Good Monday Morning!

Here were are, at the All Star Break and your Cincinnati Reds are a full five games out of first place. And, their phenom is gone for a long time (how long we’ll learn later today) with a broken wrist More on Jay Bruce in a moment.

The Reds have flirted with contending, teased us and ultimately let us down a lot through these first 89 games. But whether you choose to believe in this team or not, they are just a mild hot streak away from first place. As we like to says, in the National League Central, all things are possible, first place and last.

There’s great debate around here, you and I have participated, as to whether or not the Reds should trade for players, or simply trade players away and build for next year. The Reds have been building for next year so often, you’d swear the calendar is stuck on December 31st. If the Banks Project were the Reds, it would have been built and rebuilt twice by now.

But as that debate rages, whether to buy or sell, there a more important thing the Reds have to consider. It doesn’t involve trading, waiting until next year or that $10 million monstrosity it left field called a scoreboard.

The most important thing the Reds, the smart guys in the front office, the most important thing they have to deal with is Jay Bruce. He is the centerpiece of the Reds future, the poster boy for ticket sales, the golden boy as he quickly ascended through the depths of the Reds minor league system. And he can not hit a breaking ball to save his life.

The old line about a struggling ballplayer is ‘he can’t hit his weight’. Bruce can barely hit the New York City area code. Today, he is stuck at .207 The Golden Boy is broken, or at least his wrist and his swing are. Bruce can still hit for modest power (all he seems to be able to do is hit home runs) and he can still throw runners out from right field like he’s channeling Paul O’Neill. But at the plate, Bruce seems to be channeling Adam Dunn. Except Dunn never hit .207 for a season. Came close once, but never like this.

Remember, this is Jay Bruce, the Reds number one draft pick in 2005. Dan O’Brien’s ultimate gift to the Reds near death minor league system. Jay Bruce who had a meteoric rise from single A to Triple A all in the span of less than 200-games. The Can’t Miss Kid with the ability to hit the ball to all fields AND hit for power. His first two weeks in the ‘bigs’ were astounding. Offensively, Bruce has been in a free fall since.

Saturday night in New York, sheer hustle (or a bad break on a shallow fly ball, you take your pick) caused Bruce to suffer a broken wrist. You probably saw the highlight ad nauseum (full warning, I’m showing it again tonight on WLWT at 6pm). The last graphic bone broke witnessed on live television this horrific was probably the night that the NY Giants Lawrence Taylor snapped Joe Theismann’s leg in two. It probably ends one of the most disappointing seasons for a Reds player in their history.

Along the way, from Sarasota, to Chattanooga to Louisville, Bruce had a smooth, can’t miss swing. A couple of Springs ago, as he was working in the Reds minor league complex in Sarasota, I spent a morning watching Bruce take batting practice. His swing was effortless, even and the phenom was spraying the ball to all fields. Bruce was The Natural. I don’t know if it was all God given ability or if a hitting coach had worked with him to hone his swing. My guess is, it was a little of both. But, it was fun to watch him work.

And as I was thinking about Bruce and his problems at the plate this week, it seemed reasonable to me, that at some point in his minor league career, a manager or a hitting coach got through to him, connected with him, helped Bruce find the swing that got him to the Majors. Would it not make sense to send the one time phenom back to work with that coach?

The Reds and Bruce have a golden opportunity now. Of course, his wrist has to heal before any of this could happen, but why not send back to his past to ensure his future? If he’s to play again this season, he’ll have to do a minor league rehab stint. So the situation, perhaps embarrassing to a player under normal conditions, will take care of itself.

Sometimes, sending a player back to the minors to fix a flaw in his game works. The Reds tried it a couple of years ago with Edwin Encarnacion, and he returned to hit fairly well. They tried it with Austin Kearns, and it had no effect on him. Lately, it has seemed to have worked with Homer Bailey.

The arguments against it are pretty clear. One: who else do the Reds have right now that can play right field.? Two: what’s to be gained by sending Bruce back to Triple-A to beat up on inferior pitching? The answer to question one is, no one. The answer to question two is not much.

Except….this is a long term investment in a player you’ve chosen to build your franchise around. Bruce has tremendous defensive talents and can hit for power. His problem is consistency from at bat to at bat, and hitting the breaking ball. Jay Bruce is cost certain for the next three seasons. Financially, it’s in the Reds best interest to make it work. With most young players, it’s a marathon. And Jay Bruce fixed, hitting for average and power long term, trumps anything that’s happening this season.

Friday, I called Pete Rose and asked him to join me on my Sunday morning radio show on 700 WLW in Cincinnati. Rose agreed to an interview. But before agreeing (I had left voice mail for him and didn’t realize he had done this before he returned my call) Rose placed a call to the Reds clubhouse in New York, at Citi Field. He wanted to speak personally with Bruce. They talked about hitting for about 20-minutes on Friday night. Rose told me, he gave Bruce six minor adjustments to work on, but emphatically told the young outfielder do NOT change your swing. That. Rose says, is suicidal for a hitter. He also told Bruce to not believe that he’s in a slump. Rose maintains if a pitcher believes a hitter is in a slump, he’ll own him. It’s a ‘lull’, Rose says, that Bruce must believe he’s in the middle of. He says he promised Bruce he’d watch his games over the next week or so and call him back with some more advice. Now, of course, that’s on hold. But if Jay Bruce wants to return to the kind of hitter he was in the minors, maybe it’s worth his while to buy a plane ticket to LA and seek out Rose for some personal coaching. Why not? The Hit King has already taken an interest

Listening to the "Extra Innings Show" on 700 WLW earlier tonight, I heard host Doc Rodgers make a good point. Bronson Arroyo had just picked a complete game shutout against the Mets. This is the same Bronson Arroyo who had been lit up for ten runs in less than an inning a couple of weeks ago. Rodgers question: where's the middle ground. His contention was, it's great to see Arroyo pitch a complete game shutout. But what a team needs more than that, is for a pitcher to give a consistent effort. Sometimes, it's better if you know you pitcher will toss six innings of three or four run baseball, rather than have a pitcher who careens from one extreme to the other.

It helped that Arroyo was pitching against the Mets, a team so decimated by injuries it can barely scrape together a legitimate major league line up.

Just posted on my web site, www.kenbroo.com is my latest Broo View Podcast. My guest in this episode is Michael Lombardi, former NFL front office executive and currently one of the featured writers on www.nationalfootballpost.com. We talk about the prospects of a long holdout by Bengals first round draft pick, Andre Smith. You can find it on the front page of www.kenbroo.com.

Among my guests this week on Sunday Morning Sports Talk will be Hit King Pete Rose. I want to ask him about how he'd fix Jay Bruce, the man who never met a breaking call he could hit.
My show airs on 700 WLW in Cincinnati. If you don't live around here, you can always listen on line, on 700wlw.com.

Have a great weekend!

Outscored 32-2 in their last two ballgames. You can look at that stat and say the Reds starting pitching has failed them. And, you'd be right. But the way I choose to look at it is this way: the Reds can't score runs. And it's that lack of offense that's been the chronic problem this season. We've gone over this, ad nauseum: the Reds failed to replace the offense that Adam Dunn took with him when he was traded away last August.


Some have mistaken my criticism of their lack of offense with some sort of man crush on Dunn. Not true. I could care less where they found the 100 runs and 100 rbi that Dunn consistently produced while a Cincinnati Red (he's ahead of that pace this season, incidentally). They simply needed to find someone(s) who could replicate it. Remember, this team was offensively challenge even with Dunn last season. Instead, the Reds pursued Willy Tavares, throwing $6.8 million of Bob Castellini's money at a player they might've been able to sign for the major league minimum, had they waited a week or two. Tavares, as expected, has been a huge disappointment. Instead, the Reds put a $10 million scoreboard in left field, rather than a $10 million dollar player in left field. Bobby Abreu signed with the Angels for $6 million. He probably figured he had a good chance of getting a World Series ring in LA. But if the Reds had offered him $8 million, would he have signed here? We'll never know.


And why did the Reds spend $10 million on a new scoreboard, when the old one was just six years old? Because, apparently, they couldn't find parts needed to repair it. Here's a question: why would you buy a scoreboard from a company that can't supply replacement parts, just six years after sale? Worse, the graphics on the scoreboard appear to have been done by a third grader, using an ancient Apple III computer. And there aren't enough replays. But those are stories for another day.


All the Reds needed to do was find a free agent outfielder who could bridge the gap between now and when Drew Stubbs is ready for the majors. Stubbs is in AAA now, and probably a Cincinnati Red within a year. This is a classic example of a missed opportunity.


We keep hearing the Reds big year will be 2010, not 2009. Really? Says who? Are you sure your core players will have the kind of season they'll need to have in 2010? Are you sure your key players won't experience injuries that will keep them shelved for part of 2010? The future is promised to no one, not even baseball teams.


The best line about all of this was uttered last weekend. I don't know by whom, because I heard it second hand. Here it is: a team doesn't pick when it will contend. When it will contend, is picked for it. In sports, you must seize the moment. The Reds didn't. And had they, 2009 might have been the first playoff year since 1995. Sadly, it doesn't look like it will be.

Good Monday Morning!

We were talking about this the other night, down at channel 5, watching Albert Puljos round the bases after his grand slam that crushed the Reds: the phrase in baseball called “by the book”. This compilation of strategy or codes or whatever it is that fuels managers and drives fans crazy sometime. “By the book”, is there a book? When was it written? Who wrote it? Can you find it at Barnes and Noble or do you have to order through Amazon?

