A couple days ago, Cincinnati Reds starter Mike Leake was arrested for shop-lifting. Today, there was a report from Cincinnati’s WCPO Channel 9 that Leake had paid for the shirts.

The report is written oddly, like that of a middle-schooler trying to write a paper and sound impressive by using a thesaurus for every mundane word. For instance, the article starts by stating, “delicate negotiations will be undertaken shortly to hopefully remedy the Mike Leake imbroglio to everyone’s satisfaction.” Okay. I’m sure that couldn’t have been worded in an easier to read manner.

But getting past that, here’s the meat of the story.

A reliable source tells me that Leake did indeed pay for T-shirts some time prior to yesterday’s episode. And only in the process of clumsily trying to exchange them, did he run afoul of, if not the law, then certainly the dictates of common sense.

That Leake somehow thought that he could affect what is termed an “even exchange” without benefit of a store employee presiding over the transaction.

So this source is saying that Leake previously paid for the shirts and walked in the store later to exchange them without talking to a store employee. It sounds ridiculous, but given that this is a world where a diner can sue a restaurant after eating an artichoke, it’s certainly possible. But if true, what a dummy Leake is.

I saw this article about Joey Votto linked to earlier this week from Redleg Nation, and it’s the stuff that myths and tall tales are made of.

For starters, there’s the story about him asking for a pair of new batting gloves from the coach of his youth team, the Canadian Thunderbirds, every other day. They were free, but the constant need for new ones was suspicious. But young Votto wasn’t doing anything sly like selling them for cash. No, it wasn’t that. But the coach didn’t believe his answer.

So the two struck a deal. Every time Votto felt he needed a new pair, he had to trade his old ones in to prove it.

Not long after, the kid showed up ready for the first exchange. The pair he’d been given just a day or two before had holes in the palms. And blood stains all over them.

“They were from broken blisters,” Oswald says.

Votto swung the bat. A lot.

Also, don’t miss the story about Votto’s mighty throwing arm and the ball a teammate missed catching, and the time Votto eschewed metal bats and proved how his burgeoning awesomeness to a persistent scout.

I know it’s hard to predict the success of baseball players, but Votto’s intense focus has always been present. And I think all his practice might pay off soon.

I have so many disjointed baseball thoughts this evening, that I am going to whip out a page layout mechanism I used to use all the time–bullets. They’re even shaped like little baseballs:

• Broadcast in Technicolor I *hate* watching baseball in standard definition. I want to blame DirectTV for the fact that tonight’s game looks like I’m watching it through wax paper, but FSOhio sent me an email last week talking about how HD wouldn’t be available, which I guess means it’s their fault. I had lunch with a bunch of tech geeks today, and they all seem to have gotten rid of their television service entirely in favor of streaming programming from the internet to their televisions. I wonder whether the internets has the game in HD. It would work over dial-up, right?
• It Wouldn’t Matter if He Crapped Autographed Gold Ingots The Cowboy felt the need to defend Paul Janish after he popped out with the bases loaded in this game. A completely badass defensive shortstop, batting eighth no less, needs defending when he’s batting .353 in his first 34 ABs? Only in Cincy.
• Wardrobe Malfunction The ump just stopped Jordan Smith to make him adjust his sleeves to show the same amount of red peeking out from both sides of the jersey. Fashion police anyone?
• Call Him Sunny D Joey Votto is a concentration machine. The fresh-squeezed orange juice he drinks in the morning comes out as frozen concentrate a half hour later. If you’re going to beat this guy, you have to be better than him because he’s not going to give away anything. I think that has to be influencing the rest of the team too; I mean, you can’t boot a ball and expect everyone to be all like, “hey, it happens to everyone” in this dugout. At best, it would be like, “hey, it happens to everyone except Joey.”
• Down Boy It makes me sad that no one on the TV broadcast has mentioned Chris Denorfia coming up with the Reds, let alone called him “Hearththrob.” For old time’s sake, I’ve barked like Dino whenever he’s come up to bat, but it just isn’t the same.

And a bonus bullet, not about baseball stuff, but just a real head-scratcher:

• I Wish for 1,000,000 State Farm Agents When your kitchen table and/or ornamental birdbath are pulverized by the magical appearance of the crap you wished for from your own personal State Farm genie, are the damages covered by State Farm?

The Cincinnati Reds played their second game of the season last night against the Milwaukee Brewers, and we were there.

Listen as we discuss the Opening Night festivities, those recent comments by Jim Edmonds, and the Reds victory over the Brewers.

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