Time for Dunn to pick it up

I am currently saying prayers for St. Dunner to hit a bunch out today and tomorrow, with runners on, of course, to make up for that almost victory the Reds didn't pull out yesterday.

Prayer for Adam:

Dear baseball gods,
Please make Adam hit a bunch out
And grant us sweet victory
Over that awful Cubs team.
And Tony Womack.
Amen.

Oh, and p.s.
Make the Deadbirds lose, too.
Amen. Again.

Oh, and p.s.s.
Please let Pickle get through the game without giving up a billion runs.
Amen. Last one.

Germany's the stage, and all the world's a player (except for many Americans)

(There's baseball in here, too!)

Yeah, I dragged myself out of bed to watch England defeat Paraguay 1-0 this morning. Sure, it started at 9am, not terribly early, but I went to the 12 inning Nats game last night, the one that started 1 hour and 42 minutes late due to a very bizarre weather issue. Now, I've been to a lot of baseball games in my life, probably 80-90, and some of them have had rain delays, even postponements. But this one was bizarre.

My friend and I were trying to decide weather or not (yes, I put weather in there on purpose) to go to the game. It rained at 4pm then was sunny at 5pm. It stayed sunny until about 6:30, when dark clouds approached as we took our lower level upper deck seats down the leftfield line. Suddenly, a fierce wind seemed like it was ready to rip the flags from their posts on top of the stadium, and soon we found ushers telling us we had to leave our seats to take cover. Rather than go up to the upper level, we went out to the concourse. It still didn't look like this was going to be but a very light, very short rain shower, as it was still very bright. It wasn't. It was a fullblown thunder and lightening storm.

The grounds crew, a group who looked like college students, struggled to take the tarp off after an hour or so, when it seemed like everything had passed. It hadn't, and the tarp went back on. More waiting. Had a ten dollar pulled pork sandwich from Red, Hot, and Blue that could not compare to Burbanks and its tangy BBQ sauce. (Burbanks is near Cincinnati.) They finally let us back into our wet seats (which, by the way, never dried the entire night.) All was fine for awhile, with the Nats hitting and building quite a lead. Then, disaster struck.

No, I'm not talking about the bullpen blowing a five run lead. The tragedy happened much earlier than that. The last call came in the TOP OF THE FOURTH. I went out in the middle of the fourth thinking I hadn't heard the beer guy correctly, but I was too late. No more beer. In fact, all of the concessions shut down then. You couldn't buy a hot dog. As if trying to prove that yes, you CAN make the fan experience worse at RFK, they did it.

Anyway, after all of that, I got home late, hence the reason 9am was early for me. For the next month, I'm joining the world.

In the England - Paraguay game, David Beckham took a free kick that bounced off the head of a Paraguayan defender for the only goal of the game. England looked flat - I hope they lose to Trinidad and Tobago. I'd love to see Beckham and his ego deflate and go home.

The Trinidad and Tobago goalkeeper, Shaka Hislop, was awesome today, leading his team to a 0-0 draw against Sweden. Hislop, a graduate of Howard University here in DC, only started due to an injury to the number 1 keeper, Kelvin Jack. This is T&T's first World Cup appearance.

[start rant resulting from comments in many parts of the blogosphere] In a time when America and particularly Americans seem antagonistic to the rest of the world, saying "who cares?" or "I hate soccer" just adds to that unwarranted sense of superiority that has ruined the idea of America across the globe. Being a pompous jerk makes you inferior, not superior. What makes you feel the need to make some negative comment every time someone expresses their enthusiasm for the world's biggest event? So you don't like/don't understand soccer. Don't try to dampen a soccer fan's spirits with your stupid comments. You wouldn't like it if I told you your kid was ugly, would you? Or if I said a meal you cooked tasted like dog food? Or if I told you the shirt you were wearing made you look like a dead clown? Didn't your mother ever teach you, "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all?" Do unto others, moron, that's what I say. What goes around, comes around, karmic retribution. You just may get hit by a bus.[/end rant]

If you are a real sports fan, you'll flip on the USA-Czech Republic game on Monday at noon on ESPN2. (Email me if you need to know how to watch it online at work.) Go USA!

