By Hal McCoy
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, wondering who will play shortstop next season for the Cincinnati Reds — Elly De La Cruz, Matt McLain, Edwin Arroyo or the proverbial player to be named later.
—LOWDER SPEAKS LOUDE: Seldom does anything good prevail from a stack of injuries, but there is not a silver lining involving the completely depleted starting rotation of the Cincinnati Reds.
It’s a gold lining. Maybe a platinum lining.
There is no doubt had not Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Andrew Abbott and Graham Ashcraft landed on the injuried list, all at about the same time. Rhett Lowder would not have surfaced.
But there he is, at the top of the rotation, no doubt solidifying a spot for himself in the 2025 rotation.
The Reds No. 1 draft pick in 2023 out of Wake Forest, is impressing everybody, including opposing managers. After he gave up only one run (while he was on the mound) and six hits over 5 2/3 innings to the Twins, Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli said, “It was a very impressive outing for a guy who was in college last year. I was certainly impressed.”
Lowder is only 1-2 for his four starts, mainly because the Reds’ offense is testing his patience and resolve. They have scored a total of five runs while he has been on the mound. His 1.74 earned run average is the true number.
His composure and demeanor on the mound is like Tom Seaver in his fifth year. And he hasn’t faced the bottom feeders like the Chicago White Sox, Toronto, Los Angeles Angels, Pittsburgh Pirates, Miami Marlins or the Colorado Rockies.
He has faced four teams with winning records, including first placers Milwaukee and Houston, plus Minnesota and St. Louis, both with winning records.
“It’s a good start to my career and just being thrown into the fire with some really good teams,”he said. “I’m happy with it.”
Happy? He should be ecstatic. He is becoming the most famous Rhett since Rhett Butler from ‘Gone With The Wind.’ It will take more than a strong wind to sweep Lowder off the mound.
—OH, IF ONLY: Henry Aaron was holding a contract offer from the New York Giants and was ready to sign it — A Class A contract with a Class C salary.
The Milwaukee Braves called at that moment and offered Aaron a Class C contract with a Class B salary, a difference of $100 a month above the Giants’ offer.
So Aaron signed with the Braves for the extra $100 a monthly, a ghastly, costly $100 for the Giants. Had the Giants signed him, they would have had Aaron and Willie Mays in the same outfield.
One of those players is the only man in MLB histor to hit more than 50 home runs in any season and hit 20 or more triples in any season.
Thirty players have hit 50 ore more homers in a season and 86 players have hit 20 or more triples in a season.
And who did both? Willie Mays hit 51 home runs in 1955 and hit 20 triples in 1957.
—QUOTE: From Henry Aaron after he passed Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list: “I don’t want people to forget Babe Ruth. I just want them to remember Henry Aaron.” (Consider it done, even though people refer to him as Hank Aaron and he preferred Henry.)
—DON’T LET THE DOOR. . .: Before Casey Stengel won five straight pennants as manager of the New York Yankees, he had losing seasons in five of the six years he managed the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves.
His Braves teams finished seventh (of eight teams) three straight years and were seventh at 47-60 when Stengel was fired two-third through the season.
A fan sent Stengel this telegram: “There’s a train leaving Boston at 6 p.m. Be under it.”
—QUOTE: From Casey Stengel, the year he managed the New York Mets to a record 120 losses (Soon to be eclipsed by the Chicago White Sox): “The trouble is not that players have sex the night before a game, it’s that they stay out all night looking for it.”
—A SPITTIN’ IMAGE: In 1981, the Seattle Mariners had the worst earned run average in MLB. They signed noted spitballer/greaseballer/KY-Jellyballter Gaylord Perry for 1982 and the Mariners had the second best ERA in MLB.
“They did real good that year, didn’t they?” Perry asked with a smile. “And they led the league in strikeouts.”
Asked if he tutored the Mariners pitchers in the fine art of cheating, Perry smiled again and said, “We talked about it.”
Perry was 10-12 that season with a 4.40 ERA. . .but he was 44 years old and in his 20th major league season.
—QUOTE: From pitcher Gaylord Perry: “I reckon I tried everything on the old apple (baseball) but salt and pepper and chocolate dipping sauce.”
—AS THE CROW(E) FLIES: I’ve lived in Dayton for 62 years and never knew, until now, that the city had a National Basketball League (predecessor to the NBA) franchise. It was for the 1948-49 season and they were the Dayton Rens, the only all-black professional franchise to play in an otherwise all-white league.
They began the season as the Detroit Vagabonds. The Vags disbanded with a 2-17 record and Dayton replaced them and assumed the 2-17 record. The Rens went 14-26, a combined 16-43 record, last place in the Eastern Division.
One of the Rens stars was Geroge Crowe, a 6-2, 210-pound forward who averaged 10.2 points a game.
George Crowe? Yes, the same bespectacled George Crowe who played first base for the Cincinnati Reds for three seasons (1956-58), the second black to play for the Reds after Chuck Harmon.
Crowe was Indiana’s first high school Mr. Basketball.
Crowe hit 31 home runs in 1957, filling in for injured first baseman Ted Kluszewski. Although he was lefthanded, in 1958 he played an inning at second base, wearing his first baseman’s mitt and turned a double play against the Chicago Cubs.
Cubs manager Bob Scheffing protested Crowe’s use of the large first baseman’s mitt at second base. That led to a rules change — a first baseman’s mitt can only be used at first base.
—BOX IT UP: With the dangling diamond-encrusted necklaces worn by baseball players, the batter’s box is more like a jewelry box. And a diamond has nothing to do with a baseball diamond.
—PLAYLIST NUMBER 93: Creeping up on the century mark with very few repeats. . .and those were by accident, or brain cramps.
You’re Still The One (Shania Twain), Happy Together (The Turtles), Stuck On You (Lionel Richie), Goodbye Girl (David Gates), Love On The Run (Neil Diamond), Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald (Gordon Lightfoot).
We’ll Never Have To Say Goodbye (England Dan & John Ford Coley), If I Could Turn Back Time (Cher), Angel Eyes (Jeff Healy Band), Still The One (Orleans), The Circle Is Small (Gordon Lightfoot).