Observations: Reds Not Likely To Give Candelario Walking Papers

By Hal McCoy

UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, my last one for a week before a vacation in St. Simons Island, GA.

—THE CANDYMAN CAN’T: The Houston Astros took a big financial hit last mid-season when they released Jose Abreu with another year remaining on his contract.

Abreu is out of MLB this year but is carefree because the Astros are paying him $19.5 million to just go away.

That brings us to Jeimer Candelario of the Cincinnati Reds, 0 for 18 with eight strikeouts when he homered against the Orioles Friday night.

He hit a home run Friday and a double Saturday, but was 2 for 9 in the first two games of the Baltimore Oriole series. He also walked Saturday, but was picked off base.

For the season he is 9-for-69 (.130) with 25 strikeouts. He actually raised his batting average 13 points by going 2 for 9.

When he enters the batter’s box it is as if he is wandering on an uninhabited remote island.

He is truly a nice guy, beloved in the clubhouse, but. . .

Would the Reds release him? Not likely. He is making $16 million this year and the Reds owe him $31 million for the next two seasons. That’s a meal the Reds can’t swallow or digest.

Instead, manager Terry Francona continues to play him, leaving a gap in the batting order like a sinkhole.

—QUOTE: From Ted Williams, advice maybe Candelario can use: “There’s only one way to become a good hitter. Go up to the plate and get mad. Get mad at yourself and get mad at the pitcher.”

—FACING A HURDLE: So happy to see one of my favorite baseball people back in uniform. The Colorado Rockies, losers of 15 of their first 18 games, fired Hensley Meulens and put Clint Hurdle back in uniform as batting coach.

Hurdle, a former manager of the Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates, was a special consultant for the Rockies when they put him back on the field.

One wonders, just wonders, if the 67-year-old Hurdle might eventually replace popular manager Bud Black, who has managed seven straight losing seasons?

Hurdle managed the only Rockies team to make it into the World Series — 2007, when they were swept by the Boston Red Sox, managed by Terry Francona.

—ONLY IN WRIGLEY: Basball, ya gotta love it. . .unless you were in the Arizona Diamondbacks clubhouse after Friday’s game in Wrigley Field.

The score was Chicago Cubs 13, Arizona 11, and nobody needs to point out that the wind was howling straight out in Wrigley.

But. . .the Cubs only led, 2-1, after six. They scored five runs in the seventh to take a 7-1 lead as Ian Happ launched a grand slam.

Then Arizona scored 10 runs in the eighth inning to take an 11-7 lead, highlighted by former Reds third baseman Eugenio Suarez, 5 for 52, hitting a grand slam home run. He has six homers, five against the Cubs.

Then. . .the Cubs hit three home runs in the bottom of the eighth, one of them the second home run of the game by former Diamondback Carson Kelly.

The Cubs scored six in the eighth to grab a 13-11 lead that survived. The 16 runs scored in the eighth by both teams was the most runs in one inning in the history of Wrigley Field, opened in 1914.

And Arizona became the first team to score 10 runs in an inning and lose the game since 2004 when Kansas City scored 10 runs in the first inning against Cleveland and lost, 15-13.

For both bullpens, it was not incoming, it was outgoing.

—PASS THE MUSTARD: Did you notice Randy Arozarena? He makes certain you do. He is a hot dog, a perfect Kahn’s wiener. There isn’t enough mustard in Cincinnati to cover him.

That necklace he wears looks as if he has a rattlesnake around his neck. And his home run trot? When he hit the game-tying home run for Seattle last week off Cincinnati’s Emilio Pagan, he faked a basketball jump shot near third base.

What is that all about? OK, OK. So I’m still upset that he ruined a good story — Jake Fraley’s grand slam that gave the Reds a 7-5 lead.

But, Randy, act as if you’ve hit another home run in your life.

—FIVE IS ALIVE: Was baseball uniform number ‘5’ worn the most by great players? Be the judge.

My Top Ten in alphabetical order: Luke Appling, Jeff Bagwell, Johnny Bench, Lou Boudreau, George Brett, Joe DiMaggio, Nomar Garciaparra, Hank Greenberg, Albert Pujols and Brooks Robinson

MLB’s Tim Kurkjian picked Albert Pujols as the best No. 5. Kurkjian is usually right-on with his comments, but I disagree on this one.

For me it is Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio and Johnny Bench is a close second.

—K’S AND MORE K’S: Think about this one and shake your head.

If a pitcher struck out 250 hitters for 22 straight year (5,500) he still wouldn’t touch Nolan Ryan’s 5,714 strikeouts.

Ryan’s record is nearly 1,000 ahead of the No. 2 guy, Randy Johnson with 4,875.

First of all, pitchers don’t strike out 250 a year and don’t pitch for 22 years. It’s a record for all time.

—QUOTE: From Randy Johnson: “When you can throw 97 miles an hour and put the ball over the plate any time you want, it’s fun.” (It was more like 100 miles an hour and no fun for the hitters.)

—THE ‘ERA’ GUYS: Since the dead ball era ended in 1920, pitchers’ earned run averages have risen like the Dow Jones on a bull market.

But the best of the best keep their ERAs at a respectable level. So who, in the modern era, has the best career ERA?

The quick thinkers might say Bob Gibson after his 1.12 ERA in 1968 that caused MLB to lower the mound. But that’s wrong.

Here are some ERA’s from great pitchers, but none with the best career number.

Whitey Ford 2.75, Sandy Koufax 2.77, Tom Seaver 2.86, Juan Marichal 2.89, Bob Gibson 2.91, Pedro Martinez 2.93, Warren Spahn 3.09, Don Gullet 3.12, Greg Maddux 3.16, Nolan Ryan 3.19, Bob Feller 3.25, Randy Johnson 3.29.

And the winner? New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera and his signature cutter with a 2.21 career ERA.

—QUOTE: Mariano Rivera on how he pitches: “I get the ball, I throw the ball, then I shower.”

—SORRY, LEE: Lee Corso, 90, is retiring from his gig on ESPN’s College GameDay.

Corso was in his first year as head football coach at the University of Louisville in 1969. At the time, the University of Dayton, coached by John McVay, was still a D-1 program and had an early-season game against Louisville.

In my pre-game story, I made fun of the good folks from Kentucky, saying something like Corso probably coaches in his bare feet with a stinkweed in his mouth.

Louisville won the game, 24-17, and the next week I received a personal letter from Corso.

The phrase, “Not so fast,” was not in it. The words were stronger. He gave me a severe upbringing.

I deserved it.

—PLAYLIST NUMBER 165: As British musician Alex Gaskarth put it, “Music is the sound track to every good and bad time we will ever have.”

—This Could Be The Last Time (Rolling Stones), Build Me Up, Buttercup (Fountain), Best That You Can Do (Christopher Cross), Baby Love (Supremes), My Little Town (Simon & Garfunkel), Heart Of Gold (Neil Young), Fast Car (Tracy Chapman).

—I Fall To Pieces (Patsy Cline), Running Scared (Roy Orbison), The Boy From New York City (Ad Libs), The Diamond Ring (Gary Lewis & The Playboys), Downtown (Petula Clark), All Day And All Of The Night (Kinks), Please, Mr. Postman (Marvelettes).