I am a freelance writer. I've covered the Cincinnati Reds, Bengals and others since 1992.
I have a background in sales as well. I've sold consumer electronics, advertising and consumer package goods for companies ranging from the now defunct Circuit City to Procter&Gamble.
I have worked as a stats operator for Xavier University, the University of Cincinnati, the College of Mount St. Joe and Colerain High School.
The Purcell grad, who set an NCAA Division III career record for saves in spite of an injury that cost him his senior season, is signing today with the Florence Freedom.
Matre was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 39th round of the 2010 draft.
Matre pitched 25 innings for the Dodgers Arizona rookie league team and Ogden of the Pioneer league. He had a 0-1 record with a 4.26 ERA and 26 strikeouts before being released in 2011.
Matre celebrated his 25th birthday on Tuesday May 21.
As expected, the Reds optioned left-handed pitcher Tony Cingrani to Louisville as they intend to recall Johnny Cueto from the 15-day disabled list to start against the New York Mets on Monday.
Cingrani made six starts and the Reds won four of them. He was 2-0 with a fine 3.27 ERA. The National League hit just .212 off Cingrani but seven of the 25 hits were home runs. He walked nine and struck out a whopping 41 batters in 33 innings.
The Reds would like Cingrani to work on his secondary pitches so that e doesn't rely so much on his fastball.
"He's coming on," Dusty Baker said. "He had some valuable experience in the big leagues."
Neftali Soto was recalled to give the Reds an extra bat and a much needed right-handed bat off the bench.
Soto, who plays mainly firstbase but has experience at shortstop and thirdbase, is hitting .269 with three home runs and 16 RBI in 33 games at Louisville.
Soto will make his Major League debut when he appears in a game for Cincinnati
Donald "Big" Lutz drilled a three-run home run of the rightfield fair pole that went out faster than one can say grober eile (big hurry). Not only did the ball leave the park fast but it will land in Friedberg, Germany.
The wily Bronson Arroyo kept the fastball hitting Milwaukee Brewers off balance in the 5-1 win that completed the three-game sweep.
Brandon Phillips and Brewer menace Jay Bruce singled off Wily Peralta to open the second inning. Todd Frazier struck out; then Big Lutz struck. Lutz slammed his first career home run on a line that struck the screen of the pole 366 feet from home plate.
Wily Peralta put the pitch not only where he wanted but had a lot of mustard on it.
"I don't see how Lutz hit that ball," Brewer's manager Ron Roenicke said. "Wily started him out with a good slider for a strike then put the ball up and in at 95-96 mph."
"I saw the ball pretty good and put a good swing on it," Lutz said as he was also presented with the lineup card from the game. "I'm sending the ball to my mother."
That essentially was all the run support Arroyo needed.
The veteran spread four hits and a walk over the first five innings, retiring six hitters in a row until he hit Logan Schafer with a pitch two outs into the seventh. Rickie Weeks singled to cue Dusty Baker to call on Sam LeCure.
"It was the same old thing. Arroyo keeps you off balance all day," Roenicke said. "Arroyo throws his breaking ball for strikes sometimes better than he throws the fastball for strikes. He has command of all his pitches. Arroyo got behind Rickie (Weeks) 3-0 and drops a curve in for as strike. You hope to catch him when he is a little off with his command."
LeCure faced on batter, Jeff Bianchi, who struck out looking.
Xavier Paul pinch hit for LeCure and hit a pitch by Mike Fiers into the rightfield bleachers. It was Paul's second pinch hit home run of the season.
The Brewers scored a run on a wild pitch by Jonathan Broxton in the eighth.
Aroldis Chapman finished the game in a non-save situation, striking out side.
Jay Bruce and the Reds had a very good second inning.
Bruce led it off with a home run off Hiram Burgos and his teammates batted around while scoring five runs as the Reds drained every drop from the Brewers in a 13-7 win.
The next inning was even better for Bruce. This time he settled for two doubles, the first of which led off the third. The second drove in Joey Votto for his second RBI of the game. It was the seventh run of the inning.
Bruce improved his average to .258 and increased his RBI total to 20. It was the first time a Reds' batter had two hits in an inning since Drew Stubbs did it on April 25, 2011 at Milwaukee and the first to hit two doubles in an inning since Sean Casey did it on August 7, 1998 against Milwaukee.
Mat Latos was better at the plate than on the mound. He hit two singles and drove in two runs but had his worst pitching performance of the season.
