Hal McCoy’s latest round of Reds questions touches everything from postseason dreams to old-school baseball memories, and the answers come with the same blunt edge readers have come to expect.
The biggest question in the bunch was whether Cincinnati has a real opening to chase star power before the current core gets too expensive. McCoy didn’t sugarcoat that one.
He said, “I fear that window is nailed shut. Your suggestion has an 0-and-2 count on you.
To sign star power, the Reds need to invest piles of cash. Their cash is in small stacks.
And to trade for star power, the Reds need players to trade. What players would other teams want?
De La Cruz, Stewart and Burns.”
He also weighed in on the ABS challenge system, arguing that it has actually highlighted how precise MLB umpires are on the tough calls. “I believe it actually shows how good MLB umpires are with a difficult job.
When they do miss, it is by fractions of an inch. And how about when the players are wrong?
Shows they aren’t perfect with the strike zone. The one exception might have been controversial umpire Angel Rodriquez.
If he still umpired, ABS would explode.”
Another reader asked why teams turn on the lights during sunny day games, and McCoy said the answer is television. He noted that it improves the picture for cameras, cuts down on shadows and is meant to help player safety.
On a rules question involving a dropped third strike with a runner on first, McCoy said the catcher should always throw to second because the runner is live. He added that with fewer than two outs the batter is out even if the ball is dropped, while with two outs the batter can run and the easiest throw would be to first.
McCoy also addressed a concern about Reds manager Terry Francona saying his relievers are tired despite the club carrying 13 pitchers, including eight relievers. He pointed to a very different workload in the Big Red Machine era, when teams carried fewer pitchers and relievers like Pedro Borbon and Clay Carroll could work multiple innings and come back the next day.
He also noted the modern pattern of one-inning bullpen usage and the rise of Tommy John surgery, adding, “And isn’t it strange that a bunch of them end up with Tommy John surgery. But in the days of the Big Red Machine, Tommy John was nothing more than a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees.”
A gambling-related question brought a sharper response. McCoy called baseball’s stance hypocritical, saying he thinks of Pete Rose every time Reds broadcaster John Sadak gives pregame gambling odds on player performance. He pointed out that baseball bans players from gambling on the sport while also promoting casino gambling through park signage and broadcast ads.
Asked for the best pitcher in Reds history, McCoy said no one he personally saw tops the list, though he wished he had seen Jim Maloney. Statistically, he cited Eppa Rixey, who leads the Reds in career wins with 179 and innings pitched with 2,890, and Noodles Hahn, whose 45.6 WAR is best all-time for the club.
He also explained the hand gestures players make after a hit, describing them as little more than team-created celebrations. “Most MLB players are just big overgrown kids, so they act like kids.
Every team has its ‘secret’ handshakes and hands/fingers gestures when they do something good. They don’t really mean anything other than, “Hey, look at me.
I done good.””
Looking back to the 1994-95 strike, McCoy said he stayed busy covering the minors while MLB was shut down. He wrote features on the Chattanooga Lookouts, bought one of their hats, and spent time in Paintsville, Ky., which he called the smallest town in America with a professional baseball team at the time. He said he was still paid because he worked for the Dayton Daily News, not MLB.
And when asked about the first baseball game he ever covered, McCoy reached all the way back to 1968. He was filling in for beat writer Jim Ferguson when he was told to ask manager Dave Bristol about Gary Nolan’s bullpen session.
After the game, McCoy asked Bristol how Nolan did, and Bristol shot back, “We just won a damn good game, 2-1, and you ask about Nolan?” McCoy said he never asked Bristol another question after that, though the two later became friends.
Bristol, he said, is now in his 90s and they still talk on the phone.
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