Reds
CINCINNATI (Jan. 8, 2013) — The 2013 Reds Caravan, presented by Cincinnati USA Regional Tourism Network, kicks off Thursday, Jan. 24 and is scheduled to make 15 fan stops in four states covering more than 2,800 miles over four days.
The annual Caravan consists of three separate tours traveling simultaneously through Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia and provides fans with the opportunity to interact with current and former players, broadcasters and members of the Reds front office staff. At each fan stop, the group will field questions from fans and sign autographs while time allows.
All Caravan fan stops open to the public are free, and at each fan stop listed below the Reds will raffle two tickets to the 2013 Opening Day game on Monday, April 1 (4:10 pm) vs. the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Single game tickets to the Opening Night game on Wednesday, April 3 (7:10 pm) vs. the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim will be available to purchase at selected stops.
Click HERE for all caravan info.
The Northern Tour stops in Ohio and West Virginia and features Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Brennaman, All-Star second baseman Brandon Phillips, broadcaster and former pitcher Chris Welsh, minor league catcher Tucker Barnhart, Assistant General Manager Bob Miller and mascot Gapper. Mascot Mr. Red will appear at the Lima and Dayton stops.
The Southern Tour stops in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky and features broadcaster Jim Kelch, broadcaster and former pitcher Jeff Brantley, infielder Todd Frazier, pitcher Logan Ondrusek (Thurs. & Fri. only), 2012 minor league Player of the Year Billy Hamilton, Vice President of Baseball Operations Dick Williams and mascot Rosie Red. Mascot Mr. Red will appear at the Huntington and Charleston stops.
The Western Tour stops in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky and features broadcaster Thom Brennaman, President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Walt Jocketty, All-Star outfielder Jay Bruce (Thurs. & Fri. only), pitcher Homer Bailey (Sat. & Sun. only), veteran catcher Corky Miller, minor league outfielder Ryan LaMarre, Reds COO Phil Castellini and mascot Mr. Redlegs. Mascot Mr. Red will appear at the Bloomington and Indianapolis stops.
The Southern Tour of the Reds Caravan will stop in Cincinnati at Great American Ball Park on Saturday, Jan. 26 from 11 am to 1 pm in conjunction with the annual “Select-A-Seat” event. Fans can see Todd Frazier, Billy Hamilton, Jim Kelch, Jeff Brantley, Dick Williams and Rosie Red while choosing their seats and purchasing 2013 season tickets ranging from a 13-game plan to an 81-game full season plan. The Caravan will conduct a free Q&A session open to the public but autographs at the Select-A-Seat stop are limited to fans purchasing season ticket plans.
Reds President and CEO Bob Castellini and Reds legend and Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Morgan will also appear at selected stops, to be announced at a later date.
Guest
John Fay, Enquirer, talks Hall of Fame, and why he chose not to vote.
Topics
Bengals: Marvin is going nowhere, nor should he. I'll let you get it out of your system tonight, and then we move on.
BCS: Wow
Baseball HOF
***
Bengals Line
Thanks to everyone involved for a fantastic season of Bengals Line.
Thanks to the loyal core of fans that joined us on-site each week.
Thanks to Jim, Paul, Nick and entire staff at Holy Grail Banks. They took care of us!
Thanks to on-site engineer Mike Mills.
Thanks to Bengals Sales/Marketing/Broadcasting.
Thanks to Bud Light and the Bud Light Girls.
Thanks to Marvin Lewis for calling in each week.
Thanks to the players and coaches that joined us over the course of the season.
By my count, we had 35 players and coaches join us.
AJ Green, Andy Dalton, Carlos Dunlap, Michael Johnson, Andrew Whitworth, Kevin Zeitler, Trevor Robinson, Andre Smith, Cedric Peerman, Andrew Hawkins, Mohamed Sanu, Domata Peko, Nate Clements, Clint Boling, Kevin Huber, Chris Pressley, Jeff Faine, Armon Binns, Terrance Newman, Rey Maualuga, Dan Skuta, Devon Still, Wallace Gilberry, Dre Kirkpatrick, Taylor Mays, Manny Lawson, Thomas Howard, Cris Crocker, JK Schaffer, John Conner, Boom Herron, Ryan Whalen, Travelle Wharton, Mike Zimmer, James Urban.
