Yeah Baseball!!

I'm really starting to enjoy this winning stuff. I wasn't sure I could handle liking a team that wins more than a few games. I was never a Bengals fan, so I didn't really enjoy their past season, and the Browns sucked, as usual. The only other sport I really follow other than baseball and football is hockey, and, always loyal to my state (and partially due to a can of Pepsi) I'm a Blue Jackets fan. In case you don't know, the Blue Jackets are another typical Ohio sports team. I've never really followed a team while they were having a good season. I've been a Reds fan my whole life, but I was 7 at the time of their most recent World Series victory, and I was far more interested in My Little Ponies than baseball at the time. I vaguely recall them being swept in the play-offs (I think) by the Braves in '95 or '96. I only remember that because I did not know what " being swept" meant and I wondered why all the Braves fans were carrying around little brooms. When my parents explained it I thought it was very rude. I probably would have felt differently if the Reds fans had been the ones with brooms.

I'm trying not to have openly extra high hopes for the Reds this season, as I feel it will probably jinx them, but it's hard. This spring has been pretty neat. I mean, they shut out the Red Sox 4-0 today. That's exciting. Arroyo pitched well. I've been hearing some promising things about Milton lately. Their record for ST is 20-11. I am all kinds of pumped for next week. I'd be pumped even if the Reds had lost every game this spring, though.

Yeah baseball! Go Reds!

Talkin' Kearnsy

I keep missing these chat things, but this week was a lovely chat with my favorite new-ish daddy, Austin Kearns. He sure does say "dude" a lot. I was particularly fond of this little tidbit:

halmorris4ever: Austin, what inspired you to grow your hair out? As a fellow long-hair wearer, I think it looks great.
Kearns: I just decided to let it go and see what happened one day. I noticed my hair was kind of curly. My mom liked it so I kept it. What mom says goes.

There are some other good bits, as well. I was entertained.

So, there have been several games in the last few weeks that we've neglected. By this point it seems rather silly to write anything about them in detail. You probably know all you could want to by now. If not, that's what the links off to the side are for, goof.

Anyway, the Reds record currently stands at 16-11. Check that out! 16-11. It's only spring training, but it looks pretty good anyway.

Bye-Bye Wily Mo

After two days of battling dial-up internet, I can finally bring you the news that Wily Mo Pena is no longer a Red. Bronson Arroyo, however, is. He looks to be quite the decent pitcher. Here's hoping he stays that way. Perhaps there was more to Dunn playing left field after all (speaking of which, this means he will once again be on the opposite side of the field from us in April). I think I'm going to miss Wily Mo's awesome hair. It's always different.

Good luck to Wily Mo in Boston.

Television

I would like to announce that in just 146 hours and 25 minutes we shall once again be able to see glorious Reds action on the television on FSN.

Playground Baseball

Well, well, well. With much I'm Still In School and thus am Suffering Finals Week action, followed by a Helping My Parents Move cold front all combined with a stagnant Long Work Hours system, the forecast for the coming weeks is lots of silence from us.

For the present, though, here's a little bit on what's happened since the last time we spoke. Hold on, I've gotta go find out when the last time we spoke was.

Ah yes, making the Yankees cry again. While they may not have been real Yankees, their shirts still said Yankees and the Reds still made them cry. The score was 5 to 4 in favor of Cincinnati. So, all together, a good day for our boys. After that the Reds invited the Blue Jays over to play, stole all their toys, dumped sand down their shirts and sent them home with a 7 to 6 loss. Then the Phillies were all, "Whoa guys, quit that," and beat up on the Reds a little bit (with a score of 4 to1). But don't worry. They'll get theirs.

That was weird and kinda violent.

In the mean time, Edwin Encarnacion continues to be a beast. I'd give you some numbers but I've lost count and don't have time to look them up. Suffice it to say he's kicking booty all over the place. Grr!

Shiver Me Timbers and Other Annoying Pirate Jargon

Much to my delight, the Reds turned the tables on the Pirates today. To my knowledge no one got whacked in the head this time… unless you count the ball. Encarnacion gave it a good thumping and racked up his 5th homerun of the spring in just six games. Might he be all he was cracked up to be after all? It sounds like it was an all around decent day for the pitching staff as well. The final score was 2 for the Reds and 1 for the Pirates.

Tomorrow the Reds get to make the Yankees cry again. HA!

