The Real McCoy: ‘Cincinnati, YOU have a problem’

I bet Dusty Baker could tear a Palmer/Gillette Encyclopedia in half...just like The Swedish Angel with a phone book.

As Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker talked to the media after Tuesday’s 8-3 loss to the Houston Astros, a member of the media relations department laid a copy of the stat pack on his desk - a box score, play-by-play and up-to-date statistics.

Without looking at it, Baker wadded it into the size of an official baseball and fired it hard into his trash basket.

...In addition, the Astros stole four bases in four tries and the Reds made three errors. Whatever happened to the New Era — defense, pitching and manufacturing runs? The Reds are manufacturing runs like GM is going to manufacture Pontiacs. And they brought in catcher Ramon Hernandez for defense. Four stolen bases. No, it isn’t always the catcher’s fault, but he didn’t come close to throwing anybody out.

“Defense? That’s the most frustrating thing is to look up there and see we have three errors,” said Baker. “We work so hard on it and are so conscious of it. We need an errorless streak and that would help everybody.”