YBS: 2008 Butler County Fair
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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy is in his 36th year of covering the Cincinnati Reds, the longest tenure for any active writer covering one team. Counting spring training and postseason games, McCoy has covered more than 7,000 major-league baseball games, written close to 18,000 baseball stories and eaten enough hot dogs to give Babe Ruth indigestion.Home > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > May > 09
Friday, May 9, 2008
Reds-Mets postponed
The rain won.
It rained all day in New York and they waited for an hour at Shea Stadium before they postponed Friday’s Cincinnati Reds-New York Mets baseball game.
So now they play a day-night doubleheader Saturday, the first game at 1:10 and the second game at 7:30.
Matt Belisle pitches Game One and Bronson Arroyo will pitch Game Two, with Belisle drawing Johan Santana and Arroyo drawing Mike Pelfrey.
Foxsports Ohio will televise both games.
Manager Dusty Baker, realizing the day I spent trying to get to New York, “What a wasted day. Life owes you a day. You get another day to live. Go back to the hotel, go to bed, and pretend this day never happened.
Sound advice.
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Finding New York - Barely
The continuation of the fantastic USAirways travelogue to New York, brought to you by one frustrated and worn-out baseball writer.
From our last episode (see previous blog), I was put on a flight through Washington D.C. at noon after my 7:11 a.m. direct flight to New York made it halfway before turning around because of fumes that overcame at least one passenger.
That flight was canceled, of course. Made it to D.C. at 1:45 to a 2 p.m. connection to New York. Ran to the gate as the door was being closed. Made it. The plane backed away from the gate. Oh, joyous wonderment.
Not so fast, airline-breath The plane stopped.
We sat on the tarmac for an hour because LaGuardia Air Traffic Control put us on hold. They gave us a glass of water. Lukewarm.
We finally landed at LaGuardia at 5 - a mere 10 hours after the scheduled departure and only 8 1/2 hours late.
You know the kicker, don’t you? Sure you do. You have to know it. My luggage didn’t make it. They put 15 of us who were canceled in Dayton on the Washington flight and only two of us didn’t get our luggage.
If they find my luggage, they’ll send it to the hotel - and it will make it before me. I took a cab directly to the ballpark, chatted with Dusty Baker, came to the pressbox and John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer and I neither could get on the internet to do our work for nearly 45 minutes.
And it’s raining. Hard. They say they’ll play but the New York weather forecasters say it is going to rain until 3 a.m.
What we don’t want is what is planned if it is rained out - a day-night doubleheader Saturday at 1 and 8, probably sponsored by U.S. Airways.
Yeah, yeah. I know. Things happen. Can’t be helped.
That, though, doesn’t improve my demeanor.
Meanwhile, Ken Griffey Jr. was scratched from the lineup, not due to the soaked grounds, but because he came to the park feeling ill.
And Brandon Phillips is out of the lineup after fouling a ball off his left calf Wednesday (he left the game).
In addition, Kent Mercker was placed on the DL with lower back problems and Bill Bray was called back up.
As Baker said, “I told him when he left that it wasn’t because of anything he did or didn’t do, it was just a roster thing and that he would be back as quickly as we could get him back. This was good for him. He was gone long enough to pack some clean clothes and see his grandfather (in Norfolk, where the Louisville Bats played while he was with them.).
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Travel woes continue
I’ve picked on American, I’ve picked on United and I’ve picked on Delta.
Now it is the turn of U.S. Airways Express — and this one is a beaut.
The flight was scheduled for 7:11 this morning. We left on time, but sat on the runway 40 minutes, a traffic hold from LaGuardia. No biggie. Happens all the time.
But as we departed there was an odor in the plane. Not me. I showered thoroughly. Halfway to New York — yes, HALFWAY — they were told to turn back to Dayton. The smell was from cleaning fluid they used on the engines the night before and they said they had to turn back because maintenance for the CRJ-200 was better in Dayton than in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh or New York.
Yeah, right.
They had medical personnel awaiting our return to Dayton and one woman was treated for a severe headache and nausea. She was sitting in front of me on the plane reading the Dayton Daily News — at one point reading my column today about my five favorites parks.
Maybe that caused her headache and nausea.
So here I sit in the Dayton airport at 9:45, hoping they get us to New York soon.
Speaking of ballparks, let me know your favorites and least favorites and why. No fair saying Great American Stinks because the team stinks.
They took the plane to the maintenance shed, probably for fumigation. And here we sit. Can’t believe I got up at 4:30 this morning and had my good friend, Jeff Gordon, drop me off at the airport.
Travel on this job is becoming more and more problem-filled. I guess I now yearn for the return of the days when the writers traveled on the team charters. Deadlines and frequent-flier miles killed that years ago.
As much as I hate the Stinkhole that is Shea, I sure hope to get there on time for tonight’s game. It is in the hands of U.S. Airways — and that’s a scary thing.
Just found out our flight is canceled. HELP!
So I trudged back through security to the U.S. Airways counter to Patrick, an agent I’ve known for years. With his great help, I was booked on a noon flight to Washington, then a flight that gets me into New York around five.
That will give me no time to check into the hotel to shower, shave and change clothes. I’ll go straight to the ballpark. There is one safety net. Heavy rain is predicted and maybe the game will be rained out and postponed.
A TSA agent told me David Weathers came through Dayton security for a 9:30 New York flight that I noticed was delayed. Also full. I couldn’t get on. Hope Stormy makes it.
Me? I HATE air travel these days and I used to love it. You literally make your destinations on a wing and prayer.
