A play in one act

A real life Facebook exchange:

Chris Dickerson All star break hooray!!!
3 hours ago · Comment · LikeUnlike
You like this.

Me at 11:11pm July 11
hopefully y'all play better after. cuz we're all a bit depressed these days, esp after bruce broke his wrist. seriously depressing.

good luck second half!

Chris Dickerson at 1:21am July 12
What would a simple comment about a three day break be without some fan criticism/comment? Geez

Me at 2:53am July 12
well, you're the ones playing like crap. we're the ones paying for your lifestyle.

look up the history of the Cincinnati Reds. i know players these days don't care about the history of baseball and only care about their paychecks, but you play for a storied franchise.

Still alive

Have decided NOT to go to NYC this weekend to see the Reds play at Shitty Field. It's just not worth the effort at this point (especially since I am going on a trip the next weekend for two weeks.)

See what you've done to me, Reds? See what you've done to me, Dusty Baker, with your Willy Taverases and your Adam Rosaleses?

Is that a plastic bottle in his hand?

http://twitpic.com/8ym7h

Dear Reds, I am done with you

Corky Miller for Norris Hopper while Willy Taveras remains on the team is the last straw.

Thank you all, blog readers, for continuing to come here, but this is it. I will no longer be paying attention to the Cincinnati Reds in 2009. (Unless, of course, Walt actually decides to address the problems. But he obviously has no intention of doing that.) I'm going to Lebanon next month for the first time. I'm going to concentrate on eating good food and enjoying my favorite body of water on the planet.

See you all on the flip side.

REDS FANS IN DC GATHERING TONIGHT

What: Reds fans in DC gathering to watch Joey and the Reds take on the Blue Jays.

Where: Momo's, 1334 U Street NW, Washington DC (green line Metro stop - U Street/Cardoza)

When: Tonight, 7pm.

If I lived in Billings, I would definitely do this.

"Host Families Needed

The Billings Mustangs are looking for people interested in participating in the Mustangs Host Family Program for the 2009 season.

Host families provide housing for the Mustangs players during the season which runs from mid June to mid September. It is a unique chance to become involved with Mustangs players from across the country.

"We greatly appreciate the sacrifice and support from our host families," General Manager Gary Roller said. "Year after year we see relationships built between players and the families that house them; relationships that often last for years to come."

Among the benefits host families receive are tickets for games so they may enjoy the action and watch their "adopted" family member's success. They are also invited to special player meet N' greet events and dinners.

Those interested in becoming a host family can apply or find out further information by contacting the Billings Mustangs at (406) 252-1241."

Don't forget to check out the film on the old Mustangs Home, Cobb Field: A Day at the Ballpark!
___

Breaking News: Reds Team Eye Doctor Fired

Cincinnati, Ohio - The optometrist working for the Cincinnati Reds Baseball Club was fired this morning after it was discovered none of the Reds could see.

Reds General Manager Walt Jocketty launched a special investigation into the team's eyesight after weeks of not being able to hit the ball.

"I knew there was some reason the team wasn't hitting, but I knew it wasn't because of the personnel on the team. I mean, Adam Rosales was hitting over .300 in AAA. I knew he wasn't a Mendoza player."

The team was made to undergo eye examinations after Saturday night's loss to the Chicago White Sox.

"I didn't realize that sign on the outfield wall was for M&Ms," the .214 batting Jay Bruce said after being fitted with a pair of contacts.

The players were not the only ones affected by the incompetence of the team's optometrist.

"Whoa, this is really something," Reds Manager Dusty Baker said. "Here I thought I was leading off with Willie Mays every night and it turns out it was only Willy Taveras. What's he even doing on this team?"

The optometrist would not return our phone calls, but COB has learned that he is originally from St. Louis and is part of a cult that worships as their god St. Louis first baseman Albert Pujols. The Reds have not decided whether they will pursue legal action.
___

MLK lives on

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

The tweets come in, tweeters from all over saying unimportant and important things. One links me to an article about the jerseys a baseball team is wearing. Another points me to a video in which a woman dies in her father's arms, the victim of a brutal regime. I see the paradox between the sacred and the profane, the lively and the mundane, freedom and tyranny. The irony of celebrating the Civil Rights Movement at a baseball game while a nation spills its blood for civil rights of its own is not lost on me.

This baseball game bombards us with media coverage while the struggling nation across oceans and deserts suffers from a government-imposed media blackouts. Tonight we'll see morons behind homeplate on cell phones and waving like happy idiots while a dictatorship has cut off nearly all phone services.

Yet, the celebration in Cincinnati is not profane. It is warranted, overdue, appropriate. A gross injustice has been overcome in America, a hideous chapter of history that seems almost unreal to those of us who grew up in the post-Civil Rights Movement generation. Perhaps in thirty-five years, Iranians, too can celebrate at a football game their own liberation from the iron fist of oppression. Perhaps they can wear the same jerseys as those brave Iranian players wore when they dared to don green wristbands in their game against South Korea. God grant them that gift.

