This man, and his child, both want Uncle Phil's Mustard to return. So do I.

1) Bring back Uncle Phil.  For the second time in three years, the Reds are messing with the mustard. From a baseball play-on-words piece in Cincinnati.com....

The home team has given Uncle Phil’s Düsseldorf Mustard its unconditional release. The spicy brown stuff got the heave-ho in 2010 by the Reds’ concessionaire over packaging, but was recalled. A plastic bag again proved to be its undoing as the Wisconsin-made condiment was cut loose Thursday.

A local prospect, Woeber’s Düsseldorf Mustard, has already been called up. The Springfield product makes its major-league debut Friday at Great American Ball Park as the Reds take on the Chicago Cubs.

Bull. Crap.

I'm not a huge mustard guy, yet I love Uncle Phil's.  And I admit I'm late to the party.  When the Reds took it away temporarily in 2010 and brought it back after massive fan protests, curiosity got the best of me and I tried it.

It nearly changed my life.

I don't buy a GABP pretzel without splashing some Uncle Phil's on the side, and dipping my pretzel.  And while I've always been a ketchup guy on my hot dog (something that somehow offends some), I've slowly begun putting Uncle Phil's on most dogs I buy at the ballpark.

No more.

More from Cincinnati.com....

Releasing Uncle Phil amounts to a two-for-one deal with a hometown connection. In addition to Woeber’s Düsseldorf brand, the Reds’ concession stands will sport Mister Mustard.

Dude, Mr. Mustard sucks.  So just ignore that option.

More....

Memories of Crosley’s mustard and the move to Great American Ball Park resulted in a taste test at the Red’s new home in 2003. A signature mustard, Uncle Phil’s, was selected from six candidates, including Woeber’s Spicy Brown Mustard.

“We had a great relationship with the Reds,” said Allan Sass, son of Uncle Phil’s founder. “But we could not supply their concessionaire with just the right plastic bag to put into the hand pumps in the ballpark.”

Wait, what?  I can't get the greatest mustard ever invented because we can't find plastic bags to fit in hand pumps?  While I admit that I really don't know what that means, it doesn't seem to me that alternate options were even thought of.  Is it completely impossible to have a few interns spend the day before every homestand dumping Uncle Phil's into large, plastic, green mustard pumps?

You know, like they used to have at Riverfront?

What would be wrong with this? Slap an Uncle Phil's sticker on the side, put some mustard pumps out there, and let me eat my pretzels and dogs with the world's greatest mustard?

This is a failure by both the Reds and Uncle Phil.

I know what you're saying, "Mo, just try Woeber's.  It's a local product, and you never know, you might like it."

If the Reds all of a sudden let Joey Votto go because of some inane problem like not having pants big enough to fit him, and I told you to relax, that the new guy deserves a chance, you'd want to punch me in the face.  

I'm sure the fine people at Woeber's make a good product.  I'm sure Woeber's is a good company.  But I'm 35 years-old.  The last year or so of my life has been wrought with changes.  There are some areas I need consistency in.  Being able to go to GABP and dip my pretzel in Uncle Phil's deliciously tangy mustard is one of those things I've come to count on.

After this latest development, I'm not sure what I can count on anymore.

2) Why it's better when the Reds are winning:  I don't have to hear about made-up things like lack of leadership.  No one is calling for the hitting coach's head.  We don't spend much time obsessing over what some former Red did the night before.  No complains that the team's best player walks too much.  We're not doing nearly as much whining about the lineups - though we're still doing some.  I enjoy it very much when the Reds are winning, and among the many reasons why is that we don't lose our minds coming up with pretend reasons why they're losing.

3) While I do think NFL Stadiums need to be better equipped technologically, both to keep up with fans of the 21st Century and to compete with the at home experience, there's something I do love about this paragraph from Paul Daugherty...

If you’d like a bonding experience and some collective joy, go to the stadium and leave the iPad at home. If you expect a TV-quality experience, stay home and watch TV. You can’t have both. Even with 4G capability.

