt thought he’d make out on that deal. Until they got in the cab.
“There was a wreck on the 110 and the cabbie took surface streets,” said Affeldt. “Took us over an hour to get here and cost $55. We stopped twice for coffee.”
Ken Griffey Jr. suggested that the cabbie probably took the scenic route, “A tour through Watts and Compton.”
Joey Votto took his first look at Dodger Stadium and was bug-eyed.
“Love this place, but I’ll let you know how much I like to hit in it in about three days,” he said.
Why does he say that?
“Well, I hated going to Clinton, Ia. when I played for the Dayton Dragons,” he said. “Just a really bad place, my least favorite place to go. But once I stepped into the batter’s box I loved the place because I always hit so well there. Why? I don’t know.”
Votto paused and added, “And now the people in Clinton are going to hate me.” For what he did to their baseball team, they already do.
Fabled Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully stopped into manager Dusty Baker’s office to say hello.
“As a kid, every day I listened to two people, Vin Scully and Chick Hearn (famous Los Angeles Lakers broadcaster). Those were my two favorite announcers. Then I played in LA and became friends with both.
“One thing about Vinnie, though,” Baker said. “He always calls me Johnny Lee Baker. I’m Johnny B. Baker. I used to correct him all the time, now I just let it go and he calls me Johnny Lee. That’s OK. He can call me anything he wants.”
Edwin Encarnacion, struggling at the plate, got Monday off, replaced at third base by Ryan Freel. It was fortuitous timing because Freel is 7 for 17 (.412) for his career against LA starter Brad Penny.
Baker said he could see slow hands on Encarnacion and frustration in his eyes after at-bats. He told him Sunday night he would rest Monday and Baker knew he was doing the right thing when Encarnacion didn’t argue.
It’s almost ball time. The Reds are 0-for-two-years (0-6) in Dodger Stadium.
Permalink | Comments (18) | Post your comment |
TweetWest usually is not the best
What is it about the west coast that puts the fear of Mephistopholes into the Cincinnati Reds?
They bolted Great American Ball Park Sunday afternoon to Los Angeles to open a seven-game trip - three in LA, four in San Diego - after winning six straight at home, topped off Sunday with a 6-4 victory and three-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians.
Noe it is the west coast, where hopes and dreams to go die for the Reds.
Is it the time difference, playing games past their bed time? Is it stage fright, with all those celebrities in Dodger Stadium?
Remember when Hugh Hefner and a half dozen of his wholesome American next-door neighbor girls showed up at Dodger Stadium and sat behind home plate with more skin showing than fabric?
Three catchers left the game with sore necks.
Is it the fear of Tommy Lasorda plopping down next to them in a Beverly Hills restaurant and eating all their linguine? And stiffing them with the check?
Remember a few years ago when the Reds went west in first place and lost every game and came home 4 1/2 games behind and slipped away to oblivion?
And it isn’t just a few teams. Marty Brennaman and I remember The Big Red Machine going west and getting more than their eggs scrambled.
Something happens when you go west. I can remember one year going to Old Town in San Diego for a Mexican lunch. Never, never, never do I drink alcohol before covering a game. On this day, though, I drank two (not one, TWO) fish bowls full of margaritas. Somebody had to keep jabbing me with a ball point pen that night in the press box to keep me awake.
I’ve spent all night on the beach in La Jolla - watched the sun come up. I’ve spent all day at the La Brea tar pits smelling mastodon bones, all day on the Santa Monica Pier smelling dead fish, all day on Venice Beach watching the societal dropouts.
There was the time I tried to, uh, “bring” back some Cuban cigars from Tijuana and was stopped at the border. A couple of customs agents enjoyed some fine cigars for a few days - at my expense.
So I know exactly what Reds manager Dusty Baker is saying about this trip.
“As Bill Walsh (former NFL/49ers coach) always told me about trips, emphasize that they are business trips, not pleasure trips.”
Baker said he can’t understand why the Reds have so much difficulty on the left coast, even The Big Red Machine. Yes, there are distractions.
“There are a lot of things to do and not just at night,” he said. “Weather is nice, but you have to limit your time at the pool, limit your time with the family, make sure you get your rest. There is Sea World, Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, Tijuana, the beach, all kinds of stuff,” said Baker.
“I’ve reprimanded quite a few guys for coming in from the beach,” said Baker. “I had one guy who was supposed to play couldn’t walk because he got blisters walking at Universal Studios all day.”
They know how to put you in a foul mood. A driver once parked the team bus across the street from the hotel. A policeman stood nearby. As the players came out the hotel door and jay-walked to the bus, the LA gendarme furiously wrote tickets.
There was the time former first baseman Nick Esasky missed time on the coast when he ate at a diner counter and swallowed a broke-off piece of fork. Not pork. Fork.
Heading west, the Reds are on a natural high and Baker says, “Surf’s up.”
“If you’re going good, you don’t think about it going bad,” he said. “You just keep thinking about it going good. I have a lot of buddies who surf and they catch a good wave a ride it all the way to the beach. If you think about falling off, you’re going to fall off. So you ride the wave and keep on riding. Don’t worry about the wind or if you are going to fall.”
Adam Dunn has four homers in four games and a couple of defensive notches on his belt and a smile back on his face.
Paul Janish, the guy they said who could field like Omar Vizquel but hits like Omar the Tentmaker, made his first start Sunday and had a walk and three hits. His average is .800 and he said with a laugh, “That’s quite the torrid pace.”
The Reds ripped Cliff Lee, who was 6-0 with a 0.67 ERA for six runs (five earned) and 10 hits in only 5 2/3 innings. He was beaten by Edinson “High-Voltage” Volquez - two runs, four hits over six innings.
Volquez now leads the majors in ERA, 1.33 to Lee’s 1.37 and Volquez is 7-1.
Off to LA and SD with WG on their mind (winning games).
Permalink | Comments (14) | Post your comment |
TweetAdam Dunn - The Big Lug
When Adam Dunn’s favorite Mexican restaurant in Porter, Texas, burned to the ground - probably the only Mexican restaurant in Porter, Texas - Dunn paid to have it rebuilt.
In thanks, the owners named an enchilada after him - most likely the biggest one on the menu.
Adam Dunn - The Big Lug, The Big Enchilada - fans either love him or hate him, depending upon what week it is and what he has done for the Cincinnati Reds lately.
And believe me, for those who think he doesn’t care, when he is going bad and fans hate him, nobody hates him more than he hates himself. It tears him up, changes his usual outgoing personality.
Fans believe he doesn’t hustle, doesn’t give it his all. That’s an illusion. C’mon, the guy is 6-7 and 275 pounds and getting that wide-body started is like starting a locomotive pulling 100 coal cars.
This week he is Mr. Wonderful after hitting home runs in three straight games. He won Saturday’s game with a three-run walkoff home run in the ninth. On Friday he walked with the bases loaded to force in the winning run after hitting a home run earlier in the game.
Up to now, all we’ve heard is, “Trade him, trade him, trade him.” Well, for one thing, he has a clause in his contract saying he can’t be traded until June.
That fits nicely into what the Reds can do, should GM Walt Jocketty choose to trade him. Jay Bruce is waiting in Louisville, very patiently, while he destroys the International League with his Louisville Slugger.
All of us want to see Bruce in a Reds uniform as soon as possible - actually we wanted to see him on Opening Day. But if the Reds wait until June, they save a year of arbitration-eligibility and free agency, which means big bucks.
So, they trade Dunn in June and replace him with Bruce. Simple, right? Dunn is a free agent after this season and although nobody has said it, the Reds probably believe he’ll be too costly to retain. So, they trade him before the end of the season so they get players for him.
Me? I hope they don’t rush to judgment.
Let me go on record right now - Dunn will hit between 35 and 40 homers, drive in 90 to 100, walk 100 times and score 100 runs. If he doesn’t do three of those four things, I’ll run around Great American Ball Park in my underwear. I have some nice new Fruit of the Looms and I’ll save one pair to wear.
Don’t think I’ll have to do that, though.
His defense is heavily criticized and sometimes it is deserved. He has said often, “I’ll never win a gold glove.” In fact, I’ll use the same line on him I once used on Wily Mo Pena - he probably couldn’t get his glove through an airport metal detector.
But if you’ve paid attention this year, he is better. He has made some excellent catches in the gaps and did you see that catch he made Saturday, reaching into the stands in left field to snatch a foul ball?
There is one thing that I don’t understand and that’s his weak arm. I mean, the guy throws a football 60 yards in the air. The University of Texas recruited him as a quarterback. So why can’t he throw a teeny little baseball? I can’t explain it because I could never throw a football or a baseball.
There is a great statistic floating out there. During his career, Dunn has done one of three things in nearly 50 percent of his at bats - walk, hit a home run or strike out.
That’s absolutely amazing.
But for now let’s get off his case. It isn’t totally his fault the Reds remain in last place. But he is a big reason the Reds beat the Cleveland Indians the last two days.
Let’s see what Jocketty and the Reds decide in June or up until the trade deadline in late July. Dunn can still help this team turn it around.
Permalink | Comments (32) | Post your comment | Categories: Adam Dunn
TweetGood Johnny, Bad Johnny
Johnny Cueto has been very good and very bad in different games this season.
On Friday night in Great American Ball Park, he was great and he was awful in the same game.
For five innings he held the Cleveland Indians to no hits. He had a perfect game through eight hitters before he walked pitcher Jeremy Sowers
He had a 3-0 lead thanks to a two-run home run by Brandon Phillips and a solo shot by Adam Dunn.
Then came the sixth and Cueto became unglued quickly by the bottom of the Indians’ order. No. 8 hitter Corey Blake homered onto the grass behind the center field wall - ending the no-hitter and the shutout.
Travis Hafner, normally the DH (but they aren’t using the DH in Cincinnati), pinch-hit for Sowers and cracked a home run off the right field foul pole.
Cueto retired a hitter, then Jhonny Peralta unloaded the third homer of the inning, tying the game, 3-3.
The next inning, Cueto was gone - The Good Johnny and The Bad Johnny.
The bullpen saved it - no runs over the final three innings - and after Dunn walked with the bases loaded in the eighth for the Reds only run after the second inning - Francisco Cordero struck out the side in the ninth for the 4-3 victory.
Now a few words about Bad Homer Bailey and Good (Very Good) Jay Bruce.
And we’d all better shut up (me included) for now about bringing up Homer Bailey. He got beat up for the second straight time Friday night, walking six in five innings.
Our man who covers the Dayton Dragons, Marc Katz, visited Louisville recently and he asked Homer one question: “Have you learned anything down here.”
Homer’s answer was, “No,” and he walked away. End of interview. And that’s why Homer is still in Louisville and may remain there for a long time - or be traded.
