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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 > March > 09
Monday, March 9, 2009
Gomes: the new Pete Rose?
If you see a lot of Pete Rose in Jonny Gomes, well, it’s there and easy to see.
It was after the 2005 season, after Gomes finished third in the American League Rookie of the Year voting.
Gomes was in Las Vegas and saw Rose signing autographs in a memorabilia store.
“I was just a pup, but I bought a picture and stood in line to get it signed by Pete,” said Gomes. “When I got to the table, I introduced myself and Pete said, ‘I know you. I like the way you play, kid. Just like me.’”
To Gomes, that was the voice of a baseball god and the words stuck.
“Writers already were throwing around things, not numbers, comparing me to Rose — my approach to the game, my aggressive slides, my aggressive play and my attitude,” Gomes said Monday before the Cincinnati Reds hit four homers and beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-4 (Chris Valaika hit the team’s fifth grand slam this spring, while Ryan Hanigan, Yonder Alonso and Daryle Ward also homered).
Gomes was 0 for 3 Monday, but is hitting .353 with two doubles and two home runs in 17 at-bats.
Gomes said Rose had him sit down at the autograph table, “And we had a 15-minute conversation and the line got longer and longer and people were getting mad. But Pete was great. We talked shop and talked about hitting.”
Rose signed a game jersey for Gomes and posed with him for a picture that he also signed.
In addition to his physical talent, it is his Pete Rose Type A personality the Reds would like to add to their mix, a guy with a clubhouse presence.
All he has to do is make the team.
“I’m too young to have remembered Rose playing, a little before my time, but listening to him was like I was a kid in a candy store listening to all his stories,” Gomes said.
“When I was coming up, it was when all this blackball stuff started against him, but now that I know the inside and out of his career I’m a big fan of Pete Rose,” Gomes added.
“You want a player like him on your team — a guy who will get on base and score a run in any way. He set the tempo as a team player,” he said.
There is a reason Gomes plays full-bore 24/7. After playing in a high school championship game for Casa Grande High School near San Francisco, he and his best friend, Adam Paul Westcott, were on their way home when their car struck a utility pole.
Westcott died and Gomes wears his name on a biceps tattoo and said, “It was like a little bird was saying, ‘You never know when you’ll play your last game and my friend went 0 for 4 and maybe he didn’t run hard on every play and I always think, ‘If he had known it was the last game he would ever play, would he have played harder.’ I don’t want anybody ever asking that question about me.”
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TweetJocketty on Cueto: ‘No problema’
How rumors start or how information leaks out - take your pick.
Cincinnati Reds general manager Walt Jocketty and manager Dusty Baker both say there is no foundation to a rumor that pitcher Johnny Cueto was injured pitching for the Domincan Republic Sunday in the World Baseball Classic.
Just to make certain, Jocketty called Reds coach and Dominican pitching coach Mario Soto, especially after hearing Cueto may have twisted his ankle covering first base.
“No problem,” said Jocketty. “That’s what Soto said. He said he did turn his ankle a bit, but that he did his running today and there was no problem.”
It all began when an American League scout walked into Bright House Field’s media dining room Monday morning and quickly asked, “How’s Johnny Cueto?”
“He’s fine, why do you ask?”
“I heard he’s hurt,” said the scout. “How bad is it?”
That prompted a quick visit with Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker, standing at the batting cage.
“Is Cueto hurt?” he was asked.
“No, why do you ask? I haven’t heard that at all,” said Baker. When told a scout was talking about it, Baker said, “I’ll talk to Dickie Pole (pitching coach) and have him call Mario Soto. But I haven’t heard that at all. Maybe it’s because he pitched 4 2/3 innings Sunday and came out. But I’m sure that was because he reached his pitch count.”
The scout said he heard it from, “A Reds’ official,” but when it comes to officials Jocketty is about as high as it gets and he is assured that, “No problema.” During his 4 2/3 innings Sunday against Panama, Cueto struck out five and didn’t give up a run, giving up three hits and walking one.
Jocketty said, “I watched the game and he retired the last seven and looked fine to me. And I’m sure Mario Soto (Reds coach and Dominican pitching coach) would have told us if anything was wrong.” Jocketty then laughed and said, “You’re going to have to quit listening to those scouts. They’re the biggest rumormongers around.”
Then, to appease his mind, Jocketty made the call. No problema.
Injuries are something that causes every major-league manager and executive to hold their breath until the World Baseball Classic concludes.
IT’S NO rumor, Edwin Encarnacion is hurt - but not seriously. He missed his second straight game Monday with what Baker said, “Is the same thing he had last spring - a little bit of hurting that comes from checked swings and not swinging properly.”
BAKER ON what he has seen of Jonny Gomes at first base: “He has looked good for a guy who has not played it. I can’t understand why somebody didn’t try him at first base before. They’ve played him in the outfield and at DH, but never at first base. Doesn’t make sense to me.”
Gomes was in left field Monday and batting clean-up against the Philadelphia Phillies.
JEFF KEPPINGER, playing shortstop until Alex Gonzalez plays his first game there tomorrow night in Tampa against the Yankees, is hitting only .105, but it isn’t a concern, “Because what are we talking about, 15 at-bats? I’m not concerned about slow starts or fast starts at this point,” said Baker. “Heck, I never felt comfortable until about 200 at-bats into a season. I’ve seen guys hit .400 in the spring, but as soon as they added that third deck on the stadium he didn’t hit at all.”
PETE MACKANIN, the Reds interim manager the last half of 2007 and a man many thought should have been given the job, is the bench coach for the Philadelphia Phillies and said, “I can’t get away from red. I look so good in blue or green, too.”
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