Dave King was savoring the moment…another district title as coach of the Lehman Cavaliers.

If you’re counting, and Dave was (kind of), that makes four in five years…maybe.

“I don’t know,”  he admitted, a bit flustered after Friday’s 6-2 win over Arcanum in the Division IV district finals at Newton High School.  “I’m not sure.  All I know is I’ve been here five years, and I think there’s one year that we didn’t win it.”

Nonetheless, they won it again, for the second time in as many years over the same team, Arcanum, and King and the Cavaliers have another opportunity come next Thursday against Cincinnati Christian, to finally get over the regional hump.

Nonetheless, they’ve won it enough that the gloss has worn off being district champion.  The pressure of winning a regional title has become pretty familiar.  By this time, it should be business as usual, and the Cavaliers are playing in such a manner that mistakes and the occasional misplay didn’t ruin their day Friday.

They weren’t perfect…again.  Just good enough.

Leading 5-0, on early offense by Greg Spearman, D.J. Hemm, A.J. Hemmelgarn, Cole Proffitt and Joe Vondenhuevel, they botched a suicide squeeze attempt Friday in the fourth inning.  It was a run that could have spelled game, set, and match for Arcanum at that point in the game.  The Cavs put it behind them and played on.

For the second time in as many games, second baseman John Copella struggled defensively at second base, committing an error in the first inning that contributed to Arcanum eventually loading the bases.  Copella and company put that behind them and played on, stranding all three runners with a clutch strikeout by starting pitcher Ben Weber.

They played on, making plays, big plays, when those plays counted the most.

Redemptive Moment...Second baseman John Copella's running over-the-shoulder catch atoned for an earlier error and secured another district title for Lehman.

Trailing 6-1 in the top of the seventh, Arcanum put its first two runners on base with some momentum when Lehman reliever Alex Smith suddenly lost contact with his control.  Catch Chey Kramer flared a ball into short right field…a sure-looking base hit that would have added fuel to the fire and depth to a would-be rally.  Except Lehman right fielder Drew Westerheide came charging towards the infield, and caught the ball in the web of his glove with a head-first dive.

Momentum quelled.

After a strikeout of Arcanum pitcher Jacob Albaugh for the second out, Smith again grew wild, walking the next two hitters and forcing in the Trojans’ second run.

With the bases loaded and two outs, leadoff hitter Austin Ripple flared another ball above and beyond second base into short right.  That same John Copella, he of four errors in the past two games, ranged out to kill the rally and secure the district title with an impressive over-the-shoulder catch on the dead run.   Redemption!

“That was a big catch,”  beamed Dave King, who was the first on the field to congratulate his second baseman.  “I told John…the great thing about baseball is you get second and third chances to make a play.  And he made a catch today that he’ll remember the rest of his life…a catch that won us a district championship, and that ball was falling in there for a hit.”

“This really is about the team and the coaches,”  said Copella, who received individual acknowledgment from each teammate for his game-ending catch.  “I made that error in the first inning and I came in and nobody let get me get down.  They kept me up, the coaches kept me up, and that’s what’s kept us winning.

“The exciting thing is we know we’re not playing our best, not yet,”  he added.  “If we start hitting on all cylinders I think it will be hard for any team to stop us.”

It was a game of stellar contrast early.  The outcome was perhaps set when Arcanum left the bases loaded in the first inning, never a good baseball omen.  They would do it twice more.

Conversely, Lehman made the most of first and second inning opportunites.  D.J. Hemm came back from a frustrating sectional final to hit the ball hard twice, going one for three.  Hemmelgarn, Copella, and Westerheide all scored in the second, thanks to rbi singles by Cole Proffitt and Vondenhuevel.

“I had a better approach today,”  said Hemm.  “I tried to shorten up my swing, get my shoulder down a little bit, tried to stay more balanced, and that helped a lot.  This was a big win for us because we beat these guys in the same round last year.  We knew they’d be coming after us.”

Southwest District Board Member Bob Huelsman presents the championship trophy to Cavalier seniors, D.J. Hemm, Andrew Gilardi, Alex Smith, and Ben Weber.

You can’t win without pitching, and Ben Weber, 6-1 entering the game, was just good enough…competitive enough…to go 4 2/3 innings and get ball to Smith for the save.  For Weber…3 strikeouts, 3 walks, 4 hits surrendered, but most important, a win!

“Sometimes it’s just hard to throw strikes,”  he confessed.  “I wanted to make them hit the ball, let our defense make plays, and show that beating them last year wasn’t a fluke.  It wasn’t pretty, but we won.”

And the defense “did” make plays, none bigger than Westerheide’s grab in right field with two on and nobody out in the seventh.

“I knew that when Alex pitches he gives up a lot of bloop hits, so I knew I needed to make a break on the ball as soon as he hit it.  I knew I couldn’t get to it standing so I went head-first.  It was a big momentum stopper for them, because they had runners on first and second.  If it drops they could have scored or had the bases loaded with none out.  My mindset was…I had to catch the ball or we’re in trouble.  Momentum stopper for them, but a lift for us because Johnny (Copella) came right back with his catch to end the game.”

The line score:  6 runs, 8 hits, 3 errors and 6 left on base.  The three errors a point of concern because they came on routine opportunities to make a play.  That’s the bad news.

The good news…nobody in Division IV baseball is perfect this year.  It’s a wide-open field, starting next Thursday when the Cavaliers meet Cincinnati Christian, a 2-1 winner over Ft. Loramie,  in Springfield.

