Reds Caravan feature

by Rick House on Jan 23, 2009 9:14 PM EST Comment 27 comments

Hello.

I haven't been around much, but I'm still kicking. I'm going to be doing some reporting for my paper, The Courier-Journal in Louisville, for the Reds' Triple-A franchise, the Bats. I'm not the beat reporter, but I'll be something like the backup beat reporter.

Anyhoo, I cut my teeth on the Reds Caravan yesterday. We ran a little item on our Page 3, which is sorta a quirky/interesting news page, so I wrote about some of the guys' favorite autographs that they've gotten. Space and time were limited, so I didn't get to ask/say everything I wanted, but I think it's got a little sauce.

You can read the story here.

Some other tidbits that didn't fit into the story/didn't make the cut:

George Grande once met Martin Luther King Jr. at an airport and had him talk to a youth team he was coaching.

The only pieces of memorabilia Grande admits to acquiring were scoops of dirt from Yankee Stadium -- where he did his first major leage broadcast -- and Shea Stadium -- where he saw former college teammate Tom Seaver make his Mets debut.

Yonder Alonso said he does practically nothing outside of baseball. Of his bat: "That's my girlfriend." Of her name: "Louisville."

Speaking of Louisville, Alonso stepped foot in the city for the first time yesterday. He loves the park -- "It's a hitter's park; the wind blows out" -- and said he wants to start the season here.
Alonso said he feels comfortable playing third base or either corner outfield spot and that "I'm a hitter." He said he hasn't spoken to Dusty about where he'll play once he's in Cincinnati but plans on having that conversation soon.
I caught the tail end of a conversation in which Dusty said he's proud of Jerry Hairston for figuring out he needed to stop trying to pull the ball and that Chris Dickerson just has to stay healthy to be successful.

So that's about that. I didn't get to ask a lot of the questions I wanted, but I'm not unhappy with what I came out with. Hope you don't hate it too much.

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Comments

Congratulations

That sounds like a dream job to me. Being the beat writer could be kind of a drag. You’d never get to watch any Reds games. But backup beat writer – that’s perfect.

You should have asked Dickerson if that was really him being a jerk to Daedalus at her blog. :-)

And I wonder which player it was that traumatized young Dusty? Maybe he called Mr. Maris “Roger”…

Good to know he signs autographs. Maybe I’ll ask him to sign that photo of him and his kid I took last year. Though the kid is about twice the size now, or so I hear.

All Things Bubba: Because how can you not love a baseball player named Bubba?

by BubbaFan on Jan 23, 2009 9:47 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

for all you supersleuths

dusty informed me that the guy who snubbed had a son whom he later played with. Go!

by Rick House on Jan 23, 2009 10:13 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

great hint

im still coming up with nada. Dale Berra? Ed Ott?

i dont care how hungry ive been i can always throw down applesauce

by obc2 on Jan 23, 2009 10:22 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Was he a Giants or a Dodgers fan?

Felipe Alou? Don Zimmer?

All Things Bubba: Because how can you not love a baseball player named Bubba?

by BubbaFan on Jan 24, 2009 8:34 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I'm guessing jch

50-50 chance it was one of his kids

Soy el niño destructor. I eat kids for breakfast. Roar. - Juan Francisco 'spoken with an Italian accent'

by jacob brumfield on Jan 25, 2009 3:57 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

shenanigans!!!

scrabbles is using his powers to delete his own comments!

Made from 100% recycled awesome,

by chandrathan on Jan 23, 2009 10:08 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I saw that

We should start rumors about what horribly disgusting things he posted.

All Things Bubba: Because how can you not love a baseball player named Bubba?

by BubbaFan on Jan 23, 2009 10:34 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

i would

but i can’t even bring myself to type the depraved things that he wrote

Made from 100% recycled awesome,

by chandrathan on Jan 23, 2009 11:02 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Maybe he didn't delete it

Maybe boobs did. It takes a lot to offend boobs, but that comment really was beyond the pale. I’m really shocked he said such things!

All Things Bubba: Because how can you not love a baseball player named Bubba?

by BubbaFan on Jan 23, 2009 11:10 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

these arent the droids you are looking for.

by Charlie Scrabbles on Jan 24, 2009 10:17 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

great read, Rick

Many ballplayers have stated that they didnt really chase autographs as kids. I guess I never fully understood that as all the baseball fanatics i knew growing up thought have a major league ballplayer sign a baseball was the shizzle. Those were simpler times when we relied on Riverfront Stadium pregame opps as our only chance to grab a memory. I absolutely remember Johnny Bench nodding at me after I said “Thank you, Mr Bench” from the blue seats one evening in the 70’s. (sorry, Mads!)

i think Redsfest is a nice venue for the kids to grab a little bit of that old time nostalgia. Kids just dont bump into ballplayers in the local area anymore and thats a shame. THAT is precisely why this town misses Joe Knuxhall more than I can describe here. I really wish that the kids could be accomodated more at Redsfest and the Nerdy Ass adults with bats in a tube were pushed to the side.