Another story. I got this from two scouts and another impeccable source who saw it. On the day before a pitcher starts, he sits in the stands and charts the pitches of his team’s pitcher that night. It was Homer’s turn to chart that night, but he was reading a hunting magazine most of the time and paying little attention to what was going on on the field.
Another scout who has watched him said his fastball is down three to four miles an hour and he can’t throw it by anybody - in TRIPLE A! “I saw him two starts ago and he acted as if he didn’t care,” said the scout.
Homer, we hardly knew ye.
But I shall not shut up about Jay Bruce.
A rival scout’s assessment of Bruce after watching him several times in Louisville: “Why isn’t he in Cincinnati?
“I’ve seen very few balls jump off the bat they way they do on Bruce. I saw him pull an inside fastball from a left-handed pitcher over the right field fence. I saw him hit a slider into the left field seats. I saw him hit a change-up that was still on the rise when it cleared the center field fence.
“I had been told he couldn’t play center field. He can, better than anybody they have now. He can play all three outfield positions. He has everything but speed and his instincts are so good he gets great jumps on balls.
“I never saw a ball go over his head and stay in the park and I never saw one fall in front of him and he caught everything in the gaps,” he said. “He’d be playing center field for my team right now and we have a good center fielder.”
Permalink | Comments (23) | Post your comment |
TweetTales about the Ohio Cup
It is no longer the Battle of Ohio/Baseball. Once again it is the Ohio Cup.
It’s a rebirth and probably means the same to the players of the Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds as it did in its genesis.
Nothing.
It started before interleague play. Somebody came up with the idea of The Ohio Cup for spring training. The Reds and Indians scheduled their last spring training game in Columbus, one game for the not-so-coveted Ohio Cup - winner takes the actual trophy home for a year.
One year a pitcher named Tim Birtsas was to start The Ohio Cup - he was called Big Bird by his teammates because he sort of looked like Big Bird, minus the yellow feathers.
Anyway, somebody asked him about being fired up about pitching The Ohio Cup and he said, “Ohio Cup? What’s The Ohio Cup, a boat race?”
The only person who cared about The Ohio Cup was Marge Schott. She was angry one year when the Reds lost, 1-0, on a cold, rainy day when all the players swung at the first pitch, just to get in out of the wet and chill. The game was 1:56.
One year the Indians won The Cup and asked for it. Nobody knew where it was. It disappeared. So did the annual game. Where was The Cup? When Schott died, they found it piled among trinkets in a room at her Indian Hill home.
There is another story floating around that the Indians had The Cup in their offices one year when two guys walked in and asked for it. A receptionist said, “It’s right there.” The two guys picked it up and walked out the door and nobody cared to stop them.
Maybe Marge hired them.
Now it’s back, sponsored by the Ohio Lottery. I won’t even ask Johnny Cueto and Edinson Volquez about the importance of the Ohio Cup. None of the Cleveland writers was aware of its rebirth.
The Indians pitched lefthander Jeremy Sowers Friday night, a name familiar to Reds fans.
General manager Jim Bowden had no money in the budget to pay for a No. 1 draft pick in 2001. Sowers told everybody who would listen that he was going to Vanderbilt University and wouldn’t sign, if drafted. Knowing that, Bowden seized on the opportunity to make a No. 1 draft pick he knew he couldn’t sign.
So he drafted Sowers. Sowers didn’t sign. Went to Vanderbilt, as promised. And the Cleveland Indians drafted him out of Vanderbilt. And he signed.
Now he gets to pitch in the all-unimportant Ohio Cup game.
There was no talk of The Ohio Cup in the Reds pre-game clubhouse. Ken Griffey Jr. sent a clubhouse boy out to purchase two grocery bags full of Wendy’s burgers for hungry teammates before batting practice.
He unwrapped a new glove and said, “Give me a break tonight on defense. I’m breaking in a new glove tonight - my third one in a week. None of ‘em feel good. I thought it was my hand, but I think it’s my gloves.”
Nobody believed he would wear a brand new glove in a game, so we’ll be checking.
If they need The Ohio Cup game timed, Kent Mercker was the man. He was walking around the clubhouse carrying the biggest watch in captivity - a grandfather clock with a strap. And probably the heaviest. It weighs a pound-and-a-half and Francisco Cordero (Yes, it was Cabrera in an earlier post. I have a mental block on his name and have called him Cabrera before. Cordero, Cordero, Cordero, Cor….) said, “You gonna wear that thing? You won’t be able to lift your wrist.”
Said Mercker, “I’m going to wear it when I run, like weights on your wrist. Hey, I was watching Buy-NBC one day at 1:40 in the morning and they advertised it. Only $2,500. It’s a cool watch.”
Everybody in the clubhouse seemed happy about Thursday’s postponement, a night off. Everybody but Javier Valentin. Even Mother Nature is against him. He was supposed to start at first base, his first start in a game since April 16 - one month ago.
“See ya next month,” he said.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment |
TweetKilling time while it rains
Kent Mercker figured the Reds wouldn’t be playing tonight.
“I saw Noah buying wood and nails and my dogs are gone, so I figured, ‘No game,’ ” he said.
He was right. With rain predicted until close to midnight, the game was called at 5 o’clock and probably will be replayed August 18 - an off day for both teams, pending Players Association approval.
And what do the players do while the Ark is being built in center field?
Well, there was a card game in the middle of the room - an indoctrination for rookie Paul Janish. He played with Adam Dunn as his partner against Ryan Freel and Ken Griffey Jr.
Janish hesitated to make a play and Griffey said, “C’mon. If you think long, you think wrong.”
He did think long and played wrong. When he made his play, Dunn screamed, “Why didn’t you play the queen? Why didn’t you … DAMN!”
The conversation switched back toward Mercker’s side of the room and somebody mentioned how dumb and tough this year’s schedule is, just as it was last year.
Said Mercker, who sat out last season after Tommy John surgery, “Last year’s schedule was beautiful. Tee time at 8:15, happy hour at 8.”
With the rain and the threat that it will continue all night, somebody wondered how many fans might show up. Then it was mentioned that Class AAA Louisville outdrew the Reds-Marlins on Wednesday night.
“That’s understandable,” said somebody in the background. “Louisville has better players.”
And let me take a timeout at this point to thank Scott Priestle of The Columbus Dispatch. I wore a new pair of pants Thursday because I was going to be filmed in a documentary. I left a cellophane size tag running up and down my leg and Priestle told me about it.
You know, I think I wore those pants one other time — plastic strip included.
When I told Mercker I was “dressed up” to do a film documentary, he said, “Who’s doing it?”
“Some guy from New York,” I said.
“Well that narrows it down to about 10 million people,” he said.
With the game banged (baseball lingo for called off) Manager Dusty Baker said Thursday’s scheduled pitcher, Matt Belisle, will be skipped to keep everybody on rtheir turn.
Belisle will pitch Tuesday in Los Angeles and five days later in San Diego after doing a side session in the next couple of days.
“I know he wants to pitch, but we want to keep our pitchers on their regular schedule, especially Aaron Harang, Edinson Volquez, and now that Bronson Arroyo is doing well, we need to get him back on schedule,” said Baker.
Time to go do the documentary. Hope there is no price tag hanging from my shirt.
By the way, when Baker sent pitcher Johnny Cueto in to pinch-run for David Ross in the 10th inning Wednesday (Cueto scored the winning run on Janish’s single), he was going to send in Edinson Volquez.
Of all people, Edwin Encarnacion stopped him.
“First time I heard him speak in a week,” said Baker. “But he said, ‘No, no. Not Volquez. Cueto is faster.’” So I sent in Cueto and said, “Just don’t get picked off.”
Permalink | Comments (24) | Post your comment |
TweetJanish 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?
Permalink | Comments (27) | Post your comment |
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?
Permalink | Comments (23) | Post your comment | Categories: Brandon Phillips, Ken Griffey Jr.
TweetKeppinger fractures knee
Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad news.
Shortstop Jeff Keppinger fractured his left knee in the second inning Tuesday night. X-rays showed the fracture and he’ll undergo a more detailed MRI Wednesday morning.
Keppinger fouled a ball off the knee in the second inning and gamely remained in the game, but left after the third inning.
That leaves the Reds with two broken-kneed shortstops. Alex Gonzalez has missed all season with a broken left knee.
The loss is disastrous to the Reds because Keppinger was, by far, the most efficient, productive and enthusiastic participant - witness his playing an inning on the fractured knee.
Her was hitting .320 with three homers and 20 RBIs after going 8 for 12 in a three-games series in New York.
Jerry Hairston Jr. took over at shortstop and at the moment is the natural replacement for Keppinger.
But the Reds most likely will call up shortstop Paul Janish from Class AAA Louisville, where he is hitting .289, but has no major-league experience.
The Reds have made no announcement, but Janish was pulled from the Louisville lineup tonight after he batted twice and drove in two runs against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Permalink | Comments (29) | Post your comment |
TweetWhat’s a team to do?
Let’s forget Josh Hamilton, OK? Yes, he is good. Damn good. He is the hottest thing in Texas this side of a branding iron.
But he’s gone. He is no longer with the Cincinnati Reds.
Concentrate on what the Reds received in the trade - arguably the best pitcher in baseball right now. Edinson Volquez IS the branding iron.
The Reds traded Hamilton for him and received exactly what they hoped they’d get. Except they got more.
I get message after message: “Why didn’t the Reds trade Adam Dunn for him? Why didn’t the Reds trade Ken Griffey Jr. for him?”
Plain and simple. The Texas Rangers did not want Adam Dunn. They did not want Ken Griffey Jr. They wanted Josh Hamilton and Josh Hamilton only. To get Volquez, that’s what the Reds had to give up.
Everybody always proposes outlandish trades. If they are Reds fans, they want to dump the malingerers and malcontents and miscasts onto another team for that team’s best players.
Let’s trade Corey Patterson and Scott Hatteberg and Javier Valentin to Houston for Lance Berkman. Yeah, right. Houston is going to say, “OK, and we’ll throw the Alamo into the deal, too.”
That’s why Hamilton is gone and that’s why Volquez is here, dazzling the baseball world with 95 miles an hour fastballs and deceptive change-ups that wrap hitters into human pretzels, with or without mustard.
He was at it again Tuesday night against the first-place Florida Marlins, who tried to approach him as if their bats were sticks and they were trying to beat a snake.
He went six innings, slowed only by his pitch count of 110, giving up one run (as always) on seven hits. He has made eight starts this year and given up one or fewer runs in all eight - the first pitcher to do that since Oakland’s Mike Norris in 1980.