Latos gave up seven runs, six earned on nine hits and three walks in six innings. His earned run averaged ballooned from 2.23 at game time to 3.04 at game's end. The Reds' starters have now gone nine games without a quality start. The good news for Latos that in his worst outing of the year, he picked up a win in his fourth consecutive start.
The Reds offense took advantage of young Hiram Burgos, who was placed in the starting rotation to give struggling Marco Estrada an extra day to iron out his problems. A short outing of four innings by Yovanni Gallardo on Friday, causing the young pitcher to take a beating to save the bullpen.
The Reds banged out 14 hits in getting a win that allowed manager Dusty Baker to tie Fred Clarke with 1,602 wins on the all-time manager's win list.
Votto had two hits. Todd Frazier improved to .244 on the season with two hits. Xavier Paul had two hits. Devin Mesoraco and Latos had two hits.
When Johnny Cueto returns, the Reds need to decide what to do with rookie Tony Cingrani.
The left-handed 23-year old power pitcher is 2-0 with a 2.89 ERA in his five starts as Cueto's replacement in the starting rotation. The Reds won four of the fives starts.
As well as he has pitched, the indication around the Reds is that Cingrani will be heading back to Louisville when Cueto returns.
Cingrani, who dominated hitters with his 95-plus fastball at Lincoln-Way Central High School in New Lenox, Illinois, South Suburban College and Rice University, has an amazing total of 37 strikeouts in 28 innings. Yet he will probably go back to Louisville to add to his pitching arsenal.
The Milwaukee Brewers were silent for three innings but started the fourth inning with two home runs and put runners on base after that. Cingrani pitched out of trouble but his pitch count was high and Dusty Baker removed him from the game.
"He's throwing 95 percent fastballs," Baker said.. "You can get by the first time through but the second time is tough and the third time through is even tougher. They (hitters) know the action on the ball. He's going to have to come up with a secondary pitch. Especially a team like that (Milwaukee), because they can hit the fastball."
Cingrani is very close to being a successful major league pitcher. He is on the fast track after being selected by the Reds out of Rice University with the third pick just two years ago 2011. He has had just one full year in the organization, splitting that between Bakersfield and Pensacola last year, then getting a September call-up.
The Evergreen, Illinois agent completed his first major league spring training camp in Goodyear, Arizona in March.
"He's on the way. I'm just glad he's had the success he's had so far," Baker said. "The silver lining is that he has given us a chance to win. We aren't here to try out. We're here to win. He's gotten extended time here. What if he'd have come up and gotten shelled? Who would we have turned to then? What if we'd lost four of his five starts? We'd be seven out or worse. That's what he's done. He's kept us in games."
Without saying so directly and knowing full well that things could change between now and Cueto's return, Cingrani will more than likely head to Louisville and learn to use and command the breaking ball and change more.
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The speed of Billy Hamilton had the baseball world buzzing in March as he was invited to spring training for the first time.
Under the radar or maybe just too fast to be detected by radar, the Reds signed Derrick Robinson to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.
The speedy Robinson chose to sign with the Kansas City Royals rather than accept a scholarship from the University of Florida to play defensive back. A curious decision when you consider he was born in Gainsville and would have graduated with the Tim Tebow Gators that handily defeated the Cincnnati Bearcats in the 2010 Sugar Bowl.
Robinson excelled in all sports at PK Yonge High School in Gainsville.
As a junior he hit .359 and started to bat left-handed. Robinson is a natural right-handed hitter even though he throws left-handed.
"I used to play around swinging left-handed for fun when I was younger," Robinson said. "I didn't start to be serious about it until I was a junior. My uncle convinced me to hit lefty and to not waste that side."
Robinson's uncle, Ricky Nattiel, was a wide reciever who played at Florida and was a member of Denver Bronco's "Three Amigos" with Vance Johnson and Mark Jackson as John Elway's favorite targets. Robinson's other uncle Michael Nattiel played in the Reds' minor league system at Billings in 1982.
Robinson was a fourth round pick by the Royals in the 2006 draft. He spent three years at Single-A Wilmington.
"That happens sometimes,:" Dusty Baker said. "He had a few things to learn hitting-wise. He was a young player out of high school. His right-hand hitting wasn't as good as his left-hand hitting which is unusual for a right-hander. You end up getting more reps as a left-hand hitter. Robinson struck out quite a bit so we tried to get him to cut down on those. But I like his defense and his speed. He is a big addition to our team especially to a team, that doesn't have a lot of speed."