That said, I have to admit I have paid for one autograph in my lifetime. The family unit was attending a Kids Fest at the convention center the same day a big card show was going on. Pete Rose was there, along with Mike Schmidt and Dave Parker and Willie McCovey and many others. I got the ok to bolt over there and have Mike Schmidt sign a photo I had of him and his college coach from Ohio University (the field is named after that great man nowadays). Mr Schmidt did a complete double take when he saw the item placed before him, im not sure he had seen that photo in many, many years. The signature price came with a personalization like “HOF” “MVP” “500 HR” etc. He asked me what I wanted, I stunned him by asking for asking for “OHIO U” and the year he graduated. He stopped the rapid signature process and chatted for a bit. Good times. I gotta get that thing framed one of these days, lol.

i dont care how hungry ive been i can always throw down applesauce

by obc2 on Jan 23, 2009 10:16 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I was not a baseball fan as a kid

So I didn’t chase autographs.

But a friend of mine who grew up in Pittsburgh has a bunch of autographs she got when she was a kid. She showed me her autograph book. Very cool. She has a lot of old Yankees’ autographs, but no Pirates, strangely enough. She used to wait in back where the team buses were, and I guess the home team never needed a bus.

She did get Roger Mariis’ autograph, probably because she called him “Mr. Maris.” She didn’t know at the time that he wouldn’t sign for a kid who called him “Roger.” She was just a well-brought-up child of a certain era, and wouldn’t think of calling a grown-up by his first name.

All Things Bubba: Because how can you not love a baseball player named Bubba?

by BubbaFan on Jan 23, 2009 10:33 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I always do that in professional situations

I address people as Mr./Ms. Lastname unless they only introduce themselves with their first name, which is rare.

"I AM ARABIC FOR SUGAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!" -- by sukr on Jan 12, 2009 4:55 PM EST

by jch24 on Jan 24, 2009 9:18 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

So it's Mr. boobs?

No, I'm not Reynard's Ass either.

by Paul Householder on Jan 26, 2009 1:19 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Cool Stuff Rick

I’ll be interested to see some further work…

Interesting to see the info on Yonder. I would have liked to see him invited to ST this year…

by kennythered on Jan 23, 2009 10:17 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

yonder will be at ST

he’s on the 40-man, so he doesn’t need an invite

What do you mean, "blank slate"?

by boobs on Jan 23, 2009 10:22 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

You want to try a little harder, Yonder?

Give it a girl’s name!

Mom.

Your bat’s name is Charlene!

by Red Menace on Jan 24, 2009 2:44 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Um

Isn’t Chris Dickerson black? That picture is of a white dude, am I wrong?

Nice work BTW. If they send you up this way for a story let us know, we’ll get together and whatnot.

"I AM ARABIC FOR SUGAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!" -- by sukr on Jan 12, 2009 4:55 PM EST

by jch24 on Jan 24, 2009 9:24 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

That's racist!

Actually, Dickerson is probably what we’d call “hapa” in Hawaii – mixed race.

He’s on the right in this photo. You can see he’s fairly light-skinned, with hair that’s curly but not as frizzy as your typical black hair.

All Things Bubba: Because how can you not love a baseball player named Bubba?

by BubbaFan on Jan 24, 2009 9:43 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I knew he was fairly light skinned

But in that picture he looks positively caucasian. Trust me, we can smell our own. I guess it’s just the angle or something. :)

"I AM ARABIC FOR SUGAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!" -- by sukr on Jan 12, 2009 4:55 PM EST

by jch24 on Jan 24, 2009 9:58 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

look at the large version

Here, and zoom in if you can. He doesn’t look Caucasian to me.

All Things Bubba: Because how can you not love a baseball player named Bubba?

by BubbaFan on Jan 24, 2009 10:03 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

That's a better version, he doesn't look as white there :)

"I AM ARABIC FOR SUGAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!" -- by sukr on Jan 12, 2009 4:55 PM EST

by jch24 on Jan 24, 2009 10:45 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Maybe the key is what his waterbottle says...

But WHAT could that last word be?

People Don't Kill People. Burning Couches Kill People.

by crolfer on Jan 24, 2009 7:54 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I just want to say

that if I met MLK Jr. in a public place, I would probably just end up doing the Chris-Farley-in-SNL thing and say something like “Oh man, you remember that march you did in Selma that was AWESOME!!!!!”

I’ve never met anyone famous, I don’t think. And I only went to get autographs once, when I went to a doubleheader at riverfront. I know it was ‘96, because the only ’graph I got was Lee Smith. So in general, I guess I’m pretty bad with celebrities.

...because there's already someone posing as Jacob Brumfield

by Cy Schourek on Jan 25, 2009 10:27 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

i was a kids bat boy

and I got Lenny Harris, Pokey Reese, and two others I can’t remember/read.

"Oedipus ruined a great sex life by asking too many questions!"- Dr. Stephen T. Colbert DFA.

by justin007000 on Jan 25, 2009 12:17 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Whoa, noone commented on this line, yet?

To remember his days with a longtime friend, Dickerson bought a painting of Votto and asked him to sign it.

...because there's already someone posing as Jacob Brumfield

by Cy Schourek on Jan 25, 2009 10:30 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Actually

truth be told, polling shows that a majority of American baseball teams would ultimately empathize with our outfield situation.

"I like to think more in terms of him his in-scoring position percentage." - Dusty Baker (2009) regarding Corey Patterson's relationship with his daughter

by BK on Jan 25, 2009 11:12 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs