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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 > April > 29
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Rosales and Nix: more, more, more
Don’t know which was the most exhilirating thing to watch Wednesday when the Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros, 3-0.
Was it Edinson Volquez?
Was it Adam Rosales?
Call it a tie. A dead heat. It was almost as much fun as watching the poor grounds crew trying to cover the infield during an afternoon deluge with the wind whipping the tarp and created cave-sized gaps in it.
How do you explain it. You don’t. You can’t. The last time Volquez pitched he couldn’t find home plate with a road map, a GPS and a Native American guide. He walked seven, five in one inning that forced two runs home against the Braves.
Five days later he pitches a one-hitter, shutting out the Astros for eight innings in a 3-0 win. He gave up a first-inning double that almost was caught against the wall by Jay Bruce. He hit a batter in the third and he issued his first and only walk in the eighth and later scrunched his nose and said, “I didn’t want to walk that guy.”
So how do you explain it? Manager Dusty Baker said it best and after covering baseball for 37 years I know he is rightl “That’s baseball,” he said. “Hopefully he’s back on track. Is he 3-2 now? (yes) He was still trying to find it and he found it big-time tonight. He threw strikes, first-pitch strikes. His pitch-count was down and they put the ball in play. If you can take the sting out of the bat when you make ‘em put it in play - and I don’t think they hit any balls hard. If they did it was right on the ground to somebody. A masterful game. Masterful.”
It was a Picasso on top of a Rembrandt on top of a Vargas. OK, so scratch the Vargas.
Then there was Rosales, the guy called up from Louisville yesterday, where he was hitting .431, and installed at third base. This guy runs hard on every play, runs hard to first on a walk, runs hard to his position and probably runs to the bathroom even if it isn’t an emergency
How bad did he want to play this game? Early in the afternoon a downpour flooded Great American Ball Park because the grounds crew had difficulty tugging the tarp onto the field. Shortstop and third base could have hosted the Olympics swimming and diving events.
What did Rosales do? He was out there helping the grounds crew get the field ready. If the flight crew doesn’t show tomorrow for the trip to Pittsburgh expect Rosales to slide into the cockpit and transport his teammates.
The fans love him. He swung at the first pitch he saw and drilled it deep to center. Almost a home run. Not quite;. And he sprinted to the dugout as the fans gave him a standing ovation. He said that gave him chills.
Then he broke a 0-0 tie with a single up the middle in the fifth, walked in trhesixth and drove in the third run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth.
After the game his face was a perma-smile and he constantly giggled like a teenager. How can you not pull for a guy like this?
Then there was Laynce Nix playing left field. He had a triple, drove in a run, scored a run and had a single.
Rosales and Nix. What see ye Dusty. Will we see more of them. Let’s hope so. As Baker himself said, “It’s going to take a lot of players to help us win this thing.”
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TweetJournalism 101 from Brandon Phillips
The sun was peeking brightly over the Great American Ball Park grandstands in mid-afternoon. Suddenly, a deluge. The Houston Astros were taking early batting practice and they sprinted off the field, soaked before they could reach the dugout.
The grounds crew hustled to get the tarp on the field but it, too, was quickly soaked and became heavy before they could cover the field. Twice it got stuck. Twice relief pitcher David Weathers raced onto the field to help tug the tarp.
No saves for that, Stormy.
The field was inundated. Shortstop looked like Lake Superior and third base looked like Lake Ontario. Fortunately, they had four hours to dry it out - if no more rain showed up.
MEANWHILE, inside the clubhouse there was a bizarre interview with Brandon Phillips, who was given his first day off Wednesday after he homered and doubled Tuesday. It was pre-ordained that Phillips would get Wednesday off and with the team off Thursday it gives him two days off.
Let me pretty much give you the full text of what Phillips said.
“I’ve been reading up on what you all say (write) and it’s funny stuff,” Phillips told the beat writers. “I’m not doing your jobs, but I’ll tell you-all one thing. You know what the funny thing is? I love you guys and I have nothing but respect for all you guys. But you know ever since you-all been writing about me not hittting, we haven’t been winning?
You-all know that? So you see, I hear a lot of people on my team and they’re worried about me. They’re worried about me and Edwin Encarnacion, instead of worrying about the team. I’m going to hit. That’s how confident I am. That’s the type of player I am.
“At the beginning, everything was flowing, everything was about the team,” he continued. “It was all about winning. First thing you know, everybody is writing about Phillips not hitting and Edwin not hitting. Everybody started paying attention to me and everybody started paying attention to Edwin and everybody lost focus about winning.
“I think we should start again writing about the Reds winning instead of writing about two players,” he added. “You should do that. But I love reading all your articles. I read them all the time. They make me laugh. But it’s real, all the stuff you write. You guys do a great job, especially Hal - you do a great job (Well, thanks, Brandon).
“We were winning, but ever since you guys have been calling people out on the team, worrying about me instead of worrying about the team winning. You can write whatever you want about me. It don’t bother me. Me and Hal talked a couple of times last year about what he wrote, but it is a matter of respect. I respect him and what he does.
“You can write anything you want about the bad things, just make sure you don’t write it real big, make it the big issue. We have a young team and they read that and they starting asking, ‘Brandon, you OK? Brandon, you OK?’ There is no point in people asking me if I’m OK because we’re winning and I’m a happy man. It’s all about us winning, because I AM going to produce and I am going to hit. I’m just happy it happened to me instead of one of the younger guys who is new to the team. I tell them, ‘Don’t read the papers,’ because it gets to their heads. In my case, I laugh about it, because I’ve been through.”
I loved it. It was quite a journalistic journey. I love it. Brandon Phillips as my Perry White, Clark Kent’s editor. But don’t ever, Brandon, ask me to put on those red and blue Superman tights.
I’m not sure I follow his logic, but he believes it and as he said about me, “I respect him and I respect what he says.”
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