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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2010 > February > 10
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The Saints, Flyers, Wilt and Taveras
When I told friends, acquaintances and strangers that I thought the New Orleans Saints would win the Super Bowl, many told me the Saints didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell.
Well, as I write this, outside my window there is 18 inches of snow on the ground and it is 18 degrees with a wind chill factor that freezes bone marrow. If that isn’t hell, I don’t know what is and I could make a million snowballs in my backyard.
So New Orleans wins, 31-17, and I’m telling folks smugly, “I told you so.” For proof that I predicted the Saints to win, check the Key West Citizen, a newspaper where my former sports editor Ralph Morrow still works. He asked me for a prediction and published it.
By the way, I sure wish I was writing this from Key West.
WAS FORTUNATE to score a ticket to last Saturday’s UD-Xavier basketball game at UD Arena and be part of the whiteout when nearly everybody wore white t-shirts. What? They didn’t think the whiteout outside was enough? To me, the MVPs that day were the snow plow drivers who cleaned the parking lot for the noon game.
UD’s 25-point win over Xavier was a stunner and, no, I made no such prediction on that one. Even though I’m a UD fan, I thought Xavier would win. Guess you’d call me a Flyer Unfaithful. I covered the Flyers for the DDN and covered the first game in UD Arena in 1970. And I’ve never heard it louder than I did Saturday.
AS MOST FOLKS know, I’m not a huge NBA fan, even though I covered the old Cincinnati Royals of the NBA when Oscar Robertson and Jerry Lucas were there. The Royals later became the Kansas City Kings and later became today’s Sacramento Kings. Cincinnati hasn’t had an NBA franchise since the Royals left town.
Even though I’m not much of a fan - and I hold no contempt or animosity toward those who are fans (to each his own) - I do try to watch a few Cleveland Cavaliers games just to catch the artistry and magic of LeBron James. The guy is basketball’s Incredible Hulk, with mixtures of Spiderman and Superman.
Saw him score 35 points against the New York Knicks in the first half the other night. While I think my Aunt Opal in her wheelchair could score at will on the Knicks, it still was a fantastic accomplishment - especially when he scored 24 points in a row.
It just goes to show how unbelievable it was when Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for the old Philadelphia Warriors against, yep, the Knicks on March 2, 1962. The game was played in Hershey, Pa., and there was no TV and apparently nobody took film of the game. So there is no visual record of it, but there is a radio tape.
I was also fortunate enough to cover a few games when Wilt the Stilt played against the Royals and I’m a tall guy at 6-foot-2. But when I stood next to the 7-foot-2 Chamberlain I felt like the Flatiron Building standing next to the Empire State Building.
OK, SO SPRING training is about 10 days away and we still don’t know who will play left field for the Cincinnati Reds. It looks as if it will be an open competition during spring training for anybody who wants to give it a try.
How about this: let’s guess. Give me your choice as to who will be in left field on Opening Day. I’ll put all the winning entries into a hat and draw a name and take that person out to dinner. Or if we can’t get together, we’ll come up with something as a prize.
The candidates, so far: Chris Dickerson, Chris Heisey, Wladimir Balentien, Juan Francisco, Todd Frazier, Jonny Gomes (if he signs), Laynce Nix - or name your own candidate.
Only once guess per person and use your correct e-mail address so you can be notified if you win.
DIDN’T TAKE long for the Oakland A’s to discover they had no need for Willy Taveras, did it? It took the Reds an entire season to figure that out. Just eight days after the Reds traded Taveras to the A’s, they released him. What’s that all about?
Immediately after making the trade, the A’s designated Taveras for assignment and even though they released him, they owe him the $4 million on his contract. The A’s have plenty of outfield talent, so why would they trade for Taveras in the first place?
All this time we thought the A’s were a pretty smart franchise, but this is one I can’t figure out? There has to be some photos somewhere.
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