The Cincinnati Reds have released their schedule for 2011 season. There are some major changes, with Opening Day falling on a Thursday instead of a Monday, as it has for years now. The start has been moved up to make sure the World Series ends before November, which is a worthy goal, I think. Still, starting early will take some getting used to at first.

The full press release is below.

CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Reds’ tentative 2011 schedule has been released by Major League Baseball.

The 2011 campaign will begin with Opening Day on Thursday, March 31, against the Milwaukee Brewers at Great American Ball Park. The Reds will wrap up their series with the Brewers on Saturday and Sunday, April 2-3, followed by three games against the Houston Astros to finish up the season’s first homestand.

Major League Baseball adopted the recommendation of The Commissioner’s Special Committee for On-Field Matters to begin the regular season earlier and mid-week to avoid playing World Series games in November.

Other featured matchups at Great American Ball Park in 2011 include a pair of weekend series against the National League Central Division rival St. Louis Cardinals (May 13-15, July 15-17), plus weekend battles with the Atlanta Braves (July 22-24) and San Francisco Giants (July 29-Aug. 1).

Highlighting the Reds’ Interleague schedule is a home series against the New York Yankees from June 20-22, New York’s first trip to Cincinnati since 2003.

Additional Interleague action at Great American Ball Park will include the Ohio Cup Series presented by the Ohio Lottery against the Cleveland Indians (July 1-3) and a three-game set with the Toronto Blue Jays (June 17-19).

The worst part about working late and pursing a degree is missing out on seeing my Reds grow up. When you get to the end of your life, will you look back and say, “I wish I’d made more money”? Or will you say, “I wish I could have gone to more games”? Ultimately, the prestige and fame and fortune are all secondary: we all just want our Reds to be happy.

My advice to those of you in the greater Cincinnati area: get out to a game because someday the Reds will choose your nursing home. Well, not that, but go out anyway. This opportunity may not last.

It’s such a very brief post that I’m including it all here, but click the link to ESPN for updates:

CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Reds have acquired utilityman Willie Bloomquist from the Kansas City Royals for either a player to be named or cash.

Bloomquist will join the NL Central-leading Reds for the stretch drive. They began the day with a six-game lead over St. Louis.

Bloomquist had been set to start in left field Monday in the Royals’ game against Oakland. He hit .265 with three home runs and 17 RBIs this season.

The 32-year-old Bloomquist has started games this year at second base, third base, left field, center field and designated hitter. He had a nine-game hitting streak snapped over the weekend.

I like to see a utilityman in the mix, and those 3 homers and 17 RBI come in only 170 ABs. I don’t know anything about this guy, but I do have to wonder about a fella who only got 73 starts with the Royals.

The Reds 2-1 series win over the Pittsburgh Pirates this weekend is a little deceptive. A person who didn’t watch the games might think any of a number of baseball cliches about the Pirates (even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes, anyone with a bat is a threat, and so on), but those who saw the games can’t dismiss the outcome with a pithy phrase.

While the young starting pitchers who led the charge–Homer Bailey, Edinson Volquez, and Johnny Cueto–were total bad-asses, they had to overcome not just the Pirates’ offense but also the Reds’ lack of offense. Throw in some relievers who weren’t up to the challenge, and there wasn’t a win to be had for any of them. Two games required extra-inning heroics to bring home and one was already too far out of hand for even that.

Folks are pretty down on Francisco Cordero, who put Sunday’s game out of reach and hasn’t exactly been what you’d call “nails” for a couple outings now. Rocktman65 wants Aroldis Chapman to take over as closer. Red Reporter wants closer by committee. Dusty Baker has some level-headed words on the matter:

We all feel terrible for [Cordero],” Baker said. “We need him badly because he’s our closer. Nobody else is really ready to close. He’s our closer. I know people are hollering for this person and that person. What happens when the next person doesn’t do it? Then you’ll be hollering for somebody else. You can’t keep doing that.

Personally, I don’t want to see Cordero officially replaced yet. For one thing, that’s terribly demoralizing, and he’d probably start walking even more people than usual. For another, GM Walt Jocketty would refuse to take him off the roster and we’d be looking at a 25 man roster that’s really only 22 (counting Jim Edmonds and Jay Bruce, who are too hurt to play but still taking up spots).

A more insidious problem, in my estimation, is the offense that goes mysteriously dry from time-to-time. Should the Reds really have been going into the ninth inning with only a 0-1 lead against one Brian Burres? His 5.22 ERA might be pretty good by Pirates’ standards, but this was the number-one-and-pulling away team in the division they were up against. Asking for three more runs from the Reds’ offense doesn’t seem unreasonable when you might reasonably expect them to pull down five more than they did against this guy.

But that is, as the pithy statement goes, why they play the game. The already-eliminated Diamondbacks visit GABP tonight, bringing with them their 57-86 record. Hopefully they won’t prove to be a much of a challenge as the last crappy team who came to town.

For ten years now, I’ve remained relatively aloof to the performance of the Cincinnati Reds. Absolutely, I’ve been enraged by an occasional Trade or manager signing, impishly baited Cubs fans, bragged on 7 RBI LLM games, but the team’s impact on my daily life has been mostly limited to guys at work noticing the Reds stuff in my office and dropping in to give me a hard time about it.

So I was surprised this morning to realize that I was less tired and grouchy when I woke up, apparently having slept better and had sweeter dreams than of late. As we got closer to game time today, I even bounced around a little in girlish excitement. I hadn’t realized that the series in Colorado had gotten me down so much until a couple wins had me stupidly happy.

I’m playing the fool over here, and I apparently don’t even care, seeing as I’m admitting it in front of literally tens of readers.

But alas, being in love with a team that features Fransisco Cordero is a bumpy road, and I’m not as chipper as I was just an hour or so ago. Woe to the Cubs fan who drops in to give me a hard time tomorrow. He may get the fury of a woman scorned.