‘Scrap Heap’ Reds come to the rescue on Opening Day
By HAL McCOY CINCINNATI — This is how it is supposed to happen to players wearing a Cincinnati uniform after the Reds rescue them off the scrap heap, unceremoniously discarded by their previous team. And so much the better when it happens on Opening Day in front 44,049, largest regular-season crowd in Great American Ball […]
Reds lose sixth straight exhibition game, 8-5 to Braves
By HAL McCOY The Cincinnati Reds have one more opportunity to win a spring training game before everything counts. The optimists will say, “They’re saving their wins for the regular season.” The pessimists say, “Oh, no, another long, long season.” The Reds lost their sixth straight exhibition game Monday night in Atlanta’s SunTrust Park, 8-5 […]
Observations: Is it time for the Reds to starting winning?
By HAL McCOY UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, watching a horse named Syndergaard race at New York’s Aqueduct Park and wondering if many race horses have names associated with baseball. With no laundry or dishes to do, I checked the entries for five race tracks on one day and discovered: Conforto, Schott, Paint the […]
Observations: Of baseball’s new rules, the Reds, Zion Williamson, Odell Beckham
By HAL McCOY UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, sitting in my La-Z-Boy next to my wife’s shiny new Lincoln Nautilus as my bank account shrinks. —Major League Baseball had to mix in a $1 million stipend into the Home Run Derby to entice players to compete. In the final round last year Bryce Harper […]
Reds hope exhibtion results don’t mean a thing
By HAL McCOY Repeat loudly and emphatically: “Spring exhibitions mean nothing, spring exhibitions mean nothing, spring exhibitions mean nothing.” Now, do you believe it? USA Today, with spring training exhibition games less than half completed, predicted the Cincinnati Reds would finish last this season in the National League Central. Maybe they figure the Reds have […]
Wood, Reds pitching rocked by Mariners, 11-3
By HAL McCOY Unsolicited observations from The Man Cave after fighting, and mostly losing, to a virus infection and a bad cold (are there any good ones?). It wasn’t a write-home-to-mom day for Cincinnati Reds pitchers Monday during a spring training exhibition game in Peoria, Ariz. against the Seattle Mariners, a game the Reds lost, […]
Reds’ trade for Gray puts three new faces in the rotation
By HAL McCOY The Cincinnati Reds fit another piece into the pitching reconstruction they are doing this off-season. Sonny Gray became the third new member of the team’s 2019 rotation when the Reds acquired him from the New York Yankees that cost them minor league second baseman Shed Long and a competitive balance draft pick. […]
Observations: Will there be ‘Gray’ skies over Cincinnati’s pitching mound
By HAL McCOY UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from the Man Cave while waiting for the Los Angeles Rams to beat the New Orleans Saints and the Kansas City Chiefs to beat the New England Patriots in the NFL playoffs. It could be a long wait. It came as no shock that The Brady Bunch (the Patriots) beat […]
Observations: Where do the Reds stand on pitching?
By HAL McCOY UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave after a visit to the dermatologist to have my face frozen and zapped — so why didn’t I wear sun screen all those hot summer days of tennis in the sun? —It was mostly all quiet on the trading and signing front for baseball during the […]