Sunday, August 26, 2001
Fan's-eye view of the Reds
500 in 2001?: Ken Griffey Jr. has a good shot at getting to 500 home runs next year. Griffey has 456 and has averaged 50 home runs the last five years. He won't reach that this year, of course, because he missed 2 1/2 months. No one has ever reached the 500 plateau in a Reds uniform. Griffey began the weekend ranked 23rd on the all-time home-run list, one behind Jose Canseco.
Record in sight:
The Reds' two roster moves Saturday — Chris Nichting was optioned to Louisville, Robin Jennings' contract was purchased from Triple-A Louisville — were the 83rd and 84th of the year. Jennings is the 44th player on the Reds roster. The record is 51 in 1993.
Down on the farm: Ben Broussard, the Reds' No. 2 pick in the 1999 draft, continues to tear it up at Double-A Chattanooga. Broussard homered Friday to extend his hitting streak to 10 games. He has hit safely in 16 of his last 17 games. In that stretch, he is hitting .377 with five home runs and 15 RBI. Broussard leads the Southern League with a .315 average and a .580 slugging percentage.
Sauer remebered: Hank Sauer, who died Friday at 84, was so popular with Chicago Cubs fans of the 1950s that he was nicknamed the Mayor of Wrigley Field. In Cincinnati, however, his name evokes memories of one of the worst trades in team history.
On June 15, 1949, the Reds beat the trading deadline by less than three hours by sending Sauer and Frankie Baumholtz to the Cubs for Harry “Peanuts” Lowrey and Harry “The Hat” Walker. It was a deal involving four 30-year-old outfielders, but hardly equitable.
Walker, the 1947 National League batting champion (.363), hit .318 with the Reds the rest of that season, but was traded in December to the Cardinals and had less than 200 at-bats the rest of his career. Lowery was sold to the Cardinals in September 1950 and had two more solid seasons (.303 in 1951, .286 in 1952) before tailing off. Meanwhile, Baumholtz hit .295 through 1955 for the Cubs.
And Sauer? The left fielder hit 198 of his 288 career home runs with the Cubs from 1949-55, was a two-time All-Star — and was the 1952 NL MVP for a fifth-place team, hitting .270 with 37 homers (tying for the majors' lead) and 131 RBI (best in baseball).
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Fan's-eye view of the Reds
