Miller Park

OMGReds headed up north to Miller Park this week to catch a few games while the Reds were in Milwaukee (or, “mill-e-wah-que” which is Algonquin for “the Good Land.” Thanks Alice Cooper!) The Brewers aren’t having the best season so far, but they still drew crowds around 35,000 for both of the games we saw. And, Brewers fans really know how to rock the pre-game tailgate!

Check out some photos from the trip here.

Also:

• Apparently with the lack of run support the Reds have given Mike Leake (particularly earlier in the season) we’re not only going to keep him from winning the National League Rookie of the Year award but we’re also going to help Jason Heyward win it. In three games against the Reds, that’s the second time he’s beaten us (you may recall he beat us with a walk-off double May 19 in Atlanta.)

• Was I the only one pulling hair out knowing ahead of time exactly what Jay Bruce was going to do against the lefty reliever in the 8th. Gotta pinch-hit for him there.

• Uh-oh. Is that a closer in a non-save opp? I DO not like the looks of this.

• Anyone else almost shart a little when Brooks Conrad – who memorably victimized Coco Cordero earlier this season – almost did it again? Great catch by Heisey. I know this seems really knee-jerkish and I fully realize that Heisey has had his share of struggles against lefties too but I can’t help but think I’d like to see Heisey in the starting lineup a little more often and Bruce in there a little less often … he just needs more rest than he’s getting.

I also love Pearl Jam’s State of Love and Trust. The vid above is from the 2010 Pearl Jam show in Columbus, Ohio. Bronson Arroyo gives Mr. Vedder a custom Reds BP jersey and requests SOLAT. Still a little bummed I missed that show.

Thanks for the heads up on the video, @mraike.

Homer Bailey Bobblehead

Homer’s Bobblehead will be given to the first 30,000 fans in attendance on Saturday, July 31st. If you haven’t heard already, the start time for that game has been changed to 4:10 PM. So, adjust your plans accordingly.

We’ll admit, we never got our act together to give an official OMGreds endorsment for this year’s Fans Choice Bobblehead, so we really can’t say too much about what the fans decided. Buuuuuuuuuut, we would LOVE to know how close the voting was. Did Homer run away with it? Did Arthur get as much love as folks say he did? Did Drew make a Dent? Did Lando even make a run for it? And by run, we mean the Kessel Run and if he made it under 12 parsecs.

What do ya’ll think?

Also, if you haven’t heard, tickets for the Reds/Braves series this weekend are going pretty quickly. Just standing room only tickets for Saturday’s game were available on Wednesday afternoon. Those will certainly be snatched up before the weekend gets here, so act quickly.

Then reason set in.

Imagine. Opening Day on a Friday… Wow. It’s almost too much fun. After months of waiting for our Reds to start it back up again, then the final week of buildup… jet from work/school early on Friday and head down to the ballpark to kick off the season with our boys. It could be epic. Actually, it will be epic. While this does get your average fan excited, Mo Egger has a good point though about um… certain fans:

Though can you imagine how brutal Opening Day Guy is gonna be with no job to go to the next day?

Can’t disagree with that… but whatever, we’ll be there having a great time too.

Now, back to the news from the Major League Baseball perspective. While April weather is going to be hit or miss, even if you move Opening Day a few days back and forth, the same could be said on the other end in October. It’s no guarantee that ending a World Series before November 1st will rule out inclement weather. I found this to be the best part of the USA Today story:

So if we’re playing Game 7 of the World Series on Oct. 28, and it’s snowed out, don’t blame baseball.

However that works out, let’s just hope our Redlegs are playing October baseball for years to come.

hahahahaha … thanks, Jim, for making sure Hoffman didn’t get any of those 596 saves as a Red.

Three other thoughts:

• When is the last time the top 4 hitters in any lineup collected 15 hits in one game? Wow. (The Twins, who won 19-1 Monday night, had 13 hits from their first 4.) Jeff Piecoro said during Reds Live post-game that it was the first time since 1989 the Reds had three different players collect four or more hits.
• Jay Bruce has struck out at least once in all but two games he has started in July. He has 11 multi-strikeout games since June 13. He’s driven in 4 runs this month (he did get one tonight); scored 6 runs, walked 4 times and hasn’t homered in July; and he got off to a fast start on the basepaths this season – with 5 stolen bases by May 22 – but he hasn’t stolen one since. Maybe the kid needs a little more rest than he’s getting.
• Votto, meanwhile, has 7 multi-hit games this month. And he’s reached base in all but one game (July 19) he’s started since April 24. And here’s the OMGReds.com exclusive Votto-stat of the day … Votto has had seven 4-hit games in his career, and 5 of them have happened on the road. In five different cities: Milwaukee, St. Louis (6/1/10), Pittsburgh (9/23/09), Toronto (6/25/09) and Chicago (4/23/09).

A big thanks to the Whack for having us on. We’re big fans. Make sure you check ‘em out and follow on Twitter. They have mad ups.