Lost in the Friday night game against Milwaukee was the fine running catch that Robinson made off the line drive that Yuniesky Betancourt hit off Aroldis Chapman leading off the ninth inning. Robinson was able to track down the ball at full speed running toward the leftfield line.
"I knew he was going to pull the ball," Robinson said. "I played with him in spring training with Kansas City. He is a dead red fastball hitter."
"Robinson is a centerfielder playing left," Baker said. "He had plenty of speed to run that ball down easily."
Speed is Robinson's greatest asset; the reason that he is in the major leagues as the roster addition when Ryan Ludwick was placed on the disabled list.
Baker was asked repeatedly this spring about the development of Billy Hamilton, who is known for his speed after setting a professional baseball record with 155 stolen bases last season.
"Take a look at Robinson," Baker said one day in March. "If he isn't as fast as Hamilton, he's just a step slower."
The 25-year old Robinson may just now be coming into his own. He certainly saved the Reds a game with his speed in the series opener.
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Phillips pestered Norichika Aoki, the runner on second. Braun hit a two-hop ground ball up the middle. Phillips fielded the ball with his right knee on second base and threw quickly to first, where Joey Votto scooped the throw to complete the inning-ending double play.
Phillips wasn't finished.
One out into the bottom of the inning, the man who calls himself DatDude launched his sixth home run to give his team a 4-2 lead. Combined with the two-out RBI single in the third inning, it gave the Reds' secondbaseman the National League lead in RBI with 31.
"Brandon's the best I've seen at that position," Dusty Baker said. "He works at it. That was the best double play I've ever seen turned from secondbase."
"I work on taking short hops bare-handed but not with the bag in the way," Phillips said. "I took a gamble on making the throw. I've touched the bag with my knee several times but not while taking a short hop."
While he took over the lead in RBI, Phillips was upset that he struck out with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth.
"I'm still pissed off that I struck out in that inning," Phillips said. "I wanted to get at least one run out of that. It feels good to know I'm leading the league (in RBI) but I don't really look at that. My goal is to drive in 100 runs but we needed that run in the eighth."
"We're leaving a lot of guys out there at the end of the game. We were hoping to get at least one run there," Baker said. "These Brewers can score in a hurry.
Both starting pitchers, Yovanni Gallardo for Milwaukee and Tony Cingrani, were long gone. Neither pitched past the fourth inning.
The Reds put up two runs against Gallardo. Shin-Soo Choo walked, then stole secondbase. Phillps drilled a single as Choo chugged home. Jay Bruce smoked an offering by Gallardo on a line over the head of the rightfielder, Aoki. The fielder managed to get the tip of his glove on it but the ball fell for a double that scored Phillips.
Cingrani had little trouble with the Brewers for three innings. However, Jean Segura opened the fourth with a home run that bounced off the top of the rightfield wall. Braun followed with a blast on the next pitch that traveled 418 feet to tie the game.
"Cingrani pitched well until the second time around (the Brewers' batting order)," Baker said. "His pitch count got up there. You see how fast the Brewers can score. We scratch to get two runs and just like that, they tie the game. We were hoping those home runs weren't going to come back to haunt us."
Donald Lutz pinch hit for Cingrani and singled in his fifth straight game. The big German citizen stole secondbase, his second of the year and scored on a single by Zack Cozart.
Afredo Simon, Sam LeCure and Jonathan Broxton kept the Brewers away from the plate until the Reds unleashed the Cuban Missile, Aroldis Chapman, in the ninth.
Derrick Robinson made a nice running catch in leftfield to retire Yuniesky Betancourt. Pinch hitter Jeff Bianchi flied to left. Aoki reached base for the fifth time in the game with a single to center. Aoki singled three times and walked twice. Segura became the potential tying run. Aoki took second on defensive indiference, third on a wild pitch and scored on a wild pitch, but Segura struck out to end the game.
It was Chapman's eighth save.
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Outfielder Chris Heisey is going to test his right hamstring in a rehab assignment on Monday..
The right-handed hitter has been sidelined since April 29 when he pulled it trying to beat a relay on a double-play ball in Washington the day before. He is eligible to come off Tuesday May 14 in Miami.
Heisey was hitting .173 in 23 games before being injured. He hit two home runs and drove in five runs.
"We need him," Dusty Baker said. "He was hitting as well as he wanted or we wanted but we need the right-handed bat in the late innings."
The Reds recalled Donald Lutz, who hits left-handed, to take Heisey's place.
