Week Four Wrapup: First place and other stuff

Before I proceed with this week's wrapup, I'd like to start with a prayer:

Our Reds
Who art in Cincy
Hallowed be thy bats
Arroyo comes
Game will be done
With another W in the column
Give us this game our daily win
And forgive us our errors
As we forgive Lopez for committing his
And lead us not into a loss
But deliver us from Cardinals
Amen

Reds (17-8, first place tie with the Deadbirds)

Whew! What a week! First a sweep of the Nats, then wins over Roy O and Pettttitttte. The Reds won a franchise record number of wins in April. Unfortuantely, so did the Albert Pujols show. Still, the Reds sit on top of the NL Central, causing some people to scratch their heads and wonder what is going on with this division.

The Reds played small ball this week, with only David Ross, Rich Aurilia, and Dunn (finally) hitting some of those trademark dingers. Speed has turned out to be a key part of the early success, as the Reds are third in the Majors in stolen bases, with Felipe Lopez (9) second and Ryan Freel (8) fourth in the rankings. Brandon Phillips swiped three this week and adds speed at the lower part of the order.

I was at RFK for the three game series verses the Nationals, buying the cheap seats and moving into much better seats around third base each game, as the stadium was sparsely populated for the series. Plenty of Reds fans attended the games, but that didn't stop one woman from telling me I could only root for Bronson because he was so good looking. That, of course, made me cheer even louder. I had a record of my own this year, attending five games in the month of April, three in which I did not purchase a single beer! (Going to three games in a row necessitates not spending exorbitant amounts of dough.)

The bullpen has been adequate, but I feel like it's like putting bandaids on a leaky dam. I have no confidence in any one of them but Todd Coffey, and he had a shaky week. Foul ball grabbing brats aside, David Weathers makes me nervous every time he stands up in the bullpen.

Reds player of the week: This was a tough one, because these wins were a total team effort. I'm going to have to give Bronson Arroyo player of the week honors for his gem on Wednesday, where he held the Nationals to one hit over 8 innings. Our savior had 8 Ks in the game, bringing his total to 30, which ranks him number 11 in the Majors. (Aaron Harang is number 3 with 33.) Bronson is undefeated at 4-0, and his ERA is sitting pretty at 2.34.

Nats (8-17, fourth place)

Yes, the Nats were swept by the Reds this week and were pummelled by Sir Albert and Co. three more times, but this team is not as bad as everyone is saying. I saw many comments about how the team should have beat the Reds, giving the Reds no love, but maybe since the Reds beat Roy O and Pettttittttte, people will realize that you shouldn't hang your head for being defeated by the Reds. It's pretty trendy these days!

I had a tough time rooting against the Nationals this week in the three game series against the best team in baseball right now, but it had to be done.

¡Livan! pitched brilliantly Saturday, even in the first inning. Is he back? Without him, success is not possible. This week, he was 0-1 with an ND, giving up a four spot against the Reds in the first inning of his loss and pitching well after that.

We lost John Patterson to the DL, but he should be back by the end of next week with a strong arm, poised to compete for that ML strikeout leader's position. Tony Armas, Jr. has proved to be a solid third starter, so once we get the pitching in order, as seems to be happening, the Nats will be a formidable opponent. I still maintain my idea that they are reversing last season's good first half bad second half, and hey, in the second half, we'll have an owner!

coughBergmansuxcough

The bats, oh, the bats, something we didn't have last year. It is vitally important to do well in May so we don't lose Alfonso Soriano to a trade. The season is not lost; we should not throw it away.

Nats player of the week: Michael O'Connor. Hey, why not? This kid made his Major League debut against one of the scariest lineups in all of baseball. He only made one mistake, and it cost him the game, but he kept Sir Albert in the yard, kept him hitless, as a matter of fact. For that reason alone, he deserves player of the week honors. If we can get performances as decent as this from him, we could have a fifth starter, and that, dear parishioners, is the key to the season.

Giants (13-10, 2nd place through Saturday's games)

710! 711! BB. BB. BB. BB. BB. BB. BB. BB...

The Giants dropped two of three to the sizzling Mets (I can't wait until they're fizzling) and came back to take two from the D'Backs, so it wasn't too bad of a week. Jason Schmidt finally got his first win. If he's back on track, look for the Giants to put Ws up a bit more frequently than they have been doing.

One of the highlights of the week was Kevin Frandsen's Major League debut in which he went 3-4 with three runs scored. Frandsen was filling in for Ray Durham, whom the Giants put on the DL this week with a strained left hamstring. He grew up in San Jose as a Giants fan, and it sure was fun to watch him live his dream. The excitement that filled his eyes was magical.

I've just seen the Giants marketing campaign, and I have to say, it's brilliant. Players are put into scenes of San Francisco as giants, literally.

Randy Winn webgemed to save the game Saturday at Mays Field and Moises Alou continued his current torrid streak by launching a bomb to win the game.

Giant of the week: Moises Alou. This one was easy. Moises began the week at a respectable .294 average. Through Saturday's game, he had raised it to .366. going 11 for 20 (.550) with 3 homers, 12 RBI, and 4 runs scored. He is making teams pay for walking Barry, especially on Monday, when he hit a three run bomb and a two run single after Bonds walked. Alou says the walks have less to do with strategy and more to do with trying to prevent Bonds from getting the record. He may have a point, because it certainly has proved to be a poor strategy.

Around the Horn

Seven homers in seven games? Kevin Mench's streak ended yesterday at seven, but it was quite a run. Since the streak began, he's gone 10-32 (.313) with 22 RBI and 10 runs scored.

Why is this guy not playing every game? Ben Broussard started three games for Cleveland this week, going 9-13 with 4 homers, 12 RBI (including 8 in one game), and 6 runs scored. He's hitting .413 on the season with 9 multi-hit games (verses 4 single hit games in his starts).

The Rockies are off to a surprising start this year, led by a bunch of guys you've never heard of, including Garrett Atkins, who played last year for the team when no one was paying attention. Atkins is hitting .363 with 18 RBI.

What's up with those Tigers? Jim Leyland must be a miracle worker. Through Saturday's games, Leyland's club was 15-9, just 1.5 games off of Guillen's defending World Champs.

Goat of the Week

Keith Hernandez. When Hernandez spotted Kelly Calabrese, the Padres' full-time massage therapist, high-fiving Mike Piazza in the dugout after he hit a home run, he said "Who is the girl in the dugout, with the long hair? What's going on here? You have got to be kidding me. Only player personnel in the dugout." When he was told that Calabrese was with the Padres training staff, he said, "I won't say that women belong in the kitchen, but they don't belong in the dugout." This coming from a guy who treated women as objects during his playing days, a known womanizer. What a jerk.

Variations in victory themes

The Reds pounded Petttttitttttte and the Asstros today.

Am I the only one who has the sensation that this team is never going to lose? (Yes, I am well-versed in reality. Still, this is awfully fun.) 17-7? Best record in baseball? Best team record in April ever? What's going on? I'm not exactly sure how one is supposed to act when one's team wins like this.

"At that time shall Michael rise up, the great prince, who standeth for the children of thy people." Aaron Michael Harang, though he didn't have his best stuff, still rocked! Three runs, one which Kent "I'm mediocre" Mercker let score, just for the heck of it, I guess, went on his Ernie. Our dear angel went 7.2 innings, another deep performance to minimize chances for the evil bullpen to screw it up.

All of this winning is making me more devout than usual. I can't seem to peel myself away from the games, not having missed but one, when I went to the Nats home opener. A good wireless signal and sunshine are all I need.

Just look at the beauty of it while it lasts:

Cincinnati	17	7	.708	-
St. Louis	16	8	.667	1.0
Houston	15	8	.652	1.5
Chi Cubs	13	9	.591	3.0
Milwaukee	13	11	.542	4.0
Pittsburgh	6	18	.250	11.0

Check out this article in the Akron Beacon Journal about King Phillips wondering if trading him to Cincy was a mistake.

Why, Nats, Why?

On ¡Livan!'s best outing of the year, the Nats had silent bats when they had runners in scoring position. It's not like they didn't get runners on. Carpenter gave up nine hits. You can run down the list - Soriano was on twice, Vidro was on three times, Guillen was on twice, Byrd was on three times, Schneider was on once...it's those LOBs, those hideous, hideous LOBs. Nick left six of them all on his own.

When is Sir Albert going to be stopped? I hope he gets all of his homers out of the way early and runs out of gas by the end of the year, because at this rate, the Deadbirds will be unstoppable as the season progress. Soon people will be saying Barry Who? He's on pace to hit 94 blessed longballs. Yes, I know he won't stay on that pace, but he's going to have to have his head torn off to stop him from hitting at least 60, in my opinion. The worst of it is, and I noticed it today, you know when he's going to hit out. Even the Deadbirds announcers said "it just feels like he's going to do something here." Everyone in the ballpark knew, and there was nothing anyone could have done to stop it. You could run out Clemens, Pedro, Schilling - it wouldn't matter who was on the mound. The only other player I've ever experienced that with is Bonds.

The Nats take on the Deadbirds for a series tie tomorrow before heading on to New York to face the evil Mets for two and then returning home to take on Dan Ugly and the AAA Fish. I feel like if the Nats could just win a few games in a row, they'd get back on track. This is not a bad team. Yes, there are pitching woes, but if ¡Livan! is coming around as he seems to be, and with Armas proving to be a very solid third starter, and with JP's arm fully healed in a week, we'll be alright. It's amazing, too, what new ownership will do. Look at the Reds! They are 17-7, best in baseball and breaking the team franchise record for most wins in April, a franchise with a pretty good history of incredible teams.

Pray Sir Albert goes into a deep, deep slump.

Adam Dunn pounds on Junction Jack, the Asstros mascot.

First place (for now)

King Phillips was the man again! Small ball rules!

16 wins ties the Reds' team record for most wins in April. Man, this is fun. Yes, the record is for ALL teams in Reds history, even those.

This win won't be enough for the naysayers, but it was big if wins in April can be big. Every win is one win closer to Krivsky getting us a bullpen. It was another scary night from the pen, with David "As predictable as the" Weathers giving up a two run bomb in the ninth to bring the Asstros to within one. Do the Royals or the Pirates have any good relievers? Maybe we can make a deal now!

Brandon "Two headed" Claussen did not pitch well enough to convince me he is a reliable starter. Sure he only gave up two runs, but he only pitched 5.1 innings, had FIVE walks, and had runners on in every inning. He really doesn't inspire confidence.

The Reds hung a big "L" on Roy O, his first of the season and his first to the Reds of his career. The Reds have not had much luck against the Asstros in the past few seasons, so here's to changing that! Next up is Andy Petttttitttttte verses Aaron "Totally underrated" Harang. Pettttittttttte has given up six homers in five games so far. I want some Reds longballs!

The Nationals helped out the Reds today by defeating the Deadbirds 8-3, giving the Reds sole possession of first place in an NL Central where every team but the Pirates is over .500. It has the Hardball Times asking What's up with the NL Central?

Cincinnati	16	7	.696	-
Houston	15	7	.682	0.5
St. Louis	15	8	.652	1.0
Chi Cubs	13	8	.619	2.0
Milwaukee	12	11	.522	4.0
Pittsburgh	6	18	.250	10.5

There's something called fact checking

Look what's wrong on MLB.com:

In the past two seasons, Reds left fielder Adam Dunn has piled up at least 40 home runs, 100 RBIs and 100 runs scored.

One of the few things Dunn hasn't scored yet is an invitation to the All-Star Game.

Um, Dunn was on the All-Star team in 2002.

Update: Mark Shelton has informed me it has been corrected. Yay! Go Adam!

Flying out of GABP

Roy Oswalt is 15-0 with a 2.41 ERA in 19 career starts verses Cincinnati. It has to end sometime, right? I say it ends tonight!

The Reds are in a longball slump. I want to see balls flying.

Also, check this out: MLB.com says that Monday's starter against the Deadbirds is to be determined. That doesn't mean Williams isn't pitching, does it? Arroyo said he'd pitch on three days rest, and though he threw 119 pitches in his last gem, is it possible that Narron would skip Dave "I stink" Williams?

D-train for Homer and Ed-E?

At 24, Dontrelle Willis has a few years to reach his prime. At already $7 million a year, he's destined to land one day in a big market. Would it be worth giving up Homer Bailey and Edwin Encarnacion for Willis for a couple of years? The question has come up.

On the one hand, I would hate to give up Ed-E. We finally have an anchor at the corner and an RBI man at the plate. But, it's Dontrelle...

Although I am excited about Bailey, we don't know how he's going to pitch in the Majors. We know Willis. We know he will pitch well. And to get good pitching, we're going to have to sacrifice.

Milton is making $8.5 million in 2006 and $9 million in 2007, so the salaries are comparable. We can let him go to free agency after 2007. Dontrelle's contract runs through 2008 (when he makes $10 million), so in a sense, we would be replacing Milton with Willis in 2008. If only we could get rid of him sooner...

Who knows? Come June if the Reds are still in it, we may have to revisit the question. What do you think?

The Rookie

The kid was nervous as he threw his first couple of pitches to the peskiest pest in baseball, David "Hold still!" Eckstein. You could see it in the way he was jumping around the mound, firing in pitches as soon as he received the ball back from the catcher and walking The Annoying One. The fearless first baseman came over to tell him to settle down, and he proceeded to get Luna, Sir Albert, and Encarnacion for three outs, only a poor throw and a poor scoop cost the kid the third out and his concentration. Suddenly the score was 3-0 after Jim "I am Frustration" Edmonds crushed his fourth longball of the year, and was it long! The second baseman in leftfield proceeded to dive for a ball that should have been caught, allowing a baserunner to get to third. Finally, a popup to shallow left found the leather of the shortstop's glove, and the kid got out of his first Major League inning, one of many pitchers to have fallen victim to the powerful Deadbirds.

The kid did alright, though. Without that error, the score would have been 0-0. Five innings, 3 hits, no earned runs, 2 Ks. The 4 walks were a little high, but overall, Michael O'Connor did well. He was, unfortunately, the bright spot in a dark game, another victim of pathetic defense and a very sick offense.

4-0

Useless information from Sports Illustrated (which I am still getting though I cancelled it after Gameday Audio screw ups sent it to me):

Six years after defecting from Cuba, Osvaldo Fernandez won four [2001] April starts, tying him with Schilling, Glavine, and Wade Miller for the NL lead. They all went on to win at least 16 games - except Fernandez, who finished 5-6.

I think Bronson has a bit better stuff than Fernandez.

More useless info: Catchers Jason LaRue and David Ross have the same birthday (3/19). Javy Valentin's is on their half birthday (9/19). I don't know why I notice these things.

Catching up after three days at the ballpark

Going back to work after skipping for a day game is worse than going into work on a Monday morning.

In case you missed it:

Phillips gets some love from MLB.com.

Red Hot Mama talks smack about Trader Jim.

...and this one belongs to the Reds is going to the game on Friday to root against the hated Asstros.

JinAZ disagrees with my Coffey for Closer campaign.