“That’s some big-time company there,” said manager Dusty Baker. “What I like about Volquez is his will to win. He wills himself to win.”
His changeup doesn’t hurt, either.
His only real problem was the fifth inning when the Marlins scored one and had the bases loaded with two outs, and were down only 3-1. Dan Uggla, arguably Florida’s best hitter right now, went down swinging.
“Probably my best pitch of the night,” said Volquez. “A changeup.”
Speaking of problems, the Reds are likely to be missing shorstop Jeff Keppinger for a long time - too long. He fractured his left knee in the second inning when he fouled a ball off it.
Tough customer that he is, he played for another two innings, without crutches, before he told Baker, “No more. I can’t go any longer.”
An X-ray revealed the fracture and an MRI Wednesday will show how serious it is.
“That’s a big loss, a big-time loss,” said Baker. “You have two choices. You can feel sorry for yourself or you can figure out a way to get the job done.”
A call was immediately placed to Louisville and shortstop Paul Janish, who had two hits in two at-bats and two RBIs, was immediately pulled from the game. He is hitting .293.
Tlhe Reds would admit that Janish is coming up, but Baker said, “He is a top candidate. He is a slick fielder, a real slick fielder. And he has some pop in his bat, especially on high fastballs.”
So what does a last-place team do when it loses its best players?
With one-fourth of the season gone and three-fourths dead ahead, we shall see, won’t we?
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment |
TweetStories from the clubhouse
It wasn’t Ken Griffey Sr. being a Little League dad. He didn’t rush to Cincinnati from Orlando on Tuesday because he heard his kid wasn’t playing.
In fact, Senior didn’t know it when he walked through the clubhouse door and said, “I’m here to straighten out my kid. He has a lot on his head.”
Indeed he does. There is the death of his best friend, Frank King, dead from cancer at 38. There is the constant talk of a possible trade to Seattle. And there was the dropped fly ball Monday that let in two runs — and a nearly dropped deep drive on the next play that popped out of his glove. Griffey stabbed that one barehanded and said, “That catch was from my days as a Moeller High School wide receiver.
“If I had dropped that one I would have thrown my glove into the stands and played barehanded,” he added. “On the one I dropped, I was just trying to protect myself. I saw (second baseman) Brandon Phillips go down to the ground to get out of my way and I flinched. I thought I was going to have to jump over him.”
Griffey was not in Tuesday’s lineup, but manager Dusty Baker said it had nothing to do with the fly-ball difficulties. It was planned.
“He’s played almost every game,” said Baker. “He played the doubleheader Saturday in New York, then played the day game afterward on Sunday and played Monday night.”
Said Griffey, “I was supposed to have one of the doubleheader games off, but when we lost the first one I stayed in. Dusty told me I’d get tonight off.”
Of the drop and near-drop, Baker said, “He’s human. Plus he took his eye off it when he saw Phillips coming at him. That only happened because of Brandon’s range. Most second basemen wouldn’t ever have been out there. I’d rather have too many in the area than too few.”
Speaking of Phillips, he is completely bald. No hair. The Mohawk he sported in spring training and the first month-and-a-half of the season is gone.
“Got tired of getting haircuts,” he said. “Not used to that.”
And there was a cool reunion during batting practice between former Reds pitchers who pitched together on the 1994 team and hadn’t seen each other since.
Steve Foster is now bullpen coach for the Florida Marlins and he was walking on the field when a voice yelled, “Hey, Steve. It’s me. Kevin Jarvis.”
Jarvis, after 12 years in the majors with 10 different teams, is now a scout with the Diamondbacks.
“Steve got hurt in 1994, but I’ll never forget how he helped me by talking to me, and after he left the Reds he sent me e-mails and letters of encouragement telling me how proud he was of me.”
Of his career, Jarvis said, “Somebody told me only 10 players pitched for 10 or more different teams and I was one of them. That’s pretty neat. And I pitched a year in Japan. My last game was for the Red Sox against the Yankees in Yankee Stadium and it doesn’t get much better than that.”
Foster has a book out entitled “Lesson from Little League and Life” and he proudly presented me with a signed copy.
Foster was an up-and-coming pitcher until — true story — he hurt his arm throwing at milk bottles on the Johnny Carson TV show.
And Foster was involved in one of my all-time favorite baseball stories. He had never been out of the country when he went to Montreal with the Reds. At Canadian customs he was asked, “Do you have anything to declare?” Flustered with the question, Foster said with conviction, “Yes sire, I’m proud to be an American.” The agent was not pleased with that answer.
Foster’s father, who helped with the book, is a former newspaper editor and Foster himself lives by the principles of the word of God.
Good people.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment |
TweetWith apologies to all
Do I owe Corey Patterson an apology? Do we all owe Corey Patterson an apology? For one day? Yes.
The guy was a one-man sewing machine Monday night, piecing together four hits, including a bunt single to start a four-run rally in the seventh that won the game.
Biggest thing, thugh, was that he didn’t get picked off base or make a funky baserunning blunder. For that he gets the Safe Auto Award.
And for those who prefer Ryan Freel over Patterson, while Freel hustles every step on a baseball field and isn’t afraid to dirty his uniform front and leave lacerations on his chest, his several baserunning blunders and misguided attempts at diving catches are what makes the coaching staff leery of him.
Of course, Freel isn’t the Lone Ranger with his baserunning adventures. He has plenty of Tontos.
And everybody in the world owes Jeff Keppinger an apology. Keppinger was trapped in his own body, a small body, one that scouts like to call too small to be a regular in the majors.
The Pirates drafted him and included him in a trade that also sent pitcher Kris Benson to the New York Mets. Benson was the centerpiece and Keppinger was what they call a throw-in.
He played 33 games for the 2004 Mets and hit .284. Not good enough. They traded him to Kansas City for Ruben Gotay in July, 2006. Go-who?
Kansas City needs baseball players like a street person needs quarters, but they didn’t see anything in Keppinger, either, and traded him to the Reds in January, 2007. The price? A pitcher named Russ Haltiwanger.
As trades go, this drew about as much attention as a white Chevy in a parking lot. This was no BMW or Mercedes. Not at the time. There was not even a story in the Dayton Daily News. It was one line in ‘Transactions’ with the thought, “If it only took Haltiwanger to get this guy, he can’t be much.”
Give credit to fired GM Wayne Krivsky for this one, but even he didn’t know what he was getting.
He thought he was getting a back-up infielder who can hit a little bit.
Then Alex Gonzalez (Anybody remember him?) turned into a bad signing. He was in-and-out of last year’s lineup due to injuries and a life-threatening illness to his son. Keppinger stepped in and hit .332 in 241 at-bats.
A fluke? Too short of a sampling?
Well, Gonzalez, due to a wounded knee, hasn’t played all year and Keppinger has played every game but one at an All-Star pace. Oh, he won’t be an All-Star, but he is a star. In addition to hitting like Pete Rose, he is fielding his position with proficiency.
That’s the other thing they (it is always ‘they.’ Just who are ‘they?’) said. He can’t play shortstop? Yes, he can.
He had seven straight hits in New York, he hit a tie-breaking two-run homer Monday against the Marlins in the 8-7 victory.
As far as I’m concerned, they can bury Alex Gonzalez at Wounded Knee. He’s a good player, a good shortstop, but he is no Jeff Keppinger. And what scout wou,d ever say that?
Permalink | Comments (22) | Post your comment |
TweetBreak up the Reds … now
The Florida Marlins are in town and it got me to thinking — which is an accomplishment in itself.
How do the Marlins do it? What is their magic potion?
They arrived in Cincinnati with the best record in the National League and they arrived with the lowest payroll in the majors — $22 million. That’s about what the Reds, buried in the NL Central basement, pay Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn.
The Marlins were born ONE YEAR BEFORE the Reds last appeared in the postseason in 1994. And yet the Marlins have twice won the World Series. The Reds haven’t even got there.
The Marlins won their first World Series in 1997 with Jim Leyland managing a very expensive team purchased by owner Wayne Huizenga. Then that winter they broke up the team — traded, bartered and sold most of their stars.
Then they rebuilt, mostly from within. Lo and behold, with a low-salaried team managed by Jack McKeon, they won another World Series, beating the mighty New York Yankees.
Once again they broke up the team and started over — mostly from within, using players they developed or young players they acquired in trading away high-priced stars.
So over last winter, they traded their best power hitter, Miguel Cabrera, and their best pitcher, Dontrelle Willis, to the Detroit Tigers.
Now they come to Cincinnati with two real recognizable players — Hanley Ramirez and Dan Uggla. And another manager, Fredi Gonzalez.
What does that tell us, Cincinnati fans?
Is it time to trade Griffey and Dunn, if that’s possible, for young talent? Is it time to bring up Jay Bruce and Homer Bailey and a lot of other young prospects?
Looking at the standings I can only shake my head and say, “Get ‘er done.”
With seven straight losing seasons and the team on a direct path toward the eighth, what can it hurt?
Tear it up and start over.
And it was emphasized in the first inning Monday night when the Marlins hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning off Aaron Harang.
Then I saw Corey Patterson batting leadoff. Why, why, why?
It almost made me wish I was at the Cleveland Cavaliers-Boston Celtics game.
Permalink | Comments (48) | Post your comment |
TweetLost in New York
For a report on Seattle’s interest in Ken Griffey Jr., so much interest that one of the Mariners’ executives was in New York watching Griffey, check out the previous blog entitled: “Seattle checking out Griffey.”
For a report on the Cincinnati Reds weekend, “Lost in New York,” read on and weep.
They lost two of three to the Mets and the third game was most disconcerting. Johnny Cueto, 22, pitched to his age - again. And it is a concern. He is 2-4 with a 5.91 ERA and one wonders how much of spring training’s greatness was a mirage.
Maybe Cueto isn’t quite ready for Prime Time. He wasn’t ready for the bright lights on Broadway (or at least the dull old dirty lights of Shea Stadium - the dump that is about to become an official trash pile under a wrecker’s ball, although it already is a junkyard).
The Mets jumped on Cueto in the first inning with a barrage of line drives that screamed to the outfield with the same decibels as the planes that sometimes swoosh over Shea en route to LaGuardia.
Two doubles and a triple produced three runs and the Reds played the rest of the way as if they had one foot in the bus for the trip home. Of course, Oliver Perez was keeping the bus door shut.
He beat them for the ninth time in his career, striking out eight in only six innings. Perez is just like Houston’s Roy Oswalt. Both could sit cardboard cutouts of themselves on the mound and the cardboard would pitch a three-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts.