For Arcanum…2 runs, 7 hits, 2 errors, and 14 left on base.  The bad (call it frustrating) news for coach Randy Baker and the Trojans…they left the bases loaded three times, in the first, the sixth and seventh innings.

John Copella might be on to something.  He believes Lehman has yet to play its best baseball, which is just fine with Dave King.  He’s sitting on his latest district championship.  So far, so good.  He gets to play in another regional.

And he’s loving every minute of it!

A hundred-year tradition of great food and great service to the Shelby County community, the Spot is proud to sponsor local sports and coverage of the 2012 state baseball tournament on Press Pros.

Last May I wrote this same blog after the OHSAA’s competitive balance initiative failed by less than 50 votes.  Why Competitive Balance Failed.

The reason…in large part for the fact of the “tradition” issue, whereby schools with a history of regional and state success would be bumped up to play better competition.  It infuriated a lot of people.  Some school administrators, yes, but more, residents within their respective districts that made their feelings known to local school personnel.

It’s more than just my opinion.  In a day where people are cynical of any government decision, they were unwilling to be mandated to by a governing body because their school has been good in the past.  More than one will tell you, relative to the “tradition” factor, if another school can’t compete don’t penalize us.  Tell them (the other school) to get better.

One retired principal told me then,  ”We’re not putting politics on the backs of our kids, plain and simple.”

“Competitive Balance” failed again last week, by the same narrow margin of about 30 votes.  And not surprising, the tradition issue was again a sticking point for many who voted “no”.  This, after the OHSAA came back with modifications. 

“We realized that there are adjustments that needed to be made,”  said commissioner Dan Ross in a recent interview with PPM.  “We listened and our committee has worked hard to make the necessary amendments.”

Good, but apparently not good enough.

In southern Ohio last week, more than one was willing to speak his mind…or about the minds within the district who simply don’t trust the process that they believe to be motivated by…politics.

“It’s a sad thing to admit, but nobody trusts anybody anymore,  about anything,”  said a former coach and principal from Lawrence County, who requested anonymity. 

“I can tell you this. A school like Ironton could possibly benefit from realistic alignment with schools of its own size and demographics.  But there’s a lot of people in the community who don’t trust that that will happen, given Ironton’s competitive history. 

“Given the economy, there’s uncertainty about a lot of districts down here…what they might look like in the five, ten years.  Nobody wants to go out on a limb now to have it crash five years down the road.  Nobody trusts that the proper adjustments will be made, whatever they need to be, if that happens.”

Here’s another fact.  Four out of five people within the average community have no idea about the issues governing the competitive balance initiative, a point that the OHSAA is helpless to overcome, try as they might explain the virtues of ”competitive balance”.  People hear “tradition” and “free school lunches” and automatically say “no way”. 

Politics?

“I admit it,”  said Ironton native James Bradley.  “I don’t know anything about it.  The issue is in the hands of school administrators (actually, school principals around the state).  And how much confidence do I have that someone in Cleveland can understand our local issues here?  Not much.”

 Trust!

He made another point, right or wrong.  “Whatever they do, it’ll come out of Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland.  It always does.”

And then, this.  In every one of the state’s 88 counites there’s at least three schools that likely will never be competitive for a state title in any of the major revenue sports.  That said, many believe that competitive balance will realistically impact only the top 2/3rds of schools.  So what’s the big deal?

You hear a lot of things if you ask.  Some credible, some not.  But if you listen close you hear this from just about everybody.  At the root of “competitive balance”,  the people hear politics.  And where politics are concerned in this day…nobody trusts anybody, anymore, about anything.

And where we have heard that before?

* Tom Cappell is a free-lance writer who travels extensively in his pursuit of his hobby…experiencing the outdoors and supporting not only its legacy, but the future of hunting and the right to hunt for future generations .  He subs for PPM outdoors writer Jim Morris this week.

By Tom Cappell

I’ve watched it for years, and I’m done.

The Outdoor Channel, The Pursuit Channel, and other outdoors and hunting networks and those who appear on them as veteran hunters, yet act like hormone-crazed teenagers at their first after-prom.

I’m talking about those show hosts and “professional” hunters who have shot hundreds of animals during the course of their lives and careers on camera.  And yet, they carry on after their next kill by doing backward flips and forward fronts, hyper-ventilating in some cases, for the fact of shooting one more, bigger, animal than they’ve shot before.

In a culture where hunting is increasingly viewed with skepticism, and attacked on all fronts by those with more will to abolish it than those with the will to preserve it, I’m saying that its time that “professionals” like Stan Potts, Tiffany Lakosky, and others act with professional dignity over the act of killing their next wild animal.

And, I question more about hunting, as in the manner in which its depicted on television.

For instance, for networks like Outdoor Channel to publicly embrace the concept of “fair chase”, I fail to see how “baiting” animals with food supplements spread about the ground under a tree stand is either “fair” or “chase”.

Remember now, if we’re trying to present hunting in a light that’s ethical, the practice of luring deer to a feeding station has all the appearances of being anything but ethical.  As a ridiculous comparison, consider if the roles were reversed.

Consider the deer luring the hunter to the breakfast table with a bowl of cereal and putting an arrow in him from a heated blind just off the patio.  Gary Larson cartoons about such things, but to the opponents of hunting, it’s not so funny, or sporting.

