The Perfect Game

Yesterday, Mets v. Phillies. Game started at 12:10, and was done by 2:25, in proper fast NL fashion. My man, even though he's inconsistent as hell, Oliver Perez struck out 12 and walked 1 in 7 1/3 innings. The Mets broke the tie in the 8th with a double by Carlos Delgado, another Met I like even though he's on the decline. But the clincher? We got free tickets from a guy outside Shea. Just giving $39 seats away. So we paid $15 for parking, ate our own brought-in food, and we had more or less free baseball. In a scare, SL lost his wallet for 10 minutes but ran back up to our seats, and found it still hidden under our seats, waiting for him. Picking up Thai food in Woodside on the way home capped off a great few hours in Queens.

The Trade

This spring, the Reds got Edinson Volquez for Josh Hamilton: an 2.29 arm for a million dollar swing. Am I crazy for thinking it was a pretty good deal for everyone? I only hope we won't remember it next year as something similar to the Paul O'Neill for Roberto Kelly trade in 1992. Worst trade ever, for the Reds but good for the Janks.

TWIB

•Jay Bruce was brought up on Tuesday from the Reds Triple-A team in Louisville, and is tearing it up. Bruce is now batting .591 (13-for-22) in six games, with six RBIs, two HRs and two steals. The rookie center fielder hit his first career home run on Saturday night, a walk-off solo shot in the 10th inning to give the Reds an 8-7 win. The hype on this guy is proving to be true, and his tear seems to have energized the Reds as well, who swept Atlanta at home over the weekend.

•Great day at Shea on Saturday afternoon for Brooks' last MLB game in NYC before he heads back to the West Coast and their Triple-A Padres club. SL, Brooks, Rubes, Greg, Eric and I saw the Mets rally in the eighth to beat the Dodgers 3-2. Believe it or not, the Mets are finally starting to look like a decent team.

•In WBSL news, A/T goes down in a tough loss to Black Betty, after putting 8 runs on the board in the top of the ninth to lead by two. Costly errors handed the Betty about 7 runs of their runs. grrrr.

Bad Ass Johnny Cueto

Saw the highlights of this kid pitching last night, and WOW. Who knows if he can keep it up, but the form and speed were undeniable. Exciting stuff for a team that hasn't been in the playoffs since 1995. The Reds Nation is aflutter, or at least as much as anyone can be after the past 10+ years of disappointment.

He was in Single A this time last year.

CINCINNATI (AP) -- While Johnny Cueto blew away batters with a 96 mph fastball, his Cincinnati Reds teammates compared memories about the last time they'd seen anyone so young look so good the first time out.

The consensus: This was something special.

Cueto allowed nothing more than Justin Upton's solo homer in seven innings Thursday, striking out 10 in an overpowering debut while leading the Reds to a 3-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Full story here. Next up: Edinson Volquez on Sunday. In spring training, Cueto’s ERA was 5.09 and he walked 12 in 16 innings. Volquez had a 2.70 ERA, walking four in 20 innings while striking out 26. Cueto struck out 19.

Cordero, Not a Nasty Boy but...

It's baseball season again (funny how the winter flies by when you go out of town for a month) and here's a great article on why adding closer Francisco Cordero might make my Redlegs a team to care about again.

The Ol' Lefthander

It is utterly impossible for me to think of the Reds on radio without hearing the tandem voices of "Marty and Joe" dishing opinionated Reds-centric commentary. He hadn't announced anything for the Reds in a few years, but 28 years of hearing the voice of Joe Nuxhall on the Big One WLW will stick with me for life.

RIP Joe.

Playoffs

Does anyone care about these NL baseball playoffs? I even forgot that the Rockies and Diamondbacks were on last night. Go Tribe.

Mr Met: Fraud!

Mr. Met was voted into the "Mascot Hall of Fame" this week. First of all, who knew there was a Mascot Hall of Fame? And secondly, Mr. Met is a straight up rip-off of Mr. Red, who was the first baseball-head mascot circa 1955. Shameful.