Manager Dusty Baker blamed Cueto’s ugliness on New York stage fright, but he was just as ugly in St. Louis, where there is no stage on which to get frightened. Baker and Cueto’s guru, Mario Soto, both agreed that Cueto’s problem Sunday was throwing pitches over the heart of the plate, or as broadcaster Jeff Brantley calls it, “Right down Broadway.”
Jeff Keppinger, who had five straight hits Sunday, added two more in his first at-bats Sunday, plus a walk, to give him eight straight appearances on base.
Then Wright State’s Joe Smith, one of the nicest kids to walk the streets of Flushing, struck out Keppinger with two on and two outs in the eighth.
Did I mention that this team carries home an odor similar to that which one smells upon walking inside Shea? And it has nothing to do with the stadium. Right now, this is a team of disparate parts. Nothing fits. Walt Jocketty has a ton of work to do.
While the Reds got to go home Sunday night, I get to spend the night here, so my recently found luggage can at least spend one night with me.
That, of course, depends on me finding the hotel. With my eye meds in my bag, I was seeing worse than normal (which is like a bat during the day) when I got off the subway Saturday night at midnight and wandered out an unfamiliar exit. Somehow I turned the wrong way and when I saw the Port Authority Bus terminal, a building I’d never seen in 36 years of coming to NY, I knew I was lost. And not in prime real estate, either.
I stubbornly refused to hail a cab, fearing I might be only a half-block away and would be mightily embarrassed. So I walked. And walked and walked and walked. For an hour. Finally I discovered 42nd and 9th and knew how to get to 45th and 7th from there.
If my plane makes it all the way to Dayton tomorrow and doesn’t turn back, as did my flight from Dayton to New York, I’ll be ecstatic to be back in Ohio. The worst part? We have to come back here in June to play the Yankees. I can hardly wait. I love self-flagellation.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment |
TweetSeattle looking at Griffey
If the Cincinnati Reds truly are interested in trading Ken Griffey Jr., well it appears the Seattle Mariners are more than interested.
Seattle’s Duane Schafer, a special consultant to the general manager, is in New York this weekend and his express assignment is to watch Griffey play.
“Don’t know him and never heard of him,” Griffey said with a shrug Sunday morning as he laced his pink-trimmed black shoes with pink shoe laces as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Day by players throughout the major leagues.
“As I’ve always said, I deal with the here and now and I’ve never been a what-if person,” said Griffey. “The problem is that by the time they come to the players (who have the right to say yes or no to a trade), it is at the point where they want a ‘yay’ or a ‘nay’ right away.”
One problem for Griffey. While they regard him as a deity in Seattle, Griffey said he wants to win a World Series ring and Seattle is no closer to doing that than Cincinnati is. And he left Seattle to be closer to his Orlando-area home and he couldn’t be any farther away from home than Seattle.
“Been the longest week of my life,” said Griffey, referring to last week’s death of his best friend, Frank King. “Every time I call home, my wife Melissa is still crying.”
On another front, Adam Dunn was in Sunday’s lineup, but he was in excruciating pain from an ingrown toe nail on his right big toe.
“Never ever had one of these in my life,” he said. “Man, it is on fire.”
And for those wondering, yes, my luggage showed up Saturday night, just in time to accompany me back home. I found it with the hotel bellman after I got off the subway, took a wrong turn and wandered in the Times Square area for about 20 blocks before finding my way home. Just another story from The Big City.
But I did find a vendor selling shish-ka-bob sandwiches with hot barbecue sauce. Yummy - and a night of heartburn.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: Adam Dunn, Ken Griffey Jr.
TweetA lost and found weekend
From the Lost & Found Dept.: The Cincinnati Reds lost a game, then found a way to win the second game … and my bag was found.
And maybe Bronson Arroyo found himself, pitching a gem-dandy in Game 2 Saturday against the Mets - eight innings, one run, four hits. He was lifted after throwing 115 pitches and with the Reds owning a 7-1 lead in the ninth.
At least I think my bag was found. The US Airways web site says it was shipped to my hotel, but I haven’t been there yet to confirm its arrival. The 800 number you can call is a series of prompts asking you to talk to a recorded voice, which cut off on me four times.
Finally, I got a real person, but his English was bad and my Spanish is worse and I think he said my name and seven or eight indistinguishable words.
Anyway, when I walk into my room tonight I expect a happy reunion between me and my AWOL bag.
For the Reds, they have a chance for a winning trip, even if it is a three-game mini-trip. By splitting Saturday’s day-night doubleheader, losing 12-6 and winning 7-1, if the Reds win today they have a winning trip for only the second time in their last 20 trips.
And they snapped a six-game road losing streak before they finish the series/trip with the New York Mets Sunday afternoon.
Both teams must have left their bats out in the rain Friday. Six bats were shattered in the first three innings with splinters flying hither and yon.
Much-beleaguered Arroyo started Game 2 by striking out the side and then was in and out of trouble with only one-run damage in the first half of the game.
He struck out the side again in the seventh inning as he seems to make Mets-meat out of the NL New York team. He has five complete games in his career, three against the Mets.
No complete-game this time, but he had his Met sandwich.
Isn’t it funny how baseball works? In Game 1 the Reds ripped pitching icon John Santana for 10 hits in six innings and lost the game by six runs.
In Game 2 they faced some Toto from Kansas named Mike Pelfrey and had two runs against him in six innings. When he left, they scored two in the eighth.
Jeff Keppinger once upon a time wore a Mets uniform but they found him not to their liking and got rid of him. In Game 2, he had five hits, setting a career-best and scored two runs.
Scott Hatteberg, getting a rare start at first base, had three hits right behind Keppinger and drove in two runs.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a subway to catch to see if my bag and I are truly reunited. If so, I’m going to a walkway near the hotel on Times Square with a Padron ‘64 cigar and a novel I’m reading and relax for the first time since I boarded an airplane at 7 a.m. Friday.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment |
TweetIt IS Bruce & Bailey time
They served steak and eggs in the Shea Stadium media dining room this morning.
Then Matt Belisle served meatballs in the afternoon.
It’s time. I’ll say it now. I’ve resisted it, saying he wasn’t ready. I’ve supported bringing up Jay Bruce, but thought Homer Bailey needed some maturity and humble pie in Triple-A.
But after watching Belisle on Saturday against the Mets, well, Homer Bailey can do no worse and he certainly can prove nothing more at Louisville. Bring him up and plug him in.
Belisle gave up six runs (five earned), seven hits and three walks in five staggery innings.
Meanwhile, the Reds raked 10 hits off Johan Santana over six innings, but couldn’t bunch them up in any manner. And where have we seen this act before? It tied the most hits Santana has given up in his career and the Mets still gave the Reds a wax job.
Corey Patterson led the game with a hit and was quickly erased when he was caught leaning the wrong way and certainly manager Dusty Baker has to be running out tolerance with this guy. He stunned everybody Friday by having him third in the order, but we didn’t see the results of that head-scratcher because the game was rained out and Baker changed the lineup Saturday.
The Reds had two more hits in the first inning, three for the inning, but didn’t score.
Edwin Encarnacion, 1 for 16, snapped-to with a home run and a run-scoring single, but Patterson struck out with one on in the the fifth and struck out with two on in the sixth.
Right now, this guys is rotten to the Core-y and isn’t helping in any way. Nothing personal, no wisecracks about manager Dusty Baker wanting him here, it is just plain unadulterated fact.
So let’s have no more Belisle and no more Patterson. It truly is Bruce & Bailey time instead of continuing this Barnum & Bailey time.
Permalink | Comments (17) | Post your comment |
TweetWhere oh where is my bag?
Now it is more than 24 hours since my luggage was due to arrive in New York. We remain separated. U.S. Airways has not located this little piece of black luggage with the Kentucky Derby logo on it - probably the only piece of luggage between Dayton and New York with a Kentucky Derby logo.
I’ve never been to the Kentucky Derby, the only major event in America I haven’t covered at some time, but I’d like to be there. The bag was a gift from our columnist Tom Archdeacon.
I’ve covered UD, Ohio State, Miami of Ohio, the Cleveland Browns, the Cincinnati Royals (figure that one out, youngsters), the NCAA tournament, the Super Bowl, the Masters, the PGA, the U.S. Open, the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500 - but not the Kentucky Derby.
Anyway, the missing bag?
That meant I was up at 7 a.m. today to visit Duane Reade for $40 worth of dop kit material, and with my stubbly beard and unkempt hair not a single street person asked me for spare change. I was one of them.
Back to the hotel for a shower, shave and hair-brushing, then back out to buy some clothes. Of course, nothing opened until 10 and I was due at the ballpark for today’s doubleheader at 11:30. I didn’t make it.
Remember when I got stuck in the elevator by myself for 20 minutes in Milwaukee’s Miller Park earlier this year? Oh, no? Oh, yes.
This time two women and I boarded Elevator B in the Marriott Marquis this morning. The doors closed. Nothing. No movement. One of the women pushed the emergency call button and it was answered immediately. A male voice told her to push the Open Elevator button, which she did, and the doors opened.
The voice said, “Now get out and take another elevator.” We barely heard him because we were out before the doors fully opened. At least it was only a couple of minutes and I had company.
Finally, a store opened and in 15 minutes I bought two shirts, two pairs of underwear, two pairs of socks and a pair of jeans. Thank you, U.S. Airways. You’ll be getting the bill - along with a bill for three Brooks Brothers shirts, two pairs of Joseph A. Banks jeans, three pairs of underwear, three pairs of socks, my meds, a bottle of John Varvatos cologne … unless, of course, they locate my bag by the time they go out of business, which probably is soon.
A 45-minute subway ride to the Shambles that is Shea got me to the park in time for the end of the Reds batting practice. The skies are gray, but it isn’t raining and the forecast is for clear skies and two baseball games.
Hopefully, the Reds slept better than I did. Because of the canceled flight, the delayed flight and the 10-hour delay in getting to NY, plus the lost luggage, I couldn’t go to sleep when I got to the hotel last night.
So, despite the rain and no umbrella, I strolled the Times Square area way past midnight, enjoying the sights and the smells of cooking hot dogs and steaming pretzels. It was only 50 degrees, so the walk was invigorating.
Today HAS to be a better day - even though U.S. Airways still has no clue if my bag is in Pittsburgh or Puerto Rico or The Philippines.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment |
TweetReds-Mets postponed
The rain won.
It rained all day in New York and they waited for an hour at Shea Stadium before they postponed Friday’s Cincinnati Reds-New York Mets baseball game.
So now they play a day-night doubleheader Saturday, the first game at 1:10 and the second game at 7:30.
Matt Belisle pitches Game One and Bronson Arroyo will pitch Game Two, with Belisle drawing Johan Santana and Arroyo drawing Mike Pelfrey.
