OBSERVATIONS: Words of Praise Pile Up on Elly

By Hal McCoy

UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while awaiting the Reds’ three-game series with Milwaukee and will it be a Brewers’ knockout blow or a Reds’ survival series?

—ELLY THE ENTERTAINER: The wonderment and glamorous words of approval for Elly De La Cruz keep coming for all corners of sportsdom.

Former pitcher Ryan Dempster, a regular on MLB-TV’s Intentional Talk, weighed in with this one:

“I love watching Elly De La Cruz. I call him regal because he plays like a king and soon will rule the castle. The Reds should lock him up for the rest of his carer.”

An excellent thought, Ryan, but it won’t happen for two reasons: When he becomes eligible for free agency there isn’t enough money in Greater Cincinnati to sign him and he already said he wants to play for the New York Yankees, who will give him The Bronx and the Brooklyn Bridge for his signature.

And a perfect description of Elly came from a text sent to me by my great friend Richard Newlin:

“He is like a polished athletic entertainer. He doesn’t just play, he performs.” So, another nickname? Elly The Entertainer.

And New York Yankee all-Universe player Aaron Judge was asked if he could beat De La Cruz in a 40-yard dash if Elly spotted him 15 yards.

“Nah, he’d still smoke me,” said Judge. “When they (the Reds) came to The Bronx, he hit a triple and it was impressive. Then he hit a home run into their bullpen. The guy is electric and he is good for baseball.”

—QUOTE: From Reds pitcher Nick Lodolo on Elly De La Cruz: “He does something every week that hasn’t been done for 100 years.”

—STILL A SPEED DEMON: He is 36 years old and has bounced from team to team — Cincinnati, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, back to the Yankees, Kansas City, Texas and Pittsburgh.

At least one player wonders why that is. That would be San Diego’s Manny Machado after the itinerant Aroldis Chapman struck him out with a pitched clocked at 104.7 miles an hour.

That’s about the same speed Chapman was traveling one night in Cincinnati when he whipped his yellow Lamborghini around a corner near Great American Ball Park and nearly annihilated me

My compatriot, Ray Snedegar, pulled me back onto the curb, saving my life and preventing Nadine from becoming a millionaire.

We knew it was Chapman. His Ohio license plate was ‘105 MPH,’ celebrating a pitch he threw for the Reds

—WIN ONE, GET FIRED: Did the Chicago White Sox really want to keep losing. They lost 21 straight and manager Pedro Grifol kept his job.

The Chisox finally beat Oakland, ending the 21-game awfulness. . .and a day later Grifol was fired. Fired for winning?

And owner Jerry Reinsdorf has some never. If you think the Cincinnati Reds have been inept for a long period, well Reinsderf bought the White Sox 43 years ago and they have won one playoff series. That led to the 2005 World Series title. The other 42 years? Not one playoff series win.

—THE MAD HATTER: Did you know that in MLB there is a ground rule triple? Neither did I. And I’ve never seen one or heard of one occurring in my 51 years covering baseball.

If a fielder tries to use his hat to catch a fly ball or stop a ground ball, it is a ground rule triple.

Hats off to that rule.

—KLOBBERING KLU: Beginning in 1913, Tampa’s Plant Field was home to several MLB team for spring training, mostly the Cincinnati Reds.

The last game played there, before the Reds moved to Al Lopez Field, was March 29, 1954 — Reds versus Yankees.

The last pitch was thrown by New York’s Allie Reynolds and it was a two-run walk-off home run in the ninth giving the Reds a 9-8 victory.

And who hit it? Big Klu. Ted Kluszewski, a drive off the center field scoreboard. It was apropos. It was Kluszewski’s 15th home run at Plant Field, the most by any player.

—NEVER WRONG?: The job calls for MLB umpires to have Type-A personalities. Casper Milquetoasts need not apply. Players would walk all over them.

A typical umpire’s self-analysis is one like former umpire Silk O’Loughlin’s: “The Pope for religion, O’Loughlin for baseball. Both infallible.”

Or as umpire/clown Ron Luciano said, “Anybody who says the umpire never missed a play is. . .well, an umpire.”

—MORE TO THe STORY: For us real old people — real, real old.

Remember the old Paul Harvey Show on radio? He would tell a story and at the end it would have a surprise kicker and he would say, “And now you know the rest of the story.”

Here’s one he would have told.

Back in 2021, Toronto’s Bo Bichette hit a home run over Fenway Park’s 37-foot Green Monster wall in left field, a 468-footer that landed on Lansdowne Street. No big deal. It happens often.

The kicker? The ball ended up a few feet from a building that used to be a Gold’s Gym. It was where his father, former major-leaguer Dante Bichette, met his wife, Mariana, 30 years ago, Bo’s mother.

And now you know the rest of the story.

—MY WAY: These players should have a theme song, ‘Return to Sender.’ This note is for all Elvis Presley fans.

The Milwaukee Brewers have a relief pitcher named Elvis Peguero. He is only the fifth MLB player in history named Elvis, joining Elvis Andrus, Elvis Pena, Elvis Arujo and Elvis Luciano.

—HIGH SCREAMER: Christopher ‘Mad Dog’ Russo’s sponsor on MLB-TV’s ‘High Heat’ is Advil. That’s good because Russo’s screaming gives me a headache.

—WORD GAMES: As a writer, I am infatuated with words, so these fascinate me:

—Dreamt is the only word in the English language that ends with ‘mt.’

—Month, orange and purple do not rhyme with any other word.

—For touch typists, like me, stewardesses is type completely with the left hand. And lollipop is typed entirely with the right hand.

—Racecar, kayak, civic and level are spelled the same forward and backward. They’re called palindromes.

—Facetious is one of only two words that has every vowel in the alphabet (a,e,i,o,u) in exact order.

—PLAYLIST NUMBER 81: As time marches, songs march with it:

Temptation Eyes (Grass Roots), Hitchin’ A Ride (Vanity Fare), Stacy’s Mom (Fountain Of Wayne), A Summer (Chad & Jeremy), Kiss And Say Goodbye (The Manhattans), Polk Salad Annie (Elvis Presley).

Judy In Disguise (John Fred & His Playboy Band), Mother-In-Law (Ernie K. Doe), Indiana Wants Me (R. Dean Taylor), MacArthur Park (Richard Harris), Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye (The Casinos), I’ll Never Find Another You (The Seekers).