Cincinnati Reds Winter Caravan 2008

Well, it is 9°F/-13°C outside and I just got back from treating myself to an early birthday present. I didn't decide for sure until last night that I was going to go, but since I had never been to a Winter Caravan and they were right here (well, in Dublin up by my old apartment) the night before my birthday... Marty Brennaman, Wayne Krivsky, Brandon Phillips (he got the biggest applause when they finally walked in), Lee May, and Matt Maloney were present, Tom Browning joins this group tomorrow. They were 10 minutes late arriving and the whole thing didn't start until about 19:30 (it was scheduled from 19:00-21:00). When they did the Q&A, the very first question for Krivsky was "When are you going to lock up Brandon to a long-term contract?" Which, of course, caused the crowd to go nuts. His answer was, "Soon, I hope." The next biggest applause were when Marty introduced BP saying he "got screwed out of the Gold Glove." The team hasn't exactly decided how they will honor Joe Nuxhall this year beyond having his name on the jersey sleeve, but Junior had a great idea that I hope they will follow through on. It would be black jersey's with the players names and Joe's number for opening day, then auction them off on reds.com after the game with all the money going to Joe's foundation. That would be pretty cool. Once the autograph session got started, I actually got a few minutes to talk to Marty because Krivsky was being interviewed by some TV guys. We talked about Joe and the Big Red Machine. I didn't say much to Krivsky and I had to wait for Brandon to finish his TV interview and the line was long so I didn't get to talk to him much either. It was kind of cool meeting Lee May, but he was gone before I started following the Reds. I talked to Maloney for a while since he was getting ignored at the end of the line. He's looking forward to the opportunity to compete for a spot in the rotation next month. Only 23 days until pitchers and catchers have to report. I apologize for the quality of the pictures, but I forgot my camera, so these were taken with my cell phone.

Marty

Brandon Phillips

Matt Maloney