Stacking your line-up with left handed bats when the other guy is throwing a right handed pitcher. Why? Alternating lefties with righties in your batting order. Says who? If the other guy sends up a left-handed batter late in the game, why do you have to go to your bullpen to bring in a left handed pitcher? Where is that written? Did Moses bring down from the mountain an eleventh commandment?

I get the feeling that most major league managers go ‘by the book’, and the numbers. Numbers dictate everything in baseball. You walk into Dusty Baker’s office, or Tony LaRussa’s office, even the great Joe Torre’s office and he’s got every stat imaginable at his finger tips. How does Albert Puljos hit right handed pitching. Answer: great. How does he hit left handed pitching: answer, great. How well does Rick Ankiel hit Bronson Arroyo, Nick Massett, Francisco Cordero. It’s all there. Numbers. How well do right handers hit off Arthur Rhodes. If Rhodes is in the game and LaRussa sends Khalil Greene up to pinch hit, does Baker bring in a righty to face him? Or does Rhodes have a decent track record when facing Greene?
This is what living in the intel Pentium processor age has given us.

Makes you wonder what Casey Stengel, or Sparky or Billy Martin would have done with this. My guess is, throw it out the window. But that’s only a guess.

I was working in Tamp years ago and met up with Sparky at the 1984 World Series. His Tigers were in the process of beating the Padres in that particular series. I told him, I had just run the numbers into a computer that we had at the television station, his 1984 Tigers against the 1975 Reds. Six game series, I told Sparky, your Tigers win in six. He told me to get a new computer. Actually, what he said was, ‘no computer ever won a baseball game’.

Which gets me back to this thing we were talking about the other night at channel 5, me Vogel, one of our directors and whoever else happened to walk by. Puljos had just hit that grand slam home run, and I raised this question: why not just walk the guy? Ok, the bases were loaded. You’re conceding a run. But you’re up three with one out in the eighth. There’s not another bat in that Cardinals line-up that could beat you. Walk Puljos and take your chances.

We were split, 50-50- on that. One side thought I was nuts (which I might point out is confirmed at channel 5 on a daily basis) the other half thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea. Seems to me, years ago, Jack McKeon did something similar with Mark McGwire, not with the bases loaded, but intentionally walking McGwire, and putting the go ahead run in scoring position.

So what’s wrong with taking the bat out of Puljos’ hands and playing the percentages. In fact, I looked it up. In modern day baseball, 20th century and up until now, only three batters have been intentionally walked with the bases loaded: Nap Lajoie, of the old Philadelphia A’s (Hall of Famer, I might add), former Chicago Cub Bill Nicholson and Barry Bonds. Bonds got a bases loaded free pass in 1998. The Diamondbacks had a 8-6 lead on the Giants in the ninth. Arizona manager, Buck Showalter ordered his pitcher to intentionally walk Bonds with the bases loaded. It made the score 8-6. Took the bat out of Bond’ hands. Next up was Brent Mayne. Line out, game over. I kind of wish Chris Spier, the Reds’ bench coach had that information, so he could’ve whispered it to Dusty Baker. A little refresher course for Dusty, who was managing the Giants at the time.

Am I wrong in suggesting that it might have been something for Baker to consider? Does it really fly in the face of what your supposed to do as a manager? In football, the first thing a defensive coordinator does when he begins to game plan for an opponent, is figure out how to neutralize the other team’s best offensive player. Is baseball that different? Rule number one, in any team sports is don’t let the other guy’s best player beat you.

Am I wrong in thinking this way? Please, tell me. If you were Baker, would you have intentionally walked Puljos? I don’t think he was wrong for not doing it, because that’s what ‘the book’ says. And in this day of replays, sportscenter, columnists, blogs and yes, sports talk radio, a manager takes his professional life in his hands by going against ‘the book’.

Stats and tendencies, match-ups and advantages drive baseball managers in this day and age. But sometimes, like any job in life you have to go with what your ‘gut’ tells you. My gut tells me walking Albert Puljos Friday night was the way to go. I had no skin in the game, so it makes my position a lot less important than the way Baker played it. Dusty went by the book. I’ll bet if you asked him today, just you and him, no cameras, microphones or anyone else within earshot, bet you if you asked him ‘should you have walked Puljos in that situation’ and become only the 4th manager since 1900 to do something like that, I’ll bet his answer today would be, not a bad idea.

Four 'slams' this season for Albert Puljos and you pitch to him with the bases loaded? Up three in the 8th? Sorry, rule one in sports is this: never let the other guy's best player beat you. I'd have taken a page out of Trader Jack McKeon's book and walked Puljos, concede the run and try my luck against a .237 hitter. You're still up two and breathing.

You'll remember this loss in September, I'll guarantee it.

Latest Broo View Podcast is posted at www.kenbroo.com. It's on the front page of my web site. My guest this time is college football prognosticater, Phil Steele. On the fly? Download it here.

If ever there was a case for the Reds to add a legitimate 'bat', you saw it Tuesday night. Johnny Cueto pitched another strong ballgame. He went six, allowed only one hit and whiffed eight. He wound up getting the win, a dicey 1-0 decision over the Arizona Diamondbacks. But how many games do you win with only one run? How many times have we seen the Reds score only one run this season.

If they Reds had done what they needed to do this off season, add a productive hitting outfielder who could fill the 4th or 5th spot in the batting order, it's my guess that this team would be in first place in the NL Central, by a comfortable margin. Go back and look at the number of times the Reds lost ballgames simply because they couldn't get a base hit when needed (situational hitting). Look at how they did when Joey Votto was away getting his head straight (8-14). Now, what would have happened if the Reds had made that deal with the White Sox for Jermaine Dye, or if they had made a run at Bobby Abreu? We'll never know.

Instead, they dropped $6.8 million on Willy Tavares, a player they might've been able to sign for close to the major league minimum had they waited a few weeks. Instead, they elected to sign the far too injured Edwin Encarnacion to a two year deal (two years???). Instead, they bottom fed for players like Laynce Nix and Jonny Gomes. Instead, they spent $10 million on a scoreboard in left field, rather than spending $10 million on a left fielder. Abreu signed with the Angles for $6 mil. He might not have come here for that, but would he have signed for $8 million? Again, we'll never know.

Reds owner, Bob Castellini, who probably took a large bath last summer when the tomato scare hit the USA, watched the economy go into the dumper in September, looked at his season ticket sales and put his checkbook back in his pocket. Dye would have cost $11 mil, Abreu less than that, but not much. So instead of the bluster we got from the Produce King in 2006, the stuff about winning championships now, we got a lot of 'building for the future'.

I like Castellini, a lot. But excuse me, we've been hearing about the future ever since Davey Johnson was run out of town by Marge Schott in 1995.

Here's the thing about professional sports: there is no future. You, me, Castellini, no one can predict what 2010 or 2011 will bring. Did anyone see Edinson Volquez being a shadow this year, of what he was in 2008? Anybody predict that Votto would go through what he did this season? It's why when you're close, you give yourself the best shot to win in the here-now. The Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox and Cubs do it every year. But smaller market teams play that game too. What did Milwaukee do last year when it got close? It went out and got pitcher CC Sabathia. The Brewers didn't win the World Series. But they made the playoffs. And though they had to trade one of their best prospects to the Indians to get CC, it certainly hasn't hurt that team's ability to contend this year, has it?

In professional sports, there is only one thing that counts: winning. If the Reds really want to win, if Castellini really wants to be taken seriously by the fans of his team, he'll 'green light' his general manager to make a move, a big move that will separate the Reds from the pretenders.

We're waiting. But then again, we have been since '95, haven't we?

Just back from a quick trip to the East Coast. Did New York, theatre, couple of restaurants and the obligatory diner trips. And I also caught a ballgame, the Mets against the Cardinals at Citi Field. Great new ballpark, resurrecting the style and thankfully not the smell of the old Ebbets Field. I’m not old enough to remember the Brooklyn Dodgers, but apparently Brooklyn and Ebbets Field had a smell all their own.

Anyhow, I watched the Mets smoke the Cardinals 11-0 on Wednesday night and then get trounced themselves by the Yankees on Friday night. And out there, the fans are just like you and me. Well, OK, perhaps we don’t use four letter words as verbs as much as they do. But in the sense that fans want their teams to win and want action if they don’t, we’ve got some common ground with New Yorkers.

The Mets are banged up. They want their general manager to make a deal, today, last Thursday if possible, to get another big bat in their line up. The Yankees have some pitching problems, they want another arm for the rotation, couple for the bullpen and if their GM can find someone to replace outfielder Xavier Nady, great, go get him.

Like you and me, maybe, fans out there believe there are teams and GM’s all over baseball just waiting to be fleeced. They get a star player or two for a couple of broken down veterans and minor leaguers that are more like suspects instead of prospects.

You know, like Edwin Encarnacion and Mike Lincoln in exchange for Kevin Youkilis.

So I’m sitting at this game and the guy next to me strikes up a conversation. Wants to know where I’m from. I guess I didn’t look or act like a ntative, even though I spent 17-years of my life, a long time ago, living in that area of the country. Guy says, ‘Cincinnati?’ I said ‘yeah’. And after we got by the initial jokes of Bengals arrests and Pete Rose’s gambling, he wants to know if Aaron Harang was available. Because he’d heard on a sports talk radio show out there that the Reds would be willing to deal Harang to the Mets in exchange for somebody named Argemis Reyes and a left handed pitcher in Double-A who had just blown out his elbow. You think sports talk radio is anything around here? Out there think Lance McAllister on steroids, 24-7, 365.

