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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 > July > 07
Monday, July 7, 2008
Chicago: Italian, pizza and steak
Chicago, my kind of town — with appropriate apologies to Frank Sinatra.
Kobe steak at The Saloon, my favorite steakhouse in America. The first time I walked into the place George Clooney and Joe Nuxhall were seated together at the bar.
Italian at Papa Milano’s, just off Rush Street. Not my favorite Italian place — that goes to Mama DiSalvo’s in Dayton and Charley Gitto’s in St. Louis.
And good ol’ Wrigley Field, baseball’s monument to old-school baseball, flappers doing the Charleston and Al Capone.
It isn’t the best place to work, but it is to watch baseball. There are no elevators to the press box. To get there you walk up the ramps, then up two flights of stairs. It didn’t hit me too much until last year when I was on crutches after having half my left knee removed.
After the game, to get to the clubhouse, you go down the ramps — with the egressing crowd, most of them Cubs fans singing about how much they love Chicago. They are entitled.
For the Cincinnati Reds, the next three days isn’t about pizza and steak and Italian. It is about Wrigley, though. It is work time.
They’ve won 10 of their last 16 to climb out of the NL Central cellar into the almost lofty heights of fourth place. Mostly that’s because Pittsburgh and Houston are in free fall and the Reds took advantage of the crippled and anemic Washington Nationals.
Give the Reds credit, though. They did what they should do. They beat up on the bad team, as they need to do and didn’t do earlier in the season.
They’re still 10 1/2 games behind the Cubbies, though — not much ground gained there. But now is their opportunity. They have three games Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday against the first-place Cubs.
And if that’s successful, they can pile up more hay with three games in Milwaukee against the second-place Brewers.
If they can go 4-2 — 2-1 at each stop — they can go to the All-Star break feeling good about themselves as they play golf, fish or hang out with the kids.
If they blow this one — if they go 0-6 or 1-5, pack the bats and balls and work toward making this team better. Now. Don’t wait. If they can get within, say, seven games of first place, then the games after the All-Star break might actually mean something.
Don’t be delusional, though. They did lose two of three to the Pirates at home before sweeping four from the Nationals.
As one scout told me, “That’s a bad team when everybody is healthy. With all the injuries they have, about half the team doesn’t even belong in the majors.”
He was talking about the Nats, not the Reds.
So it starts Tuesday with Aaron Harang against Ryan Dempster, another of those many former Reds pitchers who have resurrected their careers in other uniforms. Dempter is 9-3.
What concerns me (and privately some of the Reds) is the fact that Harang had to miss Saturday’s turn to give a tight forearm two days of extra rest. They say it is of no concern, that he had this two years ago and a skipped turn solved it.
Harang, though, hasn’t pitched well recently and who knows if two extra days will cure what ails him. Without him the second half, well, pack those bats and balls. Harang is 4-1 for his career in Wrigley, so that’s a plus.
Johnny Cueto faces Carlos Zambrano, also 9-3, on Wednesday. For some reason, as good as Zambrano is, the Reds have beaten up on him many times, so that’s another plus.
At least Cubs fans won’t aim most of their venom at the Reds. That honor will belong to Marty Brennaman, the broadcaster who called some Wrigley fans morons during an April visit.
When Adam Dunn hit a home run, not one baseball flew back on the field — as is the custom in Wrigley. About a dozen baseballs flew onto the field. Brennaman went into an on-the-microphone tirade.
He received tons of hate e-mails. Marty loves this stuff, though, and is unconcerned and said, “In fact, I’m looking forward to going there.” He has appeared on Chicago radio and TV since then and has praised Chicago fans as great and knowledgeable fans, “except for the morons.”
Hey, should be fun. On to Chicago. Big decision, though. The Saloon first, Papa Milano’s first, or Chicago-style pizza? I might even take my laptop with me.
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