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With apologies to all

By Hal McCoy | Tuesday, May 13, 2008, 10:17 AM

Do I owe Corey Patterson an apology? Do we all owe Corey Patterson an apology? For one day? Yes.

The guy was a one-man sewing machine Monday night, piecing together four hits, including a bunt single to start a four-run rally in the seventh that won the game.

Biggest thing, thugh, was that he didn’t get picked off base or make a funky baserunning blunder. For that he gets the Safe Auto Award.

And for those who prefer Ryan Freel over Patterson, while Freel hustles every step on a baseball field and isn’t afraid to dirty his uniform front and leave lacerations on his chest, his several baserunning blunders and misguided attempts at diving catches are what makes the coaching staff leery of him.

Of course, Freel isn’t the Lone Ranger with his baserunning adventures. He has plenty of Tontos.

And everybody in the world owes Jeff Keppinger an apology. Keppinger was trapped in his own body, a small body, one that scouts like to call too small to be a regular in the majors.

The Pirates drafted him and included him in a trade that also sent pitcher Kris Benson to the New York Mets. Benson was the centerpiece and Keppinger was what they call a throw-in.

He played 33 games for the 2004 Mets and hit .284. Not good enough. They traded him to Kansas City for Ruben Gotay in July, 2006. Go-who?

Kansas City needs baseball players like a street person needs quarters, but they didn’t see anything in Keppinger, either, and traded him to the Reds in January, 2007. The price? A pitcher named Russ Haltiwanger.

As trades go, this drew about as much attention as a white Chevy in a parking lot. This was no BMW or Mercedes. Not at the time. There was not even a story in the Dayton Daily News. It was one line in ‘Transactions’ with the thought, “If it only took Haltiwanger to get this guy, he can’t be much.”

Give credit to fired GM Wayne Krivsky for this one, but even he didn’t know what he was getting.

He thought he was getting a back-up infielder who can hit a little bit.

Then Alex Gonzalez (Anybody remember him?) turned into a bad signing. He was in-and-out of last year’s lineup due to injuries and a life-threatening illness to his son. Keppinger stepped in and hit .332 in 241 at-bats.

A fluke? Too short of a sampling?

Well, Gonzalez, due to a wounded knee, hasn’t played all year and Keppinger has played every game but one at an All-Star pace. Oh, he won’t be an All-Star, but he is a star. In addition to hitting like Pete Rose, he is fielding his position with proficiency.

That’s the other thing they (it is always ‘they.’ Just who are ‘they?’) said. He can’t play shortstop? Yes, he can.

He had seven straight hits in New York, he hit a tie-breaking two-run homer Monday against the Marlins in the 8-7 victory.

As far as I’m concerned, they can bury Alex Gonzalez at Wounded Knee. He’s a good player, a good shortstop, but he is no Jeff Keppinger. And what scout wou,d ever say that?

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Break up the Reds … now

By Hal McCoy | Monday, May 12, 2008, 07:10 PM

The Florida Marlins are in town and it got me to thinking — which is an accomplishment in itself.

How do the Marlins do it? What is their magic potion?

They arrived in Cincinnati with the best record in the National League and they arrived with the lowest payroll in the majors — $22 million. That’s about what the Reds, buried in the NL Central basement, pay Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn.

The Marlins were born ONE YEAR BEFORE the Reds last appeared in the postseason in 1994. And yet the Marlins have twice won the World Series. The Reds haven’t even got there.

The Marlins won their first World Series in 1997 with Jim Leyland managing a very expensive team purchased by owner Wayne Huizenga. Then that winter they broke up the team — traded, bartered and sold most of their stars.

Then they rebuilt, mostly from within. Lo and behold, with a low-salaried team managed by Jack McKeon, they won another World Series, beating the mighty New York Yankees.

Once again they broke up the team and started over — mostly from within, using players they developed or young players they acquired in trading away high-priced stars.

So over last winter, they traded their best power hitter, Miguel Cabrera, and their best pitcher, Dontrelle Willis, to the Detroit Tigers.

Now they come to Cincinnati with two real recognizable players — Hanley Ramirez and Dan Uggla. And another manager, Fredi Gonzalez.

What does that tell us, Cincinnati fans?

