Having been rounding third and heading for home for over 79 years, Joe Nuxhall finally slid in under the tag last night.

Nuxhall, probably mostly anonymous in any other city, was a super celebrity in Cincinnati. The Ol’ Lefthander began his association with the Reds in 1944 when he broke the majors at the age of 15. Back then, that nickname would have been ironic. He was the youngest major leaguer ever, and always will be unless they change the rules. Which I guess is possible, given the popularity of the Little League World Series.

Nuxhall was really bad when he first came up, by the way. He gave up 5 to the Cardinals, if my memory of the song serves. I mean, he was 15. But a little seasoning led to a lengthy major league career, after which he was a celebrated broadcaster for 700 WLW for 31 years. People whose fandom predates mine, people who grew up listening to him on the radio, feel a real bond with Nuxhall, even though he may have been best known for mixing up the fields. It’s all part of the charm.

Local advertisers and the Reds Community Fund are going to feel the loss of Nuxhall, who always seemed to be present at promotional events. He played golf for charity, signed autographs at the Reds Hall of Fame, and shouted out answers from the audience during the trivia contest at Redsfest last year.

Nuxhall was a good fan and a good guy. Cincinnati is going to miss him.

Eight, in fact, to come in a close fourth in the Cy Young voting. All my campaigning finally paid off. I’m sure the pitching helped too.

2007 NL Cy Young Award Voting

The other NLC’er to make the list was The Moose, Carlos Zambrano. Apparently attacking your catcher still counts for something.

Looks like even the federal government wants in on the Barry Bonds free-agent bonanza:

SAN FRANCISCO (Nov. 15) – Barry Bonds, baseball’s home run king, was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice Thursday and could face prison instead of the Hall of Fame for telling a federal grand jury he did not knowingly use performance-enhancing drugs.

The indictment, culminating a four-year investigation into steroid use by elite athletes, charged Bonds with four counts of perjury and one of obstruction of justice. If convicted, he could be sentenced to a maximum of 30 years in prison.

Read the whole story on AOL Sports. Poor Bonds. What’s next? Branding his record-breaking baseballs with asterisks?

CINCINNATI — Cincinnati Reds President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Castellini today announced the resignation of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer John Allen, effective December 31.

Allen will not be replaced. His duties will be reallocated within the existing organizational hierarchy.

“John has been the backbone of this organization for 13 seasons and did great things for the Reds and for the city of Cincinnati,” Castellini said, “He left his imprint here in countless ways. We, and Reds fans everywhere, appreciate his contributions to our team’s legacy.”

He added, “For the past two years, John has proved to be invaluable to me. It is an understatement to say that I will very much miss his effective hard work and the loyalty he extended to this franchise and to me personally. This was a decision made solely by John. He and his wife, Anna, have opted to move back to their home state of Kansas, where they have many activities and much family that is dear to them. I have asked John, and he has agreed, to stay with the Reds as a consultant to direct our Spring Training location efforts.”

Allen, 58, joined the organization as controller in May 1995, was named managing executive in August 1996 and was named chief operating officer in October 1999. He was responsible for all business and ballpark operations of the team and reported directly to the majority owners, first Marge Schott, then Carl Lindner and now Castellini.

Under Allen’s guidance, the Reds moved into Great American Ball Park in 2003. He was involved in all aspects of the development and construction of that facility and served as the team’s liaison on the 1995 sales tax issue, Issue 11 for the location of the ballpark and lease negotiations.

Allen returned focus to the organization’s rich history with the inclusion of the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum as part of the new ballpark’s design, the addition of statues at the Crosley Terrace entrance of the ballpark and the uniform jersey retirement ceremonies of some of the team’s greatest players.

He engineered the development of the Reds Community Fund and reached out to fans by implementing the popular Redsfest and Winter Caravans.

Allen began his career in baseball in 1990 as an intern with the Columbus Clippers, the Yankees’ Class AAA affiliate. He worked as that club’s director of business operations for five seasons before joining the Reds.

Jacque Jones hit .332 with 46 RBIs after the All-Star break this season to help the Chicago Cubs make it to the postseason. So the Cubs, being the Cubs after all, have just traded him to the Detroit Tigers for Omar Infante, a utility infielder who had a total of 17 RBIs for the entire 2007 season.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Jones has a big year in Detroit. He’s a .287 lifetime hitter in Comerica Park, with 13 doubles, 7 HRs, and 30 RBIs in 47 games. As for Infante, well, he’s eligible for arbitration this winter after making $1.3 million this past season.

Don’t most teams usually try to avoid going to arbitration with players? Yet the Cubs actually import a potential arbitration case from somebody else’s team, and give up a decent player in order to do so.

🙄

Then again, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at yet another great personnel decision from the same organization that decided Corey Patterson was a better leadoff hitter than Kenny Lofton, let Moises Alou go for Todd Hollandsworth, kept trusting Prior and Wood year after year despite the fact that they proved they can’t stay on the field, and then blamed Dusty Baker for all their problems.

Why didn’t Dusty Baker win in Chicago? For the exact same reason that nobody else has won there in the last 100 years: They’re the Cubs!