Saturday, September 27, 2003

Fox Sports Stinks I turn on the TV to watch the ONLY REMAINING baseball with any meaning today,  the Cubs, and I see the Atlanta Braves and Phillies?  Get a clue Fox!   And don't give me any scheduling crap.  Yeah,  it's a double header,  but it is THE GAME today.  Nobody cares about anybody else compared to this,  if they are baseball fans.  Get your buts to wherever it takes to cover baseball,  or don't cover it at all.  Geez! 1:06:46 PM

	Sunday, July 06, 2003

Reds: Get some pitching and a manager , please The Reds are probably only going to be 5 games out ,  which is by no means insurmountable,  but stick a fork in 'em,  they're done.  On a long extended stretch of games where thy play only 3 out of  22 games at home before the all-star break,  they come home to play those long-awaited home games in that stretch against the last place Mets.  And what do they do with that "relief" frm the long road trip,  where they had gone 4-8 during the first 12 games?  They get swept by them Mets. Bravo!  The Reds will never get over the hump for 2 reasons:  First,  obviously,  it's pitching.  Secondly,  lack of a decent manager.  Boone is horrible.  Today he removed their most effective starter with just 90 pitches,  and a 5-2 lead,  where 5 runs werew scored over the final 2 frames to finsih off the sweep.  He brought in the closer ,  Williamson,  who is anything but a "fire stopper" with his penchant for wildness,  who promptly surrendered the game tying two run double.  He also failed to make a double switch with Williamson's spot due up second in the Reds eighth,  for the umteenth time this year.  Add to that his hairbrained experiment with Dunn as the leadoff batter, I think the Reds are in dire need of a change. Boone has never had a team over .500.  He took a team at KC from 13 over to 4 under his first year there.  Looks like he's doing the same with the Reds as well.    3:29:31 PM

	Sunday, June 08, 2003

reds 10:34:20 AM

Reds 9, Blue Jays 8 Most of this season,  I've avoided writing anythking about the Reds.  One is,  at least earlier,  they didn't provide much to "write home" about.  Bad pitching,  bad defense,  and for a while,  bad hitting.  The first two remain a problem,  but the hitting has finally reached a level that Reds fans had been talking about but not seeing much over the past two seasons.  And it has made for some exciting finishes at Great American Ball Park.  16 of their 30 wins have involved scoring the winning or deciding run in their final at bat,  and 8 of those ,  walk-offvariety wins at Great American Ball Park,  inciting the smoke stack fireworks celebration in Centerfield.  Great American Ballpark has been dubbed "Coors Field East" because of its becoming a "primeier long ball allley" in Major League Baseball.  I believe I saw a graphic during Wednesday's  game with there with the Yankees that there have been more homeruns hit there than in any park in America.   No wonder,  with the Reds leading the NL in homers,  and the Reds staff being quite the "run producers" themselves,  surrendering runs at alarming rates,  and so they give up the long ball quite liberally.  Adam Dunn,  stuggling with an alarming K-rate,  and an anemic batting average (he just raised it over the .210 mark inthe last couple of games,  accentuated by a monster blast last night that cleared the right field stands and probably went bouncing along the highway behind the ballpark and in fornt of the Ohio River. He leads baseball with 20 homeruns,  and raised his average to a robust .215.   Last night the guys on ESPN were saying they "liked him at leadoff now",  since he's walked 4 or 5 times and homered twicce in the last two nights,  but guys,  his OBP is .335,  which is NOTHING to write home about.  It ranks tenth on the Reds team,  which doesn't excactly bode well for making him a good leadoff guy.  Why not bat Barry Bonds leadoff ?(after all,, he started off as a leadoff guy).  He gets on base with the best of 'em.  Why?  Because he also hits homeruns,  and you want guys on base when shit like that happens.  Also,  he's hitting .215,  which blows the original spark for the idea in the first place (that he gets on base).  Come' on Boone,  get some sense.  I haven't seen such a horrible idea since my 2nd grade teammates who bat their most powerful hitter first in a pickup softball game during recess.  By the way,  both of Dunn's homeruns this weekend came with the bases empty (surprise, surprise).  (By the way,  the Reds leader in on-base-percentage? Ken Griffey Jr. at .404.  I bet you Dunn hasn;t batted leadoff since ,  well,  second grade. 10:21:40 AM

	Saturday, May 10, 2003

Walkoff Homeruns Ring Out at Great American Ballpark Guillen hits Reds third walk off of the week! Two of them two run homers with the team a down a run. Guillen's cannon blast comes after he uses his own "Shot-gun" of an arm to nail a would -be run at the plate in the top of the inning.  (see it at MLB.com at this link, click the 300k link under "Play of the Game" in the MIL-CIN row about half way down the list....I tried to add the jsp script and link here to get a direct link ,  but it's too closely tied to MLB's scripts and all) 1:23:57 PM

