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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, June 29, 2007

This story made my day

I hope it makes yours...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/nyregion/29blind.html


Thursday, June 28, 2007

Naming rights at PBS

Now that an appeals court has refused to reinstate the county's lawsuit against the Bengals, it's time for the team to make nice and be a good corporate citizen. Sell the naming rights to PBS and turn the proceeds over to the county.

Todd Portune says if Hamilton County can't find new revenue sources, its stadium fund could be in the red anywhere between $102 million and $288 million over the life of the financing, which runs through 2032.

No blame should go to the team on this one. The county negotiated a terrible lease. The Bengals got what they could. But now, it's the team's turn to be generous. Some of us thought it was cool at the time that the Bengals didnt sell out to some corporate monolith and instead named their playpen after the franchise's founding father. That time has passed. The notion of continuing to pay for what will be a 30-year-old stadium, when so much else in the city demands fixing, makes it obvious what needs to be done.

The Bengals need to let bygones be bygones, sell the naming rights, allow PBS to be used for concerts and other big events etc. Given the foolish/generous lease the club operates under -- if so much as a lightbulb burns out, the county pays to replace it -- it would be the right thing to do.


Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Ireland

Most excellent adventure. Second time there, better than the first. Lingered a few days longer, drank many more Guinnii (no driving, all overnight places walkable, another cool thing about Ireland) acquired a new favorite sport, hurling... the game, OK? Not the aftermath of Guinnii overserv-ation....

Rained... I mean all... the... time. Ireland is a sponge looking for a bucket. The biggest issue in Ireland is keeping your feet dry. When the Irish go on holday and the sun shines, do they ask for their money back?

Every postcard from Ireland features blue sky. Right. I'm betting the one nice day of the year, every Murphy w/a camera is out snapping like mad...

The roads are as wide as Dolly Parton's... waist. Driving there is like parallel parking an Escalade in your living room...

Hurling... like lacrosse and soccer and rugby and hitting fungoes and...really like nothing else. Fabulous. Spent way too much time in pubs with the locals, cheering on ol' Limerick to beat Tipperary's arse. I'm not a big soccer guy, for which I've been labeled a typical Amero-centric twit. I love hurling, though. Ryan Freel would be a stud hurler guy.

Old there is old, unlike here. Old is taking a boat out several miles in the Atlantic, to an island no bigger than Tri-County Mall, walking 650 steps damned near straight up, to a crag where monks lived, um, 1400 years ago. The island reminded me of scenes from Jurassic Park. Impossibly rugged, beautiful and green... Skellig Michael. I recommend it, the next time you're in Portmagee, County Kerry, take the boat out...

Expensive... think of a normal dinner out at say, Friday's, only you're spending Precinct jack. Every night. If you want to go to Ireland, rob a bank. Or work 2 jobs...

Gas $6 a gallon...

Guinness $4.50 a pint... Bud and Miller cost more.

No Keystone Light. That sucked.

Airports are as fun now as dentists chairs. I won't bore you, just trust me. I'd rather be audited...

Traditional music: They honor their musicians there much more than here. You can be sitting in a pub, pounding a pint, and guys just... show up. With their flutes and Irish drums (bodhrans), guitars and accordions. They sit on low stools in a circle and just play. They don't care what you think, they don't take requests. The tunes are skillfully played, straight from the marrow. Very nice...

Irish use of the English language: Impenetrable.

Enough. Nice to be back. Thanks for indulging the overly long reminisce...


Wednesday, June 13, 2007

random dunner thoughts

Maybe the Reds can trade him to the Nationals for Kearns and Lopez.

People have compared him to Klu. Nope. Klu's best 4 years, 1953-56, he averaged 40-plus HRs, 115 rbi... also 40Ks a year and a BA no lower than .302...Klu is who Dunn could have been.

Name last good-defense Reds LF, win fabulous prizes. Compared to Kal Daniels and Kevin Mitchell, Dunn is Cesar Geronimo.

How can a stud prep QB who signed to play at Texas have such a mediocre arm?

I think it was Jim Lefebvre who told Dunner to pull the ball all the time... Dunn had been an all-fields guy coming up.

In the offseason, I said half-jokingly to W.Krivsky that instead of seeking pitching and D, he should acquire 7 more Dunns... think of what a blast we'd have at GABP. Literally.

I wish I could make 10.5 mil a year doing what he does.


Tuesday, June 12, 2007

yes we have no passports

Planned vacation to Ireland... supposed to leave Friday for 10 days... hotels, planes, car booked 6 months ago...applied for passports for 2 kids 13 weeks ago...post office guy says, no problem, 6-8 weeks... still waiting... lots of automated phone talk..lots of pressed buttons... lots of hold... lots of talk of expediting and overnighting... no action...actual live human being says passports being processed in New Hampshire... New Hampshire?... tell us go make appointment at Chicago passport office, stand in line for 12 hours... try make appointment... automated line says no appointments available...

very nice effort by G. Bush government...

