Seth's 50 Centers

Had an interesting afternoon with the CPA at the old ball yard.

The Louisville Bats, AAA affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, were in town to face the Columbus Clippers, now of the Washington Nationals.

Going to Cooper Stadium is always an interesting experience, to say the least. Anyone here in Central Ohio knows what I mean. The place has been there since the 1930s and while places like Yankee Stadium or Wrigley Field have had updates to the exterior and interior of their structures, the same can’t really be said about the Coop.

The first thing that stands out about the place is its location. Bordering a cemetery and not necessarily in the best part of town, the Coop has an interesting clientele.

Today was an 11:30 a.m. start so that area grade schoolers could come to the ballgame. It was good to see the kids get a chance to take in a game, but some of those kids’ condition didn’t seem to be in very good condition, as Ricky Henderson would say. It’s easy to feel bad for some of those kids. It isn’t their fault they don’t all have nice clothes, or clothes without holes, for that matter.

Aside from the little ones, believe it or not there are somewhat rabid Clippers fans. Folks with multiple cow bells! The cow bell is something that goes back as far as I can remember in Clippers lore. There’s even a song, “Columbus Clippers ring your bell…”

One thing about it, when ballplayers leave tickets for a nice looking girl, or some businessman decides to knock off work to catch a game and comes still in dress shirt and slacks, they definitely stand out! Going to a Clipper game is like going to the BMV. Let’s just say you stand a pretty good chance at being one of the top five looking people in the place!

People watching definitely seems to take away from the fan’s ability to enjoy the game!

The reason the CPA and I took in the game was twofold. First, my friend Matt does the play by play for the Bats and was in town for the series. Second, top Reds prospect Homer Bailey was pitching today.

Bailey holds the hope of the Reds future in his right arm. As Bob Hunter said today in his Dispatch column, he’s really stopped being referred to as a person. He’s really become this thing, or representation of what the Reds should be. It’s interesting though, a AAA pitcher named Phil Dumatrait is actually more Major League ready and may join Bailey on the Reds staff as early as later this season.

Bailey was impressive. He’s 6 foot, 4 inches and can throw it in the upper 90s. He’s on a pitch count that apparently doesn’t exceed 100 and that has held him back a little, in my opinion. Following an early play on a bunt where Bailey made two errors — first on the fielding of the ball and then on a rushed throw — he was fantastic.

Bailey gave up an unearned run in that first inning, but went on to knock in a pair of runs to take the lead for good an inning later. He went on to only give up one hit the entire 5.2 innings he pitched, and that was a bloop bunt attempt that floated over the mound and landed safely on the grass.

Manager Rick Sweet came to get Homer in the bottom of the sixth inning after he’d retired two hitters, but walked his last one on four pitches. I understood in early April keeping him around that five inning mark, but at this point he should be able to stretch out to 110-120 pitches. Let the guy, who had a 5-1 lead at the time, get himself out of trouble, if you call a two-out walk trouble.

I came away from Bailey’s outing feeling about like I did before the game. He’s probably better than the competition he’s facing, but he’s 21-years old and could use a little more time down there. Despite giving up just one hit, I didn’t come away from it feeling like we have to have him in Cincinnati right now.

That said, people told him he wouldn’t be able to just blow away AA players last spring. They also said without a great offspeed pitch he wouldn’t see the same results at the AAA level. He flashed a change up or curve ball a few times today and it seemed to be pretty good.

I’m excited to see Bailey in a Reds uniform, but we’ll see how soon GM Wayne Krivsky pulls the trigger.