And so today while we celebrate progress and freedom in America, we must not forget the grave injustice that still exists throughout the world, that a nation takes to the streets in peaceful protest while its government murders its citizens, that we must never, ever give up in the struggle for civil rights, for human rights, for liberty and justice for the whole world.

I am so proud of my team and the City of Cincinnati for the wonderful job they have done in organizing this celebration. The Reds have always been a classy organization, and it is only appropriate that the baseball club that has given us so many firsts is the first to host an official Civil Rights Game.
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European Cup going on

"The European Champions Cup will be held this weekend in Barcelona between the top four club teams in Europe: Fortitudo Bologna and Danesi Caffe’ Nettuno of Italy against L and D Amsterdam and Corendon Kinheim of the Netherlands. The semi-finals will take place Saturday 20 June and the finals and third place game on Sunday, 21 June. EuroSport 2 will televise the final on a tape-delay basis on Monday June 22nd from 20:15 to 22:00 CET

The European Cup is held between the top teams of the European baseball leagues of and organized by the Confederation of European Baseball (CEB). The first competition was held in 1963 and it has been held annually ever since. Not since 1968 has any team playing outside the professional leagues of Italy or the Netherlands won the competition. Although a professional team from San Marino won the competition in 2006, they play in the Italian Serie A1. Since 2008, with the extinction of the CEB Cup Winners' Cup, the top two teams at the European Cup qualify, together with the top two teams from the CEB Cup, to play the European Champion Cup Final Four. Kinheim won the title in 2008.

Barcelona holds special significance in European baseball, as it was the site where baseball returned to the Olympic programme in 1992.

Catch all the action live and uninterrupted online through www.2009baseballworldcup.com."

Arthur Rhodes batted yesterday

WHERE THE $#@! IS PAUL JANISH FOR DOUBLE SWITCH?

I don't mean to nitpick

But couldn't they have told us this plan a few days ago?

Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto, on the disabled list since May 30 with stress-related issues, is expected to head to a minor-league rehab assignment Wednesday night.

“That was the plan a few days ago,” Cincinnati manager Dusty Baker said before the Reds game against Atlanta.

Very good news.

Vote for Baseball!

An Italian newspaper has a poll about what sport should be put back into the Olympics for 2016. Go on over there and vote! Baseball is winning so far.

Long Night Part 1

There are certain rewards that come with waiting through a two hour rain delay that comes with only three outs to go in the game. Of course, I only say this because the Reds won. Had they blown that one, I might not have felt the joy I do now about managing to stick it out.

Reward number one was Billy Hatcher threw me a baseball. I think he gave every Reds fan left a ball, maybe as a way to thank us for staying.

Reward number two was the opportunity to sit - or should I say stand because the seats were soaked - directly behind the Reds dugout. Sitting behind the dugout, one hears all sorts of things, like Brandon Phillips giving Bruce a hard time for not scoring on the messy double play in extras. For the most part, the team was pretty quiet. Adam Rosales and BP did the most cheering. There were nicknames like Nixy and Gomesy coming from the dugout.

Folks in Cincinnati need to stop complaining about the cost of going to a baseball game. For $40, you can park your own car in this gravel lot on the soil of our nation's capital. Ticket prices are outrageous if you don't have the secret discount (natsfb in the coupon code box on the Nats ticket website.)

Speaking about folks in Cincinnati, maybe the reason they don't go to Reds games is because all the Reds fans in DC. I'd guess that about half the crowd were Reds fans last night. We pulled a Chub$ fan game on the Natinals, minus the obnoxiousness. Nats fans who were there could have learned a thing or two about how to be a baseball fan from us - you know, the stand with two strikes kind of stuff they are clueless about. On more than one occasion I've been told to sit down from some Natinals fan. You can't really use the excuse that baseball is new in DC anymore, can you? And besides, didn't they go to Orioles games in the past?

We sat with the Red Rooters. Most of the section were Reds fans, a happy occurrence.

Anyway, a few other photos from the night's game. I'll post more later (and get to them from Tuesday's game.)

Yes, I stayed until it was over.

And it was worth it. More at a better hour...

Deja vu deja vu deja vu deja vu

Rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain why does it always rain when I go to a baseball game rain rain rain rain?

I'd have more, but it's 1:30am thanks to rain rain rain rain rain rain rain but hey, the Reds won! And I had seats behind homeplate! I'll have pics up tomorrow, but I really need to go to bed.

Reminder: Reds fans in DC, come to The Bullpen tomorrow at 6pm. It's the beer garden outside the centerfield gate. They have cornhole and live music and stuff. And beer.

Johnny Cueto is awesome. Even when he's not.