The Green Diamond Gallery in Montgomery is hosting the “2010 Hall of Fame Lunch”, featuring the ENTIRE 2010 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee class – Andre Dawson, Whitey Herzog and Doug Harvey. WOW. Not sure about you, but that’s right up our alley. Here’s a the rundown:

DATE: August 12, 2010
TIME: 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
WHERE: Montgomery Inn
COST: $150 per person, $1,500 per table (10 seats)
MORE INFO: Call Green Diamond Gallery at (513) 984-4192, download flyer (.pdf).

984-4192? Ah, we see what you did there!!

This is a great chance to listen to all three inductees speak as well as ask them a few questions during a 15-20 minute Q&A session.

Proceeds from the event will help launch the Character and Courage Foundation. The Character and Courage Foundation enriches, through baseball, the lives of youth who are physically handicapped, diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses, or living in impoverished areas. For more information, visit www.characterandcourage.org.

After the all the Reds Hall of Fame excitement recently, I’m totally up for some more baseball greats to roll into town.

You can follow both on Twitter:
Green Diamond Gallery (@GreenDiamondGal)
Character & Courage (CandCFoundation)

The Red Jackets are here! Members of the Reds Hall of Fame line up at the end of the Gala.

UPDATE: We’ve posted a photo gallery with images of Sunday night’s festivities, and we’ve added videos that you’ll get to at the end of the post …

Pardon us in advance if we go a little overboard with our coverage of the 2010 Reds Hall of Fame induction gala, but you’d be pretty fired up too if you had just been in the same (big) room with the entire current Reds roster (minus the ill Scott Rolen) in addition to the likes of Johnny Bench, Eric Davis, Barry Larkin, Lee May, George Foster, Jack Billingham, Hal Morris, Tom Browning and all three Nasty Boys. Oh, AND Chris Sabo and Pedro Borbon.

Sparky addresses the crowd via video message

BP waves to the crowd

Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty emceed and at one point exclaimed something like, “How about those first-place Reds!” Slyde from redreporter.com and a couple of others I chatted with pointed out that “first-place Reds” wasn’t entirely accurate given that the Dodgers stink and gave up a 4-0 lead to lose AGAIN Sunday to the Pujols-less, Molina-less and Rasmus-less Cardinals, who took a 1/2 game lead in the division. Later in the program, Marty corrected himself as only Marty can:

I don’t give a damn that the Cardinals won today!

There was a really memorable segment where Bench, Foster, Billingham, Cesar Geronimo and Gary Nolan shared their favorite memories from the 1975 World Series. Bench made it clear he’s a fan of the 2010 Reds:

We’ve seen it on the field so far this year. When guys have been hurt, somebody’s picked them up. And that’s the way it was in our year (1975). Never forget that there’s 25 players and they’re all gonna contribute. … Our great success came because of all of the great support players, the role players that came out and did their job. They knew what their job was, and when they had to do it, they did it. And I’m just as happy for them; that’s why all 25 players were World Champions, and that’s why we all got rings. So thanks to all of those people.

Wow. Quite a contrast to how Bench is portrayed in Joe Posnanski’s ‘The Machine,’ huh?! :)

In another segment of the event, it was very cool the way the 25th anniversary of 4,192 was acknowledged. (Sabo later said he thought Pete was going to come out during this segment.)

Norm, Marty & Dibs

A family member, Cairil Mills, had some very well-prepared and well-articulated remarks about Tony Mullane, who was apparently quite a fascinating individual. You just don’t get pitchers who throw a complete game during just about every outing anymore!

During his induction speech, Borbon explained that he considers Cincinnati the best baseball city in the country. (St. Louis can put that in its pipe and smoke it.)

Chris Sabo

Three memorable quotes from Sabo’s speech (which actually referred to Pete Rose for a good two minutes or so):

I’d like to thank all of my former teammates, especially with the ’90 team for coming here … it was a fun team. I might not have shown it when I played, but I loved playing with all of you guys. Great teammates. We might not hang out off the field, but we had a good time on the field.

He’s not here, but I actually owe a lot to Pete Rose. He’s one of the few guys who believed in me when I was in the minor leagues, when people thought I was crap. He actually gave me a chance. And thankfully, Buddy Bell got hurt and I got a chance.

I’m just glad you guys all came out. I’m also glad this weekend’s ending and I can go home and have a couple of beers.

I’ve cut down a couple of the better video clips we got, including a pair of emotional recorded messages from Sparky Anderson. OK, I’m warning you, it’s not some dude in a Mike Leake shersey having an impromptu dance-off with Hammer or Norm MacDonald hosting the ESPYs, but it’s really pretty cool stuff if you’re a fan. Also, the audio quality is good but the video quality isn’t great.

Let’s Get It Started

Pumps And A Bump

JT over at The Writer’s Journey also has some video from the post-game concert, as well as photos from the game and Hammer singing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”. Enjoy!