RHM Retrospective: August
By
Amanda
Posted at 5:30 pm
The Reds were up-and-down in the month of August. Overall, their play was sub-par, but the play of everyone else in the division was even subber-par, so they kept floating near the top of the division and always contending for the wild card. For me personally, August was a pretty rotten month.
August
The month began with a family emergency that had Joel filling in a primary blogger for a couple games. I'd been trying to convince him to write for RHM for the longest time, but apparently he didn't love it enough to stay. Maybe someday…
On August 7, the Reds put Gary Majewski on the DL with shoulder inflammation. That sort-of explained why he'd pitched so poorly since he'd joined the team, but didn't explain why Krivsky had traded for him in the first place. We would later learn that Kriv-dawg hadn't known that Majewski was damaged goods, and this off-season, the team was supposed to file a grievance with MLB over the matter.
Ryan Freel went on a tear in August, including making the most amazing outfield catch of the season. This catch not only robbed Albert Pujols of an extra-base hit, but also gave Freel the opportunity to tell the world about the midget in his head named Farney.
Bronson Arroyo hit rock-bottom in August. After being the first Reds pitcher to nine wins, it took eleven failed attempts before he got win number 10. He even got the cornrows back, but nothing worked. The whole adventure would inspire some fake news about a pretend new album.
This was the month the Reds announce that Steve Stewart would not return to the broadcast booth the next season. The Reds tinker with their broadcasters more than they tinker with their line-up. I'm not convinced that either is better for all the tinkering.
In RHM news, I thought it would be funny to poke fun at the outrageous success of the game threads at Red Reporter. Some people got that the smack talk was affectionate, but not all. The whole thing just made things weird between JD and me for the longest time. A valuable lesson to keep the smack talking to other teams, I reckon.
The Reds' record for August was 12-17, allowing them to end the month at 67-67 with a six-game losing streak. Being at .500 at the end of August would usually be great for the Reds, but the season was starting to feel like it was slipping away.
I see Bucco Blog is calling the Reds the most underrated staff in the NLCD.
[url=http://buccoblog.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/2007/01/tidbits_2.html]http://buccoblog.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/2007/01/tidbits_2.html[/url]
Thought you’d enjoy that. 🙂
August was the first time I “saw” some current Reds players. (Since I live nowhere near either Columbus or Louisville, I was actually following the games on Internet radio.) The Yanks had outrighted Bubba to the Clippers at the beginning of August, so I started following Columbus more closely. The Yankees almost never play the Reds, but the Clippers and the Bats play regularly.
On August 23, 2006, the Bats came to the Coop to play the Clippers. They stopped by GABP on the way, and picked up Norris Hopper. I mean that literally. Hopper had been sent up to the big club for a three-day cup of coffee. (They took him instead of Denorfia because Denorfia had some kind of knee injury.) They were sending Hopper back down again, and since the team bus was passing by anyway, they swung by GABP and got him. Apparently, a lot of the Bats players were asleep or on another bus, because they were very surprised to find Hopper back with the team, and couldn’t figure out how it happened. 🙂
It proved to be a very exciting game. Hopper was in LF, Denorfia in RF, batting 1 and 2. They each made some nice plays in the OF and successfully stole bases; each scored a run.
Bubba was playing RF and batting in the two-hole. (He usually played CF and batted leadoff for the Clippers.) He had a pretty good night. Got a couple of good jumps on the ball that kept runs from scoring. He hit a two-run homer over Denorfia’s head in the 3rd, and ended up scoring the winning run in the 10th. He singled to right and got to 2B when Terrence Long also singled to right. With two outs, Bronson Sardinha hit yet another single to right. Bubba scored from 2B, just barely beating Denorfia’s strong throw from right field. (Poor Chris was kept rather busy that inning.) Game over.
I was glad Bronson Sardinha got the winning hit. His brother, Dane, was the catcher for the Bats, and their family had come all the way from Hawaii to see the game. Neither of them did anything all night. Dane was 0 for 5 with 2 strikeouts and 8 LOB. He botched a hit-and-run and ended up called out on batter’s interfence. Bronson was 0 for 3 with 2 strikeouts, a walk, and a caught stealing – until that last, game-winning hit. The Sardinha family must have been thrilled.