I Know a Little

The headline above just popped into my head this lovely Friday morning, and it’s borrowed (stolen?) from a Lynyrd Skynyrd song from 47 years ago, which means if you’re a young person, you’ve probably never heard it, or even heard of it.

On the other hand, it has been established on several occasions in this space that this guy is not what I would consider a young person, so 1977 doesn’t seem that long ago. So, some of you “older” folks may recognize the title instantly, and remember that it was a fun tune done by the Southern rockers from Jacksonville, Florida.

The song title also felt right for the subject matter I wanted to touch on before delving into my diatribe about what is going on with the Cincinnati Reds. That would be the fact that the more we may think we know about a particular

subject, the more we still have to learn. In this case, I’m referring to baseball.

While he was growing up, there’s no doubt that my son Chris got weary of hearing my declaration, “I may not know much, but I know baseball.”

The love of the game was ingrained in me by my dad before I even began kindergarten. That love and appreciation for baseball was passed on to my son, and he’s continued the tradition by passing it on to his son, my 10-year-old grandson, Owen.

I suppose I do know a little about the sport, but the older I get, the more I realize that baseball is not something that is completely figured out by anyone, and unexpected, unexplainable, and inexplicable things occur on the field day after day and year after year.

All I’m saying is that if you think you know all there is to know about baseball, think again. Hall of Fame manager Leo Durocher realized it

many years ago, when he said, “Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand.”

Following is just one example before I bore y’all to tears:

How does one explain that when you think you know how a team will perform, they turn around and do just the opposite? Take last night’s (Thursday’s) Cincinnati Reds game at St. Louis. The Reds came limping into the Gateway City, and fielded a patchwork lineup to face the Cardinals, a team that had won 24 of its last 40 games, and risen from the cellar of the NL Central to second place. Logic would tell you the Reds had little chance of winning, but what does logic have to do with baseball?

A team struggling to hit the ball for weeks, the visitors were also playing shorthanded. In addition to having starting centerfielder TJ Friedl on the injured list again, several other banged-up regulars were held out of the lineup. Jeimer Candelario, the team’s most consistent hitter for several weeks, and .277-hitting Jake

Fraley were ruled out due to nagging, but hopefully not serious, injuries.

Clean-up hitter and starting catcher Tyler Stephenson was yanked from the lineup just before game time when he received some special news. The team even got a few moments in the dugout to celebrate the impending birth of a daughter before he departed for South Carolina, where Stephenson’s wife was about to give birth to the couple’s first child.

So, what do the Reds do?

They bang out 16 hits, and wallop the Redbirds 11-4. Of course they do. Just what everyone thought this lineup would do. Yeah right.

The Reds have been getting better production from the top of the lineup in recent days. Jonathan India looks better than he has in quite a while in the leadoff spot, Elly De La Cruz is heating up while making better contact, Spencer Steer is providing much-needed pop,

and we already mentioned Candelario and his hot bat.

Another huge boost came from third baseman Noelvi Marte, who was making his Reds season debut after being suspended for the first 80 games due to a failed PED test. Marte, who finished the 2023 season flashing his potential and swinging a potent bat, should help the lineup immensely. He struggled at Triple-A Louisville, but showed he’s more than capable by getting three hits against the Cardinals in his first game back.

Marte is also an obvious improvement defensively and gives the club even more speed. With him manning the hot corner, Candelario, who was no Nolan Arenado at the position, can shift to a DH-1B role.

Even Will Benson got into the act, snapping a zero-for-25 stretch with a pair of hits, a couple of runs and two runs batted in. It lifted Benson’s batting average to .194, which is

about par for the course for more than a few Reds.

Whether the club continues to play well and return home July 5 with some positive momentum while playing three more games in St. Louis and three in Yankee Stadium remains a huge challenge, but stranger things have happened. The hometown nine could also make a bit of a run before the All-Star Game with a winnable 10-game homestand. The Reds host the Detroit Tigers for three games, the Colorado Rockies for four, and the Miami Marlins for three before the break. Those three teams have a combined 93-149 record as of this writing on June 28.

The outlook for the rest of the season remains up in the air, but the Reds should be able to put together a better second half and make a run at a Wild Card spot. That would appear to be the only goal this team can realistically hope to achieve. I just don’t see them catching and passing Milwaukee to take the NL Central. With

81 games down and 81 to go, the 38-43 Reds sit 10 games behind the Brewers.

Cincinnati needs to do exponentially better when it plays divisional foes, which has been an issue for years it seems. The Reds also need to get a lot more offensive production from their outfield, consistently effective pitching, and play much better fundamental baseball. Mental lapses on the bases and in the field have been difficult to watch, and if that isn’t addressed in a positive manner, this team is going nowhere.

Manager David Bell, who receives tons of criticism from Reds fans (some of which is deserved), also needs to do a better job. Some of his decisions and his mild-mannered approach are at the very least, questionable. He should also transfer some of the fire and brimstone he directs at umpires to some of his players, especially when they aren’t mentally into the game.

Granted, he has and has had limited options for most of the season, and we all know who is at

fault for that. Yep, that would be the ownership and front office, who continue to do next to nothing to improve the club. The free agent acquisitions, with the exception of Candelario in recent weeks, that the front office brought in during the offseason have been less than effective. The decisions from the Castellini family and the minority owners appear to be based more on profit than winning baseball, and it’s doubtful that will change anytime soon.

With all that said, there remains some hope, but the Reds need to finish with at least 82 or more wins to claim a Wild Card, which means at the very least, a 44-37 record over the final 81 games.

I reckon that’s doable, but it’s also unlikely. But what do I know?

Like the Skynyrd boys, I just know a little.

*****

More quotes from Willie Mays: “Youngsters of Little League can survive under-coaching a lot better than over-coaching.”

“Never assume the other guy will never do something you would never do.”

“I remember the last season I played. I went home after a ballgame one day, lay down on the bed, and tears came to my eyes. How can you explain that? You cry because you love her. I cried, I guess, because I love baseball and I knew I had to leave it.”

*****

“We are called the nation of inventors. And we are. We could still claim the title and wear its loftiest honors if we had stopped with the first thing we ever invented, which was human liberty.” – Mark Twain