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View Full Version : Wheeler's Column June 9th - Cincy Post



redsmetz
06-09-2006, 11:00 AM
Lonnie Wheeler's column is another good one today. He finishes in a fun way

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060609/SPT05/606090330/1027

TeamBoone
06-09-2006, 12:27 PM
I haven't been able to get the Post link or the Cincy.com post to work for several days... this seems to happen to me periodically. Last time it was weeks before it started working again.

Could someone please post the actual article? Thanks.

dabvu2498
06-09-2006, 12:28 PM
Whatever Narron said, it's sure working

Column by The Post's Lonnie Wheeler



If baseball made any sense, the Reds' winning streak would have started with Javier Valentin's death-defying home run against Arizona. You'll recall that Cincinnati hadn't scored in the first two games of that series and hadn't hit worth a hoot in nearly a month and had fallen five games behind the Cardinals and looked for all the world like a team headed somewhere in a handbasket, and then came Valentin, pinch-hitting with one out in the ninth inning and the home team a run behind and flat as a third-grade choir.

That home run should have been like Hal King's in 1973, when the third-string catcher (like Valentin), pinch-hitting in the ninth (like Valentin), did the very same thing, only his was a three-run job that beat the Dodgers, who started the day 11 games ahead of the Reds, who would proceed to win 60 of their next 86 and the division title.

Instead, Jerry Narron's ballclub went to Chicago, where the Cubs had been dragging along in their worst tradition, and played, in succession, terrible and terribler. After the second debacle, Narron was ticked.

What he said to his disappearing team we don't really know, because the doors were closed and we're not supposed to know, but the skipper hinted Thursday that it might have had to do with fielding and fundamentals and doing the things required to win ballgames, which are not necessarily the same things that bring bloated contracts.

"I really believe that after the second night in Chicago, everybody was kind of embarrassed," is about all that Narron cared to share about it. "We just played so sloppy. I was just disappointed with the way we played, and I think they were, too."

And that, says the circumstantial evidence, did what Valentin's homer would have in a more poetic world. It snapped the Reds out of their May malaise and sent them ballooning over June.

"It sure seems like it. We won seven in a row afterwards," acknowledged first baseman Scott Hatteberg, just before the eighth in a row.

Inevitably, several of those consecutive triumphs have featured soaring, searing moments. In Houston, there was Ryan Freel's game-saving catch against the wall one night and Ken Griffey Jr.'s critical diving snatch the next. Freel completed the sweep of the Astros with an 11th-inning homer and Griffey started the sweep of the Cardinals with a turnaround three-runner in the ninth.

After a while, it seems, there accumulates a collective weight of such winning drama, which brings on a belief in its omnipresent possibility. It's how a team gets hot.

How one gets cold is another matter, and Cincinnati's May would make an interesting study in that respect. Griffey offered a moment to build on when, in his first game coming off the disabled list, he walloped a walkoff homer against Washington; but the next day the Reds embarked on a five-game losing streak. To borrow former pitcher Joaquin Andujar's favorite English word: youneverknow.

So we're going with Narron's little chat. Most of us have never heard his voice rise above a droning Carolina drawl, but apparently he packs enough verbal punch to cuff around a clubhouse that needs it.

"That was a good time because we were playing like crap," said Freel. "Sometimes things have to be addressed. It could have been done earlier, but he had confidence in us that we could bounce out of it; but unfortunately, we weren't. I think it just shows how mental this game is. It can almost be like a switch."

Sometimes, when the toggle device won't do the trick, a manager has to stand on a chair and change the light bulb. In dire straits, he'll clamber down to the basement and fuss with fuse box. Fortunately for Narron, the Reds' equipment was still in working order and the switch was coaxed with a few well-chosen words.

"Something sparked us," testified Freel. "He doesn't go overboard. The guy barely cusses if he ever does. He stays even-keel. But it absolutely made a difference. We've won every game since he said something."

Win No. 8, 7-1 over the Cubs, enabled the Reds to break their first-place tie with St. Louis, all the while remaining undefeated for June and extending themselves to a dozen games over .500 for the first time this season, none of which would have happened if baseball made any sense.

I mean, did you see them in May?

cumberlandreds
06-09-2006, 01:05 PM
When Valentin hit that homer I immediatley thought of Hal King. King was a little used 3rd string catcher who caught lightening in a bottle and sent the Reds on a remarkable streak. Valentin has basically become this teams third string catcher but has played more than King did. But those two games in Chicago did kiss that analogy good-bye. Whatever Narron said he should bottle and sell it. It has been the magic potient so far.

Jr's Boy
06-09-2006, 01:26 PM
I'm having more and more faith in the Reds skipper.

LINEDRIVER
06-09-2006, 02:31 PM
When Valentin hit that homer I immediatley thought of Hal King. King was a little used 3rd string catcher who caught lightening in a bottle and sent the Reds on a remarkable streak. Valentin has basically become this teams third string catcher but has played more than King did. But those two games in Chicago did kiss that analogy good-bye. Whatever Narron said he should bottle and sell it. It has been the magic potient so far.


JULY 1, 1973…..The Reds make dramatic comebacks in both games of a doubleheader and beat the Los Angeles, 4-3, and 3-2. Hal King’s pinch-hit three-run HR off Dodgers' ace Don Sutton wins the first game and Tony Perez’ tenth-inning RBI single scoring Johnny Bench wins the second game in Cincinnati.

JULY 9, 1973…Reds’ third-string catcher Hal King belts a pinch-hit grandslam HR off Expos’ reliever Pat Jarvis in the 11-6 Reds’ win at Montreal.

King's HR on July 9th was his 3rd HR in 14 AB's since making his first appearance as a Red on June 20th. King homered while in the starting lineup on June 20th.

The second game of the doubleheader on July 1st was delayed by 45 minutes of rain in the second-inning.

Marty wasn't the Reds' broadcaster yet, or he would of went out of his mind. A rain delay in the midst of a doubleheader?? LOL

*

Aceking
06-09-2006, 03:08 PM
Out of curiousity (and feel free to PM me), do you have a Linksys router?

A friend of mine had that problem with Cincinnati.Com, and it was traced back to Liksys, who lists a fix for it.


I haven't been able to get the Post link or the Cincy.com post to work for several days... this seems to happen to me periodically. Last time it was weeks before it started working again.

Could someone please post the actual article? Thanks.

TeamBoone
06-09-2006, 09:11 PM
Out of curiousity (and feel free to PM me), do you have a Linksys router?

A friend of mine had that problem with Cincinnati.Com, and it was traced back to Liksys, who lists a fix for it.

Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.

I emailed WCPO-TV from their website because they offer a link to cincy.com (that link doesn't work for me either) and they are passing it on to cincy.com. They did this for me once before and everything was ok after a couple days (and has been up until now). They never did tell me what the problem was though.

The Linksys thing is interesting... I wonder what the connection could be.

PS -- do you mean the actual Linksys.com website has a fix for it? It can't be specifically for cincy.com... how do they identify the situation so that I can find it?