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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 > August > 19
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Dear Fans: Yada, yada, yada
It always boggles my mind when a baseball team sends a letter to its season-ticket holders - begging forgiveness or begging patience or just plain begging.
Cincinnati Reds ticket holders received this letter, signed by owner Bob Castellini and Walt Jocketty this week (my comments after you read the letter):
Dear Fans,
Thank you for your loyalty and support of the Cincinnati Reds. You are extremely vital to the success of the Reds, and it is important we share with you the thinking behind our recent personnel decisions.
Since taking ownership of this franchise, we have aggressively tried to improve our Major League roster for the purpose of restoring championship baseball to Cincinnati. We have sought and signed proven players. We have extended the contracts of select current players. We added Dusty Baker, a proven winning manager. And, we have capitalized on our burgeoning younger players like Joey Votto, Jay Bruce and Johnny Cueto.
We had high expectations for the 2008 season. Unfortunately the team has not played up to our expectations and we have sustained injuries to key players within our starting lineup and rotation.
We opted to trade Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn at this time because we believe it provided the best outcome for the long-term success of the organization. By executing these inevitable changes now, we secured more players as part of our focus towards building a deeper, stronger inventory of young talent.
We are pleased that the trades allow Griffey and Dunn the opportunity to play for teams in tight division races. Both Ken and Adam made significant contributions to the Reds and we are extremely proud and grateful they wore the Reds uniform.
While the run production generated by these two veterans will not be quickly replaced, we chose to endure the short-term ramifications for the sake of building a strong, competitive team for 2009 and many seasons to come.
The vast majority of our 50 draft picks were signed, culminating last week with first-rounder Yonder Alonso and a pair of talented pitchers. Our expanded scouting operations also signed Juan Duran from the Dominican Republic and Yorman Rodriguez from Venezuela, who are arguably the best amateur free agent position players from their respective countries.
As we near September, we will continue to provide valuable playing time to our young players and new acquisitions who we feel can become significant contributors at the Major League level. We ask your continued trust and patience as we build the roster that will get us back on top. We appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you at the ballpark.
Sincerely, Bob Castellini, Walt Jocketty.
COMMENTS:
It’s a long letter that is short on substance. What’s the plan? Are they trying to win in 2009 or 2012 or the nth of never?
They talked about signing No. 1 draft pick Yonder Alonso. You won’t see him for three years, two at the closest. They talked about signing two 16-year-old kids. What are they, five years away?
They talked about signing 35 of 50 draft choices. If three make it to the majors they’ll be fortunate - and that’s years down the road, too.
They want your “trust and patience.” Trust? Patience? Reds fans have been trusting and patient ever since they were promised a winner when voters approved a new stadium. How’s that worked out? Eight years of losing.
They talked about signing selected players to extended contracts — Aaron Harang, Bronson Arroyo, Brandon Phillips. Hows that worked out?
They talk about trading Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn, a move that they say sacrifices the short-term for the long-term. But they also talk about the trade benefiting the team in 2009. How is that going to work? The only player they obtained in those two trades who is a major-leaguer (for 2009) would be pitcher Micah Owings, and he hasn’t been very good lately.
They don’t talk about possibly signing big-ticket free agents or acquiring high-profile players in trades for 2009. The truth is that the Reds needed to draw 2.4 million this year to break even.
That isn’t going to happen. So where will they make up the shortfall? Most likely a reduced payroll.
Castellini and Jocketty are honorable men, hard-working guys with their hopes and dreams in the right place. But this letter that mostly talks around the issues probably won’t appease too many fans. In fact, alienation comes to mind.
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TweetSome memories from Sweet Lou
Was walking down a side street off Michigan Avenue shortly after noon Tuesday, about to turn into my hotel, when somebody yelled, “Hal, Hal!”
Looked up and strolling down the sidewalk was Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella. Amazingly, nobody recognized him, nobody stopped him for a chat or an autograph and nobody interrupted us as we stood on the sidewalk for five minutes talking baseball.
Sweet Lou. Love the guy. My all-time favorite out of the ga-zillion (actually 16) managers I’ve covered in Cincinnati in my 36 years.
Piniella, of course, was the last (1990) to take the team to a World Series championship.
And I know there are a lot of Cub-haters out there, but with the Reds wallowing in their own mediocrity, I’m rooting hard for the Cubs, just because of Lou.
I mean, the guy is so comfortable with himself he wasn’t afraid to ask a writer, me, when he took over the Reds, “Hal, what does this team need the most?”
I told him, “A leadoff hitter.”
Halfway through the season he came up to me and said, “You were absolutely right. That was our biggest need.” That’s when Piniella made Barry Larkin his leadoff hitter.
Piniella stories are legend - many of them well-known, including his base-tossing tirade in Cincinnati and his clubhouse wrestling match with Rob Dibble.
I was witness to them all, many of which I’ve already related in this space.
I’ve never known a man who hates to lose more than Piniella. Nobody likes to lose, but Lou takes every loss personally and it is as if there is a big ‘L’ emblazoned on his face after it happens.
In San Diego, the clubhouse guy used to have a large bucket big enough to ice down four or five bottles of beer for a manager’s post-game consumption, if he so wished.
One night after a tough loss, as the writers walked into his office, Lou was behind his desk with a sheepish grin and said, “Watch the ice, guys.”
He had kicked the bucket, so to speak, splattering ice all over his office floor, so much that it looked as if a hockey game was about to start.
Another time, for some reason somebody had put a huge plastic bubble (as big as a beach ball) full of gum balls in his office. He never took a single gum ball out of the container, just let it squat in his office.
Another tough loss. Another sly Piniella grin after the game, “Watch the gum balls, guys,” he said. The floor was covered with literally hundreds of gum balls, with a shattered plastic container strewn among the multi-colored gum balls.
I’ve told this one, but it is my favorite.
Dibble was his closer and there was a situation for him to close. Dibble didn’t close and when I asked Dibble why he said, “Go ask the manager.”
So I did. And Lou said, “He told me before the game his arm was a bit sore and he wasn’t available.”
So I returned to Dibble and told him what Piniella said and Dibble screamed, “The manager is a liar.”
So I trudged back into Lou’s office and said, “Your closer just called you a liar.”
Piniella flattened me against his office door and he sprinted to the clubhouse, jumped on Dibble and the fight was on. Pitcher Tim Belcher broke it up but he wasn’t gung-ho about it - either afraid to get hurt or happy that Piniella had the upper hand over Dibble.
Ah, sweet memories from Sweet Lou. If and when I do my book, there are a couple of X-rated stories I’ll include, one involving an interview with a guy from a Christian radio station in Cincinnati. It’s classic.
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