Big Red Mechanic is pondering the idiocy of 6 teams in the NL Central and 4 in the AL West. Get rid of the Asstros!

And now, it's back to work. Ugh. Nats post when I get home, if the clock ever starts moving forward.

Boston weeps, Bronson sweeps!

There isn't much in life better than skipping work to go to a day game.

I had the good fortune of going to the ballpark today with someone who had never been to a baseball game before. I watched his eyes light up as he caught a glimpse of the bright colors screaming from the verdant diamond for the first time, baseball magic touching his inner child like it does to the most experienced fan of the game.

This one was all Arroyo. Ryan Zimmerman picked the wrong time to come out of his slump, for his was the only hit the Nats could muster against our savior in another brilliant outing.

Bronson's performance aside, perhaps the best news to come out of the game was the three hit day of Adam Dunn. He looked good, not like his awkward alter ego who had been suiting up for the past week or so. We'll see if it sticks, as we desperately need his bat for the next series.

David Ross' longball was crushed. To get a dinger out of RFK Canyon is impressive; to hit one into the upper deck is a rare occurrence, indeed. Baseball Minutia has a great description of RFK and Frank Howard. Howard was known for towering homers - there are seats painted white in the upper deck where he put them. I sat in one for a bit on Monday night just to get a feel for how far someone has to hit it, and I can't imagine someone doing it. Ross' homer landed in the lower level; Howard's longballs were in the middle of the upper level, halfway to the moon.

Ed-E is second only to the Almighty Pujols in RBI. Nice to have a ribbie man on our team, eh?

It sure was great seeing the Reds play three days in a row, especially since they won them all. I hope the Nats can recover and run over the Deadbirds this weekend. The Nats have some kid named O'Connor going tomorrow against Sidney Ponson in the kid's Major League debut. Hopefully the Nats won't forget to bring their bats!

Reds fans, please take a minute to checkout some of the Nats blogs. Ballwonk has a humorous take on today's game; Federal Baseball has some game wraps and great Nats analysis; Distinguished Senators is a great read; and Capitol Punishment has the best blog name in DC. But don't stop there! Go down the sidebar on the right!

Next up: the hated Asstros in a battle for first place. Griffey's back! Let's hope the Reds don't continue their Asstros woes. Maybe Roy O's arm will fall off. (He is 15-0 with a 2.41 ERA in 19 career games vs. Cincinnati.) At least Lidge is blowing saves - his slider isn't working. Yay!

Weathers holds up

Phew. The Reds nearly blew it.

When I left for the ballpark this evening, my personalized desktop weather from the Weather Channel, adorned with Nats logos, told me it was raining outside. However, as I walked to the Metro, I saw nothing but glorious sunshine. Clouds drifted in over the course of the game, creating a strange breeze inside the stadium and making it quite cool. Fortunately, the rain held off until David "As predictable as the" Weathers had two outs in the ninth, when a cold mist began to fall, and had there been any Nats fans left in the stadium, I would have thought the rain was their tears.

The game was one of those dull ones where there is too much offense to be a good, quick pitchers' duel but not enough offense to keep you from being amused by the grounds crews' rush to clean up the field between every inning. As the rain made its way towards us, the air inside the stadium was a swirling mass of hot dog wrappers, newspapers, peanut bags, and other plastic bags and scraps of paper. Felipe Lopez had to stuff a whole page of newspaper in his pocket while the Reds were on the field; Ryan Zimmerman cleaned up his hot corner when the Nats were out there. It was like American Beauty, only the swirling trash looked violent, almost menacing, taunting the players with threats to blow in their faces if balls came their way.

The Reds mighty offense is slumping, but they are still winning, which is what good teams do. I suppose you can chalk this one up to the pathetic performance of Billy Traber, because once he came out, the Reds' bats were fairly quiet, with the notable exception of the fifth inning. If anything, this was the questionable game of the series, as we had Dave "Tee ball tee" Williams going. He didn't pitch well, but he pitched so much better than his last performance that you could forget that he didn't pitch well. (Come on, he gave up two longballs in RFK Canyon!)

Our man Coffey wasn't so hot today, either. Ok, he did coax a double play ball when he needed it, but he was wild and not helped by his defense coughLopezcough, just like yesterday. I had a strange feeling when he charged to the mound - it was *gasp* confidence that he could do the job. He did the job in the fifth, not so much in the sixth, when Mercker had to bail him out.

Ed-E was the offensive star of the game, driving in four of the six runs on a double and a single. Brandon Phillips extended his hit streak to nine games and added an RBI. Adam Dunn extended his strikeout streak to eight games. For the Nats, Alfonzo Soriano extended his hit streak to eleven games and Nick Johnson extended his to eight, but Jose Guillen failed to make it eight in a row.

If you've ever seen the Reds win as a visiting team, you know it just isn't the same as a home game. You want to see fireworks, celebrate, turn to the stranger next to you and cheer, but all you find are long faces or evil stares at your team's cap which sits atop your head. When the losing team is a team you would normally root for, even your friends are confused when you cheer for the boys in the gray unies below you. Yes, my Reds are 14-7 and should be 15-7 after tomorrow, insha'allah, but my Nats are losing and it just isn't as fun when you have no one to celebrate with.

Mostly cloudy with a 50% chance of offense

Forecast still calls for showers moving into the area around 4pm. I find it difficult to believe considering it is an absolutely gorgeous day right now, but there are a few streams of white clouds in the distance, so maybe what they say is true. I guess I'll get tickets under cover somewhere.

There is a greater chance of precipitation of hits off the arm of Dave "What a wasted trade" Williams. Fortunately for him, he's pitching in RFK Canyon where longballs go to die. If any night is a night to give Dunn a rest, this is the one. The Reds need the best defensive outfield possible if they want to sweep this series. (Oops, did I say that? Ramon "I'll throw a fit" Ortiz is pitching tomorrow against Bronson instead of John "Major League leader in Ks" Patterson, so the Reds caught a break there.)

It seems that some people don't take the Reds seriously. Here's this week's eye opener:

The Reds are 1st in runs scored with 125. The Nats are 23rd with 90.
The Reds are 1st in doubles with 51. The Nats are 13th with 36.
The Reds are 1st in homers with 33. The Nats are 17th with 24.
The Reds are 1st in RBI with 114. The Nats are 22nd with 84.
The Reds are 1st in total bases with 337. The Nats are 14th at 292.
The Reds are 1st in walks with 100. The Nats are 10th at 72.
The Reds are 2nd to the hated Yankess in OBP% at .365. The Nats are 8th at .352.
The Reds are 3rd in slugging % at .493. The Nats are 14th at .437.
The Reds are 3rd in OPS at .858. The Nats are 12th at .789.
The Reds are 5th in stolen bases with 16. The Nats are 12th with 12 but lead the world in caught stealing with 10.
The Reds come in at 13th in batting average at .268, one point lower than the Nats. Yes, we need to work on our average, but most of the starters are hovering around .300 if they aren't over it.

As far as pitching goes, the Nats come in at number 20 in ERA with 5.03. The Reds are number 22 with 5.37. So pitching isn't that different, although if you take away Opening Day, when the Reds gave up 16 runs and the Brewers batting practice on Saturday, when they scored 11, the ERA goes down dramatically. I'd do the math but I don't have much time before I'm leaving for some errands and then the ballpark. Sure, if we could get rid of Dave "there's another walk" Williams, or if by some miracle he would start pitching as well as the rest of the starters, the team ERA would improve dramatically.

So once more, I'm going to say, the Reds are not a team you can walk over. You can't just make bold statements like "The Nats should take 2 of 3 from the Reds."
The Nats should be lucky to take one against the Reds' young but powerful lineup and their vastly improved pitching staff. (And believe me, it is pretty difficult to root against the Nats, but hey, I'm a Reds fan by birth.)

My team won! Yay! My team lost! Boo!

Elizardo Ramirez (right) did something today that shows there is something there with this Cincinnati team, something I hesitate to call "special", but there's a spark with this team and it's catching. Needing an arm to replace Eric "Keep 'em in the park" Milton, Ramirez pitched brilliantly, cooling the Nats hot bats through seven outstanding innings in which he gave up only two runs on six hits and a walk. He even got his first Major League hit. I have to admit I was pretty nervous about this game, but I think he's earned himself another start in the rotation. I'll vote for it.

At 13-7, the Reds are off to their best start since 1994, and we all remember how well they were playing when the tragedy of strike befell them, and we remember that team continuing to play well in 1995 when we were division champs and went to the NLCS. I'm just saying...

I arrived at the ballpark early to watch the Reds take BP. Someone at the stadium thought it would be funny to play the WKRP theme song while they were batting, and I wondered if any of the players had been born when that show was on television. The Reds hit several out, though Dunn did not; he simply looked awful, and I rightfully predicted he would have an 0-fer. How long will this slump go on?

It was fun to watch ¡Livan! float his 65 mph pitches up to the plate, baffling Reds hitters at times. I had my eye on the pitch speed while he was out there, and in his best innings, he'd throw an 88 mph fastball and follow it up with one of those 65ers, and sometimes it looked like the Reds batters could have swung twice by the time the pitch reached the plate. They don't call it his Bugs Bunny pitch for nothing - just ask Austin Kearns, who was so lost when he swung that you almost had to laugh at him. The Reds mustered up a little offense in the first inning when they scored three, but after giving up another run in the second, Number 61 shut them down. Am I the only one who thinks ¡Livan! should warm up longer? Why does he always get pounded in the first inning?

The grounds crew did their job in soaking the field to try to take away the Reds running game. That didn't stop Brandon "I'm king of the world" Phillips from swiping a bag after he extended his hitting streak to 8 games on his last AB. He also made a spectacular grab in the sixth to save a run from scoring, nearly doubling off the Nats guy on second.

Alfonzo "Superstar" Soriano extended his hitting streak to ten games, though he did misplay/misjudge a ball ripped by Javier "Latin Love Machine" Valentin, on which LLM chug-a-lugged his way to third for probably his only triple of the season. I laughed as he rounded the bases after I realized my eyes weren't playing tricks on me and he really was going for three.

Speaking of hitting streaks, Nick "Too bad I can't play 162" Johnson extended his to 7 games, as did Jose "Barbarian" Guillen. Adam "Homerunswalksandstrikeouts" Dunn extended his strikeout streak to 7 games.

Brian Shackelford came in for Elizardo in the eighth after Alf got another hit. Shack coaxed a scary fly out to deep left before proceeding to plunk Johnson after throwing over to first a billion times to try to pick off Soriano. The meager crowd of less than 20K had grown impatient with all of the throwing, so when Johnson was hit, the stadium erupted into a chorus of boos, one of the few times during the game that you could tell there were actually people in the stadium. With two on and only one out, Guillen came up to bat and Todd "Not just a cup of" Coffey sprinted in from the leftfield bullpen, prompting Nats fans around me to make fun of him. Just wait, I said to them through telepathy, when he becomes a dominating closer, you'll think it's cool that he has his own unique entry. Coffey did what all Reds fans willed him to do - he served up a double play ball, only the throw to first went to the cameramen instead of the first baseman, moving the runners to second and third, but Javaman got the next batter to fly out to end the threat.

When the ninth inning came around, Coffey had been ineffectively pinch hit for, and I closed my eyes and chanted, "Please don't let it be Weathers, please don't let it be Weathers." When I opened them, David "As predictable as the" Weathers was taking his wrongful place atop the pitcher's mound. He promptly walked the first batter on four pitches, and I imagined what Marty must have been saying about it as I looked into the booth at his gray head. Fortunately, this walk did not haunt him, and the game ended without a bang, for the hometown team had suffered defeat at the hands of the mighty Reds.

I'm off to the ballpark!

I have my Cincinnati cap on, ready to see the National League Player of the Week Brandon Phillips and crew take on the Nats at RFK! Edwin Encarnacion (.304, 2 HR, 11 RBI) and Scott Hatteberg (.500, 4 2B, 1 RBI) were also nominated, as were Ryan Church (.350, 2 HR, 5 RBI), Nick Johnson (.435, 2 HR, 3 RBI), and Alfonso Soriano (.400, 3 HR, 5 RBI) from the Nationals.

I'll have details of the game tomorrow!

Week Three Wrapup: I could get used to this winning stuff

I live for this! Good weeks for the Reds, Nats, and Giants.

Reds (12-7, 2nd place)

This team makes me feel like I should be on Prozac. I'm up, I'm down, I'm maniacally happy, I'm disgustingly depressed. Make up your minds, Reds! Either be good or be bad; I can't deal with these shining rays of hope you've given me over the past few weeks, when every inkling of rationality and logic within me tells me this will be another season of disappointment. You're setting us up for a heartbreak!

I can't even say that the pitching was good or bad, the hitting was good or bad. At times, the pitching was brilliant, like in Bronson Arroyo's Friday night performance and Aaron Harang's complete game shutout Sunday. Other times, it was like Little League, as in Claussen's Saturday performance. The hitting? Hitting was brilliant Thursday when the team came back from an early deficit and scored twelve runs. It was virtually non-existent on Saturday, when the team didn't get its first hit until the fifth inning.

I had to look up the meaning of "complete game shutout" today. I had long since forgotten the concept, but I gotta say, Harang kicked butt, especially coming off of four days rest. And what about third baseman Edwin Encarnacion? David Wright, eat your heart out. Ed-E's defense in Sunday's game was nothing short of spectacular, even throwing out a runner from his knees after he dove for a grounder.

Team Prozac is going to have to get some consistency going. I'm tired of this box of chocolates!

Reds player of the week: Brandon Phillips. When we groaned upon hearing the news of the acquisition of Phillips, it wasn't because it was Phillips we loathed - it was the thought of yet another second baseman crowding the roster. Little did we know that not only would Brandon swing a hot bat, but he would potentially rid us of team heel Tony Womack. Brandon's week? 14-31 for a .452 average, 17 RBI, 3 HR (including a salami), and 4 doubles, not to mention stealing that run during the Milwaukee game on Friday.

Nats (7-10, 3rd place through Saturday's games)

Nationals and offense were two words I hadn't heard in the same sentence before, even during last season's amazing first half run. Maybe they just lost confidence in the pitching and decided to do it with the bats. Who knows, but it certainly is nice to see some blowouts, especially against the hated Braves.

Armas has been pitching fairly well, and Patterson is his Big Nasty self, but what's up with ¡Livan!? He's like a human batting tee. Though he's hitting like he's got a tee up there, too.

Nats player of the week: This one was tough, but I'm going to pick Alfonso Soriano. One of the few Major Leaguers to actually take a good photo for his profile, Soriano was on fire this week, going 9-25 with a .360 average, 3 homers in Friday night's game for 5 RBI, and he has an 8 game hit streak going on, which is why he narrowly beat out Nick Johnson for my vote. Oh, and he made some pretty good plays in leftfield in Philly and is leading all outfielders in assists with 3. Not too shabby for a guy we didn't think would be playing for the team after the whole I won't play outfield drama.

Giants (10-7, first place through Saturday's games)

709!

