Former Reds’ first baseman Sean Casey will be among the next three players inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.

No word on whether or not Casey will be driving his 1995 Honda Accord to the ceremony next June.

Take it away, press release.

Three-time All-Star Sean Casey, Big Red Machine infielder Dan Driessen and 19th century first baseman John Reilly will be the next three players inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.

Casey was selected by the fans through the Modern Player Ballot presented by Cincyfavorites.com. The Veterans Committee selected Driessen and Reilly to make up the Reds Hall of Fame Class of 2012.

The trio will be honored June 22-24 during Reds Hall of Fame Induction Weekend, which will include on-field ceremonies at Great American Ball Park, the star-studded Hall of Fame Induction Gala and a variety of festivities at the Hall, including meet and greets with Reds Hall of Famers and alumni.

One of the most popular players to ever wear a Reds uniform, Casey came to be known as “The Mayor” during his eight-year Reds career.

A versatile infielder of the Big Red Machine clubs of the 1970s, Dreissen played 12 seasons for the Reds from 1973 to 1984.

A Cincinnati-native and dominant first baseman in the 1880′s, Reilly wore a Reds uniform for his nine-season Major League career and held Reds records for most singles, double, triples, home runs, runs scored, RBI and games played.

Casey was the top vote-getter of the thousands of ballots cast online at RedsMuseum.org, at Great American Ball Park and at participating Skyline Chili and Montgomery Inn locations.

Driessen and Reilly were selected by the Reds Hall of Fame’s Veterans Committee, comprised of members of the media, Hall of Famers, historians and Hall of Fame executives.

“Since 1958, the fans have played an integral part in the Hall of Fame election process, and this year was no exception as record participation resulted,” said Reds Hall of Fame Executive Director Rick Walls. “I’d like to thank Cincyfavorites.com, the thousands of fans that voted, and the Veterans Committee for recognizing the contributions of these players.”

The addition of Casey, Driessen and Reilly will bring the Hall’s membership ranks to 75 players, three managers, and three executives.

I dunno…the fact that the only bona fide baseball activity coming out the Reds world is Brandon Phillips tweeting about his lack of contract kinda has me down. But gosh, it’s a little early to be getting all negative already doesn’t it? So rather than go off on a rant, I clicked on another of the unnecessary navigation buttons in the Redsfest landing page on Reds.com and copied out the list of Cincinnati-land celebrities who will be in attendance:

Brandon Phillips is not on the list, but then, neither am I, and I’ll be there.

With one week to go till Redsfest, the Red Hot Family has secured a hotel room and started planning our trip through the event. It’s a bit of a PITA because they’ve put every piece of information on a separate page on Reds.com, so there’s entirely more clicking than ought to be strictly necessary, but maybe they did that as intentional foreshadowing of all the line-standing.

I’ve grabbed the main stage schedule to save you one click at least. In case you were worried you wouldn’t be getting your RDA of shitty ’90s grunge music, worry not! Arroyo is closing out the event again this year.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2
4:00 p.m. — Redsfest Opening Act featuring Funky G & the Groove Machine presented by Coca-Cola
4:45 p.m. — Topps Pack Wars
5:25 p.m. — Reds Tribute to former owner Carl Lindner
5:30 p.m. — Introduction of Cincinnati Reds past & present
6:00 p.m. — Introduction of new mascot Mr. Red
6:25 p.m. — Kids Only Press Conference presented by GearUP
7:25 p.m. — 2011 Reds Team Awards Presentations
8:15 p.m. — Reds Hot Stove report featuring Walt Jocketty & Dusty Baker presented by FOX Sports Ohio
9:15 p.m. — Cincinnati Got Talent Semi-Finals presented by Toyota

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3
11:00 a.m. — Redsfest Opening Act featuring Tropicoso presented by Coca-Cola
12:00 p.m. — Introduction of new mascot Mr. Red
12:10 p.m. — Chiquita “Hero of the Game” 2011 Yearly Award Presentation
12:15 p.m. — Reds Hot Stove Report featuring Walt Jocketty & Dusty Baker presented by FOX Sports Ohio
1:45 p.m. — Topps Pack Wars
2:05 p.m. — Kids Only Press Conference presented by GearUP
3:05 p.m. — Reds Alumni “Bull Session” presented by Reds Fantasy Camp
4:00 p.m. — Cincinnati’s Got Talent Finals presented by Toyota
5:10 p.m. — Bronson Arroyo Concert presented by Best Buy

Earlier this week, MLB announced the winner of the National League’s Most Valuable Player award. We all knew that Joey Votto would not be repeating for the Cincinnati Reds, thanks to their craptastic year. But we all wondered where he would place and how many votes he’d get.

As expected, the Milwaukee Brewers’ Ryan Braun won the award. And Votto placed sixth.

1. Ryan Braun, Milwaukee -388
2. Matt Kemp, L.A. Dodgers -332
3. Prince Fielder, Milwaukee -229
4. Justin Upton, Arizona1-214
5. Albert Pujols, St. Louis–166
6. Joey Votto, Cincinnati–135
7. Lance Berkman, St. Louis–118
8. Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado—69
9. Roy Halladay, Philadelphia–52
10. Ryan Howard, Philadelphia—39
11. Jose Reyes, N.Y. Mets—31
12. Clayton Kershaw, L.A. Dodgers–29
13. Shane Victorino, Philadelphia—18
14. Ian Kennedy, Arizona—16
15. Cliff Lee, Philadelphia—12
16. Hunter Pence, Houston-Phi.—10
17. Pablo Sandoval, San Francisco—7
18. John Axford, Milwaukee—7
19. Michael Morse, Washington—5
20. Carlos Beltran, N.Y. Mets-S.F.—3
21. Miguel Montero, Arizona—2
22. Yadier Molina, St. Louis—2
23. Starlin Castro, Chicago—1
24. Craig Kimbrel, Atlanta—1
25. Carlos Ruiz, Philadelphia—1
26. Mike Stanton, Florida—1

Votto was on a majority of the ballots, and I might quibble with him finishing lower than Prince Fielder–who is grossly overrated, in my opinion–but it’s still nice to see him getting some love. He’s very, very good, and I’m going to enjoy his time as a Red as long as it lasts. In fact, I’m sure I’ll be wearing my Votto jersey this weekend at RedsFest.

