The little away jersey for American Girl dolls that the Reds were giving away at tonight's game was so darn cute, I considered being one of the first 6,000 people in line. I, however, don't have a girl under 14, and I couldn't bear to be the woman who makes her 4-year old boy claim one of the outfits on behalf of his mom's doll collection.

Still, if any of you is looking to unload an extra, I'd give it a good home. If you could send a doll as well, I'm also short one of those. Thanks a bunch.

My incredibly busy week left me unable to relay in a timely manner a story right up my alley about Griffey taking charge of a 6-year old whose grandfather died of a heart attack in the stands of Great American on Thursday and who had to wait for his mother to come pick him up from an hour away. Kudos to Jr. and all the other guys who contributed to comforting the boy. I would like to think that someone would be so kind to my son in a similar situation.

Returning almost distressingly quickly to significantly less significant matters, this awfully busy week left me unable to watch the Reds play on television, but I finally had tonight free. Typical that tonight's game, and a win no less, wasn't on t.v. I think that it's high time I made it back out for a bona fide trip to the ballpark, don't you?

OK, you convinced me. I'll go tomorrow.

I do hope that the Reds win again tomorrow for my sake, but even if they don't, it can't take away tonight's win now. After what had to be a deflating loss last night, and despite a start from Luke Hudson, the Reds managed to pull together a 3-4 win over the Florida Marlins. Let's use bullets to legitimize the juxtaposition of these unrelated ideas that are, if not actually about, at least in the general vicinity of the game:

• I was hoping that the Marlins would bring up Jason Romano for this series so I could get another look at him, but now that he's been put on the DL, I guess I can stop hoping.
• Ryan Freel is so cold at the plate, you can feel the icy wind coming through the radio. I was hoping that he'd get yesterday and/or today off so he'd be in top form for my visit tomorrow, but I imagine he'll get tomorrow off and I'll be treated to Aurilia at second. yay.
• Ooh, or maybe it'll be Ray Olmedo. I could get behind that.
• Thanks to an apparent total disconnect from sense and the memory of the fact that we have always sat on the right-field side, Jon got us tickets for the left-field side tomorrow. So when I come back tomorrow night and share my impressions of the game, you can also expect a full report on the severity of my sun burn. Or at least the intensity of my freckles which, at their worst, are borderline Dublin street urchin.

But it'll all be worth it when I get to see a real-life game in person. And get my free pack of baseball cards. Maybe I can get Winter to claim an extra pack for me.