Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy is in his 36th year of covering the Cincinnati Reds, the longest tenure for any active writer covering one team. Counting spring training and postseason games, McCoy has covered more than 7,000 major-league baseball games, written close to 18,000 baseball stories and eaten enough hot dogs to give Babe Ruth indigestion.Home > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > May > 05 > Entry
Of death and demotion
The Cincinnati Reds clubhouse was not a fun place Monday afternoon - and it had nothing to do with five defeats in a row and being the bottom feeders of the National League Central.
Ken Griffey Jr. walked up to writers and said, “Frank died at 12:28 this afternoon. Basically he bled to death.”
Frank is Frank King, about whom Griffey once said, “He is not only my best friend, he is my only friend.” King and Griffey were childhood friends and King went to Cincinnati Aiken High School, but has been living near Griffey in Orlando.
He contracted rectal cancer last July and has been in and out of intensive care. He was 38, married four years, with a 3-year-old daughter. When manager Dusty Baker heard about it, he scratched Griffey’s name from Monday’s lineup.
As soon as Griffey finished talking with writers, he excused himself by saying, “I’m going to see Dusty to talk about this lineup thing.”
Griffey talked his way back into the lineup and it was fine with Baker. “Griffey said Frank would have wanted him to play. When I was with San Francisco, Barry Bonds’ best friend died and he, too, wanted to play.”
Baker said one of the things he told the team during a closed clubhouse meeting before Sunday’s game was for them to play for somebody besides themselves, somebody sick or somebody dying or a close friend or family member.
The Reds have had their share of tragedy already this year and Baker ticked them off on his fingers — Norris Hopper’s father, Mike Stanton’s brother, Kent Mercker’s mother, Alex Gonzalez’s grandmother, Bob Howsam, Joe Nuxhall, Chief Bender.
Baker stopped ticking them off on his fingers and said, “A tough year. Let’s stop counting.”
It is always tough to watch a player throw his gear into a travel bag after he has been sent back to the minors, and that’s what pitcher Bill Bray was doing. He was optioned back to Class AAA Louisville to make room for David Weathers, activated off the DL.
Tough times?
“Not so bad, really,” said Bray. “It’s no big deal. I knew Weathers was coming off the DL and I’m just glad he wasn’t hurt bad. For me, well Louisville is going to Norfolk, where I’m from, so I’ll be home and I’ll stay at my grandparents, so I’m looking forward to that.”
Baker emphasized to Bray that the manager is happy with what Bray did and this was not a performance demotion. It was a roster move, an option move - and he emphasized to Bray that he should go to Louisville and keep pitching well and he’d be back “sooner rather than later.”
And there was another visitor in Dusty’s office. Pitcher Bronson Arroyo. After Arroyo’s awful performance Sunday, Baker suggested that something must be physically wrong with Arroyo and that maybe he would be checked out.
Before visiting Baker’s office, Arroyo said, “My body feels great. I’m getting beat fair and square. My velocity is much better. Physically I feel great, nothing I can complain about - my knee isn’t bothering me. I don’t have a headache. Nothing.”
Arroyo conveyed this to Baker, who later said, “The trainers checked him out. Nothing. I just said that about getting him checked out because I’m at a loss (over his 1-4 record and 8.63). The writers asked me if he was OK and that’s all I could think of to say.”
Just another day in a pregame clubhouse where everybody is searching for answers.
“We’ve come home (from a 10-day trip) and we’re sleeping in our own beds, clearing our thoughts, doing our laundry and now let’s win some ball games,” said Baker.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment | Categories: Dusty Baker, Ken Griffey Jr.
Comments
By MAC
May 6, 2008 12:23 PM | Link to this
Soft approach but at least the message was sent: a few guys need to dial up the intensity and flat out start hustling more. Perhaps more importantly, they need to get their heads in the game and have an approach @ the plate & on the mound and the professional disipline to stay w/ it. Losing is one thing, but not hustling, taking wild swings even w/ 2 strikes, base running blunders and pitchers who miss targets not by a little but clear on the other side of the plate is quite another thing. IMO, it’s probably best remedied by a few games on the bench instead of a speech?By James
May 6, 2008 9:45 AM | Link to this
Arroyo is physically weak. He’s not serious about his job; if he were, he’d have prepared during the off season with proper conditioning instead of worrying about conditioning when his job is in jeopardy. Here’s a free hint; swimming isn’t going to help your pitching. In fact, it’s going to make your shoulder weaker over time. He needs to make his entire body stronger; I suggest cleans, and clean and jerks on a low weight, high rep basis with either dumbbells or bar, your pick. Dumbbells might be easier considering they’re pretty advanced moves.By Pete
May 6, 2008 7:24 AM | Link to this
COACH? — HELLO??? This isn’t the Reds from the past. Wake up to reality, huh?By Coach
May 6, 2008 12:04 AM | Link to this
It IS still early! Many years back the Reds were out near twenty games—if memory serves me correctly, at the All-Star break. They came back in the second half of the season, to beat the Dodgers for the Pennant.I even predicted the comeback to one of my students who went home and told his mother—who told him to tell me I was crazy! I feel the same about this team—they are not out of this thing by a long shot. Lots of luck is involved in a successful season—not forgetting staying injury-free. The Reds are starting to show signs of having their luck change; as demonstrated tonight—when a sure double play against them turned into an error on the Cubs second baseman.Those things can turn a season around—and to this point, they haven’t gotten those kinds of breaks! To those who don’t want to hear it’s still early—believe it!!By Deaner
May 5, 2008 8:42 PM | Link to this
The Reds aren’t putting the best team on the field. I’ll leave it at that.By Jim M.
May 5, 2008 7:00 PM | Link to this
Sorry to hear about Jr’s Friend.. Cancer isnt fun. loss of life in my family from cancer.. My heart goes out to Jr. his family and Frank and his family.. God Bless..By ShockMonkey
May 5, 2008 6:59 PM | Link to this
This team needs more players like Bill Bray. Great attitude but jeez, he pitches well then gets demoted. I like Stormy but you know he’s going to walk or hit the first batter he faces. I don’t know, this season looks lost already. Not much going right. Now can we stop with righty-lefty lineup combinations. Come-on!By ohdave
May 5, 2008 6:55 PM | Link to this
I usually don’t get this depressed about the Reds until some west coast trip in June. They’re getting the misery out of the way early this year.By ohdave
May 5, 2008 6:52 PM | Link to this
Can we put Bronson on the DL anyway? How about having Soto check him out? Teach him some new pitches?