Reds add Cairo as Special Assistant to GM
           Goodyear, Arizona - Cincinnati Reds President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Walt Jocketty today announced that infielder Miguel Cairo has joined the baseball operations staff as special assistant to the GM. During spring training, Cairo will serve as an instructor for the Major League and minor league camps.
            "Miguel expressed an interest in retiring as a player and becoming involved with the baseball operations side of the game," Jocketty said. "He was a leader for us on the field and in the clubhouse and over a very successful career earned a tremendous amount of respect within the baseball community. Miguel was a big part of our success the last three years. Our younger players will benefit from his work ethic and experience."
            Cairo, 38, over his 17-year career appeared in 1,490 games for the Blue Jays, Cubs, Rays, Cardinals, Yankees, Mets, Mariners, Phillies and Reds). The playoff veteran made 29 appearances covering 6 Division Series and 3 League Championship Series. In 2011 he was the Reds’ recipient of the MLB Players Alumni Association’s Heart and Hustle Award for his passion for the game.

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Show preview
6:05, Sports Talk
Guests
Kim Nuxhall, 7:05
Jerry Lucas, 8:05
Topics
6:05, Reds:
*Could there be a leadership void without Scott Rolen?
*Has Homer Bailey turned the corner?
8:15, Did you ever seen Jerry Lucas play?
Looking for help
Do you use Google Chrome and run AVG security? If you do, email me, please.
I use Firefox, but I'm trying Chrome. I'm running into security issues with some of my commonly used sites, ESPN.com, Tweetdeck, ect. I get a red warning line through the http of sites. Any ideas?
lance@lancemcalister.com
Did you miss him?


Mike DeCourcy joined me on Sports Talk last night. We talked about Nerlens Noel, impact on UK, Cashmere Wright,  UC's offense, XU and A-10, IU having most ingredients to win it all. Listen here:

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Reds
Homer Bailey: Breakout or fluke last year?
Do you feel comfortable that Homer Bailey turned the corner last year and started fully realizing the potential he's seemingly carried since being the Reds first round pick in 2004? I asked Bryan Price that question on Sports Talk. Tonight we will discuss. For over four years Bailey was a lighting rod of fan criticism. Did last year signify his arrival? Can he be counted on? Is he worthy of a multi-year contract? In advance of Monday's arbitration hearing, Baseball Prospectus did a mock hearing making the case for/against Bailey.
Listener Jeff
I think Homer Bailey turned the corner largely because Ramon Hernandez left. In 2010/2011, Ramon caught Homer in 11 starts. Homer gave up 52 ER in 58.2 INN, a 7.98 ERA.  With anybody else catching him last 3 seasons(2010-2012), Homer has posted a 3.87 ERA in 63 starts. He has been consistently good when Hanigan has caught him.
Homer's stats last 3 seasons with Hanigan catching, and Others catching:
2010: 14 starts with 3.24 ERA, other 5 starts with 8.42 ERA.
2011: 14 starts with 3.21 ERA, other 8 starts with 6.80 ERA.
2012: 10 starts with 3.20 ERA, other 23 starts with 3.89 ERA.

Vote: Joey Votto vs Jose Bautista in next round of Face of MLB

Q/A with Ryan LaMarre: The other CF in the Reds' system
Mark Sheldon with notes from Goodyear, including Tony Cingrani pitching in the rotation in the spring.
John Fay has notes, including Dusty on Devin.....and this on Dusty and leadership: Sean Marshall 'going to be one of our real leaders"
Cueto says he's recovered from playoff injury
AP
"I feel good," Cueto said. "I feel 100 percent."
He adjusted his offseason program to let the injury heal, taking time off instead of throwing. He'd like to pitch for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic, but wasn't on its preliminary roster. He hopes to be added to the final roster.
"I haven't heard anything," Cueto said. "I would like to pitch. I was disappointed that I couldn't pitch more in the playoffs."
Rose stripped of all-time hits record, by Topps Baseball Cards
ChicagoSideSports
Pete Rose is baseball’s all-time hits leader, but not according to this year’s collection of Topps baseball cards.
Rose, who was declared permanently ineligible from baseball for allegedly betting on games, has had his name wiped from the back of this year’s cards.
Clay Luraschi, a spokesman for Topps, called the omission of Rose “a simple decision” but declined to elaborate. When pressed, he repeated that it was “plain and simple” that Rose’s name should not appear on cards.
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Bengals
NFL Draft: A RB could go undrafted in first round for first time in 50 years
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Jerry Lucas
Middletown High School will dedicate their basketball court in honor of Jerry Lucas Friday night. I have always been fascinated by his career. He won two state titles in high school, a title and three straight national championship appearances at OSU, an NBA title with the Knicks and Olympic Gold. What an amazing career and life. I can't imagine what it must have been like in the mid 1950's when Middletown would play Hamilton and they moved the games to the Cincinnati Gardens in front of over 15,000 fans.
Read more about his career and life HERE

