July 2009 – Brewers at the Reds

To say I was a fan of baseball movies would be accurate. Back in the day you had the greats… and everyone remembers the classic moments like those of field of dreams, bull durham and others. Perhaps though one of the most remembered baseball movies, which also spawns one of the most used catchlines, is Major League. Anyone who pays half attention to baseball in the slightest knows that “Mr. Baseball” himself, Bob Uecker does the commentary for the Milwaukee Brewers.

You might remember a previous blog of mine from this year in which I talked about seeing him, and how I geeked out. Someone had told me “aww he’s a jerk, don’t get so excited” and you think to yourself, ‘alright.. that person just had a bad experience, that’s all’. But then you keep hearing the small trickling of stories like the one I am about to tell you.. and it all comes so clear.

Before that though, lets talk about the meat and potatoes of why I even write… and that’s the Reds themselves. Coming out of the all star break I was feeling a little indifferent to things. Co Co Cordero was the Reds only selection for the all star team, which surprised no one. Votto had been out chasing demons, Bruce has been slumping.. the pitching staff in general hasn’t been as great as they should be this year, and Phillips… well why he didn’t make it no one really knows, but at the same time no one was really concerned it seemed. The reds were where they had been the entire season, right around the .500 mark and in need of some serious boost. Looking at the schedule though was frightful… with the way that the roster has been injury plagued, (including the latest incidents with Hernandez and Bruce), and the opponents they were going to face, it looked like that wildcard prediction I made was dismal.

And so it goes that they split the series including a great night on Friday in which they shut the brew crew down 4 to nothing. Thursday was Homers first loss, but probably only because of the way that the pitching goes and how they classify winners and losers,… because Homer has had some bad days. Saturday was a bust.. and Sunday was great. Its always strange how the play is so up and down from day to day..
Alright Alright.. I know.. Bob Uecker.

It was Friday night when me and my friend Stagg came out of the control room to go home and got onto the elevator with Bob Uecker. Now I don’t usually like to bother people or talk to them if they have some kind of status. Not because I think they are better than me, but because they have better things to do. I will preface this by saying that there are genuine nice guys. Jeff Piecoro for one,.. the guy who does the Reds stuff from the stands and on field correspondence and all that stuff,.. he’s a super nice guy. Sunday when he saw me wearing my Austin Kearns jersey, he made conversation about how him and Kearns had attended the same high school. We also joked about Mario Soto, and he asked me about where I was from… pretty awesome.
Then theres George Grande, who is like everyones grandpa. He always has a smile on his face, and is always more than happy to take a few moments to engage you in conversation.

You say “Bob, those are smaller time guys.. not like Bob Uecker”

ok then, how about Chris Welsh who commentates the Reds game. Hes a former Red, Yankee, etc… a career ERA under 5.00, and was in all those hamburger commercials. That guy is the definition of nice and doesn’t care who you are, he will talk to you about anything and everything.. even in the bathroom.


Even Marty Brennaman is a nice guy who is generally talkative…. But Bob Uecker I can now say from personal experience is an out and out jerk. So there we are on the elevator and I said “Mr Uecker, how are you?” without even acknowledging me he mumbles something to the effect of what I think was ‘good’, and I said “I’m a big fan of your work.. and really enjoy listening to you on Sirius radio when the brewers play the reds in Milwaukee” to which he didn’t even bother looking at me and shrugged it off and said something like “yeah ok”.


All week in the press dining room he was wearing his sunglasses and being generally ignorant of everything and everyone around him. I mean its not like I said something like “gee Mr. Uecker, I really liked when Andre the Giant choked you out at Wrestlemainia” or anything. I didn’t try to get him to say “JUUUUUUST A BIT OUTSIDE..”,.. I was simply cordial and friendly, and in return got one of the coldest shoulders from a sports Icon that I think I could have gotten. So sorry if you like Mr. Bob Uecker or think of him as a great person, because apparently what happened to me, has happened to a lot of people.. and apparently Bob Uecker is just a total jerk.


Other than that, theres not too much that’s interesting to talk about. Another homestand with a rain delay, another homestand with a bobblehead night,..oh and the one out of the ordinary thing would be brewers fans that are completely abnoxious and have no respect for the law or any kind of authority. I mean seriously, it’s one thing if you drove all the way from Milwaukee to get drunk and get yourself thrown out of a ballpark while making yourself look like a total moron in front of the 35 thousand people,… but to actually put on a brewers shirt in the town you live in, drive 15 minutes to the stadium and do it is another. I will never understand people who live in this town that root for other teams and come to the stadium to make such fools out of themselves. It has to be embarrassing for the whatever team they are rooting for I would think… I mean yeah, I am not into some teams here and there, but if I lived somewhere like Boston and didn’t like the Red Sox, I wouldn’t go to their stadium and make a complete jerk out of myself and make whatever team I was rooting for look even worse to the locals… come on.


Friday night was another fireworks night in a series of them this year. I have included some
images to go along with this blog, as well as the return of my ride videos from my bike to and from the stadium. That’s about all I have for this update on the short 4 game run.. coming up at the end of the month is another 10 day stretch in which the Reds are going to need a fire lit underneath of them to get back on track,… and with a July 31st trade deadline, who knows whats going to happen.

heres another riding video,... theres more on my youtube which you can find at youtube.com/bobandthereds
you can also email me or comment as well.. its always appreciated. thanks.

an overdue update.