So anyway, I tell this guy Sal, from Bensonhurst, I said I didn’t think Harang’s available,,but after checking Harang’s pitching line the next night, I began to think it wasn’t such a bad idea.

But the truth is nobody is trading anyone right now. And yeah, every fans wants action, deals, call ups, try outs, imports from Japan. But it won’t happen, not yet anyway. Look at the standings today. 14 teams are within 6 games of the lead, or closer. Even more can still think of themselves as wild card contenders. The Reds are at ‘500’ and only 2.5 games back, and right in the thick of things in the National League Wild Card Race.

Deal now and get what, from whom? This is the time of the year when baseball resembles a contract negotiation. Neither side wants to make the first move. How much do you want? What are you offering? Who’s on first? I got it, you take it. That’s why mid season deals are done as close to the trading deadline as possible. Teams that need will offer more, teams that are out of it will take less than what they will now, a little more than a month away from deadline day.

What you get now is Norris Hopper for Corky Miller, not even a seismic blip in Louisville.

Barring a total implosion, the Reds are going to be in this race at least until the trade deadline. So you have to figure a trade for an upgrade will be coming. But the question is, at what price? Bailey? Stubbs? Arroyo? Pick a name. But make sure it’s a good one. That’s the only way you’ll get someone coming here, who’ll be good enough to help.

Every so often, the Reds have night like last night. They put up five or more runs and you think everything is going to be OK. But it’s not. They pay the price, far too often, of not addressing their glaring offensive needs in this past off season. They pay the price for letting their farm system go into atrophy in the mid-90’s to 2003. And now, if they really want to win this season, they’ll pay the price. It’s the cost of doing business.

Random thoughts on a random Friday...

I guess Joey Votto is OK again. Last night's effort in Toronto was all the reason you need to believe he's OK again....

If the Reds want to be taken as serious contenders, they'll need to take two of three from the Indians this weekend. Cleveland is a bad ballclub. I'm not sure how much better the Reds are. But they're certainly better than the Indians...

And, of course, now that the Reds have reacquired catcher Corky Miller, all things are possible, aren't they?.....

Is Jay Bruce this year's Adam Dunn? Check the stats: HR total good, RBI total not bad, batting average in the toilet. Defensively, Bruce is much better than Dunn. But at the plate, he appears to be channeling the former Reds....

Spending time in New Jersey this week and took in the Mets vs Cardinals on Wednesday night. The Mets' new park, Citi Field, is beautiful, much along the lines of the new stadium in DC. It s archtecture would remind those of you who remember Ebbets Field (not me, not old enough) of the old Brooklyn Dodgers stadium. There are monuments and tributes everywhere to the old Dodgers. After finishing Lee Lowenfish's exellent work on Branch Rickey, Citi Field is the kind of park the old Dodger GM and part owner envisioned. Had the city of New York built this kind of stadium in 1955 (without, of course, the amenities that only the year 2009 can deliver) there might not have been an LA Dodgers...

Also, the Mets can hit the ball, decimating the Cardinals pitching for eleven runs the night I attended....

Dined at New York's legendary steak house, Gallagher's on Thursday night and then went directly across 52nd street to the August Wilson Theatre for the 8p curtain of Jersey Boys. The musical was its usual phenominal self. Second time I've seen it, the first at the Aronoff in May, 2008. The steak wasn't all that great. The Precinct has nothing to worry about. Did a couple of diners here, too. The uniquely NJ treat of a Taylor ham and egg sandwich on a roll was delightful at the Nutley Diner. Hot apple pie ala mode at one of my old haunts, the Arlington Diner was as remembered.....

The Bengals report to training camp on July 30 with a first workout on the 31st. They break camp in Georgetown, KY on August 18. By my Ohio University math, that's 19-days. Question to Mike Brown: what's the point? Mike likes to count nickels. It is really worth the time, trouble and expense to pack up your franchise and haul it an hour south just to spend less than three weeks there? Save your money. You're only allowed 80 players on your camp roster. That's 40 hotel rooms. You'd be helping the greater Cincinnati area economy in the process....

Xavier's Derrick Brown went 40th in last night's NBA draft. He better get a passport. I see Europe in his future. Maybe not this year or next, but someday. Brown, who looked like a lottery pick in November, needs to refine his inside game. I'm just sayin.....

Just read where Southwest Airlines will open up shop at LaGuardia Airport in NYC beginning Sunday. So when do we Cincinnatian get the honor of having that discout airline at CVG. OK, thank you Delta one more time. $15 to check a bag now when you fly with 'the monopoly'. That's on top of some of the highest priced tickets in travel....

The "King Of Pop" dead at 50. Elvis died at what, 43? The media and the lawyers had a field day when Elvis went. Why am I thinking the same thing is about to happen again?....

Farrah Fawcett gets bumped to page 2. If you're a male and under 50, she had a lot more affect on you than the "King Of Pop".....

On my radio show this Sunday on 700 WLW, my guests include NFL player agent, Jack Bechta. We'll debate the merits of an 18 game regular season. Also, former Reds GM Wayne Krivsky joins me. I've got some other things up my proverbial sleeve too. I'm on from 9am-Noon ET...

Sunday night at 11:35p on WLWT, it's Sports Rock! Mo Egger from WLW & 1530 Homer joins me.

Have a great weekend!

As we've witness tonight, Joey Votto's return to the Cincinnati Reds is no panacea. It will take him time to get used to the speed (and pitching) at the Major League level. And it's not like the Reds had a whole lot of offense before he left to battle his stress related illness. Like Adam Dunn or not, he took 100 runs and 100 rbi with him when he left. And the Reds front office simply failed to replace that offense. We got a $10 million scoreboard in left field, instead of a $10 million player. We also got Willy Tavares for $6.8 million, but that's another story.

If you're a Reds fan, your greatest fear is that while Votto was away, the division was there for the taking. No NL Central team had enough to put space between itself and the rest of the pack. Would the Reds had been able to do with Votto in the line-up? That will be debated all next off season, if the Reds fail to qualify for the post season playoffs.

Just published on my web site, www.kenbroo.com is the latest Broo View Podcast. This episode features an in depth interview with Forbes Magazine's Tom Van Riper. We discuss the not so out of the question possible strike that could be looming in the NFL. In a hurry? You can download the show here.

Good Monday Morning!

Bob Castellini is taking some public hits. Fans are upset with the way his ballclub is put together. Some of us would rather have had a ten million dollar ballplayer in left field, rather than a ten million dollar scoreboard, particularly one where there aren’t enough replays and the graphics appear to have been done on an Apple 3 computer.

But give the produce King this, he knows Cincinnati, and he appreciates the history that is Cincinnati Reds baseball. That’s the thing about baseball, it’s all about history. We revel in the stats, the stories, the players. Football offers us the national pastime, anymore. Basketball allows us to see the superstars closer and in more detail than any other sport. But baseball is the total story, weaved together by stats, by stories and by its history. You probably couldn’t name the starting defensive tackles on the 1992 Cincinnati Bengals. Hell, as bad as that team was, why would you want to/ But I’ll bet you know that the 1992 Reds finished 18 games above ‘500’, and that their starting outfield was Bip Roberts in left, Dave Martinez in center and Paul O’Neill in right.

For the record, the starting defensive ends on the 1992 Bengals were Lamar Rogers and Alonzo Mitts.

This week, the produce King welcomed the baseball world to Cincinnati for the Civil Rights Game. By all accounts the weekend was a slam dunk hit. The fly by media actually stopped in Cincinnati for once. Some big names in sports spent the weekend here and we got some good national pub.

But here’s what I saw that I liked. I saw Frank Robinson, embraced by Cincinnati again and willing to be so. As late as five years ago the chances of that happening were about as good as you landing on Mars. Robinson was run out of here in 1966, called an old 30 and in return from the Orioles, the Reds got a box of jock straps and Milt Pappas. We know what Robinson did when he got to Baltimore. We also know that he never forgave Cincinnati, or the misguided bunch that traded him away.

Robinson went onto make a little history himself, becoming baseball’s first black manager, and winning another MVP award wearing an Orioles uniform. He moved on to other jobs in baseball and we moved onto the Big Red Machine, other heroes, other stories. He didn’t like us all that much and we simply forgot about him. Except when Castellini picked up the phone a few months ago and reached out to him. Told Robinson it was a new day here, that he, Castellini was a Cincinnati born and bred guy and that, like a lot us, went to Crosley Field and watch Robinson do his magic act that baffled opposing pitchers.

In the roundtable discussion Friday at the Freedom Center, and last night on the radio and TV, you’d have thought Frank Robinson was Cincinnati’s official ambassador to the game of baseball. Good lesson from the produce King: extend an olive branch and you may wind up with a vineyard.

The other thing I saw this week that I liked a lot was Eric Davis, in uniform and working with the current Reds. To those of us who need a refresher court, Eric Davis went over the wall to rob the opposing batters of home runs, had remarkable speed in the field and on the bases, led the Reds to a wire-to-wire World Series win in 1990, lacerated a kidney in the process, hired his own private plane to fly back from Oakland when his doctors told him he should not fly commercial, and we won’t even get into what Marge Schott was overheard calling him.

Oh, and he beat cancer along the way, playing in major league baseball games the same day he took chemotherapy. Try that sometime and see how you do.

He also infuriated a lot of us because we thought he held his hands too low at the plate and seemed to come up with muscle ailments far too often.

But he was good, damn good and the wire to wire thing ought to be a ‘get out of jail free’ card with all of us.