You attend a game with me and bring your iPad, you're not coming to a game with me again. 

(Thanks to Deadspin for the photo of this insufferable clown)

4) The UC Baseball team went viral yesterday, appearing on nearly every major sports blog, and getting some run on ESPN, all for this...

As a fan of the Bearcat baseball program, I love the fact that they're getting some pub, though I do wish this had surfaced while they still had some home games. I also kinda wonder, now that the Bearcats have shown how postgame interviews should be done, won't it kinda make the postgame pie-in-the-face of the walkoff hero that nearly every Major League team administers sorta seem lame?

5) One of the seminal moments of my development as an NBA fan was the 1988 Game Seven Showdown between Larry Bird and Dominique Wilkins.  I was, and still am, a HUGE 'Nique fan.  It sucks that one of his landmark games came in defeat....

I'll never forget watching this game at my dad's house, and I can't believe it's been 25 years.  NBA.com has the oral history of this game, and it's a must-read.

Radio is gonna happen today. And tonight.  And tomorrow.  And again tomorrow.  And then on Sunday.  After that, I'm attending four sporting events in four days in three different cities.  In the meantime, here's my schedule.

Today: ESPN1530 from 3:00 until 6:00 at The Holy Grail Banks.  Stop by, have a beer, and win a prize courtesy of Heirloom Framing.


Tonight: ESPN Radio after Heat/Pacers Game Two until 2:00am.  (You can hear this on ESPN1530 until 1:00, which is when we for some reason switch to religious programming)
Tomorrow: 700WLW from 12:00 until 3:30
Tomorrow again: ESPN Radio from 4:00 until 8:00. (You can hear this on ESPN1530)
Sunday: 9:00 until 12:40

By 1:00 on Sunday I will have a beer in one hand, a cigar in the other, I will be listening to the ballgame, sitting by a swimming pool that I do not own.   

Enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend.  Remember what this weekend is really all about.  And read this explanation of the series finale of Saved By The Bell....

I AM USING FACEBOOK LOOK 4 ME THERE | Myspace Video

ONE MO' THING, 5/23/13

Miss the show today? Here's a bit of it. Go here for 3 full hours.

Mo talks with Jerry Crasnick about Joey Votto and Shin-Soo Choo.

Mo talks with Howard Megdal about chemistry and the "Reds Way'

Mo talks with former Miami and currently Broncos quarterback Zac Dysert.

Hi.  This is me.

This is my radio show...

Guests
3:42 - Howard Megdal, Sportsonearth.com. Wrote this piece on the Reds' chemistry. Solid read.
4:20 - Jerry Crasnick, ESPN.com. Wrote this piece about Joey Votto. Again, a solid read.
4:42 - Zac Dysert.  Former Redhawk.  Now a Bronco.

Topics
What's the "Reds Way?"
Why I respect the hell out of Shin-Soo Choo?
Notice what no one's complaining about anymore?
What's your favorite #Redsproblem?
Any why I'm done eating sno-cones.

Holy hell, it's going to be a big show.  It starts at 3:04 today on ESPN1530.

1) The Reds continue to be good against bad teams.  A sweep in New York....

The good:  Pretty much all of it. 

The bad: Pretty much none of it, save for the questions about Sean Marshall.

The quotable: "Chappy makes 'em happy," from George Grande on Monday night.

Much has been made of the records against above and sub-.500 teams.  (23-5 v. above, 6-13 v. sub) 

This is the kind of crap you worry in May about when there isn't much to worry about in May: What will the Reds' record against quality opposition mean in October?

Ask me in October.  OK, maybe September.

In May, I just want wins regardless of whom they come against.  I'll take, to put it in Thom Brennaman speak, "a big 'ol pile" of wins against the dregs of the league right now, because getting your licks in against those squads is what puts you in position to beat better squads come fall.

And I'll worry about the fall when fall gets here.

