Five [not so] Easy Pieces
October 8, 2016
My best from this season. A re-visitation.
For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings — William Shakespeare
Votto Unplugged
October 4, 2016
Greatness has no expiration date
The Road Back to Relevance
October 2, 2016
The Rebuild is a long slog. Don’t fight it.
The King is Gone
September 27, 2016
Beloved was the head who wore the crown.
He Hate Me
September 19, 2016
Joey Votto is the best hitter to ever wear a Cincinnati Reds uniform. Why do so many people want to run him out of town?
. . .
He reached the summit at 10:07pm on August 13, 2016. It was — and remains — a remarkable achievement, given that on May, 31st, a full two months into the season, he was still bivouacked at his own personal base camp, disoriented by muscles and memory rendered insufficient by opposing forces on the hill some sixty feet away. A .213 batting average, a .330 on-base percentage, not to mention a month of April that was the worst of his career weren’t just base camp for Joey Votto — this was the basement of a career that has seen him among the very best hitters in Major League Baseball.Continue Reading
Fourteen and One-Half Minutes
September 15, 2016
One quarter of an hour didn’t just doom a season. It may have been opportunity lost for the Walt Jocketty Era in Cincinnati.
I’m thinking it can happen at any moment. Picture yourself standing on the dock, everything stretched out before you all the way to the horizon. One moment you have the key in your hand. The next, it’s slipping through your fingers, falling into the gap between the weatherbeaten planks. Before you know it, it’s gone, and everything the key represents rushing out to sea with it.Continue Reading
On Writing
September 14, 2016
I am a beginner. I am a plodder. I will win no races. My fingers find the Backspace key more often than they find the productive parts of a QWERTY keyboard. I could not have written years ago. I could never have afforded the cost of Wite-Out. I write. That doesn’t make me a writer. When Jay Mariotti went after what he considers the bottom of the bird cage in the sports writing profession, he probably was talking about guys like me.Continue Reading
Viva La A-Rod
August 10, 2016
Soon-to-be ex-New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez has written his last chapter, right? Not so fast — A-Rod’s story is far from over.
Contine Reading
This Is The One You Keep
August 3, 2016
In a Forgotten Season, This Game Will Live On
This is the one you keep. As the season stretches on and the losses mount, this is the one you remember and hold close. Maybe you fold it up and put it away in that special place you reserve for such things because, after all, this is what makes Baseball special. 162 potential gifts waiting to be unwrapped.Continue Reading
Homer Bailey, Expectations and Billy Chapel
July 31, 2016