The move leaves the Reds with only a catcher hittinge exclusively from the right side on the bench. Cesar Izturis and Derreck Robinson are switch hitters. Izturis is hitting .333 from the right side but only has six at bats. Robinson is hitting .400 right-handed in just 10 at bats.
Hanigan was placed on the disabled list with a strained oblique on April 21. He started a rehab assignment in Louisville on Wednesday night.
Hanigan played in three games with the Bats with three hits in eight at bats.
Johnny Cueto made a rehab start for the Dayton Dragons last night, pitching three innings. He allowed one run on four hits in three innings. Cueto struck out four.
Cueto went on the disabled list on April 21 with a strained right lat. He was scheduled to pitch on May 3, but was scratched when his oblique acted up.
Ryan Hanigan, who was also sidelined with a strained oblique and a sore left thumb, began a rehab assignment in Louisville last night.
The Dayton Dragons game will be televised on WHIO Digital Channel 7.2 and Time Warner Cable channels 23 and 372 Thursday with Cueto on the mound.
The game between the Reds and the Atlanta Braves was still tight, when Juan Francisco hit a grand slam home run off J.J. Hoover to stake Atlanta to a 7-2 win.
Dan Uggla hit two solo home runs off Mike Leake to counter Zack Cozart's fifth home run of the season, a solo shot off Mike Minor.
Minor retired the first two batters in the eighth but Donald Lutz singled and Devin Mesoraco worked a walk. It was Mike Leake's turn to hit.
Dusty Baker took notice that Atlanta had a right-hander and a left-hander warming up because Minor had already thrown 111 pitches.
Baker due to injuries had all left-handed hitters plus switch-hitter Derrick Robinson on the bench to face the lefty, Minor.
"Leake was a better option than anyone we had on the bench," Baker said. "He is a good hitter (.286 coming into the game). Robinson isn't ready to hit left-handed yet. And did you see how Minor made Joey Votto look."
Votto's 10-game hitting streak was snapped as Minor a particularly tough left-hander had one of the best hitters in the National League tied up in knots all day. Robinson due to a pain in his side can't swing the bat left-handed. The Braves would have turned him around by bringing in a right-hander from the bullpen.
"It didn't work but I wanted Leake to face the tired pitcher," Baker said. Leake flied out to left to end the threat.
The Reds' starter went out to face the top of the Braves lineup with 98 pitches under his belt.
Jordan Schaefer worked a walk to start the eighth. Braves' manager Fredi Gonzalez sent the speedy Schaefer on a hit-and-run play. Andrelton Simmons, who hit two home runs on Monday night, collected his fourth hit of the game. He hit a ground ball to shortstop but Cozart had to cover secondbase.
"Leake was good until the eighth," Baker said. "He got behind Schafer, then they executed the hit-and-run to put him in trouble."
There were runners on the corners and no outs with left-handed hitting Freddie Freeman up. Baker sent Sean Marshall into the game. Freeman dumped a soft line drive into right field to make it 3-1.
"I didn't want Marshall facing either Justin Upton or Uggla," Baker said.
He went to J.J. Hoover, who after a rough beginning of the season, retired 20 of his last 23 batters, He had not allowed an earned run in any of his last 10 appearances. He had a 0.79 ERA (11 1/3 innings, 1 earned run) in his last 12 games. He saved two of the three games in Chicago.
Hoover walked Justin Upton, who leads the Major League's with 12 home runs and is third in the National League with a .635 slugging percentage. He is tied for second in the NL with 17 extra-base hits.
Hoover walked him. Uggla followed with a hard one hopper to Cozart at short that forced Simmons at the plate.
That brought former Red Juan Francisco to the plate.
Francisco was one of the promising young players to come through the Reds farm system. He rose quickly displaying power. On September 12, 2011 while playing for the Reds he hit a pitch off Chicago's Rodrigo Lopez 502' out of Great American Ball Park that landed on the south sidewalk of Mehring Way.
Francisco reported to the Reds out of shape for spring training in 2012. He hadn't done his rehab work on an injury from the winter leagues. He loafed through drills in Goodyear, Arizona. The Reds' players were as upset with him as management was. At the same time Todd Frazier was having a great spring. The Reds had also lost Ryan Madson, Nick Masset and Bill Bray to injuries in their own bullpen.
Reds' general manager Walt Jocketty unloaded Francisco for a strike throwing reliever, J.J. Hoover.
Someone was going to make the trade look good and this time it was Francisco that came out on top drilling the first grand slam of his career into the Atlanta bullpen to break the game open.
