The Reds better enjoy the off-day they have Thursday after getting home from Cleveland. Because after that, they don't get a break until the All-Stars head to...Kansas City?
**ASIDE** Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium gets renovated in 2009 and gets an All-Star game. Cincinnati opens a brand new stadium in 2003, and has still yet to see a Mid-Summer Classic. The only team to have a new stadium longer without an All-Star game is Tampa Bay. Just pointing it out. That's all. **ASIDE DONE**
Anyway, after finishing up the Ohio Cup, the Reds need to take full advantage of what's in front of them. They have three games with the terrible Twins and three with the surprisingly under-achieving Brewers (Remember the Brewers? The guys every sports writer had winning the division?). Yeah, the Reds need to bulldoze both those teams. From there, they head out on the dreaded West Coast Swing.
In more recent years, the schedule-makers have split up the games, making the Reds travel West a few different times a year rather than one big trip. Some of this has to do with the creation of the Rockies and the Diamondbacks. But apparently someone in the Commissioner's Office thought it would be fun to send the Reds West for 11 days before the break. The last time the Reds played 11 games in a row in the Pacific time zone was at the end of July the year they won the West, and everything else, in 1990. They played four with the Padres, four with the Giants, two with the Dodgers, then one more random one with the Padres. Still trying to find out if that was some sort of make-up game.
Since Dusty took over in 2008, the Reds have faired thusly while in California:
Padres: 5-7
Giants: 7-6
Dodgers: 5-7
That's not terrible over a 4-year stretch, but you would hope they could improve those numbers this year against the dismal Padres, and at least keep pace with the Giants and Dodgers. The Dodgers own the best record in the league and the Giants are percentage points behind the Reds. If the Reds want to prove to the media on both coasts that they're for real this year, they have to play well against good teams, not to mention very well against the bad ones.
Other than a quick trip to Houston and Colorado, then one to Houston and Arizona, this WCS will be the last time the Reds travel west of St. Louis for the remainder of the season. And even that St. Louis trip only happens once to close the season. So we can take solace in the fact that they'll be close to home the rest of the way.
By the way, that 1990 team. The great Wire-to-Wire team. They went 3-8 on that West Coast Swing. And they never fell out of first. So you'd like to hope this team could get it done even better than that.
Twitter bio of the day: @redsfacts
In my somewhat early days of tweeting, I found Reds Facts. He was argumentative with some of the other folks I had begun following, but he did it in a respectful way. I like that. I hate having a timeline full of people calling each other names and spewing anger. If you can have a discourse, but make it reasonable, I like you better. Reds Facts knows how to do that. Plus I like his snark.
He's also got a blog of his own. You can look at it here. Reds Facts loves the desktop apps and the memes. The "Haters Gonna Hate" of Lou Piniella throwing a base was my creation. He also has recently been putting together Fan Softball Games before Reds games. Ask him about them, he'll be happy to fill you in. He doesn't need you to follow him. But you need to. So do it.
