Chris Jaffe at The Hardball Times is a true master at keeping track of anniversaries and telling the stories of the events that are being celebrated.

And it’s a good thing, too. I can’t even keep track of all my nieces’ and nephews’ birthdays.

Today’s anniversary is of an event that you probably remember: a physical fight–in the clubhouse and on the media’s cameras–between the team’s manager (“Sweet” Lou Piniella) and one of the team’s players (Nasty Boy Rob Dibble).

Can you imagine Dusty Baker doing this? Just tackling, say, Sam LeCure while he’s doing a post-game interview with Jeff Piecoro? I think Pic’s eyes would fall out of his head.

Anyway, Chris tells the story better than I can of how, on September 17, 1992 these two short fuses took out their frustrations on each other. Plus there’s an appendix of other baseball-related anniversaries, including several from the Reds, such as

“Johnny Bench Night – during which the man of the hour plays catcher for the last time & also hits a two-run homer, the team fires manager Rogers Hornsby, Hall of Fame catcher Ernie Lombardi plays in his last big league game, Hall of Fame pitcher & all-time Reds wins leader Eppa Rixey surrenders a walk-off home run to Frankie Frisch, and in a weird one on this day in 1900 the Reds discover that the opposing Phillies are using an electrical messaging system to steal signs.”

You can read more at The Hardball Times.

After Johnny Cueto’s string of bad starts–the most recent being Saturday’s loss to the Marlins–the Cincinnati Reds announced that the order of the rotation is going to change.

Oddly, though, instead of getting rest, Cueto has moved up a day in his position.

Instead of Mike Leake, Homer Bailey, Bronson Arroyo, Johnny Cueto and Mat Latos, it’s now Bailey, Leake, Cueto, Arroyo and Latos.

John Fay speculates that the shuffling will set the postseason rotation as Cueto, Arroyo, Latos, and Bailey. Separating the two hard-throwing starters of Cueto and Latos with the soft-tossing Arroyo makes a lot of sense. Those are the four guys likely to get starts during the playoffs, so it’s not a stretch to assume it’s true.

However, I’m surprised to see Cueto not getting another day of rest. Before the switch, Cueto would’ve had 6 days of rest between his starts. Now he’ll have 5. While it is one more day off than normal thanks to the off day Monday, given how Cueto’s struggled this month, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to give him more rest. At 197 innings pitched, he’s 11 1/3 innings past his previous high in 2010. Some fatigue from all that isn’t surprising.

It’ll be interesting to see how Cueto performs on his next start. I expect the Reds will be watching his inning and pitch count closely. And once the division is clinched–their magic number is 5–I expect all the starters will get some rest.

Chris Jaffe has great piece today in The Hardball Times about a trade that outshines even The Trade for suckiness.

Not only did it rob the Reds of a player they would have been better off to have around, but it gave the opponent (the Cardinals) a pivotal piece in their success at the time (which is something you’d probably wouldn’t say about The Trade).

The year was 1957, and the player in question was a 19-year-old prospect named Curt Flood. They sent Flood to the Cardinals for three guys you probably never heard of: Marty Kutyna, Willard Schmidt, and Ted Wieand.

Those guys didn’t amount to much, but Flood “became a three time All-Star who received modest support in MVP voting a half-dozen times and was the greatest defensive outfielder of his generation. And the Cardinals would get virtually his entire career, during which he helped them win three pennants and two world titles in the 1960s.”

You’ll want to head over to The Hardball Times to check out the rest of the story about the outfield that might have been if the Reds had kept Flood around.

And his story goes beyond that. Flood played an instrumental part in the introduction of Free Agency. This post about his free agency battle is a year old, but 1) that length of time doesn’t seem very relevant when you’re talking about events in the 1950s, and 2) it’s where I swiped the picture from, so I want to give them some link love.

By this time, Reds fans have heard that injured first baseman Joey Votto made another rehab appearance today, this time in the season-ending game for the AAA Louisville Bats.

Votto went 0-3 with 2 strikeouts, in case you were wondering. He is still expected to rejoin the Reds on Tuesday, which makes sense. The season is over for the minor leagues, so there’s not anywhere else for Votto to go.

Of course, he might be with the team, but there’s still no news on when he might be activated from the disabled list. And really, that’s all that fans care about.

On the one hand, I’m very happy with how the Reds have responded to Votto’s absence.

The Reds are 32-15 since Votto last played. That is the second best record in the majors in that span.

But on the other hand, I really miss him in the lineup. At this point it seems like the team is ready to have him back whenever, but Votto doesn’t feel like he’s comfortable returning. I do want him confident in his ability to help the team, and I’d hate to see him hurt himself returning before he felt ready. Manager Dusty Baker has an excellent point on that.

“We don’t want a (Lance) Berkman situation like in St. Louis, where he goes back on the DL or something happens. We want him right, and we have a bit of a luxury the way guys are playing now where we don’t have to rush him back.”

Everybody wants him back in the lineup as soon as he’s ready, but the most important thing is to have him back, healthy and ready to dominate in the playoffs. That and seeing the fastest ascension of a player ever from A-ball to AAA to the majors.

The last big baseball holiday of the year is here already and there’s lot of stuff going on for Reds fans.

Friday, August 31

• Reds visit the Astros at 8:05 p.m.
  Mike Leake (RHP, 6-8, 4.51 ERA) faces Fernando Abad (LHP, 0-1, 3.62 ERA)
• Joey Votto makes one more rehab appearance with the class A Dayton Dragons. The game is at home and starts at 7:00 p.m.

Saturday, September 1

• Reds continue the series with the Astros at 7:05 p.m.
  Homer Bailey (RHP, 10-9, 4.24 ERA) takes on Lucas Harrell (RHP, 10-9, 3.92 ERA)
  (Wait, the Astros have a 10-game winning pitcher? That means he has 1/4 of the team’s total number of wins.)
• Rosters expand
• Watch out NLC: Joey Votto returns to the Reds’ line-up! …or does he?

Sunday, September 2

• Last home night game for the Louisville Bats at 7:05 p.m.
• Reds finish out the series with the Astros at 2:05 p.m.
  Bronson Arroyo (RHP, 11-7, 3.84 ERA) against Bud Norris (RHP, 5-11, 5.01 ERA)

Monday, September 3

• Last home game for the Louisville Bats at 1:05 p.m. Time to call some guys up!
• Phillies visit the Reds at 1:10 p.m.
• FS Ohio is doing something special. Here’s the press release:

The Cincinnati Reds play host to the Philadelphia Phillies this Labor Day on Monday, Sept. 3rd at 1pm. As part of the network’s Labor Day Salute, FOX Sports Ohio will showcase those who work behind-the-scenes at Great American Ball Park.

Feature reporter Brian Giesenschlag will highlight various hard working staff members at the ballpark, including the grounds crew, cleaning crew, ushers and more.

Tune in at 1pm on Monday for the Reds v. Phillies and FOX Sports Ohio’s Labor Day Salute. Reds Live pregame show will begin at 12:30pm.

Quick! Take in as much baseball and summer fun as you can before football gets its inexorable grip on society. Happy Labor Day, everyone!