Jay Bruce hit his second home run of the season in the bottom of the ninth but Anthony Varvaro finished the game with no further score.
Francisco was asked if the grand slam felt extra special coming off his former team and the pitcher they traded him to obtain.
"It felt good just to hit my first grand slam in the major leagues," Francisco said.
Shin-Soo Choo took one of the National League's best closers 400 feet to left centerfield to give the Reds its 19th win of the season. It put Reds' manager Dusty Baker into 18th place on the All-Time list for managers with his 1,600th career win in a 5-4 ninth inning comeback thriller.
"It just means I've been around for a long time," Baker said.
Homer Bailey got off to a rough start but held on long enough to keep the team in the game. Two walks in the first inning and two-out singles by Brian McCann and Dan Uggla gave the Atlanta Braves an early 3-0 lead.
Choo got the first hit off Braves' starter Kris Medlen. It was Choo's sixth of the season.
The Braves scored another run off Bailey in the fifth but the Reds got it back in the bottom of the inning on Donald Lutz's pinch-hit single.
Singles by Zack Cozart and Joey Votto put runners on the corners with one out. Brandon Phillips' sacrifice fly made it a 4-3 game in the eighth and put him in a tie with John Buck for the most RBIs in the National League.
The marker also set up a dramatic finish thanks to the bullpen work of Sam LeCure, Sean Marshall and Jonathan Broxton. The trio kept Atlanta from crossing the plate over the last four innings.
"They did their jobs," Baker said. "It is one of those things that if they give up runs everyone notices but when they don't, they are unheralded unless they are the closer."
Craig Kimbrel under the tutelage of Colerain High School graduate and Brave's pitching coach, Roger McDowell, was making his bid to become the youngest pitcher to notch 100 careers saves at 24.
It looked like the hard-throwing Kimbrel would pick up his second save in as many nights when he struck out Jack Hannahan and Corky Miller. Kimbrel fell behind pinch hitter Devin Mesoraco 3-1 before catching the corner with a 95-mile an hour pitch for strike two.
Kimbrel's payoff pitch was down in the strike zone but Mesoraco got the barrel of the bat on it and hit a majestic fly into the first row of seats in right centerfield.
"Not every home run is hit off a bad pitch," Baker said.
No sooner had the crowd quieted from the euphoria of tying the game when Choo hit his second home run to touch off a celebration at home plate.
It was the Reds' league-leading 13th home win and the seventh win in the last at bat.
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But it was shortstop Andrelton Simmons that torched the Reds' starter. That resulted in a 7-4 win for Atlanta. He hit a solo home run as the Braves built a 3-0 lead against Arroyo.
"Top to bottom that is a powerful lineup," Arroyo said. "The only person I wasn't worried about was the eight hole hitter and he ended up taking me deep. I was a little too fine in the early innings."
The Reds were eerily silent with the bats against Paul Maholm, who has pitched at Great American Ball Park many times as an intradivision rival of the Reds for most of his career. Pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs in the past, Maholm was not intimidated by the park's smallish dimensions.
The Reds had an awakening in the fourth against the Braves' left-hander.
Zack Cozart singled. Joey Votto walked. Brandon Phillips doubled to left to move to second in the RBI list with his 28th of the season. Jay Bruce grounded to Freddie Freeman at firstbase to score Votto and move Phillips to third but Todd Frazier took a called third strike and Devin Mesoraco grounded out.
"We had a chance to tie the game that would have changed the momentum," Dusty Baker said. "We battled. Bronson struggled but we still had action when he left. It was 4-2."
The Braves padded the lead in the eighth after two were out.
Dan Uggla singled and Simmons belted his second home run of the game off Logan Ondrusek. Pinch hitter Jordan Schaeffer homered.
The Braves needed the runs because the Reds came back with two in the bottom of the inning but trailed 7-4 going into the ninth.
Craig Kimbrall got the save for the Braves by striking out Votto as the tying run with Donald Lutz and Shin-Soo Choo on base.
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His mother is from Germany and lived in Watertown, New York when Donald was born. After spitting from Donald's father, she returned home to Friedberg, Germany when Donald was a year old.
Lutz grew up playing hockey in Germany. His older brother, Sascha, played baseball, having been exposed to it while living in New York. Sascha took Donald with him to practice one day. They younger brother picked up the bat and was a natural with it.
Germany has a baseball academy in Regensburg to help develop players for the World Baseball Classic and other international competitions. Lutz is among three players signed out of the academy but the first to reach the majors.
