Marty Brennaman Speaks His Mind On The Cardinals!

Marty Brennaman (Cincinnati.com)

I can't get enough of this stuff. I do my best to listen to Red's Hall of Fame radio play-by-play man Marty Brennaman, but missed this beauty from last night (Monday, 5/16/11). Marty is known to speak his mind, and that's why we in Cincinnati love him.

Here's a link to the transcript and the audio from last night courtesy of the Unsportsmanlike Conduct Blog on the Cincinnati Enquirer's website, Cincinnati.com:

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/sports/2011/05/17/marty-brennaman-goes-off-on-cardinals/

Classic stuff!

Reds Sweep Cardinals-And The Cardinals Are Whining Again!

The Reds took all three games this weekend from the Cardinals and are now in first place in the National League Central by 1.5 games.

It was definitely a fun series, and a great series for Reds fans. I saw game two on Saturday, a 7-3 drubbing by the Reds.

Winning Duh #Reds http://yfrog.com/h7walmeajFOX19Eileen May 15, 2011 at 16:36

But the real fireworks, which continues to reinforce the fierceness of this rivalry, came in Sunday's game. In the top of the ninth, with the Reds leading 9-7 and one out, Reds pitcher Francisco Cordero hit Albert Pujols with a pitch.

Pujols took first base. The Cardinals had runners on first and second at that point. The next Cardinals' batter, Matt Holliday hit a sure double-play grounder to Reds' shortstop Paul Janish, who flipped to second baseman Brandon Phillips for the first out. But Albert Pujols slid hard into second, forcing a bad throw to first.

The Cardinals were left with runners at first and third, and two outs. Right fielder Lance Berkman came to bat. Cordero struck him out, giving the Reds the series sweep.

That's when the real fun started. Following the Berkman strikeout, someone yelled at Cordero from the Cardinals' dugout. Cordero reacted, yelling something pretty close to f**k you in Spanish back to the Cardinals. OK, I might be embellishing that part, but Cordero definitely had some choice words for the Cardinals.

Ultimately things calmed down. But in typical fashion, the Cardinals whined again after losing to the Reds. Reports are that someone (Cordero fingered Gerald Laird, but TV replays showed Cardinal pitching coach Dave Duncan) took umbrage to the fact that Cordero had hit Pujols with the pitch.

Why would Cordero purposely do that? Holliday and Berkman followed Pujols in the batting order. Hitting Pujols put the winning run at the plate with one out. Even Albert Pujols himself told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he didn't think it was intentional.

But the Cardinals are whiners, and they continue to show it. John Fay, the Reds' beat writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer (check out his twitter account johnfayman) covered the situation along with reactions very well in his blog. Check out these posts:
Reds win 9-7, teams trade barbs afterward

Game talk: Reds-Cardinals reactions

What others are saying about Reds’ sweep of Cards

Fallout from yesterday

More Gamesmanship From The Cardinals' Tony La Russa

Last night's (4/22/11) game between the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals was a complete debacle. The Reds lost 4-2, which was bad enough. But the real controversy was how the St. Louis Cardinals handled the storms that were rolling through the area and caused an over 2 hour delay of the game.

The game started on time. After Drew Stubbs drew a walk and one pitch was thrown to Brandon Phillips, the game was halted for 2 hours and 10 minutes due to very heavy rains.

Why was the game started? After the delay Dusty Baker chose not to pitch the scheduled starter, Edinson Volquez as he had already warmed up once. Matt Maloney ended up getting the start.

Tony La Russa, He Invented Baseball!

Listening to today's Reds broadcast on 700 WLW, Marty Brennaman, Reds Hall of Fame play-by-play man, reported that many people in the Reds camp are not happy, placing the responsibility firmly on Cardinals' Manager Tony La Russa, who may have withheld weather information from the umpires and the Reds. Marty also commented he had never seen anything like it in 38 years of covering baseball. This is all conjecture on Marty's part, but John Fay, beat writer for the Reds at the Cincinnati Enquirer is also suspicious. So is Dusty Baker.

My take? This is a typical Tony La Russa move. But what would you expect from the smartest man in baseball? He invented the game didn't he? He can also decide when and how to report the weather.

Here's La Russa's comments on the subject, vague as usual:

"The information that we had is the same information the Reds had," La Russa said on Saturday. "They said there was a window of 45 minutes to an hour, and C.J. [St. Louis traveling secretary C.J. Cherre] talked to two different people with the Reds and said, 'Look, they're not going to start their guy when we're only going to play a short amount of time.' There was a big enough window where you get ... You just don't want to burn the starter.

"Around 6:40, 6:45, they said, 'Look, we're going to start on time.' I said, 'Well, we're going to start Batista, and 'C.J. be sure and let them know that's what we're going to do.'"

Guilty as charged, your Honor!

