February 16, 2006
Experience Coming Out Their Ears—Or Is That Hair?
By
Amanda
Posted at 10:04 am
At the same time the Reds were signing Quinton McCracken to a minor league deal, they were also giving Tuffy Rhodes the minor league treatment:
Rhodes has been playing in Japan since 1996 and in 2001, he tied Sadaharu Oh's Japanese single-season record with 55 home runs. From 1990-95, the 37-year-old played for the Astros, Cubs and Red Sox.
A Cincinnati native, Rhodes graduated from Western Hills High School in 1986.
Um, I'm running out of smart alec things to say about old guys signing with this organization. At this rate, though, the Bats will be routinely calling their big-league counterparts “champ” and “sonny” and offering them a quarter to go fetch the sports section out from under grandma's knitting basket.
Signing old guys, yeah, but what about these cool names…
McCraken, Tuffy, Bong (an older cool name), Gosling, Hatteburg….
Next thing you know the Reds are going to find a way to Kiko Calero and Coco Crisp (although in Calero’s case, hopefully not).
Hey, TRL. Welcome!
You could be on to something. An organization-wide fascination with cool and unusual names might be how we ended up with Krivsky instead of some of his easier-to-spell contemporaries.