Choo choo!

I missed the game last night, but I'm listening to the archived broadcast this afternoon at work. The winning is so much fun, I'm thinking about skipping the Nats game tonight and staying home to watch the first place Reds... Nah, I'll go, but if I could just get a wireless signal at RFK...

I had to click on this thing of beauty and stare at it for a moment.

Forget Monet, I want this hanging on my wall! Look at all the W's!

So Lancaster has a post on the pathetic attendence at last night's game, and the comments are unreal. My mom was there (hi mom!) - she seemed to have no problem driving the 1.5 hours to the ballpark!

Anyway, I'm reading through the excuses (all of them poor except the ones where people live too far away. I don't think someone from Idaho should be expected to fill the seats) and thinking that the real problem is the utter lack of efficient public transportation. The thing that allows me to go to so many Nats games is the Metro. If there was no public transportation and I had to pay for parking, I wouldn't go to half as many games as I do (which still would have put me at the ballpark 5 times.)

Castellini and Reds marketing could draw fans by providing a shuttle service to the ballpark. Buy a few buses, have them go from Dayton, Louisville, etc, maybe Sharonville or some of the other burbs. Make it a package deal, an AFFORDIBLE package deal, coming with tickets and vouchers for concessions, maybe $50 for four bleacher seats, $100 for better seats. Show a movie on the way there, Field of Dreams, for example. If you drive them, they will come.

Better yet, think about getting to take a train to the ballpark. Could you imagine if the Reds could work a deal out with Amtrack, getting the company to provide some sort of Reds pass for the season so people could go to the games more frequently, really pushing people to take the train (and they could hop a bus to the stadium, included in the cost.) Or even single game tickets. Imagine paying $10 to get from Hamilton to GABP, no car worries. Everyone loves trains, but almost no one in the Midwest has occassion for riding them. Shoot, get the city in on it. Build a railway from Union Station down the river to the stadium so that people can arrive in Cincy and take a train to the ballpark.

Does it cost money? Of course. But imagine the economic development to bring in more money. And more fans in the stands for the first place Reds.

It wasn't a dream

When I finally got into my office this morning and went to MLB.com (yes, it is the first site after email I go to in the mornings), who was the lead story? The Reds, led by Richie's 4-5, 3 run homer night. Sweet.

The morning didn't start off so well. At 6:30am, a neighbor decided his weeds needed whipped, the second time this week I've had such a rude awakening. What ever happened to common courtesy? It's jerks like this that make laws against such things, unnecessary laws otherwise. Anyway, I turned my fan up to drown out the noise and drifted into a semi-slumber for another hour. And a half. The time I was supposed to leave for work. Oops. So then I get ready and go stand at the bus stop, and what happens? The bus doesn't stop at the bus stop. The driver honks at me as he's going by. I swear he waved. I wait another ten minutes for the next one. (There is supposed to be one every three minutes, but they never come fewer than ten minutes apart. Good old DC efficiency.)

Lucky for me, I have a brand spanking new office in a corner away from everyone else, including my boss. I go in through the kitchen, and no one can see that I'm a half hour late for work. Again. Or that I'm reading all of the articles on MLB.com, blogs, newspapers, and other baseball sites. I snicker when I see that yet another former Red has been hired by the Nats, Davey Johnson, sighing when I think of how good those '94 and '95 teams were. Then I quickly remember the Reds are tied for first right now, much to the chagrin of nasty Deadbirds fans. Federal Baseball has the history of Johnson's tenure with the Cincinnati Schotts. Oh yes, good old Marge, not a baseball in her head...

Today's questions are: will our savior go deep against Rusch for the third time this season? Can the Reds make it eight games in a row? It certainly feels good to have Bronson on the mound for a continuation of this streak. Undefeated in June. Go Reds!

Pray the winning goes on. After all, as we learned from the Colorado Rockies, God makes you win baseball games.