The Giants certainly don't look like a first place team right now, but what can you expect in a division whose 2005 winner was two games over .500? Noah Lowry seems to be progressing in coming back from an injury, and Jason Schmidt is not going to continue to pitch as poorly as he has, even with his loss of velocity, so things should pick up as far as pitching goes. The Rockies have been a surprise this April, especially since you haven't heard of half their roster, but I doubt they can keep up with San Fran. There certainly isn't any love between the teams. It has been a beanball war, with Matt Morris and Felipe Alou getting tossed from Sunday's game.

Giant of the week: Randy Winn. Randy's 12 game hit streak came to an end on Friday, but an 0-5 day doesn't diminish this past week's accomplishments. Winn went 9-22 for a .409 average. It's too bad this guy lingered for so long in Tampa Bay. He's proved to be a great addition to the Giants.



Around the horn

Albert Pujols may be better than the greatest player who ever lived, Josh Gibson. It's so frustrating to have him in the same league as your favorite team, but man, is that guy incredible to watch. It was only fitting that his 1000th career hit was a homerun. Just think, the guy is only 27 years old.

Pedro got win number 200 of his career. Mr. Beanball, you're our daddy for the week. He also won number 201 last night against the Padres, a seven inning, two hit masterly performance. The uniforms the Padres were wearing were so hideous I almost wanted the Mets to win. It was military night, and they were wearing uniforms that were supposed to be like desert BDUs. It's no surprise they would don such ugly garb; the Padres have a history of hideous uniforms. (example, example, example)

The Royals ended their 11 game losing streak on Saturday. Man, these guys are bad.

Goat of the Week

The Goat. You know, the one that has forever destined Cubs fans to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. This vengeful creature has once again inflicted its wrathful malice on the Cubbies, sticking new Cubbie-for-life Derrek Lee in the path of danger, and danger, as we all know, won this vicious battle. Cubbies fans, you have our sympathies!

Reds pregame notes

I had a beautiful photoshop to post here that I spent a little extra time on this morning, but right now Photoshop is crashing and my work isn't saved. It's been unresponsive for about ten minutes now, but I'm hoping for a miracle. I think the whole computer is about to crash. Stupid Microsoft. Update - it totally crashed, and I lost the photo. I'm going to recreate it, though.

Somehow, suddenly the sky has cleared itself of clouds and the sunshine is performing brilliantly right now. I guess I won't have to hop on Noah's Ark after all.

Some notes:

By now, I am sure everyone has heard about Milton and surgery, but just in case, read more at Red Reporter's game thread.

The Brewers are wearing their eighties unies today. That glove is one of my favorite MLB logos; I'm glad they're using it again.

Fond memories of Tom Browning come swirling back at RHM. I think most of us clearly remember the game at Wrigley when he went out to sit on the roof on Waveland Ave. Good times.

Big Red Mechanic explains how the number 4 factored into yesterday's game.

Check back, I'll have more later. I have to fix this computer so I can watch the game.

709!

Finally!

We're getting drenched here in DC - it hasn't stopped raining since last night, and I'm starting to wonder if they should have finished Noah's Ark they were rebuilding along I-68 somewhere between Natsland and Redsland. The Nats' game was washed out before people even thought of playing baseball at RFK. Apparently, Ramon "I haven't had a decent outing yet" Ortiz is upset because Frank is skipping his turn in the rotation because of it. I say, "Hallelujah, team ERA is saved!"

As the Nats aren't playing and the Reds sort of stood on a baseball field this afternoon, I am able to watch the Giants playing the Rockies with my full attention. It appears that Barry is coming out of his slump, not only knocking out number 709, but stinging another ball that unfortunately found outfield leather. He also reached on an error - it really is painful to see him run, and in watching him it's hard to believe that he was once a 40-40 man. I make no secret that I am a Bonds-lover and nothing will change that. (For reasons, see here and here.) I'll be the dork with the pro-Barry sign when the Giants come to town in July.

The Giants certainly don't look like a first place team right now, but what can you expect in a division whose 2005 winner was two games over .500? Noah Lowry seems to be progressing in coming back from an injury, and Jason Schmidt is not going to continue to pitch as poorly as he has, even with his loss of velocity, so things should pick up as far as pitching goes. The Rockies have been a surprise this April, especially since you haven't heard of half their roster, but I doubt they can keep up with San Fran.

Lastly but most importantly, Todd Helton has been placed on the 15 day DL after being hospitalized yesterday for a stomach issue. He will not be released until all tests are complete. Whatever it is, it must be somewhat serious, for they're already anticipating him missing two weeks. It should be noted that Helton has only been on the DL once in his nine year career. I'd like to ask all of this church's parishioners to say a prayer for him.

The House that Bernie Built

Batting practice for the Brewers ended extremely late in today's game - around 3:30pm, about the time the fourth inning ended. Because of it, the Reds did not get a chance to take their BP swings, which led to them getting no hits through those first four innings.

This one was brutal, especially the five homerun fourth inning. Five homers in an inning ties an MLB record, by the way. The worst of it all is that it wasn't Carlos Lee and Prince Fielder that killed the Reds. We were nailed by such superstar .260 hitters like Damian "I'm pretending I'm better than I am" Miller and Bill "The Reds make me look like Babe Ruth" Hall. Did I mention the FIVE HOMERUNS IN ONE INNING?

Four of these longballs came off of Brandon "I'm a tee" Claussen, whose performance can only be described one way: it sucked. They could have put Bernie Brewer up to bat and he would have hit one out. I don't know about y'all, but I am losing patience with Mr. Inconsistency. He can seem like Roger Clemens on one pitch and Rick White on the next - you never know which one of him is going to show up. Claussen's pathetic performance raises his ERA to 6.75, almost as bad as Chris "Time to retire again" Hammond's 16.20.

Questions for tomorrow's game: Can Milton help the Reds rebound from today's titanic struggle? Can Dunnandkearns come out of the slump? Can Brandon Phillips continue his six game hit streak? Can the Reds take the series? Stay tuned for the next episode of "Homeruns, Strikeouts, and Walks."

UPDATE: It seems that Milton has been scratched and Harang will be starting tomorrow against Doug Davis, who was tagged for nine runs in 2.2 innings in his last start against the Asstros.

UPDATE 2: Marc Lancaster confirms that Milton is injured. He'll be heading back to Cincy to see Dr. Kremchek about "discomfort" in his knee. The news isn't all bad. Harang is coming off a rough outing and is due for a good one. Let's win this series!

Sometimes life conquers baseball

I live in the crack capital of the world. You can walk down K Street at any given part of the day and find dozens of crackheads loitering around, and no, I'm not talking about the hundreds of lobbyists who have offices there. Crackheads line the streets in a state of violent psychosis, thrashing out at whatever makebelieve phantoms cross their paths. One would think that just seeing what a person strung out on the stuff looks like would be enough to keep someone away from it. Apparently, that is not the case with Derek Bell, who was arrested Thursday for felony cocaine possession after being pulled over for a traffic violation, a hot crackpipe resting tragically on the seat next to him.

Bell played ten seasons with the Blue Jays, Padres, Mets, Pirates, and most noteably the Asstros. He had a career .276 batting average and could always be counted on to hit double figures in homers. His best year was with the '98 Asstros, where he played in 156 games and hit .314 with 22 homeruns, 108 RBI, and 111 runs scored. Bell quit baseball in 2001 at age 32 after two and some change mediocre years after that, leaving me to wonder what effect drugs played on ruining his career. What a shame.

Uno, dos, tres, seis!

I thought the Reds had bullpen woes.

John "Why do they always blow my games?" Patterson pitched a gem, striking out 8 for his Major League leading total of 32. Until the eighth inning, he had only given up three hits, all to catcher Brian "I think I" McCann. Then, Nick "I'm still healthy" Johnson had a brainfart and allowed a runner to get on first on a ground ball out that he should have taken himself. All of the sudden, some hits and some runs occur, and Patterson comes out with a guy on third. But Mike "I really" Stankton couldn't keep that runner from scoring, so the Big Nasty doesn't get a decision and has three earned runs tacked onto his line. It should be a crime that Stankton got the win. He deserves nothing but that big BS after his name.

Fortunately, the Nats have a guy by the name of Alfonso "I play leftfield" Soriano, who carries a big stick. He goes all Albert Pujols on the Braves, hitting three homeruns, including a three run bomb in the soggy eighth inning to put the game away.

This team is hot. They've won five of their last six (and should have won that game in Philly where they lead 6-3 in the eighth)

The game was a sloppy mess at the end. There was an hour rain delay at the beginning, and I am glad that my plans to go to the game were cancelled. Instead, I flipped on WDCA for one of the few network televised games, knowing full well that the game would be delayed since it was pouring outside of my window. I've always wondered why they play M*A*S*H during rain delays. It doesn't matter what station it is, that show is always on, and now, the M*A*S*H theme song rages on in my head. I'll probably have dreams about helicopters coming into baseball stadiums.

I hope I don't have nightmares about relief pitchers, because my teams' bullpens are certainly scary.

(Bonus points if you get the title's reference.)

It's good to be king

Brandon Phillips hit a leadoff double and scored the go-ahead run on Ryan Freel's two-out infield single, running on Corey Koskie's throw to first which was hurried because of Freel's speed. He stole that run; he had to, for Ben "I'm baaack!" Sheets was on the top of his game. Phillips is turning out to be so much more than we could have ever hoped for.

Of course, the bigger star of the game was Bronson "Lead us to the chosen land" Arroyo, who pitched 8 innings of brilliant baseball, only screwing up on a homerun to lead off the game. He added 8 Ks to his line, further causing us to say Wily Who? Thank you, Mr. Krivsky!

Unfortunately, the Reds, who are tied for the most wins in baseball right now, still get no respect. Nats announcers Tweedledum and Tweedledee said with the Cubbies loss of Derrek "I hate goats" Lee, the NL Central only has two teams competing this year. You'd think a team that leads the world in homeruns with 32 would at least open some eyes.

Visit Bronson's website and give our savior some love.

Pregame note

Ahh, Friday. In the days of my waning youth I should be poised to hit the town, but my daytime incarceration in the house of dull and stress leaves me exhausted by Friday and wanting nothing more than to go home, chill with a beer, and watch a ballgame. I was supposed to go to the Nats game this evening, but the reality of life and plans got in the way, and a cancellation was at hand. It's for the better, however, as DC is setting up for two days of rain. (Of course. It's only nice outside when you are imprisoned by the headache gray walls of the office.)

Dan "I'm better than De La Rosa" Kolb is set to return for tonight's game. So, Arroyo better pitch well and deep into the game so we aren't forced to comeback against the Brewers' strengthened pen. Unless, of course, Kolb feels the need to give up some runs. Kolb had an awful 2005 with Atlanta, so maybe his good days are behind him.

There's something oddly cool about having a team named for beer. I think I might try to join the game thread for the Brewers this evening - a little friendly heckling, if you will. Milwaukee fans, like most of the NL Central teams, just love the game, and a little friendly rivalry is fun. It's not like Philly or New York, where you get pegged with peanuts, bottles, and spit if you show up in the opposing team's colors. I for one am happy that Brewers fans have something to cheer about this year. I just hope Reds fans can cheer louder.

Maybe we can keep the bats of .260 hitters quiet tonight.

The hated Yankees are good for something

Team values increased an average of 15 percent for the second consecutive year, to $376 million, in our 2006 survey of Major League Baseball's 30 franchises.

Most of the money comes courtesy of the New York Yankees, which paid a record $77 million toward baseball's revenue sharing system. The Boston Red Sox, baseball's No. 2 revenue sharer, paid only $51 million. Such generosity by Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, required by the league's rule that teams pay 34 percent of their net local revenue to help make poorer teams more competitive, is the reason why the Oakland Athletics, Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals increased in value by more than 20 percent.

[From Forbes.com/ESPN]

I think I hear those at CATO cringe. I've often heard people complain about MLB being "too socialist" or a "failed business model." Contrary to these opinions, however, is the fact that baseball is doing pretty well for itself. Could it do better? Of course, but it would have to zap the soul out of the game, and baseball without a soul would not survive, for the soul of the game is what makes it so great. We're already inundated with advertising, even on the bases! Can you imagine putting ads on the uniforms like they do in the English Premier League?

Yesterday, I referenced an article about baseball's "war on the cheap seats." Taking away the cheap seats because you aren't selling out is not the way to win fans. You think season ticket holders are the backbone of baseball civilization? You are wrong. Us bleacher bums, peanut heaven dwellers, and obstructed view fans are the heart of the game. We're the ones who decide to go to a game an hour before it starts. We're the ones who buy the merchandise, who guzzle more beer and eat more junk food than our hearts can handle, who scream the loudest and give life to the game. I've never seen David Brooks or Tim Russert wearing a Nats jersey in their behind homeplate seats at the ballpark, but everyone in the cheap seats has on some sort of article of baseball clothing. (To be fair, Russert sometimes wears a cap.) This kind of soul sucking business strategy will backfire. Remember, baseball fans take a long time to heal when they are hurt (1994 ring a bell?) Baseball is a celebration of life, of sunshine and summer and hanging out with friends and family over beers, rooting for your team and forgetting about the problems of the real world for awhile.

Revenue sharing is a great part of the business of baseball. The free-market naysayers must be kept away from the game, for revenue sharing has injected life into MLB, leveling the playing field and giving rise to great teams like the Twins and the A's and maybe, just maybe, if the commie baseball gods are smiling, a certain small market team with a monstrous offense can compete, too.

Reds defeat the Sausages

Dave "We miss you more than ever, Sean" Williams likes baserunners. Lots of baserunners. So many baserunners that he gifts batters with free passes. Queen's We Will Walk You was playing at Miller Park in the second inning after Williams walked the bases loaded. Before he walked in a run. Soon after, he was out of the game, mercifully. Belisle did a good job holding the Sausages scoreless for the next four innings, giving up two runs in the eighth.

Paul Wilson, when are you coming back?

Fortunately for us Reds fans, we have an offense. We have a monstrous offense, a run producing factory of an offense. Some people are saying the hated Yankees might score 1000 runs this year. Well, the Reds were averaging six runs a game before this one, and if my computer calculator is correct, to score 1000 runs, a team needs to score 6.17 runs a game. (Of course, the pitching could give up 1000 runs this season, too, especially with Dave "Come back now, Sean!" Williams giving up six runs in three innings.) So, can we score 1000 this year? Can we outscore the billion dollar payroll of the hated pinstripes?

It seems Brandon "Goodbye, Tony Womack" Phillips fits in nicely with our powerful offense. Phillips hit two out, including a grand slam that Bob Uecker called out, rather monotonously, as if you could hear his eyes rolling when the ball left Phillips' bat.

Around the horn

For good Brew Crew coverage, visit Brewerfan.net.

In case you didn't see the bit about Los Rojos playing Los Cerveceros at Miller Park later on in the season, here's the link. (I wonder if the Reds will wear uniforms that say Rojos.)

Check out this article in Slate, "Baseball's war on the cheap seats." It is the sad but true tale of what corporate baseball is doing to us fans. It's religious persecution, I tell you!

