Grey Goose Narron's Swan-song

By TheNaturalMevs on July 4, 2007

Someday, this will be looked at like it’s historical Zapruder film. Pictured above, from the Grassy noll, is a one Jeraldburger R. Narron; alias Grey Goose; alias Jerry Narron, in his final game as manager ~~in the big leagues at all~~ of the Cincinnati Reds. This photo is believed to be the last photo shot of manager Jerry Narron before he was fired by Reds GM Wayne Krivsky. Very valuable stuff indeed.

Pictured here is a manager of a different kind. One of our very favorite managers in the big leagues. We had to take this picture out of honor for him. You’re telling me, if this guy wanted mob ties he wouldn’t have them? His name is Anthony LaRussa Jr. for crying out loud. To me, that just wreaks of collusion and mob activity. We hope that this particular sunday morning wasn’t too rough for Mr. LaRussa, and that he found a nice bottle of club soda or water in the morning to wash away the cotton mouth that those Bombay sapphire Martini’s brought on the night before.

Chris Duncan, constantly kills the reds. I looked it up, and to date he’s hitting .415 against the Reds in 71 at-bats with 7 homeruns and 13 RBI. This guy is going to be a very good big league ballplayer offensively, a true gamer that is going to make the fans at Busch Stadium fall in love with him for his blue collar, balls to the wall, all hustle little hype style of play. Plus he is a second generation ballplayer. He hit one of the longer, higher homeruns I have ever seen live on this day, it still hasn’t landed yet.

Ken Griffey Jr. hit a 3 run homerun that would put the Reds ahead for a while, but not to stay. The blast was a large, sweeping swing that took the ball in such a beautiful trajectory to left center field, opposite field blasts when you are live at the park and have the right angle, as I did, are such a beautiful thing. The homerun was number 585 of Jr’s career.

As I watched them change over the numbers I had a vision. If they are willing to sign Adam Dunn to a long term contract, which they won’t because GM Wayne Krivsky is a moron, someday will we see a similar counting total made for Dunner? I love when stadiums do these types of things with a certain players’ chase and the fans recognition in mind. Things like this are excellent for baseball.

The man himself Kenny Griff. I swear I think that he knows me from all my years at the ballpark. Immediately after this photo he turned around, looked at me, and I didn’t say a word. I just waved and kind of nodded my head to him. He responded with “hey man, whats up?”. Now Griffey has been noted as a sortive surly, if not bratty guy in terms of his moods before. But I can honestly tell you that in all my time watching him, he’s been extremely kind to both my family members, my friends, and me. I cannot help but think after the 100s of games over the years he has seen me at, he does recognize me.

Then I think back to that night all those years ago in 1993 when I first met Junior Griffey. It was a saturday night at old Cleveland Municipal stadium, my Uncle Frank took me to make up for missing one of my little league games. Front row seats, and I got to meet my hero. He shook my hand and talked to me before the game. I was 11 and it was the greatest thing in the world. It was during Junior’s 8 game straight homerun streak, and he did homer in a Mariners win.

So I hyped the day up as getting to watch the Reds pitching phenom Homer Bailey for the first time all season live. He did not deliver, but I got to see him hit 94 on the radar gun, and strike out 2 hitters. I am really just hoping that I get to see Homer stay up in the big leagues for the rest of the season, accumulate some nice stats at this level and just learn to pitch. As I watched him struggle through a couple innings the other day, I was saying in my head that I just hope he picks Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo’s brain for information. This time with them could be so valuable if he uses it correctly.

Finally, my boy, Josh Hamilton got the day off. This was the only time we got to see him, as he didn’t even get to pinch hit. There’s no one in the game today that I enjoy watching play more then Josh. Build around this guy, Reds.