Francona continues to wear the genius hat
By HAL McCOY If Terry (Tito) Francona doesn’t win American League Manager of the Year they should anchor the trophy with cement blocks and toss it into Lake Erie. The Cleveland Indians manager, a utility player for the Cincinnati Reds briefly in 1987, has faced more adversity than a possum on a freeway. He calmly […]
Kershaw Krushes Kubs, 1-0, evens series
By HAL McCOY Any questions why the Los Angeles Dodgers are wiling to pay pitcher Clayton Kershaw $34 million a year to work every fifth day? If the Chicago Cubs questioned the high investment they have no doubts now why the Dodgers pay the scraggily-haired left hander more money than the Costa Rican gross national […]
Tribe puts silencers on Blue Jays bats
By HAL McCOY The Toronto Blue Jays tore through Texas like the notorious Newton Gang, scoring 22 runs in a three-game sweep of the Texas Rangers. Then they hit Cleveland. IN GAME ONE OF THE American League Championship Series, the Blue Jays were force fed doses of Indians pitchers Corey Kluber, Andrew Miller and Cody […]
LA’s Roberts thinks outside the box
By HAL McCOY Playoff baseball is a different animal and it is glorious. It changes colors like a chameleon. Managers tear up ‘The Book’ and think outside the box. Chicago Cubs manage Joe Maddon does it all season long — playing four-man infields, using pitchers in the outfield, using his players at several […]
Cubs show why they are the Cubs
By HAL McCOY The Chicago Cubs removed any doubt Tuesday night that they have hearts bigger than the John Hancock Tower. And the guts of diamond thieves. San Francisco Giants fans were poised to board cable cars and tear up Fisherman’s Wharf with three outs to go in Game Four of the National League Division […]
Why the Reds traded Edwin Encarnacion
By HAL McCOY UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, relaxing in front of the Smart TV watching the Toronto-Baltimore wild card game with no intent to write anything. Edwin Encarnacion changed all that. His three-run home run on the first pitch from Baltimore’s Ubaldo Jimenez in the bottom of the 11th sent the Jays into […]
Bullpen Meltdown: How else to end the season?
By HAL McCOY CINCINNATI — Despite losing 94 games and finishing last in the National League Central for the second straight year — and next-to-last in attendance in the entire National League — how hard does one have to search to find positives surrounding the Cincinnati Reds? It was a question put to manager Bryan […]
Adleman states his case for ’17 considerations
By HAL McCOY CINCINNATI — Out of necessity and out of curiosity, Patrick Kivlehan was in the Cincinnati Reds lineup Saturday afternoon against the Chicago Cubs. Because Billy Hamilton, Scott Schebler and Tyler Holt all are ailing, Reds manager Bryan Price stuck the 26-year-old Kivlehan in right field. Kivlehan’s audition was not a strong one, […]
Smith pitches four perfect innings but loses
By HAL McCOY CINCINNATI — For some inexplicable reason, Joey Votto wanted to play a meaningless Friday night baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds with seven stitches in his jaw. That, though, is Joey Votto. He would play baseball on a dark pier in a rainstorm. On Thursday night in St. […]