They hadn’t made the playoffs since. Until now.

Jay Bruce is a pimp. If my wife slept with him, I’d give her a high five and buy him a drink.

I realize this is a mainly Cleveland-centric site, but I had to say something. I mean, it’s been 15 freakin’ years. I was there in October of 1999 at Riverfront Stadium when Al Leiter and the Mets made Steve Parris and the Reds their bitches. I was pumped in 2000 when the Reds traded for my all-time favorite player (Ken Griffey Jr.) on my birthday and then proceeded to disappoint year after year. For God’s sake, the Bengals have made the playoffs a few times since the last time the Reds did. And I was there on April 5 of this year right after the Reds lost their opener against the Cardinals, writing a post where I predicted they would win 88 games and win the NL Central, with all three of my readers – and myself, if I’m being honest –  thinking I was sniffing paint fumes while doing so.

And here we are. 88-69 with five games to play and winning the NL Central, with my MVP prediction (Jay Bruce) hitting the walk-off home run that clinched it. It’s beautiful.

Cross-posted at Not Dead Ninja Storage.

The moral is, sometimes rooting for a team that sucks can pay off, big time.

Fox Sports reports

The Reds will receive pitcher Nick Masset and second baseman Danny Richar in return for Griffey.

We’ll be sorry to see him go. Perhaps Junior will get his opportunity to finally contribute to a World Series team, if the Sox can keep their lead in the AL Central.

Link

At some point, Ken Griffey, Jr. had enough, and responded to a fan’s heckling with a present of his own (sic):

I was going to try and get in Ken Griffey Jr’s head a little bit. He had to walk right by us to get to the dugout and I just couldn’t help myself. So I started with the basics: YOU SUCK..SHOULDN’T YOU BE ON THE D.L…TOO OLD FOR CENTER….that kind of stuff… He called me some fat references which was hilarious and then he told me I couldnt touch the threads on his jock…

…After the 6th inning he walks out and stops to talk to me holding a brown paper bag in his hand. He motions to throw it to me and I told him no, I know that trick. He laughs and says catch it, so I put up my hands and he tosses it over. He wouldn’t leave until I opened it and when I finally did, the whole place erupted with laughter. Griffey throws me his jock…

…He shot me a grin. When he came out in the 8th he shot me another smile, and I told him he still has the greatest swing in baseball. I hope he heard me, I think he did. I love Griffey. In fact, some of my first Dodger games were because Griffey was playing and my boy was a huge fan of his in Seattle. He may be the greatest fielder of all time, but when you come to my stadium, you’re fair game.

Griffey even autographed the jock “3 Jr.” A nice touch.

Read the entire story (with pic goodness).

I’ll tell you what: if Cincinnati makes it into the postseason, the team will have definitely earned it.

Has that ever happened before? (I’m asking… I don’t know. Calling all baseball stats wizards: please enlighten us in the comments.)

Yes, it’s early in the season, but the Cubs haven’t won at home yet. This does not bode well for a team that was expecting nothing less than dominance and a Series berth.

Meanwhile, Cincinnati seems to be shaking off the cobwebs and getting into a rhythm. Maybe I was alone in this, but I felt that the only thing that kept the Reds from being a lot more dominant last year was a handful of ill-timed injuries. If they can stay healthy, I wonder if they’ll stay at or near the top of the Central for most of the season.

And how about this Hamilton kid? Hitting .308, reaching base 7 of his last 10 attempts, and two HRs in both starts. What do you think: is Hamilton just hype or is he the real thing?