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8 Days to Opening Day…

Joe Morgan was the staring 2B for the Big Red Machine.  He won the MVP in ‘75 and ‘76.  He was an All Star in every season he played for the Reds (’72-’79).  He was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1990.

9 Days to Opening Day…

Joe Oliver was the starting catch for the Reds’ 1990 wire-to-wire World Series champion team.  He played with the Reds for 8 of his 13 major league seasons.  He will always be most remembered for his hit which hugged the third base line to win Game 2 of the ‘90 series.

10 Days to Opening Day…

George Lee “Sparky” Anderson was the Reds’ manager from ‘70-’78.  During his tenure as the Reds’ skipper Sparky’s teams won over 100 games three times and over 90 games another 4 times.  The Reds only had one sub-.500 season with Anderson at the helm.  Anderson managed the Big Red Machine to its two World Series titles and two other NL pennants in ‘70 and ‘72.  His total wins (1331) are third all time for managers.  He’s also the only manager to have ever won World Series titles in both the American and National leagues.
In 2000, Sparky was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame and his number 10 was retired by the Reds in 2005.

11 Days to Opening Day…

Barry Larkin, another Cincinnati native, was the successor to Concepcion at SS for the Reds. He played from ‘86 to ‘04 making 12 All-Star teams, 9 Silver Sluggers, 3 Gold Gloves and he won the ‘95 MVP. He was also the first 30-30 short stop in team history. Larkin was underrated throughout most of his career. He didn’t get much publicity early in his career because of the incredibly overrated Ozzie Smith and was overshadowed later in his career by offensive shortstops such as Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. I’ve always felt Larkin’s well-rounded game served as a de facto transition from the old guard of Smith and Ripken Jr. to the new breed of Jeter, Rodriguez, and Garciaparra. Larkin will be inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame later this season and (hopefully) Cooperstown in 2010.

12 Days to Opening Day…

Dusty Baker played in the Majors from ‘68-’86 with Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland. He managed the Giants from ‘93-’02 and the Cubs from ‘03-’06 winning the NL Manager of the Year in ‘93, ‘97, and ‘00. As a manager he’s won just under 1200 games.

The Reds hired Dusty in October of 2007 to replace interim-manager Pete Mackanin (over my protestations). Baker’s critics say that he prefers veterans over more deserving young players and that his (mis)management contributed to the arm problems of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior with the Cubs. The Reds have Minor League Player of the Year Jay Bruce, another top 10 prospect Joey Votto, plus young stud pitchers Homer Bailey, Johnny Cueto, and Edinson Volquez. It remains to be seen if Baker will be able to repeat the success he had in San Francisco and Chicago, but at least he’s not another Dave Miley or Jerry Narron.

13 Days to Opening Day…

Davey Concepcion was the starting short stop for and a very underrated cog in the Big Red Machine. Concepcion was a 9-time All-Star, 5-time Gold Glove recipient and a 2-time Silver Slugger award winner. He played with the Reds for all 18 of his major league seasons and last year the team honored Concepcion by retiring the number 13. Based on his career numbers, Concepcion belongs in the Hall of Fame.

14 Days to Opening Day…

Pete Rose is one of the most important persons in Reds’ history. He is a Cincinnati native. He was a long-time Red holds the major league record for hits, singles, games played, at bats and outs. He was the Rookie of the Year in ‘63, MVP in ‘73 and won World Series championships in ‘75, ‘76′ and ‘80. Pete deservedly earned the moniker “Charlie Hustle” by having played in 160 or more games in 10 seasons.

(So what if I forgot to post this on 03/17? It was St. Patrick’s Day.)

Lepolt has been going to school to learn to be a CompE for almost the entirety of this decade, yet last week he managed to blow up a CPU. After ripping apart Abi’s old laptop, too, Jon was able to get a pretty nice digital photo frame working. The old LCD still has some life left in it. The whole shebang still has to be packaged and mounted, but at least it’s no longer self-immolating.