Let me in the sound

Early evening, April 4, shot rings out in the Memphis sky...

Mark Sheldon asks us a couple of questions today and the resounding answer is no.

Can anyone remember an offseason in which the Reds weren't feverishly trying to make acquisitions and improvements to their rotation?

How about a Spring Training where at least two rotation spots weren't up for grabs in open competition?

No and no.

Free at last, they took his life. They could not take his pride.

My very favorite non-U2 band, The National, are Reds fans, and I found this piece of information about the first band of two of the brothers in the band amusing:

At the outset, the duo was informally named Big Red Machine in a nod to the Dessners' Cincinnati hometown, but the brothers are now just going by their own names. "We think the Reds would get pissed off," Dessner says with a laugh. "They have the trademark."

Speaking of U2, their new single Get On Your Boots was released today. (Hear it here.) Good stuff. [begin rant]Of course, the U2 haters are trying their best to find things "wrong" with it. It sounds like Pump It Up. It sounds like Subterranean Homesick Blues. It sounds like Wild West. Did anyone ever complain that Elvis Costello ripped Pump It Up off Bob Dylan? No. You only hear the complaints now because it's U2 - it's "cool" to hate U2. Caring about the world is pompous and arrogant. (The haters are usually tone deaf people who claim to have superior tastes in music and have never picked up an instrument in their lives aside from the recorder in fourth grade and that Guitar Hero device.) I swear, music is the only field where you are demonized for being successful.[/end rant]

One man caught on a barbed wire fence, one man he resists, one man washed on an empty beach, one man betrayed with a kiss.

And speaking of guys who have been around awhile, this guy thinks the Reds should sign Omar Vizquel. Uh, no. The Reds have been there, done that as far as signing the ancients goes. But finding the post led me to the Cincinnati Reds Social Networking Site. Never heard of it, could be interesting. Will explore some more.

Remember, Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan are on Ellen today. I think the whole getting Clooney on the show thing is pretty funny, and so is this. (Don't click without muting your sound first.)

Don't forget to send some of your thoughts today to MLK and all of the great civil and human rights leaders in the world throughout history. We've come a heck of a long way, but we still have a heck of a long way to go.