Redleg Lifestyle
OMGReds was at the game on Tuesday night. Here’s a little bit of Chapman’s first bullpen entrance for the Reds, and his total domination of the first hitter he faced, Jonathan Lucroy.
We apologize for the shaky camera work, but we were trying to keep our heads from exploding with excitement. O. M. G.
Miller Park
OMGReds headed up north to Miller Park this week to catch a few games while the Reds were in Milwaukee (or, “mill-e-wah-que” which is Algonquin for “the Good Land.” Thanks Alice Cooper!) The Brewers aren’t having the best season so far, but they still drew crowds around 35,000 for both of the games we saw. And, Brewers fans really know how to rock the pre-game tailgate!
Check out some photos from the trip here.
Kanye’d.
We’ve all seen Bronson flex his acting muscles before. That dude in the backseat of the car playing guitar in the FreeCreditReport.com commercial looks awfully familiar, no?
UPDATE: Leake was scratched from today’s start. He’s getting a couple days of rest because of his workload recently, according to ESPN.
Check out Reds #1 draft pick Mike Leake in action today as he attempts to silence the aluminum bats of UNC in the College World Series.
BONUS: Also check out UNC’s catcher and Reds 4th round pick Mark Fleury.
The game airs on ESPN at 2 p.m.
Photo courtesy of bsstahl, flickr
Brantley REALLY seems to have a thing for man’s man Joey Votto. His obsession reached new levels of hilariousness/creepiness on Thursday night during the Fox Sports broadcast. Cowboy and Thom were in the booth and each had a Joey Votto bobblehead in hand, previewing the giveaway for Saturday’s game. Brantley began asking the Votto-head questions about how he was feeling (he was out of the lineup with a case of the flu). Brantley would then answer his own questions in a deep, sexy, Votto-voice.
It was epic television. I’ll post video if I can find any.
There’s a pretty good article in this week’s SI about Ken Griffey Jr.’s return to Seattle, and what he means to the fans and the team there. The article notes that in many fans eyes, Junior was a big reason Safeco Field was built and kept the Mariners in Seattle when they were rumored to be moving to Tampa.
I enjoyed Junior’s years in Cincinnati. It was nice to see him reach some important career milestones here, and I feel lucky to have watched the best player of the ‘90s in person so many times, but he definitely belongs in Seattle to end his career.
The Reds are offering some new seating options this year, including the Fox Sports Ohio Champions Club along the first base side (formerly known as Club 4192). Part of OMGReds got lucky enough to sit in this renovated section for Wednesday night’s game.
If I could take a moment to quote Ferris Beuller here, “It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.”
Ticket prices are a bit more than your average seat; Club seats are $85 and Club Box seats are $100 – but the Box seats do include two free alcoholic drink vouchers per ticket. With food and (non-alcoholic) drinks included in the ticket price, you can definitely get your money’s worth from plenty of delicious options including nachos, a pasta bar, hot dogs, LaRosas pizza and Montgomery Inn among others. Nom nom nom.
They have a ton of HDTVs all over the place, too. So if you decide to head inside to warm up on a cold April night, you don’t miss any of the game. Plus, while you’re inside, you can check out a bunch of murals commemorating the Reds World Series victories, along with some great photos from the past.
Check out the photo blog for some more shots from the Champions Club.
Here’s a peek at the poster the Reds will be giving away at Monday’s game. It’s a nice visual retrospective on the Reds Opening Day history. OMGReds would have liked to see a few more mustache photos, but it’s pretty cool anyway.
If you’re going to the game, try not to bend the poster as you huddle together with the masses in an attempt to keep warm. Forecasted high on Monday: 41 degrees.
So, if you’re like me, you’ve probably recently asked yourself, “Hey, what ever happened to Todd Coffey? Man, it was awesome when he’d sprint full speed into the game, but he really kind of sucked for us last year. I wonder if he’s playing somewhere else now?”
Well, here are some answers to your burning questions on some of last years Reds who are no longer with us (with the team, that is…not dead).
Todd Coffey
He’s in Milwaukee this year and has a spot in their bullpen. Hell, he might even be a closer in Trevor Hoffman’s absence! WWWWWWWHHHHHAAAAAATTTTT????
Paul Bako
Bako was released by the Cubs yesterday, along with former Red Mike Stanton, who’s last game was with the Reds in 2007. Here’s a funny blurb about Bako’s potential involvement in smashing Sammy Sosa’s boombox to pieces.
Corey Patterson
Corey is in camp with the Nationals, but was assigned to minor league camp on Saturday after an awful spring.
Javier Valentin
Javy was also in Nationals camp, but was recently released and is now a free agent.
In other Nats news, they placed Wily Mo Pena on waivers.
Jolbert Cabrera
Cabrera in camp with the Orioles and is battling another former Red, Ryan Freel for the 25th spot on the roster.
