McCoy: Reds Rout Sonny Gray, Rip Cardinals, 9-4
By Hal McCoy Carson Spiers versus Sonny Gray? A mismatch, right? On paper, yes. But Saturday afternoon’s game was played on the 90-degree grass of Busch Stadium, not on an 8×11 piece of paper. And the Cincinnati Reds treated nine-game winner and former Reds pitcher Sonny Gray like Sonny Bono during a 9-4 blitz of […]
McCoy: Reds Whitewashed, 1-0, By Cardinals
By Hal McCoy It was inevitable. For the Cincinnati Reds it is like the clockwork of Big Ben. They score a lot of runs during the first game of a series, then their bats go into cold storage in game two. It happened again Thursday and Friday during the first two games of a four-game […]
McCoy: Reds Celebrate Marte’s Return With 11-Run Explosion
By Hal McCoy The Cincinnati Reds did everything Thursday night in St. Louis but knock down the Gateway Arch. And they nearly did that during an 11-4 crushing of the St. Louis Cardinals. They treated St. Louis starter Miles Mikolas like an old coach batting practice pitcher — 10 runs and 12 hits in 4 […]
OBSERVATIONS: Whatever Happened To Baseball Fundamentals?
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, wishing one of my grandkids was here to help me solve the technological mystery of getting hooked into a Podcast, which I failed after 45 minutes of desperation. —FUN-DA-MEN-TALS: The word fundamentals has two words tucked inside it that apply to baseball: ‘fun’ and ‘mental.’ If […]
McCoy: Reds Again Fall Down In The ‘Pitts’
By Hal McCoy The lineup for Wednesday’s matinee against the Pittsburgh Pirates was a combination Cincinnati/Louisville Reds/Bats. It didn’t work. There were no matinee idols for the Reds, 6-1 losers, their eighth loss in 11 games. After winning the opener the Reds lost the next two. It is the ninth time this season they won […]
McCoy: Pirates Extract Revenge
By Hal McCoy It happens nearly every time. Baseball’s unwritten rule is that if a team scores a bushel of runs one night, the next night it can’t find home plate with a seeing eye dog. And that’s what happened to the Cincinnati Reds Tuesday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates a 9-5 defeat. After scoring […]
OBSERVATIONS: Some Things From The Past
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave on a nostalgic day, so all the tidbits below are from the distant past. Hang with me. —A WAGNERIAN GM: Dick Wagner is the general manager credited (discredited?) with dismantling The Big Red Machine, piece by piece by piece. When Dave Collins played outfield for the […]
OBSERVATIONS: Somebody Needs To Get Mad
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, wondering why I am staggering a bit lately when I walk and the Tito’s has not come off the shelf. Ain’t it awful getting old? —JUST GET MAD, ELLY: Former Cincinnati Reds outfielder Jesse Winker is a guy not only with a short fuse, it is […]
Ask Hal: Clubhouse Squabbles Rare In MLB
By Hal McCoy Q: How frequently do shouting matches or physical altercations occur among teammates within the dugout or clubhouse? — DAVE, Miamisburg/Centerville/Beavercreek. A: A baseball team is like a family and, actually, players spend more time with teammates in the summer than with their families. So like a family, there are disputes, arguments, shoving […]