But like Robinson, Davis was estranged from this Reds organization too. Too often, he’d come into town to see his friends and we’d wonder why the Reds couldn’t find a place for him, anywhere, somewhere.

Castellini found a place. Special assistant to the president, is Davis’ title. The title is insignificant. The real story is a reconnection with history. The Produce King figured it out. Under Marge Schott, under Carl Lindner, the Reds really never had any interest in it.

In a 300 television channel universe, in a DINS world….and you know what D-I-N-S means….in a climate where even if we have a job, we worry constantly if we’ll keep it, the appreciation, let alone the knowledge of it is a luxury to a lot of us. But to the business, and the sport, of baseball. In a lot of ways, history is baseball’s life blood. It was good to see Hank Aaron here this weekend. We reveled in the athletic royalty of Muhammad Ali. But the bigger story for us, we who call the Tri-State home, was two of our own back with the family. It was a good week.

Random thoughts from a random mind for a random kind of Friday...

If Willy Tavares is 1-for his last 45-at bats, why does Reds manager Dusty Baker keep putting him in the line-up? Is it because Reds owner, Bob Castellini is paying Tavares $6.8 million for two seasons and GM Walt Jocketty is the guy who found Tavares? Is Willy Tavares no more than a 2009 version of 2008 over-paid bust, Corey Patterson?

I've been consistent on this: the Reds should have put offensively challenged but defensively solid Chris Dickerson, making the major league minimum, in centerfield this season and taken the $6.8 million they spent on Tavares and signed a legit big time player, for one season, to play left field. Bobby Abreu anyone? Swing the deal for Jermain Dye, mayhaps? You only needed a stopgap in the outfield, because in 2010 either Drew Stubbs will be in left field or Yonder Alonso will be on first base, with Joey Votto in left. It's beyond disappointing, the number of games the Reds would have won this season, had they just had a timely base hit. They're hitting .213 with runners in scoring position...

There is no future in baseball anymore. 2010 for your Cincinnati Reds? What if a series of injuries keep them from being competitive? They have the pitching now to compete. But the front office failed their fans and a majority of that big league roster by not adding another big time bat. By the way, exactly which Cincinnati Red right now strikes fear in the heart of an imposing pitcher?

Ochocinco isn't moving in with Carson Palmer. Mrs. Palmer, mother of Carson's newborn twins, shot down the idea. Palmer said Thursday he doesn't need another kid (85) running around the house, either.....

The Bengals will be better in 2009. But they won't be playoff better. Ochocinco guaranteed the team will make the playoffs. But honestly, do you see eleven wins on their schedule? And it will take eleven to get into the playoffs. Things may be different come September. But with the Ravens and Steelers in the Bengals division, with the Titans, Texans, Jags, Dolphins and Bills as legit candidates for the the two wild cards, exactly how does Cincinnati get into the playoffs?

2010, with Rey Maualuga and Andre Smith with a year under their belts? Different story.

Shaq is going to make LeBron better? Really?

One of my guests this Sunday on 700 WLW (9am-Noon ET) will be college football guhru Phil Steele. His pre-season magazine is a 'must get' for any real fan. He'll join me at 10:05 am.

Geoff Hobson from bengals.com, former Bengal Eric Thomas and WEBN's Wildman Walker join George Vogel and me on Sports Rock this Sunday night 11:35pm on WLWT in Cincinnati.

I read where Seleena Roberts' book on Alex Rodriguez has sold a grand total of 16,000 copies. Can you say 'Bargain Rack at Barnes & Noble" by September? I get the feeling no one who actually reads books (an increasingly aging demo) cares about steroids and human growth hormones.

Watching the Pittsburgh Penguins parade around that city's downtown with the Stanley Cup makes me wonder if a scene like that might've been possible in Cincinnati. In 1979, when the NHL 'expanded' (it refused to call it a merger) the WHA's Cincinnati Stingers were offered an option: pony up a franchise fee and join the NHL or take a cash buyout and fold. The Stingers money guys, which included current Reds' owner Bob Castellini, took the money and ran.

I think the NHL would have been big in Cincinnati. We'll never know.

Whatever happened to original Stingers Dennis Sobchuck, or Dale Smedsmo?

If the Minnesota Vikings actually sign Brett Favre, they deserve him. I thought only wide receivers were allowed to be divas.

Anybody notice, that with 18 games to go BEFORE the halfway point of this 2009 baseball season, the Nationals Adam Dunn has 18 home runs and 46 rbi? He's averaged 40/100 over the last five seasons. And the Reds did absolutely nothing in the off season to replace the numbers Dunn took away with him.

Just askin'....

Not a great joke, but worth a smile: guy walks into a bar with a pile of asphalt on his shouler. He says to the bartender "Gimmee a beer, and give me one for the road"

Baboom-ching. Have a great weekend!

To me, football has always been the ultimate team game. Rarely do you see one player carry a team for an entire game, let alone a season. In baseball, you can ride behind a hot hitter. In basketball, does anyone doubt that the Lakers are where they are today because of Kobe Bryant. In Cleveland, take away Lebron, and you’ve got a team that would struggle to win 25-games a season.

But in football, you can often extract one player from a championship team and chances are, it would continue to compete at that level. Oh, yeah, there are exceptions. Take Tom Brady away from the Patriots, Peyton Manning from the Colts, you’ve got problems. But by and large, football is a game that’s won or lost on how well eleven players execute a game plan.

You can run 50 plays in an NFL game and if only one player messes up on each play, the team has 50-botched plays. But if all eleven players execute all 50 plays perfectly, you’re probably winning, and big.

Football is a game where coaches, more than any other sport, want control. It’s why you see these OTA’s and mini camps. It’s a game where authority matters above all else. You don’t see it in the NBA, that’s anything but a coach’s league. And in baseball, the high school kid drafted in round one may make more in bonus money than a manager will make in ten years. Money always trumps authority.

The Bengals have had trouble embracing the team concept. They haven’t been a collection of renegades. But they’ve had a few too many go off the reservation. Carl Pickens was a trailblazer. Corey Dillon perfected that act. And when you mix in the garden variety of arrests, we have what we’ve had around here for far too long.

I raise that today, because Ochocinco is back in town. He didn’t come riding down Vine Street like John Wayne, or even like Mongo in Blazing Saddles. Ochocinco slipped into Cincinnati Monday night and by nueve o’clock on Tuesday was at Paul Brown Stadium. Forget that he missed all of the voluntary workouts up until now, Ochocino was in town and open for business. He arrived after an appearance on the NFL Network where he said, he was in tip top shape, something he wasn’t in this time a year ago because, well, he really wanted out of here. Now, he doesn’t. He ran, caught passes, went to the gym and boxed on his own this winter and proclaimed himself ready for the upcoming NFL season. And while some of us, who’ve heard things like this from the artist formerly known as Chad Johnson before, a lot of us said OK, finally. It’s 2005 all over again. Except…

By early Wednesday night, Chad was twittering. And he was claiming to have gone quasi-Tyson. He had pictures of tattoos that were put on his face by somebody who had just left his house. A map of Florida on one cheek. Couple of crosses on the other and the initials OC on the bridge of his nose.

We had to investigate. I sent a crew from channel 5 to track Chad down at a restaurant in Kenwood. He also twittered that he’d be eating there. We found him. He didn’t want to talk on camera. And we were cool with that. But the pictures we took clearly showed the artwork on his face. A big deal, considering that this is a guy who reportedly fancies himself as a television or movie star when his playing days are over.

But by Thursday morning, that tatts were gone. Or almost. Some of the magic marker, or whatever it was, was still on his face. It all played out, in front of the cameras and reporters gathered around his locker, our first chance to talk with Ochocinco since the end of last season. The rest of the Bengals had been working up a sweat for most of the spring. But on his first day back, it was all about Chad. He said that he had punked his twitter followers and the media. The media gets punked all the time. The eight thousand or so people who were following Chad, well, welcome to our world.

And I wonder. Did we simply feed the beast? Or does the beast demand feeding. And in the ultimate team sport, how did the guy who always likes to break from the team (this is the same guy who said on Thursday that of course the HBO show Hard Knocks will feature him big this summer. What other story lines are on the team)….I wondered, how did this guy come off to the rest of his team mates? We don’t know. They gave us a half an hour in the locker room to collect interviews. Chad consumed 25 minutes.

In the small but vocal world of “look at me” athletes, Ochocinco is right up there. But it’s all harmless, to you and to me. We never get hurt. I like the guy. I don’t know him well. But I know that when he’s serious about playing football, there is no tougher wide receiver to cover. He is the provider of great fodder for radio, television stations and newspapers. In this business, in these days, you can’t get enough of that.

But I wonder if Marvin Lewis didn’t cringe, or do something worse, when he got wind of the tattoo tale this week. He’d never say it, would probably deny it, but my guess is his reaction was something along the line of , here we go again. He better get used to it. There were only four cameras in the Bengals locker room Thursday. HBO is bringing ten to Georgetown next month.

So the Ochocinco photos are 'fake'. Chad twittered the world Wednesday night with photos of tattooes on his face. He posted them and wrote all about it. He has, at last count, over 5,400 followers on his twitter account.

Then, he tweets that he's having dinner at Red Lobster in Kenwood. So we sent our producer there to see if Ochocinco would talk. Our crew waited until Chad left the restaurant and approached him. He declined to talk, but our video clearly shows that he had indeed three 'tattooes' on his face. Today, those 'tatts' were gone, apparently just some ink or magic marker he had someone place on his face. Again, he was out in public with this on his kisser last night.

Today, he tweeted to his legion of followers that he "punked the twitter world and the media". I'll bet his fans like that. The media? Who weeps for us?

