Cozart: Hard work has its rewards
By HAL McCOY The warm and fuzzy story so far this season involves shortstop Zack Cozart and, as they say, “It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.” When the Reds took the field Sunday to face the St. Louis Cardinals, Cozart took a .480 batting average with him. Everybody knows Cozart isn’t going to hit […]
Reds need Votto, Hamilton to shake loose
By HAL McCOY There is a promotional message currently running on the MLB Network featuring Billy Hamilton. There is a close-up of his face as he takes a lead off first base and he says, “I’m about to steal second base.” Then he does it and there is another close-up and he says, “Should I […]
Agony on Addison Street for the Reds
By HAL McCOY Do we need Chicken Little right now? Is the sky falling? Do we need the little boy to cry wolf? Many Cincinnati Reds fans were overly exuberant when the team won five of its first six. They didn’t recognize that the first three came against the Philadelphia Phillies, a team that is […]
Can the Reds shake off bullpen disasters?
By HAL McCOY THE CINCINNATI REDS are two pitches away from being 7-and-0, but the 1960 New York Yankees were one pitch away from winning the World Series until Pittsburgh’s Bill Mazeroski hit the only Game 7 walk-off home run in World Series history. That, though, is what makes baseball so unpredictable and lovable. […]
What? A big series against the Cubs???
By Hal McCoy So raise your hand if you thought a series with the Chicago Cubs in mid-April would mean something to the Cincinnati Reds? Put your hand down, Bryan Price. Your opinion is prejudicial, but understandable. Hey, whoever thought any series against the Chicago Cubs would mean anything at any point of the season. […]
Bruce thinks small and comes up big
By Hal McCoy CINCINNATI — Jay Bruce said it was no time to think big, “Just think small.” And by thinking small, what he did turned out big — a game-ending triple to the right field corner in the bottom of the ninth that scored Brandon Phillips from first base to provide the Cincinnati Reds […]
Dear Raisel: ‘Be big, be strong, be better’
By Hal McCoy CINCINNATI — Ann Landers, the purveyor of advice, once told somebody: “Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life, and when it comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in the eye and say, ‘I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.’” There is no record of Cincinnati Reds […]
The Reds did it all wrong. . .and lost
By Hal McCoy CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Reds made two major mistakes Friday night in the refrigerated atmosphere of Great American Ball Park, a 6-5 defeat handed them by the potent and powerful Pittsburgh Pirates. Their perfect 3-and-0 record came crumpling to the grass when Starling Marte hit a grand slam home run in the […]
Bruce, Suarez, Stephenson make it a clean sweep
By Hal McCoy CINCINNATI — It was a lineup that might have drawn the ire of the baseball commissioner if Cincinnati Reds manager Bryan Price ran it out onto the field for a spring training game. It was a lineup that had only three so-called regulars in it — Joey Votto, Jay Bruce and Eugenio […]