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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > June > 03
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
The stench of a 9-21 record
After the game, the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse smelled suspiciously like an outhouse - or what a 9-21 road record possibly smells like.
A pipe broke during the game and the floor was covered with cardboard, a large fan was blowing and the Ammonia smell was gagging.
What else can happen to this team that came to Philly one game under .500 and giddy after a 5-1 homestand? The road. The road. The road to destruction.
The clubhouse smelled nearly as bad as my friend Jeff Gordon and his truck when he took me to the airport Monday. His dog got into an argument with a skunk in his backyard. Guess who won?
And are you ready for this??? We could see the return tomorrow of - ta-dum - Corey Patterson. Ryan Freel strained a hamstring running to first base Tuesday and returned to Cincinnati for an MRI.
Manager Dusty Baker said somebody will be summoned and don’t be shocked and surprised (I KNOW you’ll be angry) if it’s Patterson. The choices are limited. It could be Chris Dickerson, but he is hitting about .254 and is striking out every other at-bat.
And for you conspiracy theorists who believe Ken Griffey Jr. is sitting out the Philadelphia series so his family in Miami will have the opportunity to see him hit his 600th home run?
Well, he didn’t start Tuesday, but he pinch-hit in the eighth inning and drew a walk. Then Baker had to send in Bronson Arroyo to pinch-run, so Griffey IS hurting and IS still hurting.
On the positive side was the debut of 23-year-old slop thrower Danny Herrera. His fastball is 82 to 83 miles an hour. He throws pitches as soft as pin cushions, but he throws an assortment that includes a screwball.
Baker brought him into the game Tuesday with runners on second and third an no outs, the Reds trailing, 3-2.
He got a ground ball, the runners forced to hold. After an intentional walk to Chase (Utterly Fantastic) Utley to fill the bases, Herrera struck out Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell to keep it at 3-2.
Herrera has heard all the wisecracks and short jokes — from friends, from teammates, stuff like, “Shouldn’t you be on top of a wedding cake?”
Equipment manager Rick Stowe playfully said they considered giving him uniform number 2/16ths, “Because 1/8th already has been used (when Bill Veeck used 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel to pinch-hit for the 1951 St. Louis Browns).”
Herrera, 5-foot-6, 145 pounds, joined the Cincinnati Reds Tuesday, retrieved from Class AAA Louisville when Kent Mercker returned to the disabled list, this time on the 60-day.
The lefthanded relief pitcher is quite a story:
—The 45th round draft pick of the Texas Rangers in 2006 and sent to the Reds with Edinson Volquez in the Josh Hamilton trade.
—Attended Odessa (Tex.) Permian High School, the school in the book/TV series Friday Night Lights.
—Pitching for the Reds in an exhibition game this spring, he threw the last pitch in old Al Lang Field, now torn down.
Manager Dusty Baker was in wisecrack mode when he said, “When you see him, he’ll look like the batboy. But, hey, what a great story. He’ll be great motivation for people who hear they don’t have enough of this or enough of that or you’re too short or too skinny or too fat or too something. That’s the beauty of baseball. Those types have to be stronger mentally to make it.”
Herrera, 23, only throws 84 miles an hour and throws a screwball. He was 3-0 with a 2.55 ERA in 10 appearances at Class AA Chattanooga before he was promoted to Class AAA Louisville, where he was 0-1 with three saves and a 1.27 ERA in 16 appearances.
“I thought I’d be the last candidate to come up because of lack of experience, only a month in Triple-A,” he said. “Only my second year of pro ball. This early in the season I thought they’d want more experience.”
Of his screwball, a pitch used by Tom “Perfect Game” Browning, Herrera said, “It is my money pitch. I learned it my sophomore year of college (10-0 in 17 starts at the University of New Mexico). It is self-taught and developed over three years of trial and error with different grips.”
Mercker is most likely will announce his retirement - again - in the not too-distant future.
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TweetLife, Liberty and Danny Herrera
At noon - a Philly cheesesteak at Jim’s on South Street with Reds assistant media relations directory Jamie Ramsey (his first cheesesteak) and MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon.
At 1 o’clock - gaping proudly at the Liberty Bell, my first visit in a few years and the first for Mark Sheldon.
They still don’t know who cracked the darn thing and though they twice fixed it, the crack kept coming back. Hey, a little history with your ball.
Doesn’t get much better than that - steak, Cheese-Whiz, onions and a bell more famous than Gus or Buddy.
I know, I know. Some of you think Geno’s is better. Or Pat’s. Or Rick’s. Matter of taste, my friends. I’ve sampled them all. Geno’s is second and I have a lot of people who agree with me.
Ramsay’s report: “Outstanding, man. Very, very good. Deliciously delectable.”
Equipment manager Rick Stowe, two of his sons, and traveling secretary Gary Wahoff visited Independence Hall.
“Along about noon, we were looking at the ink well they used to sign the Declaration of Independence and a copy of the Declaration, both under glass,” said Stowe. “One of the guards said, ‘You folks look trustworthy, like you won’t etch your initials into anything. I’m going to lunch. Lock up when you leave.”
Said Stowe, “I told Wahoff, you take the ink well and I’ll take the Declaration and we’ll put those babies on eBay. But we didn’t.”
Good Americans.
And then the Reds made another roster move as they get younger and younger and younger. Kent Mercker and his troublesome back are back on the DL and the Reds called up left-handed relief pitcher Danny Herrera from Louisville.
Herrera? He is Part II of the trade that sent Josh Hamilton to Texas. The Reds got Edinson Volquez (good enough, right?). They also got 23-year-old Herrera.
He started the season at Class AA Chattanooga and was 3-0 with a 2.55 ERA in 10 relief appearances. After a promotion to Class AAA Louisville he was 0-1 with three saves and a 1.27 ERA in 16 appearances.
He is only 5-7 and 145 pounds (he admits, “I’m only 5-foot-6”) and throws about 84 miles an hour and his best pitch is a screwball. But success is success. He was 10-0 in 17 starts in 2006 at the University of New Mexico, then was a 45th-round (45? Forty-five?) pick in 2006.
Before Monday’s game, Adam Dunn was busily hooking something up to a clubhouse TV.
“It’s old-school, man. Real old-school,” said Dunn. “It’s a Sega Genesis game. NBA Jam. I play one game every day at home against our video guy (Jeff Graupe). We’ve been winning at home, so I brought in on the road.”
Asked who usually won, Dunn said, “You need to ask?”
Then he and Graupe played and Dunn lost, “In triple overtime. You believe that?” Dunn hit a two-run double in Monday night’s game, but the Reds lost, 5-4.
Maybe they should try “Pong.” Grandson, don’t ask.
Ken Griffey Jr., out of the lineup for the second straight night with general soreness, said his son read the paper and thought he was out of the lineup with genital soreness. Well, uh, no.
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