OBSERVATIONS: Reds Newcomers Make Immediate Impact

By Hal McC But oy

UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave and liking what I see from new Cincinnati Reds Austin Hays and Brady Singer. . .so far.

—IT DOESN’T COUNT: The Cincinnati Reds probably wish Monday’s game counted, wish it was a regular-season game rather than a meaningless spring exhibtion game.

The Reds romped, 8-1, over the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in Goodyear, AZ.

The best part was that two of the biggest off-season acquisitions showed up like flowers in the desert.

Outfielder Austin Hays was mammoth with six RBIs on a pair of two-run homers and a two-run double. If he likes the Goodyear Ballpark, he’ll love Great American Ball Park, just big enough to store a box of cigars.

Newly-acquire pitcher Brady Singer started the game and pitched two innings. Four of his six outs were recorded via strikeouts. He gave up no runs, two hits and a walk.

“Geez, for some of us that’s two-third of a year,” Reds manager Tito Francona said during a post-game media gathering about Hays’ explosion. “That was impressive. I know a month from now, that’s not going to matter, but it’s fun to watch.”

Elly De La Cruz began his spring with home runs in his first two at bats and he made it 3-for-3 with a single and a run scored in Monday’s first at bat.

And Mat McLain produced a single and an RBI.

—THE CANDY MAN: The 1975 World Series is considered a classic, maybe the best ever — the Reds over the Red Sox in seven games. There was Carlton Fisk’s dramatic 12th-inning home run in Game Six, then Johnny Bench telling manager Sparky Anderson, “Stay out of the way and we’ll win Game 7 for you.”

And they did.

Forgotten, though, is how the Reds almost didn’t make it to the World Series. In the deciding game of the NLCS, 21-year-old Pittsburgh lefthander John Candelaria struck out 14 Reds And the 6-foot-7 rookie led, 2-1, in the eighth when Pete Rose hit a two-out, two-run home run to give the Reds a 3-2 lead.

But Reds relief pitcher Rawly Eastwick walked in a run in the bottom of the ninth and the game went into extra innings. Then the Reds scored two in the 10th to win, 5-3.

Candeleria struck out every player in the Reds lineup at least once except for George Foster. He fanned Cesar Geronimo three times and struck out Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Ken Griffey and Gary Nolan twice each.

That’s how close it came to the Reds not making the World Series.

—QUOTE: From former Reds manager Sparky Anderson: “I only had a high school education and, believe me, I had to cheat to get that.”

—THE SANDY MAN: The more I discover about Sandy Koufax the more I believe he might have been the best pitcher of all time. . .with apologies to Bob Feller, Bob Gibson, Warren Spahn, Juan Marichal, Randy Johnson and all those Atlanta pitchers in the 1990s.

In 1963 Koufax started 42 games and the Los Angeles Dodgers won 36. Koufax was 25-5 that year with a 1.88 earned run average.

Want more? His best year was his last — a 27-9 record in 1966 with a 1.73 ERA. His record for his last four seasons was 97-27.

He retired after 1966 at age 30. Why? An arthritic elbow made his arm feel as if Chris Farley sat on it every night.

—QUOTE: Willie Mays talking about facing Sandy Koufax: “Sandy would strike me out two or three times a game and I knew every pitch he was going to throw. He would let you take a good look at his pitches and you still couldn’t hit it.”

—ELIMINATION DAY: Faithful reader and bosom buddy Pat Rini reminded me of this as baseball season approaches. David Letterman once said this:

“It’s Opening Day and that means one thing. . .the Cleveland Indians are mathematically eliminated.”

I hated D.L. for saying that, but when he said that it was pretty much the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me Rudy Regalado.

—WHO ELSE WOULD IT BE?: The first MLB All-Star game was in 1933 at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. And guess who hit the first ever All-Star home run.

Yep, the Bambino, Babe Ruth. He was 38 at the time with a bulging waist-line and achy knees. But the man could still play baseball.

He was a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox when he was traded to the New Yorks Yankees. During his 15 years in pin-stripes he made only five starts as a pitcher. . .and won all five. His last pitching assignment was on the last day of the 1933 season, sort of a lark.

It was no lark to Boston Red Sox. Ruth pitched a complete-game victory at age 38 — with destroyed knees and a bulging belly.

—HOW ABOUT A DO-OVER?: A trade that so far is more lopsided than the front porch of a
shack in the West Virginia hills — Luis Castillo.

The Reds traded Castillo in 2023 to Seattle and since then he has the third best earned run average in the American League.

What did the Reds get? Noelvi Marte, so far a bust. Andrew Moore, a 4.47 ERA in Double-A. Levi Stroudt, DFA’d. Edwin Arroyo, missed all of 2024 with an injury. . .so the jury is still deliberating.

When he made the deal, Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall said, “We felt this was the best return we could get for Luis.”

Maybe he should consider the song Elvis Presley sang, ‘Return To Sender.’

—A LUCKY TUNE-IN: As a college basketball junkie, I tuned in to the Monmouth-Northeastern game Monday night and was happy I did.

Why? Because no matter the level, one can witness some incredible play and I saw two that night.

First I saw a human Berlin Wall — Northeastern’s 6-foot-9 junior Collin Metcalf from Nortof, Germany. He blocked eight shots. Northeastern led, 65-64, but Metcalf picked up his fourtth foul with 5 1/2 minutes left and took a chair on the sidelines.

Monmouth then scored six straight points to take a 70-65 lead and never trailed again in a game with 16 lead changes.

And why did Monmouth win, 78-73? A 6-foot-7 guard named Abdi Bashir made eight three-pointers. No big surprise. He leads the nation with 111 three-pointers and on this night he scored a career-best 30 points.

—OH, MARIO: When I covered auto racing back in the 1960s I was fortunate to encounter a man with motor oil in his veins.

His name was Mario Andretti and he raced anything on four wheels — sprint cars, stock cars, Indy cars and Grand Prix carss. If a horse had an engine and they put four tires on it Andretti would have ridden in the Kentucky Derby.

My sports writing idol, Jim Murray, wrote this about Andretti, “When he dreamed at night, it wasn’t about pneumatic blondes, it was about turbocharged roadsters. Most teenagers’ first love interest is their homeroom teacher or Sandra Dee. Mario’s was a Hudson Hornet.”

—ANOTHER UECKER-ISM: When Bob Uecker was asked how he got into baseball broadcasting, he said, “After my very first major league game with the Milwaukee Braves, manager Birdie Tebbetts said to me, ‘You should consider being a broadcaster.’”

—PLAYLIST NUMBER 149: As artist Jackson Pollock put it: “Love is friendship set to music.”

—First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Roberta Flack), Singing The Blues (Guy Mitchell), Turn Your Radio On (The Gaithers), Don’t You Forget About Me (Simple Minds), Upside Down (Diana Ross), Lady Willpower (Gary Puckett & The Union Gap).

—I Second That Emotion (Smokey Robinson & The Miracles.Words Of Love (Mamas & The Popas), Touch Me (The Doors), Story Of My Life (One Dimension), Sunshine On My Shoulder (John Denver), I Won’t Back Down (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers).