Observations: Only One Executive Gave The Reds A Positive Vote

By Hal McCoy

UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave wondering, at times, why the Cincinnati Reds wear baseball gloves for no apparent reason.

—TAKING THE FIFTH: This one is a direct hit on the solar plexis of the Cincinnati Reds, but most likely surprises nobody in the team’s fan base.

‘The Athletic’ web-site polled 40 baseball executives, asking them to rank MLB front offices. First place votes counted for 10 points, second 7 points, third place 5 points, fourth place 3 points and fifth place 1 point.

The Reds received one point — one exec voted them fifth. The other 39 gave them the inside of a glazed donut. . .zero.

Said one executive, “I almost voted for the Cincinnati Reds, but as much as I like and respect that group, the results haven’t been there.”

It is no surprise that the cash-rich Los Angeles Dodgers finished first with 300 points, 250 coming on first-place votes.

—TYLER TIME: It isn’t as if the Cincinnati Reds need starting pitching right now, but what have the Texas Rangers done with Tyler Mahle that the Reds couldn’t do?

Mahle has made four starts this season with the Rangers and is 3-0 with a 0.92 earnaed run average.

Wouldn’t he look good as the Reds’ fifth starter?

At least the Reds got a decent haul when they traded him to the Minnesota Twins for Spencer Steer and Christian Encarnacion-Strand. . .if those two guys ever start hitting this year.

With Martinez’s 0-3 record and 6.00 earned run average, wouldn’t Mahle look good in the No 5 starter role. But help is close with pitches Rhett Lowder and Wade Miley nearly ready to come off the injured list.

—PLEASE MOVE HIM: And I repeat. . .please, please, please move Elly De La Cruz to the outfield. Fans cringe every time a routine grounder head toward him at shortstop.

Indeed, he makes spectacular catches of pop-ups after long runs, but he concentration is on his necklaces or his long braids on routine grounders.

In only 19 games, he has six of the team’s 21 errors. But some folks still like him at shortstop. Not me.

—FAN BASE-LESS: Love a headline in a recent Minneapolis newspaper involving the Minnesota Twins.

Minnesota is known as ‘The Land of 10,000 Lakaes.’ With the Twins lacking attendance in bitterly cold Target Field so far this season, the newspaper headline was: “The Land of 10,000 Fans.”

—BARKLEY’s BARK: Are you sick of the Charles Barkley FanDuel commercial. Are you tired of it? Me, too. But I ain’t gonna say it to his face.

I always liked one thing about the former NBA star. He has trouble with the truth. He tells it. As comedian Ron White puts it, “He has the right to remain silent, but he doesn’t have the ability.”

Jim Murray wrote a column about him a few years ago and listed some of the things Barkley said.

After his Phoenix Suns whipped the Los Angeles Clippers, he said, “Their team doesn’t try hard enough. Someone should tell them winning takes effort.”

When asked about how hard the New York Knicks played defense, he said, “They have to. They can’t play offense.”

Asked if Derrick Coleman was a great player, he said, “Not as good as he should be.”

Byron Scott once criticized Barkley and Barley’s retort was, “Scott was last seen on the side of a milk carton.”

How did he get away with it? Well, he was/is a big, big man, known as The Round Mound of Rebound.

—A MUDDY AFFAIR: Augusta National Golf Club believes it is on par with The Vatican. Silence is not golden, it’s mandatory.

When I covered The Masters in the late 1960s I was afraid to sneeze or scratch my neck. They might be reasons for expulsion. The word
‘staid’ was first used to describe the place.

And freedom of speech is frowned upon, as Jordan Spieth discovered. Spieth is known as a bit of a whiner, but he broke an unwritten Augusta rule by publicly criticizing the course, which is considerd by Augusta officials on the same level as Arlington Memorial Cemetery.

What did Spieth do? He said the course was plagued by mud ball which stick to a player’s ball. For that, ANGC is censoring him.

Complainng about mud balls is weak, but so is the attitude at the stodgy venue where broadcaster Jim Nance whisper as if he is sitting in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

—TRIVIA TEAM: Which team was the first to retired a uniform number?

It was the New York Yankees and, no, it wasn’t Babe Ruth’s number ‘3.’ It was Lou Gehrig’s number ‘4.’ Of couse, they later retrired Ruth’s number.

In fact, the Yankees have retired every single digit number: 1-Billy Martin, 2-Derek Jeter, 3-Babe Ruth, 4-Lou Gehrig, 5-Joe DiMaggio, 6-Joe Torre, 7-Mickey Mantle, 8-Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey, 9-Roger Maris.

The Yankees also have retired 10, 15, 16, 20, 21, 23, 32, 37, 42, 46, 49 and 51. No wonder Aaron Judge wears 99. There aren’t many numbers left.

The Cincinnati Reds retired jerseys: 1-Fred Hutchinson, 5-Johnny Bench, 8-Joe Morgan, 10-Sparky Anderson, 11-Barry Larkins, 13-Dave Concepcion, 14-Pete Rose, 18-Ted Kluszewski, 20-Frank Robinson and 24-Tony Perez.

And 44 has been and is being worn by some of my all-time favoites: Ewell Blackwell, Eric Davis, Adam Dunn, Mike Cameron, Mike Leake and Elly De La Cruz.

—THE BOOK SHELF: By popular demand — well, a request from Pat Rini, one of my all-time favorites — my top 10 baseball books. This was tougher than crocodile hide because there are 300 baseball books in my office/library.

Thus I picked 20 and still left some off. So. . .here’s the wind-up, here’s the pitch:

1-Why We Love Baseball (Joe Posnanski), 2-Charlie Hustle (Keith O’Brien), 3-The Glory Of Their Times (Lawrence Ritter), 4-Ball Four (Jim Bouton), 5-The Boys of Summer (Roger Kahn), 6-1954 (Bill Madden), 7-Only The Ball Was White (Robert Peterson), 8-Veeck As In Wreck (Ed Linn), 9-Game Time (Roger Angel), 10-Big Fella (Jane Leavy).

11-Henry Aaron (Howard Bryant), 12-The New York Game (Kevin Baker), 13-Season In Hell (Mike Shropshire), 14-Summer of ’49 (David Halberstam), 15-Moneyball (Michael Lewis), 16-Wait ’Til Nex Year (Doris Kearns Goodwin), 17-Clemente (David Maraniss), 18-Sandy Koufax, A Lefty’s Legacy (Jane Leavy), 19-Eight Men Out (Eliot Asinof), 20-Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life (Richard Ben Cramer).

—PLAYLIST NUMBER 163: As former American Bandstand host Dick Clark said it, “Music is the scout track of your life.”

—Knocking On Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan), Another Day In Paradise (Phil Collins), Just Once (James Ingram), I Started A Joke (BeeGees), Who Loves You? (Four Seasons), Can’t Get It Out Of My Head (Electric Light Orchestra).

—I Fought The Law (Bobby Fuller Four), When Will I Be Loved (Linda Ronstadt), Sister Golden Hair (America), Sloop John B. (The Beach Boys), Every Rose Has Its Thorn (Poison), Tainted Love (Soft Cell), The Waiting (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers). That’s All (Genesis).