Greetings from Cincinnati.
It's been 10 years since I've been here, and the riverfront area has changed quite a bit. In 1996, when I came to the Queen City for the NCAA hockey Frozen Four, Riverfront Stadium was the cookie-cutter home of the Reds and Bengals. Now, Riverfront is gone, and two new stadiums have been built in its place.
Great American Ballpark is one of the more antiseptic new stadiums I've been to. There are no bells and whistles to this place. No skyline view like PNC Park in Pittsburgh. No McCovey Cove like AT&T Park in San Francisco. The view over the outfield wall is of the Ohio River and Kentucky, and inside the stadium, the only unique aspect are the smokestack-like structures in right-center that shoot off fireworks whenever one of the Reds hit a homer.
Anyway, a few Phillies-related notes:
* I'd be shocked if the Phillies trade RF Bobby Abreu to the Yankees, as Buster Olney suggested in his ESPN blog yesterday. The only way GM Pat Gillick will deal Abreu is if he can get a front-line starting pitcher in return, and the Yankees don't have any to spare.
* C Mike Lieberthal had trouble running in the outfield today and will undergo an MRI exam and a bone scan Monday in Philly. Not good news, considering Lieberthal has had knee problems in the past.
* Finally, before Abreu was scratched with back spasms, the Phils were going to start an odd lineup, in which CF Shane Victorino was going to lead off and SS Jimmy Rollins was going to bat third. The idea, manager Charlie Manuel said, was to split up his left-handed hitters (Chase Utley, Abreu and Ryan Howard) against lefty Dave Williams, the Caesar Rodney grad. Normally, Aaron Rowand bats third against lefties, but with Rowand out of commission with his broken nose, Manuel put Rollins in the No. 3 hole.
More tomorrow.
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