But ask youself this: might there be something wrong with an adult (he's 31) walking around with ink on his face, removable tattooes? Might there be a problem with attention compulsion?

I like the guy. I think he's a lot better football player than some of the fans around here give him credit for. But I also think the dude has a problem.

It's not like Mike Tyson, but it's on the same road. Ochocinco, the artist formerly known at Chad Johnson, has 'tatted up' his face. He shied away from the News 5 cameras tonight. But, in Chad unique style, posted pictures of himself on the internet with his 'new look'.

On his right cheek are two crosses. Here's a shot (left) of his left cheek, where he's got the map of Florida tattooed. On the bridge of his nose are the letters "OC", interlocked.

News 5 producer, Nicky Lewis tried to get Chad to talk about his latest image adjustment. But Johnson refused to comment, telling Lewis to 'show up tomorrow', when the Bengals will have an open locker room and he would talk about it then. Lewis also gave the intrepid Lewis a kiss on her cheek, before leaving a suburban Cincinnati restaurant.

So what should we make of this? Chad being Chad (or Ocho being Cinco?) Nothing. But if the guy was so adamant about being focused on football this season (as we heard in his NFL Network appearance last week) why then this?

Just posted on my web site www.kenbroo.com is the latest Broo View Podcast. In this current episode is an in depth interview with sports psychologist, Dr. Barbara Walker, about the influence stress has on elite athletes. Timely, I think, given the Joey Votto situation. Also on the front page of www.kenbroo.com is an interview with former NFL safety, Matt Bowen (Redskins, Bills, Packers and Rams) who lists his impact players in the NFL this coming season. Wait 'til you hear his pick for your Cincinnati Bengals.

A wonderfully gifted and funny man died this weekend, far to young. Shad O'Shea was a local Cincinnati legend, a throwback to the time when radio was fun and very important in people's everyday lives. He was 'old school', with the wit and irreverence of modern day. He knew the difference between engaging a listener and simply reading liners and giving time checks. He worked at radio stations from California to Louisiana to Ohio, and some places in between. Shad, before running a successful recording studio and owning the Fraternity record label, live the nomadic life of a rock and roll DJ in the 50's and 60's. He worked with talent that would go onto work at some of the biggest rock and roll radio stations in the USA, and some that would never get out of the 500 watt station they were stuck at. He treated everyone the same.

I met Shad a few years ago. He treated me like I knew him forever. He helped me with a project I was working on when I freelanced at WGRR-FM in Cincinnati, recounting stories of his time as a DJ and some of the characters in the music business he ran into along the way.

He wasn't old, and to my knowlege at least, wasn't in poor health. But now he's gone. A good ole boy, as we like to say in the broadcasting business. Arf, arf Shad. You were a bona fide original.

I got to thinking about this the other night, one of those things that hits you when you’re up too late and you can’t get to sleep. You know how it goes.

I was thinking about virtues. I don’t know why, maybe it was the bourbon. Maybe it was one of those Catholic High School flashbacks that haunt a lot of us. As I recall, or as I recall the good Christian Brothers of Ireland beating into me, there are seven virtues in life, Plato and Aristotle had a hand in it. The Church got involved, Cardinal and Theological stuff. Prudence and justice are virtues. So are faith, love and charity. Hope is right up there. But maybe the toughest virtue for all of us in the super hit seven is restraint. Patience would be another word for it. And I got to thinking about how that virtue applies to your Cincinnati Reds.

That team tries our patience, doesn’t it? Not quite as much as your Cincinnati Bengals, of course, but the Reds are getting there.

Patience is lost in this 300 TV channel instant internet universe we live in. We don’t want to wait for anything. We want it now, last Thursday, if possible. So when a team preaches patience and it hasn’t won significantly in over a decade, patience is the last thing a fan wants to hear.

What has it been for the Reds, one winning season since 2000, two since 1995? If you’re under 20, you have no recolection of the Reds in the post season playoffs.

That’s the kind of stuff that tries patience. That’s why we want it now. Delayed gratification? Define delayed.

This season is rolling on and the time to get things right is rapidly ending. We begin today with the Reds three and a half games out of first place, a team with terrific talent as some positions, serviceable talent at others and some guys who might be better off in places like Louisville or Scranton.

As the season rolls on, the Reds are a team that is beginning to offer more questions than answers. And we’ve been here before, haven’t we?

What do you do with Jay Bruce? He couldn’t hit a beach ball right now. His batting average has slipped to .212. He strikes about as often as his hero Adam Dunn. He looks lost. So if you’re the Reds what do you do with Bruce? How do you fix the player who’s the face of your future? Send him to “AAA” and let him find his swing there? I’ve heard that suggestion a lot this week. You think that discovery is waiting for him in Louisville? Against minor league pitching? The kind of pitching Bruce devoured on his meteoric rise to Major League Baseball.

Do you bench him? Ok, who else you got? And by sitting on the bench he’ll find his swing again by doing what, spitting sunflower seeds onto the dugout floor?

What do you do with Homer Bailey? I’ve said on this show that I believe Bailey will not pitch another meaningful game for the Cincinnati Reds this season. He’s inconsistent in “AAA” (incidentally, the same place you might’ve suggested the Reds send Jay Bruce) and when Bailey has arrived in Cincinnati, he’s brought with him great stuff and horrid control. Homer Bailey has been traded about six dozen times on talk radio in this town since we last saw him a couple of weeks ago. I heard someone call in after one game and suggest the Reds should just release Bailey.

Patience.

Maybe the Reds front office has it because it knows that the last thing you turn and run from is raw talent, particularly young, raw talent. It probably also has something to do with money. It’s always about money, and young players like Bruce and Bailey are years away from being expensive players.

But probably it’s about patience. The smart guys at Great American Ball Park seem to be going down that road, maybe with no other choice.

Maybe we should too. Plato and Aristotle would be proud. And after all they have the ears of the Gods

At some point, the Reds will have their Opening Day 25 man roster together again. When? The latest to go on the shelf, of course, is Joey Votto and Edinson Volquez. Now, Willy Tavares is out of the line up tonight in St. Louis, nursing a sore hamstring that apparently caused him to misplay a fly ball at the worst time Tuesday night. There's only so long you can juggle a line up and expect to win. I sense that time is quickly approaching for your Cincinnati Reds.

Just posted, the latest Broo View Podcast. It's on the front page of www.kenbroo.com. I've got some comments from Carson Palmer, about how he believes the offense will be better, and different, in 2009. And I also have an in depth interview with Josh Peter, of yahoo.com on the NFL's inordinate number of DUI arrests since 2000. The number will astound you. If you're on the fly, you can download Broo View Episode 209 here. It's worth the listen.

I told Bengals safety, Chinedum Ndukwe that I'm following him on twitter. He told me he's selling his restaurant, or at least his stake in it, in Mt. Adams. Bummer. I hope the food continues to be as good as its been with Chinedum's money in it.

I don't believe for a minute that the Pittsburgh Penguins are going to win the Stanley Cup this year. They'd have to win twice in Detroit to do that (in games 5 and 7 no less) and that's not happening. But I'm glad it's not a sweep. These are the two best teams in the NHL, but the Red Wings are light years ahead of everyone else.

Good Cincinnati story line in the Cup finals. Mike Babcock coached the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks (where there was such an animal) and one of his players was current Pens Coach Dan Bylsma. They teamed up in Anaheim a few years ago to win a Stanley Cup. Now their on opposite benches. Just goes to prove, if you follow minor league sports, you never know who might do what, later in life.

NBA? Lakers in six. It can't go seven, because I don't think there's anyway the Lakers lose a game 7 on their home court. But Dwight Howard is amazing. I just saw a pregame interview with him a few minutes ago. Howard's shoulders are so wide, I think a small plane could lane on them.

Breaking news from Milwaukee. The hotel the Reds will stay in this weekend is haunted. So say a number of the Cardinals who just vacated teh Pfister Hotel and a few of the Brewers. Apparnetly, the hotel has a lot of strange noises and moving lights. We'll investigate tonight at 11p on Cincinnati's channel 5.

Funny stuff. Check out this video of the soccer mascot in Norway and what he does.


Just saw this on foxsports.com. Apparently the Bengals still are suffering nationally. The good news? These things mean absolutely nothing.

It's Thursday afternoon!

I celebrate that a lot, closer to the weekend, almost Friday.

We know this about your Cincinnati Reds: the can beat the teams that won't be around in October. Now, we need to see if they can beat the teams that will contend for a playoff berth. In the next ten days, the Reds play three in Milwaukee, four in St. Louis and then three against the Cubs in Cincinnati. This will tell us a lot about whether the Reds are 'con' tenders or 'pre' tenders.

My best guess is the Reds will hang around for awhile this season. I still think they need to pick up a good 'bat' (and a player along with it obviously) who can play left field on a daily basis. The platoon of Dickerson/Nix/Gomes has worked OK. But long term, none of these players has a resume to suggest they'll hold up under the pressure of a pennant chase.

If you look critically a the Reds roster, it's comprised basically of four good to decent starting pitchers (Harang, Arroyo, Cueto and Volquez), two bona-fide star players (Phillips & Votto. Sorry Jay Bruce, not there yet, but getting there) and a lot of role players. This 'team' aspect of the game has always played well in Cincinnati. We tend to love the team, hate the superstar around here. But for the rigors of a pennant race, it doesn't always hold up. Maybe this year is the exception. My best guess is, no. Walt Jocketty needs to be laying the ground work NOW to find what his team will need at the trading deadline, to push itself into contention late in the season.

Good Monday Morning!

Trite though it may sound, remember why today is a holiday. If you see someone wearing our country's uniform, make a point to tell them 'thank you' today.

Homer Bailey is finished as a Cincinnati Red. I have no confirmation of this from anyone even remotely associated with the Reds. This is just a gut feeling. He blew his final chance when he faltered against the Indians Saturday night.

Why do I feel this way? Several reasons. First, he continues to do the same things each and every time he's recalled from "AAA". Bailey's control is non-existent. His 'stuff' is great. Bailey was clocked at 94 mph. But he was all over the place. He walked six, allowed six earned runs and seems to have regressed since the last time we saw him.

Bailey was babied during spring training. While other Reds pitchers were tossing three and four innings per outing, Bailey was held to only a couple of innings. He was outpitched by Micah Owings for the 5th starters spot. And although Owings has had trouble this early season, it's nothing compared to what Bailey has done at "AAA" and here on Saturday night.

One of two things is happening with this guy. A: he's not listening to what he's being told to do by the Reds' "AAA" pitching coach, Ted Power. Power says Bailey is listening and learning, but my eyes tell me a lot more than my ears. B: what they're telling Bailey to do simply isn't working. In either case, it's time for both parties to move on. The only argument for keeping Bailey in the organization is his age. He just turned 23. But that's a weak argument when it's placed up against what other pitchers his age are doing.

In the draft class of 2004, Bailey draft class, Jered Weaver is in his third year of effective major league pitching. Matt Bush and Justin Verlander are established major leaguers. The Yankees Phillip Hughes appears to be most like Bailey statistically. But Hughes, selected after Bailey, has battled injuries. Bailey has had some, but not like Hughes.

In the draft class of 2005, the Mets have Mike Pelphrey in their rotation and the Rays are getting good work from starter Matt Garza.

In 2006, the Giants selected Tim Lincecum and the Dodgers took Clayton Kershaw. They are two of the best pitchers in the game.

From the class of 2007, pitcher David Price saw action in the post season last fall with the Rays. He starts his first game of the 2009 season today against Cleveland.

And here's the worst news of all for Bailey: he's not one of the Reds new regime 'guys'. Bailey was drafted by Dan O'Brien, two GM's ago.

There is a way to salvage Bailey, should the Reds choose to. They could recall him from "AAA" and place him in the bullpen, if for no other reason than to get his throwing to major league hitters. But he's shown little sign of being able to get major league hitters out in his various call-ups. Why would the Reds, contenders at least at this point, want to risk Bailey in a Major League game, in any capacity.

Yet, it's in everyone's best interest for Bailey to figure things out. If he can, he'll be a valuable piece to the Reds pitching. If he can, he'll become more attractive, should the Reds really be interested in cutting ties with him.

But the real question is, can Bailey figure it out? He been called selfish and bull headed. Veteran Reds reportedly have tried to talk to him about it. We keep hearing that Bailey has changed that part of the equation. Maybe, as a person, he has. As a pitcher, on the strength of what he did against the Indians Saturday night, not so much.

Just posted on my web site, www.kenbroo.com is my latest Broo View Vidcast. You can find it on the front page. The topic is my pick for the two most important Reds on the current roster.

Sunday morning on 700 WLW, my guests will include Michael McCann, noted sports attorney and si.com columnist, on the Michael Vick saga, as well as yahoo sports' columnist, Josh Peter, on how to keep drunk NFL players off the road. Mark Sheldon, from mlb.com will join me, as well as Robert Boland from thenationalfootballpost.com, who has ranked the 32 NFL franchises from top to bottom. Any guess where he has your Cincinnati Bengals? I'm on from 9am-Noon ET.

You can listen on line at 700wlw.com.

And the phone lines will be wide open Saturday, as well, when I host Saturday Sportstalk on 700 WLW. I'm on from 3p-6:30p ET.

Then I'll go enjoy a pre-birthday dinner. My birthday is Sunday. Don't ask the age.

Sports Rock! Sunday night at 11:35p on Cincinnati's Channel 5 will feature a 'live' interview with the 2009 Indianpolis 500 winner, whomever he or she maybe, as well as Ohio University head football coach, Frank Solich in the studio.

Hope you're having a great weekend. How about the Reds FINALLY calling up Johnny Gomes and DFA-ing Darnell McDonald?

Good Thursday Morning!

A new Broo View Podcast is up and running and ready for you to download. It's on the front page of www.kenbroo.com. Or, you can download it here. My guest this time is former Baltimore Ravens head coach, Brian Billick. We talk about the HBO show, "Hard Knocks", which featured the Ravens back in 2001 and will follow the Bengals this summer during training camp.

Watch for a new Broo View Vidcast, which I'll post to www.kenbroo.com this weekend.

Why are the Reds so inconsistent? I'm asked that a lot these days. Simple answer is that they're young and not very deep. Good, deep teams, like the Phillies, have solid veterans who can consistenly put the ball in play. The Reds don't, at least not yet. That's why you'll see them win a couple in a row, then lose three or four. They're above .500 now, overachieving in a way. But to keep above break even and have a chance to contend late in the season, they'll have to as a team, develope more plate discipline. And Reds' GM Walt Jocketty will need to find better 'bats' off the bench.

Let's face it: the best bat off the Reds' bench is a pitcher, Micah Owings. When he's your first option, you've got trouble.

I'm going to get into this in greater detail this weekend on 700 WLW. But has the lustre of inter-league play worn off? Is it really that special when the Cleveland Indians roll into town? Is anyone looking forward to the White Sox? Would you rather see those teams once a year? Or would you rather see an extra series or two against some of the better teams in the National League. Personally, I'd rather see the Dodgers at GABP twice a season, than see any team from the American League, unless it's the Yankees or Red Sox.

We can talk more about that, Saturday from 3p-6:30p and again Sunday from 9am-Noon.

Not surprised at all that the Magic beat the Cavs in game one Wednesday night. If you've been watching the Orlando team throughout these playoffs, you know they have a tremendous amount of talent on offense. Defensively, the Magic have some holes. I believe the Cavs will win game #2 and I think this series will go the full seven games. But don't be surprised if Orlando wins this series. I know the Celtics won't be.

More later....and some 'tweets' as we get rolling later in the day.

The perils of a night off. The Reds fell out of first place tonight, simply because they weren't scheduled to play. St. Louis and Milwaukee both won. The Reds are now a half game behind both, tied with the Cubs, who won today as well.

It should be a big weekend in San Diego for the men in red. The Padres aren't very good.

So the Bengals are the latest team to be profiled on the HBO series "Hard Knocks". You wonder why Marvin Lewis OK'd the project. I did too, until I figured out this is a good way for Marvin to clean up the national image of his team and maybe snare a bit of the spotlight himself. Think about it. If you're Lewis and you've been saddled with a bunch of players who've done the 'blinking lights dance' and bumbled like clowns on the field, would you not relish the chance to show the world that you have something on the ball? If indeed Lewis' best career move is the one he makes leaving Cincinnati, what better vehicle to repair his image than a show the entire NFL world (among others) will watch.

Of course, if Chris Henry does something stupid or Ochocinco decides this show is really his audition for elsewhere, well that's when the trouble will begin.

And you just know, one of these guys is going to do something idiotic. a 24-person crew with five cameras rolling at all times may be too tempting for some in Bengal-dom.

Speaking of the artist formerly known as Chad Johnson, if you were going to legally change your name, wouldn't you fill out the form with the exact name you wanted to change it to? Apparently, Chad didn't do so well in spelling during his school days. For instead of filing for the name Ocho Cinco (which is what he believes '85' means in Spanish. It doesn't. Ocho Cinco means 'Eight Five". But we digress) Chad filled out the paperwork requesting "Ochocinco". And according to the NFL tonight, that's exactly how his name will appear on the back of his jersey and in all licensing products. Maybe he doesn't care. I don't.

To get you going into your Friday, how about a little vintage 80's. Nothing cheesier than the Italian disco classic (sung incidentally by a man from Northern Ireland) 'Tarzan Boy". The artist? Baltimora.

I think Alka Seltzer used this song for a commercial back in the '90's.

ESPN's John Clayton likes the Bengals in 2009, or so he says in this story.

I'm talking sports Saturday & Sunday on 700 WLW in Cincinnati. Saturday, I'm on from 3p-6p and my guests include former Bengal Stanford Jennings, he of the long KO return for a touchdown in the Bengals Super Bowl loss to the 49ers in 1989. Current Bengal, guard Andrew Whitworth, will join me as well. Sunday's line-up coming up shortly.

Here's a stat. Tell me who this guy is. He currently plays for the Reds. He has 134 career MLB at bats, is hitting .321 for his MLB career with six home runs and 25 rbi.

Micah Owings. Pitcher, Micah Owings.

Now if you look at the Reds critically, you have to admit that left field is a problem. Combined, the Reds left fielders, heading into this current road trip, were batting .221 this season. The best of that group, so far, has been Lance Nix, a left handed batter. If you're Dusty Baker, would you not consider this: platooning Nix with Owings in left field? Owings, a right handed batter, would play less than Nix, simply because there are more right handed pitchers. Therefore, Owings might, just might, be able to continue with his role as the 5th starter. If not, would that then clear the way for Homer Bailey to come up from AAA, where he's pitched well.

I'm just askin', as they say back in the old neighborhood.

Just posted, another Broo View Podcast. This episode features Jon Heyman, the national baseball writer for Sports Illustrated. He has some interesting thoughts on the 18-14 start by the Reds. You can find the podcast on the front page of my web site: www.kenbroo.com. But, if you're in a hurry, you can download it here.

