On Thursday, former Reds’ manager Sparky Anderson died from complications from dementia. He was 76.

Of course, like any Reds fans, I know the name, but not having been born yet when Anderson was busy managing the Reds to their Word Series greatness, I wasn’t sure what I was going to say about the hall-of-fame manager that could possibly live up to his legend status.

Enter Chris Jaffe, author of the book Evaluating Baseball’s Managers, who has written up exactly the kind of knowledgeable and relevant piece that I am unable to. I might not have minded a touch more Cinci-centricity, but nobody’s perfect.

His baseball teams played a style of baseball many sabermetrically-inclined fans would approve of. His teams slugged the ball, were willing to draw walks, and accepted strikeouts as they came….Getting good offense was key because that’s how Anderson’s teams won.

Read the entire article on HardballTimes.com.

And be on the look-out for a review of the book on RHM. I received excerpts over a year ago, and I expect to have time to read them as soon as my MBA is done in August.

A nice Halloween treat for all Reds fans out there:

October 31, 2010 – Joey Votto has been named the National League’s winner of the 2010 Hank Aaron Award, awarded annually to the best overall offensive performer in each league.

The Hank Aaron Award was introduced in 1999 to honor the 25th Anniversary of Aaron breaking Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record, and, at that time, was the first major award introduced by Major League Baseball in more than 25 years.

Remember those heady days of dedicating your life to All-Star Voting? Well, now you can recapture the excitement you felt giving yourself carpal tunnel to Vote Votto during the games, on your lunch break, and at Vote Votto slumber parties by voting in the MLB This Year in Baseball Awards.

And as an added bonus, MLB has weighed down the voting interface with a bunch of crappy Flash so it’s so onerous and annoying that I couldn’t even get through voting ONCE without grunting in exasperation and closing the browser window. Well, I guess that’s not exactly a bonus, per se.

The opening game of the 2010 World Series between the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants is halfway over as I type this. The game is on, but I just haven’t cared as much as I have in the past years. And I think Redleg Nation has hit on the reason why/

After the Reds were eliminated from the playoffs this season, I found that I just couldn’t get excited about watching someone else’s team fight for a championship. My team should be playing these games!

Isn’t that the truth.

Sure, the Philadelphia Phillies made the Cincinnati Reds look silly in their 3 games in the National League Division Series. But it really wasn’t that hard to see the Reds making a run at things. A couple bounces for the Reds here, a complete lack of defensive implosion there, and things could have been different.

After the regular season of baseball is over, I’m always disappointed that there won’t be any more baseball until the next year. I’m always left wanting more. But this time, I wanted the more even more. The Reds were good this year. And they’re going to be good next year, with the legitimate possibility of being better.

How can I care if it’s the Giants or the Rangers that win their first World Series title ever when I’d rather it be the Reds?

Checking out the emails from the Reds tonight to fill the hole left by a couple league series that wrapped up early, and thought this was on worth posting about. Personally, I was a fan of the scarf they gave out on Mother’s Day:

WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK
Thank you for your support of the Cincinnati Reds throughout our 2010 National League Central Championship season! In an effort to ensure that we provide our fans with another great season on and off the field in 2011, we are asking for your help by providing input regarding our promotions and giveaways. We always want your trip to the ballpark to be special and provide you with a memorable experience.
Your feedback is always welcomed and appreciated. Please take a moment to share your thoughts as we work to put together our promotional calendar for 2011.

Take the survey.