Is it time to trade Griffey and Dunn, if that’s possible, for young talent? Is it time to bring up Jay Bruce and Homer Bailey and a lot of other young prospects?

Looking at the standings I can only shake my head and say, “Get ‘er done.”

With seven straight losing seasons and the team on a direct path toward the eighth, what can it hurt?

Tear it up and start over.

And it was emphasized in the first inning Monday night when the Marlins hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning off Aaron Harang.

Then I saw Corey Patterson batting leadoff. Why, why, why?

It almost made me wish I was at the Cleveland Cavaliers-Boston Celtics game.

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Lost in New York

By Hal McCoy | Sunday, May 11, 2008, 05:58 PM

For a report on Seattle’s interest in Ken Griffey Jr., so much interest that one of the Mariners’ executives was in New York watching Griffey, check out the previous blog entitled: “Seattle checking out Griffey.”

For a report on the Cincinnati Reds weekend, “Lost in New York,” read on and weep.

They lost two of three to the Mets and the third game was most disconcerting. Johnny Cueto, 22, pitched to his age - again. And it is a concern. He is 2-4 with a 5.91 ERA and one wonders how much of spring training’s greatness was a mirage.

Maybe Cueto isn’t quite ready for Prime Time. He wasn’t ready for the bright lights on Broadway (or at least the dull old dirty lights of Shea Stadium - the dump that is about to become an official trash pile under a wrecker’s ball, although it already is a junkyard).

The Mets jumped on Cueto in the first inning with a barrage of line drives that screamed to the outfield with the same decibels as the planes that sometimes swoosh over Shea en route to LaGuardia.

Two doubles and a triple produced three runs and the Reds played the rest of the way as if they had one foot in the bus for the trip home. Of course, Oliver Perez was keeping the bus door shut.

He beat them for the ninth time in his career, striking out eight in only six innings. Perez is just like Houston’s Roy Oswalt. Both could sit cardboard cutouts of themselves on the mound and the cardboard would pitch a three-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts.

Manager Dusty Baker blamed Cueto’s ugliness on New York stage fright, but he was just as ugly in St. Louis, where there is no stage on which to get frightened. Baker and Cueto’s guru, Mario Soto, both agreed that Cueto’s problem Sunday was throwing pitches over the heart of the plate, or as broadcaster Jeff Brantley calls it, “Right down Broadway.”

Jeff Keppinger, who had five straight hits Sunday, added two more in his first at-bats Sunday, plus a walk, to give him eight straight appearances on base.

Then Wright State’s Joe Smith, one of the nicest kids to walk the streets of Flushing, struck out Keppinger with two on and two outs in the eighth.

Did I mention that this team carries home an odor similar to that which one smells upon walking inside Shea? And it has nothing to do with the stadium. Right now, this is a team of disparate parts. Nothing fits. Walt Jocketty has a ton of work to do.

While the Reds got to go home Sunday night, I get to spend the night here, so my recently found luggage can at least spend one night with me.

That, of course, depends on me finding the hotel. With my eye meds in my bag, I was seeing worse than normal (which is like a bat during the day) when I got off the subway Saturday night at midnight and wandered out an unfamiliar exit. Somehow I turned the wrong way and when I saw the Port Authority Bus terminal, a building I’d never seen in 36 years of coming to NY, I knew I was lost. And not in prime real estate, either.

I stubbornly refused to hail a cab, fearing I might be only a half-block away and would be mightily embarrassed. So I walked. And walked and walked and walked. For an hour. Finally I discovered 42nd and 9th and knew how to get to 45th and 7th from there.

If my plane makes it all the way to Dayton tomorrow and doesn’t turn back, as did my flight from Dayton to New York, I’ll be ecstatic to be back in Ohio. The worst part? We have to come back here in June to play the Yankees. I can hardly wait. I love self-flagellation.

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Seattle looking at Griffey

By Hal McCoy | Sunday, May 11, 2008, 11:55 AM

If the Cincinnati Reds truly are interested in trading Ken Griffey Jr., well it appears the Seattle Mariners are more than interested.

Seattle’s Duane Schafer, a special consultant to the general manager, is in New York this weekend and his express assignment is to watch Griffey play.

