Reds and Indians game 2: The night after Homer

By TheNaturalMevs on June 11, 2007

I didn’t get to provide coverage and be present for Homer Bailey’s big league debut, but I will always be able to say I was present the night afterwards. It’s really amazing to me how young this kid really looks. It’s hard to believe, he just turned 21, he is the youngest player in the big leagues by far. I say the more innings he can get in right now; the better. As long as that arm stays healthy he’s going to be the rock for this team for a long time. Jim Day was giving him a nice interview about his first big league outing and I got a chance to tell him that he pitched pretty couragesly in my opinion. The kid showed some big time guile, and for a kid that supposively didn’t even like baseball, he sure did go out, compete and ultimately win the night before.

The second thing I want to mention right off the bat is about Josh Hamilton. This dude is my boy. You wanna talk about a class act? Aside from the fact the guy can flat out do it all, he’s a great human being. He was out before the game up the right field line signing autograph after autograph. I mean just over and over, posing for pictures and just treating the fans great.

The coolest moment in the night happened when he was out in Centerfield where we went to sit for a while. He was looking in our direction and my sister and I gave him a wave. She yelled for him and said “We love you here”. Hamilton smiled and waved at us. It was very cool. You wouldn’t see Adam Dunn doing that, that is for sure. He’s too Hollywood for that. I also got to see Hamilton rip a homerun finally while I was at the ballpark, as he hit a Jeremy Sowers pitch to dead center (actually a bit towards right but not much) over the wall to open things up in the beginning.

Once again the story of the ballgame has got to be Grady Sizemore. The guy was just unreal. He doubled, singled, and led off the game with a homerun to dead center field, making it the 4th time in his career he has led off a game with a homerun. He battled and worked a walk for a tough at bat in extra frames and scored an important insurance run for the Indians.

Fellas, keep your girlfriends away from Grady Sizemore. Also keep away your sisters. My sister Marilyn took one look at Grady on the big screen at the beginning of the game and I really regretted it for the rest of the night. She continued to talk about him and oogle over him until the next morning and when I woke up she’s got pictures of him all over her MySpace page. When he was overthrown in the outfield warming up before an inning I thought that she was honestly going to go nuts. She simply yelled “YOUR HOT GRADY”, and he shook his head and smiled at her. Grady; if the big league thing doesn’t work out man, you’re always welcome to be my brother in law.

I told Reds COO John Allen some jokes before the game and he really gets a kick out of me. No not really, but I did tell him that he should lock up Josh Hamilton long term, right now. I told him I wasn’t just speaking as a fan of the ballclub but as a citizen and I was thinking of the organizations best interests. John I hope you remember this man. Lock up Hamilton, trust me. He’s the next big thing in baseball.

When the day began Ken Griffey Jr. was sitting on 577 career homers and by day’s end he would climb one more closer to 600. A funny moment actually happened immediately after Jr. homered to right field. The person that is in charge of changing this figure at Great American Ballpark actually messed up and took it down to 573, and after some boo’s and some yells from my section (mainly me, buzzed), they got it right.

So in conclusion I saw another extra inning ballgame that the Reds dropped. They should have won this one. It was too great a game from start to finish to be lost on a Travis Hafner chopper RBI Groundout. It was another great night at the ballpark filled with majestic experiences that could never be matched by just watching at home. If you’re not a baseball fan, it’s nights like these that I experienced at the ballpark that will make you one, and keep you coming back if you already are in love with America’s greatest ballgame.