Sports Illustrated's Peter King doesn't like your Cincinnati Bengals a whole lot in 2009. In this story, King has the Bengals 28th out of 32 NFL teams.

Today's blast from the past comes straight from the 90's. A little Weezer for your upcoming Wednesday.

Good Monday Morning

The Reds should've swept the Cardinals. I have a sinking feeling this game may come back to haunt the Reds later in the season. I hope not. But it might. Meantime it's off on a six game road trip against teams the Reds, I believe, are better than: the Diamondbacks and the Padres.

As I'm sure you know, I host Sunday Morning Sportstalk on 700 WLW in Cincinnati.

The thing that fuels sports talk radio is controversy. In New York City today, everyday, it’s A Rod, Yankees ticket prices, the Mets choking, everybody choking.

In LA, it’s Manny being Manny, or this week, Manny taking female fertility drugs and getting kicked out of baseball for 50 days. Female fertility drugs, what’s up with that.

If you don’t have controversy, and you make your living talking sports on the radio, most of the time, you’re dead in the water.

The hey day of sports controversy around here was of course, back in the late 80’s. Pete Rose was fighting for his baseball life. Sam Wyche was saying or doing something just about every week that made headlines. Marge Schott was just getting warmed up for a couple of suspensions. Bob Huggins was just rolling into town. On a nightly basis, Cincinnati was sports controversy central.

Now a days, you’ve got to look long and hard for a good sports controversy around here. Bengal arrests have subsided. The team will occasionally bring a guy into town with a rap sheet as long as Vine Street (Bernard Scott would come to mind. So too, the latest incarnation of Chris Henry). But by and large, a lot of that nonsense is in the Bengals wake these days.

The Reds aren’t exactly playing the controversy game these days either. Under Carl Lindner, the best you could have hoped for was a manager getting fired every year and a half or so. Bob Castellini has been more interesting. Firing a General Manager three weeks into a season and then saying “We’re not going to lose, anymore” that was pretty good.

But as far as controversy, things that make you go Hmmmm, as another famous Ohio University alum used to say, we’re dullsville.

And as I was driving into the station Sunday morning, I was trying to figure out why it’s like that. Is it because of all the losing we’ve had around here? Has tempered the tempests in the teapots that seem to pop up in other big sports cities around the country? Is it because we only have two of the major sports? Well, maybe, that certainly cuts down on the potential material, I guess.

Think about it. What was the last great sports controversy in Cincinnati? Was it Bob Huggins getting run out of town by Nancy Zimpher? I guess. But that was over four years ago. In New York, in Cleveland that wouldn’t get you through a week.

I don’t know, maybe that’s why local sports talk on radio has been driying up around here. Nothing going on to get too riled up about. Or maybe, it’s our Midwest sensibilities that have kicked in. We do a pretty good job of dismissing nonsense without a whole lot of wasted effort.

So as we visit here today, what controversy can we dig up about your Cincinnati Reds? They’re wining. They’re two and a half out of first place and they had the top team in the division on the ropes so far this weekend. Their starting pitcher has been terrific. Their bullpen, with a hiccup here and there, has been terrific. They’re not supposed to be scoring a lot of runs. But they’re hitting the ball like the ’98 Yankees. Walt Jocketty hasn’t made any stupid trades. Dusty Baker hasn’t made a huge in game gaffe. Maybe the bat boy can do something dumb.

No, it’s a pretty good time to be a Cincinnati sports fan. The Reds seem to surprise us every game. The Bengals are signing and drafting players that appear to be solid citizens and not the usual stiffs on the playing field. UC sent its football team to the Orange Bowl and Xavier may be even better with Chris Mack this season than it was with Sean Miller last season.

Good times in Cincinnati. Except it’s so damn boring. Where’s Boomer sitting in font of a bus, when you need him.

And finally, to get you going on this Monday, my blast from the past.

Henley at his understated best

More later...check back.

Bunch of stuff to catch up on today....

Guests this Sunday morning on 700 WLW will include Mike Florio, the editor of profootballtalk.com and Jon Heyman, the national baseball writer for Sports Illustrated. I'll also have John Czarnecki from foxsports.com with me. He's the national football. I'm on this Sunday morning from 9am--Noon EDT on 700 WLW. You can always listen online, here.

Johnny Cueto was 'on it' tonight. He's been simply unhittable over his last three starts. And when you put that beside what Edinson Volquez has done and couple it with hard luck Aaron Harang, this has been a remarkable first month of baseball for the Cincinnati Reds. They sit just 2 1/2 games out of first after Friday night's win. And remember, they played Friday night with a back up at every infield position.

In Seattle, they're in love with Griffey, Jr. again. And in Kansas City, the talented Jason Whitlock is writing about what we've known forever, about Griffey, Jr..

Now, as CSN sang back in the day: Just a song before I go, to whom it may concern....
One of the best one hit wonders from the '70's....


Christie is named after group leader Jeff Chrisite. This video was shot along the River Thames in London. Background on the song: originally it was offered to the Tremeloes of "Here Comes My Baby" fame. They recorded it, didn't like it and it eventually wound up back with Jeff Christie, who wrote the song. His group took it to #1 in the UK, #23 in the USA.

Have a great weekend!

Just posted the lastest Broo View Podcast at www.kenbroo.com. Reds pitching and the Bengals draft are the hot topics. You'll hear comments from Bengals 3rd round pick, Michael Johnson, the defensive end out of Georgia Tech. On the fly? You can also download it here.

Good Friday Morning!

My son, the brilliant attorney (or so he tells me) came up with an interesting thought on Reds pitcher, Micah Owings. We were talking late Thursday night about how Owings hits better than just about any pitcher in MLB. The ESQ said that whatever ERA Owings has, you have to subtract roughly .750 runs, because that's how many runs Owings is good for, per game, about 3/4 of a run.

We saw it again Thursday night, when Owings delivered a triple and later scored. Part of the difference in a one run ballgame.

The Bengals trade with the Rams could be one of the all time heists. Orien Harris, the defensive lineman heading to St. Louis, had zero chance of playing here. But, Brian Leonard, the running back heading to Cincinnati could see a lot of playing time. Leonard was the Rams second round pick in 2007 and played well that year. A shouldar injury sidelined Leonard for much of 2008. But the depth at running back, with the draft and now this, has dramatically improved for your Cincinnati Bengals.

Today's tune I just can't get out of my head:

That, of course, is the incomparable Lou Christie. Love the hazy, still Steel City Pittsburgh from 1969. Now of course, all big steel is imported. Thanks corporate America.

More later today, promise...

Good Wednesday Morning!

Four shutouts in the past six games. Reds pitching is the best it's been since that 1990 wire to wire season. No lie. The Reds staff had a grand total of six shutouts all of 2008. They equaled that last night when Edison Volquez and Nick Masset teamed up to blank the Marlins. Volquez hasn't allowed a run in 16.1 innings. His change up completely mesmerized the Marlins. And as much as he struggled early this season, he was that good, in taking his record to 4-2 on Wednesday night.

I like the pitching on this team. Who doesn't? But I believe the Reds still need to address the offensive deficiencies they have have. Ok, Ok, they put seven up on the Marlins last night. They put six up on Pittsburgh and lost Saturday and five up on the Pirates Sunday and won. But, one more solid bat in the line-up (preferably playing left field) will protect the young bats of Votto, Bruce and Phillips. Votto will go into a swoon. It happens to every hitter every season. Who then carries the load when that happens? If Bob Castellini is waiting until mid season to see if his team is in contention before OK'ing a deal, he's making a grave error. Wins in May count as much as wins in August and September. He and his GM, Walt Jocketty, missed the boat this winter, when they passed on bringing in a legit left fielder. Maybe it was the economy. Maybe is was over-estimating the talent they had in house. Whatever. The time is now to be proactive.

Big kudos to University of Connecticut womens basketball coach, Geno Auriemma for flying in to Cincinnati to attend the news conference announcing his assistant, Jamelle Elliott as the new UC womens basketball coach. Never saw that before. Auriemma is a different bird. He got as many enemies as friends. But the man can coach. And even though he's losing his top recruiter (who brought most of the talent to him on the teams that won five national titles) to a Big East rival, Auriemma honored Elliott's request to attend her news conference. Good stuff.

Mark December 13th on your calendar. That's the day the Bengals play the Minnesota Vikings. And if you believe the reports coming out of Minneapolis, the Vikings are about to sign Brett Favre and lure him out of yet another retirement. Guess that tells you all you need to know about Sage Rosenfels. The Vikings have some nice weapons. But you wonder if they had done a deal with Favre six weeks ago, if TJ Houshmandzadeh would've signed with Minnesota. No deal yet between the Vikes and Favre. But the smoke is thick. And the fire might only be a few days away.

The Bengals had eleven draft picks in this year's NFL player draft. So how many will make the roster? Here are my definites: Andre Smith and Rey Maualuga (no brainers). More than likelies: Michael Johnson and Kevin Huber. Fairly certain: Jonathan Luigs.

Smith and Maualuga will start. Smith had better start at left tackle, because the next option is moving Andrew Whitworth from guard to left tackle. That would be a bad move. Whitworth could be an All Pro for years, if they leave him inside. Maualuga will be everything that Odell Thurman wasn't: a sober, solid citizen who can make plays at linebacker.

Michael Johnson is squeaky clean too. His problem has been intensity from down to down and a seeming lack of desire to take on the run. He could be a third down pass rushing specialist. At almost 6'7" he'll be a handful to block IF he can stay 'low', a problem for his at Georgia Tech.