Cubbies fans, we sympathize with your plight. Derrek Lee was injured in Wednesday's game and will be out 8-10 weeks. The goat really hates the Cubbies, doesn't it?

Frank gets number 1000

Ten batters came to the plate in the first inning. What? Oh, it must be the Phillies batting, Ortiz must be pitching, you think. The Nats could never score five in the first inning, you say. They could never follow with four runs in the second inning, you exclaim. But I have proof! The box score says it all! A 10-4 victory against the Phils, 14 hits, and ladies and gentlemen, we have an offense!

Nick "Sings When He's Healthy" Johnson went 4-4 with two dingers, a walk, 3 runs, and 3 RBI, and he raised his average to an even .400. Ryan "Can I marry you?" Zimmerman had two hits, a walk, and two ribbies. (I suppose he's a bit too young for me, but hey, I'd love to be a baseball wife.)

Congrats to Frank for win number 1000, a few days after the 50th anniversary of his Major League Debut.

¡Viva el beisbol!

Since the Reds are taking on the Brewers this evening, I thought it appropriate to inform y'all that on July 29th, Miller Park will celebrate Hispanic heritage when the club presents "Cerveceros Day." The Brew Crew will be wearing uniforms exactly like their regular uniforms but with "Cerveceros" on the front. The Rojos will be in town that weekend, so it should be fun to watch the game.

Llévame al partido
Béisbol es mi pasión
Compraremos helados y dulces también
No me importa si vuelvo otra vez

Porque uy, uy, uy que aburrido
Si no podemos ganar
Porque es uno, dos, tres y estrike
¡En béisbol es habido ganar!

The Brewers will also be wearing old Negro Leagues unies on June 2, the threads of the old Milwaukee Bears. The Bears will take on the Homestead Grays on that day, so I'll be rooting for the Grays to slaughter the Bears.

The Grays were more popular than the Washington Senators in their day, when Washington was first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League. The greatest baseball player who ever lived, Hall of Famer Josh Gibson, played for the Grays at old Griffith Stadium. Gibson hit over 900 unjuiced longballs in his career, and people who were fortunate enough to see him play said there was something magic that enshrouded the diamond when he came up to bat. He died tragically at age 35 of a stroke, 3 days before Jackie Robinson made his Major League debut, forever ending a grave injustice and a shameful part of our nation's history.

Hat tip: Ballwonk

Speaking of culture/language/etc., I found an interesting and rather amusing "experiment" someone did using Babelfish to translate "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in various languages and then translate them back into English. If you've ever used translation software or are something of a linguist like myself, you'll find the humor in this.

¡Livan!

The longball giveth, the longball taketh away. ¡Livan! went deep last night and had two doubles, too. Maybe they should make him a position player, because he sure isn't cutting it on the mound. They might as well stick a tee up there. Sure, he pitched well when he wasn't giving up his longballs, but you don't win if you can't keep the ball in the park.

Seems like the Nats bullpen is imploding, too. At least we're getting some offense for once. After last night's tragic ending, Vidro is hitting .393, and Church has hit one out three games in a row. But as long as Eischen keeps walking runners and Majewski keeps blowing leads, the hits won't matter.

Ed-E catches the big one!

Today was an eye-rolling, fist-pounding, vocal chord-stretching kind of game, the kind that you automatically lose in August when your team is already out of contention and is competing for last place. However, it is not August, the Reds are very much in it, and we somehow managed to pull it off, despite a brilliant minus one inning performance by the D-train. Something fishy was going on with Reds pitching, especially with the longballs Harang kept giving up. Fortunately, our Paul Bunyan offense saved us again.

LaRue got bowled over twice in the 6th inning. The second time he hung on for an out. What a welcome back thing to happen. Rick White sux.

Today's giant ox - Edwin Encarnation, who hit the game winning single to score Adam "I'm almost slumping" Dunn.

Fun fact of the day: In 1880, after a last place 21-59 season, the Cincinnati Reds were expelled from the National League, due in part to selling beer in their ballpark and playing games on Sunday. Gotta love those Reds!

Abercrombie and Fish hit a 493 feet HR. Even Marty was impressed with its distance.

The bullpen smells like Fish. I hate our bullpen. I hate our bulllpen. I hate our bulllpen. I hate our bulllpen. I hate our bulllpen. I hate our bulllpen. I hate our bulllpen. I think I like Coffey. I hate our bulllpen. I hate our bulllpen. I hate our bulllpen. I hate our bulllpen. I hate our bulllpen. I hate our bulllpen.

That was Uggla

I had jury duty today. No, I did not get Bowden or his girlfriend - they haven't scheduled them yet. Good thing - I would have rendered Bowden guilty of all of this past year's transgressions, actually, the past ten years. I was quite lucky, sitting in a big room until 2:30 and then being dismissed without being chosen for a trial, so I stopped for a couple of glorious sunshine afternoon beers, which I got free, a blessing which has recently been bestowed upon me for some divine reason. I didn't drive home.

I feel like I missed so much today, however, with finding out about Bowden from Redleg Nation and Federal Baseball and, well, this is just what us Nats fans need to get rid of Trader Jim. No way the new owner will renew his contract - I think they're probably looking for an excuse to say bon voyage, sianora, ciao. I'm not a fan of letting employers dictate what an employee can and cannot do in his free time, which is becoming more and more common these days, and I hope he is not fired for this reason. However, Bowden's done enough to warrant a firing for his job performance, so if they use this as the final straw, I won't shed too many tears after my initial disdain. I still don't condone it.

I also learned in my judicial absence from Red Reporter that D'Angelo is starting for Texass with Wilkerson, who is leading MLB in strike outs, though he did hit number 2 tonight. Now there's a team I can't stand for reasons having to do with a big white house and a lot of Ks.

I've undertaken my schizobaseballholic watching tonight with the Reds screen on top and the Nats on bottom. Not liking Milton's performance, shocked that Ward started and hit cleanup for the Nats and hit one out. Oh, and the neighbors had a live band in their basement, making my head swirl.

Marty was talking to Reds beat writer Marc Lancaster during the second inning about some guy who's in trouble with the law and Marty says some guy "is not the only one who is having problems with the law" wink wink. Marc says "that's why you're a Hall of Famer, Marty." HA HA! Love Marty - he says what he wants and means what he says. Fire Bowden!

The Reds game was ugly against the AAA Fish. It was more like the AAA Reds, at least in terms of pitching. If Uggla amounts to anything, he'll rival Dunn in cheesy headlines. I'm not the only one.

At least the Nats did well in their 10-3 romp of the Phillies! Church hits a grand slam - sooo nice to have you back, Ryan!

Some perspective for non-believers

A few Reds team stats (through Monday's games, stats are rankings in MLB)

2nd in runs with 80 (ATL has 82)
1st in doubles with 35
2nd in HRs with 26 (DET has 28)
3rd in RBI with 76 (ATL has 80, NYY has 78)
2nd in total bases with 235 (DET has 247)
1st in walks with 61 (tied with BOS)
4th in stolen bases with 10, thank you, Ryan Freel
5th in on base percentage at .363
1st in slugging percentage at .537 (tied with DET)
10th in batting average at .274 >:( (We need to work on that a bit.)

Dunn and Kearns go fishing

I gotta tell you - I'm glad the Nats have the night off so I can rest my schizobaseballic mind. I've been watching two games at once all weekend, and it's strange to cheer and jeer at the same time.

The Nats reeled in two of three from the AAA Fish and now the Reds are having at it against them. It's a great team to be playing after that heartpounding, suspense oozing series against the Deadbirds. Yes, the Deadbirds took two of three, but the two teams were evenly matched (except for Dave "We miss you Sean" Williams), which is a great sign for things to come. Prince Albert knocked another one out today for the MLB lead. I say good riddance and go Bucs.

Adam "[name temporarily removed]" Dunn cast one out in his first at bat in today's game, his eighth, a two run shot that temporarily removes his semi-derisive moniker. Austin "Happy" Kearns hit his fifth of the year, which has some fans wondering if this is the year of the Dunn and Kearns show. I certainly remember the hopes we had for them while they were roaming the beautiful yard in Dayton donning their green uniforms.

It was a feast tonight, a 9-1 romp over the AAA Fish. Claussen pitched well, there was one meaningless error, and Phillips was 3-4. The thing with Phillips is especially good, because it may make what Marty and Hal McCoy said about releasing Womack when LaRue comes up closer to reality.

Above all, it was a nice, easy win.

Fact of the day: Fifty years ago from tonight Frank Robinson made his Major League debut.

Week Two Wrapup: It's all about the pitching!

Time for the weekly wrapup, when I reflect upon my favorite teams and baseball in general. This week, one team did well, one team did poorly, and the other is hitting .190. I attended two Nats games, both losses, and started messing around with Photoshop. We'll see what comes of that.

Reds (7-5, 2nd place, thanks to Albert "ARGH!" Pujols)

The Reds had a decent week, getting some stellar starting pitcher (if we can forget about Dave William's forgettable performance on Saturday) in addition to their bombs. One of the highlights was Todd Coffey's performance on Friday, coming in to strike out two, including Jim Edmonds, to end a bases loaded threat in the eighth inning. It was nice to see a Reds reliever really step it up, and it soothes some concerns about the shaky bullpen. In 7 2/3 innings this season, Coffey has given up one run on seven hits and two walks for a 1.35 ERA, and he's struck out five and has three holds. Truth be told, Friday night's performance saved the game, and he did pretty well today, too, getting out of a bases loaded one out jam with no runs scored. Can Coffey become the full time closer? Weathers certainly didn't do the job today.

Cincy hit six bombs off Glendon Rusch on Tuesday, including Bronson Arroyo's second home run of the year, in a 9-2 rout of the Cubbies. The offense slowed during the series with the Deadbirds, as Solo Shot Dunn seems to be fond of leaving ducks on the pond and Griffey has a mysterious injury. (Hey, I love Dunn. He can just be frustrating at times!) But the seven runs scored against the Cards today may be a sign that it is picking up again. The team hosts the AAA Fish this week, so here's to some shock and awe at Great American Ball Park.

Ryan Freel continues to get on base and leads the Majors with six steals.

Reds player of the week: Aaron Harang. Harang outshined last year's Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter in a game that should prove to the naysayers that the Reds are for real, they can compete with the big dogs. (I've been saying all spring you need to have this guy on your fantasy team! Did you get him?) Harang gave up four hits and a walk in seven innings of shut out ball, a game where the intensity level rivaled a September pennant race.

Nats (4-9, cellar dwelling with the Fish)

I saw the Nats lose back to back games this week against the Mets, with the team as lifeless as the fans in the not-sold out home opener. (But at least we're getting larger crowds than the AAA Fish.) The next night, the Nats made it more interesting, but they could not overcome a stellar performance by Pedro. When it was all over and the Mets finally left town, the Nats had been swept by them and found themselves in the basement, yes, even below the AAA Fish.

After some roster moves in which B-Dub was sent to his rightful place in New Orleans and Ryan Church, who hit his first two homers of the season today, took his place on a Major League field, something seemed different. No, the Nats did not win the game that day, but they won the next day. It wasn't something they were really doing different - it was that they started to get a few breaks, the most important being the hit that Brendan Harris caught for an out to end the game on Saturday and end the Nats six game losing streak.

After today's thrilling victory, about which I have yet to see any "Church on Easter" headlines, the hopelessness that plagued the Nats seems to have lifted a bit. We'll see how the team does against the Phillies beginning Tuesday.

The biggest problem? The idiotic baserunning. The Nats are being gifted all sorts of BBs, HBPs, and Es, but they aren't taking advantage of them. They either make bonehead base running plays for outs or are leaving baserunners out there. Kind of like the Democrats not stepping up when the GOPs are handing November to them on a silver platter.

Nats player of the week: John Patterson. This one's a no-brainer. The week was a nightmare for the Nats, who lost every game this week until Patterson's stellar performance last night. He threw only 108 pitches, 75 for strikes, through eight innings. I am of the opinion that he should have gone out to pitch the ninth, too, given his pitch count and Chief's problems on the mound. Giving up three hits, a walk, and one run, J.P. struck out a career high tying 13 batters. His Bugs Bunny curve was wicked, and those poor young Fish didn't know what happened as they trudged back to their fishy dugout. Patterson leads the Majors with 24 Ks.

Giants (6-4 through Saturday's game, 1st place)

Yes, Bonds has bone chips in his left elbow. Yes, he's hitting .190. But a lot of things are out of whack in San Fran. It has been wet, really wet. Wet enough for the Giants to have to play a double header against the Asstros. Wet enough to have a two hour delay against the hated Dodgers. Sure, it rains in San Fran, but it usually isn't enough to leave things soggy.

Vizquel, Winn, and Alou, with his gimpy calf, are hot. So is Worrell with 4 saves in 4 opportunities. Jason Schmidt, however, has not been at the top of his game, one the reasons the Giants aren't sitting more comfortably at the top of the division. But hey, Schmidt's just getting his losses out of the way early, isn't he?

Giants player of the week: Jamey Wright. Wright pitched eight brilliant innings of one run, five hit ball against the hated Dodgers, raising his record to 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA. The Giants' combination of Wright, Schmidt, and Morris has the potential to keep San Fran on top of the NL West, where they currently sit, all the way to October. Wright had much success at Mays Field while pitching for the Rockies, and getting out of Colorado may make him the star pitcher people always expected him to be.

Around the horn

• Albert "Can't you play in the American League" Pujols and Chris Shelton lead the Majors with 8 longballs. Adam Dunn, Jim Thome, and Travis Hafner each have 7.
  
• The Mets tore up the week with a seven game win streak, including a three game sweep of the Nationals in which Mets hitters had no problems going yard in RFK Stadium, contrary to what some players would have you think. Are the Mets the team to beat in the NL East?
• Check out this article about Effa Manley, the first woman to be inducted into Cooperstown in February 2006.
  
• The Pirates lost first baseman Sean Casey for 6-8 weeks. Get well, Sean!
• Ben Sheets makes his first start of the year for an already strong Brew Crew.
  
• It's early, but this is still nice to see (through Saturday's games):

Boston	7	4	.636	-
Baltimore	7	5	.583	0.5
Toronto	6	5	.545	1.0
Tampa Bay	6	6	.500	1.5
NY Yankees	5	6	.455	2.0

Goat of the week
Jose Vidro. Jose publicly whined about the fences at RFK Stadium and complained about how upper management doesn't care about the players, then proceeded to get into a shouting match with Nationals' Team President Tony Tavares. He sat out on Saturday's game for some weakling injury. Just shut up and play, Jose!

Brendan Harris gets the save!

It seems the Nats finally got a little luck tonight with a lot of the kind of pitching John Patterson is capable of. Please forgive me, though. As soon as that "no-hitter" thought came into my mind in the fifth inning, some Fish hitter you've never heard of hit a double to left. Rats. And then a run scores on a double by another guy you've never heard of. Rats. My thought jinxed the no-no, didn't it? I'm sorry!

