A FEW MO' THINGS, 8/22/12
These are Sock Sandals.  The terrorists have won.  I give up.  Zero chance I live in a country where people are wearing these without being threatened with death.

-Last night's Reds game was among the best tilts of the year.  Tonight's game always has a chance to be even better.  If so, you'll want to watch it with me at Dave and Buster's Tri-County.  We'll have prizes.  Oh, and they have a new menu at Dave and Buster's.  It will be life-changing.

And if the game isn't so good, we'll laugh at the Cardinals or something.  Be there.  Here is a logo.

-Last night's game was indeed a hell of a baseball match.  The Reds may have a nice, comfy in NL Central lead and the Phillies might be facing a nice, huge deficit in the NL East, but that game had a tense, late-season feel to it.  Dare I say, it felt like a playoff game.

It sure didn't feel like a Reds/Phillies game because the Reds won.  They won because Homer Bailey bounced back and because two Reds rookies had some of their biggest moments of the season. 

Todd Frazier is quickly making a mockery of the NL Rookie of the Year race....

(Thanks to reader Jered)

And Zack Cozart, while not the on-base dynamo is position in the lineup dictates he should be, is putting together a nice rookie season while playing a pivotal position on one of the game's best defenses.

Oh, and he hits homers too.

There was a lot to last night's game...from Twitter nearly melting when Dusty let Bailey hit for himself (a move I understood given how shorthanded they were in the bullpen), to me stating out-loud that "Brandon just makes it look easy" mere seconds after failing to field a ball that took a bad hop on him in the eighth.  There was Philly's attempt to literally steak a run off Aroldis Chapman as he made Chase Utley look silly (sorta surprised Utley didn't pretend one of The Missile's strikes hit him), and there was Ty Wigginton barreling into Ryan Hanigan while making no attempt whatsoever so score a run on a failed suicide squeeze.

If Wigginton plays tonight, and that's a big if, he must go down. And he must go down hard.

The game had NL Central significance...the lead is up to 7.5 games (the fat lady is doing vocal exercises) and it was significant because of how little success the Reds have had against the Phillies, especially at Citizen's Bank Park.  But what I liked about last night's game was that, despite the fact that it was played between one team running away with its division and other that was eliminated before Mother's Day, it was a close, tense, back-and-forth game that lent itself to plenty of second-guessing on both sides.

In other words, it reminded me of the kind of games we're likely to watch the Reds play in six weeks from now.

-147 stolen bases in a single year.  Stats dorks can debate the risk/reward of the stolen base.  I'll appreciate what Billy Hamilton did in both Bakersfield and Pensacola this season while hoping we get a glimpse this September.

This is less about an added weapon to the Reds offense when the rosters expand.  This is about me.  It's about my curiosity.  The last few years, the Reds have called up Bailey, Votto, Bruce, Stubbs, Cozart, Cueto, Chapman, et all, and each player's arrival has been accompanied by different levels of excitement, curiosity, and scrutiny.

I don't think, however, I've ever looked forward to watching a Reds prospect more, even if only out of curiosity, than Billy Hamilton.

-Dez Wells is no longer a Xavier Musketeer.

Something happened.  It involves something sexual.  He hasn't been charged.  That doesn't mean he won't be.  More facts will either emerge or they won't.  Here's what I wonder...

*I wonder if we're seeing some residual fallout from the Penn State situation. Schools are likely to be a shade more vigilant and proactive regarding any case involving potential sexual misconduct.  I wonder how much the bad PR that resulted from the non-basketball rape cover-up at XU played a role.

*I wonder how this, coupled with the bad vibes and poor PR that emanated from the Crosstown Shootout brawls are playing in certain corners of the XU fan, and more important, donor base.  The two aren't connected and nor should they be.  And I think it's unfair to look at this situation with Dex Wells and point the finger at Chris Mack, but the fight didn't play well, the things that were said post-fight didn't play well, for some the Mark Lyons ouster didn't play well, and I'm sure this isn't playing well.  Chris has done a good job, won a lot of games, and recruited some very good players, but I wonder how many will start to look at these things that have happened under one coach's watch and start to question the direction the program is going in.

*I wonder what a down season for mean for Chris Mack, as unfair as wondering such a thing might be.

*I wonder about my least favorite thing about college basketball: How we act when the rival school goes through something like this, like there's no chance our program would've ever taken a chance on a supremely talented player with loads of upside and no track recording indicating off-court trouble.

I wonder why we all of a sudden go so holier-than-thou.

I wonder why we get so defensive when it's our program being forced with kicking a guy off a team or expelling him from school.

*I wonder how at odds Mike Bobinski and Chris Mack were, if at all, with the University Conduct Board and (and I can say this about nearly every school in America), I wonder how divergent the views of the basketball program are from the views of the board.

*I wonder how the Muskies rebuild.  It's hasn't been since the post-Elite Eight '04-'05 that the Muskies has had to replace so much. Their best returning player is now no longer returning.  With Wells gone, and the graduation/dismissal of other players, 78% of the scoring from last year is gone, 63% of last year's rebounds needs to be replaced, and the Muskies need to find the size, free throw shooting, experience, leadership, clutch-ness, that the departed players all brought to the Muskies.

We're used to XU reloading, using younger players to supplement the skills of returning players who've been asked to step into bigger roles.  We're not used to them rebuilding.

Dez Wells was probably not going to be the best player on this year's team.  That honor, according to anyone who's seen him, goes to Semaj Christon.  But he would've been their best returning player, a force on the open floor, and a potential matchup problem at two positions.  He would've been a rare known commodity on a team filled with uncertainties.

Now he's gone. 

The cupboard isn't completely bare.  Justin Martin will end up having a nice XU career, Dee Davis made some big shots in the NCAA Tournament, and the recruiting class has gotten nothing but positive reviews.

But they lack good, experienced big men.  Jeff Robinson is not very good.  Travis Taylor might be, but wasn't last year.  And as much as fans dogged Kenny Frease, there's no one who looks capable of filling his role immediately. 

And while they might be talented, they're still being asked to replace a lot...a lot of production and a whole lot of winning.  A tough task with Dez Wells.  A much, much tougher task without him.

-In the late 80s and early 90s, I obsessed over my Air Jordan's.  I begged mom and dad to take a mortgage out on the house to buy me pairs of them and I lost my mind when dirt came near them.

So I get it, basketball shoes branded around a player are a big deal. 

But $315 for LeBron James' new Nikes? 

You have a better chance of me lighting 315 $1 bills on fire.

What's so special about these?

The shoe features its own electronics, including Nike+ motion sensors, so users can track their vertical leaps. It has the Hyperfuse construction of the LeBron 9 shoes. And, if the pictures are any indication, it features the Nike swoosh logo in metallic gold and its sole seems to light up.

Tracking a vertical leap is useful if you're, you know, competing in the high jump.  But if you're some suburban dude who plays the occasional pickup game, it strikes me as a tad excessive. 

I don't know what "Hyperfuse construction" means and I really don't know why anyone would want their soles to light up.

I know, I know, I sound old.

If you're going to drop $315 on these for yourself, do me a favor and send me the money. You're still going to suck at basketball and now people are just going to laugh at you for shelling out such serious coin for sneakers. If you're going to drop $315 on these for your kids, ask yourself if you really need them to love you that much.

And if so, think about what else you could buy them, or do for them with $315.

-I think that will do it.  See you at Dave and Buster's tonight.  Follow me on Twitter, why don't ya? The iPhone 5 is coming.  Be excited.