I know I havent written in a while… and its not because I have been lazy or haven’t wanted to. Back in may while playing hockey, I came across the center line and checked a guy so hard that it sent me spinning and upside down to the point where I spiked my shoulder when I landed and ended up tearing the AC joint. I knew immediately that there was a problem and drove straight to the ER. Two weeks in a sling, and two or three weeks of physical therapy later.. and here I am.

Because of things I ended up missing the CUBS series in early June which I was excited about. Excited because probably one of my favorite players was going to be there, RYAN FREEL. Freel has had his ups and downs with injuries and such, but he is a still a great player, who given the chance.. can shine like not many other. Unfortunately though, instead of being here and being able to see him potentially play… I ended up in bed, resting and lamenting over the pain I was suffering being able to barely move.

This morning I found out the Freel has again been traded, this time to the Kansas City Royals… a team that never comes here for interleague play. So my chances of seeing one of my favorite players has gone down the drain.
Aside from that, when I did return to action at the ballpark it was with warm welcome and concern from my fellow friends and employees, and once things got underway it felt like I had never missed a day.

One of the biggest highlights of June was of course the civil rights weekend in which we celebrated the heritage of baseball and its breakthroughs of both discrimination and the color barrier in the sport. First up in order to get to the weekend we played Atlanta. After a fair amount of rain delay… Laynce Nix, the beast that he is.. drove in RBIS to assure a win, which was given to Daniel Ray Herrera for his first career victory. After that, the reds would take another win.. ultimately losing the 3rd of the series in an exciting 3 game run against the braves.

Then onto the civil rights weekend… in which I was closer to greatness than I think I have ever been. It was a really surreal feeling, but before that lets talk about the adventure I had on Friday of that week.

The boss contacted me and asked me if I would be available on Friday daytime to do some stuff, and I told him I had already planned to take it off. With Thursday being a day game, I am accustomed to just taking Fridays off from my regular job in order to enjoy the time before a long weekend of baseball. It was then that I found out that I would be working for MLB TV, covering a live Q & A session with some great people like Hall of Famers and local legends Oscar Robertson and Tony Perez. Hank Aaron was there as well.. and after I realized he was sitting 4 seats away from me, I couldn’t help but want to just leave my camera and shake the hands that beat babe ruths record. Highlights of this day and a look at some of my work can be seen at http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090619&content_id=5418930&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

After that it was on to Saturday… and one of the best moments of my life. Even though the reds would struggle, it was made up for by the magic that was in the air that night in which history was made. One of the crowning moments had to have been seeing Muhammad Ali, Bill Cosby and Hank Aaron all together.. and being only feet from them. Ali, now in the last stages of his life but still looking good, seemed to still be enjoying the spotlight.. as they drove him away on the golf cart after the ceremonies on the field, he did his trademark pose where he put his fists up for the crowd, who ate it up.

I cant even tell you what really happened during the game itself… because I was drowning in the fact that I had just seen 3 legends all together at the same time. I couldn’t believe how blessed and privileged a moment that it was for me to be there… and its something I might not ever get over.

The reds keep struggling a back and forth war to keep at or above 500,.. but I think that some key changes can be made soon to get them where they need to be. I am standing by my prediction of slightly above 500 and possible wildcard that I made before the season began.

It shows through on a week like this past one and its always mystifying to me to see them play so badly against a low ranked team, and then tear it up against a high ranked team. Arizona and St. Louis talent-wise are so far apart from each other as well.. and its always a hard to thing to watch one of our pitchers do so incredibly well on the mound, only to see his efforts squandered late in the game by the backup bullpen. Its obvious that some incredible mistakes have been made this past week and I cant really tell you why… just to say that hopefully the proper changes will be made and adjustments and such.

July is a challenging road for the reds… and unless something happens to get them back in line, I don’t think they are going to see themselves moving out of fourth place. Having to go up against powerhouses like Philadelphia and Milwaukee doesn’t help when you’re struggling just to get more than 5 hits per game..
And before any of you naysayers go off on some tangent like “THE REDS SUCK, I AM SO DONE WITH THEM” just because they gave up 22 runs last night, let me remind you that this year is the best the club has been in a long time and they have consistently been at or around the 500 mark ALL SEASON LONG…

which in itself is an accomplishment seeing as how they have been plighted with injuries and setbacks to most of the players who have been considered their major stars. They won games WITHOUT Alex Gonzalez.. and Edwin Encarnacion.. they have been winning without Volquez on the mound,.. and they won when Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto were both out on injuries and other things.. they have been winning and staying where they quite frankly were projected by many experts to finish out at in a season of rebuilding with young and new talents.

Will they ever be back to the status of the 1990 team? Probably not.. not even the Yankees with all their bankroll and power could be that. Baseball has changed and the way its played and done has changed.. and its something that the fans need to accept.

The fans need to accept that the reds aren’t going to go to the world series this year. They need to accept that they aren’t going to finish in first place… that at best they will end up maybe getting the wildcard, and that’s about it. Any sane person knows that the team is in a stage of rebuild… that its been injury plagued.. and that the new talent is fully developed enough yet. Things take time.. and if you cant be patient, you probably should find some other team to bandwagon for.

But hey… that’s just my opinion, and rain or shine I am going to love my reds all the way into October.

Thanks.