...and this one belongs to the Reds!

Reds defeat the Twinkies 6-1.

Who is this Lincoln fellow?

Even the most devout followers among us sometimes have to ask "Who the heck is that?" when we see the box scores or hear the name announced on the radio. Yesterday, I had to ask who Andy Green was. (He's a guy who killed the Pacific Coast League in 2005 but ended up getting sold to Japan last year.) Today I looked at the box and saw old Abe's name down at the bottom of the list of pitchers, so I looked him up. Turns out his name's not Abe, it's Mike. He last pitched anywhere in 2004 for the Deadbirds. He came up in 1999 as a starter for the Twinkies and found himself pitching in relief for the Sea Thiefs in 2001, where he posted a 2.68 ERA in 40.1 innings. In 2002 his ERA rose to a still respectable 3.11 ERA in 70.1 innings, but the bottom fell out after that. He had right elbow surgery in 2005.

Imagine being a kid, dreaming of pitching in the big leagues, working your butt off, starring in high school and getting drafted. Imagine the thrill of putting your ink on that first contract. Imagine working your way up through the minors, toiling on bumpy fields, riding beat up buses across endless acres of cornfields, talking to the guys who've been to The Show with a glimmer in your eyes. Think about the feeling you'd have when you finally put on a Major League uniform for the first time, stepping onto the greenest, softest grass you've ever had the pleasure of feeling. Finally, you get your chance to play, and you have some success at it.

Then your arm falls off.

I don't know who Mike Lincoln is. He may be a jerk for all I know. But there's always a soft spot in my hardened heart for people who have bad breaks like that. I hope someday he is able to pitch in the Majors again. Just not for the 2008 Reds.

FROPPER WATCH: Freel and Hopper went a combined 1-4 today (Freel got the hit). Bruce had his second hit today. That brings them to FROPPER 1-8 and BRUCE 2-4.

MAJEWSKI WATCH: Majewski did not pitch, ERA still 162.00.

Good news. I finally got my laptop back from the shop, though in a vastly different form. Gone is my Photoshop. Gone also is my corporate security with a lifetime of updates. But my music was saved, hallelujah. It's probably what crashed my system in the first place since it takes up about a fourth of my used disk space. But I blabber. My point is that I will be able to write my reports from Spring Training next week! Yay! And you better believe I'm going to rub it in when I'm sitting in 75 degrees while y'all are freezing your butts off beneath an avalanche of snow and ice! :)