Right now, it's not even summer. 

The schedule is set to get tougher.  After the Cubs this weekend, it's 13 straight against winning opponents.  Hopefully, they'll win their share of those games.  Even if they win them all, which would be quite a feat, it'd tell me nothing about what these guys will do in four months.

It will however, help them get there.

2) Jerry Crasnick on Joey Votto.  The "Votto takes the game pretty damn seriously" theme continues...

In terms of his approach, Votto is distinguished by his ability to judge himself by his own internal metrics rather than the commonly accepted measures of success. For decades, the RBI was the holy grail for the middle-of-the-order "run producer," and it was customary for sluggers to expand their zones and do everything in their power to get that runner home. Andre Dawson is one of only four players in history with at least 400 homers and 300 stolen bases, but he languished on the Hall of Fame ballot for nine years in large part because of a .323 on-base percentage. Like many sluggers of his era, Dawson justified his paucity of walks with the explanation that it wasn't part of his job description.

Just for fun, we did an Internet search, and George Bell, Pedro Guerrero, Ken Griffey Jr., Adam Dunn, Greg Vaughn, Matt Williams, Jose Canseco and Albert Pujols are among the hitters through the years who have uttered the phrase, "I get paid to drive in runs." Joe Morgan once told the story of how he stole home and was lying at home plate, and teammate Tony Perez admonished him: "Don't ever do that again. I get paid to drive in runs. Next time, I'll swing."

Now along comes Votto, who pays zero attention to conventional stats like runs scored and RBIs and focuses strictly on having the most productive at-bats possible in his quest to make life hell on pitchers. Votto doesn't step in the box looking to draw walks, but he does adhere to a standard that many new-school bloggers and statistical types hold dear. In an insightful ESPN the Magazine piece by Buster Olney in March, Votto explained his philosophy and talked about "reframing the challenge."

Votto's ability to execute so efficiently is what places him in a different realm from mere All-Stars. He practices his craft in a place where Cabrera, the St. Louis version of Pujols and a select few others dwell.

I hope the "VOTTO ISN'T PAID TO WALK" crowd reads this.  He isn't paid to walk, he's paid to not make outs, and to give his team the best at-bats possible.  Sometimes, as it did yesterday, said at-bat ends in a home run.  Other times, it ends with him trotting down to first.  Still others, it ends with him making an out, but you can see that those outs don't come because he's unprepared.

3)  The Cardinal Way. Here's an SI cover photo that will make you lose your lunch. From SI....

When we think of the Cardinals, we think of a distinct organizational culture: anodyne, diligent, supportive, resolute. Midwestern, really. And that includes fiscal discipline; St. Louis's next truly onerous free-agent contract will be its first. We think of red-clad fans who turn up at Busch Stadium even for midweek day games against very bad opponents-more than 44,000 showed for last Thursday's 12:45 start against the Mets-where they perform the wave without irony.

Mostly, we think of consistency. Since 1960 the Cardinals have had consecutive losing seasons just once, in '94 and '95. Their 11 championships have been well distributed. No son or daughter of St. Louis born since 1902 has reached the age of 25 without having lived through at least one victory parade.

Baseball changes. The Cardinals stay the same.

There's more.  On (yuck) Yadier Molina...

An organization committed to agility cannot be tied for a baseball generation to a single player, no matter who he is. It is no coincidence that two months after Pujols signed with Los Angeles, St. Louis announced a five-year, $75 million extension for catcher Yadier Molina. The Cardinals have long understood a catcher's defensive value. Their clubhouse is home to the winners of eight of the last 10 NL Gold Glove winners at the position, in Matheny (St. Louis's backstop from 2000 to '04) and Molina.

