A photo of Homer Bailey appears in the Enquirer web edition today. And it's a doozy.

Of course, you can take a freaky-looking picture of anyone, especially during a moment of physical exertion. Obviously making fun of these quick-exposure, mid-pitch photos isn't exactly fair.

But it is kind of fun.

UPDATE: As long as we're talking about photos, check out this one of Paul Wilson gettin' some sugar. It's a little gratification for your inner voyeur.

Sounds like priority one for Ryan Freel upon the arrival of the Cincinnati media to Sarasota was to explain about his arrest last month. On Marc's blog he's quoted saying that he was just trying to break up an altercation between two guys he knew, one of whom being an employee of the pool/sushi joint where he was attending a bachelor party:

“It was so stupid,” he said. “Here I was, trying to get somebody out of trouble, yelling at him – this is my buddy – and all of a sudden I go to jail. I wasn’t fighting, I wasn’t doing anything.”

In the Enquirer he goes so far as to say that he was targeted because of his celebrity status:

Finally, the (officer) arrested me. I think he knew who I was.”

Which begs the question: if the officer already knew who he was, then who was he trying to fool when his listed himself as unemployed on the police report? Marc has said he'll investigate.

But the poor guy's been embarrassed enough. You know there are plenty of folks out there who are very judgmental of these arrests and who will give him a hard time. There are at least a handful who won't want their kids to try to get his autograph because of them.

Small consolation, I suppose, but not everyone really cares. At least some of us just would have loved to have been there for the party.

At the same time the Reds were signing Quinton McCracken to a minor league deal, they were also giving Tuffy Rhodes the minor league treatment:

Rhodes has been playing in Japan since 1996 and in 2001, he tied Sadaharu Oh's Japanese single-season record with 55 home runs. From 1990-95, the 37-year-old played for the Astros, Cubs and Red Sox.

A Cincinnati native, Rhodes graduated from Western Hills High School in 1986.

Um, I'm running out of smart alec things to say about old guys signing with this organization. At this rate, though, the Bats will be routinely calling their big-league counterparts “champ” and “sonny” and offering them a quarter to go fetch the sports section out from under grandma's knitting basket.

If you haven't had a chance to catch up with The Mayor about his outlook on life now that he's adjusted to the idea of being a Pirate (Yar!), then allow me to recommend this Q&A at post-gazette.com.

As fervently as Sean Casey was a Red, he's now a Pirate. I can imagine how it would seem disingenuous to the casual observer, what with the way he responded so negatively when he found out he was traded, but I think he's for real.

I'm not at all surprised that Casey would flip-flop emotions. If anything, I'm surprised that at the age of 31 he hasn't learned to keep his initial responses to himself until he has a chance to soak it all in. But I guess if he did that, he wouldn't be the person that he is. In fact, his willingness to lay it all on the line is one big way you know how sincere he is.

Guess I'm feeling a little nostalgic today, because I'm struck by how much I'm gonna miss this guy.

Last night I dreamt I was traded for Jeff Weaver.

Yes, I realize that's impossible in every way, and even my dream self knew something was amiss. In the dream, I was freaking out because, without knowing which team I was being traded to, I was afraid I wouldn't have enough time to redesign Red Hot Mama's color scheme before spring training.

Man, I can hardly wait for the season to start. Go Reds!