Also, the Reds said goodbye to Luke Hudson and Bubba Nelson today. I, like the rest of the world, was rather surprised about that. I don't know very much about Nelson, but what I've heard from other people makes it sound like he's a decent pitcher. Or he could at least become one. Oh well, I guess someone else can find out.

Bonk!

In honor of Casey's getting beaned in the head and in order to avoid mentioning the eventual outcome of the game, here's a picture of Tiny Casey the Pirate with a bandaid on his head. Sean's face must be some kind of blunt object magnet. Luckily he wasn't hurt too badly today.

I guess it's kind of hard to tell that the bandaid is a bandaid. It's one of those clear ones.

While the Pirates may have ultimately gotten their revenge in the form of a five-to-nothing defeat of one half of the Reds, the other half did manage to take down the Twins again.

You might be thinking that it's rather odd to have the majority of this dedicated to a man who plays for Pittsburgh, but I still like him and it gave me a reason to play with Tiny Casey again. And to show off my fabulous MS Paint Skillz. With a z.

I almost forgot! Go check out Red Hot Mama's tribute to Ryan Freel's birthday! Not that you need us to tell you about it. Odds are you came here from her site to begin with.

Milton, Milton, Milton

I don't know why, but I was completely convinced that Milton was going to put it all together this year and make me feel bad for making fun of him so much last year. I don't know all the details about his appearance today against Toronto, but it looks just like last year to me.

Reds on the mound: Left-hander Eric Milton, who missed his first start of the spring with a strained right calf, lasted just two-thirds of an inning against Toronto. Milton walked one and allowed four runs on four hits, including the homer to Hillenbrand.

That came from here.

Maybe his calf is still bothering him. Maybe it's going to take him a while to get used to pitching from the other side of the mound. Or maybe he made the mistake of thinking birds can't play baseball. Whatever it was, I really hope that wasn't a preview of the rest of Eric Milton's season. For some reason I want to like him, but he insists on making that difficult.

Final outcome = Reds 3, Blue Jays 6.

Edit: After checking out Mark Lancaster's blog it sounds like the problem was indeed Mr. Milton's calf. Apparently there was also a plan for him to only be out there for 30-some pitches, they just all happened to occur in one inning.

I'm gonna go add Mark to the links on the side now. I've been meaning to do that for a while.

Down with the Yanks!

When I eventually get time to investigate these games further maybe I'll say a little more about them. Anyway, the Reds beat the Yankees! This makes me unbelievably happy. I don't understand why, but I harbor some enormous, unfounded grudge against the Yankees and I laugh when they lose. Sometimes I do a little dance. It's even better, of course, when the Reds make this happen for me. It almost erases the memory of losing to the Devil Rays and the Tigers (twice). Almost.

Here are stories from the Reds' site if you care to learn more about the last 4 games:
vs. Detroit
vs. Minnesota
vs. New York
vs. Tampa Bay

However, you can also find more interesting recaps at any of the sites linked over there --->

Notice how I've "cleverly" avoided doing any work of my own?

And moving on...

You can read the transcript of this morning's chat with Mr. Dunn right here. You will be pleased to see (or maybe not) that, true to form, Adam answered some questions seriously, and other questions with nudity. I'm pleased to see they used that goofy picture again. I knew a guy that wore his hat like that all the time.

I would like to take this opportunity to let you all know that Christina is still alive. Her job really sucks and she has enough trouble finding time for eating and sleeping. I feel a little bad about monopolizing our site, so I thought I'd let you know why.

Spring!

Since I wasn't blown up today, I bring you this:

I'm a little irked with the media in this half of Ohio (the eastern half, to specify). It seems everyone likes to talk about the Indians so much that they find it difficult just to fit in a mention of the Reds. It's not that finding information is difficult. Afterall, you can find anything on the internet. It's just nice to see some local support, too. If I had any kind of journalistic talent I'd go get myself a job with one of the newspapers and do something about that.

On to actual Reds news. The spring training games have started. I know very little about them. I know enough about the game with the Kia Tigers to not mention any more about it. Yesterday (I believe) the Reds beat the Reds 3 to 1, and then today the Tigers (Detriot this time) beat the Reds (8 to 5), too. Kind of sad, but then they just started. I've completely lost my train of thought, but I had something more optimistic to add here.

Also, this Monday's edition of Chat With A Red will feature Adam Dunn. Register here if you haven't already. 11:30 AM this time, too.