SWEEP

To the nasty, vile Deadbird moran* without a love of the game or a sense of humor, I say SWEEP!

I know baseball is a moody sport, but you don't need to go around calling people names just because your team is losing and you've come to realize that your team is nothing without some guy named Albert Pujols.

It's amazing how cocky people can be after having ooh, a whole four out of five years of a good team? Yeah, that's a Braves or Yankees-like team, isn't it?

Funny, but talking smack with fans of other teams usually is good natured fun. This is the first time I've experienced such flagrancy.

A thing of beauty:

Cincinnati	35	24	.593	-
St. Louis	35	24	.593	-
Houston	29	31	.483	6.5
Milwaukee	28	32	.467	7.5
Chi Cubs	23	35	.397	11.5
Pittsburgh	22	38	.367	13.5

*Yeah, I spelled moran incorrectly on purpose, Deadbirds fans who don't understand. You are, after all, the ones who spelled it that way in the infamous photo.

Get out the brooms!

Oh, yeah, those Deadbirds fans are freaking out! They are still saying they "shouldn't be losing to the Reds" or making excuses like "half our team is hurt" (oh yeah? Well, half of our bullpen shouldn't have Major League uniforms on, but we're still winning, and not just against you, Deadbirds!)

Face it, without Pujols, you are nothing. And here's another pin for you!

Should I take another sip of kool-aid?

Buy me some peanuts and donut burgers...

I don't care if I have a heart attack...

This sounds disgusting.

A scene from MacRed

Round about the cauldron go;
In it Ponson's entrails throw.
Edmonds, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil him first i' the charmed pot.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Fillet of a Rolen rake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of Yad and toe of John,
Aaron's bat and tongue of Juan,
Mulder's fork and Spiezio's sting,
Luna's leg and Suppan's wing,
Eckstein's squirm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Skin of Braden, tooth of Brad,
Timo's mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd Josh Hancock,
Foot of Flores chopped i' the dark,
Liver of Jason Marquis,
Gall of Albert and torn oblique,
Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of So and Larry's lips,
Finger of Wainwright
Pitch-deliver'd by a tee,
Mixed with Gary's catcher's knee:
Add thereto a pair of Duncans,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Cool it with LaRussa's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

Week Nine Wrapup: Voodoo Albert works

And it's kind of freaky. Since Voodoo Albert was born, not only has Pujols been injured, but so have Edmonds and Carpenter, and the Deadbirds are 2-4.

The Pujols injury is of some serious concern, as he is expected to miss a significant amount of time. Without him, the Deadbirds are nothing.

Reds (32-24, 2nd place)

Dropping two to the Cubs was not a good way to start off the week. Fortunately for the Reds, they won the rest of the games this week. Anytime the Reds win a series against the Asstros it's been a good week. Anytime the Reds sweep the Asstros, it's a great week. They hadn't done it in Houston since 1999.

As manager of Todd Coffey's campaign for closer, I'd just like to thank everyone who helped us out on this one, those of you that spent hours of your free time phonebanking and canvassing the streets in an effort to get this man elected. Although his second act in office was nearly a disaster, and his third was a disaster with that blown save and all, your hard work and dedication put our man in the driver's seat. I hope I didn't support the wrong candidate...

St. Bronson rox! St. Aaron rox! St. Lizard rox! St. Louis sux! St. EdE rox! St. Junior rox! St. Austin rox! St. Dunn strikes out way too much!

Reds and Dodgers are tied in the Wild Card race after today's Dodger loss.

Oh, it's so exciting to be going into St. Louis just three games back of the Deadbirds. It's time to make a serious dent in that lead, and dare I dream of brooms???

Reds Saint of the Week: Ryan Freel. You know, he, uh, you know, won the game on Sunday with his second homer, you know, of the game, you know and uh, saved the game, you know, with that spectacular catch on Saturday. You know, he also hit that, you know, home run in Chicago that uh, you know, the idiot umpire ruled it didn't go out. Freel was, you know, 7-18 with the two (three) homers, four runs scored, three ribbies, and uh, two game wins, you know. (That's how he spoke on Steve Stewart's Star of the Game show.)

