OBSERVATIONS: Why oh why did the Reds leave Sarasota
By HAL McCOY UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, Siesta Key edition, as I sit under a beach umbrella on the sugary beach. —Ed Smith Stadium, spring training home for the Cincinnati Reds from 1997 to 2009, is looking strong and sturdy. The ol’ boy had a $50 million face lift after the Reds departed. […]
OBSERVATIONS: Disturbing comments filtering out of Goodyear
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave after a winter’s worth of reading about baseball and now ready for Real Baseball and here is what I’ve read: —The Spaceman Chronicles (Bill Lee), Scott Russell. —Season in Hell, Mike Shropshire. —Bill Veeck, Paul Dickson. —Tom Seaver, Bill Madden —24, John Shea. —Oscar Charleston, Jeremy […]
Votto vows to return to his personal ‘Days of Thunder.’
By Hal McCoy Joey Votto not only enjoys ‘The Bat Flip Brigade,’ he wants to join them. . .blast some baseball so hard he can nonchalantly flip his bat in celebration. “You see guys doing some real cool bat flips on Twitter that you forward to your buddy,” said the Cincinnati Reds 37-year-old first baseman. […]
Tucker, Tyler give Reds ‘Double-T’ catching tandem
By Hal McCoy The guys behind the mask this season for the Cincinnati Reds are a pair of ‘Ts,’ Tucker and Tyler. It will be veteran two-time Gold Glove winner Tucker Barnhart and rookie Tyler Stephenson performing the team’s catching duties. For Stephenson, it has been a long and winding trail for a No. 1 […]
Bell says Reds have ‘options’ for shortstop, closer
By Hal McCoy The two bold-faced question marks involving the 2021 Cincinnati Reds are: —Who is the shortstop? And that’s no Abbott & Costello act, although sometimes it seems so. —Who is the closer and what is the makeup of the bullpen. Spring training opened this week in Goodyear, Ariz. and if fans expected those […]
OBSERVATIONS: Reds are a little bit ‘short’ on shortstops
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave after a nice second-half nap during the Super Bowl. Did Tampa Bay hold on and win? —One of Yogi Berra’s many unintended witticisms was uttered when he was asked about playing third base and he said, “Ah, third ain’t so bad if nothin’ is hit to […]
OBSERVATIONS: ‘The Rest of the Story on Ken Griffey Sr.
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, wondering when the analysts will get around to comparing shoe sizes, hat sizes, neck sizes, waist sizes and hair-length sizes between Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes. They’ve compared everything else. —For those of us who have been around for several decades, we remember The Paul Harvey […]
OBSERVATIONS: Las Vegas picks Reds to win NL Central
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while waiting for the Cleveland Browns to shock the world and win the Super Bowl. . .and that might not be until 2025, if then. —Jimmy Shapiro of BetOnline sent this startling note: The Cincinnati Reds are favorites to win the National League Central. Say what? […]
A Merry (Steve) Christmas to all Reds fans
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave wondering why Santa Claus delivered a lump of coal, even though I left him cookies and bourbon and he parrtook of both. —This is a Christmas Story for Cincinnati Reds fans. . .a Steve Christmas story. A fan has to be bleeding Cincinnati red, and bleeding […]