MetaFilter posts tagged with baseball and Reds

The Comeback

dw — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:47:56 -0800

Josh Hamilton was destined to be an all-star baseball player, selected by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays as the #1 draft pick in the 1999 MLB draft. By 2002, though, he was a bust, beset by injuries, spending his days downing an entire bottle of Crown Royal and snorting cocaine. Eventually, he was suspended for two years due to his cocaine use. He hit rock bottom, got clean and sober, and did not play baseball for nearly 4 years. In 2006 attempted a comeback. A Rule 5 draft gamble for the Reds, he made the 2007 team and made his major league debut to a standing ovation. Within weeks he was their starting centerfielder. Dealt to the Texas Rangers in the offseason, he made a thunderous debut and soon led the American League in homers. He currently leads the league in RBI. Today, he was selected as a starting outfielder for the 2008 AL All-Star team, nine years after he was drafted, six years after he was suspended for drug use, and three years since he returned to organized baseball. He remains thankful for his climb from addiction.

Rounding third and headed for home

tizzie — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 05:20:44 -0800

The Old Left-Hander's headed home. Joe Nuxhall was the youngest player in Major League Baseball when he stepped up to the plate at age 15, but his real contribution came later, in the Cincinnati Reds broadcast booth, alongside Marty Brennaman. "...the personification of everything that is good about baseball and, of course, the Redlegs," the Old Left-Hander is dead at age 79.

What the hell is 'foo-fooey?

amberglow — Tue, 03 May 2005 11:22:00 -0800

Joe Valentine has Two Mommies --..."It's no different than having a mother and father," he said. "These are the two women who raised me, and they are wonderful people. It's just not a big deal to me. Why should it be?" In an enlightened world, it shouldn't. But major league baseball is to enlightenment what Pauly Shore is to career longevity. ... Meet the Cincinnati Reds relief pitcher--"...a baseball player who was raised by two wonderful, loving mothers. How can anyone criticize that?"

"That Sickening Red Tinge"

matteo — Mon, 12 Jul 2004 05:11:25 -0800

Press Box Red For 50 years, Lester Rodney was a forgotten footnote in perhaps the most controversial American sports story of the 20th century: Jackie Robinson and the breaking of baseball's color barrier. Now, the 93-year-old Rodney is getting his due. In the decade before Robinson debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Rodney was the sports editor of the Daily Worker, a newspaper (the FBI files are here on .pdf) better known as the house organ of the American Communist Party. With strident editorials and feature stories about what he dubbed "The Crime of the Big Leagues," Rodney was an early, often lonely voice in the struggle to end segregation in baseball. But Rodney's contribution was never acknowledged, because of that "sickening Red tinge". Many baseball historians were staunchly anti-communist, and didn't want to acknowledge the contributions of the Communist Party. So Rodney's role (.pdf file) was left out of the official story. With the publication of his biography, Rodney's place in baseball's epochal story has introduced him to a new generation of admirers. "I wanted that ban to end because it was so unfair; I saw the tragedy of these great black ballplayers, like the catcher Josh Gibson, who didn't get a chance to play. It's unimaginable today, but look at Barry Bonds: Imagine if he had been born earlier and been unable to play." (login details for LATimes story in the main link: sparklebottom/sparklebottom)