Did you miss last night? Listen here:
WR coach James Urban joined us 6-7pm
Lap and me looked at Saturday's game, the season and the off season from 7-8pm
Defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer joined us 8-9pm
***
MLB
Time to change Hall of Fame process
Fox Sports
Yes, the Steroid Era is a large, pimply, ornery reason why, and everyone seems to have an opinion on what the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ought to do about it.
Some want to bar the doors of Cooperstown. Some are comfortable enshrining even the most blatant performance-enhancing drug users without preconditions. And some expect the BBWAA to come up with an authoritative whodunit list of steroid cheats, even though such information is known only to scribes in the celestial press box.
In this unenviable position, the BBWAA needs help
***
Must see TV: 'Justified' returns tonight
***
BCS
ND lays an egg
Chicago Tribune
As Crimson Tide players and coaches celebrated the rout Notre Dame skeptics predicted, the elephant in the room wasn't that goofy Alabama mascot. The elephant in the room was the idea that perhaps Notre Dame's unbeaten season indeed was the product of fluky plays, that the outcome confirmed Notre Dame was lucky and Alabama simply too good.
ND's embarrassment exposes the greatness gap
USA Today
This was a beleaguered powerhouse finally getting back to the big stage, only to be smacked with the reality that as close as they felt to a title for the past 40 days, they weren't really close at all.
"Obviously we saw today that we have some work to do," Te'o said. "Playing in this game, we know we've closed that gap a lot. But there's still that gap."
Odds to win the 2013-2014 BCS National Championship
From Bovada, (www.Bovada.lv, Twitter: @BovadaLV).
Top 5
Alabama 5/1
Oregon 8/1
Ohio State 17/2
LSU 12/1
Texas A&M 12/1
--------------------
Others
Louisville 22/1
Notre Dame 22/1
Tennessee 100/1
Cincinnati 125/1
McCarron's girlfriend scores thousands of new Twitter followers
The Sporting News
The mere sight of Miss Alabama Katherine Webb on national TV, and the words of ESPN commentator Brent Musberger to provide the context, were enough to send the Twitter follower count of Crimson Tide QB AJ McCarron’s girlfriend skyrocketing.
***
UC
Bearcats fall again, 66-60 to ND
GoBearcats.com
Notre Dame’s offensive efficiency outlasted UC (13-3, 1-2 BIG EAST), as the Irish shot 50 percent from the field and made 9 of 16 from 3-point range. Five UND (14-1, 1-1 BIG EAST) players reached double digits, led by junior guard Jerian Grant’s 19 points.
Current RPI
NCAA.com
9 Louisville
16 Indiana
18 Butler
34 Cincinnati
41 Ohio State
62 Kentucky
82 Dayton
117 Xavier
How much is your team worth? UC football 68th of 69 BCS schools.
Tuberville's son joins UC
Tom Groeschen, Enquirer
“The biggest thing right now is evaluations. We have 200 guys we’re looking at that are interested in us. We’ll break that down to 25 or 30, bring in some for official visits.”
***
MLB
How to vote for steroid-era hall candidates?
CBS Sports
We can ignore steroids and vote to celebrate the cheaters, or we can make (sometimes-educated) guesses on who cheated and who didn't.
The first one just feels wrong. The second one just feels unfair.
I suppose there's a third choice, and that would be to bypass the entire steroid era and elect no one. But that feels both wrong and unfair.
***
Bengals
Free agents
Here is a list of unrestricted free agents. I believe this list is complet:
Defense
Michael Johnson, Pat Sims, Robert Geathers, Wallace Gilberry, Thomas Howard
Rey Maualuga, Manny Lawson, Dan Skuta, Terence Newman, Nate Clements
Chris Crocker, Adam Jones
Offense
Andre Smith, Dennis Roland, Bruce Gradkowski, Bernard Scott
Brian Leonard, Brandon Tate
Special Teams
Kevin Huber, Josh Brown, Mike Nugent, Clark Harris
NFL Strength of Schedule (NFLTradeRumors.com)
The Bengals wound up with the 31st toughest schedule in 2012.
8 of the 12 teams with the easiest schedules made the playoffs:
T-21st Baltimore, Houston, New England
24th-Washington
T-28th Denver
30th-Indianapolis
31st-Cincinnati
32nd-Atlanta
***