Nats (24-32, 4th place)

I'm telling you, I believe this team will be in contention for a Wild Card spot by August, barring a complete fire sale at the trade deadline. I really hope management will take a risk and keep Soriano, because this guy is fun to watch. Laugh at me all you want. I also said the Reds would do well. So HA!

The week was a good one, overall, with a sweep of the Brew Crew and a win thrown in there against the Phoul Phillies, making it a 4-2 week.

Mike O'Connor is awesome. If there isn't an Irish bandwagon to jump on, then I'll start one myself. Too bad his teammates can't do anything for him.

Nats Saint of the Week: Alfonso Soriano for the second week in a row. He went 10-25, 3 homers, 5 runs scored, 8 RBI. For June, he is .583/.643/1.083. Yeah, yeah, I know that's only in three games, but wouldn't it be great if he could have a June like this?

Giants (29-27, 4th place)

3-3, not spectacular, not bad. Winning two against the Mets was great, though it was a very long weekend of baseball with the rainout on Friday, the double header on Saturday, and the 12 inning series victory on Sunday.

I'm mad at the way these guys are playing right now. The starters aren't getting through the sixth inning, the batters aren't getting timely hits. There are no saints this week.

Around the Horn

The Brewers, everyone's darkhorse pick for the NL Central, have lost 8 in a row and are really playing as poorly as the Pirates these days.

How the heck do the Yankees keep winning though their whole starting team is on the DL? Ugh.

Remember back in the day when the Rookie of the Year went to a Dodger every year? I guess times have changed. Look at LA's roster and see how the team is made up of everyone else's trash.

Is anyone ever going to beat Brandon Webb (8-0, 2.01)?

Deadbirds fans are panicking - looks like they might even be afraid of Cincy. (HA HA, take that, Deadbirds, as I stick another pin in!)

Demon of the Week

Jon Heyman, sports columnist for Newsday.com. This article claiming the Yankees are trying to get Griffey is about the most pretentious article I have ever seen in sports writing. The guy's attitude is that the Yankees can have whomever they want without giving anything in return. Nevermind that the Reds are only 3 games back of the Deadbirds and in a first place tie for the Wild Card. Many, if not most people, are finally giving the Reds the respect they deserve, but this guy just brushes them aside like he would a fly. Even if the Reds managed to play as poorly as they did in May, they still wouldn't be out of contention by the trade deadline. All the more reason to hate the Yankees.

Here's his email, by the way: jonhheyman@aol.com. Send him a piece of your mind.

Picture this

You take your family to lunch. Your two-year old son is wearing a cute little Cincinnati Reds or Washington Nationals jersey, his favorite shirt. You are thinking that a nice club sandwich sounds good, and your spouse wants to order a grilled chicken sandwich. You think some chicken fingers may be good for Junior. Suddenly, the manager comes over and asks you to take your kid's jersey off, as it might start a riot.

Bizarre? Maybe in America, but in the UK? It happens.

A TWO-YEAR-OLD boy was ordered to remove his England football shirt in a pub because the manager feared it could spark trouble.

Charlie Elliott was settling down to lunch with his mother and father in his favourite shirt when a bar manager told the family that football strips were banned. The toddler’s football-mad parents Elaine and Anthony, from Enderby, Leicester, were told to take off his shirt, or leave the pub. When they argued, staff said Charlie could stay - if he turned the shirt
inside out.

Mrs Elliott, 34, a primary school teacher, today branded the ban at the
Wetherspoons-owned Lloyds No.1, in Market Place, Leicester, “ridiculous“.

A Wetherspoons spokesman said the ban on football shirts had been in place for several years and prevents trouble.

“Our policy is that we don’t allow any kind of football colours,” he said.

Voodoo Albert, please let the Cubs win tonight. (pin stick) Please strike out Pujols whenever he comes to bat. (pin stick) Please let the Reds gain a game. (pin stick)

Update: It worked! Cubs win in 14 innings! Reds 4.0 back. Deadbirds, wir kommen! (Remember, Deadbirds are after the Asstros.)

