So, long story short, I'm an idiot. But it looks like the HHB will soon get a more entertaining makeover, and that it will be easier for me to post more. Huzzah!
This week in sports...
The Reds enter today on a 3-game slide, during which they've scored an average of 2.66 runs a game. I didn't get to see any of the games, but from the box scores, offense has looked pretty miserable. The Reds have 5 wins on the season, all of which have come in the last at-bat, which says to me that they are lucky to have the 5. The bats need to get started earlier, and I think it goes back again to what I said in last week's column: Stop trying to hit homers.
Pitchers are simply overpowering Reds batters because they are looking to drive balls rather than have good AB's to try to get on base. Ready for a frightening early-season fact? The only players on the Reds roster hitting over .300 are Mike Leake, Ryan Hanigan, Chris Dickerson, and Homer Bailey. What?...
I've always theorized (to varying degrees of success) that the Reds season follows a general cycle: April starts off slow, with the Reds usually about 4 games under .500. Then, in May, there is a surge that brightens the hopes of Cincinnati. The team usually ends up in first place, or perhaps, 1 or 2 games out. There is a lot of talk about this "young team" and this "great pitching," and the one or two prospects that, if they keep on pace, will make the team into a powerhouse. But then the Summer doldrums begin. June sees about a .500 record, still keeping the Reds in the race, but only tenuously. Then... July. The team usually slides a couple games heading into the all-star break- Cincinnati Enquirer columnists say, "Well, if the team can just have a quick start after the break, they'll be right back in this thing." The quick start never happens; the team gets worse and worse until by mid-August they are generally out of the race.
And, ah, September. With the Reds having no prospect of winning the season, September call-ups produce grand hopes for next year. The team usually gets on some kind of streak (when it's too late to matter), and some guy gets hot (i.e. David Ross, or Chris Dickerson) so that the Reds will offer a lucrative contract for him to stay, build a team around him, and then fall apart in the vicious cycle the next year when he can't sustain the numbers over a full season.
Lament...
While sometimes there are variations to this formula, usually the result is the same: The Reds are out of it by Mid-August. So far, this season has shown no reason to believe differently.
That's about all I have to say about sports this week. It's been a slow week. What else is going on? NHL hockey playoffs? Couldn't care less. Basketball playoffs are starting? Gag me - or just tell me about it again in a month - there will still be plenty of time left. How the Hell can a sport support playoffs where exactly half of the league's teams make it in, and that last over the course of a couple months?
In the words of Shakespeare, "Whate'er."
Took a copy of George Will's Bunts with me on a trip this week and am about 2/3 of the way through it. A very good book. Highly recommended. It is a series of essays on everything baseball-related, ranging from laments about his beloved Cubbies' losing ways, to tirades against the DH (touché), to celebrations of the triumph of the MLBPA. Will's style may be high brow and distant, but he has an astonishing wit, incredible command of the English language, detailed knowledge of the history of baseball, and a passion for the game.
I also read his book Men at Work, which analyzes the management style of Tony LaRussa, and the play of Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken Jr., and Orel Hersheiser. It is extremely detailed, to the point of being tedious, but celebrates the virtues of day-in, day-out work ethic that I find to be the cornerstone of what makes baseball players great. Though Will may be a Conservative and a Cubs fan, he is a thinker that I greatly respect. His political opinions (even if I disagree with many) are always clear-headed, and he doesn't feel that he has to side with Republicans on everything. And in baseball, he values the guys who give the sport their all each day they come to the park. He'd prefer guys who get on base a ton to the guys who hit a lot of home runs. He appreciates the guys who hit .300 over the course of the career but never have a championship. Most of all, he seems to understand what really makes baseball great: Its history and its habitualness.
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