Reds Win The NLC!

HURRAH!

The Reds won the Central Division last night in dramatic fashion, beating the Astros 3-2 on a bottom-of-the-ninth solo homerun by Jay Bruce! 15 years, readers: it has been 15 years since we've made it to the post-season--9 years since we've even had a winning season...gosh, & I forgot how awesome it feels! The baseball gods are smiling down benevolently on the Queen City of the West today.

And hey: Louisvillians had a thrill when Aroldis Chapman--the Cuban pitching phenom who spent most of his summer freaking out Louisville Bats crowds with his 100+ mph fastballs (& 97 mph change-ups!)--was called in to close the 9th inning. Wow, we were not disappointed: he struck out the first two batters and got the third to ground out. 3-up-3-down for the new guy; I just hope the Reds' front office has sense enough to keep him around for a good long while.

And how great is Dusty Baker?? He is now in some rare company: just the 9th manager in all of baseball history to lead three different teams to the post-season (Giants 97-00, Cubs 03 & Reds 10), a HOF manager for sure (not sure about you, but I sure don't miss Jack McKeon--the Marlins can keep that one. He's poised to take advantage of Florida's thriving retirement community and myriad early bird buffet specials). Let's all be glad the Cubs didn't know what to do with Dusty--he seems like a good fit in Cincy.

The post-season starts next week. Go Reds!