Madison graduation 2012
Warren County CC graduation
New Miami graduation 2012
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 > July > 26
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Staking claims on steaks (or hamburger)
Chicago Cubs (first place) 5, Cincinnati Reds (1 1/2 games out of last place) 2. Call the coroner. You don’t even need a medical examiner. Cause of death? Anything one can think of that goes bad for a baseball team.
IT WASN’T a fun weekend for the Cincinnati Reds, but I had a great Saturday night - a steak at my favorite steakhouse, The Saloon. It’s in the Seneca Hotel behind the John Hancock Tower.
The first time I walked into the place I saw Joe Nuxhall and George Clooney sitting at the bar. Fans were getting Nuxy’s autograph and ignoring Clooney. I knew it was my kind of place.
It has a wall-to-wall glassed-in case with baseballs signed by major leaguers and some photographs.
AND THE STEAKS are major-league. Ate Saturday with my former sports editior Frank Corsoe and his daughter, Beth. They gave the place two thumbs-up and added two pinkies up, too
Yes, the place is upscale. But not haughty. In fact, they have a complete menu of bone-in steaks and our waiter encouraged the table to pick up the bone when most of the meat is gone and gnaw on it. “That’s what our customers do,” he said. I repeat, it is upscale with white table cloths and white napkins and a large wine list.
And onion soup that is the nectar of the culinary gods.
MY FIVE favorite steak places:
The Saloon (Chicago)
The Oakwood Club (Dayton)
Donovan’s (La Jolla, Calif.)
Vic & Anthony’s, Houston
Hal’s, Atlanta (The name alone merits a plus).
And for those who wonder how I can rate The Oakwood Club over the Pine Club, it’s simple for me. With my eyes, it is so dark in the Pine Club I can’t see my thumb and fear I might slice it off with a steak knife. The place is too small and there is always a wait and the seating quarters are so cramped a big guy like me can barely squeeze into a table. And The Oakwood Club steaks are just as good, if not better.
And for those who wonder about Ruth’s Chris and/or Morton’s. Overpriced and inconsistent from city to city.
So there.
AS FOR THE Reds, they are raw hamburger as they limp home after a 0-6 trip to Los Angeles and Chicago. They might as well be waving a white surrender flag when they get off the team charter in Cincinnati tonight.
They are dead. They are buried. They weren’t a very good team to start with and you have to give credit for them hanging around so long. But now with some underachievers and a whole lot of minor-leaguers, they are barely a notch above Triple-A and there may be some better Triple-A teams out there. Would you believe Double-A?
They simply cannot compete with the big boys and now can barely hold their own against teams of their own ilk. Let’s see how they perform the next four nights at home against the last-place San Diego Padres, one of baseball’s pathetic teams.
MICAH OWINGS pitched three innings Sunday and gave up two runs, three hits and walked four. Then he left with a tight right shoulders. Earlier in the day Jared Burton was put on the DL with physical weakness and shortness of breath.
It is not that I question injuries, but doesn’t it seem to you that the farther a team falls out of first place the more the injuries mount? You just wonder how many would still be playing if the Reds were seven games in first place instead of seven games out of first place. Pain tolerance is a funny thing.
Shortly after I wrote this, Chris Dickerson tried to make a diving catch in right field and came out of the game with his shoulder throbbing. Geesh.
OK, I’M writing this in the seventh inning for there is still time for the Reds to prove me wrong. Earlier in the year when the Reds got behind, 2-1, early in the game one figured they could still come back and win.
Not now.
Now it seems as soon as they get behind, it’s over. When the Cubs went up, 2-1, in the third, I thought, “Well, this one is over.” Now it’s 3-1 in the eighth and the Reds have ONE HIT, a home run by Joey Votto, and I still thinks it’s over.
See what I mean? The Reds loaded the bases with one out in the eighth and didn’t score. Pinch-hitter Jerry Hairston Jr. flied to medium-depth center. Edwin Encarnacion tagged and tried to score and was thrown out - a dubious call by umpire Laz Diaz, bu you see what a mean. Another big chance blown up.
Then Arthur Rhodes gave up two runs in the bottom of the eighth and it was over, over, over. For those who kept sniping for Chris Dickerson to play regularly, well, he has started the last four games and he is 3 for 15 with eight strikeouts before he left the game in the eighth Sunday.
Permalink | Comments (50) | Post your comment |
Tweet