1st we go to war on false pretense, then we stir up hornet's nest we can't possibly fix...

where is Bin Laden?

we proclaim war on terror by making people traveling to Mexico, Caribbean and Canada acquire passports... don't understand said requirement might swamp passport offices...

then we rescind that requirement, so the people who created the problem in the 1st place can go to mexico, canada and caribbean...

good for them.

meantime, vacation of lifetime is screwed...

now I know why I never voted for a Bush


Monday, June 11, 2007

Bada Bust

Please tell me that something really did go bad on my DirecTV last night at about 10... that Sopranos godfather David Chase didnt competely disrespect his audience w/that lousy, inconclusive ending to The Sopranos' 8-year run...

Are you with me? I've read what a wonderful, ambiguous ending it was. Create your own meaning! No thanks. Unless you are a TV critic with a Masters of Fine Arts and see hidden meaning in a Jackson Pollock paint throw, what it was was tired writers with failed imaginations, bringing a great show to an awful ending.

Real life might be ambiguous. TV demands closure. Do not take me for an eight-year ride to be back where I started. Personally, I thought The Shield had overtaken The Sopranos a few years ago. In Chase's creation, character development had begun to overrule plot advancement to such an extent, the show became listless. Meantime, Sean Ryan's The Shield managed both. It didn't quite have the acting or the the writing of The Sopranos, but it compensated with intriguing and action-juiced episodes, week after week. It delivered in a way the Sopranos did not, right up to the end.


Thursday, June 07, 2007

Calling Bob Castellini

A very good move for the Reds owner today would be to go public with any plan and/or vision he has for his ballclub. The initial idea -- no 5-year plans, doing whatever it takes to bring championship baseball back to Cincinnati etc. -- is, um, untenable, at least for now. Castellini doesnt like being front and center, cameras rolling, but someone needs to be the face of the organization, and quickly. Fans will suffer through just about anything, if they see any hint of a better future. Right now, what they see is incompetence and a lack of accountability.

Today's the 1st day of the amateur draft, a perfect time for the owner to say the commitment hasnt wavered, but the course has changed, be patient, here's what we need to do etc. I'll be calling him today.

Live big, Bob Howsam.


Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Odell and Homer

Thurman is why sports media are seen as cynical and "negative.'' I had Bob Holtzman from ESPN on WLW SportsTalk the other night, asking him why the Worldwide Leader continues to find fascination in Bemgals troubles that are mostly ancient. Then Odell goes and kicks and punches a few folks (allegedly) and I look dumb. Better to be negative than dumb. If Thurman doesnt want to help himself, no sense anyone else trying.

As for Homer: It's great and all, but someone explain to me how a guy who pitches 6 shutout innings in the big leagues Friday (Livingston) is sent out, while someone else who allows 4 runs in 6 innings in Triple A in his last start is promoted.

I'm not a Baseball Guy, but explain why J. Hamilton wasnt in Denver Sunday, spelling Griffey, who's hitting .191 with 3 rbi in his last 12 games... Hobbs hit 3 HRs in his 1st 2 games at 'Ville, yet not fit enough to fly on a plane nearly 2 weeks later?

Livingston sent down because he wouldnt start for 8 days... so, how come he couldnt pitch out of the 'pen? Reds replace him w/McBeth, relief pitcher, who spent 2 games on the pine in Colorado...

It's like the line from Forrest Gump: "I'm not a smart man, Jenny.'' I'm sure Kriv's "people'' had their reasons. I'm not bright enough to figure them out.


Sunday, June 03, 2007

Homer

The buzz is that H. Bailey will get the start Saturday... as a fan (or a writer looking for a fresh angle on the same ol' Reds) I'd be all for it... if I'm ownership, I'd have to be outta my mind to bring him up now.

Saturday is June 9, very close to what is often the service-time cutoff for so-called "Super 2'' arbitration eligibles. That is, if Bailey is brought up and stays (Krivsky's sworn intent), he'll likely have enough time to be eligible for arb. after 2 full seasons, not the customary 3. If they waited until July 1, he likely would not.

What's the difference? Millions.

If the Reds were interested in saving the season, they should have promoted Bailey when Milton went on the DL, or after Lohse got bombed the 2nd or 3rd start in a row. Now, you have to feel it really doesnt matter.

If you've held off this long, what's another few weeks?

BTW, sending B. Livingston down is dumb. I don't care what the reason. Kid throws 6-plus shutout innings at Coors Field, you find a place for him in the big leagues. Is this staff so heavy with talent it can blithely send down a performance like that?

Management here consistently outthinks itself.


Friday, June 01, 2007

Hopper cheated and other observations

So much minutiae, so few minutes:

N. Hopper put the baseball in R. Freel's glove, negating H. Cota's inside-the-park homer Monday. That's cheating. A-Rod shouted something at Blue Jays fielders Wednesday. A two-out popup that should have been caught was not. Yanks win. That's not cheating. It's (borderline) baseball.

Count B. Donovan among those college basketball coaches for whom money and ego overrule logic and common sense. K-Y fans, rejoice.

I didnt used to think the Reds were holding down Homer because of Super 2 arbitrati0n issues. I do now.

L. James' transcendant show v. the Pistons Thursday is exactly what the NBA needs to get the casual fan back. No league is more dependent on individual stars.

B.Bonds still 9 homers away. Giants here 1st week of July, a little more than a month from now. Let's start cheering The Buddha Man... 8 homers in the next month would be good.

C. Johnson is going to run against a horse next month. Does he have to eat oats 3 times a day? Who will hot-walk him? Does he train at dawn?



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