*thanks to my brother Mike for setting Wikipedia straight on this matter. (see paragraph 2)

756

Love or hate Bonds, it was hard not to be moved by his big record-breaking moment on Tuesday night. I happened to just walk in the door, switch on the live broadcast of his 3-at-bat of the night via Sportscenter. A 3-2 pitch, and BOOM. Did everyone else watching, at least the baseball lovers, also hope this one was going to be gone? It's pretty hard to ignore that many home runs and how GOOD the guy truly is, even with the help he had along the way. As for me, I'm (oddly enough) a bit of a waffler on the steroids issue, but I'm curious how future fans and players will judge Bonds, and the 15+yrs of performance-enhancing drug use in MLB.

Hank Aaron's video message was classy and on point, offering congratulations and a wish that

"(My) hope today, as it was on that April evening in 1974, is that the achievement of this record will inspire others to chase their own dreams."

Was a nice touch to have Hank present, causing the always impenetrable Bonds to choke up, and I, too, got a little shiver watching this bit of baseball history.

Tom Terrific

I've always liked Tom Glavine well enough, but reading over his stats (lifetime 3.49 ERA) after last night's 300 win made me realize how good he truly is. On top of these numbers, he's the best hitting pitcher of his generation, is extremely active in the player's union, and he's seemingly a stand up family-leaning kind of guy: an old-fashioned type of ballplayer with no skeletons in his closet. From ESPN.com:

If you want to start a good argument, try this: Tom Glavine is the ninth-best left-hander of all time, slightly ahead of Sandy Koufax. Here's the ammunition you'll need.

In beating the Cubs on Sunday night, Glavine became the 23rd pitcher to win 300 games, 135 more wins than Koufax. Glavine has the fifth-most wins among left-handers and the sixth-most wins in the National League since 1900. He made 10 All-Star teams, won two Cy Young awards and has five 20-win seasons, more than Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz, Barry Zito, Carlos Zambrano and Mike Mussina combined.

The common denominator of the greatest pitchers of all time is durability: Glavine has never been on the disabled list. He has made at least 25 starts in 19 consecutive seasons; only Greg Maddux, with 20, has a longer streak in baseball history.

Glavine also has 14 postseason victories; only Smoltz, with 15, has more. Glavine did all this without throwing 95 mph, but few pitchers have commanded a fastball and changeup better than he has.

Every 300-game winner who's eligible for the Hall of Fame is in. So 300 is the benchmark, but who will be next to get there?

Randy Johnson has 284 wins, but he's 43 and has a back injury. After Johnson, no one else with at least 200 wins seems likely to make it, and no young pitcher is off to such a sensational start that he's a threat to 300 even with mass statistical projection.

So, Glavine might be the last one for a while. And that's appropriate in every way.

Dear Loyal Readers (Hi Pat!)

Been back at home since late Friday; was not murdered in Italy by La Cosa Nostra; work is nuts due to my dear assistant Jason giving notice 3 days into the Europe trip (his last day is tomorrow and the interviewing begins...arghh), and did anyone else see Junior's highlight reel tonight?? I think I missed Baseball Tonight.

Will be back shortly with things to say, no doubt.

Worse and Worse

The Reds fired manager Jerry Narron last night after they lost to the Cardinals, and officially became the team with the worst record in baseball.

Some more fun stats from the article: they are on pace to lose 100, the most since 1982. They've had seven consecutive losing seasons, their deepest slump in 50 years. Arroyo hasn't won since early May. The much-touted Homer Bailey has been beat up in the past few starts, although he'll come around with some more experience to become a #1 starter.

My take? Trade Dunn and Griffey for some pitchers, especially for help in the bullpen. (leading the NL in losses, btw). I loved that Junior came home, but since he's not gonna get a ring in Cincy, we might as well let him go while he's worth something. And some AL team should jump all over Dunn.

God Boy Would Say No

One of the owners of my company (gay makeup artist) was asking me who #46 was on the Yankees -- as I am the go-to sports expert in my office of 25 women and gay men, go figure -- and was going on about how hot Pettitte is, blah blah blah.