I’ve never used a trail camera to find deer or other wildlife.  Rather, I consider it fair to do my own reconnoissance with the aid of nothing more than a pair of binoculars or a spotting scope.  Jim Shockey makes his living with a trail camera, he says.  The animal he hunts has no such advantage.  Yet, it helps pay the freight on the outdoors networks.

I’ve hunted all my life, and I will for the rest of my life.  I’ve taken dozens of deer, elk, turkeys and other wild animals.  But while I’m excited over the fact of the hunt and an ethical kill, I’ve never high-fived or acted in the manner of those who hunt for a living on TV, and carry on as if the act of hunting is nothing more than recording the next, bigger kill.

One famous football coach once described it this way to a new player who scored a touchdown and then danced in the end zone.

“Act like you’ve been there before, son,”  he said.  “You’re getting paid like a professional, so act like one.”

If those on the outdoors channels are truly the professionals, representing hunting and the rest of us who aspire to and enjoy hunting, I’m saying that it’s time to clean up the act.  It’s tired and it doesn’t portray the sport in a very good light.  Enough with the school girl giggling and “give me a moment, folks”…the hyper-ventilaing and fist-pumping.

A lot of us still take the responsibility of hunting very seriously for what it means…to the hunted!

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It wasn’t pretty…the Lehman Cavaliers’ 6-5 come-from-behind win Wednesday over Riverside in the sectional finals at Hardman Field.

It didn’t matter.  A win is a win, especially where sudden death is the alternative.

But true to the charter of any school of faith, those who watched…those who hoped at the end…those who believed in miracles…were rewarded for their conviction.  In reality, the Cavs’ win Wednesday was nothing short of life after seeming baseball death.

“We had nothing going on at the beginning,”  said Lehman coach Dave King.

An understatement!

A pair of errors by second baseman John Copella and a pair of passed balls by freshman catcher Cole Proffitt contributed to four unearned runs and a 5-0 Riverside lead by the bottom of the fifth inning.

More, the Pirates’ pitcher, Scott Shreve, had Lehman hitters on their front foot and in his hip pocket with his assortment of breaking pitches and fastballs.

But as easy(?) as 1, 2, 3, the now 21-win Cavaliers resurrected themselves…with some help.  Baseball giveth, and baseball taketh away.

Strategy With The Season On The Line...While Riverside discussed its defense (foreground), Dave King instructed his base runners during the Cavaliers' two-run sixth inning.

They scored one in the bottom of the fifth to cut the deficit to four.

With the help of some sloppy defense from the Pirates and some hustle hits from Ben Weber and Drew Westerheide they scored two more in the bottom of the six to cut it to two.

Baseball is a game of cliches’. 

It’s never over ’til it’s over.

Never give up. 

Anything can happen.

And anything did happen.

Trailing 5-3 entering the bottom of the seventh leadoff hitter Joe Vondenhuevel singled.  Third baseman Greg Spearman slapped a ground ball to short that Pirates shortstop Kyle Hurley booted for an error.  First and second and none out, first baseman D. J. Hemm hit a screamer head-high to center field for an out.  One batter later, center fielder Ben Weber loaded the bases with an infield single between third base and shortstop.

With a pitching change the Pirates brought in Hurley in from shortstop to replace Shreve, and he promptly struck out Andrew Gilardi for the second out and added drama.  With their season on the line, freshman A.J. Hemmelgarn came to the plate, already having two of hardest hit balls of the game for base hits in the third and fifth innings.  He delivered again.

Drive To Stay Alive...Freshman A.J. Hemmelgarn's base hit in the seventh scored the tying and winning runs for Lehman.

On a high fastball from Hurley Hemmelgarn tomahawked one into right center field, scoring Vondenhuevel from third to make it 5-4…and Spearman from second to tie the score.

But an errant throw from the outfield sailed over the catcher’s head and back to the screen.  And while everyone watched the ball, Ben Weber streaked all the way from first base, around third and to the plate, to score, unchallenged,  the winning run…6-5!

Three runs from seemingly nowhere.

Credit the fortunes of baseball, yes.  That business of give and take?  Half of Lehman’s six runs were unearned, a result of four critical errors by Riverside in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

But too, credit the play of the unflappable A.J. Hemmelgarn, who frankly had the three best at bats of Lehman’s season with the season on the line…his last at the most critical of moments.  While others were anxious at the plate, Hemmelgarn stayed patient and drove the ball…to left, center and right.

“It’s the best feeling I’ve ever had in baseball,”  he said with a smile, afterwards.  “I just waited and tried to drive the ball back up the middle.  That’s exactly what I did.  The game is never over.  Every inning’s like a brand new game.”

For Dave King, who fussed and fumed through the first five innings, he dreaded what must have seemed like apparent destiny.  A 20-game season on the line with a group of overachieving kids and five irrepressible seniors, more than anything he didn’t want to see their season come to an end.

“Our seniors have worked so hard.  They’ve had such a great season,”  he said before the game.  “You want to see it last as long as it can for them.”

Their faith and conviction made it happen. Lehman had 6 runs on 10 hits and two errors.  Riverside…their 5 runs came on just 5 hits, and four costly errors!

By the numbers, senior pitcher Alex Smith had one of his better days…12 strikeouts, three walks, five hits surrendered and just one of the Pirate runs were earned.

