By Hal McCoy
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave after watching in amazement as the Cincinnati Reds scored one run in two games against the Triple-A Sacrament River Cats and Rafael Devers..
—PAY ATTENTION, GUYS: Lives an MLB pitcher that doesn’t spend some time on the injured list, sometimes more than once a year?
And Tommy John surgeries? There were 310 MLB pitchers who underwent TJ surgery in 2025, 39.1% of all pitchers.
Why? Because these days if a pitcher doesn’t throw 96 miles an hour or higher he is considered a wuss or a cunny thumber.
Pitchers should be required to read ‘The Commandments’ of Greg Maddux,’ and not just because he won four Cy Young Awards in a row with a 2.14 earned run average over a six-year span.
He did that with a fastball that seldom topped 89 miles per hour and couldn’t raise a welt on a gerbil.
It’s because Maddux pitched in MLB for 23 years and was on the injured list just once and it had nothing to do with his arm or shoulder. He had an inflamed nerve in his lower back.
And here is what pitchers should read and memorize from Maddux:
ONE: Make balls look like strikes and strikes look like balls.
TWO: Movement and location trump velocity every time.
THREE: When you’re in trouble, think softer and don’t throw harder.
FOUR: Have fun.
Hittes never had fun against the 355-game winner. Using his magic disappearing pitches, Maddux shut out the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the 1996 World Series.
Said Hall of Famer Wade Boggs after the game, “Greg Maddux is the David Copperfield of pitchers.”
Former Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox once related this story about a conversation he had with Maddux during a mound visit.
“There were runners on third and second with two outs,” said Cox. “I suggested an intentional walk. He said no. He said, ‘Don’t worry. On the third pitch I’m going to get him to pop out to the third baseman.’”
Cox returned to the dugout, took a seat and watched and said, “I’ll be damned if not on the third pitch the hitter popped out to third. I never, ever, questioned Greg Maddux.”
—GIVING BACK: Outfielder Lyman Bostock did something amazing in 1978 that a few Cincinnati Reds should do. . .but won’t, of course.
Bostock signed a $450,000 contract that year with the California Angels, a large amount in those days.
He hit only .147 in April and was so distraught that he tried to give back his April salary to the team. Owner Gene Autry refused to take it, so Bostock donated it to chairity.
And then he hit above .300 the rest of the season.
Then tragedy. In the off-season he was riding in a car near Gary, Ind. when a trafffic dispute unfolded. Bostock was not involved. But somebody in another car fired a shotgun into Bostock’s car and he was killed.
—YIPPEE FOR YOUPPI: Billy Martin got thrown out of more baseball games than he had major league hits, but he has nothing on Youppi.
Youppi was a fuzzy orange mascot for the Montreal Expos, a knockoff ofthe Philly Phanatic.
During a game in Olympic Stadium in 1989, Youppi was on the roof of the Los Angeles Dodgers dugout spewing epithets at the players.
Manager Tommy Lasorda complained to umpire Bob Davidson and he ejected Youppi, ordering him out of the park. . .the only mascot in MLB history to be ejected.
Billy Martin probably sent Youppi a congratulatory note.
The Reds, by the way, lead MLB with four mascots — Mr. Red, Mr. Redlegs, Gapper and Rosie Red. That’s more mascots than they get hits in some games.
—UECKER’S TOP FIVE: Former catcher/broadcaster/comedian Bob Uecker, mostly a back-up catcher during his playing career once listed his top five all-time best players.
They were: Willie Mays, Warren Spahn, Sandy Koufax, Henry Aaron and Bob Gibson.
Uecker said when he was behind the plate when Mays came to bat, his only thought was, “How in the hell are we going to get this guy out?”
He said he once faced Sandy Koufax, “And I closed my eyes and swung and he hit my bat and the ball flew over the fance. I apologized to him because I feared that might keep him out of the Hall of Fame.”
—WORSE FOR WEAR: Jeff Singleton, my wonderful unpaid contributor, sent this and said, “Some of the Reds should be on this list.”
It is a list of the most disappointing players at each position so far this season.
Catcher—Cal Raleigh, First base—Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Second base—Jazz Chisholm Jr., Third base—Bo Bichette, Shortstop—Willy Adames, Outfielders — Kyle Tucker, Ronald Acuna Jr. and Jarren Duran, DH — George Springer, Starting pitcher — Paul Skenes, Relief pitcher — Edwin Diaz.
Where’s Ke’Bryan Hayes, TJ Friedl and Sam Moll? And Raleigh remains at catcher even after hitting three home runs Monday night.
He hit 60 home runs last season, but never had hit three in a game at any level. And it was the first three-homer game by a Seattle Mariner at home in 30 years. . .since Ken Griffey Jr. did it in 1996.
—PHILLING IT UP: The Philadelphia Phillies showed in Citizens Bank Park what dying basketball coach Jim Valvano once said, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.”
The Phillies trailed the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-0, with two outs in the ninth.