While you can replace what Pujols did to a degree (led by Allen Craig, Cardinals first basemen combined to hit .293 with 21 homers and 109 RBIs last year to Pujols's .285, 30 and 105), St. Louis views Molina as one of a kind. His physical skills-throwing out runners, blocking and framing pitches-and his game-calling, for which he relies on an elephantine memory, are unmatched. "We would sit down at meetings, and he would say, 'Well, you remember back two years ago, when we faced this guy?'" says Duncan. "He would remember stuff like Tom Seaver could remember stuff. I couldn't remember it, but he did."

It's difficult to statistically determine how much of the rotation's ERA is due to Molina, but Miller has an idea. "He is a game-changer for me," says Miller, who despite his stuff had a 4.74 ERA in Triple A last year. "I'm not even out there thinking what to throw. Whatever he calls, I'm going to go with."

"You want to get our pitchers mad," says Matheny, "start talking poorly about Yadi."

And I like this part too....

Any good fortune will be shared by the entire organization. In 2011, the Cardinals flew 170 people to Texas for Games 3 and 4 of the Series and doled out 400 diamond-encrusted rings when they won.

Rooting allegiances aside, it's a pretty good read.  The piece goes into how the Cardinals continue to evolve philosophically, how they withstood the loss of Pujols, their organizational depth and how their players embrace the tradition of the organization.

So much will be made of The Cardinal Way, and while it might make you queasy just to admit it, their way is worth emulating, on and off the field.

What's "The Reds Way?"

If I asked you to give me two or three sentences to describe the Reds Way, what would it be?

Here's my stab...

"Invest in homegrown talent early, and use free agency when it's needed to fill temporary gaps.  Make the centerpiece of the team a good, deep, starting rotation.  Mine areas of the world previously ignored and make the backbone of the organization a rich minor league system.  Draft power pitchers and develop them in a uniform manner philosophically.  Don't make panic moves or decisions based purely on emotion."

Maybe that's not very deep, and maybe some of it might be a little idyllic, but it's what I'd go with.  I'm going to ask this on the radio today, but email me your description of the Reds Way, or leave it in a comment below.

4) A great NBA Playoff game last night.  We're only talking about the final 2.2 seconds of Heat/Pacers, but the first 52 minutes and 57.8 seconds was fantastic.  From the tip, that game gave us everything, mainly a a 53-minute punch/counter-punch night that ended with the Heat looking both grateful to get a win and troubled by an Indiana team that isn't backing down.

Frank Vogel is getting hammered for his decision to not have Roy Hibbert in the game on the final play, and he should.  Hibbert at the rim could've either prevented LeBron's layup, or caused the Heat to settle for a lower percentage jump shot.

But it should obscure the quality coaching done by both Head Men last night. These two teams adjusted so many times that I wonder if they haven't emptied the bag for the rest of the series. 

And if we're still on the "LeBron isn't clutch" meme, go find me the list of players that have had both a triple-double and a buzzer beater in the same game.

Get back to me on that.

5)  Some love for the UC Baseball team in USA Today.  They rock the postgame interview....

We're on today at 3:04 on ESPN1530, a blog to preview said show will be forthcoming. When life gives you rain, make a water slide out of it.

ONE MO" THING 5/22/13

 This is the "fight" between Mat Latos and Jay Bruce

Miss the show today? Here's the first part. Go here for 3 full hours.

Mo talks with Solomon Wilcots about Bengals offseason and why Margus Hunt reminds him of JJ Watt.

Mo talks with SI's Chris Burke about ways to use Tyler Eifert this season.

It feels like I haven't hosted this show in a month.

Guests
3:20 - Chris Burke, NFL Writer for SI.com, talking about his piece on Tyler Eifert
3:33  - Joe Spatafora, the Louisiana high school coach whose player passed away at practice, leading to Andrew Whitworth paying for the funeral.
4:04 - Solomon Wilcots, NFL Network and CBS.

Topics
What's wrong with asking Andy Dalton to do more?
Jay Bruce, and why he makes some fans remind me of a pack of girls in their 20s
Roger Goodell hears something I don't.
How you know things are going well with the Reds...regardless of what happens today.

