On the road with Flyers baseball. . .and the Reds win!!!
By HAL McCOY On a Buckeye Charter Bus somewhere in the desolation of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, where cellphones don’t work (Is this where they filmed Deliverance?). Am spending the weekend with the University of Dayton baseball team in Cary, N.C., not far enough south for baseball weather, but eager to hear the […]
Another day, another loss for the Reds
By HAL McCOY Despite some awesome and outstanding scoreless pitching from the second through the eighth innings, the Cincinnati Reds’ losing streak now stands at a half dozen. Their sixth straight spring exhibition loss came Wednesday, 3-2, when the Milwaukee Brewers scored a run in the bottom of the ninth. After starter Livsalverto Bonilla gave […]
Rally comes too late — Reds drop fifth straight
By HAL McCOY What does a beleaguered team have to do to shed a losing cocoon? A four-run first inning and a 5-1 lead after two innings was not enough for the Cincinnati Reds to win their first spring exhibition game of 2017. The Chicago White Sox, playing split squad games, kept their best players […]
Reds kick ball to fourth straight loss
By HAL McCOY Good baseball teams find ways to win. Bad baseball teams find ways to lose. On Monday at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, a spring training baseball palace in North Scottsdale, Ariz., the Cincinnati Reds found ways to lose their fourth straight spring exhibition game. They kicked the ball around like a […]
Reds lose again as Stephenson, Addleman struggle
By HAL McCOY Winning spring exhibition games is not Priority A for any major league baseball team, especially one like the Cincinnati Reds, a team on a search mission for a 25-man roster. But at some point it is important to establish a winning environment. Fortunately for the Reds, there are many games remaining to […]
Lot of hits, no runs for Reds in 8-2 loss
By HAL McCOY While most teams believe that six weeks for spring training is far too long, a task that becomes drudgery even under Arizona sunshine, the Cincinnati Reds might be an exception. Is six weeks enough? In this era of reconstruction and rebuilding, manager Bryan Price and his staff are facing a tough task […]
Smith’s overtime work saves Flyers
By HAL McCOY For 40 minutes, University of Dayton point guard Scoochie Smith was the Nowhere Man. He sat for 10 of those 40 minutes with foul miseries and in regulation time he took one shot. And missed. But when his team came back from the graveyard, down 13 points with 7:42 left against Davidson […]
Familiar scenario: Reds lose in 9th
By HAL McCOY For better or for worse, this is how baseball spring training works. The visiting team takes a skeleton squad on the road while the home team has its full complement of players. And that’s the way it was Friday afternoon when the Cincinnati Reds opened the 2017 exhibition season with a game […]
Flyers’ defense strangles Saint Louis
By HAL McCOY On this night, the St. Louis Gateway Arch couldn’t have scored on the Dayton Flyers. CBS/Sports broadcasters Brent Stover and Bob Wenzel jabbered on-and-on-and on about UD’s defense in the first half Tuesday night at the Chaifetz Arena. They seemed amazed that the strangling UD defense contested every shot, forced bad shots […]