You knew something was up when the Nats caught a break in the first inning, something that never happens to them. A Fish just couldn't get an out on a nothing grounder to give the Nats two on with one out. Unfortunately, Damien Jackson screwed up the signs and was caught stealing to ruin everything, one of four baserunning blunders that led to outs in the game. Visions of Little League flashed through my mind.

However, the defense was much better than it has been, with some pretty stellar plays to aid Patterson in his masterpiece. Zimmerman made several great plays and Clayton even stepped it up a bit at times. Soriano played a ball perfectly off the wall and threw a guy out at second on a great play, but it was Brendan Harris' snare that won the game after the Chief pitched pretty poorly again, walking two, one of whom would have scored to tie the game had Harris not made that play. Patterson should have been allowed to pitch in the ninth, as he only threw 108 pitches, 75 of them for strikes.

It was a great game, and it certainly is a relief to get a W.

How to have fun when you lose

Apologies for the original title - I didn't realize what it meant.

My desktop weather, customized with Washington Nationals logos, tells me it is 81 degrees. Last night's Reds - Cards game sure seemed like it was the appropriate time of year for eighty degree weather and a pennant race.

Today I watched Dunn's 6th of the year sail over the new Busch fence from the comfort of my front porch, sitting in shorts, drinking a Corona, going barefoot, and listening to that glorious sound of roaring lawnmowers echoing down the street. What a lovely, lovely day.

Here's a fun fact, full of intentional implications and wishful forecasting, courtesy of Fox Sports Ohio: 8-3 would have been the best start since 9-2 start in 1990, and we all remember what happened in 1990! Alas, we are destined to 7-4. Still not too shabby. We'll get them tomorrow!

Williams pitched poorly. Stupid Flanders.

Pujols killed us today. I think he needs a day off tomorrow. Luna had a pretty stellar day, too, hitting 3-4 with a homer, three RBI, and two runs scored. Dude, who is this guy? I say he and Zeus can sit the bench tomorrow, rest up for their next series against the Caseyless Bucs.

Tomorrow we get our new slugger against nasty Mark Mulder, a much better pitcher than Ponson, whom we made look like Cy Young today. Can Bronson hit number 3 on the year? You laugh now. We laughed when we joked about him hitting number 2! Who knows, maybe when he closes his eyes to swing, the ball will hit his bat again. In case you hadn't seen the article about Bronson's hitting, here's the link again.

A warning: I am learning Photoshop. Oh, it's going to be so much fun! Even with the loss today, I enjoyed the day.

Around the Reds' horn on last night's treasure:

• JP Mcintyre gives us ten things he thought he'd see before the Reds defeated the Deadbirds 1-0.
• JD gets excited about this team. He's not the only one.
• Shawn seems to be in disbelief.
• Big Red Mechanic raves about Coffey.
• Finally, Baseball Minutia takes us to the last time Harang beat Carpenter in a 1-0 game. (Yes, it really did happen before!)

Player of the day: Jackie Robinson

Other NL Central games

Cubbies vs Bucs - Pirates squeak it out 2-1

• Casey is out 6-8 weeks with fractures in his lower back. Get well, Sean!

Brew Crew vs Metropolitans - Brewers win 8-6

Asstros vs D'Backs - Asstros win 10-0

Cincinnati	7	4	.636	-
Houston	7	4	.636	-
Milwalkee	7	4	.636	-
Chi Cubs	6	4	.600	0.5
St. Louis	6	5	.545	1.0
Pittsburgh	4	9	.308	4.0

Winning feels so good!

Especially when you win like this.

Reds were up 1-0 against the Cards in the bottom of the eighth in a brilliantly pitched game by both Aaron "I'm a good pitcher, too!" Harang and Chris "Nah, nah, nah, I won a Cy Young" Carpenter. It looked bad when Reds Manager Jerry "Have to use the bullpen" Narron took Harang out and put the bullpen in. *rolls eyes* Kent "I'm funny, but I make people nervous" Mercker proceeded to walk David "HOLD STILL!" Eckstein after getting an out. However, Todd "Someday soon I'll be a closer" Coffey struck out Juan "Mediocre" Encarnacion and Jim "Vacuum" Edmonds to keep the game scoreless, with a groundball basehit by Albert "Zeus of Baseball" Pujols to load the bases, a hit that scored no Cardinal thanks to a webgem play by Tony "Still don't like him" Womack that saved the game. It was a heartpounding, breath holding inning that felt more like October than the tenth game of the season.

This game may be the one that opens the eyes of the naysayers about the Reds. I can still feel the energy a half hour after the game ending double play. Who needs drugs when you have baseball?

• Found an article on some of the Red Sox pitchers' comments on hitting, including their takes on Arroyo, the Reds new slugger.
• David Eckstein is the most annoying ballplayer on the planet.
• Harang did it all with his RBI tonight, the only run of the game. So what's up with Reds pitchers swinging those bats?
  

Other NL Central Games today:

Cubs vs Pirates - The Cubs defeat the Bucs 11-6

• Casey left the game in the third inning after an elbow to the ribs.
• Greg Maddux turns 40 today. (Are you feeling old yet?)
  

Brewers vs Mets - The Metropolitans defeat the Brew Crew 4-3

• Could the Mets be the team to beat in the NL East? From what I saw on Tuesday and Wednesday with my own eyes, I had that impression.
• Is Wagner the key to their season?
  

Asstros vs D'Backs The Snakes take out the Asstros 5-1

• Yes, I know it says Asstros.
• Andy Petttttitttttte was pitching.
• The D'backs had the worst batting average in the Majors until tonight.
  

So, we have a pretty little picture going on here:

Cincinnati	7	3	.700	-
Chi Cubs	6	3	.667	0.5
Houston	6	4	.600	1.0
St. Louis	5	5	.500	2.0
Milwaukee	5	5	.500	2.0
Pittsburgh	3	9	.250	5.0

Nats gone fishing

Dontrelle goes against the slumping Nats, who are batting better than only the D'backs and the Padres. Soriano, who just ripped a single to lead off the game, is not to blame. Lead off? Soriano's hitting lead off? Well, it makes sense. Vidro has been the other Nat who has been hitting well, so it makes sense for someone who can get on base to bat for him.

You have to love Dontrelle. What a great guy, one who just loves to play the game and is happy to put on a big league uniform. He doesn't complain, doesn't get in trouble, just takes the ball every fifth day and tries to do his best. It's too bad the Nats couldn't pull him away from the Fish when they had their firesale.

Yay, Zimm! Nats have a first inning lead? I'm not sure how to react. Maybe the Church move will have more impact than we imagined, a sort of wake up call, if you will.

LeCroy hits a two out RBI single! Nats up 2-0! Something seems different already. It's not like Dontrelle is getting ripped. We shall see...


Update: Guess nothing's different. Now we've lost Drese? Guillen? Vidro? All in the same game?

Trash talking about the Cards

So, we get a look at the new Busch Stadium this evening. It looks like a great park from what I've seen, one with a perfect view of the skyline of this dumpy city. (Take that, St. Louis!) They say it's tough to hit in during afternoon games with the sun, but tonight I'm hoping to see some Reds sluggers send the beautiful little spheres soaring into the Missouri night sky. The Reds have launched 20 so far this year, meaning they're on a pace to hit 360 as a team! Ha, ha. Can you imagine?

The nasty Chris Carpenter takes the mound this evening for the Cards. Hopefully he'll forget to bring his arm to the ballpark. I wouldn't mind seeing Dunn hit number 6 on the year off of this Cy Young wannabe, a towering shot through the purposeless arch that St. Louis is so famous for. Maybe Harang can continue the sizzling offense of Cincinnati pitchers, contributing to the escalating run total the team has put together thus far in this young season. I'd like to see Carpenter knocked out in the fourth inning, hanging his head as he treks shamefully back to the dugout with a stinging six run deficit.

Wishful thinking? Maybe. But first place bragging rights are at stake in this series! ;)

Game threads at Red Reporter and Redleg Nation.

Update: Apparently, there are some scoreboard boo-boos going on at the new Busch, and Cards fans have been booing Isringhausen lately.

Kick Card butt!

Reds rock! More tomorrow! (Boss is gone! Woohoo!) Let's launch against Carpenter! ;)

Cincinnati	6	3	.667	-
Houston	6	3	.667	-
Milwaukee	6	3	.667	-
Chi Cubs	5	3	.625	0.5
St. Louis	5	4	.556	1.0
Pittsburgh	3	8	.273	4.0

Go Nats!

There are several baseball fans in my office, though most of them are senior staff, not exactly the level of coworker you can hang out with at the ballpark if you are not management. Still, it was nice to talk baseball in the office today, even if we were predicting 65 wins max for our cursed Nats.

After a 13-4 romping today, one has to wonder one of two things: 1) Are the Mets really that good? They are, after all, 7-1 and slamming balls out of RFK Canyon National Monument, even hitting a couple over the homerun graveyard. 2) Are the Nats really that bad? They have only won 2 games thus far, putting them on a pace to win 36 games. So, given that the worst teams in baseball history still win 60+ games a year, at least we know it won’t be as bad as it has been in this young season.

April is supposed to be the fun month, the month where hope runs deep for every fan, no matter how Devil Rayish your team is. But come on! The AAA Fish are doing better than the Nats, who have nothing but second basemen going for them. Sure, Johnson’s hitting well, though his luck has cursed many a hit to find the leather of a surprised fielder. Isn’t he about due for an injury? I thought for sure we’d lose him for a couple weeks when that broken bat hit his feet in today’s game.

Honestly, though, it’s time to make a sacrifice to the baseball gods, or at least get Mr. Murphy to hang out at Shea for awhile. One of life’s great mysteries is how, when a team is losing, all of the breaks go to the other team, from blown calls to broken bat hits to game tying hits always being an inch foul.

Something is wrong with ¡Livan! Frank might as well put a batting tee up there. Or Jason Bergman. Or Ramon Ortiz. I’m not saying I’m giving up on him, nor am I giving up on the team, for that matter. It’s just that it’s April, and we’ve all had such a shitty off season, and Nats fans have every right to be bitter.

In my irrational mind, I see the Nats reversing last season – losing in the first half and charging back in the second. Hey, stranger things have happened.

And hey, we got Church back! Bye, bye, double zero.

A little random game time blogging

Funny how the Nationals players have been complaining because RFK Stadium is too big and Mets players hit four homeruns today. Speaking of homers, I'm really looking forward to the Reds coming into town April 24-26. Hopefully, Reds sluggers will also prove wrong the whiny Nats without bats. When you stink, you stink; no need to go blaming it on everything else. I mean, when you have the bases loaded and no outs and don't score, you have no right to complain.

I love Wrigley field and its day games, which I watch regardless of how much work I have to get done. (It's too bad, though, that the Nats and Reds are playing at the same time when there are too few afternoon games for me to watch anyway.) Eric Milton is looking good so far. So are those balls Cincy keeps hitting over the brick wall. Oh, shoot, I spoke too soon! Guy in blue hits one out. Milton gets out of the inning, though.

Checking Nats score, 13-3. [rolls eyes] (Yes, it is a bit disheartening. Yes, I am bitter.)

Check out David Wright's blog. Should be fun to read throughout the season.

Gotta love those Reds bombs. Kearns pretty much put this one away with his three run bomb, Reds up 8-3. Ok, I know that we're into our bullpen, so nothing is safe.

Steve just said that Eric Milton has 11 unearned runs this year. Eleven! My god! And so far, 14 errors on the season? Errors, bullpen...why? How can we have such an awesome offense that will lead the world in homers this year and no one to play in the field? We've had amazing starting pitching thus far, a quality start EVERY start. Woohoo! Good pitching on the Reds? Can it last?

Jason Isringhausen blew his second save of the week, Cards lose.

...and this one belongs to the Reds!

Happy Hour at the Ballpark

Until the Nationals came to DC last season, I had never lived less than a 45 minute drive to the ballpark. I grew up north of Dayton, where the drive to Cincy was more than an hour - an hour and a half when I moved in high school. Even when I was going to college at Miami U, Cincy was still an agonizing hour drive, sometimes less if you were fortunate enough to not get behind the slowmoving vehicles that rotted on the two-lane road between Oxford and the Queen City. I also spent two years in Monterey, California, a two-hour hike up to San Fran and the Giants, more often due to the crazy Californians who shouldn't be allowed to get behind the wheel of a car than the actual distance between the two cities. My first two baseball seasons in DC were spent going up to Baltimore, a 45 minute drive, unless you are trying to hit a weekday evening game, where snarling rush hour traffic makes it impossible to see first pitch, or even the first inning. (Sometimes the first three!)

So, you can imagine the joy that visited me when we finally learned that baseball was coming to DC, a mere 20 minute Metro ride from my office to the stadium. When the urge to see baseball hits, I simply walk the two blocks to McPherson Square, hop on the blue line, and go. That's what happened last night, when I got an email message asking me to go to the game, one that was not to be missed because Pedro "Beanball" Martinez was pitching.

Oh, how I longed to see him get crushed, to have the Nats score a gazillion times in the first inning, and then witness him getting beaned at the plate in The Toe. A hearty round of boos rang throughout the stadium every time his shadow approached the field.

Alas, my wish was not to be granted. Pedro did not give up a hit until the fourth inning, when Vidro took him deep. The Nats got to him again in the sixth, loading the bases with nobody out, but Pedro reached down and pulled out some extra evil and got out of the inning without letting a run score. He gave a sarcastic wave to us when he left the field in the eighth after pitching what I hate to admit was a brilliant game.

Sigh...another loss, another pathetic lack of offense. I'm not too upset, however. I got to go to happy hour at the ballpark.

First in war, first in peace, and last in the National League East

I woke up early yesterday to the bright sunshine of a glorious baseball day singing through my window. The usual slowness with which I drag myself out of bed each morning had dissipated with the sudden realization that it was a baseball day, and I would not have to suffer the drab confines of the cubicle cell in which I am incarcerated on a daily basis. It was early, but my excitement carried me to the ballpark two hours before game time. I sat on the steps of the Armory, drinking coffee and watching a steady flow of people adorned with Nats attire and appreciative smiles. Yes, it was a perfect day for baseball, not a cloud in the sky, not a chill in the air.

I finally entered the ballpark around 11:30, just in time to see David Wright, the second best third baseman in the majors, hitting bombs out of the cage as snipers looked on. The secret service dotted the crowd, but there were none of those invasive security procedures that plagued us last year and caused many people to miss the first pitch. Either the Nats learned from last year, or they just don't care about Dick. Judging from the hearty round of boos thundering throughout the stadium as he was announced, the latter seems to make more sense.

I bought my first beer at 11:30, and I felt like I was the first person in the ballpark to buy one. Beer in the morning? Hey, it's baseball!

To the person who cut in front of me at the souvenir stand, where I bought an Opening Day baseball, I say I hope beer was spilled on your head!

By the second inning, the concession stand near where I was sitting had run out of hotdogs. Seriously. I understand how they could run out last year, being the first season and all, but this year there is no excuse for not stocking enough hotdogs for a BASEBALL game!