Foxsports Ohio will televise both games.
Manager Dusty Baker, realizing the day I spent trying to get to New York, “What a wasted day. Life owes you a day. You get another day to live. Go back to the hotel, go to bed, and pretend this day never happened.
Sound advice.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment |
TweetFinding New York - Barely
The continuation of the fantastic USAirways travelogue to New York, brought to you by one frustrated and worn-out baseball writer.
From our last episode (see previous blog), I was put on a flight through Washington D.C. at noon after my 7:11 a.m. direct flight to New York made it halfway before turning around because of fumes that overcame at least one passenger.
That flight was canceled, of course. Made it to D.C. at 1:45 to a 2 p.m. connection to New York. Ran to the gate as the door was being closed. Made it. The plane backed away from the gate. Oh, joyous wonderment.
Not so fast, airline-breath The plane stopped.
We sat on the tarmac for an hour because LaGuardia Air Traffic Control put us on hold. They gave us a glass of water. Lukewarm.
We finally landed at LaGuardia at 5 - a mere 10 hours after the scheduled departure and only 8 1/2 hours late.
You know the kicker, don’t you? Sure you do. You have to know it. My luggage didn’t make it. They put 15 of us who were canceled in Dayton on the Washington flight and only two of us didn’t get our luggage.
If they find my luggage, they’ll send it to the hotel - and it will make it before me. I took a cab directly to the ballpark, chatted with Dusty Baker, came to the pressbox and John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer and I neither could get on the internet to do our work for nearly 45 minutes.
And it’s raining. Hard. They say they’ll play but the New York weather forecasters say it is going to rain until 3 a.m.
What we don’t want is what is planned if it is rained out - a day-night doubleheader Saturday at 1 and 8, probably sponsored by U.S. Airways.
Yeah, yeah. I know. Things happen. Can’t be helped.
That, though, doesn’t improve my demeanor.
Meanwhile, Ken Griffey Jr. was scratched from the lineup, not due to the soaked grounds, but because he came to the park feeling ill.
And Brandon Phillips is out of the lineup after fouling a ball off his left calf Wednesday (he left the game).
In addition, Kent Mercker was placed on the DL with lower back problems and Bill Bray was called back up.
As Baker said, “I told him when he left that it wasn’t because of anything he did or didn’t do, it was just a roster thing and that he would be back as quickly as we could get him back. This was good for him. He was gone long enough to pack some clean clothes and see his grandfather (in Norfolk, where the Louisville Bats played while he was with them.).
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment |
TweetTravel woes continue
I’ve picked on American, I’ve picked on United and I’ve picked on Delta.
Now it is the turn of U.S. Airways Express — and this one is a beaut.
The flight was scheduled for 7:11 this morning. We left on time, but sat on the runway 40 minutes, a traffic hold from LaGuardia. No biggie. Happens all the time.
But as we departed there was an odor in the plane. Not me. I showered thoroughly. Halfway to New York — yes, HALFWAY — they were told to turn back to Dayton. The smell was from cleaning fluid they used on the engines the night before and they said they had to turn back because maintenance for the CRJ-200 was better in Dayton than in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh or New York.
Yeah, right.
They had medical personnel awaiting our return to Dayton and one woman was treated for a severe headache and nausea. She was sitting in front of me on the plane reading the Dayton Daily News — at one point reading my column today about my five favorites parks.
Maybe that caused her headache and nausea.
So here I sit in the Dayton airport at 9:45, hoping they get us to New York soon.
Speaking of ballparks, let me know your favorites and least favorites and why. No fair saying Great American Stinks because the team stinks.
They took the plane to the maintenance shed, probably for fumigation. And here we sit. Can’t believe I got up at 4:30 this morning and had my good friend, Jeff Gordon, drop me off at the airport.
Travel on this job is becoming more and more problem-filled. I guess I now yearn for the return of the days when the writers traveled on the team charters. Deadlines and frequent-flier miles killed that years ago.
As much as I hate the Stinkhole that is Shea, I sure hope to get there on time for tonight’s game. It is in the hands of U.S. Airways — and that’s a scary thing.
Just found out our flight is canceled. HELP!
So I trudged back through security to the U.S. Airways counter to Patrick, an agent I’ve known for years. With his great help, I was booked on a noon flight to Washington, then a flight that gets me into New York around five.
That will give me no time to check into the hotel to shower, shave and change clothes. I’ll go straight to the ballpark. There is one safety net. Heavy rain is predicted and maybe the game will be rained out and postponed.
A TSA agent told me David Weathers came through Dayton security for a 9:30 New York flight that I noticed was delayed. Also full. I couldn’t get on. Hope Stormy makes it.
Me? I HATE air travel these days and I used to love it. You literally make your destinations on a wing and prayer.
Permalink | Comments (15) | Post your comment |
TweetThe sidewalks of New York
Memo to Bob Castellini: How much will you pay me to take the rest of the season off (I accept MasterCard and Visa, but not bananas, oranges or lettuce)?
Why do I ask? Because it must be me. I took Wednesday off from covering the Cincinnati Reds and they hit seven home runs (I hadn’t seen them hit seven home runs this year in any week) and beat the Cubbies, 9-0.
But, wait. That’s not all.
On my day off, I went to see my grandson, Eric, play for Centerville High School, standing most of the day under a large yellow umbrella as it rained, sometimes very hard. But kids being kids — you can’t get them out of the rain or snow, unless you want them to shovel it — they played on.
Centerville needed only to beat Wayne to win its division championship. Well, going into the last inning, C-ville was down, 5-3, and it was pouring. My son, Brian, asked me, “Do you want to go?” Oh, dumb me. I said yes.
The game was on an FM radio station, and fearing the worst we didn’t turn it on until halfway home. That’s when Brian snapped on the radio and we heard “… .And there’s another Centerville hit, their sixth straight, and another run.” Without my presence, the Elks scored six runs in the last inning and beat Wayne, 9-5.
So, I’m taking this black cloud dangling over my head and boarding an airplane for New York City, where the Reds play a three-game series — lugging a five-game road losing streak with them.
For me, it is returning to the scene of an accident. My own. Last July while we were in New York, I was walking on Times Square, a vente non-fat latte in one hand, a freshly purchased bag of cigars in the other. With my limited eyesight, I usually walk with my head down, watching every step.
One cannot do that on Times Square or you would be bouncing off person-to-person-to-person and you’d hear words you never heard before. So I was watching the hordes when a protruding step tripped me up. Down I went and man was I proud. Spilled nary a drop of latte nor bent nor broke a single cigar because I went down on my knees, my arms up in the air to prevent spillage and breakage.
A couple of citizens even rushed to my aid. And even though my hands were full, they didn’t lift my wallet. The problem, though, was my left knee. I tore the meniscus and it required surgery by Reds team physician Dr. Tim Kremchek.
Anyway, that was me scoring my “big hit” on Broadway.
For the Reds, on Friday it is Matt Belisle (1-2, 6.91) against right-hander Mike Pelfrey (2-2, 5.27). Being at home, the Mets probably have the slight edge in this one.
Saturday might be a hold-your-ears game — it is Bronson Arroyo (1-4, 8.63) against Johan Santana. While he is only 3-2 his ERA is 2.91, most of the Reds never have seen him. Of course, he’s never seen, either.
I’ve never been able to figure out the advantage when a pitcher and batter never have faced each other. Who has the advantage? My guess, though, is the pitcher — mainly because in my days I could never hit any pitcher.
Sunday is another wash — anybody can win, although if Mario Soto has Johnny Cueto back on track, as it seemed during his last start, the Reds could win this one. They face Oliver Perez (2-3, 4.63). When he was with Pittsburgh, every time he faced the Reds he struck out 10 or more and they couldn’t hit him if he threw water balloons at them.
But that was the Perez of old, and he no longer is the Perez of old. Just old.
So if I can wander from my Times Square hotel to the subway station without a pratfall, and survive the 45-minute subway ride to the Stinkhole that is Shea, we’ll see if the 9-0 seven-homer game was a fluke or the start of something big.
Speaking of getting to Shea, did anybody ever tell you the Sparky Anderson New York subway story? Players kept telling him how easy it was to get to the stadium on the subway. So he decided to try it and asked the hotel concierge, “How do I get to the stadium on the subway?”
The concierge gave him directions as to what train to take and where to get off. Anderson followed directions. When he arrived at his stop and detrained (that’s like deplaning, instead of just getting off the plane), he looked up to see:
YANKEE STADIUM!!!!
He had to hop an expensive cab to get from Yankee Stadium to Shea Stadium. You see, “The Stadium” in New York is Yankee. If you want to go to the other park, it is, “Shea.”
Anyway, I await Mr. Castellini’s reply.
Permalink | Comments (14) | Post your comment |
TweetA home run barrage
So I take a day off so I can get two days in a row off (with the Reds off Thursday) - and now I sound like a manager: “We’re giving Griffey off today because we have an off day tomorrow and that gives me two days off in a row.”
I need, it, though. I’ve watched too much bad baseball lately and the three days in Atlanta was like owning a home in Atlanta when Sherman came marching through with the torches.
And we’re going to New York and the dump that is Shea Stadium. Check my column Friday morning in the Dayton Daily News to find out why I despise Shea and a list of my five favorite ballparks.
Meanwhile, I’m listening to the radio and Jeff & Thom tell me the Reds hit four home runs in the second inning - Joey Votto, Adam Dunn, Paul Bako, Jerry Hairston, Jr. I tend not to believe it without seeing it with my eyes, but Jeff & Thom don’t lie to me.
I do, however, believe what Edinson Volquez is doing - no runs through five innings with his fastball at 94/95, his tantalizing change-up and an occasional breaking ball.
And while the Reds were pouring runs across in the second inning, you just know Aaron Harang was sitting in the dugout thinking to himself (he’d never say it out loud): “Hey, guys. Couldn’t somebody, just one of you, hit a home run when I pitch?”
No sooner said than done (not Dunn). Two more home runs - back-to-backers by Votto (his second of the game) and Brandon Phillips, giving the Reds six in the first five innings.
Anybody remember Tuesday’s game? For only the 31st time in 422 GABP games there were no home runs hit. It has never happened back-to-back and the Reds made certain it didn’t happen Tuesday-Wednesday.
Speaking of Jeff & Thom (Marty took a day off, too), the Reds announced that long-time Louisville broadcaster Jim Kelch will be in the radio booth for 14 games this year. He has done Louisville games for 20 years.
Question: Do they have enough chairs in the booth? Is there room?
The Reds keep adding broadcasters. They’re all good. How about some players? Some good players.
