Now, I don't normally pay attention to stuff like this; as you know, I care very little about the personal lives of the players of our favorite team. But it just so happens that I ended up on On The DL less than an hour after this little tidbit was posted:

Which national leaguer's new found success has apparently gone to his head in more ways than one? You see it was quite easy to remain faithful to his wife back in the old days. That was before his team began to make a playoff run and before he started regularly going out on the town with his new teamates. The good news is that he, in his own words, rarely cheats on the missus. The bad news, however, is that he is prone to becoming a wee bit overexcited whenever he does stray. One of his most recent encounters described him as “barely being in before coming immediately.” At least the player in question, who was clearly left red-faced with embarassment, is a gentleman because he apologized for his lack of stamina before heading back home to the wifey.

Not that I've indulged in a lot of thought over this, but it sure sounds like it's describing one of our boys, specifically someone who's married, relatively new to the team, successful (unless they the “new-found success” part refers to the team's success, and the person came from a sucky team), and possibly left-handed.

Bill Bray isn't married, and Rheal Cormier hasn't exactly been “successful,” nor did he come from a bad team (the Phillies). Chris Michalak hardly seems to count, since he just came up, and Scott Schoeneweis hasn't been in Cincy long enough to get reports of his exploits sent to On the DL.

So that just leaves one person, but surely they would have included an “Every Day” reference if it had been him, right?

The Reds, startled and terrified to suddenly find themselves flying atop the NLC yesterday, dropped the magic feather. They continued to freak out and keep closed the enormous ears that were keeping them from plummeting to the ground today with a 1-4 loss to the Giants.

Bronson Arroyo got his second failed attempt at win number 11. In the game wrap on Reds.com, Mark Sheldon says “Wasted was a decent effort by Arroyo (10-9), who pitched six-plus innings and allowed four earned runs and eight hits. He walked four, one intentionally, and struck out six.” I think perhaps we are stretching the definition of “decent” a touch here. Perhaps “not impossible to overcome if the offense is popping” or “non-2005-Milton-esque” would be more in order.

Some people who don't understand probability think that incidences balance each other out, like if you happen to get heads 50 times in a row, that you'll get tails 50 times in a row later to make up for it. Actually, if you get heads 50 times in a row, that aberration will be swamped by the more-or-less equal heads and tails you get for the rest of the infinity flips. Arroyo flipped nine wins real quick in the season; it might be useful for someone to explain to him that he doesn't have to rattle off an equal number of losses to make up for them.

Not that it was all Arroyo's doing. The offense utterly failed to come through plus the defensive miscues and base-running mistakes. No one had more than one hit, and only David Ross had any RBI with his solo shot in the sixth inning. Edwin Encarnación and Ken Griffey, Jr. each had an official error with other questionable plays that weren't tagged with Es. Ryan Freel was caught stealing. Clearly, nothing was going the Reds' way.

Including the fact that the Cardinals won their second game in a row against the Cubs to put the Reds back two games. They still lead the wild card, but just barely, with half a game over San Diego.

The loss brings the Reds' record to 67-63. They try for a split of the four-game series with the Giants tomorrow when Kyle Lohse goes against Matt Cain.

Thursday night I went to bed with Milton down 0-3 and awoke to the joyful news of a late-inning comeback.

Last night I didn't go to bed until well after the Reds had fallen to the Giants.

The moral of this story: I must sleep through the latter 2/3 of all Reds games from here on out, no matter what. It shouldn't be difficult for me; I'm very busy and could almost always take an excuse for a nap. My employer might not be so crazy about it, but they're just going to have to accommodate my special needs. It's a playoff run, after all.

So, by now you probably know that Steve Stewart, the “color” announcer for the Reds' flagship station WLW, will not be back next season. This makes me kinda sad, because I think Steve is a heck of a guy. He took over for Cincinnati icon Joe Nuxhall and some fans would refuse to forgive him for it. But when these fans complained, Steve would acquiesce. He was the biggest Nuxhall supporter of them all.

When I went to the Reds' caravan in January, Steve was there, and primarily ignored. Someone even went up to the mic and asked when Joe would be back to call more games. And when the crowd applauded Marty's answer, Steve was applauding along with him.

Now, is Mr. Stewart the most exciting guy in the world? No. It's impossible to call him the “color” announcer without using quotation marks. He didn't get the ironic nickname “The Bad Boy” for nothin'. But he is funny and smart and totally professional. Even upon the announcement that his contract wouldn't be renewed, he's been a complete professional.

So, to sum up I'm going to miss Steve, and I wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.

And that sounds like the end of this post, but it's not. There's a rumor that Marty's son, Thom Brennaman, was going to be Steve's successor. Marty has denied this rumor and I hope that Marty is right. Bringing in Thom just because he's Marty's son would be--and I say this knowing that I'm potentially burning a bridge should he actually come aboard--lame.

The Crack Technical Staff and I were discussing this last night. We're not going to be excited about just any old announcer sharing the booth with Marty next season. We want to see someone new and innovative for this team. The Reds have a tradition of being trendsetters; I'd like to see them continue it. Perhaps a Latino broadcaster who can open up the appeal of the team to new listening audiences. Maybe a funny guy a la Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football. Possibly (I know you saw this coming) a sassy woman with a solid foundation in the intricacies of the team and podcasting experience. I only we knew where to find one.

In the Enquirer Reds notebook today, Ryan Freel revealed his own personal motto.

My motto is, 'If it ain't broke or you don't have a tear or something like that, you try to play through it if you can.'

I can so see that selling like gangbusters on t-shirts.