Also, at some point we'll get to today's #MoEggerTQD, and instant reaction to today's Reds game in New York.  The fun starts at 3:04 on ESPN1530

FIVE MO' THINGS, 5/22/13
A mini-vacation has ended.  Back to work today. 
1)  Mike Leake.  You know those people who were losing their minds on Twitter on Saturday when the Reds decided to send Tony Cingrani down? (While I was in the midst of a four-day mini-Twitter break, I did notice these people) They were probably secretly hoping that Mike Leake would fall on his face last night in New York.

That's a hard Mets lineup to fall on your face against.

Still though, the guy got it done last night, has gotten it done most of the season, and deserved both his start last night at CitiField and the right to keep his place in the rotation. 

His good might not be as good as Cingrani's, but Cingrani isn't, and wasn't a finished product.  Leake might never be as good as Cingrani once Tony learns how to chuck something besides a fastball, but right now he fills his role as fifth starter as well as anyone in the game. 

And the way he's thrown in his last seven starts (2.28 ERA), he's actually been much better than that.

2)  The consistency myth.  Jay Bruce did very little with the bat last night, with his first hitless game in the last 11.  Still though, the guy has been raking. He'd hit in 18 of his last 20, has homered five times in the last week, and has set an RBI pace of over 100. 

I'm not getting nasty Tweets comparing him to Adam Dunn anymore.

The knock on Jay is, and has been for a while, that he's too inconsistent.  It's a valid criticism.  For every tear the guy goes on, he offsets them with long slumps where the ball doesn't leave the yard, much less touch his bat.

But how many players really are consistent?

I'll admit that I'm making this argument without having poured over the season and career splits of every player in the game, but it strikes me that there just a few guys who are able to consistently hit at an extraordinarily high level, putting up big numbers and spreading them across the full six months.

There's also a handful of guys who spread out ineptitude across the 162.

The rest of them are streaky, going through peaks and valleys, combating slumps with hot streaks, killing their teams at times, and doing enough at others to help their teams overcome the struggles of others.

The difference between Jay Bruce and many of these others guys is that when Jay gets hot, he's better than many other players when they get going.

When he's at his best, you can't help but wonder both how good Jay's numbers would be, and how much better the Reds offense would improve if he could avoid slumping.

But no hitter avoids slumping, even guys who can carry teams for weeks at a time.  We talk so much about consistency, but consistency is really rare in baseball.  Most hitters, it seems, are evenly spreading out their homers, RBIs, and hits, evenly across the season.  Most get those things in bunches.

The ones like Jay Bruce just bunch more of them together when he does get hot. 

And you just hope the hot streaks last a little longer.

3)  OTAs are underway.  Here's a bunch of articles I read during my time away about the Bengals....

Here's a look at how Tyler Eifert gives the Bengals about 329,000 different options

Here's a look at offensive rookies likely to make the biggest impact.  A Bengal is at the top of the list.

Here's more on Giovani Bernard, including an interview with him.

And here's a piece on the unique combo the Bengals now have at tight end.

If you've noticed, and these three pieces were just a sampling, people around the country think the Bengals have a chance to be very, very, good.  It seems like that outside of the 275-loop, people who haven't experienced first hand the years of futility have a higher opinion of this team that many here do.

The schedule worries me.  The quarterback doesn't completely do it for me - yet.  The offensive line has to get better.  But I can't help but agree with most national pundits who think that these guys have a chance to have a big 2012.

4) Be at the Holy Grail with us on Friday before the Reds/Cubs game.  Here's the artwork...

5) Youth sports are fun.  There's this 12 year-old kid in Massachusetts who apparently throws a little too hard, and so now he's not allowed to pitch.

That ruling is, of course, dumb.

My favorite part of the story however, is this...
The report to the Little League Eastern office followed a slew of complaints about Beebe's dominance on the mound, with parents reportedly taunting the 12-year-old during games.