By the fourth inning, the beer stands around my section had run out of cups. Not beer, just cups. I brought my cup for a couple refills. It seems like I was the first person who thought of it, because one guy was telling people he was closed since he had no cups. Soon after, the line was filled with people holding empty glasses with perplexed looks on their faces.

About the eighth inning, when even the irrational believers lost all hope, a group of fairly drunken guys started cheering, saying some rather funny things. However, some grinch of a woman turned around and told them to sit down. It's a BASEBALL game, for chrissakes. You are SUPPOSED to cheer, even if your team is losing. It looked as if she were a season ticket holder. If she's going to have an attitude like that, it's going to be an even longer season for her than the rest of us.

As far as the game went, Chris at Capitol Punishment has a good game recap. He and I share the belief that the best part about the game was Cheney's appearance.

An odd observation: The National Air Traffic Controllers Association had ads up in left and right field. Seems strange for a union to advertise at a ballpark, but hey, anything is possible in Washington, DC. Except a decent outing in the home opener.

Next up: Nats vs. Pedro. I will be at this game, too! I'm rooting for Pedro to get beaned.

Sweeeeeeet!

I come home from the Nats game to find out that the Reds are now tied for first place. Six homers in a game? Bronson goes deep for the second time this season? Awesome. I kept checking the scoreboard to see the Reds total nicely increasing every inning.

It looks so nice:

Cincinnati 5 2 .714 -
Houston 5 2 .714 -
Milwaukee 5 2 .714 -
Chi Cubs 4 2 .667 0.5
St. Louis 4 3 .571 1.0
Pittsburgh 1 7 .125 4.5

Game preview - home opener

I'm pumped for the Nats' home opener tomorrow, excited to take the trip through the concourse out to the brilliant green of a sundrenched diamond, thrilled to listen to that thump of pitches hitting a mitt, the crack of the bat, the sounds of cheers and jeers. I can't wait to taste that first hot dog (the one I ate at the exhibition game was an exhibition hot dog.) I'll be the baseball schizo wearing the Reds shirt and the Nats hat like I did all of last year.

The Forecast:

Weather: Mostly sunny, high 73 degrees. Sweeeeeet.

Pitching: Ortiz will pitch four sucky innings, giving up five runs and eight hits.

Hitting: Guillen will hit one out, the only homer in the series for the Nats. David Wright will take Ortiz deep.

Tickets: Section 305, Row 13, Seats 3-6.

Hot: Jose Vidro, Nick Johnson, Fonzie, Guillen's temper, Frank not warning his players

Not: B-Dub, Stankton, All-Star Clayton, half of the Marlons, the Chief, the MASN announcers, Dippin' Dots, cell phones in ballparks, Dick Cheney

When the "Where's our owner?" chant will be heard: In the middle of the fourth inning.

If you don't have home opener tickets, shame on you. Get them here.

Nats game blogging on a beautiful day

I thought it might be interesting to go through the psychosis of watching a Nats ballgame, so I'm going to write what comes to my head throughout the game verses the Asstros. There's nothing quite like skipping work on a beautiful day. A laptop, a wireless connection, and baseball are all I need.

Frank is serving his suspension today.

BOTTOM OF FIRST: Rats. Lance Berkman just hit one out.

Berkman is one of those players I can't stand for no apparent reason. Maybe it's something he did during a Reds game. Maybe it's his slightly inbred look. Who knows? But there are certain players that just get under your skin, you know? And Berkman is one of those for me. Not quite as bad as David Eckstein, who couldn't stand still to save his life and who makes you want to strangle him. Not as bad as A-Rod, either. Still, Berkman makes me grind my teeth when I see him.

MLB.TV note: I'm not sure what's up with MLB.TV and the Nats. I have been able to watch every game except that second one, when we all got that hated "we're sorry" black out screen. I got the MASN feed yesterday. Could it be a mistake? Or were there enough people who complained? I'm not complaining about the situation, no way. I don't care if I have to watch the opposing team's announcers for the rest of the year. I'll just turn the sound off and listen to Slowes if I am irritated too much. Although Slowes isn't much of an improvement.

BOTTOM OF SECOND: Now Wilson hits one out? I hate that stupid train at Enron Made Park.

TOP OF THIRD: Yay, Vidro! Yay, small ball! Nats score, down 2-1.

TOP OF FOURTH: Preston makes a webgem. Nats can't seem to get a break.

TOP OF FIFTH: Rally in the fifth? Two on, no one out. Yay! E-1! Bases loaded! The Asstros' announcer just called the ball a pumpkin seed. Run scores, but double play. Thanks, Byrd. Go Vidro! Woohoo, it's a hit! Tie game!

TOP OF SIXTH: Berkman! Argh! Reaches far into the stands to catch a foul ball.

BOTTOM OF EIGHTH: What's wrong with Majewski? Walks the first two batters of the inning.

Nice! Vidro throws home to Schneider, catches the runner in a run down, now two outs and runners on first and second instead of second and third.

Yay! Majewski gets out of it! I wonder if the neighbors are concerned about the cheering and clapping coming from my yard.

TOP OF NINTH: Preston makes another near webgem on what should have been a Nick Johnson hit. Oh, the frustration mounts. Go Zimm! He gets a hit! And then gets caught stealing! Was it a missed hit and run? And Clayton, our All-Star shortstop, strikes out to end the inning.

BOTTOM OF NINTH: Tavaras hits. Biggio up. Oh, the agony! How did they not turn the DP? Please Vidro, be ok! Argh. Frustration mounting. All-Star Clayton bobbles, recovers. And we go to ten.

TOP OF TEN: Is this Ward's first at bat of the season? Can he just swing for a hit and not for the fences? Why do we have this guy again? Home run! That's why!!!!! Nats up, 4-3!!!! Takes Lidge deep!!!! Yes, the exclamations!! are!! an!! attempt!!!! to!!! show!!! excitement!!!!! Woohoo!!!

I hope my complaining about Berkman earlier isn't an ominous sign. He's up first in the bottom of this inning.

BOTTOM OF TEN: Chief is on in his first save situation of the season. Hope he doesn't pitch like yesterday. Berkman pops up. One down! Take that, Lance!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chief gets his first blown save of the year! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here we go to eleven.

TOP OF ELEVEN: Go Guillen! Just a hit, we don't need a dinger. And he's rung up. And we get Watson. Great. A guy who can't get on base to save his life. My favorite nickname for him is B-Dub. And he does get on base! Shocking! Hope he doesn't get picked off or caught stealing. Yay, Johnson hits! Two on, one out. Zimm's up. Looks like something's wrong with B-Dub. Must have pulled something. Stays in the game, though. Come on, Zimm, just a hit will score B-Dub! Gets the runners over, but two outs, now. All-Star Clayton's up. And they strand the runners AGAIN. Six LOBs today. Doesn't matter if you get 12 hits in a game if you can't score them! !! !!! !!!! !!!!! !!!!!! !!!!!!!

BOTTOM OF ELEVEN: Fly ball to Byrd. Ha, Byrd catches a fly! Fly Byrd! One out. One day when Chad is older he's going to look at pictures of his young self with that flat brim and say, "What was I thinking?" Zimm throws Everett out, two down. Burke up. This home plate ump needs glasses. B-Dub catches third out, and we go to twelve. And now I'm thinking this year we'll be having a plethora of extra inning games.

TOP OF TWELVE: Nats just standing at the plate. Anderson strikes out quickly. Come on Byrd. Just stands there, strike. Ground out. Ugh. ARgh. ARGh. That was quick.

BOTTOM OF TWELVE: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! Whew, Biggio only gets a double. Of course, it's a lead off double. Tavaras is up, Berkman is on deck. Willy bunts Biggio to third. One out. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Berkman. Ugh. They're walking him to get to Ensberg. Now there's another guy I can't stand. Morgan. Ugh. In fact, most of the Asstros I can't stand, save Biggio and Bagwell. And the Rocket, when he comes back in May. They're walking Ensberg, too! Bases loaded. Good - out at any base. So, pinch hitting is Eric Brutlett. How about a nice pop up? Swing and miss is ok. How about another? Ball. The tension is too much!! TOO MUCH!! Shallow fly ball, Biggio scores, Asstros win.

@#$%! @#$%! $@#%!

Stupid Stanton.

Take that, Cardinals!

The Cubs swept the Cardinals last night, thanks to a grand slam by Michael Barrett in the eighth inning. I watched the game at my usual ESPN Sunday Night Baseball bar, where I again got free beers.

One thing I noticed about the Wrigley faithful was the blue. It was a bitterly cold night, so everyone had to wear coats, and most of them were Cubs coats. Blue Cubs coats. It was quite a sight to see. Now, I can understand when people have on the same t-shirts, but it seems to me that it takes a dedicated fan to buy a team coat.

Frank Robinson tried to get Nats fans to wear red shirts last year, but the fans didn't cooperate. That's too bad, because it looks pretty cool when the fans are dedicated enough to their team to wear one color.

It's great to see the Cardinals lose.

Week One Wrapup

So we've reached the end of the first week of the 2006 baseball season. I've decided to write a regular Sunday column wrapping up each week of the season, focusing mostly on the teams I follow, but I'm including a section called "Around the horn" looking at baseball in general. Since I am a baseball junkie, I am usually waiting around for the 1pm games to start, so it will give me some time to kill until the players take the field.

Reds (4-1, 2nd)
I told you so.

The Reds will do well this year, especially when they trade for a reliever next week. (Look into your crystal ball!) Ok, ok, so it is only the end of week one, and the offense can't keep scoring a gazillion runs every game to make up for the terrible bullpen, but these guys have been hot. You can't ask for better starting pitching, which hasn't given up a walk since Aaron Harang's walk in the sixth inning on Opening Day. If I were Harang, Arroyo, Claussen, or Milton, I'd corner those bullpen guys and give them a piece of my mind.

Reds player of the week: Ryan Freel. Freel leads the Majors in stolen bases with 5 and is second in runs scored with 7. Many of the runs were all of his doing, like the time he scored on Adam Dunn's sac fly that was too shallow to be a sac fly. Freel is also batting .545 with 6 hits in 11 at bats and 5 walks. His on base percentage? .688. Tony @#$%! Womack, eat your heart out! NOTE: DESPITE FREEL'S STELLAR PLAY THIS WEEK, THE HATED TONY @#$%! WOMACK IS STARTING TODAY'S GAME!!!!


Nats (2-3, 3rd)
After a comback victory that still has Nationals fans stunned (Roy Oswalt has a five run lead after one inning and blows it? Is it the apocalypse?), the Nats sit on a 2-3 record going to face Andy Pettittttttttte Sunday afternoon. At times, the team has looked downright awful. The offense is among the worst in the Majors, and they can't hit with RISPs to save their lives. Yesterday was an exception, but can it become the rule?

The biggest story of the week was the beanball war fought between the Mets and the Nats. Manager Frank Robinson, pitcher Felix Rodriguez, and outfielder Jose Guillen face suspensions for their involvement, but did Pedro get in trouble? No, even though he was the one actively and purposely throwing beanballs. The Mets come into town on Tuesday for the Nats' home opener, and it is going to be quite a series. Pedro is pitching on Wednesday. (I have tix for the home opener and am looking forward to the tension!)

Nats player of the week: Jose Vidro. Vidro has 9 hits in 22 at bats, including two homeruns. His 7 RBI are among the league leaders after the first week of play. Jose is looking like his former All-Star self, but can he keep it up through the grind of a 162 game season? Did the Soriano situation have something to do with it?


Giants (3-2, 1st)
The Giants had a lot of non-baseball business to put up with this Spring, but they've gotten off to a decent start in the first week, including yesterday's 12-6 thrashing of Tim Hudson and the hated Braves. No, Bonds has not taken a closer step to the Babe, but he's walked 5 times in 16 plate appearances, so he's not exactly getting any pitches to hit. Jason Schmidt takes the mound today to try to even up his record after losing his Opening Day bid.

Giant of the week: Matt Morris. Morris could very well be the key to another division title for the Giants this year. In his first appearance, he went 6.1 innings, giving up only one run and five hits. I'm loving that Morris is on the Giants this year for two reasons. 1) He's on the Giants, thus giving the Giants a greater chance to take the division. 2) He's not on the Cardinals, a team that is rapidly going from team name status to hated team name status. Every hit to the Cardinals is good.


Around the horn
What about those Tigers? Undefeated? Who'da thunk it? And Chris Shelton? 5 homeruns, 7 RBI, .700 average? Look for him to earn player of the week honors. Can the Tigers keep it up?

And what about the Brewers? We knew they were vastly improved, but have they improved enough to keep playing the way they have been all week?

The Braves have the hightest ERA in baseball. The Mazzone curse?

Kris Benson pitched well in his debut for the Orioles, giving up 2 runs in 7 innings but taking the loss anyway. For some reason, the bigger news was that his whore wife decided not to divorce him, after all. Check out this hillarious parody site: Anna Benson Enterprises.


Goat of the week
TIE - Tony @#$%! Womack and the Reds bullpen. Why Womack? Because it's Tony @#$%! Womack. The Reds bullpen suckiness is led by Chris Hammond, who at weeks end has the forgettable ERA of 189.00, and he only has an ERA because he finally managed to get one out yesterday.

A lovely day for baseball! Let's watch two! (Or three, in my case.)

After watching the Astros' bullpen implode against the Nationals like the Reds' bullpen seems to do every day, I am inclined to believe that the NL Central will be even more competitive this year than previously had been stated. (Maybe competitive is the wrong word.) I know, I know, it's only the first week, but the Houston guys were awful today. (And what's up with Majewski?)

Of course, I'll give credit where credit is due. The Nats' offense rocked. They got to Oswalt even though ¡Livan! gave up a five spot in the first inning, and then Qualls came in and pitched like Rick White. Or Matt Belise. Or [insert Reds reliever here]. The offense was sweeeeet, coming back like that and scoring 12 runs. Twelve? Vidro must have gotten into a time machine or something, as he's like his old All-Star self. And Soriano? I guess I'm getting used to him on the team, and how can you not find yourself rooting for him? He's been doing quite well, even on defense.

And finally, it was also nice to watch the Giants crush the hated Braves and Tim Hudson, which is good news for the Nats. It's so easy to root against the hated Braves - I'm soooooooo sick of them winning all the time.

Winning is fun, isn't it?

Update: I've gone for four games, rooting for the California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to beat the 1-3 hated Yanks. So far, so good at the end of five...

It was a rainy, cold day. What else could I do but watch baseball?

...and this one belongs to the Reds. Barely.

I can't take this! Krivsky, get us some relievers now! Winning is supposed to be fun, not painful!

But isn't this lovely?

Milwaukee 5 - 0~~~1.000...-
Cincinnati 4 - 1~~~.800....1.0
Chicago....3 - 1~~~.750....1.5
Houston...3 - 1~~~.750....1.5
St. Louis...3 - 2~~~.600....2.0
Pittsburgh.0 - 6~~~.000....5.5

On this week's episode of House

Scene: Girl is enjoying a baseball game, eating a hot dog, drinking a beer, and watching her team take a comfortable 5-0 lead. Suddenly, it is the eighth inning and she collapses. They take her to the hospital, but the doctors are puzzled.

