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Paul Daugherty
Enquirer columnist files news and observations

Paul Daugherty
Paul Daugherty has been an Enquirer sports columnist since 1994 and has been chronicling Cincinnati sports since 1988. He has covered almost every major sporting event in America, as well as five Summer Olympics. Along the way, he has been named one of the country's top-5 sports columnists four times, and Ohio columnist of the year on seven different occasions. Last year, he was voted 2nd-best sports columnist in the country, by the Associated Press Sports Editors.

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Friday, April 13, 2007

Who's got Narron's back?

It's essential now that someone Important in the clubhouse come out publicly in defense of J. Narron's benching of Encarnacion, and the manager's tough words explaining it afterwards. Narron has put himself out there with this. It was the gutsy and correct thing to do, but it'll blow up on him without the complete backing of the right people. How great would it be if J. Griffey declared publicly he backs his manager 100 percent? Say something like, "We have the talent to have a chance to compete for a division title here, but only if everyone busts it every day, physically and mentally. I support the manager and will do all I can to set the best example." Or something like that.

Am I dreaming? Maybe. But if Junior, Dunn, Arroyo, Hatteberg would come out in public support of what Narron is trying to do here, the whole effort would go a lot more smoothly. We'll talk about this tonight on SportsTalk.

Live big, R. Seligmann, C. Finnerty and D. Evans


13 Comments:

at 8:10 AM Blogger docproc said...

Agree with you completely, Paul--but I don't see any veteran/star on this team with the guts to do what you're asking.

 
at 9:04 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

How could Griffey do that? I'm sure the hypocrisy of it would be obvious to him. It's not obvious to you?

 
at 9:10 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Since Barry Larkin left, the Reds have really lacked leadership. Name one leader on this team...

Narron is basically stepping into that void, which is what a good manager does. Other managers were lucky, Larkin would do their jobs for them, or, in the case of Miley, who wasn't permitted to do so.

Narron only needs the support of one person - Bob Castellini. Junior can bitch all he wants, but he'll be gone after next season, and the front office knows this.

 
at 9:21 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

You are 100% right on Paul. This team has been lacking an "field-general" for a long time. In 99 we had Greg Vaughn who was a vocal leader and wouldn’t tolerate his teammates not giving it all. This team needs a everyday player with some years under them to step into the role of on field captain. It has never been Jr's personality to do so, so he isn't going to change his ways at his age. You would like to see Dunn step into that role, but I'm not sure it is in his personality. So far this year Narron's stock has gone up, he finally has the attitude that he is here to win games, not massage ego's, or "go with his heart"

 
at 11:38 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dunn would be a prime candidate. He looks like he's really been working in the offseason and isn't so nonchalant out there. It would be great if Junior took the lead, but I don't see it. Cincinnati is just where he works (until he gets hurt).

 
at 1:10 PM Blogger Bengal43 said...

How about calling Boomer Esiason about Imas? I think Boomer was on Imas' show quite a bit.

 
at 4:54 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree with you Paul, but I honestly don't see what the big deal is. Leadership in the clubhous or not, players for the Cincinnati Reds are expected to perform at the highest level. They are paid to do so, just as I am paid to do what I do, and you are paid to do what you do. If you or I slacked off on the job and, metaphorically speaking, "didn't run out a fly ball", we may be "benched" as well and have no one to blame but ourselves. Dare I say that our bosses woudln't have to justify their actions to anyone beyond the fact that we didn't do what we are supposed to do. Thats just what Narron is, a manager, and kudos to him for not settling for a sub-par effort from one of his well paid players. Do us all a favor Paul, and tell the rest of yoru media buddies too...quit making a huge issue out of this and let the Reds, just as we all are, be held accountable for their level of effort or hustle "on the field."

 
at 8:12 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

I do not agree with you Paul. You are asking them to prove something to you and to me. Isn't it more important for them to demonstrate support within the lockerroom environment than to say pretty things to the media? If the "leadership" of the team is seeking to influence the players without calling unnecessary attention to Encarnacion, we don't need to be involved. It's not about him or us, it's about THEM.

 
at 8:44 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Larkin was no leader and appears to be G Jr's role model.

Kudos to "Starey" Jerry, but the bottom line is this team will never be a playoff contender with him as skipper.

Meanwhile I saw Joe Torre sitting in a Starbuck's in downtown Minny on Wednesday while I was traveling on biz (yeah...imagine that, Joe like his joe) and told him that if his wife wants to come home after this season, we'd love to have him.

He just chuckled and said, "You never know."

 
at 11:01 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Larkin was no leader? Are you kidding me?

The guy learned spanish so he could communicate better with his spanish speaking teammates. He commonly called players-only meetings when the team was off-track.

Name one Red right now that could call a players-only meeting with any shred of credibility. You can't.

 
at 3:55 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Word in the past year or two has it that Larkin wasn't the leader that everyone saw him as...particularly in 99 when Greg Vaughn was the real Team Captain.

 
at 2:17 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Who actually looked at the replay? If you did you would see that he did actually think the ball was fouled BACK by his first reaction. How many people do you see runnibg when they think the have fouled the ball BACK. I believe it was a honest mistake.

 
at 9:58 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

How can Griffey have Narron's back on this? He's the guy who sat at home plate last week admiring his "home run", until of course it banged off the wall and had to settle for a 375 ft single. Edwin was wrong, he didn't hustle and deserved to be sat down. It's just much easier to bench Encarnacion than it is to stand up to the overpaid, over the hill prima donna

 
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