Sunday, June 24, 2001
Lowlights of the 2001 season
• Coach Ron Oester was offered the Reds' manager job he craved during the off-season, but didn't like the below-market offer — and said general manager Jim Bowden told him he was right to want more. When he learned Mr. Bowden gave the job (for the same money) to special assistant to the GM Bob Boone, an irate Mr. Oester called Mr. Bowden “one of the worst people in the world.” Owner Carl Lindner and chief operating officer John Allen persuaded Mr. Oester to stay on, and Mr. Boone was allowed to pick only one member of his coaching staff, Tim Foli.
• During spring training, Mr. Bowden declared that contract talks had broken off with top starting pitcher Pete Harnisch because he wanted $8 million a year over two years. Mr. Harnisch said it was an opening offer, not a final demand, adding he expected to be traded.
• After reliever Justin Atchley had pitched in two games (both losses), Major League Baseball voided his promotion from the minor leagues. The Reds had re-signed him too late to be eligible before May 15.
• The Reds took another chance on NFL cornerback-turned-outfielder Deion Sanders, but signed him before major-league rules allowed. No other team objected, so the contract was OK'd, but Mr. Sanders couldn't play for the Reds until May 1. He played at Triple-A Louisville until then, earning a promotion to Cincinnati to start May and went 3-for-3 in his debut. But he managed only 10 hits in 75 at-bats thereafter, finishing at .173 before the Reds designated him for assignment, then released him.
• After injuring his hamstring late in spring training, Ken Griffey Jr. still was considered a possibility to play Opening Day. Mr. Griffey ended up relegated to pinch-hitting duty while rehabilitating and finally asked to have an MRI done — which showed the injury was more serious and in a different spot than originally thought. He went on the disabled list April 29 after going 0-for-12 as a pinch hitter. Mr. Bowden later said on his radio show that Mr. Griffey's injury was “misdiagnosed,” upsetting team physician Dr. Tim Kremchek. Mr. Bowden apologized to Dr. Kremchek, who later said he preferred the term “underestimation.”
• The Reds announced Dennys Reyes had left the team to return home to Mexico for personal reasons. It turned out the left-handed reliever wanted his ailing throwing elbow checked out by a therapist named Mario who'd helped him two years earlier. Mario's last name? “I don't know,” Mr. Reyes said. “I just call him that.”
• The disabled list has included such front-line players as Mr. Griffey, shortstop Barry Larkin, third baseman Aaron Boone and pitchers Scott Williamson, Mr. Harnisch, John Riedling, and Mr. Reyes.
• Manager Bob Boone, ever trying to manipulate the healthy players and fill-ins he had left, started flopping the defensively superior Juan Castro and Bill Selby between second and third bases during the eighth inning of a game the Reds were leading 2-1 at St. Louis, depending on the batter. The next day, even Mr. Boone admitted, “I overreacted.”
• Hall of Fame radio broadcaster Marty Brennaman, who verbally sparred last season with Mr. Griffey over the outfielder's hustle and with Johnny Bench over the former catcher's position on Big Red Machine teammate Pete Rose getting into the Hall, has been so critical of the Reds this year, he has referred to the team on the air as “dysfunctional.”
• Attendance is down 22 percent this season, at a time when the Reds are trying to drum up further revenue to bolster the $43 million payroll and further interest for Great American Ball Park's 2003 opening. Mr. Lindner, who overruled Mr. Bowden and Mr. Allen last season and signed shortstop Larkin (now 37) for $27 million for three years without adding to the budget, continues to offer the public no word of the payroll or plan he has for the team in the coming years. Meanwhile, the relationship between Mr. Allen and Mr. Bowden has further strained, but Mr. Lindner has not given his COO the power to decide Mr. Bowden's future.
• After Mr. Bowden said publicly that he has offered long-term contracts to some of the teams' top young players, they lashed back at him over the seriousness of the offers. “(The offers are) fair not only for the Cincinnati Reds, but consistent with market value for baseball,” Mr. Bowden said. “Fair?” outfielder Dmitri Young said and then laughed.
• Second baseman Pokey Reese was quoted in Baseball Weekly as saying about Mr. Bowden, “As we say in the clubhouse, you know that man is lying when his lips are moving.”
• When pitcher Rob Bell was traded to Texas recently, Mr. Young said in the Reds clubhouse, “Robbie Bell is the luckiest man in here.”
• Reliever Danny Graves said of his former team, Cleveland, “Over there, you never really questioned why something was being done. It was always being done to better the organization or the ballclub in any way possible. Whereas, here, you never really know what's going on half the time.”
• In a pregame meeting Monday night, Bob Boone chewed out his players for not performing up to standard. “I don't think Carl Lindner should have to pay at a professional level if he's not getting professional results,” Mr. Boone told reporters. Following the game, coaches Foli and Oester got into a clubhouse fight.
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Lowlights of the 2001 season
