Seven Weeks In...

Sweet meat pies (Rowengartner's going to bat)! It's almost the end of May, and the Redlegs are vying with the Redbirds for 1st place at an impressive 25-19 record. Since April 24, a month ago to date, the Reds have managed to pull off a careeered record of 18-8. Despite one of the biggest heartbreaks since Ron Lewis' dagger, the Reds are rollin, and I'm loving every second. With the Bucos and Astronomicals (Fordham-esque dormats) coming to town this week, it's only safe to think the tear will continue. Regardless, Harang's ugly ass will be on the bump tonight to try to get the homestand off on the right foot, and from here, allow me to take a look at what the Redstockings have done so well to get where they are.

Coming into this year, you had to like what this team looked like on paper, and to this point, it's hard to find very many disappointments. From a hitting perspective, it seems everybody's aboard except for Stubbs, aka White Lightning, but it's hard to imagine him continuing to hover around the Mendoza line for much longer as he's really just adjusting to the big league speed. There has also been slight concern over B-Phils lack of RBI production, but after taking a step back, his batting out of the 2-hole, roping 2Bs like a fiend and leading the team in runs should silence the doubters.

The hit parade begins with Broey Votto who is taking a figurative crap on fellow NL 1st basemen such as Albert P-jols, Queen Fielder, and the Reds killer himself, Lance Berkman, when it comes to offensive output. Bottom line, the Reds haven't seen a hitter like this since the great Scott Hatteberg. Rolen also appears to be wearing his spray goggles as of late as he continues to prove why the front office pulled the trigger for this invaluable seasoned vet at last year's trade line.


Then of course there are your surprises. Speaking of which, here's one for you: the Reds' Left Field combo of Laynce Nix and Jonny 3-run Gome(r)s have thus far combined to be the most productive LF of any team in the league. Heck, Cincinnati hasn't seen a 1-2 punch like this since the glory days of Jason LaRue and Javy Valentin. Considering these two gentlemen alone cost Big Robert Castellini a mere $1.4 mil as compared to the $17 mil+ that the Cards, Cubs, and 'Stros each dish out to fund their left field is simply remarkable. It looked like Nix was crushin watermelons last week, and Gomes has been punishing fastballs all year long. Gotta love these guys rising to the occasion, and it'll be interesting if they can still be putting up these kind of numbers when the Reds are vying for playoff contention en Septiembre.

For the most part, the pitching staff has yielded similar success stories. Leake has obviously been lights out in his rookie campaign, and it appears Johnny Cueto and Bronson are following his lead as each have notched 4 Ws in as many decisions. Homer seemed to be doing the same until yesterday's injury threw a solid 12-6 breaking ball into the mix, and it's fairly to partly safe to say Harangatang is as washed up as Chet "I ain't the rocket anymore kid" Steadman.


You can't say bullpen without thinking Arthur Rhodes. The crafty lefty vet is still doing his thang, and better than ever. The man has not given up a run since the colonial times (44 days ago to be exact) and is nails in just about every situation he gets tossed into. Other than Art, look no further than last Thursday's 9th inning meltdown to get a good idea of how things are going in the bullpen. If you feel like you've seen the aforementioned heartbreak before, you very well might have. Look no further than former closer Danny "Fear the Mullet" Graves and a contest vs. the Cardinals on the eve of May 2nd, 2005 when the pen managed to surrender 7 runs in the 9th to fall to the all familiar score of 9-10. While Cordero may not have exited the game with his middle finger to world that Mr. Graves did on that fateful evening, it is becoming more and more evident CoCo isn't exactly money in the bank.

Successes and struggles aside, this Reds team has shown the baseball world what they are capable of with an impressive start thus far, but the remainder of the season is far from settled. The injury bug has yet to punish the Reds, and with a few cupcakes upcoming on the schedule, look for the men in red to cash in these next few weeks. Between now and the post World Series riots in October that are sure to pervade through the streets of Mack, questions marks are sure to arise, and time will only tell how resilient the 2010 Redlegs really are. Until then, I'm off to prepare for Jack Bauer's last go round of take names and slashin throats. Burnside, gone.

How Bout Them Redlegs?

Bloggowers: It's Friday, I turned 23 yesterday and looking to do big things tonight to celebrate, I'm heading to Hilton Head Island, SC tomorrow morning (probably hungover but flying thankfully), ANDDD your Cincinnata Red Stockings are playing a three game set with the NL Central-leading St. Louis Cardinals this weekend down the at the 'Ole Ballpark on the River. Life is GOOD. Better yet, don't look now but the Reds have won 5 in a row and 12 of 16 to push their overall record to 19-15, four games over .500 and only a half game back of the Redbirds. If Dusty and boys get 2 of 3 (or better yet a second NL Central sweep in as many series) they will be sitting high and pretty atop the National League Central come Monday. I know it's only mid-May, but hey, this is Cincinnati. These are the Reds. A franchise that has not had a winning season since 2000 and hasn't been to the playoffs since Marge Schott was still the owner and Davey Johnson was manager in 1995! That was the year my youngest brother Ryan was born HA! Or not ha, not funny at all. Thank God we have the Pirates in our division or we would clearly be the laughing stock of the division...oh wait, we have the Cubbies too.


