3.16 The Day Homer Bailey Spit On Me

The Reds have four fields where the major and minor league teams practice in the spring. The morning workouts are not only free to the public and have super close and free parking, but these sessions also provide incredibly close proximity to the players. Fans can literally stand within one or two feet of the players in some of the dugouts, separated by a chain link fence.

Monday was an off day for the Reds, so I decided to drop in on the minor league practice in the morning. I made this decision at the last minute, while I was out running a few errands, so I didn't have my camera (or sun block, or hat, etc.). I parked and walked up to the fields at about 10 AM.

One cool thing is that a few of the Reds former greats are in camp in uniform serving as coaches during Spring Training. Tom Browning and Mario Soto to name a few. Joe Morgan had been in camp a few days ago. On Monday I literally bumped into Eric Davis. He was rushing by in a hurry and apologized for running into me. He's still in impeccable shape - looking much better than his nemesis Marge Schott.

I watched about 30 minutes of hitting/fielding practice and also a couple of the major league pitchers - most notably Edinson Volquez - were throwing their mid-start workouts. Not only was Volquez drawing the attention of the few dozen fans that were there, but many of the minor league pitchers were watching intently.

At about 10:30 the players started to leave the fields, and I almost left. Then a few minutes later they started coming back out of their facility back to the fields and it was apparent they were going to play a couple of simulated games. I was interested to see a few of the top prospects so I decided to stay for a while. They posted the lineups in the dugouts where it was close enough that I could read the names. Alonso ('08 top draft pick from U Miami), Cozart (SS), Neftali Soto (top hitting prospect), and a few others were listed, which piqued my interest.

I continued reading down the lineup and saw the pitcher listed at the bottom: "Bailey" - which I quickly figured meant that in a few minutes I was going to be standing within a foot or two of Homer Bailey for the better part of an hour. Uh, yay.

Indeed, Homer warmed up and proceeded over to the dugout and all that separated me from him was about a foot and a short chain link fence. I got to hear his conversations with the catcher not only before the game ("...and if they start fucking around up there I'll hit 'em of course.") but all through the four innings he pitched ("if he likes it and swings at it inside, I'll fucking keep pitching him inside").


His pitching: well, he threw three pretty good innings and then lost his focus (more on that in a second) in the fourth and gave up several hits and runs. All the Cincinnati beat writers, none of whom were there, reported that he pitched five innings. And that had been the plan, according to what Homer told the catcher. But after he got into so much trouble in the fourth, they ended it there. So all the reports were wrong.

I want to relay two stories in particular.

Dick Pole, The Debriefing and The Snake

First, after Homer finished his four innings, Dick Pole, the Reds pitching coach, came over to talk to him. Their conversation occurred a foot in front of me so I heard every word. Keep in mind that Homer had just been rocked in the fourth inning, in front of Pole and GM Walt Jocketty, who watched the third and fourth innings with Pole.

Pole: "Pretty good outing, you got your work in, we'll get you up to five or six innings next time."

Homer: "Yeah. I could have gone longer."

Pole: "You seemed to get fatigued in the last inning."

Homer: "Not at all, I lost focus (tapping head with finger). I wasn't tired."

Pole: "You seemed to get tired."

Homer: "No, I just lost my focus." [Failing to see the connection between the two.]

Pole: "Your tempo and stride, the things you've been working on, looked great until the end."

Homer: "Yeah."

Pole: "When I went home last night there was a snake climbing on the wall. I didn't know they could do that."

Homer: "Yeah, they can climb walls, they can swim, too."

Pole: "I knew that they could swim. It had a lot of colors, so just to be safe I beat it to death with a shovel."

Homer: "I always say (really?)'The only good snake is a dead snake.'"

Pole: "Yeah. You can take tomorrow off. See you on Wednesday."

Story Two: Getting Spit On

I told you how close I was standing to Homer for about an hour, at least when his team was at bat. He was chewing something disgusting between innings, but spit it out when he went to pitch. One inning he spit it out behind him, so essentially right at my feet. Then he took a big gulp of water, rinsed and spit it out on the ground, some of which hit me on the leg (I was wearing shorts).

If you have to ask whether I'll ever wash that leg again, you clearly aren't paying close enough attention.