The Reds need the (All Star) Break

Miracles need some time off, too

WLWT

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We pause a moment to catch our collective breath. MLB owns the best all-star game by miles, and not just because of its entertainment value. While it still can be fun to watch, the game’s star has dimmed much-ly over the years. Players league-hop routinely, players opt out. The omnipresence of baseball on TV has stripped the Game of any mystique.

Time was, the chance to watch Tom Seaver pitch to Reggie Jackson was worth the three-hour admission price. That was awhile ago. And an All-Star Game without Mike Trout and Aaron Judge — not to mention Clayton Kershaw and Spencer Strider — is severely lacking heft.

No, the best thing about MLB’s stars idea is the break it affords its players.

Baseball isn’t necessarily a physical challenge, certainly not in the ways of football, hockey or even basketball. But it’s a mental Everest. Six games every seven days, cross-country travel, day games after night games. . .

No time to regroup. If you’re slumping, brudda, you better be able to fix it on the fly. If you have a personal problem or a family issue, well, we might give you three days, but that’s it. See you in Cleveland on Monday.

“One game at a time’’ isn’t just a bad cliche in baseball. It’s a survival mechanism.

Contrary to what they might say, the Cincinnati Reds really need these four days away. It’s half-a-week when Ian Gibaut doesn’t have to pitch. (Or warm up, which we never consider when discussing a reliever’s work load.) Gibaut worked in three of the Reds last four games, but it seemed as if every time I paid attention to a game, Gibaut was in it.

He is one of four Reds relievers to have pitched in at least 40 of the Club’s first 91 games.

Jonathan India has played in all of them. You don’t think he appreciates a little time to do nothing?

“We’ve created an opportunity where we’re going to be asking ourselves to dig really deep,’’ David Bell offered Sunday.

As opposed to the medium-sized dig they’ve done already?

It’s impossible to maintain the pace America’s Team has set since June 9, when its record was 29-35. (The Reds are 21-6 since.) It’s almost as hard to maintain the sort of collective focus and enthusiasm needed to do it. These nightly little miracles require a special persistence. The Reds lead the world in comeback Ws, partly because their starting pitchers make comebacks so necessary. This high-intensity work can be draining.

The kids leading the way might say they don’t need a breather; they might actually mean it. They don’t know. That’s why they’re kids.

The Reds Pythagorean record is 45-46. That is, based on their stats, they should be a game under .500, not nine over. They’ve been outscored by nine runs. The stats-based website FanGraphs has the Club finishing 82-80, two games behind Milwaukee, with a roughy 1-in-3 playoff chance.

All that said, the Reds heroics since June 9 have been so overwhelming, they make me wonder if it’s even possible to appreciate them fully.

I wonder if, a generation down the road, we will look back at this blessed stretch of Reds baseball and see it more clearly for what it is and what it might be:

Arguably, the single greatest run of success in the history of the franchise. Certainly the least expected. Subjectively, the biggest smile.

It’s as if three decades of lousy karma is being reversed. It’s not being reversed piecemeal. It’s all at once. Our bad-life bounces even out if we maintain our diligence and optimism. They don’t disappear in a great, big whoosh like this.

The Saturday W was a crescendo of feelgood. It won’t be topped anytime soon. Until it is, maybe on Friday, when America’s Team resumes its flight of fancy.

Enquirer

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Joey Votto’s game-tying 3-run homer would have been enough to maintain the month-long vibe. It became a footnote the instant Elly De La Cruz (Run-DLC, copyright, me) rocketed home when Brewers reliever Elvis Peguero apparently forgot who was on 3rd base. How did he forget that?

All of Run-DLC’s audacity, insouciance and passion coalesced in that 45-foot sprint he made from 3rd to home in the 7th inning Saturday. (He’d already claimed the first 45 feet simply by strolling down the base line.) All that was left was to finish the feat.

It broke the Crew’s collective will, in a big game Milwaukee had led 4-1 at home. That’s what Run-DLC can do. Break the other guys’ will. There was no fight in the Brewers after DLC bitch-slapped ‘em in the 7th.

