PHOENIX — Jack McKeon had no trouble recommending pitchers for the National League All-Star team, a task all of the league's managers performed for Atlanta's Bobby Cox.

        McKeon's list featured the league leaders in victories — Arizona's Randy Johnson (12), St. Louis' Darryl Kile (11), Los Angeles' Chan Ho Park, St. Louis' Garrett Stephenson, New York's Al Leiter and Atlanta's Greg Maddux (nine apiece).

        Prohibited from naming his own players, the Cincinnati manager had to omit another pitcher among the victory leaders: relief ace Danny Graves, who's 9-1 with 11 saves.

        “My vote doesn't mean anything. They just take a composite (with other managers' submissions),” McKeon said before Friday night's series opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

        Ironically, Graves' teammates could foil his chances to participate in the July 11 midsummer classic at Atlanta. Center fielder Ken Griffey Jr. and shortstop Barry Larkin are likely to be voted on the NL's starting squad. Since each team must have at least one representative, Cox and his helpers might decide that two Reds are enough.

        Starters for both leagues will be announced Monday; pitchers and reserves will be named Tuesday.

        Graves isn't dwelling on his fate.

        “I'm already making plans for the All-Star break,” said Graves, who's leaning toward visiting Kings Island one day and spending another day with his wife, Andrea. “If I have to break them, fine. I don't want to sit here and make plans to go to the All-Star Game and then not go. Then what am I going to do? Sit at home and do nothing.”

        Nor will Graves waste time trying to pick the team for Cox.

        “Some managers go with the superstars; some go with who deserves to be there,” Graves said. “I think my numbers are pretty good. But it's all in the eyes of Bobby Cox. You don't want to get your hopes up and think you deserve to make it and not make it.”

        LINGERING AT LEADOFF: McKeon used Larkin in the leadoff spot for the fifth consecutive game and indicated that the team captain could stay there until other hitters begin producing more consistently.

        “We'll see if it works,” McKeon said. It hasn't done much for Larkin, who went 3-for-15 in his first four games at the top of the order.

        McKeon left open the possibility that slumping second baseman Pokey Reese will return to leadoff, the spot he formerly occupied, once he regains his stroke. Reese entered Friday's game hitting .211 (34-for-161) since May 14, dropping his average from .338 to .269. He began batting eighth when Larkin moved to leadoff.

        “We'll probably move him back up, eventually,” McKeon said of Reese.

        MEMORY LANE: McKeon happened to be the first of many major-league managers to send the well-traveled Mike Morgan to the mound.

        Morgan, who has played for the Reds (1996-97) and 11 other teams, began his nomadic career as an 18-year-old in 1978 with the Oakland A's. McKeon managed Oakland in 1977-78.

        Desperate to draw crowds, eccentric A's owner Charles O. Finley ordered McKeon to use Morgan, the team's first-round draft choice (fourth overall), in the starting rotation immediately. Morgan happened to have graduated from Valley High School in Las Vegas the previous week.

        McKeon recalled that Finley telephoned him in the dugout more than once, urging him to keep Morgan in the game. “He's capable of going 11 innings,” Finely insisted, according to McKeon.

        Morgan actually performed well, pitching a complete game and losing to Baltimore 3-0. Morgan was sent to the minors after two more starts.

        “He had a lot of poise for a high school kid,” McKeon said.

Great American to name ballpark Reds 5, Diamondbacks 4 Box, runs Graves not sure of All-Star berth

• Return to Reds front page...