Jonathan Luigs has the inside track to be the starting center. He's stout. But the Bengals would be well served to test Bobbie Williams at center. They gave it all of a quarter and a half in pre season last summer. And what happened? Nobody laid a hand on the Bengals quarterback. If Williams moves, it'll give Luigs to slide into the mix at guard.

Kevin Huber has no competition at this point for punting. Surely, someone will be brought in for training camp to contest for the job, if for no other reason than to keep Huber's left leg from falling off. But if his career at UC is any indication, Huber will have a job in Bengal stripes for a long time.

The song I can't get out of my head today. The Queen Of Soul

Whatever Miss Aretha is singing, I'm buying.

University of Tennessee basketball coach, Bruce Pearl is getting married again. That's Bruce on the left.

This has nothing to do with anything in Tri-State sports, unless you're a UK fans and this gives you yet another reason to player hate Pearl.

Personally, I've always like the guy, back to his days at Wisconsin-Milwaukee. And listening to him on some of the national radio sports talk shows, he seems to be a fun guest. His intended? Brandy Miller. Brandy, she's a fine, what a good wife should would be. Don't bother researching. "The Looking Glass' sang the song. Went all the way to #1 in 1972 on the Epic label.

That's it for now. Maybe more later today. I'm at GABP (Great American Ball Park for you non-Cincinnatians) tonight at 6p, weather permitting. The Redlegs are back home. I don't know if that's good or not. They're 14-12 overall, but just 4-7 in Cincinnati.

Good Tuesday Morning!

We saw another reason why the Reds, as currently comprised, can't contend for a playoff berth. It occurred Monday night, when Aaron Harang pitched terrific baseball for seven innings, and the Reds lost in 14. They had ample opportunities to beat the Marlins. But they could not come up with any 'situational' hits. Plain and simply, this team lacks a veteran bat in its line up that will make an opposing pitcher work, giving it's younger players like Joey Votto, Jay Bruce and Brandon Phillips better pitches to hit.

You can talk all you want about this current Reds team being 'hungrier' or 'more focused' than the 2008 Reds. What you're really saying is, you're glad Griffey, Jr. and Dunn are gone. But you don't account for what their presence (yes even an aging Griffey, Jr.) in the batting order did to the opposing pitcher. And Dunn's 100 rbi, which he consistently put up while in a Reds uniform, have yet to be replaced. Last night's game was crying for a long ball from the Reds. It wasn't there. And another terrific pitching performance was wasted. Dusty Baker emptied his bullpen, with the exception of closer Francisco Cordero. He was down to Danny Herrera, the last guy Baker wanted to see on the mound. Herrera faltered. The Reds lost a game they should have been able to win, long before the 14th inning. I think you're going to see a lot of game like this, unfortunately.

This is clearly the most controversial and the most intriguing Bengals draft pick. When the Bengals selected running back Bernard Scott from Abilene Christian, they appeared to have had a flashback to 2006, when they seemed to average an arrest a week. Here's a good video put together by draftguys.com.

It doesn't matter how good Scott is, or can be. What matters is whether or not he can stay out of trouble. This guy would be better served on a team with some solid veteran leadership. That's something the Bengals don't have.

Check back later today...and follow me on twitter!

Went to Detroit for the weekend for my nephew's college graduation. That city is hurtin' in a large way. You can just about feel it as you walk around. So much uncertainty about job status, so much anxiety about the GM-Chrysler situation. We drove by the world headquarters for Chrysler. Not a whole lot of activity around the building. But you could almost feel the angst. I'm not trying to be melodramatic about the situation. It's real and people are hurting.

Johnny Cueto has it figured out. If you weren't convinced before Sunday's game against the Pirates you should be now. Cueto tossed eight innings of shut out ball. His pitch selection was smart and his pitch count was workable. Too many pitches to get out of too few inning are the two things that did him in last season. No stretch to think that Cueto could win at least 15 this season.

And did you notice that was the third time in the last four games that Reds pitching has shutout an opponent?

The topic of what to do with Homer Bailey came up last night on Sports Rock (incidentally, George Vogel and I did a two man show for the first time in the history of SR and I think it went pretty well). Bailey has now thrown back to back stellar ballgames. And with Micah Owings struggling as the fifth starter, the thought was bringing Bailey up and send Owings to the bullpen.

Bad idea.

For openers, every time Bailey has come up from AAA he's 'spit the bit'. Louisville may be 100 miles away from Cincinnati, geographically. But in reality, it's more like 1,000 miles away. Bailey, and others, have exceled at that level, and then failed to seize the moment when called up to the majors.

Secondly, Bailey is no fifth starter. And having him in Cincinnati, with as many as 10 days in between starts on some occasions, makes no sense. Bailey also has 'stuff' much better than a #5 guy in the rotation. Your fifth starter is usually a guy who tries to finesse his way through a batting order. Bailey has over powering (if often uncontrollable) stuff, more along the lines of a #1 or #2 starter.

My idea for Bailey is to continue to have him throw in AAA and only bring him to the Reds if there's a need, based on injury or horrific collapses by one of the pitchers in the Reds rotation.
Honestly, Bailey's best role may be as 'trade bait' for a potential big bat later in the season. If the Reds are in it by mid-July and a bat is the target, Bailey could be the 'bait'. Is there any other reason why he's still with this organization, other than the fact that he's 22 years old? If the economy hadn't tanked in the winter, it's likely Bailey would be with the White Sox right now and Jermaine Dye would be patroling the outfield at Great American Ball Park.

WLWT televised the Flying Pig Marathon Sunday. Though misty and cool, it was perfect running weather. The most impressive thing about the day, as far as I was concerned, was Boston Marathon race director, Dave Gillardy in attendance. He was shadowing Flying Pig race director, Iris Simpson, to offer feedback and to take notes for his own race. I interviewed Gillardy on Channel 5 and he told me he'd give the Pig a A+. Admitting that the Boston Marathon is a more serious marathon than the Pig (though the Pig is attracting more and more elite class runners), Gillary said it isn't fair to compare the two as 'apples to apples'. He praised the course design as highlighting the finer points of the city of Cincinnati, while keeping the disciplines of a traditional Marathon. High praise.

We'll have more video later today. But check out this womens softball game between West Carolina and Furman. The security camera caught the mother of the WCU third baseman wailing on some Furman players and Furman supporters. She appears to be someone you don't want to tangle with, even if she apparently did start this rumble.

You been working for the weekend.....now it's here!

The Bengals opened their annual rookie mini camp today. Basically, it's a weekend of teaching terminology and eyeballing the players they drafted. Nothing more, nothing less. One interesting side-light to the weekend are the 'walk on' players. Years past, the term 'walk on' was reserved for college and high school kids who weren't good enough to earn scholarships or playing time. Now, the NFL has embraced the concept. Several local players will get a chance to work out with the Bengals rookies this weekend and try to catch the eye of the coaches. One fairly big name is in the group: former Ohio State quarterback, Todd Boeckman.

The Reds are in Pittsburgh for the weekend. Obviously, this team is playing better on the road than at home, as evidenced by its 7-3 road swing in April. But consistency against teams in its division is the key for the Reds this season. And they have to beat the 'preteners' if they want to compete for a division title or wild card. Good idea if it starts in Pittsburgh this weekend.

The Cardinals Albert Puljos may be the best player in the National League. But if you're starting a team from scratch and have to build around on player, would it be Puljos? I heard an ESPN talking head on the radio this week touting Puljos as the player to build around. And while still a young man, would you not want someone just a bit younger who could give you more years? Would the Mets David Wright or the Red Sox Dustin Pedroia be better choices? Just askin'.

The Flying Pig Marathon is this weekend in downtown Cincinnati. I'm not running, just helping to cover it for WLWT. I have enormous respect for anyone who can run the 26 miles-plus. But having worked the finish line for the past several years interviewing the winners, I've seen far too many 'weekend warriors' collapse in exhaustion and have to be aided by the medical personnel for me to be ever enticed to try and run in a marathon. I've actually seen particpants hauled sway on stretchers and wheel chairs. One man collapses in a heap behind our broadcast platform a few years back and suffered a heart attack. Not for me. I get tired driving 26 miles.

But good luck to all involved.

Sean Miller seems to be losing a lot of the players he inheited at Arizona. Wonder what's going on out there.

Our guest on Sports Rock! this Sunday night on WLWT 5 in Cincinnati will be Bengals second round pick, Rey Maualuga. 11:35p is the airtime!

Posted this on my web site http://www.kenbroo.com/. But if you haven't been over there, here's a behind the scenes look at one of my radio shows on 700 WLW.

Not on this Sunday. WLWT's George Vogel will fill in for me 9am-Noon EDT. I'll be back, like Arnold, on May 10.

Great dunk last night by the Bulls Joakim Noah to help Chicago stay alive in its series against the Celtics.

But the Celtics win this in seven.

OK, saved my Kentucky Derby pick until the end. I'm tempted by General Quarters and the way he ran in the Blue Grass. Great story about his trainer, Tom McCarthy, a former high school principal in Louisville. I'm still a fan of West Side Bernie, despite his horrid showing at the Lane's End Stakes at Turfway a month ago. With a first in the Wood and a first in the Gotham Stakes, the New York noise, I Want Revenge will probably win The Derby. But my pick is Musket Man. He's got three firsts and a third so far in 2009, including a win at the Tampa Bay Derby. Musket Man carries the early line of 20-1 and comes out of the second chute.

If he wins, keep the money and just send along a thanks.

Have a great weekend!