Bruuuuuuuuuuce!

Reflecting upon last night at the yard...

Remember how fun it was to hear the ballpark (and Riverfront before GABP) fill up with "BOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!" when Bret or Aaron came up big for the home team? Well, it's back, but in a slightly different form. Now, it's "BRUUUUUUUUUUCE!" Another difference is the caliber of player we're talking about. Both Boones were certainly servicable big league ballplayers and fan favorites, but Bruce is a HOF-type talent.

I was blown away at how the ball jumps off his bat. It was very Josh-Hamilton-esque, if you know what I mean. His lineout to CF was a freaking rocket. His liner past first to the RF corner could easily have killed David Ross (the runner on first) or Adam LaRoche (the first baseman).

And while he didn't make any spectacular plays in CF (nor was one required), he did get a real nice jump to make a "routine" catch on a ball that could have been a gapper.

Is this offense suddenly clicking, or what?! Hairson, Bruce, Phillips, Votto, Encarnacion, Ross... all these guys are swinging pretty dang well right now. When Ken Griffey Jr is the weak spot in the lineup, scoring runs probably won't be a problem. Even Bronson's coming around of late. A sweep of the Peglegs would be a nice way to head into the weekend.

I finally got a new hat which reflects my love of mascots. (click for image) My last Reds hat has recently been called such descriptive names as "filthy", "disgusting", and "gross", and rightly so. The Dugout Shop down the third base line has all kinds of nice stuff. Of course, it's all overpriced*, too, but it saved me a trip to Hat World. I hate the mall, so I guess it was a win-win, kinda.

It was the most well-behaved Kid Glove crowd I've ever been a part of. So, maybe what I mean is that it was the quietest Kid Glove crowd I've ever been a part of. No "hey batta batta" chants. Very few annoying kids screaming at the top of their lungs. Kinda depressing, actually. Kid Glove night is supposed to be a place where the kids can come and be obnoxiously loud. Oh well.

(*I was browsing and found a real nice hooded zip-up sweatshirt and thought about how good I might look, ahem, if it was mine. Then I saw that it was $140. ONE HUNDRED FORTY DOLLARS for a sweatshirt.)