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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 > 2009 > February > 19
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Some spring training odds and ends
Starting the morning the way Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker started it Thursday isn’t the way you want your day to start. The toilet in his Siesta Key condo was stopped up and overflowed.
Just what you want to do first thing in the morning - plunge right in.
“Usually I’m on my way to the park by 6:45 a.m., but today it was 7:30,” said Baker. “I started to get mad, man, but I said, ‘Cool it, man, it’s only 7 a.m.’”
MEANWHILE, Jay Bruce calmly ate his breakfast at a table in the clubhouse. Wheaties? Nope. Cheerios.
“Plain Cheerios, no Honey-Nut Cheerios,” he said. “I like my cereal sweet, but I like plain Cheerios with sugar better than Honey-Nut,” said Bruce. Was he angling for an endorsement?
MEANWHILE (again), seated around Bruce at the same table, eating their cereals, were three former Reds, all wearing their uniforms and their numbers from when they plauyed - Eric Davis (44), Mario Soto (36), Ted Power (48).
THERE IS a possibility CEO/owner Bob Castellini is to be in Sarasota today on business and might pop in to camp for his first spring visit and first look at his 2009 Cincinnati Reds.
RESTAURANT ADVICE from Joey Votto, whose mother runs a restaurant in Toronto and Votto said if he didn’t play baseball he would be a chef: “In Sarasota try the Word of Mouth for breakfast. Outstanding.”
Had some pizza at Demetrio’s on Tamiami Trail Wednesday night. Also outstanding. The place, a rather large place, was full on a Wednesday night and it isn’t even tourist season yet. That says a lot right there.
JUST WHEN I was about to turn blue wondering why I let brown see what it could do for me, UPS delivered my box of shorts and polo shirts - four days after it said it would.
FOR THOSE WONDERING: Yes, Brandon Phillips will be the team’s clean-up hitter again this year.
And, no, Chris Dickerson doesn’t have left field firmly wrapped in his fingers. That’s why Jacque Jones, Jonny Gomes and Laynce Nix are in camp.
That’s because Dickerson has to prove he is what he was last August and because the team needs back-up in case of injuries - not only just Dickerson, “But in case something happens in center or right, too,” said Baker. “Remember last year when we were down to three outfielders after we traded Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn and had injuries to Norris Hopper and Ryan Freel?”
THERE WILL BE no captain named by Baker and he has no idea who will be the team leader this year.
“It ain’t up to me who is the leader,” said Baker. “Whoever steps up. And I believe in leaders in different departments - like the bullpen, the infield, the outfield. We need some leaders on the bench.
“And I’ve always said, leaders are not appointed, they are anointed,” he added. “The teammates anoint - somebody they know they can talk to under any circumstances, who they can trust with their utmost secrets. You hope it is somebody with a consistent personality so you can approach them the same way every day.
“Just because you are the best player and the highest paid player doesn’t make you a leader,” he said. “And not everybody wants to lead. That’s why I don’t appoint.”
SOME INTERESTING managers and coaches in the system: David Bell, son of former major-league manager and player Buddy Bell, is managing Cincinnati’s new Double-A team in Carolina. Tom Browning is his pitching coach.
Delino DeShields, who stole 463 major-league bases, is the hitting coach at Class A Billings and former major-league pitcher Bob Forsch, who owns two major-league no-hitters, is the Billings pitching coach.
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