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College basketball
Xavier
Shannon Russell has notes from XU's 79-66 win over Fordham.
How about the A-10 scrum?
7-2 VCU
7-2 St Louis
7-3 Xavier
7-3 Butler
7-3 La Salle
6-3 UMass
6-4 Charlotte
Xavier has beaten La Salle and lost to Charlotte.
Xavier still plays: Home-VCU, St Louis, UMass, Away-Butler
Time to start rehabbing the NBA age restriction
Louisville Courier Journal
The NBA’s 19-year-old age limit might seem arbitrary, even hypocritical in the light of the successes of such precocious players as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, but it was not arrived at randomly or without reason. Much as its trickle-down effect has hurt the continuity of college basketball, creating a class of “one-and-done” players whose very presence on campus undermines the academic mission of their universities, the NBA’s fundamental interest is not in education, but profit.
DeCourcy: NBA should expand one-and-done rule
Kentucky
Noel injury leaves UK searching for identity and way into NCAA tournament
Mike DeCourcy, The Sporting News
Without him, Kentucky still has multiple future NBA players and a Hall of Fame-caliber coach. But a team that even with Noel was struggling for a precise identity now must invent an entirely new one. The Wildcats are lacking a significant history of achievement — merely 1-4 against the RPI top 50 — and would have to immediately reestablish a powerful sense of momentum to convince the NCAA Selection Committee they are worthy of a tournament bid.
West Virginia: Huggs and the Mountaineers lost at Baylor 80-60 last night. WVU is now 12-12/6-5 and 1-10 vs Top 100 RPI teams.
IU basketball
Onward and updward
Todd Jones, SportsOnEarth
Indiana's glorious past is its desired future. The Hoosiers hope to turn the season's stretch drive into 1987, when the irascible Bob Knight ruled at the peak of his powers, winning his third national championship, the school's fifth. A No. 1 ranking and 21-3 record suggests that Crean's five-year reclamation project is destined to produce a sixth title on an upcoming April night in Atlanta. The team's engine purrs with a couple of national player-of-the-year candidates in Cody Zeller and Victor Oladipo. Their coach, of course, is driving hard and fast.

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Stuff
Happy Birthday: Woody Hayes would have been 100 today

Woody Hayes: Part Two    Part Three


Golfer bitten by spider, digs venom out with tee


Hilarious

Congrats!
From MLB:The MLB Fan Cave 2013 contest has been narrowed down to 30 finalists. These talented contestants have been invited to Arizona for Spring Training next week to audition to be the 2013 MLB Fan Cave Dwellers. Ben Wietmarschen is a Reds fan that made the cut.  Twitter: @benwietmarschen. Hometown: Cincinnati, OH.


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Getting interactive
I'm increasing my efforts to use Twitter and Facebook more during the shows.
Thanks for your input, it leads to some excellent in-show discussion and debate.


Twitter
Get Reds, Bengals, UC, XU, UK, OSU and other sports news as it happens. 
Get a heads up on upcoming guests and topics on the show. Get involved in the show. You decide who you follow and what news you get. You don't even have to tweet. You can follow me @lancemcalister. 

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Join the show discussion, like my Facebook page.

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Women Helping Women
Salon 10 – Wednesday March 6, 2013   5:30-8:00pm
Host: City Cellars, Downtown
Speaker: Mike DeCourcy, Sporting News, College Basketball Columnist and Big Ten Network Analyst
Topic: March Madness, A Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Perfect timing!  Mike DeCourcy will share his insights for the approaching NCAA Basketball Tournament.  Hear what makes some teams more likely to succeed in the tournament.  Learn about post-season possibilities for the Bearcats, Musketeers, Wildcats, Hoosiers and Buckeyes.  Ask questions about your favorite players, teams, and coaches on their way to the NCAA Final Four.
Mike has been covering college basketball for more than 25 years and was recently inducted into the U.S. Basketball Writer’s Hall of Fame.  He is the author of Legends of College Basketball and Inside Basketball: From the Playgrounds to the NBA.
Get your March Madness on at this downtown Happy Hour!  Enjoy pizza and beer or wine and get the inside scoop as you choose your Final Four.

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From Steve:
Below is the story of Ben Petrick who suffers from Parkinson's disease. His story aired on ESPN back in September on E60. A few buddies of mine whom I played local college baseball with watched his story the night it aired and it really hit home for us. As we watched this amazing story, we thought that this disease could have happened to anyone of us. After watching, it left us scratching our heads wanting to do more. We reached out to his wife Kellie through facebook and as the months have past the rest as you can say is history. Its been alot of hard work putting this event together now known as Athletes for Parkinson's  and we have gotten tons of response from people such as Microsoft, Nike, numerous MLB baseball teams, Ohio State Athletics, Archie Griffin, and many others including former members of the 2002 OSU National Championship Team.
Columbus Ohio Preservation Services will be hosting a charity benefit for a Ben Petrick. The goal of our event is to honor Ben and raise money for the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research. Ben was a star baseball player for the Colorado Rockies in 2000 when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at the age of 23. He kept his diagnosis a secret for 4 years until his disease began to affect his performance on the field. In 2004, at the age of 27, Ben was forced to retire at the age of 27 due to the progression of his disease. In just 4 short years, Parkinson’s had completely immobilized him, and Ben was barely able to do more than sit in a chair. In 2009, he underwent a very risky 6 hour long surgical procedure called Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery that was his last hope. Nine days after the surgery, he began to experience severe seizures. The surgery had gone horribly wrong and Ben had an infection in his brain. The surgery had to be reversed. One year later, he underwent the surgery a second time, and it was successful. Even though the surgery was a success, its affects are only temporary as his disease is continuing to progress. Today, Ben is the father of 2 daughters and the coach of a high school baseball team in Hillsboro, Oregon.
The event we are hosting will take place on February 16, 2013 right here in Columbus and we are flying Ben and his family in for the event. We will have a silent auction beginning at 6:00pm and dinner will be served at 6:30. We have between 240-250 seats that we are selling for the event. For more information on the event, how to purchase tickets, or how to donate, just send an email to ajacobs@copsrvcs.com.