Cincinnati Reds general manager Jim Bowden has to be puffed up like a big toad right now. His team certainly looks bigger than life.
Bowden spent the winter wheeling and dealing and generally looking like a guy trying to escape from small-market purgatory. He apparently succeeded, if the club's recent winning streak is not some kind of optical illusion.
Everyone knew he was serious when he acquired slugger Greg Vaughn and former 20-game winner Denny Neagle in off-season trades, but the loss of Neagle to a lingering shoulder problem figured to undermine the team's chances of pulling an upset in the National League Central.
Not anymore.
The Reds have stumbled upon some surprising no-name players and mounted an amazing assault on the divisional power structure.
Their 10-game winning streak ended Friday but they still entered the weekend leading the division by percentage points, thanks to some big performances by little-known players like converted relief pitcher Ron Villone.
Villone, whose previous claim to fame was the who's-who list of players he has been traded for, took a no-hitter into the sixth inning on Wednesday night after taking one into the seventh inning in his previous start. He has given up just two singles in his past 15 innings of work.
The result on Wednesday was another uplifting victory, a 2-0 decision against the then-NL West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks that upstaged a 17-strikeout performance by Randy Johnson.
Johnson has to be wondering what he has to do to beat these irritating Central clubs. He struck out 14 in his previous outing and came up on the wrong end of St. Louis Cardinals youngster Jose Jimemez's unlikely no-hitter, but that's another story.
The Reds are the talk of the town. Right there in River City. Sean Casey has been the top hitter in the National League for most of the season, and Reds have gotten some kind of contribution from every corner of the roster.
Go figure.
The club does not have a dominating starting pitcher, though Villone has been pretty impressive over the past week or two, and does not have a premier closer, but that hasn't kept the Reds from being highly competitive -- even though they ranked 12th in the league in runs scored heading into the weekend.
The rotation features only one starter (Pete Harnisch) with more than five victories, and the bullpen is a collection of relatively unknown pitchers who have been amazingly effective. NL Rookie of the Year candidate Scott Williamson is 7-2 with 10 saves and a 1.50 ERA. Right-hander Danny Graves, the other half of the co-closer combination, is 5-3 with 10 saves.
Bowden insisted during the winter that the Reds would compete in the NL Central, even as veteran shortstop Barry Larkin seemed doubtful enough to indicate that he wanted to be traded to a contender.
Now, Larkin is having a strong season and wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
Except maybe on the road more. The Reds have gotten to the top of the standings largely on the strength of their terrific performance on the road, where they have the best record of any major-league team. The only club that is close is the Indians, which doesn't speak well for the summertime in Ohio.
The Reds are 26-10 away from Riverfront Stadium, but are below .500 at home, a dichotomy that has just about everyone in Cincinnati scratching his head.
Fans arrived at the opening game of the recent home series against the Diamondbacks with placards proclaiming "Welcome to Arizona" in an attempt to fool the Reds into playing better at home.
Well, you can afford to have a sense of humor when you're one of the hottest teams in baseball.
It worked. The Reds swept the series and knocked the Diamondbacks out of first place in the National League West.
Hotter still
The Reds may be red-hot, but they have to take a back seat to the sizzling San Diego Padres, whose 14-game winning streak that ended yesterday was the longest in baseball in five years.
Strike a blow for economic sanity.
The Padres downsized their club after going to the World Series last year, while the rival Dodgers were throwing around Rupert Murdoch's money like it was so much confetti.
The winning streak was built around a string of six victories over the floundering Dodgers, who have fallen hard into the NL West cellar.
Even more amazing
OK, so the Padres still are just a .500 team, and probably will end up worse than that. Their recent performance is even more impressive because they have weathered a series of injuries to key players, including future Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, first baseman Wally Joyner and second baseman Quilvio Veras.
The Padres lineup reads less like a "who's who" than a "who are those guys?" Their success -- temporary as it may be -- is a testament to what can happen when you put people in a positive working environment.
Gonzalez taking short view
Texas Rangers outfielder Juan Gonzalez has a legitimate gripe. He should be one of the top vote-getters in the All-Star ballotting, based on his outstanding performance again this season. But his "If I ain't startin', I ain't departin' " proclamation is a little shortsighted.
Gonzalez is miffed that Cleveland fans have been stuffing the ballot box to stack the All-Star lineup with Indians. Three Indians outfielders follow Ken Griffey in the voting, with Gonzalez a distant fifth. He also retains some resentment over New York Yankees manager Joe Torre's decision to leave him off the team in 1997.
It's not hard to see why he might feel justified in boycotting the All-Star Game, but he should look at the big picture. He certainly has not gone unrecognized for his terrific offensive numbers. He won the American League MVP two of the last three years.
He should go if selected, even if it's only to represent the Rangers and their fans.
Gonzalez has fallen victim to the natural inclination to punish the wrong people. Sort of like an entertainer who puts on a poor show because the audience is small -- punishing the fans who showed up out of anger at the ones who didn't.
No such reservations
Teammate Rafael Palmeiro knows all about All-Star snubs. He has been angled out of All-Star consideration on several occasions because he plays the same position as some of the league's top stars. This year, he's also going to be a victim of the ballot-stuffing campaign in Cleveland -- Jim Thome has twice as many votes -- but said he will show up if chosen as a reserve.
"It doesn't bother me," Palmeiro told reporters in Texas. "I'm thankful for the votes I got. I can't control what fans think around the rest of the league. We didn't have many home games in June. I know I got hurt."
Indians response
Indians officials insist that there has been no untoward attempt by the club to influence the All-Star ballotting.
"I think what you're seeing is that we draw 42,000 fans a night and they're passionate about voting," said Indians marketing director Jon Starrett. "We also advertised that there were alternate ways for fans to vote -- five different Internet sites, at Indians team shops and CompUSA stores. This is nothing new. Our players have always drawn a lot of votes."
Sosa's encore
Who says that Sammy Sosa can't match his amazing 1998 home run total?
Sosa got off to a slow start again this year, but he has made up for lost time and now stands just a couple of homers behind last year's 66-homer pace.
His 30th homer on Wednesday gave him six 30-homer seasons with the Cubs, one short of the record held by Hall of Famer Ernie Banks. Of course, Banks never hit 30 before the All-Star break, something that Sosa has done twice.
Braves shopping
The Atlanta Braves need help in left field, and they are expected to make a play for a star-quality player before the July 31 trading deadline.
The likely candidates: former Braves outfielder Marquis Grissom, Orioles center fielder Brady Anderson, Orioles left fielder B.J. Surhoff and Tampa Bay Devil Rays outfielder Dave Martinez.
The Orioles might be in a position to wrest a quality pitching prospect from the Braves in exchange for either Anderson or Surhoff if the club decides to restructure the team. Both, however, have contractual or Basic Agreement protections that would give them some control over their destiny.
Statistical anomaly
Arizona ace Johnson struck out 31 batters in his last two games, two short of the National League record set last year by Cubs phenom Kerry Wood.
For all the good it did him.
Johnson was 0-2 in those games, which means he had more losses than his teammates had hits. The Diamondbacks were no-hit by Cardinals youngster Jimenez on June 25 and held to one hit by Reds pitchers Villone and Williamson on Wednesday.
Pub Date: 7/04/99