Tomorrow, Jamie from Better Off Red will be hosting a lunch at Great American Ball Park, where you can apparently just show up and get free food that you try not to spill on your keyboard while you join the masses of other Reds fans voting for Joey Votto.

VOTE VOTTO LUNCH TOMORROW AT GABP!

In support of Joey Votto, Better Off Red will be hosting a Vote Votto Lunch here at Great American Ball Park tomorrow (Wednesday, July 7) from noon to 2pm ET in the press dining room.

You’re invited to join me and many others as we enjoy some free food and plenty of Votto voting.

We will have laptops available for you to help us vote Joey onto the NL All-Star team. If you’d rather use your own computer, you’re more than welcome to bring it to the event. I promise I won’t break it.

Joey needs your help. I can’t think of a more appropriate place to cast your ballots than the very building in which Joey does all of his fantastic work. So come on down to “campaign headquarters” tomorrow to VOTE  VOTTO!

If you plan on attending, enter the main gates at Great American Ball Park on Crosley Terrace. From there, someone will escort you to the press dining room where all of the partying/voting is taking place.

In the meantime, click here to vote Votto.

It’s nice: you don’t see many bloggers these days with the balls to use the all-caps header. The years it must have taken him to work his way to a Google page rank of 5 do come with certain privileges.

I hope that you can make it. Eat a piece of fried chicken for Jeff Brantley and me. I, unfortunately, will be working in the Indianapolis software company coal mine tomorrow, but the Lean Cuisine I’ll eat at my desk will taste all the healthier with a side of Vote Votto.

A day after Aaron Harang was scratched at the last minute due to back spasms, forcing young Travis Wood to start on short rest, the Cincinnati Reds were faced with the same decision heading towards game-time today.

Harang had chiropractic treatment, but the team had no idea if he would be available to go. Early on, they opted not to send out Bronson Arroyo on short rest. “I could pitch,” Arroyo said. “But it won’t be me. I asked. They said they didn’t want to guys keep going on three days.”

Matt Maloney was flown in from Louisville and prepared to pitch, just in case. Once the team finally assessed Harang’s condition, there was no way he could start. Harang was sent to the 15-day DL, retroactive to his last start. He’ll be eligible to return on July 16. And Maloney was activated to get his first start of the year against Johan Santana.

Was Joey Votto the reason for the creation of the What I Love About series? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I’m not ready to delve into that part of my psyche, so back off. What’s for sure is that I’ve put off writing it, always feeling like I was too tired, my time was too tight, or I wasn’t feeling eloquent enough to do justice to the awesomeness that is Joey Votto.

Suddenly, we are post All-Star voting and in the unthinkable scenario of the league’s best first basemen omitted. Like many people, the fact that this is even possible makes me throw up my hands at the joke that the All-Star game has become–maybe has always been–and if it were just about me, I would turn my back on the whole charade, shake my head at the obvious meaninglessness of it and try to get on with my day.

However, it’s not just about me or even about all the fans (ironically enough), but it’s also about Joey Votto. Guys, this team has sucked hard for friggin’ decade. This is our chance to express our gratitude to the man who has played such an important role in changing that and who has been, up till now, ignored. This guy doesn’t deserve to be left behind just because MLB found it necessary to pimp Albert Pujols and Charlie Manuel felt the need to practice nepotism.

Which gets to the heart of why I love Joey Votto. Because no matter what goes on around him in the league or on the field, he’s going to keep on being awesome. If the world is too blind to see that for themselves, well then we’ll just tell them.

Balloting began immediately following Sunday’s Major League All-Star Selection Show and continues until 4 p.m. ET on Thursday, July 8. The winners will be announced on MLB.com shortly thereafter.

Mobile voting in the U.S. is exclusive to Sprint, Nextel, and Boost subscribers. To receive the 2010 All-Star Game Final Vote Sponsored by Sprint mobile ballot, text the word “VOTE” to 1122. To vote for a specific player, simply text message your choice to 1122. EXAMPLE: Text “A3” to vote for AL Player 3 or “N3” to vote for NL Player 3. Messaging and Data Rates May Apply. Mobile voting in Canada is open to all carriers; fans should text their choices to 88555. Std rates may apply.

During that magnificent 7th inning of the second game against the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds TV broadcasters were seemingly dumbstruck about how the Reds had blown open the game with only 2 hits. Why, just the day before, hadn’t the Reds eked out only 3 runs–and one of them on a possibly missed interference call–with 16 hits? Baseball sure is an unexplainable game.

It seemed obvious to me. In that 16-hit game, the Reds walked all of 2 times. In the blowout win, they had 8 walks, 6 of them in the amazing 7th inning.

Reds manager Dusty Baker hasn’t uttered anything quite as idiotic as that wonderful chestnut about walks clogging the bases in his tenure with the Reds. Maybe he’s starting to understand that they can be valuable.

One thing’s for sure, the Cubs understand their importance. As do all Reds fans who caught games at old Cinergy/Riverfront. “Walks will haunt.” And on Friday, they haunted Chicago.