In reality, he had anything but one of his better days.  He struggled in the strike zone.  Unable to locate his fastball, he benefited by the Riverside’s own impatience in swinging at a lot of pitches out of the zone.  Worse, he had no curveball, rarely capable of throwing it for strikes.  Armed with just one pitch, he nonetheless competed.  He never gave up.

“I learned today that it’s never too late if you don’t give up on yourself.,”  confessed Smith.  ”I really struggled at the beginning, but I started to get it together in the last couple of innings.

“I kept reminding myself that I had to stay in it, because I never doubted that we’d be able to come back.  I knew we could do it, and I knew that I had to keep them from scoring any more runs.”

Dave King, his own faith having been rewarded, went from player to player during a jubilant celebration in front of the dugout, reminding them that you never give up.  That anything can happen, and it just did.  An object lesson to carry forward into Friday’s district final game with Arcanum.

"Our seniors have worked so hard," said Dave King (above). "You want the season to last as long as it can for them."

“Isn’t baseball a great game,”  he kept asking, for the benefit of anyone who cared to agree with him.

“I had the right people on base, especially Spearman and his speed on second base.  He was the tying run.

“We got off to such a horrible start.  To give up those runs early the way we did, and come back from a five-run deficit to win that game…?”

Miraculous?

“Well, I couldn’t believe the outfielder even threw the ball (past the cutoff man),”  said King, shaking his head.  “He kind of wheeled and dealed and the next thing I knew the ball was back at the screen.  But I give my kids a lot of credit.  Ben had his head up and never stopped running.  A great comeback today, 21 wins, and another district final.”

His faith tested, his team tested, Dave King admitted that he, like Alex Smith and A.J. Hemmelgarn, never stopped believing.

“Oh I believed, alright,”  he smiled.  “And she believed, that girl right over there,”  he added, pointing to his wife whose smile, if possible, was even broader than her husband’s.

“It’s just a great game,”  he repeated, consumed by what he’d just witnessed.  “That’s all I can say.  This is just a great game.”

When you believe in miracles!

Visiting my father’s gravesite over last weekend I was reminded of a statement he often made in the latter years of his life. 

Dad used to say, referring to the common phrase used by politicians, “Before I die I’d like one of them to explain to me face to face…just what my “fair share” is.  And how do they determine what it is.”

Of course, he was referring to the amount of taxes paid by Americans,  and presidents and members of congress have abused the phrase “fair share” for generations.  But none more assiduously as the current president, Barack Hussein Obama.

Assiduous, by the way, means to be diligent, unrelenting…and that’s what Obama is when he talks to what he calls the “middle class”,  assuring them that one day soon he’s going to make the “rich” pay more than they’re presently paying in federal income taxes, their “fair” share.

Like Dad, I’d like for someone to tell me what a ”fair” share is, and who determines it.  I’ve asked countless elected officials over the years and I’ve sent countless correspondence to Washington asking for an answer.  No one’s ever given me a straight answer face to face, and I’ve never heard from any of my emails, either!   

As it is I paid 30% of my gross income in federal and state taxes last year.  And when you count what we all pay in the other taxes…sales tax, real estate taxes, estate taxes, etc…that figure can come close to claiming 70 cents on every dollar you earn.

Of course, the “rich” do pay a lesser rate on “capital gains”, that money earned through investments of one kind or another.  But you and I have the same opportunity, or privilege.  If I sell a piece of property or other investment holdings, I only pay 15% on the profits I make on that transaction.  That’s not only smart, it’s good.  It encourages people to save, invest, and build personal wealth…so as not to be a financial burden on the rest of us.

But as it is, the President would like to see the capital gains advantage abolished, so that investment profits can pay for…the financial burden on the rest of us.

There is a line in the premable of the U.S. Constitution that reads “…to promote the general welfare”.  I’ve read it countless times, and I’m sure the men who drew up that document didn’t mean to pay for the general “welfare” that now comprises the living of nearly 50% of the American public.

I don’t know about you but I get tired of that…tired of the entitlements, the food stamps, tired of propping up people and companies who made bad decisions along the way, believing that government will always be there to bail them out.  They’re right, of course.  Government is always there to bail them out.  But that isn’t what the Constitution had in mind.

Social security, medicare and medi-caid are broke, and after working 40 years and paying FICA taxes I have no assurance whatsoever that I’ll ever draw a dime of it in retirement.  What I wish is…that I could have invested personally all the money that I’ve contributed since 1972.  At an average of 8% return per year in the markets  I’d be sitting pretty right now…and no financial burden on the rest of us!

What all this talk about “fair share” has done…it’s driven countless individuals to the “underground” economy of doing business on a “cash” basis.  People who accept only cash for work and services rendered, and who pay no taxes whatsoever on it.  I know plenty of them and they all say, “I’ve paid my fair share over the years, and look what it’s gotten me.”

In fact, here’s the entire preamble.  We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. 

Did you read the part about paying a fair share?  No.

Do you believe that you’ll ever read about it in the Constitution?  At the rate we’re going…yes.  One more term and we’ll probably have it. 

But sadly, the line about the general welfare doesn’t hold much promise for those of us paying for “general welfare”.  And in a land where all we holler is give us what’s fair…really, what’s fair about that?

And by the way, if you don’t care, you should. Take it from a rank-and-file member of the middle class.   I’m tired of paying for you.

With acknowledgment for the length of our Reader Speaks post of last week, we’d also hasten to say that Daniel Semansky’s comments on the economy, high school sports, and the OHSAA  were not the first such we’ve heard.