“Don’t know him and never heard of him,” Griffey said with a shrug Sunday morning as he laced his pink-trimmed black shoes with pink shoe laces as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Day by players throughout the major leagues.

“As I’ve always said, I deal with the here and now and I’ve never been a what-if person,” said Griffey. “The problem is that by the time they come to the players (who have the right to say yes or no to a trade), it is at the point where they want a ‘yay’ or a ‘nay’ right away.”

One problem for Griffey. While they regard him as a deity in Seattle, Griffey said he wants to win a World Series ring and Seattle is no closer to doing that than Cincinnati is. And he left Seattle to be closer to his Orlando-area home and he couldn’t be any farther away from home than Seattle.

“Been the longest week of my life,” said Griffey, referring to last week’s death of his best friend, Frank King. “Every time I call home, my wife Melissa is still crying.”

On another front, Adam Dunn was in Sunday’s lineup, but he was in excruciating pain from an ingrown toe nail on his right big toe.

“Never ever had one of these in my life,” he said. “Man, it is on fire.”

And for those wondering, yes, my luggage showed up Saturday night, just in time to accompany me back home. I found it with the hotel bellman after I got off the subway, took a wrong turn and wandered in the Times Square area for about 20 blocks before finding my way home. Just another story from The Big City.

But I did find a vendor selling shish-ka-bob sandwiches with hot barbecue sauce. Yummy - and a night of heartburn.

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A lost and found weekend

By Hal McCoy | Saturday, May 10, 2008, 08:27 PM

From the Lost & Found Dept.: The Cincinnati Reds lost a game, then found a way to win the second game … and my bag was found.

And maybe Bronson Arroyo found himself, pitching a gem-dandy in Game 2 Saturday against the Mets - eight innings, one run, four hits. He was lifted after throwing 115 pitches and with the Reds owning a 7-1 lead in the ninth.

At least I think my bag was found. The US Airways web site says it was shipped to my hotel, but I haven’t been there yet to confirm its arrival. The 800 number you can call is a series of prompts asking you to talk to a recorded voice, which cut off on me four times.

Finally, I got a real person, but his English was bad and my Spanish is worse and I think he said my name and seven or eight indistinguishable words.

Anyway, when I walk into my room tonight I expect a happy reunion between me and my AWOL bag.

For the Reds, they have a chance for a winning trip, even if it is a three-game mini-trip. By splitting Saturday’s day-night doubleheader, losing 12-6 and winning 7-1, if the Reds win today they have a winning trip for only the second time in their last 20 trips.

And they snapped a six-game road losing streak before they finish the series/trip with the New York Mets Sunday afternoon.

Both teams must have left their bats out in the rain Friday. Six bats were shattered in the first three innings with splinters flying hither and yon.

Much-beleaguered Arroyo started Game 2 by striking out the side and then was in and out of trouble with only one-run damage in the first half of the game.

He struck out the side again in the seventh inning as he seems to make Mets-meat out of the NL New York team. He has five complete games in his career, three against the Mets.

No complete-game this time, but he had his Met sandwich.

Isn’t it funny how baseball works? In Game 1 the Reds ripped pitching icon John Santana for 10 hits in six innings and lost the game by six runs.

In Game 2 they faced some Toto from Kansas named Mike Pelfrey and had two runs against him in six innings. When he left, they scored two in the eighth.

Jeff Keppinger once upon a time wore a Mets uniform but they found him not to their liking and got rid of him. In Game 2, he had five hits, setting a career-best and scored two runs.

Scott Hatteberg, getting a rare start at first base, had three hits right behind Keppinger and drove in two runs.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a subway to catch to see if my bag and I are truly reunited. If so, I’m going to a walkway near the hotel on Times Square with a Padron ‘64 cigar and a novel I’m reading and relax for the first time since I boarded an airplane at 7 a.m. Friday.

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It IS Bruce & Bailey time

By Hal McCoy | Saturday, May 10, 2008, 03:11 PM

They served steak and eggs in the Shea Stadium media dining room this morning.

Then Matt Belisle served meatballs in the afternoon.

It’s time. I’ll say it now. I’ve resisted it, saying he wasn’t ready. I’ve supported bringing up Jay Bruce, but thought Homer Bailey needed some maturity and humble pie in Triple-A.