This was posted on Red Reporter a few days ago, and it’s rather hilarious. Witness the awesome fielding of St. Louis Cardinals’ erstwhile shortstop Ryan Theriot.

Hmm. I guess that makes it obvious why he was moved to second base in the middle of the 2011 season.

At the end of last week, the Chicago Cubs hired their new manager.

Instead of the obvious choice of fan-favorite Ryne Sandberg, or the probably correct choice of Pete Mackanin, the Cubs instead selected the Milwaukee Brewers’ hitting coach Dale Sveum. (I’ve heard it’s pronounced Swame, but I’m pretty sure Dale’s wrong about that. So I’ll keep pronouncing the “V.”)

Sveum was one of the more desired candidates, as the Boston Red Sox were also interested in him. Perhaps damaging the Red Sox–the former team of Cubs General Manager Theo Epstein–took precedence over hiring the better candidate? Sure, I’m biased, but I liked what I saw from Pete Mackanin when he was with the Cincinnati Reds. And I look forward to him getting a real chance to manager. Of course, it’s probably best for him that he wasn’t picked by the Cubs. No one can win with them.

In the continuing effort to catch the heck up on what’s been going on with the team, I’ve copied and pasted the lead from a recent story on Reds.com:

CINCINNATI — Prior to Friday’s deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 Draft, the Reds added six to their 40-man roster.

Added were infielders Neftali Soto, Didi Gregorius, Donald Lutz and Henry Rodriguez and right-handed pitchers Kyle Lotzkar and Pedro Villarreal.

Cincinnati’s 40-man roster is now full.

I knew a guy named Villarreal when I was in elementary school. He was kind of a dick, even in fifth grade. I’m sure Pedro is much nicer.

I’ve been out of the state all week, and am now catching up on some old stuff, which is why you’re seeing this old news here now. Even half a week late, though, I think it’s worth pointing out.

The Reds had been scheduled to open the season on Friday, April 6. But thanks to some special finagling, they’ll now be playing the day before (Thursday, April 5) at 4:10 p.m. They’ll be taking on the Marlins after the big Opening Day Parade:

“We want to thank Major League Baseball, the MLB Players Association and the Reds and Marlins players for agreeing to move Opening Day to Thursday, April 5,” said Bob Castellini, Reds President and CEO. “Opening Day is a long-standing tradition for this team, our fans and the City of Cincinnati and we are pleased that parade and game will now be on Thursday.”

It’ll be here before you know it.

The St. Louis Cardinals won the race among baseball teams to pick their new field manager, deciding on former catcher Mike Matheny to replace Tony La Russa. They beat the Chicago Cubs to the punch, although they had quite a head-start since La Russa told the GM back before the season was up.

It’s a departure for the Cardinals. General Manager John Mozeliak is going against what has proved successful for St. Louis for the last three decades.

Each of the team’s past three full-time managers, La Russa, Joe Torre and Whitey Herzog, had previously made the playoffs as a manager before being hired. The last man who didn’t fit that profile was another former Gold Glover in St. Louis, Ken Boyer, who managed from 1978-80 after winning five Gold Gloves as a third baseman with the Cardinals.

Matheny is a former catcher, which is so often a prerequisite for managers these days. And he’s one the Cardinals thought highly of, despite his lack of any offensive ability. Matheny was a good defensive catcher, though, and spent some time mentoring and teaching Yadier Molina as he broke into the majors for the Cardinals.

Since retiring, Matheny has served as a catching instructor and a special assistant for St. Louis. This considerable promotion will be announced in a press conference on Monday.

While there’s still Chris Heisey’s Breakout Player of the Year award still to talk about, today, I’m looking outside the sphere of Reds-ness and checking out the happenings in the parallel universe of all the other teams.

I know it’s old news by now, but dammit, the Cubs are interviewing Pete Mackanin for their general manager position, and wouldn’t it just be fitting for them to hire him. Then the Reds would be sporting an old Cubs manager and the Cubs would be sporting an old Reds (interim) manager. I don’t know whether Mackanin would be a winning coach in Chicago–there’s an awful lot of suckinertia to overcome there–but wouldn’t that just be typical.

In news that puts that last news into stark perspective, the Washington Nationals have had a player kidnapped in his home country of Venezuela:

Wilson Ramos, one of the Washington Nationals’ most promising young baseball players, was kidnapped at gunpoint Wednesday night from his family’s home in Venezuela, leaving the team in a state of shock and raising questions about the safety of playing in a country ravaged in recent years by kidnappings and street crime.

Last night word came out that Ramos was returned safely. Happy! Hopefully this will be a warning to other players to be on their guard and prevent anything worse from happening in the future.

And finally, back to more typical news of baseball, Albert Pujols is in Florida this weekend talking with the Marlins and touring their baseball facilities. I suppose that shouldn’t be a surprise–seeing as this is the *only* time of the year Prince Albert is willing to talk contracts and all–it’s just funny to think of the Marlins organization coming out in force to woo one player. It’s not like he’s enough to win the WS by himse–actually, maybe it’s not that funny after all.