In southern Ohio for the past few days we heard it there…the fact of unemployment, underemployment, and schools with their backs to the wall in regards to how they might pay for competitive sports in the future.

Roger Burcham made the point that the cost of a state championship, or competing for a state championship has come to the brink of disqualifying many small rural school districts in Lawrence, Scioto, Gallia, Jackson and Meigs counties.

“Pay to play is a harsh reality here,”  he adds.  “An expensive reality.  A lot of kids can’t afford to play because they ‘have’ to work…and districts can’t afford to bus team and band a hundred miles round trip to play football on Friday nights.  And then on Tuesday they have to make the same trip for volleyball.  A seventh division and another championship game means nothing to people if they can’t afford to compete for it.  Their first worry is paying the electric bill.”

You hear mumurs of regions forming their own governing body and competing at home for a smaller, more financially feasible championship.  But really, how feasible is that.  At the risk of hearing from those who say PPM is a “shill” for the OHSAA, with never a discouraging word…we’d ask.  Who does it better than the OHSAA?  Or, who “would” do it at all?

And,  where is the satisfaction in winning a title if that title comes from anything less than the best competition available?

Now then, in response to Hal McCoy’s recent Q and A from the readers, Mike from Sidney wrote:

“I love Hal McCoy, but I have to disagree with his ‘positive’ position on a team with an aging third baseman on the disabled list again, that still has no left fielder, whose fourth and fifth starter has one (now two) win between them, and a center fielder still hitting .200 and striking out once a game.”

(Ed. Note:  Mike, have you stopped to think about what they’re saying about the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim who had even higher expectations…or the Detroit Tigers.  Hey, it’s just baseball, and it could be worse.”

There were many recent comments shared about the late Jim Hardman, who coached the Piqua baseball program for twenty one seasons and won more than 500 games.

“I really enjoyed your column about Coach Jim Hardman.  A wonderful man and leader of young men who should be recognized as one of Piqua’s best, all-time.”

Dennis

(Ed. Note:  Dennis, the good thing is that so many of us recognized him as one of Piqua’s best long before he left us.)

“The man had more great baseball stories than anyone I’ve ever met.  Everyone will miss Coach Hardman.”

Rick

(Ed. Note:  You can say that again.  My favorite was his description of catching former major leaguer Harvey Haddix when they were both playing amateur baseball in Clark County.  Coach, and English teacher at PHS,  described Harvey’s curveball  as something that looked like an egg falling off the stove.  That’s a simile you can live with, eh?)

Columnist Greg Hoard’s recent story on former major leaguer Buddy Bell drew the most of recent comments.  Such as:

“The painful truth, as the title stated, but the only truth where a child’s athletic future is concerned.  Good stuff.”

Tim

“He hit the nail right on the head.  If a kid doesn’t want it for himself there’s no way the parents can live their own dream through him by wishing the impossible.  Thanks for sharing this story.”

Wm. Landis

“A wonderful article, but I wish there was more encouragement for the kid who simply wants to participate without the pressure of becoming a major league ballplayer.”

John…Greenville

And this:

“I commend Press Pros  for adding another great name to your roster of writers.  Greg Hoard is simply a great read.”

Phil

(Ed. Note:  A great read, and a very funny man, to boot.)

Finally, from Jeff, who this past week wrote to ask:

“Are there two more negative writers you could find than Bruce Hooley and Dale Meggas?”

(Ed. Note:  Have you ever read Tony Kornheiser and Skip Bayless?)

His clippings already can be stacked as high as the Washington Monument and there are those in the D.C. area who believe some day it will be the Bryce Harper Monument, complete with a huge red Washington Nationals hat perched on the point.

And it might come true for the 19-year-old legend before his time if he doesn’t assassinate himself first.

Before his first game in Cincinnati against the Reds last week, Harper sat benignly in the visitor’s dugout conducting a safe little interview and he said all the right things.

For example: “I try to take things as they come. There are nights when you got 5 for 5, but the next night you might go 0 for 5. That’s baseball. You can’t let it get to you.”

But, he did. On Friday night, during one of those 0 for 5s with three strikeouts, Harper banged his bat against a concrete wall. The bat bit back, slamming into his forehead, drawing blood.

Yes, the kid is intense.

Brandon Phillips, The Tsar of Twitter, tweeted this to his constituents Friday morning: “We play Babe Ruth and the Washington Nationals this weekend.”

He was not referring to Rick Ankiel or Adam LaRoche or even Ryan Zimmerman. He was, of course, referring  Harper baseball’s newest cover boy.

Phillips’ tweet was not disparaging and, in fact, as far as Phillips is concerned, “The Bryce is Right.”

If people in the District of Columbia believe Harper stands as tall as the Washington Monument, that’s fine with Phillips, even if Harper was 0 for 5 with the three strikeouts that not only bruised his ego, but bruished his forehead.

Phillips isn’t in awe of the Nationals much-hyped outfielder, but he respects him deeply.

“Babe Ruth? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s what I call him,” said Phillips. “The thing is he is a great ballplayer and he deserves all this attention. He can be another Ken Griffey Jr. to this game.”

So Harper is getting compared favorably in different discourses to Ken Griffey Jr., Pete Rose, Barry Bonds and Mickey Mantle.

Amazingly, when Harper hits his first home run this year he will become the first major leaguer at age 19 to hit a home run since Ken Griffey Jr. in 1989.

