Today, I was watching the Reds when I had this idle thought:

Thinking that Josh Hamilton : 2007 Reds :: Brandon Phillips : 2006 Reds, in terms of forcing himself into the lineup. Move EdE to 1B!!!

In terms of what I’m thinking here, it’s:

1. Install Josh Hamilton as the everyday CF.
2. Move Ryan Freel from CF to 3B.
3. Move Edwin Encarnacion from 3B to 1B.
4. Bench the Jeff Conine / Scott Hatteberg platoon.

Now, I’ve been mulling on that more as the afternoon has worn into the evening [and I finished watching the Reds shut out the Cubbies 1-0], and I think that would work, but:

1. It still has Ryan Freel being an everyday player, and I don’t really think that’s the way for him to be best utilized. I still think he’s best as a super-sub who gets four starts a week while the Reds regularly rest Junior, Dunn, Encarnacion, and Hamilton.
2. It puts Freel, whose game is hustling and being a pest, at what is a prime power position in MLB. Granted, individual lineup construction on a per-team basis can overlook things like this, especially when you have an outfield of mashers like Dunn, Hamilton, and Griffey. [They're everything that D-G-Kearns was supposed to be, without all of Austin's injuries.] But it’s still sub-optimal, even when there’s prior art in terms of Tony Phillips and [more recently] Chone Figgins.
3. It takes an infield liability at 3B [Encarnacion] and shifts him to 1B, where he’s not really guaranteed to be much better.

So then I had this thought:

1. Install Hamilton as the everyday LF.
2. Move Dunn to 1B.

I love the Big Donkey. I’ve had an Adam Dunn batting practice jersey since his first full season in the bigs. I gave him a break when he sulked after Kearnsie was traded last year. [Hey, I was sulking, too, because ... who trades two lineup regulars for two relievers and a couple of spare parts, even when those regulars are Kearns and Lopez, guys unlikely to make you really regret the trade in the future?] But as much as I’ve lamented his OF defense in the past, I think he’s improving now, and I wonder how badly he would react to an in-season move to 1B. I think it’s his eventual position—allowing him and Brook Jacoby to focus on his hitting—but I think that he’s the kind of player that can really use an offseason of learning how to move around the bag. I think that Dunn could be the kind of 1B that Derrek Lee is if he put the time and energy into it—he is certainly athletic enough, and working on footwork should be a natural for a former QB—but I think that he needs an offseason to do that.

Yes, yes, there’s Joey Votto to be concerned about down in AAA. Votto may be a stud, but … crap. Hamilton has essentially missed four years of baseball while dealing with his demons, never had played above AA until this season, and is mashing like he’s … well, the #1 pick he was coming out of HS. There’s small sample size to be concerned with—I’m judging his performance on spring training and two weeks in the bigs—but I have this nagging feeling that Hamilton is here to stay. I also think that he deserves the full-season trial to prove that, too. To really get a fair shake—as Phillips got last year—he needs to be in the lineup all the time. That’s going to mean rearranging the deck chairs, and that puts someone over at 1B to displace the platoon and relieve the crowding in the outfield.

Hey, who wants Hatteberg and Conine for a fourth OF who’s a fly-catcher? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

Both Mike and Jamie sent this to me, and … well, it’s hilarious. Clark, the Canadian hockey goalie, playing shortstop in full gear. Oh my gracious, that’s awesome.

Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the end of Doug Ross’s coaching career at UAH … our boys went from the lowest seed at our conference tournament to the tourney champions. Unfrickingbelievable. All the teams I’ve followed, all the times we’d been to the CHA tourney final—this was our fifth appearance—and we win it with a team that went 10-19-3 in the regular season. Criminy.

Yes, folks … we’re 13-19-3 and in the NCAA’s. It gets better when you learn that UAH is 5-0-1 in their last six games. Yeah, we were 8-19-2 not that long ago. Just a horribly long start to the season, I guess.

Of course, I’m on my way to the regionals to broadcast the games. We start off with a game against Notre Dame tomorrow at 4:05 p.m. Central; that game will be streamed on the Internet at 730UMP.com, thanks to the fine folks at WUMP. They’ve really stepped up for us—all the postseason games we play will be broadcast by them or their sister station, WVNN. Thanks a ton, guys. Zack Bennett and Thom Abraham are our heroes of the week!

Oh, did I forget to mention that my boy Mike Anderson is broadcasting with me? I think I did. This is gonna be awesome.

I type this entry from a Panera in Nashville [on 21st, in case you're curious]. I was going to dine at the lovely Fido’s a bit further south on 21st, but damn if their parking lot wasn’t completely and utterly full. [Bry, I'm right next to Satco, man. I have a hankering for some terribly greasy Mexican food that I'll regret at 2:00 a.m. Wish you were here!]

Why am I stopped? Don’t I drive all night? Well, see … I have a fantasy baseball draft tonight, and unlike, oh, Ronzilla, I’m not so lame that I’ll skip the draft despite needing to be on the road. I’ll do our draft [which usually goes under two hours], finish that up, and then get back on the road. Tonight I’m staying in Elizabethtown, KY, and I’ll get up early in the morning and finish the drive. I might yet beat the Pep Band bus to Grand Rapids.

