Firsthand Observations from Great American Ballpark

The family and I attended the first two games of this series and overall it was a fairly enjoyable experience. The drive was long (10 hrs) from northern Iowa, but with two Cubs victories to bring home, the drive back was all right. I noticed a few glaring problems while I was there, though.

1 - As most of you know, Dusty Baker's ship has finally sailed. If not now, it sailed 5 years ago. I believe the Reds of all teams would benefit with a change at the helm especially with that very young core of talent. It just seems as though he has done nothing to help them down the stretch. In the first game of the series, he seemed bound and determined to get Harang a complete game even though he was well over 100 pitches after 6 or 7 innings. There were other things I could mention too, but I digress. Dusty Baker needs to go.

2 . Willy Taveras is a poor man's Corey Patterson (or vice versa) at leadoff. Sure, he can be a difference maker on the basepaths at times, but he's got to get there first. Dusty continues to bat him first though, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle.

3. Props to the grounds crew. On Tuesday, it rained HARD from 5 am to 6 pm without letting up. We were all sitting in our hotel room thinking about what the hell to do because there was no way this game was getting played. About 20 minutes after the rains cleared (1 hr before game time) the crew had the field all cleared off ready to play. Game started on time at 7:10 and went off without a hitch. Hell, the Ohio river was flooding into parking lots and was up to the tires of several vehicles, but there was baseball to be played.

4. The Reds have lost their fans. Clearly there was more blue than red in the stands for both games we attended. The biggest highlight of the night for the Reds fans was when the groundskeepers were straddling their rakes while doing the YMCA between innings. Thats not a good sign. It seems like a ball of negativity around those parts when you mention the Reds.