“He is getting all this publicity and he is playing great and I’m happy for him,” said Phillips.

What Harper also is getting is his ears assaulted with boos on the road. Base hit? Boo. Catch a fly ball? Boo. Steal a base? Boo.

As he sat on a bench in the Washington dugout before Friday’s game, Harper’s blue eyes flashed and he broke into a wide smile when asked about the boos, looking nothing like a Snidely Whiplash villain.

"I love getting booed," says Harper, shown here on the cover of SI. "It puts me in a mellow stage and makes me want to do better."

“I love getting booed, I do, I really do,” he said. “It is good to hear the cheers at home, but it gets to me too much and you let the adrenaline do too much because you want to do well. When I’m on the road and get booed it puts me in a mellow stage and makes me want to go out and do better.”

Harper says the boos in the bigs are no different from the boos in the bushes, because he got booed in the minors, too.

“Oh, yeah, it was pretty brutal in the minors,” he said. “That’s just fans lovin’ their team and hatin’ on the other team, so that’s OK with me.”

Boos, cheers or silence, Harper is just enjoying the big-league ride, as short as it has been and as raucous as it has been.

“It’s a blessing, man, because I like coming out here and playing baseball. I’ve dealt with media and criticism my whole life. Just another day at the park,” he said.

Harper doesn’t seek advice or help or instruction from his veteran teammates but as do all responsible rookies, he keeps his ears open.

“I keep to myself pretty much,” he said. “I don’t say much, just try to play the game and not worry too much about things. But when guys come up to me to talk to me, that’s when I take in the most. I don’t try to go up to them and pick their minds. I let them come up to me and tell me what I need to do.”

His manager, old-school Davey Johnson, a man who has managed Hall of Famers, is pleasantly pleased with how Harper has responded to center stage with the curtain wide open.

“He has handled the attention great and hasn’t changed his game,” said Johnson. “He is very aggressive, loves to play the game, doesn’t get cheated at home plate, crashes into walls or falls down in the outfield to do whatever it is he has to do to make a play.

Of the ‘Heckle Harper’ mentality, Johnson said, “If you are really into the ballgame you don’t really hear that.

“The proof will be in the pudding (certainly not vanilla), but I like the way he approaches every game,” Johnson added. “He does his work, he does his film studies of pitchers, like every other player. I don’t even think of him as being 19, I think of him as being a heck of a ballplayer.”

Just because Harper is only 19 doesn’t mean Johnson doesn’t know him because he has seen him play for at least four years during Harper’s amateur days.

“He hasn’t changed a whole lot and it is going to be a learning experience, but I think he is at ease up here because he has had his eyes set on being a big-leaguer since he was about 12 or before — maybe 3 years old,” said Johnson.

Reds manager Dusty Baker was getting his first look at Harper because when the Reds lost three of four in Washington in early April Harper was playing at Hagerstown, Md.

“Playing under a spotlight is as tough as you let it be,” said Baker. “His talent put him in this situation, under the spotlight. If you are in the big leagues, regardless of what age you are, you are treated like a man.

“But just because you are treated like a man doesn’t mean you are a man,” Baker added. “So you aren’t expected to conduct yourself like a man because you are still a young player. We’ve heard about comments that he has made or how cocky he is, but we were all in that situation at one time or another — 19 years old and saying things we probably shouldn’t have said, either.”

Baker laughed and said he was looking at the back of one of his early bubblegum cards and it said fleet-footed and cocky outfielder. “I didn’t think I was that cocky, but you never do, but that can make you successful as long as you monitor it.”

On this day, Harper was more enmeshed with checking out Great American Ball Park, where home runs fly and pitchers go to die.

“I talked to Joey Votto a couple of years ago at the All-Star game and he told me the ball flies out of here to right center,” said Harper. “With the years he has had here, this should be a lot of fun.”

Right center? Votto hits most of his home run to left center, so he was probably trying to steer Harper away from hitting the ball to left center.

Just another part of the learning curve.

Hal McCoy’s coverage of the Reds on Press Pros is proudly sponsored by the Buckeye Insurance Group, insuring the heartland for 130 years.

Cincinnati - He wanted to meet at Mike Fink’s, the old paddle wheeler that sat on the banks of the Ohio River in Covington, Kentucky. It was his favorite restaurant. He loved the raw bar there. “And, I always liked the view,” he said. “It always made me feel better, no matter what.”

This night, Davey Concepcion, the shortstop of the 1970’s, the man who gave new definition to the position, needed to feel better. He needed, above all else, an attentive ear, someone who would understand.

He was in town for a reunion of the “Big Red Machine,” the team that had forged six division titles, four pennants and back-to-back World Championships, 1975 and 1976. Everyone was there: Rose, Bench, Perez, Morgan, Geronimo, Griffey, Foster, Concepcion and manager Sparky Anderson.

There were autograph sessions, speeches, round-table discussions, many jokes and more stories, all delivered to throngs of fans still clinging to the past, all willing to pay a handsome price to revel in the presence and memory of aging heroes; rolling back to a time when the Reds carved their place among the best teams of all time.

The fans all remembered when it was hard to get a ticket to a Reds game, especially when the Dodgers were in town and the entire Midwest seemed to descend on Riverfront Stadium, when the place was a beckoning beacon.

Now paled in comparison to then.

Then was better than now.