Coverage on the Reds official website:

http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110423&content_id=18159306&vkey=news_cin&c_id=cin

John Fay's blog on Cincinnati.com on the subject:

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/reds/2011/04/23/rain-rain-story-wont-go-away/

Reds' Mike Leake Arrested

I'll let the Cincinnati Enquirer take care of the reporting on this.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110418/SPT04/304180108/

I just like the mugshot. Geez Mike, 6 t-shirts worth a total of $59.88 from Macy's?!?! Don't you make $425,000 per year?

Mike Leake's Mug Shot 4/18/11 Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, Cincinnati, Ohio

Hope he doesn't miss a start...

My Blackberry Addiction Got Me in the Cincinnati Enquirer!

Not in a bad way-DON'T TEXT AND DRIVE!

After attending Opening Day at Great American Ballpark, I saw a Tweet from the Cincinnati Enquirer asking for people to respond if they were annoyed with cell phone coverage in the ballpark.

I responded, and now I am newsworthy! Click the link below:

Stadiums rush to improve cell phone reception

Restaurant Review-Hot Doggin' It, Loveland/Maineville, Ohio

Storefront

I graduated High School in West Chester, Ohio in 1981. After college I worked in the Chicagoland area for 13 years. Now I'm back in the Cincinnati area. I guess that makes me a transplanted Cincinnatian/Chicagoan? No matter. The point is that when I moved to Chicago I fell in love with the the Hot Dogs served at the traditional Hot Dog stands/restaurants in the area. 1100 of them in the Chicago metro area alone!

I married my wife Tammy in 1986, and when she moved to Roselle, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago) with me the first thing she noticed was the all of the Hot Dog restaurants. Quoting Tammy in 1986, "I can't believe they serve Hot Dogs in restaurants!" We were used to cheese coney's in Cincinnati, but nothing like they served in Chicago.

Chicago Dog with Everything!

Portillo's and Teddy's Red Hots were our favorite places when we lived in the Chicagoland area.

We moved from the area in 1999. Since then our desire for a great Chicago style Hot Dog continues unabated. A couple of year's ago Tammy noticed an article in the Cincinnati Enquirer rating the best Hot Dogs in Cincinnati and discovered Hot Doggin' It located in the Loveland/Maineville area.

Hot Doggin' It is located in a strip mall very close to Montgomery Road and Fields Ertel. The storefront actually faces away from Montgomery Road, next to a Domino's Pizza. But in the classic tradition, the location (strip mall) is similar to many of the Hot Dog places you would see in the Chicagoland area.

Hot Doggin' It rates with the best of the Chicago places! Everything is made to order. Go to the counter, owner Ava will take your order. David is usually running the grill and steamer. Sit down and within 5 minutes your order is ready. The fries are made to order. They serve a Charburger, Italian Beef, Italian Sausage (combine the beef and sausage with Hot Giardeniera for a real treat), chicken sandwich and Gyros. They also serve a Maxwell Street Polish Sausage (deep fried as is tradition) and Chili.

Front Counter

My wife and I have probably eaten here 20 times, and although tempted by the rest of the menu (and it is all good judging by the satisfied customers, many of whom are transplanted Chicagoans) I always get a Chicago Dog with everything, and an order of Tamale's (Tom-Tom Brand, 2 per order).

So here is how to assemble a great Chicago Dog. Start with a Vienna all beef wiener. Place it on a steamed poppy seed bun. Toppings are critical. Mustard, bright green sweet relish, diced onions, sport peppers, tomato wedges and a dill pickle spear. Sprinkle with a little celery salt. Done! You have a Chicago Dog and Hot Doggin' It makes it a good as their Chicago counterparts. Oh, one more thing...NO KETCHUP!

I encourage everyone to visit, whether you have a Chicago background or not. Well worth the drive to Loveland/Maineville!

Hot Doggin' It
12082-B Montgomery Rd
Cincinnati, Ohio 45242
(513) 831-DOGG (3644)
http://www.hotdogginit.com/

My Home District Congressman is Speaker of the House!

I live in Liberty Township, Ohio just outside of Cincinnati. Liberty Township is in Ohio's 8th Congressional District and our Representative is the new Speaker of the House, John Boehner.

I describe myself as Libertarian in my beliefs, which probably make me more of a Republican than a Democrat in a two party system. But I have centrist views on social issues.

I write this not to generate debate about government policy, or take sides on the key issues, but more to provide a little more background on me.

Getting to the point. It is pretty cool that my Congressman is Speaker of the House. My Mother-in-Law has known John and his wife Debbie for many years. Speaker Boehner has been described as a hard-core conservative and I don't lean as far to the right as he does. But the fact that the 61st Speaker of the House and the person who is 2nd in the line of Presidential succession lives 10 minutes away from me gives me a real sense of civic pride.

On another note, I believe that two political party's holding power in different branches of our Federal Government is actually a good thing. The Republican party now has an opportunity to move their agenda forward, but they will have to figure out a way to work with the Democrats to get it done (and vice-versa). We can also hold the Republicans responsible for their actions, not just listen to their rhetoric.

Here's how the Cincinnati Enquirer covered John Boehner's historic day.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110105/NEWS0108/301050070/John-Boehner-becomes-speaker-of-U-S-House-of-Representatives