Good Morning, Charlie - A Good Week, huh?

A Good Thing - The Reds were off yesterday and so didn’t get to play on Jackie Robinson Day, which is actually not a good thing. That woulda been a cool thing. But the good thing is that they got a breather after that West Coast road trip and will be home and rested for the Cleveland Baseballers this evening.

Joey Votto will jam no fewer than four extra-base hits this weekend, I predict. He is locked in and I think GABP will be a good thing for him.

A Gross Thing - The smell when you load up the dishwasher and it isn’t quite full so you say “I’ll run it after breakfast in the morning” and then you open it in the morning

A Thing That Makes Me Question Some of the Fundamental Theories of Physics -

Mo Rivera is widely known as the GOAT: Bullpen Edition and he did it with only one pitch. His cutter sawed off so many bats that folks made rocking chairs out of all the splinters. Mo broke bats the way Merv Griffin did game shows or the way Elon Musk uses his own waste as an exfoliant. It was His Thing.

He threw about 90-93. Clase ain’t gonna be breaking too many bats, I don’t think. They’ll never touch it.

A Terrifically Joyous Thing -

I suggest you watch this kid play baseball if you have not yet had the pleasure. He isn’t Joey Votto, but that’s no sin. This is gonna be an exciting series.

A Totally Positive Thing - Sonny Gray is set to make his 2021 debut Saturday night. The Reds did a lot of active destruction of the pitching staff this winter after Trevor Bauer and Anthony DeSclafani left as free agents and they traded Robert Stephenson and Raisel Iglesias and non-tendered Archie Bradley. I got pretty sore about it because that no-good son of a bitch Bob Castellini (a multi-millionaire many times over) is such a no-good son of a bitch. But damn if it ain’t workin’ out.

Instead of paying good players to play good and make the team good, the Reds went all-in on development when they brought in Kyle Boddy a little over a year ago. So instead of paying a guy like Archie Bradley they went out and got some Jeffs Hoffman and Carsons Fulmer and the like. And I think they really are on to something. Which is a great thing, because I think we all know what this pitching staff looks like when ownership is bitching about how they have no money and they are talking to no one. At least now they are talking to Boddy the Bodacious Spin Whisperer.

A Personal Thing -

picture courtesy of me, you idiots

We adopted a dog a few weeks ago. She was a stray saved from the shelter by a rescue organization called Rico Pet Recovery (kick them a buck or two if you can. They earnedd the Charlie Scrabbles JamOrg Seal of Approval). She’s a purebred Australian Shepherd raised in a puppy mill*. At nine months old she started her first cycle and was impregnated by a dog the owners weren’t intending on breeding, so they turned her loose.

At the beginning of spring she was found running around with another female Aussie and the four-month-old pups she was still nursing. She hosted scores of parasites (including the pups) and was in pretty bad shape. That’s when we got her. Her name is JoJo Bananas.

She is the kindest, sweetest, most adorable dog I’ve ever met. The very second we met she ran over to me and laid down and asked me to rub her belly. Charlie always did that.

I swear, she’s one of them dogs you get from a catalog. She’s brilliant, gentle, fun, responsive, and strikingly gorgeous. Everybody says so. She is the kind of dog who is the best friend of every person she meets. She’s a true testament to her species.

Charlie was always like that, too. A good friend is a really good thing, man.

Have a good weekend.

*based on actual events