Votto is a good player. A very good player. On track to become a great player. Whoops. He just hit his third home run of the game, the seventh by the Reds. Aren’t the Reds happy the big Canadian didn’t take up hockey. He has to be the only male in Canada who not only never played hockey, he can’t skate.
Votto and I have that in common. I can’t even roller skate, let alone ice skate.
And I wonder how long it will take the Reds to trade Scott Hatteberg, a great guy and an excellent clubhouse presence, but a piece of the puzzle the Reds no longer need.
With the Reds ahead, 9-0, and the game in the capable right palm of Edinson Volquez, it is safe for me to go to see my grandson, Eric, play a high school game - weather permitting.
Permalink | Comments (21) | Post your comment |
TweetNo luck for Harang, but Aruba is great
Some random thoughts while watching the one-game winning streak evaporate in front of Big Z, Carlos Zambrano:
I had three pieces of LaRosa’s pizza by the end of the sixth inning, the same number of hits the Reds owned off Zambrano in eight innings.
To the guy who wondered when Norris Hopper would get in the lineup: Well, my friend, Hopper is on the DL and the commissioner won’t let players on the DL play in games, even if it is the Cincinnati Reds.
I’ll bet you’ll say, “I knew it,” when I tell you I once owned an Edsel. It’s a car, kids, an automobile.
Know why the Reds lost, 3-0, in about a minute-a-half. They whaled and flailed at everything. Zambrano needed only 30 pitches in his final three innings, only six in the seventh inning.
My favorite vacation site is Aruba. Or The Bahamas. Aruba, The Bahamas. About the same thing. Pitcher Sidney Ponson is from Aruba and is knighted — as in Sir Sidney Ponson. Remember when the Reds almost got him in a trade?
Suggestion to Aaron Harang: change deodorants, change your underwear, change your hair-style … change something because your teammates obviously don’t like something about you or they’d score you a run once in awhile.
He is now 1-5 with a 3.09 ERA with seven quality starts in eight games. As Marty Brennaman put it so succinctly, “Harang has to be the best 1-5 pitcher in the history of baseball.”
Let me hear a big amen on that one.
Does any manager in baseball walk more slowly to the mound than Chicago’s Lou Piniella? Because of Zambrano and no goofs by the umps, Sweet Lou never left the dugout Tuesday.
Does Todd Coffey sprint to the mound in Louisville?
When the Reds go from Los Angeles to San Diego later this month, I’m taking the train down the coast. Love the trains. No security checkpoints, the stations are downtown, the seats are La-Z-Boy recliners with huge windows for the ride down the coast. It’s a little over an hour and I wish it were four hours.
All teams used to take trains, when St. Louis had the team farthest west. Wish I had been covering baseball then.
Anybody know what Marty Brennaman’s middle name is? I do. Starts with ‘F’ and you’ll never get it, unless you already know it. Hint: Rhymes with Manchester.
It is now the bottom of the seventh, Cubs lead, 3-0, Zambrano still dealing and Cubs fans are outshouting and outsinging Reds fans here in Wrigley-East.
Dusty Baker’s office looks like a photo studio — photos everywhere and trinkets everywhere. There is a photo of singer Miles Davis and a picture of his fishing buddy, rock singer Elvin Bishop.
Aaron Harang leaves after seven innings, down 3-0. He gave up three runs and seven hits, but his potholes were the two walks he issued back-to-back to open the fourth. His only walks. But both scored.
It’s over. The one-game winning streak is a one-game losing streak. Harang asks if anybody knows where they hide the horseshoes. Hey, how about sending horseshoes and lucky charms to the big lug — Aaron Harang, c/o Cincinnati Reds, 100 Main Street, Cincinnati, OH, 45202. No horses attached, please.
Permalink | Comments (22) | Post your comment | Categories: Aaron Harang
TweetGriffey speaks out … loudly
Ken Griffey Jr. sat on a black leather couch wearing a gray and orange track suit, watching some old NBA footage on a TV dangling from the ceiling as he talked.
The subject: an article in USA Today in which he was quoted as saying he’d like to finish his career in Seattle and would like to play for a contender.
He didn’t understand the ramifications, didn’t understand the furor he was kicking up. Again.
“I said the exact same thing last year (when the Cincinnati Reds played in Seattle),” said Griffey. “I said it like Emmitt Smith.”
Smith signed a one-day contract with the Dallas Cowboys so he could retire with the Cowboys, and last year Griffey said he wouldn’t mind doing that with the Mariners — not play for the Mariners, just sign a one-day contract and retire.
“The exact same thing, so why it is such a big story now? If I had changed anything from last year, it would be a story, but I said the same thing. So what’s the big deal?” said Griffey.
And about going to play for a contender?
“You guys (media) are making a big deal out of it when I said identically the same thing last year. There is no difference. None. And if it is said next year, it would be no different. I had 10-and-5 rights last year and I have 10-and-5 rights this year. The difference? I have one year left on my contract. So what?”
Griffey switched gears and plowed into his team’s current plight.
“The important thing is getting back on track,” he said. “I can’t worry about what-ifs. Everybody understands what is going on around here. Why wouldn’t we think we can turn things around? Some guys are making some great plays.
“If we were 15 games above .500 and hit this streak of somewhat bad luck, would anybody say anything? No,” he said.
But the team isn’t 15 above .500 and it shows no signs of being able to even scramble back to .500, let alone 15 over.
“Everybody is in a panic and we have five months of baseball left,” he said. “The biggest thing is we need to relax as a team and go play baseball. Everybody wants to win so bad that sometimes it hurts. The guys in here want to play and turn this thing around and want to make this the talk of the town, and not in a negative way.
“There are guys in here who want to see a crowded stadium with nothing but red in it,” Griffey said. “We don’t want to see empty seats.”
Or the blue that represents the Chicago Cubs that will balance out the red in Great American Ball Park.
“There is not a lack of effort and nobody has quit on this team and nobody in here will allow that to happen,” he continued. “And there isn’t anybody worried about a damn contract. No matter how much money you make ,it doesn’t help you between the lines.”
As for moving on, Griffey said, “If they come to you as a player and say, ‘We might want to do something,’ what do you say? My dad has three championship rings. That’s what it’s about. It isn’t about not wanting to win with anybody.
“All you’re concerned about is how you play and there’s a sense of pride, “he said. “If you don’t care, why are you here? The guys in this locker room care about how they play, day in and day out.
“Everybody is saying, ‘He struck out and he smiled. He doesn’t care.’ That’s bull,” said Griffey. “What’s the alternative? Go tear up the whole locker room because you’re mad? Sometimes you have to laugh it off instead of crying. Sometimes you just relax and smile, because sometimes a smile can help — relax you and everybody in here.”
Griffey, though, wasn’t smiling at this moment.
“Hey, nobody else’s name is on the back of my bubblegum card but mine. That’s my picture on the front. I have to go play as hard as I can and everything else will take care of itself. If I don’t, then something MIGHT happen.
“Do you think we want everybody in the city to talk about us in negative manner? No, we want to walk downtown and hear, ‘Way to go, keep it going.’ “
Permalink | Comments (22) | Post your comment |
TweetWeather-ing a storm
There was a victory sighting down on the river Monday night — an honest-to-God victory by the Cincinnati Reds, 5-3, over the Chicago Cubs.
What made it even more fun was a sprinkling of controversy after the game, engineered by pitcher David Weathers throwing down the gauntlet to Reds broadcaster Jeff Brantley. And they’re friends.
But after the game, Weathers was waiting for the media. He wasn’t angry and actually smiled through most of it.
On Sunday, during a hideous loss to Atlanta, 14-7, Brantley said on the air, “It is obvious there are players on this team playing much harder than others.”
Weathers heard it driving home from a workout.
“We take a lot of pride in what we do and sometimes when you hear things about your teammates — I’ve been on the DL watching and listening — sometimes you have to defend your teammates,” said Weathers.
“I don’t feel like we have anybody quitting,” he added. “Do we have guys struggling? Yeah, we do. But that doesn’t mean you quit.”
Weathers and Brantley are friends, but Weathers said, “He played and he is a guy who knows the game and should know about struggles out there. Sometimes you feel like you’re climbing a cactus. It’s hard. I don’t mean it to be a big deal — I feel like I’m on The View and said something to Barbara.”
A few minutes later Brantley was en route to the clubhouse to chat with Stormy.
A couple of noteworthies in this one, a win that stopped five games of enough bleeding to send the entire team to the blood bank for transfusions.
After a couple of sessions with his mentor, Mario Soto, 22-year-old rookie Johnny Cueto was back into a smoother groove. He went six innings and gave up three runs and six hits, striking out eight. Very impressive. Mr. Soto, take a bow. And don’t ever leave.
There was a lucky, two-run broken-bat single by Jeff Keppinger during a three-run first, then Adam Dunn also drove in two runs. He didn’t break his bat, but chipped the paint on some red seats in right field with a two-run, 463-foot home run, a home run that actually meant something.
The ninth inning was a huff and a hoot.
Francisco Cordero came in to protect a two-run lead and turned into a tee-ball extravaganza.
The first two Cubs singled. Pinch-hitter Daryle Ward lined a 3-and-2 pitch devastatingly hard, but right at center fielder Corey Patterson for the first out.
Then Cordero walked the bases full. With one out and the sacks jammed or loaded or full (three on), he bounced a pitch off catcher Paul Bako’s chest protector and it rolled about 10 feet to the right of home plate.
Mike Fontenot tried to score from third, but Bako scrambled after the ball and threw a better pitch to Cordero, covering home, than Cordero threw to him. Cordero blocked the plate and Fontenot was out.
Now he walked another, refilling the bases and bringing up Derrek The Dangerous Lee, while manager Dusty Baker and the boys in the first-base dugout covered their eyes.
Cordero hung a slider.
“Usually that pitch is hit out of the park,” said Cordero. “I was lucky. He swung and missed. Then I threw him a fastball.”
Lee pulled it to Joey Votto at first base and Votto slid feet first into the bag, narrowly retiring Lee.
Just another victory, a victory that was about as difficult as getting the first olive out of a jar without spilling juice all over your hand.
Permalink | Comments (25) | Post your comment |
TweetOf death and demotion
The Cincinnati Reds clubhouse was not a fun place Monday afternoon - and it had nothing to do with five defeats in a row and being the bottom feeders of the National League Central.
Ken Griffey Jr. walked up to writers and said, “Frank died at 12:28 this afternoon. Basically he bled to death.”
Frank is Frank King, about whom Griffey once said, “He is not only my best friend, he is my only friend.” King and Griffey were childhood friends and King went to Cincinnati Aiken High School, but has been living near Griffey in Orlando.
He contracted rectal cancer last July and has been in and out of intensive care. He was 38, married four years, with a 3-year-old daughter. When manager Dusty Baker heard about it, he scratched Griffey’s name from Monday’s lineup.
As soon as Griffey finished talking with writers, he excused himself by saying, “I’m going to see Dusty to talk about this lineup thing.”
Griffey talked his way back into the lineup and it was fine with Baker. “Griffey said Frank would have wanted him to play. When I was with San Francisco, Barry Bonds’ best friend died and he, too, wanted to play.”
Baker said one of the things he told the team during a closed clubhouse meeting before Sunday’s game was for them to play for somebody besides themselves, somebody sick or somebody dying or a close friend or family member.
The Reds have had their share of tragedy already this year and Baker ticked them off on his fingers — Norris Hopper’s father, Mike Stanton’s brother, Kent Mercker’s mother, Alex Gonzalez’s grandmother, Bob Howsam, Joe Nuxhall, Chief Bender.
Baker stopped ticking them off on his fingers and said, “A tough year. Let’s stop counting.”
It is always tough to watch a player throw his gear into a travel bag after he has been sent back to the minors, and that’s what pitcher Bill Bray was doing. He was optioned back to Class AAA Louisville to make room for David Weathers, activated off the DL.
Tough times?
“Not so bad, really,” said Bray. “It’s no big deal. I knew Weathers was coming off the DL and I’m just glad he wasn’t hurt bad. For me, well Louisville is going to Norfolk, where I’m from, so I’ll be home and I’ll stay at my grandparents, so I’m looking forward to that.”
Baker emphasized to Bray that the manager is happy with what Bray did and this was not a performance demotion. It was a roster move, an option move - and he emphasized to Bray that he should go to Louisville and keep pitching well and he’d be back “sooner rather than later.”
And there was another visitor in Dusty’s office. Pitcher Bronson Arroyo. After Arroyo’s awful performance Sunday, Baker suggested that something must be physically wrong with Arroyo and that maybe he would be checked out.
Before visiting Baker’s office, Arroyo said, “My body feels great. I’m getting beat fair and square. My velocity is much better. Physically I feel great, nothing I can complain about - my knee isn’t bothering me. I don’t have a headache. Nothing.”
Arroyo conveyed this to Baker, who later said, “The trainers checked him out. Nothing. I just said that about getting him checked out because I’m at a loss (over his 1-4 record and 8.63). The writers asked me if he was OK and that’s all I could think of to say.”
Just another day in a pregame clubhouse where everybody is searching for answers.
“We’ve come home (from a 10-day trip) and we’re sleeping in our own beds, clearing our thoughts, doing our laundry and now let’s win some ball games,” said Baker.
Permalink | Comments (496) | Post your comment | Categories: Dusty Baker, Ken Griffey Jr.
TweetOut of it by Mother’s Day
Can you call the 2008 Cincinnati Reds the worst team in baseball?
[an error occurred while processing this directive]You certainly can, and you won’t be by your lonesome. One veteran national writer who sees all the teams watched the Reds recently and said, “I thought San Francisco had the worst team. But this is the worst I’ve seen.”
They fooled me. Completely. Coming out of spring training I thought, for once, for the first time in seven years, that a Reds team had a chance to not only finish over .500 but to compete for the title in what is a weak division.
I should have listened to one of the players who told a friend DURING spring training, “We stink.”
Yep, they fooled me completely. Instead of a contender, what we have here is another team that can’t even stay in the race until Father’s Day. They’re done by Mother’s Day.
No hitting, no consistent pitching, collapsible defense. What else is there?
How about golf and tennis? How about NASCAR?
A 14-7 loss to the Braves Sunday was abysmal, only worse. Starter Bronson Arroyo pitched as if he wished he were sailing in Boston Harbor instead of pitching for the Reds — which he might very well have been thinking.
Whatever, he lasted only 1 1/3 innings, shortest of his 166 starts, and gave up seven runs and seven hits, looking totally disinterested while doing it.
Manager Dusty Baker said he is at a total and complete loss with Arroyo and said the team is going to have him checked out because it could be something physical.
How bad is it when your No. 1 and No. 2 starters are a combined 2-8? Aaron Harang and Arroyo both are 1-4. Arroyo’s is deserved (8.63) ERA. Harang’s isn’t (2.98 ERA).
The Reds were down 8-1 after three, then pecked away and got it back to 8-6 and had the bases loaded with two outs in the fifth. The Braves brought in left-hander Royce Ring (a named without a familiar ring) to face Adam Dunn. He swung at the first pitch and flied meekly to left.
Then the Braves scored four more in the fifth off Josh Fogg and Bill Bray.
So the Reds limp and wobble and trundle home with a 3-6 record for their stops in San Francisco, St. Louis and Atlanta — the 18th time they’ve come home with a losing record on a road trip in the last 19 times they’ve paid visits to other towns.
Not only are the Reds firmly ensconced in last place in the meek and mild National League Central, resembling the worst baseball team in the majors, they are doing it statistically, too. Their 12-20 record IS the worst in the majors.
Happy Mother’s Day.
Permalink | Comments (64) | Post your comment |
TweetActivity on a Sunday morning
It was early Sunday morning, before the bus arrived, and there were a smattering of players in the clubhouse.
In his office, manager Dusty Baker picked at a large plate overloaded with grits, sausage and bacon.
“My daddy knew this stuff wasn’t good for him, but man he could put it away,” said Baker.
In front of Ken Griffey Jr.’s locker, he and batting instructor Brook Jacoby engaged in a 45-minute discussion ranging from where Griffey’s head and shoulders are on his follow-through to the price of gasoline to Eric Davis’ daughter.
“How about Eric calling me at 6:30 before a 7 o’clock game to ask me to leave tickets for his daughter?” said Griffey. “She’s going to school in Atlanta.”
At a table by himself, roving pitching instructor Mario Soto played a Latin version of solataire, and when asked if he won without cheating, Soto said, “I won the first game, but nothing since. I never cheat.”
Soto is in Atlanta to gave sage and veteran advice to Johnny Cueto, but Soto’s heart is in Dayton and Sarasota, the team’s two Class A affiliates.
“I’ve got two guys in Dayton — Luis Montano and Enerio Del Rosario,” he said. “Del Rosario has a 1.35 earned run average in 10 games (two starts) and Montano is 4-0 with a 1.27 ERA. And in Sarasota I have Ramon Geronimo, who hasn’t given up a run in 12 appearances (14.2 innings). I love working with kids. I just love it.”
Flanked on each side of Soto are stationary bikes and Matt Belisle pedaled hard on one and Bill Bray was imitating Lance Armstrong on the other. Both were watching American Pie II on a big-screen HD television, large smiles and they pumped and pumped and pumped.
Back in his office, the breakfast gone, Baker had all three catchers in front of him, discussing how to pitch to Atlanta hitters, who in two nights raked the Reds for 11 runs and 21 hits.
The batting order for Sunday’s game was the same as Saturday’s new twist, except Paul Bako was catching instead of David Ross. But Ryan Freel remained in center and led off, Griffey was batting second, Brandon Phillips third, Joey Votto fourth, Edwin Encarnacion fifth, Adam Dunn sixth, Jeff Keppinger seventh and Bako eighth.
“You have to stay with something sometime,” said Baker.
Then it was time for batting practice to see if the Reds could improve upon the one run they scored in the first two gamers against the Braves - a tough task because they were facing Tom Glavine, who usually beats the Reds even if it is only a rumor that he is going to pitch.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment |
TweetOh the embarrassivity
Jose Rijo had a phrase when he pitched one of his rare clunkers: “I have reached the height of embarrassivity.”
To that you can attach the 2008 Cincinnati Reds, who on Saturday night in Turner Field reached a new height in embarrassivity.
They were beaten, 9-1, in a game started by a minor-league call-up, Jo-Jo Reyes. And even though it was 2-1 in the seventh inning, the feeling was rampant. This game won’t be won. It was the same feeling Friday night when Edinson Volquez gave up a two-run home run in the fourth. This game won’t be won.
And neither game was won. The Reds never scored in either one after it was 2-0 and 2-1.
There is no fire on this team. I don’t know what brimstone is, so I’m not sure if the team has any of that. But there is no fire.
Manager Dusty Baker is helpless. What can the man do? It isn’t his fault.
He tried something different, mixing up the batting order. But it’s the same people, so what’s a manager to do? He moved Ken Griffey Jr. to second and he struck out three times. He dropped Adam Dunn to sixth and he was 0 for 4 with a strikeout and a grounded into a double play.
Baker can shuffle and alter and adjust all he wants, but until Griffey and Dunn begin to hit and drive in runs, the embarrassivity will continue.
The bullpen exploded on this night. While the offense was getting only four hits and scoring its first run after 21 scoreless innings, the bullpen couldn’t keep it close in the seventh inning when it was 2-1.
Mike Lincoln, Jeremy Affeldt and Jared Burton contrived to give up six runs in the seventh and Francisco Cordero, just in there to get some work, gave up another run in the eighth. The seven bullpen runs are the most this season.
General manager Wayne Krivsky already has been fired. Walt Jocketty, surveying this wreckage, may want to reconsider playing reconstruction engineer on this mess.
Baker won’t be fired, not with his guaranteed $12 million contract. Nor should he be.
Who is the next fall guy? Batting instructor Brook Jacoby is probably next on the hit list, even though it isn’t his fault that the Reds have scored five runs in their last four games, all defeats, and punched 18 hits, eight in one game - three, four and three in the others.
Oh, the embarrassivity.
Permalink | Comments (23) | Post your comment |
TweetBig batting order changes
What the Cincinnati Reds might need Saturday is a Brook Benton - a rainy night in Georgia so they don’t have to play, as if you actually call what they did Friday playing.
The weather forecast calls for rain over Turner Field, but it is supposed to clear up by 9, so it is likely they’ll play this one.
And they’ll play it with a scrambled batting order, some big-time changes.
Ryan Freel leads off, then it is Ken Griffey Jr. batting second, Brandon Phillips batting third, Joey Votto batting fourth, Edwin Encarnacion batting fifth, Adam Dunn batting sixth, Jeff Keppinger batting seventh and David Ross batting eighth.
“Hey, man, we gotta try something,” said manager Dusty Baker. “All I do is think abut this stuff. I had this one in mind on the off day Thursday. “I talked to Junior during spring training and he offered to bat second, but I didn’t know if he was serious. I’m not crazy about changing things, but I’m trying to find something that works.”
Said Griffey, with a large smile, “I’m movin’ on up. Pretty soon I’ll be batting first and chasing Rickey (Henderson). I just want to hit a leadoff home run, like Rickey, who had 39 of them.”
Early in his career Griffey batted second for Seattle and, in fact, has batted second 62 times in his career.
And maybe the Reds do have a chance. Atlanta manager Bobby Cox is throwing Jo-Jo Reyes at the Reds, one of the few players in baseball history with a hyphen in his name. Reyes faced the Reds a couple of years ago and was sent running for cover in the first inning, recording only a couple of outs.
Last year he was 0-0 on July 17 when the Reds faced him and he went 6 2/3 innings, but the Reds beat him, 6-5.
After sitting out Friday’s game, a 2-0 loss, both Freel and Votto were in Saturday’s lineup. Votto was given Friday off so Scott Hatteberg could play, with manager Dusty Baker saying, “You have to play guys once in a while or when you call on them there is nothing there.”
Hatteberg, 0 for 7 as a pinch-hitter, was 0 for 3 with a strikeout, but in his last at-bat he smoked a line drive right at pitcher Tim Hudson. Had he not fielded it, he would have had a rather large and black bruise right where the ‘v’ and the ‘e’ come together where it saves ‘Braves’ on his uniform.
Cincinnati’s pitcher is Matt Belisle, a former No. 2 Braves draft choice. And what is it they say about pitchers in the Braves system? Something like that a team best beware if the Braves are willing to trade him.
It is time for Belisle to step up. Everybody has heard about the great stuff and he does have it. But he isn’t consistent with it. Too erratic. Big innings surface too often. When he needs the big pitch to get out of jams, it turns into a hanging slider or a fastball up and it gets brutalized.
And this could be a lesson to those chirping for the immediate promotion of Homer Bailey from Class AAA Louisville. Belisle made three minor-league starts on rehab and was 3-0 with a 1.09 ERA. His last start was at Louisville and he held Pawtucket to one run and eight hits over seven innings, with a walk and six strikeouts.
Then he was brought up and in his first start for the Reds against the Los Angeles Dodgers, he gave up seven runs (five earned) and 12 hits in four-plus innings. His next start he was better - four runs and five hits over five innings at San Francisco in a 10-9 win.
As we all know, or should know, the step from Triple-A to the majors is the highest and some can’t take that final step without stumbling.
We’ll see tonight how much better Belisle is in his third start.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment |
TweetJust another silent night
Explorer Henry Hudson never did find the Northwest Passage.
He could have asked Tim Hudson Friday night. He could find anything - mostly a bunch of futile hitters standing in the batter’s box wearing Cincinnati Reds uniforms in Turner Field Friday night.
Hudson, an Atlanta Braves righthander, held the Reds to three rinky-dink singles, walked none and struck out 10 in a 2-0 victory witnessed by Reds owner Bob Castellini, who probably wishes he had stayed in the carrot and cumquat industry instead of investing in a moribund baseball team.
But he is a fan and he is a participatory owner and what he saw had to hurt.
The most hideous part of the entire night was the ninth inning. Down 2-0, three straight Reds hit harmless fly balls (Corey Patterson, Jeff Keppinger, Ken Griffey Jr.). With two outs, the Braves overshifted to the right on Griffey, daring him to bunt. Double daring him to bunt. Triple daring him to bunt.
He swung away and ended the game with a meek fly to right, just as Keppinger had done before him and Patterson before him.
Ah, Patterson.
He played center and batted leadoff and dropped a fly ball near the wall in the fourth inning that put Chipper Jones on second and put Edinson Volquez in trouble. He hung a change-up to Brian McCann and McCann made it look like Delta flight 2429 to Birmingham, a two-run homer - Volquez’s only mistake and the game’s only runs.
Too, too bad. Volquez painted another gem - six innings, four hits, two runs, one earned run, two walks, nine strikeouts and all it got him was his first loss. He is 4-1 with a 1.27 ERA.
Volquez carried one broad smile after the game and when manager Dusty Baker came up to him and said, “I’m sorry we didn’t score you any runs,” Volquez said, “Hey, my fault. I made a bad pitch.”
Said Baker, “You love that. This guy is good and this guy is going to be a great major-league pitcher.
There were fireworks after the game. It was good to hear some noise in the park.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Post your comment |
TweetHeating up in Hotlanta
Report on the problems of the airlines, Part XVIII:
The flight landed in Atlanta 20 minutes early and after a five-minute taxi that seemed as if we were headed back up I-75 to Dayton, the pilot pulled to a stop on the tarmac.
On comes the intercom: “Some good news and some bad news,” says the pilot. “The good news is that we arrived 20 minutes early. The bad news is that our gate is occupied.”
Thirty minutes later we pulled into a parking spot. Not a gate, a parking spot. We unloaded and walked 200 yards to the terminal door. Now what good was landing 20 minutes early? Probably so the airline could post an “on-time” arrival. I won’t name the airline, but it rhymes with Smelta.
Had a nice lunch, though, in Mid-town at The Front Page News - and how can a baseball writer resist a restaurant with that name? The waitress said one of the owners used to be a newspaper guy but wised up and went into the restaurant business. Either way, newspaper or restaurant, he slings hash.
Then there is Friday traffic in Atlanta - or traffic in Atlanta at any hour, any minute.
Aaron Harang arrived at the park at 4 p.m.
“Left the hotel at 3 and drove to the park,” he said. “I was on the freeway and never drove faster than 20. I called my wife twice and called my brother.”
Aaron’s brother, Darrell, pitches Double-A in New Hampshire in the Toronto system. “He pitched 3 2/3 innings the other day and threw 38 pitches,” said Aaron. Gee, wonder where he gets that?
“My brother and some friends went to Fenway Park this week because one of their buddies got called up by the Blue Jays to pitch,” said Harang. “They were rooting loudly for the Jays and they got hassled pretty bad.”
Speaking of hassles, Ryan Freel is not in Friday’s lineup after getting three hits Wednesday in St. Louis. Corey Patterson was back in center field and batting leadoff.
Hold off the venom and the vituperation - for now. Manager Dusty Baker said Freel will play Saturday and Sunday and he wasn’t playing Friday because he hadn’t faced Atlanta pitcher Tim Hudson. Patterson has faced him (1-for-5).
And while Freel appreciates your support, he wants it known this isn’t all about him and it is all about everybody being against Patterson, which Freel says is unfair.
About not playing Friday, Freel said, “I’m just keeping my mouth shut. Hey, I’m not saying I’m the missing piece here to make us win. I played Wednesday and we didn’t win.
“I’m not going to put my foot in my mouth and it isn’t all about me,” he added. “I said from Day One when I came to the Reds that I just want to win. Whatever it takes to win. I don’t want people to think I’m against him (Patterson) and that I’m not pulling for him. I want to play, of course I want to play, but I want to win. If I’m sitting on the bench and we’re winning, I don’t care.”
But he is sitting and they are NOT winning.
“If I’m playing well and we’re losing, what good is that?” he said. “I just love to play, I love this game, but it doesn’t owe me anything. I owe this game everything. It is not about playing time and I don’t want the reputation of being anything but a hard player, a gamer who wants to play every day.
“We have to win, whatever it takes,” he said. “It shouldn’t be focused on one person, not just on Corey Patterson. We’re losing games by one or two runs and our home runs aren’t up, based on who we have on this team. Look at the power guys, look at smallball guys, look at some of the pitching - you can’t put the blame on one person, you can’t blame Corey Patterson. That’s not fair for anybody. He is a pro who has been around the game and he is a good player, despite what people are saying about him. He doesn’t want to be where he is.”
And that was Freel’s State of the Union address on a Friday night in Hotlanta.
Quick interpretation: He wants to play. He knows he can help. But he doesn’t hold it against Patterson, nor does he blame Patterson for the 12-17 record. “It’s a team game,” he said, uttering a baseball cliche that is as true as a cliche ever gets.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment | Categories: Aaron Harang
TweetIt’s not an ‘off’ day
People have their hearts in the right places when they say to me on a day the Cincinnati Reds don’t play: “Have a nice day off.”
I appreciate the thought from the well-wishers, but an “off” day for a baseball team is not an “off” day for a baseball writer.
Exhibit A: Thursday. The Cincinnati Reds are off, enjoying their day in the Buckhead area of Atlanta, where they stay at the Ritz-Carlton.
Me? Well, I’m not expecting a pity party or anything, it’s just part of the schtick and I enjoy it. Who else gets paid to do something they love - for 36 years?
My day:
Up at 9 (flew out of St. Louis at 8:40 Wednesday night, arriving at 11 in Dayton for a one-day stopover before flying to Atlanta Friday morning.
-Write an ”off’ day story for Friday’s paper on the five things the Reds need to do to go 17-12 in May after gong 12-17 in April.
-Send a Reds Report to 29 other writers covering the other 29 teams, a weekly exchange of notes for Sunday notebooks.
(Time out to take my miniature schnauzer, Barkley, for a walk. A stop at Starbuck’s for my vente non-fat latte. And, yes, I am a black coffee guy - as one blogger said he thought I was. Three cups every morning and a couple more during the day. But I also need my Starbuck’s fix.)
-Write Ask Hal for Sunday’s paper, which involves wading through a week’s worth of questions via e-mail from readers.
-Write a report on the Reds for Sports Xchange, a daily task for an on-line service.
Now the fun part. Off to watch my grandson, Eric, play baseball for Centerville High School, where he is a junior catcher. Pardon some grandparent pride right here, but last week he hit a 380-foot home run and a game-ending single. I wasn’t there. Never am because of this job. But today I will be. Can’t wait.
Wouldn’t it be great for grandpa to cover grandson catching for the Reds?
The Reds? They have a great chance Friday night because Edinson (4-0) Volquez is pitching and he’ll hold Atlanta to two or less runs and the Reds will score 10. That’s there modus operandi for Volquez. In five starts they’ve scored 35 runs for him (I’m no math major, but I think that’s seven runs a game).
Meanwhile, Aaron Harang was 1-4 in April with a 2.98 ERA and his so-called buddies have scored 3.1 runs a game in his seven starts - two or less in three of his four losses.
I anxiously await Friday’s lineup. Will Ryan Freel be in center field and bat leadoff. He had three hits Wednesday (the team had nine) and he is hitting .321. Corey Patterson is hitting .214.
Sounds like a no-brainer, right? We’ll see.
What this team needs is a huge dose of production from the middle of the order - Ken Griffey Jr., Brandon Phillips and Adam Dunn. At the moment, none is driving in meaningful runs.
It is evident to baseball writers when this happens, even without looking at the statistics. We interview the hitting stars of a game and it was a rare occurrence to talk to any of that trio after a game in April.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to dump six days worth of dirty underwear out of my suitcase and reload for three more days.
Permalink | Comments (14) | Post your comment |
Tweet