Max Kepler is in the Minnesota Twins' organization and Kai Gronauer is working his way through the New York Mets' system.
Lutz signed with the Reds in 2007 at age 18. He was a non-drafted free agent.
"We have a friendly competition to see who would make it first," Lutz said. "I heard from them as soon as I got the news that I was coming to the Reds."
Lutz got a message from Dirk Nowitzke, the star NBA player for the Dallas Mavericks.
"The other two were more impressed by that," Lutz said.
Lutz was 0-for-7 when he came to bat against the Chicago Cubs on Sunday.
He took a pitch down and in that hit off his ankle. The umpire didn't see it and told Lutz to get back in the batter's box. Two pitches later he ripped a single into rightfield for his first Major League hit.
The news has been spread around Germany. Lutz is getting many new twitter followers.
"I'm happy to get the attention," Lutz said. "I was happy to get the first hit. The monkey is off my back. I was trying hard to impress people. I may have tried too hard."
Lutz likes the idea of being a beacon for kids in Germany to play baseball.
There have been dozens of Major League players born in Germany but most were born in the late 19th century and grew up in the states after they immigrated. Some were born to American parents while stationed in Germany.
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Joan Frey would rather trade financial security than live with a crotchety old man, drinking a beer and wondering what-might-have-been.
James Gottffried Frey was inducted into the Price Hill Oldtimers Hall of Fame along with Herman Flea Clifton, Dick Drott, Larry Kleem and his oldest friend from Cincinnati's Western Hills High School.
After hitting .302 in 13 minor league seasons that included an International League batting title in 1960, Frey faced life after baseball.
Frey had a real estate license and was going to earn a living with it but the Baltimore Orioles had other ideas for him. They offered him a job as a scout in Ohio, to be a minor league batting instructor and manage its rookie team in the minor leagues.
Frey didn't like the idea. He told them he was going into the real estate business, thinking he could make a lot of money in real estate.
Joan, his wife, whom he had dated in high school, intervened.
"When we were growing up together all you ever talked about is that you wanted to be a coach," Joan told him. "You have a chance to coach. I don't want you sitting on the couch drunk when you're 60 years old, telling me you wished you'd have tried it. Give a few years and if you don't make it you have plenty of time to sell real estate."
Frey couldn't argue. "I'll give it five years," he told her.
The resident of suburban White Oak, near Cincinnati, went off to spring training earning a modest $6,000. His neighbors made twice that sum, easily in the mid 60's.
The diminutive Frey signed a contract with the Boston Braves out of Western Hills High School. He along with Don Zimmer were members of the 1947 Ohio State High School Champions and the pair won an American Legion National Championship under legendary amateur manager, Joe Hawk.
He began his playing career in 1950, leading the Paducah Chiefs with a .325 batting average that year. On July 4, 1956, Frey was traded by the Milwaukee Braves to the Brooklyn Dodgers for Ray Shearer. In 1957, he hit .336 with 11 triples and 74 RBI for the Tulsa Oilers en route to being named the Texas League MVP. He ended his 14-year playing career in 1963. Frey won batting titles in 1957 (.336 in Texas League) and 1960 (.317 in International League).
He went to spring training with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1958 and hit .420. Manager Fred Hutchinson chose Frey over Curt Flood, who hit around .220 that spring but injured his left shoulder. Frey couldn't throw the ball back to the infield for two years, when he was 29-years old.
At Joan's urging, Frey managed at Bluefield in the Appalachian League in 1964 and 1965, then scouted for the Baltimore Orioles' organization until he became a member of Earl Weaver's staff with the Orioles from 1970-1979.
"We had a 17-day road trip with the Orioles," Frey said. "My meal money from that trip was more money than I made my first year in the minor leagues. I made $200 a month and we got two dollars in meal money, one if we were going home."
The Orioles defeated the Reds in the World Series in 1970.
"I thought I won the lottery," Frey said. "I was making $12,000 as a coach and the World Series check was $17,000. I thought we had all the money in the world. I thought we might be able to go out to dinner or something."
Frey also was a substitute teacher at Colerain High School where his son Jimmy was a wide receiver on the football team.
Frey spent 10 seasons as batting coach for Frank and Brooks Robinson, Boog Powell, Davey Johnson and Don Baylor. The latter two also went on to manage in the major leagues.
After the 1979 season, Frey decided he had enough. On the last day of the 1979 World Series in Pittsburgh, Frey decided to resign.
