Ever have one of those days?
You know, the type of day where you’re having a difficult time attempting to accomplish what you need to accomplish?
Yeah, that’s me, on this gloomy, drizzly Friday morning.
As I sit down to take a stab at putting together today’s column, I don’t really have a game plan. You might say I’m kinda sorta flying by the seat of my pants — or more accurately, shorts – as I stare at the monitor in front of me.
No, I’m not asking for sympathy.
I’m merely stating a fact; at least it’s true in my eyes. There are some days in the lives of all of us where you feel like you just ain’t got it, and believe it or not, this writing gig can be just plain hard to do sometimes.
In spite of that, I will do my best to trudge through and put together an array of sports thoughts for your perusal.
Just don’t set your expectations too high.
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FALL SPORTS IN FULL SWING – With school back in session in most districts, the hustle-bustle of getting back in the routine are joined by numerous sports getting in full swing as well.
Golf is always the first sport to tee off, and will be the first to begin postseason play. The season has already reached the midway point after getting underway in late July. The Kentucky 2A championships will be played September 9 at the Owensboro Country Club, the region tournament at Eagle Trace in Morehead follows two weeks after that, and the opening round of the state tourney will be September 30 at Eagles Nest in Somerset. The final round is scheduled for October 7-9 at the Bowling Green Country Club.
Action on the pitch began this week, with boys and girls soccer being played around the area, with both Mason County and Fleming County girls teams opening 2-0 heading into play today. St. Patrick is 0-1 after falling to Fleming, and they host Menifee County today.
In boys soccer, Fleming is off to a 2-1 start, Mason is 0-1-1, and St. Patrick is 0-1 going into their game against Menifee this evening.
Volleyball, a sport I know a little bit about, begins play on Monday, and it promises to be another interesting season in both the 10th and 16th regions. The usual suspects are expected to battle for region titles, but the sport has grown exponentially over the years to give the smaller schools hope as well. Those schools place a lot of emphasis on the All “A” Classic, which gives them a better shot at advancing to the state event.
In the 10th Region, perennial favorites Scott, Campbell County, Bishop Brossart and Harrison County will contend for the title along with George Rogers Clark. The 39th District appears to be wide open again this season, but Mason County and Bracken County look to be the co-favorites heading into the season.
Boyd County, Ashland Blazer and Raceland are the picks to contend in the 16th Region, but Fleming County and Lewis County are looking for successful seasons as well.
Another fall sport getting underway is cross country, with meets being run all over the Commonwealth. Locally, it is a sport that has been dominated by Mason County in recent years, but Augusta has made great strides in their program as well. The KHSAA State Championships will be held in Lexington November 2.
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REDS NOT DEAD YET – Despite what you may have read in prior columns by a person who shall remain nameless, the Cincinnati Reds still have some life.
The recent three-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals has given loyal Reds fans reason to hope and dream that this will be the year the team finally wins a playoff series. There’s still a long way to go before that dream is realized, but the Reds are in a decent spot to make the postseason, simply because they play in the mediocre (at best) National League Central Division. Moving up in the division standings happened quickly after disposing of the sinking Redbirds, moving the once
moribund Reds into a tie for second place at 60-61. Neither team can reasonably be considered a contender to catch the Milwaukee Brewers, with both sitting nine games back of the Brew Crew.
But there remains a glimmer of hope for getting to the postseason, since the Reds have gotten to within four games of the third Wild Card spot. The top two Wild Card teams will likely come from the NL West, where the Los Angeles Dodgers are trying to fend off the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres. Both of those clubs have won none of their last 10 games to pull to within two games of LA.
The Atlanta Braves are leading the New York Mets by two games in pursuit of the third Wild Card, as they try to hold on to the last playoff spot despite numerous injuries to key performers throughout the season.
In this guy’s humble opinion, it’s still a longshot, but at least, there is a smidgeon of hope.
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BEST (AND WORST) CINCY SKIPPERS IN HISTORY – We spoke about current Reds manager David Bell in the Wednesday column, and even though the Reds have played better recently, he still gets blasted regularly on social media. In spite of what some of these keyboard warriors may spew forth, Bell is far from the worst Reds manager of all time. He’s also not the best of all time.
Going into the three-game series against the Kansas City Royals last night, Bell had a record of 393-436, a win-loss percentage of .474. Not great of course, but considering some of the talent he’s had to work with over the years, not horrible either.
Several Reds mangers through the years have fared worse than Bell, and a few of those weren’t in the dugout for long. As I show my age again, the name I remember as the first Reds manager to take a lot of heat was Don Heffner. Like Bell, he was a low-key guy, but he wasn’t given a lot of rope. Heffner was dismissed at the All-Star break in 1966, after going 37-46, a .446 percentage.
There have been others who caught the ire of Reds fans, including the likes of Russ Nixon (101-131, .435), Vern Rapp (51-70, .421), Ray Knight (125-137, .477), Bob Boone (190-238, .444), Dave Miley (125-238, .433), Jerry Narron (157-179, .467), and Bryan Price, the skipper with the lowest winning percentage (279-387, .419) since Bucky Walters went 81-123, .397 in 1948-1949.
Not saying it was all the manager’s fault for having lackluster records; much of the reason, as it always does, was a lack of talent. Which is what I have been saying about Bell repeatedly. It’s hard to be a consistent winner when the front office isn’t dedicated to having a winning franchise, and that’s been a problem in Cincinnati for years.
On the other hand, let’s take a look at some of the best Reds managers over the years, and yes, it would be fantastic if the organization could luck into having another Lou Piniella at the helm. Sweet Lou, aka “Pot Roast,” was fiery and a no-nonsense guy who demanded all-out effort at all times. He will always be fondly remembered by Redlegs fans for winning the 1990 World Series, the last time the team accomplished the feat. Piniella finished 255-231 from 1990-1992 for a .536 winning percentage.
Other successful Reds managers include the leader of the Big Red Machine, Sparky Anderson, the winningest Cincinnati manager of all time. The “Main Spark” was 863-586 (.596) with a pair of World Series titles. Fred Hutchinson was a well-respected manger who led the 1961 Reds to an unexpected NL title. Hutch was another no-nonsense guy tragically lost his battle with cancer at the age of 45. With the Reds, he went 443-372, .544.
Dave Bristol had a successful tenure, going 298-265, .529, and John McNamara was an unappreciated manager who was 279-244, .533.
We’ll never know just how many games Pete Rose could’ve won in his managerial career. Before his ban from baseball, Rose was 412-373, .525 as the Reds manager and sometimes player during his tenure.
Davey Johnson, who battled team owner Marge Schott while he was in charge of the Reds, finished 204-172, .543, after replacing Tony Perez,
who was not given a fair shot after being fired in 1993 after going 20-24.
The last Reds manager to finish above .500 was Dusty Baker, who was 470-391, .517 while leading the club from 2008-2013. Baker, like Bell, was blasted by fans during his entire tenure in Cincinnati.
After all, it’s one of the easiest things in the world any of us can do, second guessing managers in baseball, and coaches in other sports. It’s not so easy being the person in charge.
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“Bad days, man, are when you wake up and you just don’t want to do anything. And it’s not out of laziness. It’s just your mentally in your own head and you start beating yourself up before you even take the first step out of bed. It’s one of the weirdest feelings I can describe to people.” – Eddie Kingston, professional wrestler with an apt description of my morning
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“I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English – it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them – then the rest will be valuable.” — Mark Twain
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