David Ross
Ross is in Atlanta backing up Brain McCann.
Juan Castro
Castro is in Dodgers camp trying to win a job.
Andy Phillips
Phillips is in Pirates camp, but likely won’t make the team.
Scott Hatteberg
Free agent? Retired?
Josh Fogg
Ol’ Fogghorn is back with the Rockies, but was reassigned to minor league camp on Monday.
Matt Belisle
Belisle is also with the Rockies, and he should end up as their long reliever.
Gary Majewski
Majewski and his mane of luscious hair are with the Phillies this year, trying to resurrect his career.
The Reds traded Jeff Keppinger to the Astros today for a player to be named later. Hopefully that player’s name is Reds-killer Roy Oswalt, though I doubt it.
Keppinger didn’t have a great spring training, and never really found his bat after coming back from a broken kneecap last year.
We here at OMGReds are big fans of Keppinger. He always kept it old school with the high socks…I think we’ll miss those most of all.
The Big League Stew blog at Yahoo! Sports posted this Q&A with tattoo artist Mike DeVries in California who does some pretty sweet work, including the Pete Rose portrait above.
OMGReds is now collecting donations so that we can finally get that Corey Patterson tattoo we’ve always wanted.
Here’s a pretty funny story from the Hartford Courant about Bernice Gallego, an old lady who along with her husband own an antiques store. Among the piles of junk, they discovered a Peck & Snyder baseball card of the Cincinnati Red Stockings, circa 1870.
She’s not a baseball fan, but thought since the card was old, she could sell it on eBay for a few bucks. Initially, she listed it for $10, but later took it down when she realized it might be worth slightly more than that. While the value hasn’t been determined yet, some are saying it could go for as much as six figures.
Dear diary, Jackpot!
The article goes on to say that while Bernice was trying to figure out the value of the card, she put it in a sandwich bag and tacked it to her laundry room wall for safekeeping, evidently to keep it away from her pets who would have eaten it.
Now, if you’ll please excuse me, I’m off to an old lady’s garage sale to try to find stuff to sell on eBay for a massive profit.
According to this report on MLB.com, Barry Larkin will become a studio analyst for the new MLB Network, which is set to take to the airwaves on January 1.
It would have been cool to see the Reds bring him back into the organization after he parted ways with Ol’ Leatherpants and the Nationals, but it will be great to see him breaking down highlights every night on TV. And, it looks like we’ll actually be able to see him, as most of the major satellite and cable carriers have agreed to broadcast the new network, including DirecTV and Time Warner.
Enjoyed a Reds win Wednesday night at my last game of the season. Harang was back to his old form with a complete game shutout against the Cards (better late than never, right?) and the Triple-A lineup that Dusty put out there even scored a few runs to support him.
But the real highlight was the epic fail on several fronts when two guys decided to jump onto the field and go for a jog.
They both hopped onto the field from the third base side, around where the ballboy sits. The one dude made a beeline for the centerfield wall and made an attempt to jump up and get back off the field. He didn’t jump high enough, and while we was scrambling to pull himself up he was grabbed and thrown off the wall and slammed to the ground by a cop. Epic Fail #1.
The other guy made an even worse attempt to jump up on the centerfield wall, and decided to turn around and run around the outfield and back to the infield dodging cops and security guards like a young Barry Sanders (except he was not really at all like Barry Sanders). The fact that he managed to elude the cops for as long as he wanted to was pretty fun to watch. Each new cop that joined the chase would sprint after him for about 3 seconds, get winded and give up. Epic Fail #2.
This kid finally got bored of the cops being unable to catch him, and he put his hands up and got down on his needs to give himself up (which you can’t really see in the terrible camera phone picture above). Weak. At least keep running back to where you jumped on the field, or just stand there and get tackled by the pissed off cops. Running on the field and then giving yourself up – Epic Fail #3.
At least they didn’t get tased.
Our boy Mr. Redlegs busted out with some sweet dance moves before Friday night’s game. Here he’s doing the Running Man. Take notes, kids, this is poetry in motion.
Clearly these dance moves gave the Reds the inspiration they needed to sweep the weekend series from the Giants.
Note to the San Francisco Giants: YOU GOT SERVED!
According to ESPN, KTAR in Phoenix is reporting that Dunn has been traded to the Diamondbacks for three prospects, one of which is minor league pitcher Dallas Buck.
From ESPN:
In exchange for Dunn, Cincinnati will receive minor league pitcher Dallas Burk and two other players to be named later.Buck was drafted by Arizona in the third round of the 2005 draft. Once a top-notch prospect, Buck’s draft status fell after had an elbow injury revealed on the eve of the ’05 draft that bumped him out of a likely first-round slot. He had Tommy John surgery last summer and had begun pitching in Single-A this summer.