And they won on Kyle Schwarber’s 459-foot walk-off home run that cleared the center field batter’s eye and landed on Ashbury Alley.
Here is how it unfolded:
Bryce Harper opened the ninth with a double, but the next two Phillies flied out against Cardinals closer Riley O’Briend. O’Brien, by the way, made his major league debut with the Cincinnati Reds in 2021 and pitched a total of 1 1/3 innngs for them — two runs, two hits, two home runs.
So there he was on the mound, a 4-0 lead, two outs and a runner on second.
Then. . .J.T. Realmuto singled and Justin Crawford walked. Bases loaded. Edmund Sosa drilled a bases-clearing three-run double. Still, the Cardinals led, 4-3. Bryan De La Cruz singled. Still 4-3.
O’Brien went to 2-and-2 on Schwarber and tried to sneak a 98 miles an hour sinker past him. Bye-bye ball game.
It was Philadephia’s first walk-off home run since one against the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2022.
Who did it? Kyle Schwarber.
—DODGING THE DODGERS: As a friend told me, and I agree, “Rooting for the Los Angeles Dodgers is like rooting for BP to raise gas prices.”
Ah, Dodger Stadium. A Dugout Club front row seat costs $2,500. And fans can buy sushi rolls for $18.
Sushi? At a baseball game? Geesh.
—A WINDY SUBJECT: Was Bob Seger seated in Wrigley Field with the wind blowing in off Lake Michigan wen he wrote ‘Against The Wind?’
Was he watching the Cubbies when he wrote, “Against the wind. We were running against the wind. We were young and strong and we were running against the wind.”
—ELEMENTARY, DEAR WATSON: After a putrid performance during which he was rightfully booed, Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson pretty much said he despised the Cleveland citizenry during a woe-is-me post-game press conference.
And, of course, because they are paying him enough money to buy Rhode Island, they named him the starting quarterback for their opener.
One comment from this corner: Deshaun Watson and his $230 million guaranteed contract is a strait jacket on the Browns. The Browns front office made their own bed and. . .well, it isn’t made. It is an unkempt, twisted mess. They and the team will sleep in it all season.
And when Watson sets foot on the field it will be a nightmare. Watson said he wants to put Cleveland on the map.
Hey, Deshaun, check a Rand McNally. Cleveland already is on all maps.
At least there is another professional football team in the state. . .THE Ohio State Buckeyes.
Think I’m kidding? The Browns put tight end Dae-Quan Wright on waiverw and he committed to LSU. A Louisiana court issued a temporary restraining order allowing certain NFL players to return to college football.
Next step? College players will return to play high school football.
—OH, COLUMBIA: Speaking of football, Columbia may be the gem of the ocean, but for 11 years Columbia hasn’t been the gem of a high school football.
Columbia High School of Huntsville, Ala. lost 101 straight games. . .until last Saturday when it defeated Greensboro, 41-14.
The wingless Eagles hadn’t won a game since 2015. And it didn’t look good when on its first offensive play the quarterback threw a pick-six. And they fell behind, 14-0.
Then they scored 41 unanswered points, leaving Greensboro in a state of shock.
—QUOTE MACHINE: Baseball people say the darndest things:
—FROM legendary pitcher Satchel Paige: “I never had a job, I just always played baseball.” (And as I always tell people about being a baseball writer, “I told Nadine that some day I’d get a real job, but I never did.”)
—FROM former pitcher Earl Wilson: “A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings.” (Wilson helped himself avoid breakdown on the mound by hitting 35 career home runs when pitchers batted.)
—FROM Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax on facing three-time batting champion and Hall of Fame Roberto Clemente: “The only way to pitch Clemente is to roll the ball across home plate.”
Koufax, one of baseball’s all-time best pitchers, despised attention, kept several steps out of any spotlight and led a near monastic life.
After he retired and wrote his biography, ‘Koufax,’ hie mother purchased the first copy so she could find something about her son and said to him, “You never told me anything.”
—FROM former New York Yankees outfielder Tommy Henrich: “Catching a fly ball is a pleasure. Knowing what to do with it after you catch it is a business.”
—PLAYLIST NUMBER 203: As singer Isaac Brock of the group Modest Mouse put it, “Music is to the soul what words are to the mind.”
—Here You Come Again (Dolly Parton), Hold Your Head Up (Argent), Burning Love (Elvis Presley), Morning Has Broken (Cat Stevens), Worst That Could Happen (Brooklyn Bridge), Go Now (The Moody Blues), For Your Love(Yardbirds), Just Once In My Life (Righteous Brothers).
— I’m Telling You Now (Freddie & The Dreamers, Ticket To Ride (Beatles), Yes, I’m Ready (Barbara Mason), Baby I’m Yours (Barbara Lewis) I’ll Never Find Another You (The Seekers), The In Crowd (Ramsey Lewis), Shotgun (Junior Walker & The All-Stars), The Birds & The Bees (Jewel Akens), Can You Hear My Heartbeat (Herman’s Hermits).