That title would be so much better if Aaron Harang’s nickname was “Arms.” He certainly has some significant arms–well, one significant arm at least. Come to think of it, I can’t think of any particular nickname that Harang does have, so maybe I could just start calling him that. On the other hand, it seems a little late in the game to be starting that sort of nonsense.

Big day today. Last game of the season, and almost certainly the last time one Mr. Aaron Harang will start for the Reds. Harang is the only player currently on the active roster who has been there since RHM first started up five years ago, and it’s a sad feeling to think that one thing that has always been the same won’t continue to be there next season.

The first RHM post that mentions Harang was published on April 26, 2005. Other players mentioned in that post include:

• Adam Dunn
• Austin Kearns
• Rich Aurilia
• Joe Randa
• Ken Griffey, Jr.

Wait, it gets better…

• Ryan Wagner
• Danny Graves

Since then, we’ve gone through a lot together. In 2005, we awarded him the Anti-Milton award for not sucking. In 2006, we roughly photoshopped his photo to make him look like a goth and that photo that still appears on the first page of results on a Google image search for Aaron Harang.

We congratulated him when his daughter was born (in fact, today is her fourth birthday) and applauded when he signed on for four years with the team.

We smiled approvingly when he started the “Aaron’s Aces” ticket program in 2007 that provided free game tickets for children of military personnel and when people were putting his name together with “Cy Young” in the same sentence.

Later, we groaned when the offense began reading his name on the line-up card as “please don’t score” and even called him “Lemon” Harang once or twice. I guess he did have a bit of a nickname after all. We could also call him “The guy who had an emergency appendectomy that ended his season in 2009.” That one rolls off the tongue too.

It’s been a good run with Harang. Through the team’s ups and downs, he’s been the shy, understated constant who always seemed to draw Chris Carpenter and Carlos Zambrano. Sometimes great, sometimes not so much, but he always gave the fans hope. And I hope that he’s able to find continued success in his post-Cincinnati career, after one quick World Series win.