House: Have we ruled out leukemia?

Omar Epps: Yes, all of the tests have come back negative.

The girl: Well, what about a tumor?

The Aussie: It's not a tumor.

House: Well, have you checked out the ballpark? Maybe she got metal poisoning from the seat.

The three lesser doctors hang their heads and go check out the ballpark.

The Aussie: There's nothing here.

The girl: It must be something else.

Omar Epps: It could be [insert lengthy medical term here.]

The go on running all sorts of tests. Then, as House sits in his apartment, his oncologist friend comes in and House suddenly has an idea. He hurries to the hospital and asks Omar Epps to get a newspaper in Cutty's presence. She looks at him like he's crazy and he's going to be wrong.

House: That's it! Look, the bullpen nearly blew another lead! She just needs a prescription for a CLOSER and she'll be fine.

Stay tuned for scenes of next week's House, when Cincinnati fans beat up Tony Womack for starting over Freel.

Yeah, I must be schizophrenic

Or something. I'm watching the Reds and the Nats at the same time, though I admit I am paying more attention to the Reds game, which is oddly broadcast without graphics or commercials. In fact, in between batters and innings, what is showing on the Jumbotron at the ballpark is on the screen, and at one point they had the Reds race, where Gapper attacked Mr. Red to make him lose. (Nats fans - it's like the presidents race at RFK.)

Hey, naysayers about the Reds. You just wait. That thing called the wildcard? Well...it may not go to the Mets/Brewers...Oh, except that bullpen thing.

But winning, it really helps me sleep at night!

"Man, that is some jammage!"

Can we pleeeeeeease get some new announcers for Nats games?"

Rain delays

Sigh...I've looked forward to watching the Reds game all day today. As I stared at my TPS reports today praying that the quarterly report fairy would visit me, I kept thinking "at least I get to watch the Reds AND the Nats tonight." Perhaps I should have put blank paper under my pillow last night, for the fairy never came, and thus far, neither has the Reds game.

Most memorable rain delay? By far the number one rain game I've ever been to was the Reds game in Philly in 2004. It was a one game make up from another rainout, and at 2pm on that Monday I suddenly decided to leave work and drive up to Philly to catch the game, since Griffey was sitting on #499. (Reds fans, Philly's only a 2.5 hour drive from DC, FYI.) I thought that the squeezing in that one game was a sign that I should go, so I packed up my stuff, told my boss there was no way I could miss the game, and I drove to Philly alone. I should have known better, though, because I usually missed the milestones, having tickets to see the Giants the day after Bonds hit #600 and the day after Sosa hit #500. The day was beautiful in DC, so the thought that rain could possibly hit the game never crossed my mind.

I had to buy standing room only, and it wasn't just because of Griffey's anticipated milestone, but mostly because Jim Thome was sitting on #399. Now, Thome is a popular player wherever he goes; you can't help but like him. But Phillies fans, well, how should I put it, um, there's a reason they have a psychotic mascot called the Phanatic, and they absolutely adored Thome, and in my opinion, rightly so. It was my first trip to Citizen's Bank Ballpark, which is a beautiful park, with the Philadelphia skyline in the distance and the smell of cheesesteaks infiltrating and overwhelming your oratory senses. I, of course, donned a Reds cap and shirt, garnering harsh stares that anyone who's been to Philly can understand. Fortunately, I arrived at the park early enough to get a good spot to stand, just behind the last row to the right of homeplate.

Oh, the outrage at Griffey not even making the trip! It was quite disappointing, but hey, I was getting to see my Reds play the game, so all was not lost. In fact, it was a pretty awesome game, because I got to see Thome hit #400, and it was an incredible feeling to see such a milestone, one that a true baseball fan can treasure, even if the feat was accomplished against her team!

The rains came for the first time during the fourth inning (I think!) I can't remember exactly how long it was, but I vaguely recall at least an hour and a half. Keep in mind that this was a Monday, and I had to work the next day. In DC. Two and a half hours away.

[Interruption: the Nats are playing and they are actually on network television, so I have been planning on watching them play, too. But I have just remembered something Ballwonk said about how our announcers are Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and they just showed them, causing me to burst out in laughter at the thought. He is right on.]

Anyway, I stuck around for the first rain delay, but when the second one came in the seventh inning, I waited for a bit then left. I had to. It was after midnight, and I still had to drive 2.5 hours home.

By the way, standing room is pretty tough, especially if you're alone, because when you've had a couple of beers, you need to take a bathroom break every now and then. They actually finished the game that night, though it was over sometime after 3am. That one ended up belonging to the Reds.

Yeah, I was late to work the next morning. But hey, I never let work interfere with baseball!

Which Milton will show up tonight?

The Reds offense is sure to beat up on 23 year old Buc starter Paul Maholm, but will Milton keep it in the park when he takes the mound? We shall see. (Photos of pitchers always look so twisted and painful. Makes you think about how strange the human body can be.)

Developing...

Hey Nats fans, we're not the only ones getting screwed by a cable company

Check out this report by Dayton Daily News reporter Marc Katz:

So my boss calls me Wednesday afternoon and wants to know why the Reds aren't on ESPN as advertised...Two days and about 25 phone calls later, I've got a better idea of what happened...Hold on to your ballcaps. We're in Cubs territory.

It turns out Major League Baseball draws up territorial rights, and Mercer County, Van Wert and Paulding along the western edge of the state, have been deemed Cubs territory...Since Mercer County (think Celina) is serviced by Time Warner Cable, which also services the greater Dayton area, the game was blacked out here.

Teams sometimes black out road games, I'm told, because other stations hold the rights, even if ESPN has a package that includes some of their games. The local station can black out the games in its area. No other Cincinnati station held the rights to Wednesday's game, so ESPN showed the game to viewers in the Queen City.

In Chicago, another station — Comcast — did have the rights, and the game was shown, but not on ESPN. That station's rights superseded ESPN's, which immediately shut down all the usual Cubs outlets, which are mostly in Illinois (just a guess) and Indiana.

HT: Red Reporter

There is a bigger issue here than just sporting events. Because we have no choice in cable companies, they can pretty much do what they want to with us. Unless we do something, we're going to be dealing with this kind of greed for a long time to come. I for one, and I am not alone, I know, am fed up with having to succumb to this sort of authoritarian corporatism that ravages what is supposed to be a public medium: television. Today, Boswell had a discussion on the Nats issue, publicly stating that as soon as a viable alternative to Comcast turns up, he will cease being a Comcast customer. But really, is that going to make a difference? Whatever other medium comes along will have the same issues - we see that in MLB.TV blackouts. This whole "market share" is a load of [insert whatever word you want here.] Frankly, competition is the essence of capitalism, which is the supposed economic system of this country. Baseball abuses its anti-trust exemption at ever opportunity it gets, and though I don't want to see that exemption revoked, it is high time that something is done about broadcast rights before it spills into other areas of life.

Overreacting? Maybe. But as the frustration mounts...

I'll go back to my dugout now.

What to call the most beautiful ballpark in baseball?

It was my playground for two years. I saw a World Series game there. I saw Bonds hit several of his 73 homeruns there, including homer #601. It is the most magnificent ballpark in all of baseball. Yet, it doesn't really have a name. Sure, this year it is called AT&T Park. The year before, it was SBC Park. The year before, it was Pac Bell Park. But I agree with the good folks who are trying to get the Park permanently named: Mays Field. Enough of this corporate crap! This ballfield is a treasure, a monument to the rich history of Giants Baseball, and it should be appropriately named for one of the best players to ever don the Giants uniform.

Giants fans, always the activists, are also on a quest to right the wrong that was bestowed on them when their beloved Crabby, the most ridiculous of all ridiculous mascots, faded into a memory. According to the Rehab the Crab website,

The creature they unleashed was the now-legendary (and infamous) Crazy Crab. The idea was to poke fun at traditional mascots, and television commercials depicted manager Frank Robinson having to be restrained from attacking the crustacean. Fans were encouraged to boo and hiss the phony mascot, who was portrayed by actor Wayne Doba.

The prodding worked all too well. With a 96-loss season soothing no souls, Crazy Crab became the object of hatred and abuse. The crowd would hurl all sorts of things at the beast, both verbally and literally, and even players got into the act, dumping drinks and other things into the suit.

Snicker...

Dunn just hit a field goal!

Right through the smokestacks!

Here's a fun fact: Adam Dunn and Albert Pujols are the youngest players to ever reach 150 homeruns. Yeah, that's right. Dunn. Do you have him on your fantasy team?

Oh, winning is so much fun!

Update: Apparently, the Dunn's homer hit a passing car outside of the stadium and the guy stopped to pick it up before driving on.

On travel

As obvious from the bizarre dual nature of this blog, I live in DC and grew up in Ohio - saw my first Reds game in San Diego at one year old. My parents were from Southwest Ohio but lived in Southern California at the time, hence the Padres game, good old Jack Murphy Stadium. Since my birth over 29 years ago in the land where rain never dampens a baseball game, I've lived in such places as Luxembourg, Ireland, California, and Texas.

Baseball games used to be shown on network television and nothing else. I can remember the Reds playing on most weekends when there were no cable contracts. There was no evil Comcast or Fox Sports Net, which, by the way, has total control over the teams with which it has contracts and allows less than 1% of the games to be broadcast on network television. Even with the weekend games, we didn't have the option of watching all of the games, so cable does a service, if you are inclined to purchase it. During the games that weren't broadcast on television, we listened to Marty and Joe on 700 WLW, a station which Jack Kerouac said had the furthest reach of all stations in the country in On the Road. (I wish I could find the quote for you.) On clear days, I've been able to pick up the station here in DC.

Joe Nuxall is semi-retired these days. He does a few games a year, and he's doing the game tonight as I listen to the radio broadcast and watch the Pirates feed, and his voice is a sweet song of nostalgic baseball bliss. At least Marty is still there day in and day out, giving his opinion without any care about who hears it. If there is anything constant in my life and my moving around all of the time, it is Marty Brennaman doing the Reds play by play on the radio.

I've missed two Opening Days in my life in all of my travels. Nothing rings truer than The Crack of the Bat, a poem I meant to post on Opening Day, one that completely resonated with me as I spent time in Euroland. I like Whitman. I like Shakespeare. I like Browning and Byron and Keats and Yeats. Still, nothing hits me like the simple verse of this poem, which the International Herald Tribune publishes every year on Opening Day. Anyone who has spent a summer away from the U.S. of A. and its national pastime during Opening Day and the season can relate:

Away on this side of the ocean
When the chestnuts are hinting of green
And the first of the cafe commandos
Are moving outside for a fine
And the sound of spring beats a bolero
As Paree sheds her coat and her hat
The sound that is missed more than any
Is the sound of the crack of a bat.

There’s an animal kind of feeling
There’s a stirring down at Vincennes Zoo
And the kid down the hall’s getting restless
Taking stairs like a young kangaroo
Now the dandy is walking his poodle
And the concierge sunning her cat
But the heart’s with the Cubs and the Tigers
And the sound of the crack of a bat.

In the park on the corner run schoolboys
With a couple of cartons for props
Kicking goals a la Fontaine or Kopa
While a little guy chikies for cops
“Goal for us,” “No it’s not,” “You’re a liar,”
Then the classical shrieks of a spat
But it’s not like a rhubarb at home plate
Or the sound of the crack of a bat.

Here the stadia thrill to the scrumdowns
And the soccer fans flock to the games
And the chic punt the nags out a Longchamp
Where the women are dames and not dames
But it’s different at Forbes and at Griffith
The homes of the Buc and the Nat
Where the hotdog and peanut share laurels
With the sound of the crack of a bat.

No, a Yank can’t describe to a Frenchman
The rasp of an umpire’s call
The continuing charms of statistics
Changing hist’ry with each strike and ball
Nor the self-conscious jog of the slugger
Rounding third with the tip of his hat
Nor the half-smothered grace of a hook slide
Nor the sound of the crack of a bat.

Now, the golfer is buffing his niblick
And the tennis buff’s tightening his strings
And the fisherman’s flexing his flyrod
Like a thousand and one other springs
Oh, the sports on both sides of the ocean
Have a great deal in common, at that
But the thing that’s not HERE
At this time of the year
Is the sound of the crack of a bat.

Hat tip: Fistful of Euros

Casey lifts his helmet to the crowd who gives him a standing ovation. I miss him. He signed a one year contract, and I still have delusions about him returning to Cincy next year. Or even in the middle of this year, when the Reds offense has carried them into contention and the Pirates are out of it. !!!

Oh, one other thing. WHY IS WOMACK PLAYING OVER FREEL??!!!!!???!!!

Dutch!

What's this, the Nats showing power? Three homers in one game? Huh? I'm confused. Five runs in an inning? Sweeeeeeeeet! Victory!

There's something thrilling about extra innings that shoots a jolt of electricity into the game, the kind of electricity that sends visible blue sparks into the late baseball sky, even if you have to stay up past your bedtime to watch (or listen, as the case may be with the Nats.) Sometimes the nervous anxiety is overwhelming, even if it is only the second game of the season. When you get to extra innings after baseball's third basemen of the future (with respect to David Wright) hits his first Major League homerun to tie the game, the game takes on a whole other meaning, like you gotta win it for this kid! At least, that's what I felt last night, when it seemed like the Nats were about to drop their second game to the Mets, and second one-run loss, of all things. (As Ball Wonk said, why do we still have the 2005 Nats hanging around?) I mean, it was Billy Wagner pitching. Billy Wagner! Dutch waited to go deep for the first time on one of the most dominant closers in baseball, a guy who commanded a salary fit only for the fat wallets of Big Apple spending madness.

The game had pretty much been one of those where you frequently mumble @#$%! under your breath and let out long, disgusted sighs as if the season had already been decided by your team's little league inability to get the job done. Your best or second best starter had performed poorly when a win was needed out of him, since your second best or best starter had lost his game two days earlier and your next three starters should be selling insurance or real estate or something other than pitching for a Major League Baseball team. Four innings? Four innings were all he could muster out of his "tight forearm." You had your $10,000,000.00 whino benched for not running out a pop foul. All of the sudden you find your finger inching closer to the radio off button because you have Billy Wagner trying to close out the game when Bang! Zoom!, Dutch hits one out. Sweeeeet.

Suddenly, your eyes open. You stare at the radio as if somehow you'll magically be able to watch the rest of the game, like the baseball gods just might finally grant you a miracle after they'd damned you to baseball hell. Your heart pounds as the Chief loads the bases in the bottom on the ninth, just to make things interesting before getting the third out, and then the fun starts.

My roommates must think I'm insane with the noises that come from my room, the jeers and the cheers and yes, even clapping, but I assure you, my pulse as yours doth temperately keep time, and makes as healthful music. It is not madness I've uttered, but a cheer of jubilation as a contractless Guillen goes yard, the start of a five run ninth which eventually leads to win number one of the year. Victory!