	Saturday, April 05, 2003

Griffey suffers injury again Fans in Cincinnati have been absolutely horrible to Ken Griffey , Jr,  and today,  more morons were yelling and criticizing him as he lay in the outfield with a dislocation of the shoulder after diving for a ball to try and prevent a bases-clearing double.   For me,  I'm not mad at Griffey.  I am pretty much out of any real hope that this will ever end.  Every year since 2001,  it's been a nightmare,  and a real shame to see a guy who came to Cincinnati at age 30 only 102 homers shy of 500,  and entered 2001,  at 31,  only 62 away.  Now,  two years later,  he still has 39 to go.  I was hopeful,  after the good spring,  that this would be the year when he shut up all the loud mouths.   Now, they're crowing again,  and I'm so glad I don't live there anymore so I don't have to hear it. 11:04:03 PM

	Monday, March 31, 2003

Big Boppers come up empty for the Reds After doubling in his season opening at-bat,  Griffey strikes out on a pitch head high with the bases loaded and one out,  thus starting the fans grumbling.  If he can stay healthy,  this won't be the norm.  But I sure was frustrated that he couldn't capitalize on that great opportunity to begin some fan PR by getting a big slam right there,  putting the Reds back in the game.  He wiffs,  and after a walk to Kearns forces in a run to make it 6-1,  Dunn brings on more groans by popping out to shallow right.  Sigh. 4:16:00 PM

Sports Theme remains Blue This sports page will remain Blue in honor of the Kentucky Wildcats of 2003,  and the Tennessee Titans,  who just fell short of another SuperBowl Birth.  Both teams overcame discouraging starts to end the season on amazing streaks (Titans went 11-1 until losing to Oakland in the AFC championship,  and Kentucky won 26 in a row after starting 6-3,  before Bogans went down and the defensive pressure with him.  The "Suffocats" just weren't there without Bogan's skills.   Until the Reds can show some signs of life,  the Reds theme will be absent from this template. 4:00:58 PM

I already want Bob Boone out Used to be the Reds made a good showing opening day,  even in not so hot years.   I was about to say,  "Maybe the Reds offense can come alive and make a game of it yet,  just before Adam Dunn grounded out to the pitcher after jumping ahead 3 balls and no strikes.  I thought that was usually a hitter's count.  There goes Casey for out number two.  This is not starting out good at all.  All of this from walkking the opposing pitcher.  I say,  the quicker the Reds can get rid of Bob Boone,  the quicker they're team can strat winning.  Boone has never won anything (has he even had a team that finsihed over .500?)  Reds go quietly,  1-2-3.  Still 6-0 after two complete. I never liked the idea of bringing him in.  The word was,  players who have had hime don't like him.  So,  that's reason enough to bring him right in.  The Reds are heading in the wrong direction. 3:52:48 PM

Reds stinking up Great American Ballpark early 2003 starts off just great for the Reds.  Haynes gives up a 2-run homer ro ex-Red Reggie Sanders,  then after issuing a 2-out walk to opposing pitcher Benson,  gives up a 3-run homerun to Kenny Lofton?  The pathetic pitching already killing us.  Before I can get another sentence complete,  Jason Kendall jacks another for back-to-back homeruns,  the third in the inning.  All of this off of the "opening day starter",  the supposed " ace of the staff.  At least Griffey started out good with a double in the first.  After one and a half,  Pirates 6, Reds 0. 3:44:14 PM

	Saturday, March 29, 2003

Kentucky Blue(s) Being a Kentucky Basketball fan,  I'm a bit deflated tonight (sports wise --- otherwise it was a pretty good day ---- see the post later today) .  Actually,  the gloomy outlook for the Cats began Thursday night in the first half when Keith Bogans went down,  and then finding out later that he had a high ankle sprain.  They outlasted Wisconsin,  but the road ahead looked to be too much to ask without a healthy Bogans.  The one chance was to outshoot and outhustle Marquette,  and give Bogans another week to heal before taking on Arizona or Kansas (Kansas won) and then the final (probably Oklahoma or Texas).  But when Chuck Hayes got in foul trouble,  and nothing would fall in the first half (26% shooting,  including 1-8 from 3,  while Marquette hit 7 of 13 from 3 and 56% overall),  it was a little much.   The injury really shot down the title hopes.   I didn't watch the next game until the latter half of the second half.  I'm really pulling for Roy now (Roy Williams of Kansas).  Could well turn out that 3 of the Final 4 teams are Big 12 teams.  Wonder if that's ever happened?  Funny that a movie on HBO (High Crimes) I was watching to "drown my sorrows" had Ashley Judd in it,  a big Kentucky fan and constant shot of cameramen at the games.   She had  the Kentucky team over to her house in Nashville for barbeque last weekend when they played the first round games.  Great year, Blue!  A shame to have been cut short. 9:18:44 PM

	Friday, March 21, 2003

Kentucky Number One My Pro Football Team (Tennessee Titans) and College Basketball Team (Kentucky Wildcats) overcame slow starts to finish extremely strong (Titans from 1-4 to 11-5 and AFC Championship Game) and Kentucky from 6-3 and a sound thrashing by Louisville to 29-3 and a perfect 16-0 SEC record and an SEC Tournament victory (even the '96 team didn't win the tourney,  being ousted by Mississippi State in '96,  in New Orleans,  which is where they played this year,  but Kentucky on top this time, 64-57.  They're playing the first two rounds this year right here in Nashville,  but there aren't enough tickets to go around.  Go cats!  Ranked number one going in (since those "other wildcats" in Arizona lost in the first round of their tourney) 8:15:27 AM