The retrospectives are a hit in the diaries lately, nicely filling in for the fact that Ryan Freel has completely failed to get arrested so far this off-season. And since I don't really have anything to say about the fact that Aaron Boone signed with the Marlins, it seems like a good opportunity to remember some of the best moments of 2006, by Red Hot Mama standards.

January
January is not typically the most exciting of baseball months, but January of 2006 brought a few interesting tidbits and some big organizational changes to the Queen City.

The world met The Georginator for the first time. I know for a fact that at least one employee of the Reds used it to make crank calls. Ah, fame!

The Reds got a new owner. Bob Castellini immediately started wooing the fanbase with his willingness to speak in public about the team and apparent knowledge of which sport his team played. The 2006 Reds under Castellini would still fail to make the postseason, but this time they did it with flair.

The Red Hot Mama made an appearance at the Reds Caravan stop in Indianapolis. If by “appearance” you mean “showed up at the free event and asked questions at the open mic.” I also briefly got on t.v.

You know, it's funny how history repeats itself. Griffey's broken his hand this year, but in January, we were talking about Dunn's broken hand. No one was worried that Dunn's broken hand would cause him to miss half the season.

The search for a General Manager was on! Just think: if the Reds had chosen anyone else, we'd be suffering a severe dearth of catchers right now.