Can't you just feel the excitement coming from KFW's fingertips right now? But like everyone's least favorite guy (Lee Corso) on television always says, "Not so fast my friend!" I am one of the biggest Reds fans you will ever meet. I have rooted for them for as long as I can remember and every Opening Day, I can list at least 10 reasons why "this year's gonna be the year". I did the same thing for the Bengals for the longest time, and then week 4 would come along and they would already be out of contention. The Bengals for me growing up just needed to keep me interested until Midnight Madness and then my concentration naturally shifted Victory Parkway-bound to Muskieville. Not anymore. The Bengals have a good solid nucleus, a defense that keeps getting better and deeper, and quite honestly has given fans a reason to be confident for once going in to a season. It's good to see Sen(Mexican tilde)or Rapelisberger getting in on the mix and taking some of the negative limelight off the of the "men in stripes".


With all this being said though, I said it earlier this year, and I will say it again: I think this Reds team is legit legit legit. The Reds have had the tendency to flirt with fans for even as long as up to the trade deadline...and then just completely tanking it like there's tomorrow. Something tells me this team isn't like that though. I said it in my preview of the year that pitching would be key, especially the starters and we've seen how important starting pitching has been during this recent streak. Cueto and Homer Bailey, two of the biggest headcases in Major League Baseball who walk more batters than Burnside quotes Home Alone 1 and 2, both pitched complete game shutouts WITH ZERO WALKS! ZERO. CERO. NUNCA. 0! That's absurd for any team to do that with two young hotheads, but for the Reds? I'd like to say that's a great sign of things to come and it really is true, good starting pitching is contagious. These guys are professional competitors and love to compete even amongst eachother. Homer couldn't let Cueto one up him and therefore he did what he had to do. I love it, you love it, and let's hope this pitching momentum carries into this weekend.

Speaking of momentum, or should I say lack of, the Cards are limping into the Queen City after getting swept by the under-performing Astros. Chris Carpenter pitched last game so the Reds will not see him. The Cards have great starting pitching but News Flash: So do we! Harang (hold your breathe) might actually be back to his old self, Mike Leake is pitching his way to spot on the All-Star team and we will see both this weekend. Throw in Mr. Consistency (except those 2-3 games a year where he gives up 10 runs and can't get out of the first inning) Bronson Arroyo, and I like the horses we're throwing out there against drunkass Larussa. Hopefully we can give him a reason to further drink away his miseries.

I hope a lot of people who are town this weekend and on the fence about taking the trip down for a game or two to GABP end up deciding to go. This team is good and young. Young players especially feed off crowd energy and I really think a big, loud, supporting crowd this weekend could boost this already red-hot Reds club. I'm looking forward to it. The Cardinals are to the Reds as the Steelers are to the Bengals. Both are division foes that Cincinnati die-hards hate but deep down respect the way the other team does things and flat out wins....and now both are being heavily chased by the up and coming Cincinnati teams. S'go Reds! Getr Dunn!

I will be posting after some necessary R and R in Hilton Head this upcoming week. Stay tuned for some relevant Cleveland sports bashing as well as the Westside football take from an Elitists view. Both might get spicy....but nothing spicier than the latest rumors that I am hearing about Delonte West (the inferior D West) banging Lebron's mom and LBJ finding out right before his miserable performance in Game 5. I'm looking for some explanation and this could get it done for me. But seriously could this be true??? Delonte, we all know you're a little effed up in the head and you have nasty Herpes on your face, but why not Lebron's wife at least???

KFW over and outski

Burnside Let's Fly

Due to the recent controversies brewing in the sporting world, it is with my sincerest apologies that the Gospel According to Henry Rowengartner will have to wait another day to make its Debut. With that said though, two recent incidents regarding racism have been spotlighted in sports, and I quite frankly am not exactly in agreement with the way these issues have been dealt with. I will apologize in advance if any of the following information appears to be racist or insensitive, but hey, somebody's gotta let the world know what's up.


Numero Uno: In case you didn't notice, the Phoenix Los Suns were in NBA playoff action last night, repping hard core that "LOS" on their uni's in a supposed protest to the recent Arizona law passed on immigration. After all, I wouldn't doubt if there were several mexicanos who were able to sneak past security to witness the game in person, and so at least they went "home" happy. It's only fair to pay your respect to the very illegals who cost your state $10Bil+ a year on welfare/education and bring so very much to the "mesa." Although I'm sure Steve Nash has a soft spot for los inmigrantes ilegales, the Los Suns had no business bringing that load of political jizz-jazz onto the court with them. Don't stray away from what got you there. In the meantime, hats off to the state of Arizona whose genius move to scatter illegals will hopefully catch on in other states once they suffer from infestation.

