When Clearly It’s Brad Thompson

I was reading this ESPN article about the Cardinals crowded outfield when I stumbled over this sentence.

Chris Duncan appears ready to reclaim playing time coming off cervical surgery.

Wait, what? Doesn’t one need a cervix to have surgery performed on it?

Reds 2-game packs for spring training games went on sale on Saturday, and I gotta say, this is a *brilliant* racket they’ve got going on. Bundle up tix to your impossible-to-get-into-games with tix to your can’t-give-em-away games and how can you go wrong?

Just take a look at these awesome combinations:
1: Twins and Phillies (not sure what that one’s about)
2: Yankees and Pirates
3: Red Sox and Pirates
4: Blue Jays and Red Sox
5: Yankees and Pirates

All those Pirates games are going to sell out, but no one’s actually going to be at them, since 90% of the tickets will have been purchased by Yankees or Red Sox fans.

They may also be empty due to this little confusion gem:

Daylight time starts March 8, folks!

This might be an OK deal if not for the field manager who will misuse him. I predict six weeks of Taveras leading off, hitting .193.

Cincinnati Reds President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Walt Jocketty announced Saturday the signing of free agent OF Willy Taveras to a two-year contract through the 2010 season.

Taveras, 27, in 133 games last season for the Colorado Rockies hit .251 and led the Major Leagues with 68 stolen bases and a .907 stolen base percentage (68-for-75).

Since 2005, Taveras leads the majors with 207 infield hits and ranks fifth in stolen bases with 168. In 2005 he won the The Sporting News’ National League Rookie of the Year Award and finished second to Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard in the BBWAA Rookie of the Year Award voting.

The night before Redsfest was my company holiday party, and affair that notoriously extends into the wee hours, long after the bars are closed, usually ending up in one or more hotel rooms that have been reserved for this purpose by employees. The day of Redsfest was my son’s basketall team pictures, followed by a game.

In the pre-Dusty Baker days we might have found the will to neglect our son’s budding sports career and hauled our hung-over selves 3 hours to Cincinnati, but this year it seemed like Redsfest would probably be OK on its own.

And so it was, as indicated by this email, mysteriously missing a subject line, that I received from Michael Anderson, Public Relations Manager for the Reds. There were even photos attached, which is the first time I can ever remember the Reds–heck any MLB team–intentionally sharing media. The Christmas spirit must be alive and well. But don’t tell Selig. Though I am supposed to tell you that the photos are property of the Cincinnati Reds.

Redsfest XI raises over $100K for Reds Community Fund

CINCINNATI (Dec. 18, 2008) — Kahn’s Redsfest XI raised a record total of more than $100,000 for the Reds Community Fund.

Proceeds from the annual fanfest, held Dec. 12-13 at the Duke Energy Convention Center, will help the Reds Community Fund continue its mission to connect kids and baseball.

Since its inception in 2001, the nonprofit Reds Community Fund has used baseball as a vehicle to reach out to kids. Whether it’s renovating baseball fields, providing opportunities to kids with disabilities, underwriting expenses for inner-city teams or hosting its “Reds Rookie Success League,” the Community Fund is dedicated to improving the lives of youth through baseball.

Also at Redsfest, the Reds Community Fund presented a check for $50,000 to the Cincinnati Public Schools that will help fund 11 inner-city high school varsity baseball programs along with field renovations at two of the schools and a commitment to add six junior high RBI baseball programs.

Reds prospect Todd Frazier emerged from more than 530 poker players to win the third annual Reds Community Fund Celebrity Poker Tournament. Frazier was awarded the $10,000 guaranteed first prize and agreed to donate his winnings to the Reds Community Fund.

Rich Standridge of Riverside, Ohio won the $5,000 second-place prize, and Angie Weiss of Augusta, Kentucky took home $3,500 for finishing third. Another Reds player, pitcher Daniel Ray Herrera, finished 6th in the poker tournament and donated his $2,000 prize to the Reds Community Fund.

In addition to winning the poker tournament, Frazier also won the Redsfest XI Wiffleball Home Run Contest.

Heather Roush of Delhi Township, Ohio and Brandon Weiss of Vandalia, Ohio tied for first place in the Reds Idol karaoke contest.

“3 Up 3 Down” won the Redsfest Wiffleball tournament.

Two-day attendance for Redsfest XI was 17,038.

Remember when the Reds opened their new park in 2003? They chose what seemed like the perfect sponsor to grace it’s name, too: Great American Insurance Company. Well, maybe not anymore.

Apparently, there was an office fire in Texas that killed 3 people. The company had insurance through Great American. When it came time to pay the claim, Great American went to court, reportedly claiming “smoke that killed three people was “pollution” and surviving families shouldn’t be compensated for their losses since the deaths were not caused directly by the actual flames.”

Wow. The trial is still pending, but it will make me have less favorable impressions when next I see or hear about Great American Ball Park. There are risks in signing away your company’s main image to another, as the Astros found out with Enron fairly painfully.