The Real McCoy

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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy is in his 37th year of covering the Cincinnati Reds, the longest tenure for any active writer covering one team. Counting spring training and postseason games, McCoy has covered more than 7,000 major-league baseball games, written close to 18,000 baseball stories and eaten enough hot dogs to give Babe Ruth indigestion.

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Home > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > May > 28 > Entry

The Big Home Machine wins again

By Hal McCoy | Wednesday, May 28, 2008, 10:06 PM

Some thoughts after watching the The Big Home Machine win its ninth straight — and OK, so it’s the Pittsburgh Pirates. Remember, though, the Pirates swept the Reds at PNC in early April.

And the Reds did beat the Marlins and Indians six straight on the previous homestand.

Paul Janish, a great kid, is here. Jay Bruce, a great kid, is here. Homer Bailey is not here. And notice I didn’t use the word great.

You wonder, just wonder, now that he has seen Janish and Bruce leave Louisville, along with Andy Phillips, can Bailey just adjust his attitude and work ethic, show some spunk instead of snarkiness and get himself up here.

It was no accident that Bruce got pie-faced and water soaked by his teammates after his debut and hardly any teammate paid attention when Bailey was here last year. Bruce is well-liked. Bailey is aloof. A loner. There is a reason for that.

Is there any way they can continue to pitch Bronson Arroyo on three days of rest? The guy is a throwback when it comes to pitching. The hair, though, keeps him off the throwback list, but he might be like Samson if they cut off those locks.

Seriously, the guy is unbelievable with only three days rest. But manager Dusty Baker can’t do it all the time because it messes up the rest of the rotation.

Some of us are old enough to remember when every team had a four-man rotation and everybody pitched on three days of rest, and most of them threw 150 pitches a game.

Call me geezer, call me old-timer, but aren’t training methods and diets and meds better these days? Heck, these guys should be able to pitch on two days of rest.

Just kidding, just kidding.

While we’re immortalizing Jay Bruce, how about some props for Jerry Hairston Jr. Yes, he is another of Dusty’s guys from his Chicago days, but Hairston is a guy who produces. Corey Patterson he isn’t.

Since Baker put him at leadoff five games ago, the Reds are 4-1 and Hairston has 10 hits. He isn’t really a shortstop, but he hasn’t burned the Reds badly while stepping in for Jeff Keppinger.

And how sweet is Bruce’s swing? Only one hit Wednesday, but it was a solid double. His first major-league out, after reaching base six straight times, was a liner to center.

Permit me to return to last spring when the Reds signed Corey Patterson to a $3.5 million contract. Once again, as I’ve written before, don’t blame fired general manager Wayne Krivsky for that one.

As he told me, “I was told to sign Patterson and get the deal done, no matter what it takes.” It took $3.5 million — $3.5 million wasted dollars.

All that did, of course, was delay the arrival of Jay Bruce, which is probably the saddest thing about this team’s early season. In two games, Bruce has done more than Patterson did in 29. Oh, Patterson did have a couple of big hits early in the season, but for what he didn’t do lately makes that ancient history.

And what used to be b-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o when Patterson batted is now b-r-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-c-e when Bruce bats.

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