SALVATION LIVES IN PITTSBURGH? We’d like to report that it does. The bad Buccos host The Club for three games starting tonight. Can't you feel the excitement?
I haven't been this fired up since the Bengals hired Dave Shula.
Theoretically, the execrable Buccos offer the Reds a last, best chance at winning WC2, but since no contender seems very interested in winning anything, maybe losing two of three up there won’t make any difference.
Get the Oct. 3 headline ready: Reds Clinch Playoffs By Losing 11 of Last 18.
Subhead: Nip Surging Cards, Who Finish on 7-11 Tear
Pennant Fever isn’t yet gripping River City. The Reds are 4-7 in September, have lost 5 of 7 and haven’t won 2 in a row since Aug. 27.
That’s poor, but ckout their competition this month:
San Diego, 3-7, losers of 5 of 6.
Philly, 4-7, losers of 5 of 6.
Mets, 7-6, but haven’t won two in a row in 10 days
Only the Cardinals seem willing to seize the day. They’ve won 5 of 6, with a starting rotation of Wainwright, Wainwright, Wainwright, Wainwright and TBD. (Wainwright’s a good possibility.) Not a Gibson in the bunch. Not even a Carlos Martinez. The Cardinals split 4 with the Dodgers last week. The Reds get LA for 3 starting Friday.
St. Louis is half a game behind the Reds. So are the Padres, but it’s hard to take San Diego seriously. Meantime, the crummy Buccos are 4-7 this month, same as Cincinnati. The horrible Buccos have won 4 of their last 6.
All the lemmings are running headlong toward the Pacific Ocean, where one likely will drown in either LA or San Francisco.
The Big One-Six-Two. . . for that?
Even so, if the Reds miss the playoffs, heads should roll. There is simply too much talent here – and too many players having very good years – for October to carry on without them.
By the way, the NL’s mediocrity after LA, SF and the Brewers makes one wonder if the wild-card round is still a good idea.
Wade Miley starts tonight. Pull up the rocking chair and tug on your rosary.
Now, then. . .
A VERY HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY to the best Reds fan ever, Cathy Gruber. From Aunt Cathy’s niece:
She never misses a game. She watches them on tv, drinks a red soda, crosses all her fingers, and cheers them on at the top of her lungs. She has a deck of playing cards with all the old Reds players on them. The King of Hearts is Joey Votto, and she always pulls that one out to be her partner whenever we play cards.
Reds baseball was a Godsend during the lockdown last year. It was the only thing that kept her engaged. She came up with a special finger-crossing routine to help Joey hit home runs. She is so enthusiastic and invested—she takes all their wins and losses personally. In fact, last year she was so incensed St. Louis beat the Reds at home that she wrote a scolding letter to the Cardinals.
She has been so excited for this big upcoming birthday, she’s been looking forward to it all year. Reaching this milestone means so much to her (and us). The Reds aren’t the only ones having a banner year. Their number one fan is too!
Cathy has Down syndrome, same as the best person I know, who happens to be my daughter.
Happy birthday, Cathy. Let’s hope the Reds make you very happy tonight.
WELL THAT DIDN’T TAKE LONG. . . Less than a day, in fact. USC fires its football coach and – bam! – Luke Fickell is suggested as a replacement. The only thing that makes sense about Fick-to-LA is that Mike Bohn, the guy who hired him here, is the Trojans AD.
But really. . .
I couldn’t see Mick Cronin in LA, but he ended up at UCLA, so anything’s possible. But Fickell is an Ohio Guy, even more than Mick was. Cronin had extensive ties to Vegas and the West Coast and an artsy daughter who wanted to move to LA. In retrospect, that match was not at all farfetched.
Fickell doesn’t strike me as a SoCal guy, ever. And he’ll never feel the pressure here he’d feel at SC, where the alums still think it’s 1967 and OJ is sprinting across the LA Coliseum sod.
What should have sent UC fans to worry world was OSU losing at home Saturday. Not Clay Helton losing his job on the other coast. Yahoo:
Fickell can handle the job, but would he want the flash? Fickell has earned his spot, going 33-6 the past four years and leading the Bearcats to the Peach Bowl. Fickell took over a 4-8 program and led it all the way to the Big 12. Even with the AD being his old boss Bohn, who hired him at Cincinnati, it's a leap to think of Fickell coaching on the West Coast. Fickell has essentially never lived outside of Ohio and this would take him out of his Midwestern comfort zone and recruiting sweet spot. His buyout is $3.5 million.
Of course, at UC all buyouts are subject to change.
JESSIE BATES IS PISSED OFF. . . The Bengals haven’t offered him a new deal. Sam Hubbard got one. He and Bates were in the same draft class. They can’t possibly let Bates walk after this season. Can they? Guy’s a Pro Bowl-caliber player, very good teammate, the sort of player the New-Dey Bengals claim to crave. And he’s not even a guard.
Why haven’t they taken care of him? Beats me. They’re the Bengals.
AND THERE IS THIS, from The 33rd Team:
The Chargers’ much-improved offensive line was able to protect Justin Herbert against the formidable Washington defensive line. Four of L.A.’s five starters on the O-line are new, including former Packers center Corey Linsley and first-round pick LT Rashawn Slater out of Northwestern. No team allowed a lower pressure rate than the Chargers in Week 1 (12%), per PFF. On third downs Sunday, Herbert was 13 of 16 for 160 yards, 11 first downs and a TD.
Unlike Herbert, Joe Burrow did not benefit from significantly better protection; he was sacked 5 times in the Bengals’ opener against Minnesota. But he was able to get the ball out quickly,
WHEN I WENT TO BED, the Ravens led Vegas, 14-0, and it didn’t look that hard. Not sure how they lost, but if Baltimore’s defense can blow a 14-point lead to Derek Carr, anything’s possible for The Men in the AFC North.
Has any team in sports been more consistently overrated than the Raiders?
Any coach more overvalued than Jon Gruden?
Since they went to the Super Bowl in ’02, the Raiders are 0-1 in the playoffs and have lost 10 or more games 12 times. Over the same stretch, the Bengals have lost 10 or more five times and made seven postseason appearances.
Since Gruden won that ’04 Bowl in his first season coaching Tampa Bay (with Tony Dungy’s players), he’s 66-80 as a head coach and 0-2 in the playoffs.
Chucky has gotten way too much run simply because he struts and makes great mean faces.
The Raiders have existed on their 60s and 70s myth for four decades. But, you know, Howie Long doesn’t play there anymore and Jack Tatum isn’t walking through the door.
Next person who sees Kenny Stabler, give us a holler.
The Bengals play at Las Vegas this year. No idea if the fan base will be the same as it was in Oakland. I got a rental car keyed at the Coliseum one year, possibly by some beer-ed up pseudo tough guy wearing a Halloween costume.
We used to hate the Raid-uhs because they won a lot. That was a very long time ago.
TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . Never a big Steely Dan fan. Their tunes always sounded too. . . rehearsed. And overproduced. Rock and roll is best with a few sharp edges. This Dan tune had’ em. It was a staple at every junior-high dance I ever attended. All two of them.
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