The debate is if they can get him to pose for V Man, our "men's" magazine, i.e. gay men's magazine. But I just had to tell him.... Um, I don't think he'll do it because he thinks you gays are going to hell. He's got a pro-Jesus book out, and he does those weird late night commercials for Power For Living....

At Least Rickey's Back to Help

Me and my friend Brooks went to Shea last night on his 38th birthday so he could see his fave team, the Twins, beat up on the Mets.

I love that Oliver Perez (now 7-6, 3.16 ERA), but he walked five as the Mets dropped 2 of 3 to the Twins. And man, they looked REALLY bad doing it. Hope they snap out of this funk where they've dropped 14 of their last 18. Horrid, flat and downtrodden- looking as each of them dejectedly shuffled out of the batter's box.

They ARE getting some always entertaining quotes from Rickey. And Delgado is pulling up his socks, copping El Duque's look, in hopes that he can hit more than .250.

NEW YORK -- With the return of summer -- actually, one day before its return -- has come the return of a man who used to own summer in these parts, one Rickey Henley Henderson, also known as Jose Reyes' personal tutor. Henderson, officially identified as a special instructor in the Mets media guide, is back for five days of ... well, special instruction, and, as he put it, "Give 'em a boost with my special lucky charms."

"Back in the day," Henderson said, "I had something that I would rub when we got into a funk. And they thought I lost my mind."

Guest Blogger

Best paragraph I got in an blog-esque email today from my brother Chris in Dayton:

Baseball
Its baseball season, the Reds and the Alter JV team suck. The Dragons [Dayton Single A Reds farm team] and Jake's [my 11-yr old nephew] team are great. Went to the Dragons game last week and they get it. They are well organized, know how to entertain, put on an event and oh by the way the team is decent. The Reds should take note.
Jake's playing baseball for the first time since he was about 6 and like the Dragons he gets it. Strong arm but needs to use better mechanics, good field sense, good glove, and can hit the hell out of the ball. The catcher got hurt so Jake moved to catcher and does a decent job especially never having played before. He is also very proud of his cup but that's no big surprise, all boys are.

Water Sports

Thus far, 4,740 Brewers fans have pledged to pee their pants if the Brewers make the playoffs for the first time in 24 years.

Wow. Milwaukee is hot in the first quarter of this season, and also a huge a beer town, but I have been stunned into silence. I am clearly not a die hard baseball fan.

Standings

Who woulda thunk that the Yanks would be 5.5 out and in last place; Cleveland would be 1.5 up on the Tigers and Twins; and the BREWERS would be 4 up on the 2nd place Reds, with the Cards 6.5 back in the NL Central??

I know it's early but still.

Davey

The Reds are retiring Davey Conception's #13, but he's unfortunately probably past the point where he will make it into Cooperstown. Too bad -- best shortstop of his day, second only to Ozzie Smith later in his career, 5 Gold Gloves, 2,300 hits, big part of why the Big Red Machine were who they were, and all-around nice guy.

My Man Josh

Josh Hamilton hit his second homer in two games last night. Rumor has it he's walking a dangerous path of half-sobriety. He went to rehab EIGHT times so will be interesting to see how this turns out. From On the DL:

3. Rehab Is For Quitters
Which supposedly reformed bad boy has reportedly hit a few bumps along the road to sobriety? A source claims that the recently bulked up cutie pie was spotted feeling no pain on several occasions in bars with women who were most certainly not his wife during spring training. On the positive side, none of this seems to be having an adverse effect on his job status, as his manager seems hell bent on getting him a fulltime position with the team regardless of which veteran players might get pushed aside to make room for him. The manager is so enamored with him that he has even gone as far as to arrange photo-ops which portray his prized player as a good family man. The photo session might have gone better had the player in question been given enough time to sober up from the night before.

Crackheads don't play well in the Midwest, even if they are good-looking white guys who are batting over .300. He should get Farney to be his sponsor.

In other Reds news, this from the Onion.

Slight Breeze Shatters Ken Griffey Jr.'s Femur

MLB Are Still Chumps

Finally resolved, Extra Innings will now be available on both cable and In Demand, with a free preview period for this week and then you can cough up $159 for the season. Whatever. Dicks.