Votto prepared to play, but not joke

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By Hal McCoy, Staff Writer Updated 4:09 AM Tuesday, May 12, 2009

PHOENIX — What Joey Votto did was, indeed, astounding — something you only see in bad baseball movies like Mr. Baseball or Angels in the Outfield or The Kid From Left Field.

As manager Dusty Baker said, “I don’t think I’ve seen anybody but Barry Bonds come out of a sick bed and hit a home run.”

Votto missed three games and didn’t start the fourth game Sunday, but pinch-hit in the seventh inning and drove the fourth pitch he saw into the left field seats.

“Clearly, I wasn’t sick,” said Votto. “I’m not Barry Bonds.” Votto said he felt good Sunday and probably could have played and he did take batting practice Saturday and Sunday.

Votto was back in the lineup Monday to face the Arizona Diamondbacks, but the lineup card was, uh, strange. Hanging in the clubhouse, the card had Jay Bruce batting third and Votto fifth — flip-flopped from the regular order.

As a writer stood looking, Bruce crept up and said, “That’s not the real lineup.”

Said Baker, “Somebody is trying to mess with me and Votto.”

If the joke was on Votto, it didn’t work. He didn’t even see it and was mystified about what a writer was talking about when the writers said, “You don’t like batting fifth?”

Votto scrunched his forehead and said, “What are you talking about?”

Told that somebody, probably Bruce, put up a fabricated lineup card with him batting fifth, Vottos said, “That’s a bad joke right there. I didn’t even see it. So it didn’t work. Wish I had seen it and it might have been funny, but it misfired.”

Added Baker, "His stroke is such that he doesn't lose much by inactivity. It is so short and compact."

The Rosales sprint

Adam Rosales continues to take a ribbing about running hard to his position between innings, running hard to the dugout after he makes an out, running hard from his clubhouse seat to the dining room — and especially his home run sprint.

“We’ve timed his home run sprint,” Bruce said. “His record is 18 seconds.” Well, when Rosales hit his first major-league home run Sunday, somebody clocked him at 15 seconds.

“I’ve seen him do it in the minors and now in the majors for four years,” Bruce said. “It’s amazing and it’s never been any different, the same every single day. Fifteen seconds? C’mon. Well, I’m glad I was there to see it.”

Plastic man

Chris Dickerson nearly passed out when he saw Bruce toss a plastic water bottle at a trash can.

Dickerson’s web site, weplaygreen.com, disdains discarding plastic in the trash.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Dickerson said. “He did it right in front of me, right in front of my locker. I was so flustered by it that I tossed it into the trash.”

Westward oh, no

When Horace Greeley said, “Go west, young man,” he should have added, “Not the Cincinnati Reds, though.”

After this three-game stopover in the Arizona desert, the Reds play three games in San Diego. The Reds are 11-25 on the west coast the last three years — 0-9 at Los Angeles, 4-6 at San Diego, 5-6 at San Francisco, 1-2 at Oakland, 1-2 at Seattle.

Quote of the day

“My wife (Melissa) asked me, ‘You ever think about starting Micah Owings in left field,’ and I tell her I’ve already got enough people trying to tell me what to do.” — Manager Dusty Baker

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Quote of the day

“My wife (Melissa) asked me, ‘You ever think about starting Micah Owings in left field,’ and I tell her I’ve already got enough people trying to tell me what to do.” — Manager Dusty Baker

Too bad for Micah that he's not a LHP...he'd be a great option to have as a starting OFer, who could take the mound as a LOOGY when a tough lefty batter stepped up to the plate...

vtmet
11:23 AM, 5/12/2009

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Maybe Chris Dickerson should worry more about hitting some rawhide over the fences than plastic bottles. He's already lost his LF job to Laynce Nix.
If Chris doesn't start hitting he may have more time to recycle plastic bottles.... On a garbage truck..

Harry the Horse
10:40 AM, 5/12/2009

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