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Cincinnati Reds legend Johnny Bench apologized Sunday for an antisemitic comment he had made a day earlier during a team event. Bench was in attendance Saturday at a news conference to honor former Reds general manager Gabe Paul, who was Jewish, and former pitchers Danny Graves and Bronson Arroyo. The trio was being inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame. Paul, who died in 1998, was represented at the event by his daughter, Jennie Paul. Near the end of the news conference, Pete Rose recalled his first contract negotiation with Gabe Paul, saying: "When I got out of high school...

The longtime play-by-play man for the Cincinnati Reds exited the broadcast booth Wednesday and begged for forgiveness after video showed him using a homophobic slur on a hot mic earlier in the day. “One of the f-g capitals of the world,” Thom Brennaman said on the Fox Sports Ohio TV broadcast during the first game of a scheduled doubleheader between the Reds and Royals in Kansas City. A few seconds passed before Brennaman, seemingly unaware his comment was made on-air, recited a promo for the network’s pregame show. The 56-year-old later exited the second game after videos of the incident...

Cincinnati Reds announcer Thom Brennaman said a homophobic slur between innings during a game Wednesday night, leading to his removal from the broadcast for the remainder of the game. Ahead of the seventh inning in the Cincinnati team’s game against the Kansas City Royals, Brennaman was heard saying the slur. During the second game of the team's doubleheader, Brennaman apologized for the slur on the air. “I made a comment earlier tonight, that I guess went out over the air, that I am deeply ashamed of. If I have hurt anyone out there, I can’t tell you how much I...

Cincinnati Reds star Joey Votto has done some soul-searching in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in police custody, and he didn’t like what he saw in himself when first told of the video. For that, Votto blamed his privilege and pledged to do better in an op-ed titled “My awakening” published by the Cincinnati Enquirer on Sunday.

https://www.mlb.com/reds/video/lorenzen-on-playing-center-field

Jim O'Toole, a star pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds in the 1960s, has died after a long battle with cancer. O'Toole was 78... He was the National League's starting pitcher in the 1963 All-Star Game. O'Toole called that one of his proudest career moments, recalling that manager Alvin Dark chose him to start with a roster that included future Hall of Fame pitchers Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Juan Marichal and Warren Spahn...

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred says he has received a formal request from Pete Rose asking that his lifetime ban be lifted and that he will consider the all-time hits leader's request "on its merits." "I want to make sure I understand all of the details of the Dowd Report and Commissioner [Bart] Giamatti's decision and the agreement that was ultimately reached," Manfred said after a meeting with Los Angeles Dodgers players in Arizona on Monday morning. "I want to hear what Pete has to say, and I'll make a decision once I've done that." Rose's...

No All-Star break ever seems to pass without at least one mention (including mine) of the 1957 ballot box stuffing scandal, the one that cost the fans the All-Star starting lineup vote until 1970. Everyone remembers the seven Cincinnati Reds voted to the starting lineup. Everyone thus also remembers that, somehow, Stan Musial sort of snuck through the stuffing to make the starting lineup. And, that commissioner Ford Frick removed Gus Bell and Wally Post from the starting lineup in favour of Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. Forgotten often enough, however, is the Red who didn’t make the stuffing cut....

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif., Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Baseball Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson has been placed in hospice care, suffering from dementia, family members said Wednesday. Anderson, 76, managed the Cincinnati Reds to World Series wins in 1975 and 1976 guided the Detroit Tigers to a world championship in 1984. Family spokesman Dan Ewald told the Detroit Free Press Anderson was under care in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and family members wished "to express appreciation to all friends and fans for the support and kindness they have shown throughout Sparky's career and retirement." His illness is "the type of ailment...

The nearest I ever got to Sparky Anderson in person was four years ago. At a funeral. I'm not even close to making this one up. Larry Sherry, the 1959 World Series MVP for the Los Angeles Dodgers (Anderson was once a minor league infielder in the Dodger organisation, before spending a miserable season as a good-glove-bad-bat Philadelphia Phillies infielder), had died after a long bout with cancer. I wrote a pleasant little tributary to the old righthander and, within hours of its publication, I received a pleasant communique from Sherry's son-in-law. He thanked me for the kind words and...

Left-hander Aroldis Chapman's major league debut Tuesday produced eye-popping numbers -- namely, a 103-mph fastball on the radar gun. Chapman, a Cuban defector, pitched one perfect inning for the Cincinnati Reds against the Milwaukee Brewers. Chapman joined the team at Cincinnati's Great American Ballpark after being recalled from Class AAA Louisville, where he had hit 105 mph on Friday. He entered the game in the eighth inning with the Reds up 8-3. Cincinnati eventually won 8-4 to increase their NL Central lead to seven games over the St. Louis Cardinals. By bringing up Chapman, 22, on Tuesday, the Reds made...