(Yeah, sorry about that. But that’s what he did.)

One thing sports does inarguably well is make moments that mark the passage of time. Around here, we’re talking Freezer Bowl, Tom Browning’s perfecto and the entire baseball seasons of ‘75 and ‘76.

And now, Run-DLC’s three stolen bases in the space of two pitches.

Will it stand the test of time?

That’s a question only better starting pitching can answer. Starters who pitch well enough long enough, their hitters can stop climbing out of holes every day.

Again: Exhausting and not sustainable.

A baseball team can run on mojo and mini-miracles only so long. The Reds remarkable run is also remarkably fragile.

Best to rest up for the serious business ahead. Praise be the All-Star Break.

Now, then.. .

FOR THE LOVE OF MARTY, can John Sadak puh-leeze dial it back a bit?

His overexuberance threatens to ruin big moments. Votto hit the 3-run bomb Saturday and I worried that Sadak’s head might pop off right there in the broadcast booth. It did, but not until after DLC stole home. Eventually, John’s head was found many miles away, in a vat of Spotted Cow Cream Ale.

“This man is magic. A marvel in his own time,’’ Sadak said of DLC, in case we hadn’t noticed.

(He also decided Brandon Williamson has been “incredibly great’’ lately. For the record, Williamson has given up eight earned runs in 15 innings in his most recent four starts.)

Look, Sadak is obviously well prepared. His homer-ism is not contrived. He seems like a jolly good fellow. But please, just once, take a page from Scully or (Jack) Buck and let a moment speak for itself. Baseball can use your exclamation points. But pick your spots. And go pick up your head.

MEANTIME, Jim Day is an all star. He straddles successfully the ledge between informed entertainer and silly fan and has for a few years. The bit about DLC sleeping with his bat was fun. The players obviously like Day and are receptive to his questions. His back-and-forths with Votto are special.

ACT LIKE YOU’VE BEEN THERE BEFORE, THOR. . . I can’t decide if the helmet-wearing celebration thing is weak or strong. I still think the best celebration is doing nothing. Done it before, bubba, will do it again. I loved it when, after the 3-run shot, Votto and a couple teammates walked back calmly to the dugout. When a player makes no big deal out of a very big deal, that’s a big deal. And just very cool.

Plus, the current props-for-homers thing is played out, doncha think?

Now, then. . .

IT’S TIME FOR BOB HUGGINS to give the rest of his life a chance. That huge task has nothing to do with basketball or rebuilding the coaching legacy he established at UC and furthered at West Virginia. Huggins is now denying he resigned from WVU last month, shortly after police in Pittsburgh arrested him on DUI charges. He’s talking about suing the school to reinstate him.

What a sad state of affairs.

Here’s part of a statement posted on the official WVU Athletics website shortly after the resignation was announced:

Mountaineer Nation:

Today, I have submitted a letter to President Gordon Gee and Vice President and Director of Athletics Wren Baker informing them of my resignation and intention to retire as head men’s basketball coach at West Virginia University effective immediately.

I must do better, and I plan to spend the next few months focused on my health and my family so that I can be the person they deserve. 

I was born in Morgantown, graduated from West Virginia University and had the pleasure of coaching here for seventeen seasons as an assistant or head coach. It will always be my home, and I will always be a Mountaineer.

What does that sound like to you?

About the only thing for sure is, Huggins was right about needing to focus on his health. Police at the scene of his DUI arrest in Pittsburgh last month said he blew a .210 on a Breathalyzer test (0.8 is the legal limit in PA) and didn’t know where he was.

They found two plastic trash bags of empty beer cans in Huggins’ vehicle. This is not unfamiliar behavior from the coach.

We try not to moralize in This Space. We won’t today. But please, Bob, get some help. Apply the same tough-love discipline to your health issues you always applied to your players’ performances. Basketball is over, for now. Give the rest of your life a chance.

TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . Spun this one a few times, but it seems appropriate given the current circumstances in sports around here. Good ol’ toe-tappin’ music.