Asstros burn out in the Reds' sky

Ha, ha. Take that, Asstros! You just were whooped, 14-3. Sweeeeeet!

Does this mean the offense is back? I sure hope so. The losing is soooo last year!

Grays 10, Bears 4

Josh Gibson is smiling somewhere

The uniforms looked good on the Grays for a day (the Bears, too.) The Nats have some players that just wear a uniform so well - Nick Johnson, Alfonso Soriano, and Ryan Zimmerman are all made to be ballplayers. Ramon Ortiz looks great in the Grays jersey, too, and he's throwing so well. (What's with that?)

And why is Ortiz up on that mound? Or Soriano in the outfield? Or Byrd in center? Because Jackie Robinson had the balls to do it. Because he had the courage to stand up, face the death threats, face the hatred of teammates, of fans, of the media, of the nation. We get to watch two Major League Baseball teams pay tribute to a league that existed because of hatred, and it shows how far as a people we have come. For those of us who have parents that are too young to have been around when Jackie made his Major League debut, it's pretty tough to imagine that such a - um, what is even the word for it - contemptable rule was ever allowed to exist, and tributes like tonight's game help us to never forget so that we may never repeat such incredible injustice.

One of the greatest Americans who ever lived, Martin Luther King, Junior, had a great dream. I think he'd be a baseball fan, for the dream certainly lives in the dozens of nationalities who play in the Majors today.

If you like movies, check out this documentary on Henry Aaron's Summer Up North.

The "democracy" of baseball

After years of having virtually players from only three or four teams voted into the All-Star game every year, I say enough with the fan voting. Or enough with big market dominance over the little guys.

The Fox corporation decides what we want to see, what we should see, and what players we should like. The Reds, with young players like Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns, as well as hall of famer Junior Griffey, will be seen by the nation all of two times on Saturday baseball, with a possibility for a third game if the Tigers, a hot first place team not otherwise scheduled for the season, don't take the TBD slot at the end of July. The Reds make it at all most likely on the strength of having Griffey on the team. In addition to the Tigers, the Blue Jays, Orioles, Rockies, Brewers, Twins, Pirates, Royals, and Rays never make an appearance.

The lineup is a bit more balanced than in past years, when it should have been called Fox Yankees Baseball. This year the hated Yankees still get nine games, more than any other team. The Red Sox, Cardinals, Braves, Mets, Cubs, Dodgers, Angels, and Giants each get eight games. Guess which teams have the most players with high numbers of votes for the All-Star game? Coincidence? I think not.

Sure, those teams, with the exception of the Cubs, are all good teams. So are this year's Tigers, who get possibly only one game, perhaps none. Where are the votes for Magglio Ordonez (.318/.363/.551) or Carlos Guillen (.305/.379/.497)? So are this year's Rangers. Where the heck is Michael Texiera (.284/.375/.452) or Hank Blalock (.310/.383/.492) in the voting? So are this year's Blue Jays. Why aren't people voting for Alex Rios (.361/.396/.645)? And how about players who play on bad teams, like Jason Bay (.296/.415/.592), Prince Fielder (.313/.364/.532), or Miguel Cabrera (.354/.444/.619)?

You say, "who wants to watch the Devil Rays?" Well, they aren't my first preference, but I wouldn't mind seeing some of those younger players. No doubt a few of them will grow up to be solid, perhaps even good big league players. How about sticking them against the Red Sox, if they are going to have so many games broadcast?

I'm tired of the same old, same old. I'm tired of Fox and ESPN and MLB dictating to us who we are allowed to be fans of. GO REDS! I don't care how small of a market you are, I will ALWAYS root for you. And until there is a more level playing field in MLB, I will continue to hate the Yankees.

Another campaign won!

So Narron says Coffey is the closer, eh? Woohoo! Now let's just hope they can win enough games to get him some saves. That stuff he did last night? Awesome.

Victory party Friday, after he gets his third save of the season against the Sausages.

HT: Redleg Nation