In other news, Dez Bryant made headlines last week after news leaked from his pre draft interview with the Miami Dolphins. During the interview, GM Jeff Ireland learned some very troubling things about Bryant's past, and went on to pop the question if his mother was a prostitute. Ireland's question has been criticized for its insensitivity, but who can really blame him. Let's see here, Dez's mom, Angela Bryant, birthed her diva son when she was only 15 and has been convicted multiple times on dealing the GS (good stuff) while hustling her way to "providing" for her son. Aside from my tax dollars, it would seem quite likely there was another source of income besides the dealing, and let's just say it might have a thing or two to do with getting knocked up at the age of 14. Case closed, valid question. I doubt if Dez even knew to let anybody know about the question until his agent probably told him he could make headlines and maybe even get a little cash out of this. In regards to Dez Bryant as a football player, I feel like I've seen players like him before. Names such as Charles Rogers, Mike Williams, and David Boston float to the surface as players who were freak of athletes at Wide Receiver, but let their attitude and work ethic get in the way of success. It was cocky enough reppin #1 in college there Dez, but now I tip my hat even more to your recent decision to rock #88 for the Cowboys. After all, who wouldn't want to have Michael Irvin as a role model?

Lesson (among lessons) learned, the media loves taking "racist" BS and blowing it way out of proportion, and that's just not gonna fly. That's all I got, stay classy Mack.

1st Round Playoff Analysis

One round in, and only 8 teams are still playing for the coveted NBA (should be on NBC) Finals, among them Fuerto's favorite the Jazz along with the big dog Cavs, Magic and Lakers, Pop's Spurs, Nash's Suns, the "washed up" Celtics, and the "What the Hell almost happened" Hawks. Missing would be the flashy, yet undisciplined Nuggets and KD's Thunder, among others. As usual, Fuerto has plenty of thoughts on the latest NBA action.

First off, both 1 seeds rolled rather easily, but that's expected given the overall mediocrity of the Thunder and Bulls. Chicago couldn't put together a winning record in the regular season, and despite D-Rose's best efforts got blown out of the water 4-1. But, more importantly to the Bulls, they might have gotten an early look at their future star in LBJ. Just throwing it out there. Moving out west, Durantula definitely didn't roll over, but OKC is still a couple years away from becoming a legit contender. With that said, Durant needs to step up and make some big shots come April before we start mentioning him in the same sentences with the likes of Kobe, LeBron, Dwight Howard, and Luke Walton.

Orlando pulled off the only sweep of the round, but does anyone realistically believe that Charlotte belonged in the playoffs? I'm sorry, but nobody is ever going to take you seriously if you continue to start Theo Ratliff at Center. Dude had over twice as many fouls (15) than points (7) during the series. Not even Greg Ostertag could ever pull that off.

Boston, Phoenix and San Antonio each advanced rather easily. I'll admit that I was a little surprised that Miami got knocked around so much, but I'll put this out there: Michael Beasley is not a very good NBA player. Sure, he might average 15 per game on a mediocre squad, but he will never play a key role in winning a championship. In my lifetime of watching NBA, I'm not sure that I've ever seen a player in the playoffs play with as little intensity, and flat out not play any defense like Beasley did in Boston. To make things worse, he continually refused to try to beat KG off the dribble, which even Shavlik Randolph could probably could do. Just thinking that so many "experts" thought Beasley should have been taken in front of Derrick Rose is embarrassing.

One of the most entertaining matchups ended up being Milwaukee and KFW's Hawks. To me, this showed one of two possible scenarios: 1) Milwaukee (especially Brandon Jennings) is legit, and it is really time to Fear the Deer, or 2) Atlanta just isn't as good as people thought, and will get obliterated by the Magic. I personally am leaning towards number one. First of all, Jennings is definitely the real deal. He showed the ability to put his team on his shoulders and carry them to victories. He stepped up and made clutch threes to keep his squad in the game, and almost led them past an Atlanta squad many thought would possibly sweep them. This is what separates the Jordans and Kobes from the Durants (At least for now). I hate to sound like a Mel Kiper knockoff, but he's got all the intangibles.

Now for the whole reason you probably clicked on this article in the first place: The Jazz. If any of you thought to yourselves before the series, the Nuggets are just too athletic and entertaining for the Jazz to keep up with, please go to YouTube immediately, watch the "Ice Cream Paint Job" music video, and never read another MIB article again. Like I said 2 weeks ago, discipline, team basketball, and great coaching win ball games. Last I checked, Utah has all of these covered, and Denver without Karl doesn't really have any of them. Next, while many people were mesmerized by K-Mart and Birdman's tattoos, I was watching Paul Millsap kick their ass up and down the court with fundamentally sound basketball.

Even Kyrylo Fesenko gave Nene a tough fight game after game. D-Will dominated the entire series to prove he is definitely the best PG in the league, and Matthews and Miles played solid as usual. Oh yeah, and Kirilenko and Okur were both out the whole series, but the Jazz didn't even miss a beat, truly a testament to everything Sloan has built in Utah. I cannot wait for the Lakers. Sloan will be ready for some revenge, and AK47 will be ready to come back and lock down Kobe. And best of all... KORVER....WALTON....The NBA on ABC