Several days ago came the word that Bill Henry—once a valuable left-handed relief pitcher for several clubs, including the Cincinnati Reds’ 1961 pennant winner—had died. Several hours ago came the word that the report of Bill Henry’s death was only slightly exaggerated. The death was actually that of a Lakeland, Florida man, also named Bill Henry, who had a habit of telling people he once pitched for the Boston Red Sox. The mistake was uncovered by genealogist and baseball historian David Lambert, who first spotted the deceased Mr. Henry’s birth year as 1924—three years before Bill Henry the reliever with...

The Major League Baseball season began in full swing Monday with two controversial figures receiving vastly different receptions from fans. President Bush received a loud standing ovation when he took the mound to throw out the ceremonial first pitch in Cincinnati, a Republican-leaning city. He was accompanied by two injured soldiers and a father who lost his son in Afghanistan. -Snip-Bush became the first sitting president to throw a ceremonial pitch in Cincinnati as the Reds lost 16-7 to the Chicago Cubs. The ball to catcher Jason LaRue was high and off the plate, but Bush called it “my best...

CINCINNATI -- President Bush combined twin passions — baseball and politics — today, throwing the ceremonial first pitch as the Cincinnati Reds, run by a major Bush political fundraiser, and the Chicago Cubs opened their seasons. Bush, whose political world of late has been as chilly as Cincinnati's 50-degree opening day temperature, fared better in the baseball world: From the pitcher's mound his 59-year-old arm found the vicinity of home plate despite a stiff breeze. It was just wide enough to be called a brushback on a right-handed hitter. Reds' catcher Jason LaRue, on the disabled list after knee surgery,...

The President spent the weekend in Crawford Texas. Today the President threw out the first pitch of the Cincinnati Reds opening day baseball game in Cincinnati, Ohio. Before the game he presented Eugene Goss, a junior at Clark Montessori High School in Cincinnati, the Volunteer Service Award as he arrived at the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron, Ky. The First Lady visited schools today. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in England back end of last week and spent Sunday and part of today in Baghdad with Jack Straw, she returned to London today with Jack Straw for...

Pro baseball pitcher honors his two moms Christopher Curtis, PlanetOut Network Tue May 3, 8:47 PM ET SUMMARY: In what some say is progress against pro baseball's anti-gay image, a pitcher who is open about his two lesbian mothers has reported that they are a non-issue among his teammates. In what some community leaders hail as progress against pro baseball's anti-gay image, a pitcher who is open about his two lesbian mothers has reported that they are a non-issue among his teammates. "I haven't heard much," Cincinnati Reds pitcher Joe Valentine told the Chicago Tribune. "I thought it was going...

Cincinnati Reds CEO Gives Military Members 'Two Thumbs Up' By Donna MilesAmerican Forces Press ServiceWASHINGTON, June 13, 2004 -- When the Cincinnati Reds' chief executive officer returned earlier this week to Forward Operating Base Eagle in Tuzla, Bosnia- Herzegovina, following a foot patrol through a local town, he presented the Indiana National Guard troops there with an unusual gift: the promise of tickets to a Reds game when they return home from their deployments. John Allen, chief executive officer of the Cincinnati Reds, right, hands out his card and a promise of free tickets to a Reds game to...

In 1989, Major League Baseball banished Pete Rose for life. A lengthy investigation had persuaded A. Bartlett Giamatti, then baseball's commissioner, that Mr. Rose had recklessly violated major league rules by betting on baseball games, including 51 games played by the Cincinnati Reds, the team Mr. Rose managed. It was the right decision then, and should not be overturned now. Last month Mr. Rose met privately with the present commissioner, Bud Selig, inspiring speculation that the 13-year ban might be lifted to allow Mr. Rose to rejoin the game in some fashion, perhaps as a manager. That would be a...

Cinergy countdown - Sept. 17, 1983 By John Erardi, jerardi@enquirer.com The Cincinnati Enquirer Former Reds teammate Joe Morgan once described Johnny Bench as “bigger than life.” On Sept.17, 1983, Bench lived up to the billing once again. It was Johnny Bench Night at Riverfront Stadium. There were 53,290 fans in the stands, the biggest regular-season crowd in Reds history. His father, Ted, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Johnny remembered that when he was a boy, the longest home run he ever saw was hit by his father; the ball just kept going and landed in a cornfield. As a...