FanHouse Reds

Wednesday night, prior to on-track activity at Chicagoland Speedway on Thursday, Juan Pablo Montoya found himself at Wrigley Field for the game eventually won by Carlos Zambrano and the Cubs over the Cincinnati Reds.

Why was JPM in Wrigleyville, you ask? Well, he was the token NASCAR publicity head chosen throw out the first pitch and sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", in advance of the nearby race. A little cross-promotion, if you will.

Thankfully, Montoya's version wasn't as bad as Jeff Gordon's was a few years ago (horrible!), but it wasn't great either. Watch for yourself:



Obviously, the best part of that entire clip was the old guy in the stands at 0:44 that covered his ears as JPM led the crowd in singing the baseball anthem, because, well, Montoya isn't exactly Harry Carey.

I'm glad Montoya played along with the promo opportunity -- even though he finished the song like an entire verse ahead of the entire crowd.

Quality effort, Mr. Montoya, that's a Youtube keeper.

Nice Gallagher hat, Roc.

One of the most regular complaints from readers of classic G1 The Dugout is our portrayal of Dusty Baker. As the manager of the long-suffering Chicago Cubs, Dusty would often play the straight man, standing by and going "uh oh" while space shuttles fell on Kerry Wood. Cubs fans demanded we show the real Dusty, the one who is coo-coo for some sort of space coco puff, but the running gag of getting trapped in wells and being hurled into hay-balers or whatever was just too great to splinter.

Enter 2008, and Dusty Baker is the manager of the Cincinnati Reds. While there are key differences between G1 and G2 The Dugout, G2 is birthed FROM G1, so consider it fully canon and a fulfillment of your years of wishing as we continue our NL Central Spring Training Dugouts with a look at Dusty Baker without the Cubbies. What you find may shock you.

Oh who am I kidding, Dusty couldn't manage a Yu-Gi-Oh deck without burning his house down. /clicks to read more

The rift between Adam Dunn and the Cincinnati media is pretty well known at this point. It exists mostly because the media likes to focus on what Dunn does poorly, namely his play in the field and his propensity to strike out a ton, rather than what he does well, which is mash the crap out of the baseball. But there should be no fear now, because Dunn has ended his year-long feud with Cincy Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty and started speaking with Daugherty again.
And Daugherty is encouraged because he knows Adam Dunn is serious about baseball.

I asked him how much fishing he'd done in the offseason. Dunn is an obsessive bass man. In the past, it had been a metaphor for his what-the-hang attitude.

He said he hardly fished at all. That's when I knew he was serious.

The number one indicator of how serious a player will be in a given season: amount of bass fishing done. Richard Daugherty would probably believe that the decline in pirates (real pirates, not the Pittsburgh variety) is the direct cause of global warming.

One of the great things about the Cincinnati Reds blogosphere is that they have not one, but two local beat writers that write blogs at Cincinnati.com. This gives them a place to share funny stories and asides that might otherwise get lost in the shuffle of newspaper writing. C. Trent Rosencrans gives us such an tidbit today when discussing the Reds exhibition opener, a 9-7 win over the Pirates that included eight homers between the two teams. Behold:

[Josh]Hamilton and David Ross were talking before [Hamilton's] at-bat. Ross was counting all the homers that had been hit already during the game. Hamilton then said, "You forgot one." After Ross looked at him, Hamilton continued, "The one I'm going to hit."

Hamilton proceeded to crush a 400 foot homer that happened to be his first homer in a game since 2002. The guy hasn't hit a home run in almost five years and is still calling his shot in the on-deck circle. That is badass my friends. Now granted, the knock came off of Allan Simpson and even as a Pirate fan I'm not entirely sure who that is, but it's still badass.

Most spring training stories are boring. Who gives a damn who the Pirates back-up catcher is going to be or who will be the Cardinals fifth starter besides hardcore fans of those specific teams? Not really anyone, because fifth starters and back-up catchers don't really matter all that much. I apologize to anyone that fits that description, but it's the truth.

There is at least one story that will transcend that this spring, and I'm not talking about Derek Jeter/Alex Rodriguez hissy fits or Daisuke Matsuzaka meeting Manny Ramirez for the first time (OK, I think the second one could be funny). No, I'm talking about Josh Hamilton. If you recall, the former #1 pick with a mountain of talent, a ton of tattoos, and several suspensions for hard drug abuse, was picked by the Reds in the Rule 5 Draft back in December, meaning he's going to get an honest shot at making the team despite never having played above A ball.
From Reds.com:

"I'm really excited about games starting up and getting back into game situations," Hamilton said on Monday. "I got a brief glimpse of it last season. It's good to be back, and I know I'll get a lot more games."

... An early arrival to camp, Hamilton wowed onlookers with some long drives over the fences. The only big-league pitchers the 25-year-old has faced were his own teammates during live BP sessions this spring. Hamilton looked and felt comfortable in the batter's box there, too.

I'm honestly excited to watch this. Despite missing most of the past four years, it seems pretty obvious that the guy still has a sweet swing. Whether that will translate to real pitching or not, I guess we'll see. Normally Rule 5 guys are incredibly boring players that get buried on rosters, lose a year of development, and never seem to be worth it (Chris Shelton possibly excepted). At least this case has the potential to be different.

Via Red Reporter, Gary Majewski has been held back from Spring Training workouts due to more shoulder problems. Majewski, you'll likely recall, was the key piece in the 8-player deal last July in which Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez got sent to the Nationals for Royce Clayton, Bill Bray, and Majewski, among other players. That deal was the first indicator of Wayne Krivsky's intense middling reliever fetish, which has since brought Scott Schoeneweis and Rheal Cormier into the mix as well in Cincy.

The most curious thing about the entire affair, at least to me, is this part:

The Reds have said they intend to file a grievance against the Nationals for failing to inform the club that Majewski had been taking anti-inflammatory medicine for the shoulder throughout the season or that he had received a cortisone shot in the shoulder just days before the trade.

That's all well and good, but it was certainly no secret that Majewski was having shoulder problems before the trade last year. A quick glance at his KFFL page shows that he was having rotator cuff problems as early as May 7th of last season. I've gotta think the Reds knew about that before they pulled the trigger on the trade and they're just looking for some way to cover up their mistake at this point. I mean, has anyone ever actually filed a grievance a full six months after the trade in question?