"Physically, I was tired. I had bad knees, bad shoulder, bad everything," Frey said.
The next day the Kansas City Royals' general manager Joe Burke called.
"He said how would you like to manage for the Royals," Frey said. "I told him I wasn't interested. I thought they were offering me a minor league job. I told them that I wasn't going back to the minor leagues. He said no, the major league team. I said, 'I'll take it." We didn't talk about money or anything. I told him that I would take his offer, I don't want to tell what it was but it wasn't much. I told him to remember the conversation because when we win, the next time."
In 1980, Frey became manager of the Kansas City Royals and led the team to their first World Series appearance that first year, ultimately losing in 6 games to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Frey got a big raise. "It was the first time I made some money," Frey said.
However, the club struggled in 1981, going 30-40 under Frey, and he was replaced by Dick Howser. At the time, he was criticized for his lack of strategic acumen, which was exemplified by his work in the 1981 All-Star Game: he used all his substitutes early in the game, and was forced to let P Dave Stieb bat in the 9th inning with the game on the line when he had run out of potential pinch-hitters.
The real reason stemmed from a disagreement with management.
"We had a big fight," Frey said. "I had five players on drugs. I wanted to trade them before anyone else found out. They didn't want to hear anything or know anything. They got mad and fired me."
He was a member of the New York Mets' coaching staff in 1982 and 1983.
"I went into the general manager and told him that I was finished coaching. I was going to go home," Frey said. "He asked me what I was going to do. I told him that I didn't know. I would find something. The next day the Cubs called me and asked me to manage. Every time I try to quit they called me back. A friend told me if I get fired three more times, I'll run for president."
Frey couldn't understand it.
"I had no credentials to be a big league manager. Even my brother would ask me, 'How did you get a big league job?' He managed kids and thought he knew more than I did."
In his first season with the Cubs, he led the team to their first postseason appearance since 1945, but they blew a two-game-to-none lead in the NLCS against the San Diego Padres and failed to advance to the World Series.
"When we won the first two games against the Padres, I remember thinking we could play the Tigers and Sparky Anderson. The last time the Cubs played in the World Series, they played the Tigers and Flea Clifton was on the team. He grew up on the same street in Bridgetown that I did. Can you imagine two guys from the same small neighborhood being in the World Series with the same two teams," Frey said.
The Cubs didn't make it but at the same period in the mid 80's, four major league managers were from the Western Hills community. Frey with the Cubs, Don Zimmer with the Red Sox, Russ Nixon with the Braves and Pete Rose with the Reds were all former West Hi Mustangs.
The Cubs had never drawn more than 1.6 million fans before Frey got there.
"The CEO of the Tribune Company asked me, what we had to do to improve attendance," Frey said. "I asked him if he'd ever been to the circus. Do your kids like the clowns? He said,'yes'. Do you remember Casey Stengel? You better hope you hired another clown. Well the clown got lucky."
The Cubs' attendance jumped to over two million in both of Frey's seasons as manager.
The Cubs fired Frey and thirdbase coach Zimmer to hire John Vukovich in June of 1986. All five pitchers in the Cubs' starting rotation were on the disabled list at the same time in 1985. General manager Dallas Green expected them to bounce back. They didn't. He was still owed $250,000 on his contract.
"The CEO of the Tribune liked me," Frey said. "I had an offer to be manager or general manager of the Minnesota Twins. My wife didn't want to go because she couldn't smoke in their ballpark. I had no job, no money and my wife wants to smoke. They offered me a job to work on the radio. I told them I didn't know anything about it. They said not to worry about it. I'd be fine. If I go to Minnesota I give up the money on the contract and they were going to pay me another $150,000 on top of it. It was an easy decision."
Frey spent a year in the radio booth with Harry Carey.
"My first day someone hit one and I said it's gone. Harry grabbed my arm and said. 'It might be. It could be. It is. I knew that three minutes ago. But Harry said, 'There are millions of people that want to hear me say,' It might be. It could be. It is."
The Cubs fired Dallas Green at the end of the season and asked Frey to be the general manager.
His first move was to hire a manager.
"They wanted me to interview five guys and asked me for their names," Frey said. "I told them I wouldn't name them. That it wasn't fair to them if the press got a hold of it. They called me back in three weeks to ask how it was going. I waited another week and called Don (Zimmer) at home. He wasn't there. Where else would he be? I found him in Las Vegas. I told him to not say anything for a couple days. I got him a hotel room under another name."