Yup. That's where we are.  Adults heckling children because they're too good at something.  Do these parents do this at other activities they're children are in?  Do they go to things like spelling bees and taunt the other competitors?  School plays?  Graduations?

I'm no parent, and there's a good chance I never will be, but if I am and you're taunting my kid, you're driving home in a car with four flat tires.

-There's More...

-The Mo' Your Lawn contest is almost over.  Winner gets announced at 5:45 on Friday, and will win season lawn tickets to Riverbend, a new mower from West Chester Lawn and Garden, and I'll cut your grass for you.  Sign up here.

-Tiger v. Sergio takes an ugly turn...

“We will have him round every night. We will serve fried chicken.”

In the battle of "Who Ya' Got? Tiger or Sergio? (The correct answer was, and is, Tiger) You lose support when you go racial. Though if you want to shed such labels like "choker" and "immature," picking up the "racist" tag is one way to do it.

-After farting around for the first six quarters of the Western Conference Finals, the Memphis Grizzlies decided to start playing, forcing overtime only to lose to the Spurs by four.  San Antonio is now up 2-0 - just like last year at this point - but one fan seems to think that the home team actually won something last night.

Also, I'm taking the Heat in six over Indiana.  The Pacers are physical enough, and they play defense and rebound enough, to win two games.  They don't score enough to win four.

-I would've thought that SpiderMan would be better at basketball....

-David Schoenfeld addresses the Reds and their easy schedule....
This came up a couple times from readers in my chat session Tuesday, suggesting that the Cincinnati Reds may not be as strong as their 27-18 record because they've had an easy schedule so far, in particular compared to the Cardinals and Braves.

Indeed, if you go to our RPI rankings, you can see strength of schedule. Here are average winning percentages of opponents played:

Cardinals: .515 (sixth)
Braves: .504 (11th)
Reds: .484 (24th)

So the Reds have played an easier schedule. But what's the difference between a .515 winning percentage and .484? Over 162 games, we're talking about an 83-win team on average versus a 78-win team, so while the Reds have played an easier slate than the Cardinals -- Cincinnati has played the Marlins seven times, for example, while St. Louis is yet to play them -- I don't see it as a huge benefit. An advantage? Yes.

You can twist it the other way and point out that the Reds have played the Nationals seven times and the Cardinals three, or the Cardinals have played the Brewers 10 times while the Reds have played them just three.

Plus, as Reds fans in the chat were quick to point out, the Reds have played most of the season without ace Johnny Cueto (who returned Monday night), without a left fielder and with Dusty Baker screwing up the No. 2 slot in the batting order.

Of course, one of those three things is self-imposed.

-Sometimes I don't understand why any athlete would be on Twitter.

-I return to the radio today.  Matter of fact, I'll be on quite a bit between now and Sunday.  The schedule...

Today: ESPN1530 3:00 - 6:00
Thursday: ESPN1530, 3:00 - 6:00, then after Spurs/Grizzlies Game Three on ESPN Radio (heard on ESPN1530) until 2:00am.
Friday: ESPN1530, 3:00 - 6:00, then after Heat/Pacers Game Two on ESPN Radio (heard on ESPN1530 until 2:00am
Saturday: 700WLW, Noon until 3:30, then on ESPN Radio (heard on ESPN1530) from 4:00 until 8:00
Sunday: 700WLW, 9:00 - 12:40'

It's called overexposure.  Catch the radio show today starting at 3:00.  Here's to any readers who might be graduating....

Day two of a brief two-day break continues. I'm back at it tomorrow, with a chat on Thursday, and on Friday we're doing the show from the Holy Grail downtown. We'll have prizes, guests, and we'll have me. So be there. Here's the artwork.

Also on Friday, at 5:45, we'll be announcing the winner of the "Mo' Your Lawn" contest.  One lucky winner will get season lawn tickets to Riverbend, a new mower from West Chester Lawn and Garden, and I'll cut their grass for them. Once.  Sign up by going here.

Why are we so eager to say "bye-bye' to Bronson?