Tattoo Swap

Thank goodness! The Reds have DFA'd Darnell McDonald. Yeah, that's the guy who starting in centerfield on Opening Day and pictured below with the nifty neck tattoo.

Jonny Gomes has been called up from Triple-A Louisville. Gomes is a big Pete Rose fan and has much better taste in tats.

BCB Links and Thoughts on Interleague Play

Here are a few links that I thought I'd share:

• Blue Collar Baseball favorite Curtis Granderson blogs about hanging out with M.C. Hammer at Comerica Park. Grandy is a regular guest blogger at Big League Stew.
• Jay Bruce discusses Diamond Hoggers and the Hank Williams Jr. statue in his locker.
• Also from Diamond Hoggers, another fascinating look into the mind of Homer Bailey (who just so happens to be wearing a Hank Jr. t-shirt in the featured picture). I'd like to see Homer sporting around a Hank III shirt or maybe a spiffy Old Crow Medicine Show ensemble... just a couple of my favorites.
• Some poetry about the beauty of baseball up close from the Indianapolis Indians webiste (found via The Jolly Roger).

I'm going down to my West Virginia homeland for the weekend. Reds will be on the radio, Pirates on the TV... I probably won't be paying too much attention... Interleague play is blasphemy. If you really want me to get excited about the Reds playing the Indians, let me see them in a World Series.

Geography makes for good rivalries only if tradition is involved. St. Louis and Kansas City, that's a good interleague rivalry. Dodgers and Yankees is also a good traditional geographic rivalry.

Interleague play is just something else that Bud Selig has done to ruin baseball and mold it in the image of other sports. I heard someone call into a radio show this morning and say, "I don't see what the problem with interleague play is, football does it, basketball does it." That's right but football and basketball aren't baseball and I don't want to see it made into a spectacle like those two sports.

Thinking about two great hitters, Helton and Ichiro

I think it's safe to say that Todd Helton is a great hitter. He just tallied his 2,000th hit in his 13th season in the majors. In only two of the previous 12 seasons has his batting average dipped below .300 -- 1997, his first season in the big leagues, when he played in only 35 games and 2008 when he played in only 83 games due to injury. Helton's lifetime batting average is .328. Despite consistently hitting for high average, Helton has collected over 200 hits in a season only twice -- 2000 (216) and 2003 (209).

Ichiro is a hit machine. Baseball hasn't seen anything like him since Pete Rose. He has never finished a season below the .300 mark (.303 in 2005 is his lowest season batting average to date). Similar to Helton, Ichiro's lifetime batting average is .330. Ichiro, however, in his 8 full major league seasons has never finished with less than 206 hits, and has reached the realm of 262 and 242 in 2004 and 2001 respectively. Ichiro currently has 1,851 hits and if his current streak of 200-hit seasons continues he will reach the 2,000 hit mark before the end of the 2009 season. 2,000 hits in 9 seasons, what a feat! He is destined for the Hall of Fame.

Two BCB favorites reach 2,000 hits

Two BCB favorites reached the 2,000 hit mark yesterday... well, maybe. We know Jason Kendall did. Kendall was one of my favorite players when he was in Pittsburgh. He's tough. Kendall also has one of the thickest beards that I've ever seen on a baseball player. Word is that U.S. Steel used to test industrial coatings by rubbing painted sheets of steel up against Kendall's stubble. Kendall is also a member of the no batting gloves club.

Todd Helton's 2,000th hit is still under review, which is a shame. The guy should get a chance to celebrate as the moment happens. Helton is another tough guy with a great Tennessee mountain man beard. He grew up in Knoxville and played QB at the University of Tennessee behind Peyton Manning. Besides being a great hitter and all-around athlete another thing that I like about Helton is that he's been a loyal member of the Rockies. It was great to see him make it to the World Series in 2007. If you remember there were some offseason rumors before the 2007 season that Helton was going to be traded to the Red Sox. There was no way to know at that time that the Rockies would be playing Boston in the World Series but it wouldn't have seemed right to see Helton win a championship by beating the club that he had been the face of for so long.

Bring back day baseball during the World Series

MLB and FOX have agreed to start World Series games earlier. The first pitch for all weeknight postseason games on FOX will be 7:57pm (ET). It's a start, some kids (and adults) will be able to stay up for the end of the game.

The future of baseball depends on making the game accessible to younger generations without breaking down traditions or making baseball more like other sports. I say bring back day games during the World Series. Have kids sneaking their radios into school again. Have teachers let their students watch the last innings of game seven. I know that's never going to happen but if we pair baseball with being mischievous or getting out of school work for the afternoon it would definitely get kids interested. There can be no discussion of World Series baseball at school, or work for that matter, when games start as late as they do.

See Big League Stew's post.

Giving the gift of baseball

Finding good news about major leaguers' off-the-field activities is sometimes difficult. Many players do humanitarian and charity work with their free time but unfortunately that's not the kind of stuff that makes headlines in the mainstream media. Here are a few news items about people giving the gift of baseball:

Aaron Harang of the Reds and Freddy Sanchez of the Pirates are making miracles happen. Both players donated about $50,000 of their own money to build a field for children with special needs in their regions. The field surfaces are made of a synthetic rubber material and are accessible to kids with wheelchairs, walkers, etc.

In minor league news, an anonymous donor in Toledo, Ohio has given away 4,000 Mud Hens tickets to needy families in the area.