The only downside to a nonstop flight is when you don’t plan your eating right and end up landing in Phoenix having not eaten a meal in 11 hours. Thank goodness that the Brothers Pizza is close by.

We ordered the pitcher of Bud Light (get the big one, it’s $2 more for twice the beer) and the nightly special: a pizza and wings. The BBQ sauce is really good and the pizza is fab. Just what we needed to recover from our long sojourn from the Midwest.

On the drive home from work today, I tuned into 700 WLW to catch the end of the game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Kansas City Royals. Unfortunately, contrary to the musical tagline, the Reds were not on the radio.

I fired up the MLB At Bat 2011 app on my iPhone in the off chance that the Royals had a feed available, and they did. As I listened, the broadcaster’s voice sounded familiar. Why, yes, that’s Steve Stewart, the broadcaster the Reds hired to fill in for Joe Nuxhall.

I always enjoyed him; he always had one good punny moment each broadcast. But the game was already in the 7th. Surely I’d missed the Steve Stewart-ism.

No. No, I hadn’t.

Devin Mesoraco stepped into the batter’s box. Stewart announced him and said, “If Mesoraco ever has a son and names him after Rocco Baldelli, he’ll be Rocco Mesoraco.”

Oh, Steve.

Cincinnati Reds outfielder Jonny Gomes started some controversy following news of the elbow injury to St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright yesterday. According to Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News, he heard Gomes happily singing, “Wainwright’s gone! Wainwright’s gone!” Mention of this has since been removed from McCoy’s post.

Cincinnati Enquirer’s Reds beat reporter John Fay had a different take on events.

Gomes walked out of the players dining room singing the Karate Kid song: ”You’re the best around. I’ll never let you down . . .”

He continued and mentioned Adam Wainwright. Gomes said he sang “Is Wainwright gone?

Fay then says he didn’t remember what Gomes sang, but obviously he didn’t find it news- or quote-worthy. In fact, when Fay interviewed Gomes later, he said, “I would never wish injury on anyone. If he’s hurt, I wish him a speedy recovery. I know Wainwright. He’s a good dude. It’s a great organization.”

What’s interesting about this story is the firestorm it created online, especially on Twitter. It seems Cardinals fans don’t like opponents being happy when their best player gets a season-ending boo-boo. Sampling the comments on McCoy’s article gives an overview of the vitriol.

“Garbage. That’s what the whole Reds organization is.”

“The Reds can take pleasure in Wainright’s injury. But that won’t change the fact that they are a band of losers.”

“What a piece of garbage Gomes is for being happy about the injury of another player.”

I don’t get it. This doesn’t sound like the “best fans in baseball” to me. Assuming Gomes did say what McCoy quoted him as saying, isn’t that a sign of respect? It’s acknowledging that Wainwright is a very, very good pitcher. I understand the disappointment of losing one of your favorite team’s best players to injury. I followed the Reds when Ken Griffey Jr was there, after all. But the angry verbal attacks from Cardinals fans against the Reds is worse than what they purport to be offended by.

Overall, I think the Cardinals fans have gotten too used to winning to know how to lose. I think that Brandon Phillips’ comments about the Cardinals from last year ring more and more true. “All they do is bitch and moan about everything, all of them, they’re little bitches, all of ‘em.” It certainly applies to a good portion of Cardinals fans right now.

Desperate to keep the streak of days with posts alive, I came in from a birthday party at Dave and Buster’s and checked out the Reds.com page for a tidbit I could write a few lines about before collapsing into blissful sleep. And much to my joy, there was this announcement:

Major League Baseball is casting for an innovative new experience, which will require one lucky fan to eat, sleep, and live baseball for an entire season.

It sounds good at first, but as you get down to the “Responsibilities” you discover that you have to go, say, and even live where MLB tells you for an entire baseball season. You’d be required to watch every single regular season and postseason game in 2011, and given that one of the Qualifications is “Strong organizational skills with the ability to give attention to multiple things at the same time,” I get the feeling you may have to watch several of them simultaneously.

But maybe after you finish living on nothing but Groupons for a year, you’d be ready for the high life of baseball sensory overload. There probably won’t be much time for Dave and Buster’s, though.

Well happy Valentine’s Day to you, too, Cincinnati Reds:

I have never won one of these lotteries, nor has anyone I’ve ever known, ergo I have no choice but to assume that they are an elaborate hoax:

1. To get me used to disappointment. It’s only been one good year, after all.
2. To try to get me to buy season tickets. Sure, I’ll make the 5-hour round trip for each home game!
3. To secure my email address for MLB–whose emails are always identified as a “scam” by my email client and I cannot disagree–so they can offer me “huge” savings, such as 5% off orders over $250.

Bah.