On Baseball or How I Learned to Love the Balk
A few notes from today's Reds at Cardinals game here in St. Louis:
-Edgar Renteria is underrespected, even here in St. Louis. Yeah, the fans cheer for him, but even Chris Carpenter got louder applause ...but Renteria is a clutch hitter, that's for sure.
-Ryan Freel is a very good leadoff hitter - 3 for 4 today. He made it look easy.
-Speaking of Chris Carpenter, he should be a pitcher in the American League. He holds the bat like a little girl, swings like an old woman, and dogs it on the basebath. He laid a grounder to second in the bottom of the second inning and didn't even TRY to beat out the throw to first.
-Also on Chris Carpenter, he did have a decent bunt in the four-run fifth inning to advance a runner. But don't flash bunt before the pitcher even starts his windup.
-The Reds were fools to let Reggie Sanders go. He's still got a good swing; he punched a ball 350 feet foul down the left-field line.
-Tony Womack has lost a step since he was with the Diamondbacks, but it doesn't affect his batting. His fielding looks labored, though.
-Dave Miley may be a great manager, but he needs to sit Barry Larkin down and tell him to stop swinging for the fences. Larkin is old, and can still be a decent singles hitter, but a power guy he ain't.
-Larkin's lost a step, too, but his fielding looks better than Womack's. It's his bat that suffers.
-Corey Lidle is a fragile, fragile man. He gives up a hit and a sac bunt in the fifth and just falls apart. But he did manage to calm down and finish the inning when Miley came out and talked to him. Miley probably said, "You're going to finish this inning," which Lidle did with two straight Ks.
-Javier Valentin should not be a major-league ballplayer. He's a worse batter than Chris Carpenter. He also didn't manage to keep Lidle under control in that fifth-inning collapse, where Miley did. Send this guy back to the minors.
-Saint Louis was founded by French traders in 1763 in a location with high temperatures, high humidity and no wind. For this reason, we should hate the French.
-The unnaturally high humidity forces the women of Saint Louis to wear short skirts and tank tops. For this reason, we should love the French.
-There is no better place to watch a game in Busch Stadium than the 200-level Standing-Room Only section. You can watch the game from anywhere on the level, and there's a very pleasant breeze that comes in from the field. And, oh yeah - the concession stands are dead empty - no lines, even for beer.
-Miller Lite really IS better than Bud Light, but I'll stick to Bud because I believe that supporting American-owned business is a good thing to do - and Miller's owned by a South African company, which is owned by an English Company. Naughty, naughty, naughty.
-I'm a dirty old man.
-There's nothing nicer than watching a guy take his daughter to the ballpark.
-There's nothing creepier than discovering that the young woman ISN'T his daughter, and that people in Southern Illinois take age-of-consent laws to be more "recommendations" than anything.
-The Reds will not win more than 80 games this season.