It's Tuesday!

Like who didn't see that coming, right?

The anemic Reds win again. And last night in Houston delivered their best offensive game of the young season. That's three of four they just took from the Astros. Remember, last season, they managed only three wins, total against Houston. The Reds got just enough decent pitching from Bronson Arroyo (who predicted he'd start the season 3-0. You're raising your hand right now and I'm calling your a liar, OK?). The bullpen was terrific again. Dusty Baker showed a lot of courage letting Arthur Rhodes pitch to a couple of right handed batters with the game on the line. Note to all baseball purists: it's OK sometimes to go against 'the book'. Rhodes has earned his reputation of not being a 'situational left hander'. If I'm running the Reds (and on this blog I am) I use nobody out of that bullpen unless they're named Rhodes, Weathers and Cordero, not if the game is on the line.

Now it's onto Chicago for three (unless the weather people are finally right and it rains like Noah-land on Tuesday night). At worst, the Reds will finish this marathon road trip with a break even record. The hitting is non-existant, except for Joey Votto. Alex Gonzalez has exactly two more hits than a dead man. Bruce, Encarnacion, Phillips, Hernandez and that left field platoon of Hairston and Dickerson are all below or just at the mythical Mendoza line (.200 avg for the normal people reading this, not the sabermetricians, of which I'm one). The NL Central is weak. We might be onto something here....or on something.

Big night of hockey Monday night here in the 'nati. Our defending Kelly Cup champs went to double overtime,before beating the Wheeling Nailers. Fun, exciting hockey. I'm a hockey freak. I played it in HS and a little bit at Ohio University. I had season tickets, back in the day for both the NY Rangers and the Cyclones, when they played at the Gardens. There is no better in arena experience than hockey. It's a different bunch of Cyclones from the team that won it all last season. But I think they have a chance to repeat, particularly after last night's thriller.

So, is this the guy the Bengals wind up with at #6 overall in this weekend's NFL draft?

I got no problem if it is. You can talk all you want about Andre Smith skipping out early at the Combine. You can talk all you want about his body shape. He can block and I've been told, he's the strongest man in the draft. A Bengal by sundown Saturday? No problem with that.

Andre Smith ate his way, and maybe talked his way, out of millions of dollars this week. Smith is the just finished junior at the University of Alabama, who just happened to be the highest rated offensive tackle in the 2009 NFL draft. That is, until he showed up at the NFL Combine more than a little out of shape, had a series of interviews with NFL teams that were anywhere from bizarre to disasterous and then left the Combine, unannounced, to return to Atlanta where apparently he'll try to drop some tonnage.

I guess this would be a good time to throw in that Smith wasn't allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl in January, because he was deemed to have had inproper contact with an agent. Great agent, who'd allow Smith to show up at the most important pre-draft gathering impersonating a train wreck.

Smith was supposed to have been the top player in the entire 2009 draft class. My guess is, he'll still go in the first round and probably before the middle of the round. But he kissed a boatload of money sayonara with his non-performance in Indianapolis.

More juicy NFL tibbits from our buddy, Mike Florio, at profootballtalk.com

Now, for something completely different. The hardest working man in show business, the late James Brown. But check out the fresh fresh behind him playing bass guitar. That would be a very young 18-years old Bootsy Collins, proud resident of eastside Cincinnati and a member of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, class of 1997

Recess is over. Tiger Woods returns to competitive golf Wednesday. The line will form over there for second-100th place.

Finally, exihibition games begin around MLB on Wednesday. Aaron Harang tossed an inning of scoreless ball today, in an intrasquad game, then 20-more pitches in the bullpen afterward. It all hinges on him, whether or not this is another 72 win season, or the Reds actually have a pulse ni 2009.