More later. Should be a fun time.

[And yes, I'm posting because, as Mom noted in a phone call yesterday, I've been posting nothing but links lately. Yes, I'm terribly busy at work. No, I can't talk about any of it. I don't really want to talk about it, anyway. ]

You’ll be missed, Coach.

I forgot to mention how excited I am for another home hockey season, which starts on Friday night.

Gettin’ kinda excited to see Wilco tomorrow night. I’ve already talked myself out of bootlegging the show—ironic, given how much I trade in Wilco boots—but I know that my equipment just isn’t up to the task. That, and I want to fully enjoy one Wilco show before I start taping all the ones I hit.

I only want to go where my wheels roll … and Tuesday they carry me to Nashville and then Wednesday on to Hotlanta to see the Bruins play the Thrashers—it’s the only time they come down there this year, and well … I’d go another time if they came, given that this week is busy. [Hey Dougal?! Are you going with me or am I calling in the relief goalie? ]

Now I know I made a mistake, lining up all this travel at once. Ah well. I’m still under 30.

Dear Marvin and Mike:

Cut Odell Thurman. That will say more than any press conference. Cut him, and do it this week.

Thanks,
Geof Morris
Bengals fan since 1987

With the Reds’ loss to San Diego today, I’m officially giving up on the team’s chances. As such, I have performed my ritual deletion of my Baseball Tonight season pass. Rotowire will be enough for me to keep an eye on the little bit of interest I have in baseball [read: my roto team], but even there, my team has faded just like the real guys on the field. I must say, though; this is the latest I’ve ever canned a BBTN Season Pass.

The good news? The Bengals are 1-0 and look pretty good. I’ll have something to tide me over until UAH’s home hockey season starts. [36 days. Yes, I'm twitching in anticipation.]

Here are random thoughts that I had while watching NBC’s new Football Night in America, their Sunday-night highlights-and-commentary show that precedes their Sunday night game:

1. This is a 75-minute show. They went 15 minutes before showing the first highlight. WTF?! The only explanation that I have for it is to avoid showing highlights against the 4:00 p.m. ET starts that sometimes go past three hours. That said, if this is your intention, I as a viewer want to know that. 12 minutes in, I was wondering, “Is this just going to be another damn Bob Costas Olympic-style broadcast?” Then, on the teaser heading to the break, they discussed that they’d go to highlights next. Almost too late for me: however, I’d TiVo’d the thing, so I was ready to bail.
2. The one good thing about the first segment: they did an around-the-league with their on-site reporters bringing you the top news. It had just enough football to keep you mildly interested.
3. The group seemed relaxed and together, but almost too much so for a first show. Any show like this—especially one where the cast sits on leather chairs out from behind desks and essentially is inviting you into their living room—needs to develop its camraderie slowly. This felt like walking into a locker room full of veteran players: intimidating, awkward, and a little off-putting. I’m not asking for stilted, but I am asking for slow development.
4. Sterling Sharpe’s honed repartee didn’t fit in so well with Cris Collinsworth and Jerome Bettis as it did with Steve Young, Tom Jackson, and Michael Irvin. In fact, I felt at times like Sharpe was expecting Costas to pull a Chris Berman on him, which … say what you will about Costas, but he doesn’t have the big man bombast that Berman has. [That's mostly a good thing.] Costas, the professional TV guy, is purely there to guide the broadcast and keep things going.
5. That said, do we really even need Costas? Collinsworth is such a polished TV guy that you could probably get him to play the gig pretty straight and have him lead the coverage. Now, I’m not one of these guys that says that I want only players doing commentary—I think outsiders can pick up on things that players don’t—but … when I think Costas, I think baseball and Olympics.

If you’ve read all that and feel that I’m disappointed in the offering, you’d be right. Even the highlights were just … mediocre. I preferred what NFL Primetime brought to the game: the fast-paced music, the feeling of drama, etc. ESPN had all the cues in the broadcast—done on the fly by people who were just that good—that let you know to start paying attention again if you’d been distracted by something else going on in the room. I never got that feeling with Football Night in America; it never really drew me back in.

I’m going to sample ESPN’s Monday night offering and see which I like; I’m fine with waiting a day for a pre-packaged highlight show. Frankly, I’m curious to see how stunning ESPN can make theirs with a day to do film work and cutdowns on timing.

Wow.

Great Physician Dies: In May, Lee Jong-wook died at the age of 61. He passed away a few hours after suffering a stroke, then undergoing emergency surgery that failed to remove a blood clot from his brain. Who was Lee Jong-wook? One of the world’s leading physicians — an expert on tuberculosis pathology and, on the day of his death, director general of the World Health Organization. Where did he die? At Geneva University Hospital in Switzerland, one of top health care institutions of any nation. So the head of the World Health Organization died young after receiving the best possible care. Memento mori: in Latin, “Remember that you too will die.” The knock on your life’s door could come at any hour. If it comes today, will your heart be ready?