The Reds had a new stadium, Great American Ball Park. Riverfront Stadium had been wrecked. A new era had been promised, but the team was knocking around, skinning their knees and coming up empty at most turns. It was a hollow time. It was a perfect time for a gathering of that special team, “The Big Red Machine.”

When I arrived at the restaurant, Davey Concepcion was already elbow-deep in the raw bar: king crab legs, oysters, jumbo shrimp the length of a butter knife, breads and butter, and a scotch on the side.

As I approached the table, he stood, wiping his hands on a napkin. “I couldn’t wait,” he said, smiling broadly. “I was starving. Sit! Sit, my friend, it is good to see you. Como estas? Have something to eat. Give me a hug.”

Davey was forever friendly and warm, never forgetting a friend, rarely forgiving an enemy. “Que pasa?” I said.

“What’s happening?” he said, shrugging his shoulders, returning to his crab legs. “You know, the same old thing, the same.”

It was clear he was troubled, but I wasn’t sure why. “So, how was the reunion?” I asked.

“You know, good,” he said, “but always the same, just the same.” He dabbed his chin with his napkin and placed it on the table. “I’m getting fat. Look at me. I love to eat. I remember when there was nothing to eat.”

“The same? What do you mean?” He sipped at his scotch. His eyes turned to the river, where the lambent light from the city danced and toyed with the rippling current.

“You know, I know you know,” he said. “It is always good to see everyone: Pete, Bench, Morgan, especially ‘Doggie’, like a brother to me, all the guys – Griffey, Geronimo, Foster, Sparky, but always they joke me. They sh__t on me. They always sh__t on Davey. It gets old. It is old.”

It was true. Davey was the object of jokes. In part, it was because he was such an easy target. Davey was an innocent, childlike in so many ways, gifted in so many others. But he was no match for the wit of Rose, Bench or Morgan, who pinned him at every opportunity, and the others often followed their lead.

Back then a major league clubhouse wasn’t far from Lord of The Flies.

Of course, Davey didn’t always help him self. Once, mired in a hitting slump, he climbed into an industrial dryer in the visitor’s clubhouse at Wrigley Field, saying it would change his luck. Someone closed the door, hit the button and put Davey on the gentle cycle. He came out toasty, dizzy and got a couple of hits that day.

Though he was an integral part in the Big Red Machine, a five-time Gold Glove winner, nine times an All-Star, he was regarded, he believed, as a fringe figure, and it tore away at him.

“The fans,” he said, “they talk about the ‘Big Four’, always talk about the ‘Big Four’: Bench, Rose, Morgan and Perez. They were the ‘Big Four’, but you know, the ‘Big Four’ would not have been what they were without the rest of us – without me and Griffey, Foster and Geronimo. We were part of it, too.”

Dinner was over.

We walked up the planks to the parking lot. In some ways, I felt sorry for Davey. He had achieved so much and there was still something missing.

In the darkness of the parking lot, he looked back across the river toward Great American Ball Park. The lights were bright. The mood was low. “They are losing again,” he said. “I can tell by the crowd.”

He stood there for a moment, completely silent, like a man looking into his past, remembering it but incapable of feeling it, something lost and gone forever.

“Here’s what gets me,” he said. “We did a lot of things over there, big things, and there is nothing. It is all gone. Riverfront is gone. There is no stone. How do you say it? No monument, no nothing. That isn’t right. There should be something.”

He stood there quietly, a lonely figure. The only sound was the river lapping against the dock

“What the hell?” he said. “Most will remember, yes?”

I nodded. “Of course,” I said.

He shook my hand and grabbed me about the shoulders. “I have an early flight tomorrow,” he said. “Adios y bueno suerte mi amigo.”

“Davey,” I said. “It’s all good.”

He climbed in his rental car and smiled. “You think?” he said. Then, he pulled away.

On the Russia Raiders’ first outside baseball practice, on the first Monday following the state basketball tournament, first-year coach Rick Gold leaned on a fungo bat and talked about the virtues of high school baseball that had lured him back after nearly 10 seasons as an assistant at Wittenberg University.

“You know, I missed working with the kids and I missed the competition,”  he said with the familiar Rick Gold smile.  “The Russia opportunity became available and I’m pretty sure I’m going to enjoy it…great kids, great parents, and great support so far from administration.”

Saturday, it all became clear to Gold with an epic Shelby County League game with Ft. Loramie with the conference championshipon the line.  The kids, the competition, the support of the crowd in a 12-inning 1-0 win over the Redskins for the Raiders’ first baseball title in, well…a while.

Russia pitcher Treg Francis was nothing short of fantastic, going the first innings, surrendering 8 hits, walking 1, and striking out 8 Loramie hitters.

If possible, Loramie’s Jared Albers was even better, numerically.  Albers went 10 innings, gave up just 5 hits, walked two and struck out 12.

Neither, ironcially, figured in the decision.  Dylan Fleckenstein took the loss in the 12th for Loramie, while Isaiah Counts pitched three innings of two-hit baseball, striking out 5, to win it for Russia.

For Gold and the Raiders, a measure of redemption after a loss to Riverside earlier in the week that knocked them out of the Division IV sectional tournament.

For Bill Sturwold and Ft. Loramie, an afternoon of abject frustration for the fact of missed offensive opportunities for lack of two-out hit with men in scoring position in the 7th, 8th, 9th, 11th, and 12th innings.  10 hits, and 10 men left on base for the game.

“It was a great game,”  said Gold afterwards.  “I guess you could call it a game for a lesser, great trophy when you consider it was for the league title.