Free the Nationals!

See the image to the right? It's a Baltimore Orioles stock certificate. Can we all pool our resources and buy out the Orioles? Peter Devilos has affected an entire city's ability to watch their team on television.

YES I'M ANGRY.

That's right, non-Nationals fans. Peter Devilos, owner of the Baltimore Orioles, has made sure that Washington Nationals fans cannot see their team play on television if they actually live in the District, you know, the place where the Nationals play. And evil Comcast is letting him get his way. [I wish people cared enough to organize a boycott against Comcast, but, alas, no one sacrifices these days. It's too much to ask people to get rid of their cable television, isn't it?] A hearing before Congress is scheduled for Friday.

YES, I'M ANGRY.

Last year, I watched about 80% of the Nats games, half of them online. Now, I am listening to the radio because the game is blacked out on MLB.TV. I'm also watching the Brewers-Pirates game with the sound turned off. (Casey's up!) Yeah, I know, last year I would have said Milwalkee verses Pittsburgh would be the last game I would watch, but both teams have some great young players, like Jason Bay, who just hit one out.

YES, I'M ANGRY.

While I'm talking about how DCites are abused, non-DC folk, did you also know that us residents of DC don't have Congressional representation? That's right, 500,000 people who live in the capital of the democratic world don't have a democratic voice. But that's another story.

YES, I'M ANGRY.

You know, I spent two years in DC rooting for the Orioles before the Nats came. I and many others would have continued to go to a couple O's games a year, I'm sure, but with this jerk Devilos pulling all of his selfish antics, I won't spend money on tickets to his park. And it's sad, because Camden Yards is such a nice place to see baseball.

Update: Nationals Enquirer and Federal Baseball are equally as angry.

This is going to hurt

Ok, which one of you Reds or Nats fans threw it? It wasn't me, I swear.

Shh...don't tell!

Such a lovely, lovely thing to be able to watch a beautiful, sunny baseball game while suffering the slings and arrows of a day at the office without worrying that someone important is going to drop by, as all of our upper management, including my boss, are in Istanbul for a conference. Us peon types are the only ones left, confined by these drab gray walls and blinding fluorescent lights. Woohoo! Aurillia hits a two run bomb! Reds up, 4-2. Anyway, did I mention that MLB.TV is great? I have the sound turned off and am listening to Marty and Steve on the radio broadcast, although somehow, the tv, which had been a bit ahead of the radio, is now a bit behind the radio. Technology, hmph. I'm not complaining. I'm watching the Reds. At work. In Washington, DC.

Dunn is all smiles and is waving to the crowd after catching a ball in left field. The guy has a great sense of humor. How can you NOT like the guy?

Arroyo's doing it with the bat so far today, hitting one out, laying down a perfect sac bunt, and drawing a walk. Oh yeah, and he's pitching pretty well, too, messing up once for a two-run shot by Ramirez.

Griffey went yard, too. Love that guy.

I wanted to point out a couple of blogs I've added to my blogroll:

Chad Gramling, a Cubs fan, has a nice description of his Opening Day experience in Cincy on Monday.

Ballbug is a great place to find baseball news from the press around the country.

Baseball Bias features articles by bloggers from teams all over the league.

Update: Sweeeeeeeeeeeet! Nothing better than hearing Marty say, "...and this one belongs to the Reds!" (Thanks, Marty, for mentioning my blog on the radio!)

Nats line up change

Watson has got to stop bunting with Livan on base. Number 61 is the baseball equivalent of the Buick in the left lane with the turn signal on for the last five miles. - Eucalyptus

Perhaps batting ¡Livan! eighth is in order. Really, you're not hurting anything by doing it. ¡Livan! is no sloutch at the plate, and Schneider has the pop to make up for number 61's dire lack of speed, because Watson just isn't going to hit it far enough to push ¡Livan! around the bases.

¡Livan! has set a goal of 25 hits this year, and he needs 24 more to achieve his goal. Frank needs to take advantage of the opportunities his star pitcher gives the Nats. Is this idea unreasonable? I think not. It wouldn't be the first time a pitcher has batted eighth.

The loneliest player

I am watching the hated Yankees-A's game right now. In the space where commercials are on, they are simply showing Jason Kendall receiving warmup pitches, an overhead solo shot of the back of the catcher wearing his tools of ignorance. Most of the mics in the booth are turned off, but you can faintly hear the crowd, and The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony (such fond college memories) is playing in the background. It's a pretty awesome picture; something about it moves me, like it is a work of art.

It takes a certain kind of person to be a catcher. You don't quite fit in with the position players, but you don't fit in with the pitchers either. Even though a good catcher is in control of the whole game, it can be a lonely place behind the plate.

I was a catcher once upon a time, all because no one else wanted to play the brutal position. As a kid, I had been on track to most likely play third base, but in eighth grade, no one would don the gear, so I voluteered. I was a catcher for the next five years on some pretty good teams (even once got to go to Australia for an international tournament.) I have a slighty crooked right index finger from foul balls hitting my throwing hand.

Respect all catchers - they have the toughest job on the field. Go A's. At least for this series.

Frank Thomas doesn't look right in a green uniform.

Update: Oh yeah, Yanks lose in the bottom on the ninth.

IT'S ONLY ONE GAME!

Yesterday was a blustery, windy day in Cincinnati, and it caused a few balls in the air to fly around like a paper bag on American Beauty. Adam Dunn had such a horrendous day in left field that he made Soriano look like Jim Edmonds. But he wasn't the only one responsible for the Reds pathetic 16-7 loss to the Cubs yesterday. The defense was like a Little League team's, and the offense blew its share of opportunities, leaving 13 runners on base. Dunn was 2-4 with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored, so it wasn't like he was slacking at the plate.

The Reds blogosphere is alit with degrading comments towards Dunn and what is perceived as his "big contract." The Reds fans at the game were pretty nasty, too.

I hate to use baseball as a microcosmic example of something more fundamentally wrong with rational discourse in this country, but I've begun to see a pattern throughout the baseball world, and it is starting to make me worry that the place where I go to get away from the world, that being the ballpark, might actually let some of that real world in. The comments on some sites are as hateful as something you'd see on Moldy Footballs or unDemocratic Underground.

Take, for example, some of the comments on Mark Lancaster's blog.

some of you people make retards look like brain surgeons.

Some people need to un-bunch their panties, calm the hell down, and decide if they're baseball fans.

Maybe you guys should drink a little less beer at the game (it could save some money). Sounds as though some of you probably took off work and bought a couple cases of hudie. Or, maybe, find a team you don't have to trash. Yeah, I understand you want a winner.........but, damn, did you actually think it was going to happen over the winter when very little in the way of pitching was added to the roster?

GET A LIFE

And John Perricone of Only Baseball Matters has been getting hate for weeks for his views on steriods and Bonds.

I vaguely recall some pretty partisan nonsense going on last year when George Soros wanted to get into the Nats ownership group, with people saying they wouldn't renew their season ticket packages if he did.

Now, it's all fun and games to debate baseball, to rip on Bowden, or to Googlebomb National Disgrace. But when the namecalling starts, when people are screaming profanities at a guy who's having a bad day on the field in only the first game of a long season, when bloggers are having to delete abusive comments, we've lost all sense of reason and rationality. Baseball is a beautiful game. Sure, it's not without its flaws, like National Disgrace, for example, but it is a game that abounds with the best qualities that life has to offer. Has America become so hostile, so divided, that we can't even enjoy Opening Day, that holiest of baseball holidays?

Chad at Redleg Nation has some rational perspective on the situation.

It's BASEBALL! There's no mudslinging in baseball! Save it for November!

One play does not a season make

It was 3-2 in the top of the eighth inning. Dutch hit a double down the line. Suddenly, we find ourselves embroiled in controversy, all at the drop of a bat. Or so everyone is saying.

If you look at the photo, you'll notice the bat in a precarious position at the exact point of entry for a feetfirst slide into homeplate, so I suppose there is some truth in Soriano's excuse for the dangerous headfirst slide. That bat was sitting there just waiting for the chance to break our $10 million dollar man's ankle, and you can see the black menace nearly salivating at the chance to do the deed. Yet Soriano was quick minded enough to realize this danger, only to put his neck at risk instead. And the worst part is the fact that Tschida missed the call and took away the tying run, so Fonzie put his life on the line for naught.

What does a season make, however, are LOBs. The Nats left plenty of them, too, in getting 12 hits and only two measly runs. Schneider left six all by himself, and Guillen, Johnson, and Clayton left three each. It's not that they had bats laying in the way of hits with RISPs, unless you count the bats in their hands.

Vidro had an exceptionally good day (3-5, 1 RBI) until he was thrown out at second for the last out in the ninth in an attempt to stretch a single into a double. He's looking pretty good this year, dropping a noticable amount of weight to make him look more like his former All-Star self. I didn't see any bats in the way of his getting to second, though. He just didn't make it. Not a good way to end a game. Not a good way to start a season.

What is faith?

Faith is not only sticking around for the game when your team is down 12-5 in the middle of the sixth inning, but actually believing that your team will come back to win the game. At the end of six, it was 12-6; at the end of seven, it was 12-7.

I know it's rainy and cold in Cincy, but the team is an offensive machine, and a game is never over until it's over. I'm looking at the sea of empty red seats and wondering if Reds fans have lost their sense of loyalty. Being a fan means putting up with suckiness, too. You can complain and boo, but you don't turn it off or go home!

There are still 161 games to go, and look on the bright side, Dunn and Hatterburg are leading the league in homers. Oh, wait, Pujols hit two today. Rats. So much for my optimism.

Stupid errors.

Opening Day update 1

Nats loss number one of one hundred?

Ok, maybe not. The pitching was good today, as the Nats bullpen gave up no runs, so that was nice. Soriano only missed one ball he should have caught, but he did have a bonehead headfirst slide into home to get thrown out. Is he trying to commit suicide or something? Get a broken neck so he doesn't have to play left? Someone ought to tell him sliding headfirst into home is NQB. (Not Quite Bright.) We won't mention that the ump missed the call.

Looks like the Reds are getting slammed. A lot of stupid mental errors have led to some, well, most of the runs. Don't trade Aaron Harang from your fantasy team, however. While he did give up nine runs, six earned, leftfielder Adam Dunn seems to forget he is actually supposed to catch the ball and is responsible for many of those runs - just now he fell down as a ball was coming to him. Still, it's only the sixth inning. Yes, the Reds are down by 7 runs now, but they did hit the most homers in the National League last year, and they are playing at Great American Ball Park. Anything can happen. And that Cubs bullpen? Ryan Dumpster? We shall see.

Oh, and in case you haven't heard, the Rocket met with Boston today.

It's here! It's really here!

Woohoo!

I had a nice sleep in this morning, as I have taken the day off on account of this religious holiday. However, I don't think I've made enough sacrifices to the baseball gods this year, for it seems to be raining in Cincinnati, that same system that soaked the Tribe-Sox game in Chicago last night. The storm is heading this way, too, and could reach the East Coast by game time. We could have a nationwide washout. :(

I am thinking back to Opening Days past, remembering teachers in elementary school pulling in televisions to let us watch the game, and I would race home when school let out around the fourth inning so I could see the rest. There was the time when I skipped class during my freshman year of college, only to outrageously discover the game was not on network television, but as I listened on the radio, they didn't play, for home plate umpire John McSherry had a heart attack and died on the field. Not a pleasant memory. I remember the hopes we had for 1994, a season that robbed the Reds of a post season appearance when there was no post season. I recall the 2000 season, the first with a guy called Griffey. We were fresh off a season where a one game playoff verses the Mets had kept us out of the post season, and Griffey was supposed to be that missing piece of the puzzle. Sigh...

I have illogical hopes for this season, one where a few miracles can make my Reds competitive. Ahh, Opening Day, my favorite day of the year. Go Reds!

The start of the 2006 season sputters...

Rain Delay? On Opening Night? What's this about? The baseball gods must be pissed off, for why else would they send this storm and ruin Opening Night? Maybe they want to rightfully give Cincy back the first game of the season. Maybe it's just global warming. But a rainout on the first game of the season? That can't be a good sign. National disgrace better back off with the steroids thing, lest he ruin the sport forever. The baseball gods just don't seem to like him.

I was rooting for the Tribe. I don't have ESPN, so I had to go to Buffalo Billiards to watch the game. I was there with 10 others who were watching, which was nice, especially when they were cheering when something good happened. Something bad happened, too, when Sabathia left the game with an injury. (It turned out to be an ab sprain, so hopefully he won't miss a start.) I'm not sure what it is about that place, but I got two free beers and was charged happy hour price for the others, the second time I got free beer there in the last month. All of this at a time when I am trying to grow my hair out after I cut it short in boredom last month and it looks like a mess. Maybe they just feel sorry for me because of it. I'm not complaining.

Danny Graves relieved Sabathia, though not very well. It was good to see him make the team, despite his throwing a ball into center field in a pick off attempt and his five hundred walks in his one inning. Cincy pretty much destroyed his career in the 2003 attempt to make him a starter, and I wish him well in this new season.

The first pitch of the game brought a tear of joy to my eye. Seriously. I love this game that much.

So the Nats game is on ESPN, destroying my plans of watching the game on television and the Reds game online. Unless I can find a bar with the Nats game AND wireless, I'll just have to miss the Nats game. I think I've only missed one Reds Opening Day in my life, and it was one when I was in Europe before MLB.TV was invented. I won't be missing this one, either. Fado has wireless. If they have ESPN, I'm set for the day. Please have ESPN...Please have ESPN...Please have ESPN. UPDATE - it's on WDCA, too, woohoo!

It'd be easier if I knew someone with ESPN. And wireless.

Go Reds! Prove everyone wrong! Go Nats! Yay, it's baseball!

Anything the Nationals front office can do wrong, they will

It's Bowden's Law, I guess. See, I am still fuming about Friday night's ticket fiasco. We didn't make it into the park until the bottom of the fourth inning because the lines for tickets did not move thanks to a slow computer system and absolute morons running that system. Sure, we arrived at the park a bit late, soon after the first pitch was thrown, but missing most of four innings because you can't get a ticket? It was outrageous. It's like the Nationals front office wants to have no fans. The guy in front of me said he would not be returning to RFK this season because of it. We missed half the game, yet we still had to pay full price for the tix. I guarantee that the front office will be getting a nasty letter from me demanding something in return for putting up with the idiocy.

Seeing the field did a lot to diffuse the anger, however, and so did that sweet sound of a Patterson pitch hitting Schneider's mitt. He didn't pitch all that well, but it was nice to see him out there all the same.

The lineup for tomorrow:
1. Brandon Watson, CF
2. Jose Vidro, 2B
3. Nick Johnson, 1B
4. Jose Guillen, RF
5. Alfonso Soriano, LF
6. Ryan Zimmerman, 3B
7. Royce Clayton, SS
8. Brian Schneider, C
9. Livan Hernandez, P

It looks good pretty good on paper (or computer screen.) The reality, on the other hand, is quite different.

Smile, it's baseball.