A $54,000 Per Night Hotel Room Costs the Same as the U.S. Median Family Income for a Year: Ian O’Connor of USA Today recently praised golfer Phil Mickelson as generous to the poor, writing, “[Mickelson] pulls over to the curb, with no cameras or notebooks in sight, and hands hundred-dollar bills to homeless men.” Hmmm — if no one with a camera or notebook was present, how does USA Today know this happened? For its part the Wall Street Journal recently reported Mickelson paid $3.4 million for a nine-week penthouse timeshare at Saint Andrews Grand in Scotland, an ultra-lux condo overlooking the Old Course at Saint Andrews, frequent site of the British Open. The price works out to $54,000 per night, making this perhaps the most expensive hotel room in human history. Phil Mickelson — do you really believe that in a world where the impoverished of Africa die for want of a dollar a day, you are justified in spending $54,000 per night to make yourself feel important? “Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation,” Jesus taught.

It’s refreshing and a little shocking to see Gregg Easterbrook being so open in his first column back on ESPN.com. [I guess a little mis-perceived anti-Semitism is okay when Mike Eisner is gone, eh?]

This story about what major league baseball players pack in their suitcase has to be one of the stranger things I’ve read in a major media outlet.

Shawn Green brings his own soap on every road trip. Mike Cameron never forgets his lavender linen spray and orange-scented spray for the room. Ichiro Suzuki depends on an electric massager that takes up nearly half his suitcase.

And then there’s Detroit closer Todd Jones, who wears only one pair of underwear when the Tigers leave town.

“I don’t pack any underwear,” he said. “I wear it into the park, it gets washed every day and I wear it out of the park. I guess that’s weird. I’m not proud of it, but I’m cutting down on space.”

If Jones was proud of it, I bet he’s not now!

The Bengals’ signing of Johnathan Joseph to a deal before training camp starts tonight should help take the spotlight off of all the Bengals’ off-field indiscretions. I’m glad that the Bengals’ training camp opens tonight: it means that players are less likely to get arrested.

I expect the Bengals to take a step back in 2006, record-wise. They’ll consolidate their gains in 2007, I think. This year will be a test of their mettle.

Bowden heists two everyday Reds for pair of relievers, bag of balls, and the rotting corpse of Royce Clayton.

Wayne Krivsky gets a contract extension, and then he pulls this shit?! [And yes, Alex, you know that I'm far more pissed off about Lopez than I am Kearns. We've talked about their relative merits, and you know that I think Lopez is the next Barry Larkin.]

When I first awoke this morning—after under three hours’ sleep—my lizard brain had one thing on its mind: Game Seven. Would it be on NBC? Indeed, it will be.

The NHL TV deal—taking the guaranteed money from OLN over the partnership with ESPN—has been a debacle from my end of things. I love hockey, and I watched less than five regular season games before dumping my digital cable [and my only access to OLN with my cable provider]; I’ve only seen one postseason game, and that was only because I was in Carolina for Game One, where the venue that hosted the concert I was attending happened to have the game on in their bar. I could just see the screen from where I sat, so my head was definitely on a swivel. Compare this to past years, when I have pretty much spent any idle TV time in the summer with whatever playoff game has been on ESPN—after all, it might be a Steve Levy game, which means it’ll go to eleven [overtimes].

My fear was that Game Seven—the very win-or-die, mano y mano kind of contest that drew me into hockey in the first place—would be stuck on a crappy cable channel that almost no one watches. [The aforementioned Game One was outdrawn by women's college softball playoffs on ESPN, after all.] Instead, the game will be broadcast in all its glory for almost all the country to see. Sure, maybe they don’t give a damn about hockey, or maybe they don’t understand the sport … but the opportunity to see this brutally beautiful game is all I can ask for as a fan of hockey.

GO CANES!

I wrote this up on Section23.org, but I’m so excited I’ll post it here: UAH has their first NHL player, Scott Munroe!

From Alabama to the Flyers

Rather than call up veteran NHLer Jamie Storr from their Phantoms farm team as their emergency third goalie, the Flyers tapped unheralded rookie Scott Munroe.

Munroe, who played four years for the Division II University of Alabama-Huntsville, signed an amateur tryout contract and played a couple games for the Phantoms.

Even though the odds of him playing for the Flyers are quite slim, this is still a dream come true for the 24-year-old.

“Our early assessment is he has some ability,’’ Phantoms coach John Stevens said. “Any guy who’s big and moves well in the net, we can work with.’’

Munroe, a native of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, said he’s a little intimidated dressing in the same room as Peter Forsberg and Keith Primeau.

“A month ago I’m in Alabama and now I’m here, it’s been kind of a whirlwind,’’ Munroe said. “I’ve only played two AHL games so it’s an honor. I didn’t think I would get here from there. I’m playing with guys I grew up watching and I’m in a little bit of awe.’’

– PhillyBurbs.com

Mike and I were privileged to call both his first and last games as a Charger. Scott is as nice of a guy as he is a good goaltender, and I’m so proud of him, I can’t stand it. WAY TO GO, 29!