Good morning! It's Moving Day for Doc, and I'll keep this Guest Line relatively short and sweet as a complement to the latest edition of Cincinnati sports can't-miss because I'm running on fumes after spending half the night helping my son prepare for a month-long trip abroad. One thing I (naively) didn't realize before early this morning is that people who have been vaccinated long enough that they haven't had to wear a mask recently at a lot of places do have to go back to wearing one at the airport. I had to borrow one that my son was bringing with him. Heads-up if you haven't flown or brought an unaccompanied minor to the airport in a while.
As a Reds fan, were you feeling any Javier Báez schadenfreude when he forgot how many outs there were and got doubled up Monday during the Chicago Cubs' 4-0 loss to Cleveland at Wrigley Field?
Cubs manager and former Red David Ross benched Báez:
You may recall that the Cubs' infielder was not suspended for his role in a benches-clearing incident in May against the Reds despite climbing over a dugout railing onto the field and appearing to challenge reliever Amir Garrett to a fight at the outset of an eighth-inning skirmish between the teams.
Among current MLB players, Yadier Molina has got to top the list of most disliked by Reds fans, no? Has Báez reached the top five?
It's not easy to enjoy schadenfreude, by the way, when the team you root for has itself lost five games in a row as the Reds have. But you've got to at least try, right? And I deserve every email I'll get pointing out that the Reds fell back under .500 and have three teams - the Cubs among them - ahead of them in the Central. Who's ready for Tejay Antone to rejoin the bullpen ASAP?!
READING TYLER DRAGON'S RECENT PIECE ABOUT SAFETY JESSIE BATES III reminds me yet again that this guy – who has started every game for the past three seasons but is still just 24 years old – could easily be the anchor of a great defense the Bengals will want to have to accompany Joe Burrow and all of his weapons on offense when it's time for the team to contend.
THIS KIND OF FELT OUT-OF-THE-BLUE and fairly excessive for one of Xavier's Big East rivals:
TUNE O' THE DAY:
Have we had Giant here before? If not, it's long overdue.
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