A Preview of Coming Attractions?

Reds show us what hope looks like

Elly was 8 when this happened. But you get the point.

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For one enchanted evening, the Reds validated every pie-eyed notion you have about the hardball summers to come. Reasons to believe are all you’ve been seeking. Just the smallest belief that the road ahead isn’t clotted with guys filling potholes.

In a season whose motto should be Give Us. . . Something, the Club delivered Tuesday night. Down 3-8, won 9-8, aided by an LA bullpen that believed the strike zone was relative. Young kid McLain driving in the go-ahead run with a gapper to the wall. Younger kid De La Cruz, batting cleanup — cleanup!! — in his first big-league game —doubling, walking twice, owning already a rep so credible, they didn’t give him a lot to hit.

Ninety-two-point-five dispatched two-twenty-seven-point one, on the the payroll scoreboard. It was pleasant.

We can’t say it was some sort of This Date in History epiphany. Baseball rarely offers those. 162 in six months doesn’t allow time for much but regrouping and remembering when the bus to the ballpark leaves the hotel.

What can be said is that it beat losing. It beat another night of the tiresome, annoying trope of effort. They didn’t win, but man they sure tried hard. There is no try, Yoda. This is the big leagues, bro. There is only do.

It was a night of a baby step, because baseball only takes baby steps. It’d be foolish to freight the evening with any significance beyond the final out. The big step won’t be revealed for another three months. If the Reds are around .500 and still in the playoff maneuvering, well, OK. Race won in 2023. If they’re edging their way to 70-92. . .

“It’s clear to me,” David Bell said. “We’re going for it.”

Great. Going for what?

As for De La Cruz his ownself: He wore about 12 pounds of swag around his neck. Someone should tell him he might be good for a few additional extra-base hits across a summer if he shed the manhole cover pre-game.

Media followed his every eyeblink before the game, fans treated him like the fifth Beatle during the game. Nothing motivates an impatient world like the Next Next. That happened here last night. Cincinnati: The Next Next.

LOL

Elly De La Cruz

Truth is, no one will say otherwise. Not today. Elly De La Babe Ruth. Can he pitch?

Big picture interesting and possibly more important than Elly’s swag and swagger: In the past three weeks, the Reds have promoted De La Cruz, McLain and Andrew Abbott. That’s a core for a decade, if it all works out. In three weeks.

And that’s not counting Noelvi Marte and the man who will make typing fingers arthritic: Christian Encarnacion-Strand. The last guy who had me tapping with my thumbs was the Bengals RB BenJarvus Green-Ellis. After about a month, I started calling him That Guy.

It all sounds great, and I don’t mean to be cynical. Well, yes I do, actually. Cynicism is an acquired trait and if you’re not even a little cynical about the Reds and Bengals, you ain’t learnt much.

So, we’ll see. But all we can say for certain is what our eyes tell us. Today, our eyes are smiling. If you’re a Reds fan, seize the view.

Now, then. . .

LIV KICKED THE PGA TOUR’S A- - yesterday. As JR Ewing once said, “Once you give up your principles, the rest is a piece of cake.’’

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan

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Who’s JR Ewing, Doc?

As usual, money doesn’t talk. It screams, bellows and foghorns. With this deal, the PGA and LIV can get out of the annoying business of suing each other and fixate on the only biz that counts: Making cash piles taller than Kilimanjaro.

“We are proud to partner with the PGA Tour to leverage PIF’s unparalleled success and track record of unlocking value and bringing innovation and global best practices to business and sectors worldwide,’’ declared someone named Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.

Bringing best practices to business worldwide? Whose best practices? Certainly not Saudi best practices, which include but are not limited to treating women like cattle and dismembering foreign journalists.

“We've recognized that together we can have a far greater impact on this game than we can working apart,’’ according to PGA Tour commish Jay Monahan. “The game of golf is better for what we've done here today."

The game is better, the wallets will be thicker. The fans will be happy, maybe, that they can watch Phil and Brooksy and Dustin again, without having to spend half an afternoon surfing for the LIV channel.

It’s practically a given now that few inside the ropes/arena/bazillion-dollar stadium give a flip about doing what’s right. Virtue is a money-loser. Hypocrisy is the gold standard. Ask Jay Monahan. Loyalty? Thanks for fighting the good fight, Rory McIlroy. Now get in line in the money queue.

Do we care the Saudis have a despicable human rights record and believe their wealth allows them to do what they damned well please?

No. We do not. Virtue? How quaint.

Here we are now. Entertain us.

Said Phil Mickelson on Twitter: "Awesome day today," with a happy face emoji. Freedom-fighter Phil. Anything that Phil likes, I don’t.

ESPN. com:

"It's insanity," the PGA Tour player said. "The LIV tour was dead in the water. It wasn't working. Now, you're throwing them a life jacket? Is the moral of the story to just always take the money?"

Yup.

IT CAN ALL DISAPPEAR. . . A year ago, Alek Manoah was a 24-year-old All Star pitcher who finished 3rd in the AL in wins (16) and ERA (2.24). Today, he’ll be in Dunedin, FL, a member of Toronto’s entry in the Florida Complex League.

It used to be called the Gulf Coast League. Players there don’t ride busses to games. They hitch-hike.

Yucky Nucky

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BECAUSE TV IS MY LIFE. . . I’m sending out the Succession signal, for a new show to succeed Succession. We’re down to Season 4 of Boardwalk Empire, a B-plus show that has run out of gas. I can only watch so much Jeopardy! and House Hunters.

Is there anything — I mean anything — you can recommend?

Also, we’re leaving for two weeks in Italy a week from Saturday. Anybody got any book recommendations?

FWIW. . . I thought I’d ditched the yardwork life five years ago, when we moved into a so-called patio home, where the HOA dues covered everything related to grass, trees, shrubs and the like. Then two years ago, we moved again, and I’m back in Yard Man mode. Which is a long way of saying electric lawn equipment rocks.

No gas, no oil, no filter, no pulling a cord until I need Tommy John surgery. Cordless, quiet, efficient. I own an electric mower, trimmer and blower. Couldn’t be happier, wished I’d switched a decade ago.

It almost makes up for the $4,200 I’m out because a 200-foot hickory tree decided to die a year after we bought the new house. It’s 50 feet from the estate and leaning in the direction of the porch. If it fell, someone would die. Not only will it empty J. Thinwallet’s wallet, but removing it will ruin half the damned landscaping.

Arghhh, 1st World problems are the worst.

TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . Maybe my favorite Santana tune, at least Top 5, and I love Carlos. They blasted this one at my high school graduation, after all the names were called. They could have played it at the Small Park last night, as fans rejoiced upon leaving.