OBSERVATIONS: Was Joe West putting a ‘cap’ on his career?
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while sitting through one of those infernal rain delays, this one a Cincinnati Reds-Washington Nationals game. Every baseball park should have a roof. —Umpire Joe West has done many things during his 48-year career, but earlier this week he scored the hat trick. When St. Louis […]
OBSERVATIONS: The Cincinnati Reds are one big enigma
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave after a great weekend for left handed senior citizens. Thank you, Phillip Alfred Mickelson. —For the Cincinnati Reds, ‘E’ doesn’t stand for error. It stands for enigma. That, so far, describes the team on the banks of the Ohio River. And on their just-completed homestand, the […]
OBSERVATIONS: Pete Rose’s Hall of Fame teammates
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, wondering if Colorado manager Bud Black has any hair left after watching his treacherous bullpen blow up game after game. In 48 years of covering baseball, I had never seen the tying run scored on a passed ball and the winning run score on a wild […]
Reds survive 12-inning pitcher’s duel in Coors
By Hal McCoy Something as rare as an unassisted triple play played out Saturday night in Coors Field — a genuine pitcher’s duel. After the Cincinnati Reds and Colorado Rockies combined for 36 runs in the first two games of the series, only four runs were scored in the first 10 innings Friday, two by […]
Miley: From no-hitter to 11-hitter (in three innings)
By Hal McCoy Any thoughts Wade Miley harbored of becoming the second left-handed Cincinnati Reds pitcher to throw back-to-back no-hitters vaporized in the blink of a misplaced change-up. On Miley’s second pitch of Friday night’s game, his no-hitter was gone, a double by Colorado’s Garrett Hampson. And the Rockies never stopped en route to a […]
Reds score eight in one inning, still lose by five
By Hal McCoy It isn’t often a team scores eight runs in one inning. . .and loses by five. That was the scenario Thursday night for the Cincinnati Reds. Welcome to Coors Field, the world’s largest pinball machine. The Reds scored eight runs in the eighth inning, but lost, 13-8, to the Colorado Rockies. How […]
OBSERVATIONS: Me and ‘The Mick’ have something in common
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave at 6:15 a.m., watching MLB-TV’s Quick Pitch, not because I want to, but because my hyperactive Havanese, The Mighty Quinn, has a built-in clock that goes off every morning at 6 a.m. —Mickey Mantle and I have something in common and it has nothing to do […]
OBSERVATIONS: It’s Robbie Robot behind the plate (ugh!)
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, pounding out some off-day notes awaiting a trip to the Oakwood Club for a strip steak and French onion soup. The Pepcid comes later. —The first report on automated/robotic umpiring is out and it is a gasser. The box score is a laugh riot. The automated […]
Eugenio Suarez: ‘Good vibes only’
By Hal McCoy There was no head-hanging. There was no breaking of bats over his knee. There was no helmet-smashing in the dugout. There was no, “Oh, why poor me?” Eugenio Suarez was true to his own credo, “Good Vibes Only.” And if anybody had a right to be downtrodden, disheartened and distraught, It was […]