But after watching Belisle on Saturday against the Mets, well, Homer Bailey can do no worse and he certainly can prove nothing more at Louisville. Bring him up and plug him in.

Belisle gave up six runs (five earned), seven hits and three walks in five staggery innings.

Meanwhile, the Reds raked 10 hits off Johan Santana over six innings, but couldn’t bunch them up in any manner. And where have we seen this act before? It tied the most hits Santana has given up in his career and the Mets still gave the Reds a wax job.

Corey Patterson led the game with a hit and was quickly erased when he was caught leaning the wrong way and certainly manager Dusty Baker has to be running out tolerance with this guy. He stunned everybody Friday by having him third in the order, but we didn’t see the results of that head-scratcher because the game was rained out and Baker changed the lineup Saturday.

The Reds had two more hits in the first inning, three for the inning, but didn’t score.

Edwin Encarnacion, 1 for 16, snapped-to with a home run and a run-scoring single, but Patterson struck out with one on in the the fifth and struck out with two on in the sixth.

Right now, this guys is rotten to the Core-y and isn’t helping in any way. Nothing personal, no wisecracks about manager Dusty Baker wanting him here, it is just plain unadulterated fact.

So let’s have no more Belisle and no more Patterson. It truly is Bruce & Bailey time instead of continuing this Barnum & Bailey time.

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Where oh where is my bag?

By Hal McCoy | Saturday, May 10, 2008, 11:57 AM

Now it is more than 24 hours since my luggage was due to arrive in New York. We remain separated. U.S. Airways has not located this little piece of black luggage with the Kentucky Derby logo on it - probably the only piece of luggage between Dayton and New York with a Kentucky Derby logo.

I’ve never been to the Kentucky Derby, the only major event in America I haven’t covered at some time, but I’d like to be there. The bag was a gift from our columnist Tom Archdeacon.

I’ve covered UD, Ohio State, Miami of Ohio, the Cleveland Browns, the Cincinnati Royals (figure that one out, youngsters), the NCAA tournament, the Super Bowl, the Masters, the PGA, the U.S. Open, the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500 - but not the Kentucky Derby.

Anyway, the missing bag?

That meant I was up at 7 a.m. today to visit Duane Reade for $40 worth of dop kit material, and with my stubbly beard and unkempt hair not a single street person asked me for spare change. I was one of them.

Back to the hotel for a shower, shave and hair-brushing, then back out to buy some clothes. Of course, nothing opened until 10 and I was due at the ballpark for today’s doubleheader at 11:30. I didn’t make it.

Remember when I got stuck in the elevator by myself for 20 minutes in Milwaukee’s Miller Park earlier this year? Oh, no? Oh, yes.

This time two women and I boarded Elevator B in the Marriott Marquis this morning. The doors closed. Nothing. No movement. One of the women pushed the emergency call button and it was answered immediately. A male voice told her to push the Open Elevator button, which she did, and the doors opened.

The voice said, “Now get out and take another elevator.” We barely heard him because we were out before the doors fully opened. At least it was only a couple of minutes and I had company.

Finally, a store opened and in 15 minutes I bought two shirts, two pairs of underwear, two pairs of socks and a pair of jeans. Thank you, U.S. Airways. You’ll be getting the bill - along with a bill for three Brooks Brothers shirts, two pairs of Joseph A. Banks jeans, three pairs of underwear, three pairs of socks, my meds, a bottle of John Varvatos cologne … unless, of course, they locate my bag by the time they go out of business, which probably is soon.

A 45-minute subway ride to the Shambles that is Shea got me to the park in time for the end of the Reds batting practice. The skies are gray, but it isn’t raining and the forecast is for clear skies and two baseball games.

Hopefully, the Reds slept better than I did. Because of the canceled flight, the delayed flight and the 10-hour delay in getting to NY, plus the lost luggage, I couldn’t go to sleep when I got to the hotel last night.

So, despite the rain and no umbrella, I strolled the Times Square area way past midnight, enjoying the sights and the smells of cooking hot dogs and steaming pretzels. It was only 50 degrees, so the walk was invigorating.

Today HAS to be a better day - even though U.S. Airways still has no clue if my bag is in Pittsburgh or Puerto Rico or The Philippines.

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