Unafraid of the curse, Joey Votto will appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated on August 30, 2010.

I’m about as unsuperstitious as they come, but I will point out that the last Red to appear on the cover of this magazine was Ken Griffey, Jr., and we all know how that turned out.

It’s a common for magazine covers to have numerals in their headlines. For some reason, plugging stories like “5 Easy Ways to Lose Your Gut at the Game” and “The 0 Best Places for Ball Park Sushi” are just really appealing to readers.

But this cover features only one numeral: the 19 on Votto’s chest. Even the secondary story about the kindergartner-slugger breaks AP style by spelling out an age. Apparently that 19 carries a lot of weight all on its own.

That, and the come-hither look Votto’s giving the newstand passer-by, a smoldering look that seems to say, “Me? Cursed? I’ve already survived Dusty Baker: I’m untouchable.”

It’s the end of an era.

Sunday, Lou Piniella hung up his spikes to spend more time with his family. His 90-year old mother is apparently ailing, and a guy has to have his priorities.

According to the press release, Piniella won three Manager of the Year Awards, including in 2008 with the Cubs. He’s retiring as the 14th winningest manager in Major League history.

Will he be back in a few years to climb up to lucky number 13? Retirement can get awful boring.

Also from the press release:

“to the Cubs fans, thank you for four wonderful seasons. You are the best, most deserving fans in all of baseball and it has been an honor to manage your ballclub.”

Well, I don’t know about that, but it was a nice thing to say.

The Cubs organization has promoted third-base coach Mike Quade to fill in the manager role, and to celebrate, the Cubs went to town on the Nationals. Sure, it’s just the Nationals, but I’m sure Cubs nation is looking for this to spark the team to get back in this NLC race. Hope springs eternal, and that would be a pretty sweet send off for Sweet Lou.

Yesterday, the St. Louis Cardinals lost their 5th game in a row. And from a distance, it does have the feel of a spectacular implosion. Tony LaRussa’s losing his cool and bitching and moaning about the strike zone.

“We had a great chance in the ninth, and MLB can go ahead and fine [me], I don’t care, but there were several strikes a guy as good as Brian Wilson got, he doesn’t need. Who knows how that inning would have been? You know they are supposed to review that stuff and they are supposed to fine you if you say anything about it, but that is just not right,” said LaRussa.

I can understand his frustration at losing. But can you imagine Albert Pujols? Viva El Birdos attempts to, taking into account the recent acquisition of Pedro Feliz and the end of Pujols’ contract after the 2010 season.

what on earth do you think albert is thinking as he looks around the infield and sees pedro feliz at third, felipe lopez at short, and aaron miles at second? “i have arrived in the eighth circle of hell” [except in spanish]?

i guarantee that it is not: “i should sign a below-market value contract for the next eight or so years so that i can ensure that this continues to happen to me.” [except in spanish]

Tonight the Cardinals are sending their best–and bitchiest–player, Chris Carpenter, to the mound to attempt to stop the losing. But the San Francisco Giants are sending out Tim Lincecum. The game is on the MLB network now in many areas, including mine. I would recommend tuning in, for the bitching and the good baseball.

Boxscore

The Cincinnati Reds continue to demolish the teams in the lower half of the standings, yesterday finishing a sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks 9-5. The win extends the Reds’ winnings streak to a season-high 6 in a row, and they’re lead over the second-place Cardinals to a season-high 3.5 games.

The last time the Reds lost was when the Cardinals swept them. I can’t be the only one in favor of no more losses to anyone but the Cardinals. It seems a good strategy for the rest of the season.

The offense was very productive again with 2 home runs–back-to-back wackity-whacks from Ramon Hernandez and Jay Bruce in the 4th–to give the Reds a lead they would never relinquish. In the 8th, they piled on to a bad bullpen, scoring 5 more, all after a dropped ball to left-field with 2 outs. I love seeing the Reds take of errors instead if the reverse, which is how it’s been for a decade.

Yesterday, Travis Wood was recalled for the start, as promised to him earlier. Wood was great, as always, allowing just 1 run in 6 1/3 innings. He got into some trouble in the 7th, but Logan Ondrusek capably got out of that jam.

Carlos Fisher was the pitcher sent down to make room for Wood, but I have to think that Bill Bray is on the edge, especially with his performance yesterday. He started the 8th, but recorded only 1 out from the 4 batters he faced. He allowed one run all by himself, but then Jordan Smith allowed the 2 inherited runners to score, pushing Bray’s ERA to 5.40. I can’t help but think the managers noticed that Bray couldn’t pitch a clean inning against a bad team and will remember it should the Reds reach the playoffs or need a roster spot before rosters expand on September 1.

The win ended the consecutive, 100-plus days that had either the Reds or Cardinals in 1st or 2nd, with the other team 3 games or less behind.