I traveled from Columbus to Cincinnati with my friends Big Game and Zib to watch the Reds play the Phillies Saturday night.
Baseball purists will say that even the most avid watchers of the game will see something new on a weekly basis. That was certainly the case for me last night.
The Reds lost the game 4-1, continuing a disturbing trend of not hitting the ball well, especially against left-handed starting pitchers. Second-year player Cole Hammels struck out 15 Cincinnati batters in a complete game effort, making the Cincinnati hitters look extremely futile along the way.
Seeing 15 Reds strike out was something I don’t know if I’ve seen in person. It’s definitely not something I wanted to see!
Seeing a 5-4-3 triple play, however, was the rarest thing I think I’ve witnessed in the game. With runners on first and second, catcher David Ross hit a somewhat sharp grounder to third baseman Abraham Nunez, who went a few feet to touch the bag and whipped the ball to Chase Utley at second. Utley fired a seed to first base and Ross was out by a few steps.
It was only the 85th triple play in the history of the game, and it had to be one of the more unlikely ways to get three outs. Ross is a catcher, so his speed isn’t great, but there shouldn’t be time for a fielder to run to a base and turn the other way to throw the ball to second, then have a successful put-out at first!
There were several solid plays from the Reds’ side, including a ball in medium range center field that shortstop Alex Gonzalez caught with his back to the plate, avoiding a charging Ryan Freel. That play, and not the triple play, was rated as SportsCenter’s top play. The triple play was second of the 10 plays from the day.
We also saw Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, AKA Kooter, formerly of the Indians, come out of the dugout to argue two different calls. Big Game, a Tribe fan, was rooting for Kooter to get tossed, but the fact he is barely audible during press conferences because of his twangy drawl and inability to talk without stuttering, probably kept the umpire from understanding him well enough to throw him out!
Despite the loss, not to mention the anemic Reds’ offense, the trip was a solid one. Our seats, two of them courtesy my brother-in-law, were solid. They were located in the Sun/Moon Deck in right field. That location is as good as any in the park, with a view of everything and a nice elevation, without being two stories off the ground.
Much to our surprise the stadium was nearly full — the announced crowd of 39,000-plus was billed as a sell out, but Opening Day was around 42,000, also a sellout — and it made things a bit tricky as we had purchased a ticket for Big Game from, to take a page from Seinfeld, a man who sells tickets on the street, not a scalper!
Normally it’s easy enough to get a third or fourth ticket if you only have two, and subsequently have a seat next to the original pair, but last night it was tough! We shifted twice before Big Game had to sit in the row in front of Zib and I. The couple to my right were Philly fans, something that wasn’t all that fun given the game we were subject to watching, but they were an agreeable pair.
He was a Philadelphia native who was very knowledgeable about his team. I’m not going to say the Philly fan reputation wasn’t validated, but he was an agreeable guy. His fiance can only be described as a traitor! She hails from Louisville, prime Reds country, yet she sported a Phillies jersey.
That sparked the inevitable conversation about women who switch their allegiance to suit the man she decides to be with. This young lady explained that despite growing up near Cincinnati, she was indifferent toward baseball before meeting her beau and therefore found her way to putting on the red and white worn by the Phillies. She also explained that while she had been a New England Patriots fan before dating Philly fan, she found the Eagles a very suitable team to root for in the NFL.
I don’t want to call her a liar, but I sensed at several different points in the game that she was disappointed when the Reds made mistakes. Maybe she did that for our benefit, as not to upset the hometown fans, but I’m not so sure she’s as committed to the Phils as her man would like to think!
The other people around us were also nice. One guy, who was there with his daughter, actually agreed to move down a seat to allow Big Game the ability to sit directly in front of Zib and I.
The best thing about the evening, because the Reds certainly didn’t play well enough to earn that distinction, was the fact the weather has finally become respectable. Shorts and short sleeves were the way to go for really the first time since the two-day period around Opening Day. After that Ohio was sucked into a deep freeze, with highs rarely above 40 and wind and rain the norm. It’s definitely time to trade in the winter coat for a pair of sandals and a bottle of sunscreen.
With Big Game being an Indians fan, it was fun to make references to 1948 — the last time the Tribe won the World Series — or even discuss what it’s like to have your favorite team play in the Super Bowl, which the Bengals have done twice and the Browns none. He got his shots in about Bengals players on the police blotter, and even a few about the city of Cincinnati as a whole, but Zib turned that around by referring to the fact that only one of the two cities has had one of its main water sources actually catch fire!
All kidding aside, Big Game is a very knowledgeable baseball fan and it’s nice to take in a game with people who enjoy the game like I do. I’m sure some around us were annoyed with all the baseball trivia we were throwing around, but who knows, maybe they were enlightened a bit!
Watching today’s game seems to indicate the Reds have no intention of swinging the bats any time soon. I had hoped the warm weather would wake them up, but it hasn’t come to fruition yet. The Phillies entered Saturday with a 4-11 record and the Reds struggled to win the first game of the series, going 8.2 innings with just one hit before Scott Hatteberg clubbed a homer to send it to extra innings. The Reds won the game in the 10th, but have yet to swing the bats the rest of the weekend.
It’s getting pretty pathetic with the Reds down 4-1 in the fifth. Maybe I’ll pause the Tivo and go out and enjoy the nice day! Hopefully the Reds can wake up and get the bats going in time to win this one.
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