Zimmer and the Cubs won the Eastern Division in 1989, losing to the San Francisco Giants in the NLCS.
The Cubs had not been to the postseason for 39 years until two childhood friends from Western Hills took them there twice in five years.
Frey was named Executive of the Year by the Sporting News in 1989. Zimmer was named Manager of the Year, as Frey had been in 1984.
Frey left baseball after 43 years in 1992, retiring to Ft. Myers, Florida.
It was fitting that the "country boy" who thought Western Hills High School was like a college campus and his friend of 70 years were honored in the same year.
"I was from Bridgetown. It is built up now but back then it was country. We had 2,000 residents if you counted the pigs and cows. Zim was from Sedamsville. We called him the river rat," Frey said.
Together they made an unbeatable team from winning American Legion national championships, an Ohio High School state championship, to playing and/or managing in major league World Series.
Their coach Joe Hawk has to be smiling.
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Kent Mercker must feel better about himself at his home in Dublin, Ohio.
Mercker gave up the seventh longest home run in GABP history until Todd Frazier smashed a pitch from his arch rival from his college days. Frazier hit a poorly placed cutter 480 feet onto the batter's eye in centerfield off Jeff Samardzija.
Mercker's 479 foot home run that he allowed to Ryan Howard five years ago fell to the eighth position on the long ball list.
More importantly, the blast made a 1-0 winner out of the Reds without going to extra innings. It allowed Mat Latos, who has pitched well all month, to pick up his first win of the season.
Latos threw blanks at the Cubs all day. He wasn't over powering with just four strikeouts but he allowed just four hits in seven innings, including an infield single in the eighth. He walked Dioner Navarro to start the frame and left with two on and no out in the inning.
Jonathan Broxton picked him up. Cody Ransom bunted the potential tying and winning runners to second and third. Broxton carved up pinch hitter Alfonso Soriano for a strikeout. David DeJesus sent a chill down the Reds' collective spines with a flair down the rightfield line that was less than a foot foul.
Zack Cozart saved the runs and the games with a brilliant stop behind secondbase and an accurate throw to retire DeJesus and end the threat.
By stranding the runners, Latos ERA dropped to a very good 2.16.
"It was an unbelievable play in that situation," Cubs' manager Dale Sveum said. "The foul ball missed the line by less than a foot. That's what happens when things aren't going your way."
The Reds found runs to be scarce and Frazier's sixth home run on the season was a welcome sight. Both teams pitched well during the series that the Reds claimed two games to one.
The first two went extra innings, 13 of them on Monday in the Reds 5-4 win and 10 in the Reds' loss in the 4-2 contest on Tuesday.
"It all begins with starting pitching," Dusty Baker said. "The Cubs had great starting pitching too. We were told they were getting great starting pitching."
Dusty Baker is worried about the wear and tear on the bullpen. The Reds have played the equivalent of 22 games due in part to the lack of key hits. They have played five extra-inning games and had chances to win in nine but stranded too many runners, including 17 in the 13-inning game Saturday against Miami.
"I'm looking for production," Baker said. "We have left too many runners on in key situations."
Chris Heisey has been getting the most playing time since Ryan Ludwick was injured on opening day.
Heisey is hitting .183 in 20 games with 71 at-bats. He has driven in five runs.
Xavier Paul started four games, hitting .346 on the season with eight RBI in 26 at-bats.
Heisey's at-bats have come with 30 men on base, 20 in scoring postion. Heisey is hitting .214 with runners in scoring position and has driven in two of the 20.
There have been 21 men on bast in Paul's at bats, 13 in scoring position. Paul is hitting .400 with runners in scoring position, driving in six runs.
"I talked to Gene Clines about Paul years ago. Gene had Paul in the Dodgers' organization. Paul can hit. He's been working on his defense."
Paul has adapted to a role off the bench.
"I don't get too high or too low," Paul said. "I have learned to accept failure and handle success. When I was with the Dodgers I hung out with Juan Pierre, who was learning how to play off the bench when the Dodgers got Andruw Jones and Manny Ramirez. He taught me how to stay ready; how to get my sprints in, while he was learning to do it. I try to do things between innings. We have a 60-yard track and some indoor cages. I try to stay ready when Dusty calls on me."
Like any one else Paul wants to play everyday.
"It was a big blow when Ludy (Ryan Ludwick) went down but we have a good group of guys. I know Heis (Heisey) will get hot," Paul said. "I will be ready when my turn comes."
