REPORTING FROM … CINCINNATI REDS TRAINING CAMP

by Jorge Aranguré Jr.

Among the most overlooked rites of spring is the daily batting practice session. Sure, watching this routine can get tiring day after day, but if you can suppress your boredom for a second, you'll sometimes notice the most interesting things.

     First, players are often more at ease than they are during in-season batting practice, so you'll get some back and forth between players and fans and reporters. Other times you'll experience things you'll never see during the season such as: (a) Brandon Phillips' mohawk (see above); (b) the best unknown name of the spring (see right); and (c) an unexpected conversation with Dusty Baker.
     "You like Coltrane?" a husky voice behind me asks while I'm leaning against the fence watching batting practice.
     I turn and it's Dusty Baker, the coolest manager in the game. If I were a major league manager I would want to be Dusty, who walks with a strut and talks like a jazz artist, (ya dig?) I don't even care that he sometimes leans on veteran players too much or that he wears out young pitchers. He can bust up Mark Prior just as long as he's listening to Max Roach.
     Could you talk about Coltrane with Bob Geren?
     What other manager is playing hip-hop on his iPod in his office at 8 a.m. when reporters walk in for a daily update? Think Terry Francona knows Tupac?
     What other manager wears a baseball hat with a flap on the back to protect his neck from the sun, and yet can pull it off because it looks like a doo-rag?
     "Man I thought you were wearing a doo-rag Dusty," Brandon Phillips says when seeing Dusty's hat. "I thought you were trying to keep your stuff tight up there."
     You think Bobby Cox keeps his stuff tight?
     My conversation with Dusty had been spurred by a Coltrane shirt I had been wearing, and that's why we spent the next 10 minutes talking about Coltrane, about the Prestige label and about jazz in general. Dusty said he has two large Coltrane photos in his house, though unfortunately they are not autographed. Coltrane is one of Dusty's idols, and that really shouldn't surprise anyone.
     He likes John Lee Hooker too, and "Boom Boom" looks good on Dusty too. He recommended a book about the history of Prestige, and if I want to be any closer to cool, I'll surely read it. For now, our conversation will suffice.

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