A FEW MO' THINGS, 6/28/12
Getting married?  If she insists on you wearing this, run the other way.  Fast. 

Programming Notes:  Back on ESPN1530 in the afternoon today, starting at 3:04.

Back from a nice vacation that consisted of sleep, baseball, and beer.  What'd I miss?

-I missed Aroldis Chapman doing a somersault after getting a save.  Apparently this was a controversy. 

I liked the somersault, it was harmless and came from a guy who rarely shows much personality, who also plays a sport that needs personality.

I also liked the way Dusty Baker handled it.  He knows the repercussions, given that both he and Aroldis make their livings in a sport that takes itself a little too seriously. 

-My buddies at Consorts came out with a t-shirt commemorating the somersault.....

-Aroldis Chapman blew another save on Sunday.  This came after he nailed down the ninth inning on Tuesday.  The Reds can be as dismissive and defensive about the Missile's issues as they want, but the fact is Chapman is getting way behind hitters (even on Tuesday) and too over-reliant on the heat.  There's a lot of unknown surrounding Aroldis Chapman, but those two things are certainties.

-The Reds held their Hall of Fame induction weekend.  Apologies to Dan Driessen and John Reilly, but Sean Casey owned both Saturday's on-field ceremony and Sunday night's HOF gala. 

His speech on Sunday went 29 minutes.  It could've gone 129 minutes and the crowd wouldn't have budged.  I doubt I'll ever have to give any kind of acceptance speech, but if I do, I hope it's as genuine and heartfelt as Casey's.

-Pat Cummings died.  I only remember him as an NBA player, but if you thumb through a UC media guide and look at the school's all-time leaders in a number of statistical categories, you see his name all over the place.

-UC fans continued to gripe about the potential of Ohio State staging their spring game at Paul Brown Stadium.  You can stand in a corner with your lower lip out and whine about this, or you can do your part to strengthen UC's grip on the market.  UC has a full slate of home games this upcoming season AND next spring they'll have the Bearcat Bowl, the annual spring game held at Nippert.

To that end, we will be organizing #BearcatBowlOuting2013.  The idea is to make the UC spring game a bigger deal, since so many are making a big deal about OSU's.  Date and details to be announced, but if you're up in arms about the "Buckeye Invasion," I expect we'll see you at Nippert both this fall and next spring.

-College Football evolved.  The new system has plenty of imperfections, which was inevitable.  But it doesn't have nearly the amount of imperfections as the method the sport currently uses to determine it's champion.

-Mat Latos had his best start of the season.  He was phenomenal on Monday night. Given that each one of his poor starts is used as a referendum on the trade that brought him here, can each one of Mat's starts be used as proof that the four-for-one trade is one of the best ever?

Of course not.

But a few bad starts shouldn't send us to sweeping conclusions about a deal that we won't ultimately be able to judge for a few years.

-My man Paul Dehner Jr. wrote this story, and if you read nothing else today, at least read this.  It's about former UC swimmer Nate Kramer, who is battling Leukemia.  Paul writes about Nate's fight, and the upcoming bone marrow transplant he'll undergo on July 9th.  Read the story, then consider helping the Nate Kramer Medical Fund.

-Barack Obama and Mitt Romney got into a fight over Kevin Youkilis.  This story is reason number 293,012 why I hate politics. 

-I'll have more later, including today's radio show on ESPN1530.  A reader named Michael sent me this.  It's of Kate Upton.  It's probably not the safest thing ever for work.  Watch it anyway, it's not like you like your job, right?