“No,” Castellini told reporters. “… Our fans are used to the wonderful baseball that’s been played here for nearly 150 years, and we don’t plan to have any kind of campaign to change it.”
It’s not clear how wonderful the baseball will be in Cincinnati this season, but it seems that all you progressive types, with your crazy ideas on how to inject more offense into a sport that needs it, will just have to find another cause.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred started this fuss last week when someone stuck a microphone in his face and he suggested NL owners — some of whom are younger than dinosaurs now — might be more receptive to the DH. The American League took bats out of pitchers’ hands in 1973 and the rest of the world followed — except for the NL.
Pouncing on Manfred’s remarks, the New York Post published this headline: “National League DH seems almost inevitable for 2017.”
The backlash on social media and elsewhere was swift and stunning from so-called baseball purists who apparently cherish the double switch and want to see chubby Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon’s helmet fly off when he tries to swing.
“There’s no groundswell for it,” Castellini assured. “The commissioner had a press interview and he was taken out of context.”
So the leagues will play by different rules for the rest of time, I guess. Great.
• A Reds contingent — broadcasters Thom Brennaman and Jim Day, catcher Devin Mesoraco, minor league pitcher Cody Reed, former Reds catcher (and current Dayton Dragons coach) Corky Miller, President of Baseball Operations Walt Jocketty, Chief Operating Officer Phil Castellini and mascot Mr. Redlegs — will be at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., then in Hamilton at Parrish Auditorium on the campus of Miami-Hamilton University from 3 to 6 p.m.
All caravan stops are free to the public.
Good thing nobody listens to Jim Brown
Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown, the greatest player in Cleveland Browns history, wants the team to keep quarterback Johnny Manziel and give him strong guidance.
Like he does with gang members.
“To be honest, I don’t want to see him traded or anything like that,” Brown said Thursday night at the Greater Cleveland Sports Awards. “I just never feel that’s the answer to anything.”
Browns owner Jimmy Haslam said he believes the team’s relationship with Manziel can be repaired, but the final decision will belong to new director of football operations Sashi Brown and coach Hue Jackson.
There was new video — yawn — of Manziel partying at a Dallas bar last Sunday. He was not wearing a disguise.
Braxton Miller knows how to play the game
At the Senior Bowl this week, Braxton Miller of Ohio State continues to impress teams as a receiving prospect.
The former quarterback is also saying all the right things. Check out this story in which the Wayne High School graduate seems to be campaigning for the Atlanta Falcons to draft him.
Miller, who once aspired to be an NFL quarterback before an injured shoulder led to a position switch, is projected as a second- or third-round pick.
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