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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 > 23
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Arroyo: Please keep me
Remember when Bronson Arroyo’s favorite song had the words, “Please Come to Boston” in them. No more. He wants to stay right in Cincinnati and if he has to eat five-way chili over New England clam chowder, so be it.
Arroyo, hearing the rumors of possible trades by the Reds, including dumping him and his salary, made an impassioned plea to stay after he won his fifth straight game Wednesday, beating the Sad (Yes, Sad, not San) Padres, 9-5.
Arroyo pleaded his case strongly and, yes, friends in New York tell him his name is mentioned loud and often about Yankee pin-stripes.
“Honestly, if they trade me, they’re saying, ‘That’s it, we’re not going to build a winning team here,’” he said. “The starters we have have a chance to pitch here a long time, health-wise and age-wise.
“If they go ahead and trade me out now because of the salary I’ll make next year ($25 million in 2009 and 2010), then I feel they’re just cashing in the money for a losing team,” Arroyo added.
“When I see Bob Castellini I feel like he’s a guy who wants to win and I don’t think he is ready to say, ‘That’s it. I’ve put in as much as I want to put in, then go ahead and start tearing the pieces apart. I hope the vibes I get from him are for real. If it’s not, I’ll have another surprise coming my way.”
Arroyo sees Edinson Volquez, Johnny Cueto, Aaron Harang, Homer Bailey and Daryl Thompson and sees a glossy future, with him in the middle.
There are no thoughts now of returning to Boston and he says, “Definitely, the last two years we have not had the pitching we have now. Everyone around here feels like things are starting to roll and there is no reason to panic.”
My thoughts. Keep him. I’ve already forgotten about the 10 runs he gave up in one inning in Toronto. If he pitches most of the time the way he is pitching now he is worth. What say ye?
ARROYO beat 42-year-old Greg Maddux and it was probably Maddux’s last appearance in Cincinnati. Fans gave him a rousing sendoff, a standing ovation, and Maddux appreciated it.
“That was cool,” said Maddux. “I love Cincinnati. As a kid I went to two baseball parks, Dodger Stadium and Riverfront Stadium. I loved The Big Red Machine big-time and I used to sit in left field and watch George Foster.”
Maddux’s brother, Mike, a former major-league pitcher and now Milwaukee’s pitching coach, was born in Dayton.
THE FIRST Dusty Baker wanted to know Wednesday morning was, “Did you see Josh Fogg? He looks like Mike Tyson got him.”
Yeah, we saw him. Thirty stitches in his upper lip. Talk about a stiff upper lip. Amazingly, he could talk after taking the stitches when Joey Votto drove a ball off Fogg’s face during batting practice Tuesday.
“Never lost consciousness, never went down,” said Fogg. “Is that all Votto’s got?”
Well, it did knock Fogg out of his scheduled start Friday against Colorado. He hopes to be able to throw on the side Friday, then take his next turn.
With an off day Thursday, Baker had hoped to push all his starters back a day for an extra day of rest, but that won’t happen now. Edinson Volquez takes Fogg’s place Friday.
“He’s a lucky guy,” said Baker of Fogg. “He didn’t break any bones or lose any teeth.I’m always afraid of that. It’s hard to pay attention to everything that is going on during batting practice.”
Fogg was playing catch in short right field, “Where all the pitchers work out,” he said. “Somebody yelled heads up. I should have kept mine down. About to throw a ball. I turned when they yelled and I should have turned the other way.
“Have no broken bones, just a chipped tooth,” he said. “I’m waiting for it to stop bleeding. I could pitch Friday, but no sense rushing it and everybody can go on normal rest and let me heal a little bit.
“Nothing like this ever happened to be in baseball,” he said. “Plenty of stitches and scars from childhood, but nothing from baseball. I’ve never been hit in the face with the ball.”
As Fogg talked, there was a t-shirt hanging in his locker, on the front of which was: “Sorry - About Your Face.” Said Fogg, “I’m sure that came from Harang. I’ve seen him wear it.”
HOMER BAILEY has a message and a solid object waiting for the right person: “Tell him if I catch him I have a bullet waiting for him.”
Yikes.
For the second time this year, Bailey’s truck was broken into, “The first time in Louisville when they stole a radar detector.”
The second time was Tuesday night near his apartment.
“Let’s see there was Jay Bruce’s Cadillac Escalade parked next to my gray Dodge truck. Which one do you break into?” said Bailey. “My gray truck, of course.”
The amazing part is that they took nothing, just broke out windows, leaving a shotgun, money and an arrow holder in the truck.
Bruce walked by with a smile and said, “Didn’t get me and I had framed and signed jerseys of Derek Jeter and A-Rod in my car.”
BAKER related a funny story about heading for the airport before the All-Star game for the series in Chicago, riding in a friend’s car. The car broke down, but a policeman picked up Baker to take him to the airport.
“I was in the back seat, ducking down low so nobody would see me,” he said. “Then I got to the airport and my flight was canceled.”
As he talked, he was getting ready to eat some salmon he caught himself in Wisconsin over the All-Star break.
“They have a great chef upstairs and he fixes all the stuff I catch,” said Baker, telling a clubhouse attendant, “Be sure to have him fix some for all the guys who want it.”
There was a Father-Sons/Daughters game Thursday, but 9-year-old Darren Baker did not participate.
“He had his choice - the game or go fishing tomorrow on the off day,” said Dusty about his son. “He said, ‘Dad, that’s no choice. Fishing.’ He’s already played in seven Father-Sons games. And he had his choice. He is attending a summer math camp and I told him he could only miss one day.”
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