September 30, 2005

Reds Show Cards ‘Who’s the Boss?’

ST. LOUIS, MO -- The St. Louis Cardinals will have to face the Reds without a second baseman tonight because Mark Grudzielanek refuses to stop watching the first-season DVD of “Who's the Boss?” long enough to take the field.

Reds' first-base coach Randy Whisler, a big fan of Tony Danza who played Tony Macelli on the show, presented the DVD to Grudzielanek before the game this afternoon for good luck going into the postseason. Whisler knew the gift would be popular.

“But I didn't think he'd refuse to play because of it,” said Whisler. “That certainly wasn't my plan all along.”

But not everyone in the Cardinals clubhouse was excited about the gift. Grudzielanek and David Eckstein nearly came to blows when Eckstein questioned Macelli's manliness.

“Dude, he lives with this broad for like, five years and never gets any action?” Eckstein teased. “What's up with that?”

In fact, “Who's the Boss?” ran for eight years, and only in the last season did Macelli and Angela Bower (played by Judith Light) even acknowledge their feelings for each other. This is among the many tidbits Grudzielanek will happily share about the program that he calls “deep and inspirational.”

“The lessons I learned from Samantha and Jonathan have been invaluable to me in my life,” says Grudzielanek. “Tony was so wise, and Angela was so strong. Oh, and that wacky Mona!”

“Even it's theme song has a message. 'There's the path you take and the path not taken, the choice is up to you, my friend.' That is so true.”

Grudzielanek says his connection to the show is due to the fact that Danza's character had also played second base for the Cardinals on the show before taking a job as Angela's housekeeper. He hopes to continue following in Macelli's footsteps.

“Maybe some day I'll find my Angela,” he said with a sigh.

Grudzielanek is expected to be back on the field to contribute to the Cardinals' massive late-season collapse Saturday or after the one where Tony walks in on Angela in the shower.

88 comments to “Reds Show Cards ‘Who’s the Boss?’”

  1. Thank god for Al Reyes.

  2. Oh, this is fun. 🙂

  3. Red Hot Mama says:

    Your cameraman totally didn’t think Little Eddie was going to catch that.

  4. Good thing we don’t need a 1B.

  5. Red Hot Mama says:

    Yes, you are very lucky. I wish we didn’t need a 1B.

  6. Red Hot Mama says:

    Oh for crying out loud. I thought you had to touch the plate to be safe at home.

  7. Red Hot Mama says:

    Wow! That may be the best throw Freel’s ever made in his life.

  8. Albert Pujols doesn’t *need* to do anything. It’s like the story, "If that was a stike, Mr. Williams would have swung."

  9. That should be strike. R.

  10. Red Hot Mama says:

    What would happen if Kearns got all impulsive and pulled off those last two numbers? Would the fans mob him? Would they have to cancel the rest of the season? Would the stadium collapse?

  11. He would be killed. And I’m not kidding. Red’s set for 2 and Ozzie’s #1.

  12. Red Hot Mama says:

    I thought you were having all sorts of tension with Ozzie.

  13. It’s a whole thing with him and La Russa, long story. The Wizard hasn’t handled it well. But he was sooooo amazing. And if Red couldn’t tear down his number, St. Louis would invade Cincy.

  14. Red Hot Mama says:

    I don’t think that would be wise. I understand that some parts of the greater Cincy area are well-armed.

  15. Clearly you have never been to the greater St. Louis metropolitan area. We could take you.

  16. It’s so wonderful to see David’s dad at the park after all he’s been through this year.

  17. Red Hot Mama says:

    What’s he been through this year?

  18. That’s #200 career & #40 on the season.

  19. Red Hot Mama says:

    If the Reds sold their team for parts and used the money to buy ski-ball tokens, would we really be any worse off?

  20. Yes. Baseball is more fan-friendly. There aren’t good concession stands at Chuck-E-Cheese.

  21. Red Hot Mama says:

    But Chuck E Cheese has animatrons. Don’t forget the animatrons!

  22. True. Animatrons can look at pitches right down central as well as any Red.

    Why, why, why let King pitch when Flores is awesome?

  23. Yikes. Hello, defense.

  24. Red Hot Mama says:

    It’s the bottom of the ninth in GABP. The bases are loaded with 1 out. You don’t even need a hit to win the game, just deep contact.

    Which Red do you want up? Dunn or Griffey? Dunn or Aurilia? Dunn or the pitcher? Dunn or a crash test dummy?

    Now, whom do you want at first…

  25. He’ll look soooo good in right next year. Enjoy Marquis’ head trips.

  26. Red Hot Mama says:

    We’ve already got plenty of head-case pitchers, thanks. You’ll have to come up with something better than that.

  27. I’ll throw in John Gall. He’s a future Hall of Famer, if you read the message boards.

  28. Red Hot Mama says:

    Gall would provide plenty of pun opportunities, which we would definitely need to replace if we lost Dunn.

  29. I’m pretty fucking drunk, but that may be the best reason I’ve ever heard for a trade.

  30. Red Hot Mama says:

    I think that being fucking drunk might just be a good enough reason for a trade. It’s worth a try, anyway.

  31. Don’t think it hasn’t happened, she said darkly.

  32. Red Hot Mama says:

    Well, that about does it. The Reds had 5 errors. Awesome.

    Tomorrow’s game starts at 3:15 EST. What the hell kind of time is that to start a game? How am I supposed to get properly drunk in the middle of a Saturday afternoon??

    I’ll have to start drinking at breakfast. Better stock up on Bloody Mary mix.

  33. The Reds just felt bad for the crappy calls the Cards were getting from freshman home plate umpire.

    Tomorrow’s game isn’t on Extra Innings, so I’m feeding the money-grubbing beast that is mlb.com and buying the one day thing (same on Sunday). I’m not sure how this will affect my ancient computer. I may be juuuust a bit behind.

    The game starts at 12:15 for me. It’s difficult to wake up and start drinking straight away.

    P.S. Go Yanks

  34. Red Hot Mama says:

    I can get tomorrow’s game on the real-live t.v., but I couldn’t even submit to the MLB beast if I wanted to, being in the blackout zone.

    Blackout zones are karmic retribution for all of the evil perpetrated by baseball fans the world over. But what kind of retribution do the perpetrators of the blackout zones get, I ask you!

    Point being that I’ll be smacking based on the radio on Sunday at 12:15 my time. There is no justice in this world.

  35. Holy crap. That’s 10:15 for me. Smack will be lacking.

  36. Red Hot Mama says:

    You’ve already started drinking, you might as well just keep it going all weekend long. In fact, you might just want to keep it going next week: you’ll need it.

  37. Twist my arm.

    BTW, if you want to listen to Bob Gibson go to kmox.com.