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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 > August > 25
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Reds turn easy into difficult
THE CINCINNATI REDS had a five-run lead with one out and nobody on in the bottom of the ninth. They lost it. Believe it. They lost it. Melted on the field like a Slush-ee on a sidewalk at high noon in August in El Paso.
The led the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-1, with one out and nobody on in the bottom of the ninth.
Jared Burton, Arthur Rhodes and Coco Cordero were blitzkrieged for five runs, then the game droned on and on and on. It so long they had two sausage races and Polish Sausage won both - the one in the sixth and the one in the 12th.
It looked like a big old El Foldo.
But they came back to win. Joey Votto who had errors on back-to-back plays earlier in the game, led the 13th with a home run and Laynce Nix hit a two-out home run, his second home run of the game, and the Reds won, 8-6, in 13.
Both home runs came off former teammate Todd Coffey, who slammed the door on the Reds for two innings, but it was too much when manager Ken Macha asked him to go three.
OK, some other stuff before I try to go find a cab in the rain. Without a roof, this game might not have made it past five innings. Loud thunder rattled the roof, so loud that Milwaukee starting pitcher Jeff Suppan was ready to deliver a pitch when thunder rolled and he stepped off the mound.
And they had a flood in the stadium not long ago. About two feet of water submerged the entire lower level, including both clubhouses.
Now, some other stuff:
TO MR. REDLEGS (ORIGINAL): McCoy? Italian? My grandfather was German but every other relative has kissed the blarney stone. Stone, cold Irish.
As for ketchup on Italian sausage, I put ketchup on everything - scrambled eggs, omlettes, all meat, french fries, home fries. I’ve put ketchup on some of the finest steaks in the finest restaurants in the country. Hey, I’m paying $45 for a steak, I eat it the way I like it.
TO DAWGPOUND: Jack Reacher may be my favorite fictional character. That’s the main reason I lover Lee Child novels. The guy takes guff from nobody, travels light and travels often and is smarter than the average bear. I’d love to be just like him for one week, except why does he always turn down the women?
TO NAPOLEAN 2: You are so right, my friend. Folks involved with unions should know what Commissioner Selig deals with. He has had to fight Marvin Miller and Don Fehr every step of the way to get anything done involving the players - and mostly testing for steroids and PHDs.
He has put a drug-testing system in the minors that is stiff and it is working because there is no Players Association interference. Believe it or not, the Players Association is still fighting him on steroid testing. I blame the Players Association far more than I’d ever blame Selig.
TO REDS/PETE FAN: Pete Rose did NOT bet on every game. He only bet on games he THOUGHT the Reds might win. He did not bet on games he thought they might lose. And you know what that told the bookies? That told them that Pete didn’t think the Reds would win, so they would bet against the Reds. A bookie told me Rose didn’t bet on games pitched by Dennis Rasmussen (he was having a bad year) and Mario Soto (he had a sore shoulder).
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TweetThirty minutes with Bud Selig
What a spectacular view. It is on the 30th floor of the US Bank Building, the tallest building in Milwaukee. He has a huge corner office with a panorama of Lake Michigan.
The office is occupied by Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and I spent 30 minutes visiting with him this morning.
Say what you want about the man, he is a compassionate, caring man. If he is your friend, he is your friend forever.
He invited me because he is legitimately concerned about my future and what lies ahead for me after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. I told him I’ll be fine, but he made me promise I’d call him if I needed anything, anything at all.
A new Mercedes would be nice, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean that.
The reception room when you walk in from the elevator is circular and there is enough memorabilia in it to spend a few hours gaping. There is a gigantic circular rug that is a baseball, white with red stitchings.
The most eye-catching piece of furniture is a couch made entirely of baseball bats. The three cushions are actual genuine bases. Fittingly, one of the front supports on the couch is a Ted Kluszewski bat. His nickname was Big Klu and his bat was big, big, big.
There are baseballs with each team’s log perched atop three gold crossed bats. There are statues, including one of Mighty Casey - not Sean Casey, but Casey from the Mudville Nine.
Bud’s office is a museum, too. Jackie Robinson is displayed prominently, including one photograph that his widow, Rachel Robinson, gave to Selig. There is a signed photograph from Joe DiMaggio, “My all-time favorite player,” he said.
Selig laughed as he pointed to a picture of Robinson watching Bobby Thomson touch second base after hitting the historic home run in 1951 that beat the Brooklyn Dodgers and put the New York Giants in the World Series.
“Robinson was so mad he stood and watched Thomson, just to make certain he touched second base,” said Selig.
Selig is one of the least ostentatious wealthy men I’ve ever known. He makes $18 million a year, but you’d never know it. Nearly every day he buys his lunch from the same sausage vendor on Wisconsin Avenue, near his office. He has used the same barber forever.
His house in the Milwaukee suburbs is modest, the same house he had when he sold cars and when he became owner of the Brewers. He no longer owns the Brewers and his daughter no longer runs it. They sold out.
But Selig, a dedicated Milwaukee citizen, maintains his office in Milwaukee, while the rest of the Major League Baseball Offices are on Park Avenue in New York.
Much of the conversation was privileged and off-the-record, just a personable chat about baseball, the economy and my future.
There was some talk about Pete Rose and Selig put it all in perspective when he said, “You know, the reason I’m sitting in this office is because of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox scandal (when the White Sox threw the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds). That’s the only reason we have a commissioner now. They hired Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis. Without that, I wouldn’t be sitting in this chair.”
Bud was busy for lunch and I was indebted that he thought enough of me to give me 30 minutes out of his busy day. In his honor, on the way back to the hotel, I stopped at a sidewalk vendor and bought two Italian sausage sandwiches with ketchup, relish and onions. Healthy? No. Good? Delicious.
Then I parked myself on a park bench near the river that runs through downtown Milwaukee, lit up a Romeo & Julietta and read my latest Lee Child novel.
MANAGER DUSTY BAKER’S 103rd different lineup for Tuesday’s game against the Brewers: Drew Stubbs, cf; Paul Janish, ss; Joey Votto 1b; Brandon Phillips; 2B, Scott Rolen, 3b; Lakynce Nix, rf; Jonny Gomes, lf; Corky Miller, c; Bronson Arroyo, p.
THE REDS have some interesting pitching plans for the next few days.
On Wednesday, Kip Wells comes out of the bullpen to make his first start for the Reds. On Thursday it is Justin Lehr. On Friday against the Dodgers it is Homer Bailey. On Saturday it is probably Micah Owings (if he isn’t needed to back up Wells Wednesday). If Owings pitches too much Wednesdahy, the club probably would call up Matt Maloney for Saturday (it is his turn for Louisville that day) and Sunday it is back to Bronson Arroyo.
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