Wednesday, June 18, 2008

At the ceremony honoring him for hitting career home run number 600, Ken Griffey, Jr, hinted last night, he'd like to stay in Cincinnati. I'm not so sure that won't happen. Junior, as I'm sure you know is under contract through the rest of this season and the team has a $16 million option on him for 2009. I've said for awhile now, that a likely scenario would be for Junior to remain with the Reds through the rest of this season and the team would decline to pick up his option for 2009. But, negotiations would begin soon after the Reds decline that option to keep Griffey, Jr in Cincinnati Red for awhile, at a reduced salary.

If those negotiations falter, the Reds would simply pay him the $4 million buyout and let him walk. His trade value right now is minimal. Griffey isn't have a particularly good season and his salary is rich for just about any except the big market teams. Knowing how Bob Castellini feels about hometown pride and knowing that Junior is from here, my guess is my scenario is at least in the mix of options for 2009. We shall see...

Chad Johnson finally had his ankle surgery today. It went well. But surgery just five weeks before the start of training camp? It's far too late, so says our friend Chick Ludwig of the Dayton Daily News in his recent "Ludwig At Large" post.

Who knew? Tiger Woods has played the last year with a torn ACL. Now, as he announced on his web site today, he's gone for the rest of this season.

And you've got to love the Bengals refereces in this piece by espn.com's Gene Wojciechowski on the Tiger-Rocco playoff. Will the Bengals ever be able to climb out from under the garbage they've buried themselves under?

Speaking of our men in stripes, 2008 first round draft pick, Keith Rivers, has a rookie diary that he's posting on foxsports.com. They're picking up his blog and reposting it....which, I guess is what I'm doing here.

One of the funniest post game interviews after the Celtics beat the Lakers in game 6 last night, turned in by the Celts' Brian Scalabrine. Check this out.

I'll see you tonight at 6 & 11p only on Cincinnati's Channel 5 WLWT!