“It’s been a great year, even with the loss earlier in the week to Riverside.  They’re a pretty good baseball team and I think our kids learned from that experience.  I told them Saturday to execute and play the game, but also to enjoy the experience of playing a great team like Loramie with such a great crowd watching.”

Treg Francis made the most of his words.

“This was great…a great way to win the league championship,”  the Russia junior.  “It’s been 2003 since we last won it and this was a great way to do it.  I just tried to throw strikes and let me defense make plays behind me.  Both teams made a lot of great plays today.”

How Russia won it in the 12th…Cole McEldowney, hitting .050, walked with one out. Trevor Sherman flied out. Brandon Barlage grounded in the hole. Kyle Bollheimer didn’t handle it cleanly for an error. Colyn McEldowney, who stung the ball all day, but right at people, topped a roller 30 feet in front of the plate. Fleckenstein picked it up then dropped it to load the bases. Eric Magaoto then hit a soft liner to center on a 3-1 pitch for the go-ahead run.

Russia finished its season with a record of 17-5, 11-1 in Shelby County League action.

Ft. Loramie stands at 18-9 for the year, 9-2 in the league with one game remaining to be played.

"You never know how a baseball game's going to go," says Russia's Rick Gold, who returned to high school coaching this year and won 17 games with the Raiders.

“You never know how a baseball game is going to go,”  added Gold.  “They (Loramie) are a very good program…very well coached.  So it makes what we did today all the more special when you consider how we hung around and gave ourselves a chance.

“I have to admit…I’ve always been fortunate to come into a situation where the kids worked hard, were willing to learn, and were willing to compete the way we did today.  It was disappointing to lose to Riverside, yes, but no one’s thinking about that now.”

It’s a good win for a title, yes, but more, it’s a great win on which to build for the future of the Russia program.

And like former Dodgers’ manager Walter Alston, who made a career of refusing multi-year contracts, preferring to work from one year to the next, Gold looks forward to coming back next year.

“Looking forward to it?  Yes,”  he admitted.  “Never thought about being compared to Alston, though.  That’s quite a compliment.”

17 wins, a conference title, and one of his more memorable wins ever in 12-innings to beat a rival for the Raiders’ first title in 9 year.  Without question, a lesser, greater trophy.

There’s your compliment!

The question on a radio talk show Thursday night was this:  Is Josh Hamilton the worst trade made in the history of the Cincinnati Reds?

There were, of course, many answers…many opinions.

Some (actually many) said no.  The Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas trade 44 years ago, in 1966, still tops them all.  Pappas was a so-so starting pitcher for the Reds for three seasons while Robinson went to Baltimore and promptly won the Triple Crown while leading the Orioles to a World Series sweep of Sandy Koufax and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

For purely sentimental reasons, I have another “worst” Reds trade, although it worked out well for the Reds. 

In December of 1960 the Reds traded shortstop Roy McMillan to the Braves for pitcher Joey Jay and it broke my heart.  Roy McMillan was my favorite Red of all-time up to that point, and for what reason I’m still at a loss to explain.

As an eight-year-old I loved Roy’s baseball card, and those horn-rimmed glasses that he wore.  The name…Roy McMillan…rolled off the tongue of broadcaster Waite Hoyt with a certain flourish.  And while I never saw him play for the Reds in person, I know that Roy McMillan was a very accomplished fielding shortstop.  In today’s vernacular, he could “pick it”. 

But I digress.

So, knowing what we know currently about Josh Hamilton and the promise he showed in that brief stint he had with the Reds…was that a worse trade than Robinon for Pappas?

No, probably not.  And here’s my reasoning.

I’m sure Hamilton would have been a fine player for the Reds.  But I also know that nothing’s guaranteed in baseball, and the Reds needed pitching when they made that trade.  They got a great arm, Edinson Volquez, and Daniel Ray “What’s-His-Name” (Herrera).  Volquez is now in San Diego striking out people…and walking people.  Daniel Herrera is out of baseball.  Like I say, nothing’s guaranteed.

I also know this about baseball and sports.  Location…location…location.  Meaning, certain players do better in certain scenarios.  And I’m not so sure that Josh Hamilton would have put the numbers in Cincinnati that he’s put up in Texas.

In Texas he’s been surrounded by great talent, experienced talent that can hit…Michael Young, Nelson Cruz, Adrian Beltre, Ian Kinsler, Elvis Andrus.  Josh Hamilton did not “have” to be “the man”.  He was on a team full of “men”, playing for an organization willing and able to spend what it took to be successful.

No such scenario in Cincinnati, where that organization waits for its prospects to blossom…to become “the men”.  Their one extravagance…Aroldis Chapman, perhaps, and Joey Votto, who by all rights is one of  baseball’s finest hitters, when he gets a pitch to hit.

But the point is, they can pitch around Votto in Cincinnati.  It’s hard to pitch around anyone in Texas.  And then, there’s Josh Hamilton hitting in the middle of the order, surrounded by Beltre, Young, Cruz (who hit six home runs in last year’s ALCS).  No pressure.  He’s been allowed to blossom at his own pace.  I can’t imagine that could have happened in Cincinnati.

Different players, for different teams, at different times. 

No, it wasn’t a great trade, but I don’t know that you can prove that it was the “worst” trade the Reds have made.  Talk about it amongst yourselves.

And did I mention…Roy McMillan for Joey Jay?