The freefalling Cincinnati Reds have just achieved a feat previously thought to be impossible: Getting swept in a three-game series by the Washington Nationals. I don’t need to tell you how bad the Nationals are. Suffice it to say the U.S. Congress is having a good year compared with the Washington baseball team.
Now 10 games […]

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My favorite memory of the Rev. Louis Coleman was sitting with him at the funeral of Pee Wee Reese, the Kentuckian who was captain and shortstop of the immortal Brooklyn Dodgers “Boys of Summer” teams from the late 1940s and early ‘50s.
To his eternal credit, Reese befriended Jackie Robinson when Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier […]

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In a recent column I said that Jay Bruce was the best major-league baseball prospect I’d ever seen come through Louisville. Of course, no matter what you may have heard to the contrary, I’m not nearly old enough to have seen Honus Wagner and Pete Browning play for the local franchise back in the late […]

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The arrival of the Celtics and Lakers in the NBA finals sparked a wave of nostalgia about the legendary rivalry between the franchises. Most of the history pieces revolved, fittingly, about the megawatt duels between the Larry Bird Celtics and the Magic Johnson Lakers in the 1980s and early ‘90s.
But maybe because it’s summer, and […]

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I’ve seen a lot of phenoms come through Louisville. A phenom, short for “phenomenal,” is a can’t-miss big-league prospect. You know the type. A player so gifted at a young age that he leads fans and sports writers to believe they’re seeing the next Willie Mays or Mickey Mantle or Sandy Koufax.
Back in the 1950s, […]

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It was during the Vietnam War that Simon & Garfunkel posed the question, “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you.” The message was as clear as it was powerful: The cynicism wrought by the war, and the civil rights movement, had stripped America of its heroes, the symbols […]

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The last person in the world who can get a grip on this mess is Commissioner Bud Selig. He’s still an owner in spirit, if not in fact, and the owners must take just as much responsibility for the scandal as the players.

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Welcome to the first Billy Reed Sports Poll, which will be conducted regularly on an informal basis to gauge the sentiments of local fans about personalities and issues. The results will be published when we get a minimum of 25 responses.
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Bats fans will remember the 2007 season mostly because of Joey Votto and Jay Bruce, who both figure significantly in Cincinnati’s future.

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He stopped eating and his once strong body wasted away. Everybody gave up on him except his wife, Katie.

And, of course, his God.

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