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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 > 11 > Entry
The Great Homer Bailey Mystery
Ken Griffey Jr., thanks for a night of no sleep. Still trying to recover and hopefully I won’t doze in the pressbox tonight.
When Griffey hit his 600th home run Monday in Miami, after doing all the necessary writing, it was 2:30 a.m. when I crawled between the covers. The alarm went off at 4 a.m. - time for the trip to the airport.
Halfway there, I realized I had only a couple of hundred dollar bills. Nothing smaller. I asked the cabbie, “Can you break a hundred?” When he quit laughing, he said, “I just got on duty and I have maybe four bucks on me.”
The fare was close to $40. He didn’t take credit cards. I became the first guy ever to give him a $60 tip. I should have had him stop at Dunkin’ Donuts and bought us each a couple of glazed so I could get change and sticky fingers.
Any way, I took Monday off for dinner at my favorite Dayton establishment, The Oakwood Club. But I caught some of Homer Bailey’s effort on TV and it was enough to make me skip dessert.
So today I asked Dusty Baker about the loss of five to six miles an hour off Bailey’s fastball. Baker said he didn’t see Bailey last year, so he couldn’t hazard a guess, but he wondered if Bailey has a governor on himself because he is not a physical issue.
Bailey used to do a full wind-up, taking both hands behind his head on his wind-up. Coach Dick Pole took that away from him this year and as Baker said, “That’s a mechanical thing and Bailey has enough going on with his delivery already.”
Baker did acknowledge one thing we all know: “If he is only going to throw 90-91 (or 87-88 like Tuesday), he better have good control and command of his off-speed and breaking pitches.”
He didn’t have that.
Jerry Hairston Jr. had some good news about his broken left thumb: “They told me I could be playing within two weeks, three at the most. In fact, I’m going to start hitting Saturday. I know one thing, I’m banning the head-first slide. It is no longer in my repertoire.”
It was weird in more ways than one. He was sliding into second base but he broke his thumb on Florida third baseman Jorge Cantu’s spikes. Ken Griffey Jr. was batting and the Marlins put on a bizarre shift. Instead of shifting the shortstop to the right side of second base and leaving the third baseman to cover the entire left side - which is what most teams do - the Marlins leave their shortstop on the left side and shift the third baseman to the right of second base.
Makes a whole lot of sense because your shortstop is a better defender with a lot more range than your third baseman. So that’s why third baseman Cantu was covering second on Hairston’s slide.
Marty Brennaman on the Cardinals losing Albert Pujols, for a month: “If that team keeps winning with Pujols out of the middle of their lineup than Tony La Russa is the greatest manager in the history of baseball.”
Coming from Marty, that’s high plains praise because he is not fond of La Russa.
Baker and general manager Walt Jocketty had a meeting of more than an hour in Dusty’s office early Wednesday afternoon and somebody said, “Maybe they’re discussing vendetta strategy.”
When Jocketty replaced fired GM Wayne Krivsky, Jocketty said, “Dusty and I probably have a little vendetta against the Cubs (who fired Baker) and the Cardinals (who fired Jocketty).”
The clubhouse door opened and pitcher Aaron Harang rode on - on a bicycle, complete with racing helmet. He didn’t look like Lance Armstrong. More like Peewee Herman’s Big Adventure.
Love the gag Paul Bako pulls on teammates. When somebody tells somebody something that is old news, the person hearing the news say, “Have you heard about the Lindbergh Baby?”
Bako has a twist that always draws laughter when somebody tells him old news he already knows:”Have you heard about the Hinderburg Baby? Do you think I’m stupid?”
Well, you have to be there.
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By Mike-Cinci
June 11, 2008 10:28 PM | Link to this
Cueto’s body language is awful. Somebody should tell him how to wear his hat and how to briskly walk off the mound to the dugout. The guy moves like molasses. Beyond that he has control problems and has a tendency to serve up HR’s. Clearly he is confused. His mechanics are a mess. He may become good in time but it will take patience. All the hitters are missing in action. This is simply a bad team with bad players.
By HuberTucky
June 11, 2008 9:43 PM | Link to this
Did ya hear about the new movie about the Reds? Dead Team Walking. Man, they sure sucked again tonight! A 10-to-0 BLOWOUT! Totally got thumped! And Warren Spahn Looper gets his 1st complete game EVER (and he’s been around, what, 10 years?) This Reds team is just pathetic. Can they get any worse? When they lost that last game in Florida, the announcers talked about the next 18 crucial games and I predicted they would be 5-13 with St. Louis, Boston, L.A., Yankees, Toronto & Cleveland. Hmmm, looks like I might have aimed high and been a bit too optimistic! Again, painful to watch these guys just barely go through the motions. And Griffey to AGAIN tap out with 2 men on.
By wizard
June 11, 2008 9:12 PM | Link to this
How about the Great Redlegs mystery? Awful.
By rob
June 11, 2008 8:30 PM | Link to this
A couple of C notes? Had no idea sportswriters were paid so well. I wouldn’t give up on Bailey. He has options through the 2010 season and everybody should accept some growing pains. Zach Greinke is a fair comparison. Both were polished high school draftees. Greinke was probably rushed to the majors, struggled and then suffered a nervous breakdown. The Royals stood by him and now Greinke is pitching good baseball.
By Brad
June 11, 2008 7:35 PM | Link to this
I refuse to believe there is a racing helmet large enough for Aaron Harang. You will have to corroborate this with photos!
By Beard
June 11, 2008 6:50 PM | Link to this
Maybe Mario Soto ought to be the pitching coach. It sure seems like he has done wonderful work with Cueto and Volquez that has them throwing well. While Pole works with Bailey and he mysteriously loses 5 mph off his fast ball. That is brilliant!
By Y-City Jim
June 11, 2008 5:39 PM | Link to this
Is Bailey ever going to get some decent defense behind him? Bailey needs to keep if simple. Rely on the fastball in order to keep pitch counts down and to get ahead of the hitters. Maybe Mario Soto needs to work with him as well as Cueto.