Welcome to the first of what I hope to be many sports-related entries, written with the intent of presenting the humble (and sometimes not-so-humble) opinions of a regular guy who in no way considers himself an expert on anything, let alone sports.  I hope you find this blog entertaining, informative, possibly humorous from time to time, and, at the very least, worth reading.  Many of my musings and rants will likely be centered around sports in the Cincinnati area (particularly the Reds and Bengals), as that is the town I call home.  However, I'll attempt to tackle anything that I find interesting in the world of sports.  If there's anything sports-related that you'd like to see discussed, feel free to leave me a comment or message, and I'll try to make time to offer up an opinion, assuming I have one.  With that, I submit my inaugural sportsblog entry.  Hope you enjoy.

After last night's 12-inning marathon between the Reds and Brewers, I felt compelled to weigh in on a guy whose name I don't really hear mentioned as much as one might think, given his accomplishments thus far in 2007.

The Reds, having spent the better part of the '07 season thus far as cellar dwellers of their division, and seemingly in no great hurry to relinquish that unenviable distinction, don't have a great deal of which to be proud.  Even when individual performances are worthy of media attention, it's easy for them to be overlooked if said players are members of a last-place team.  There have been a few storylines within the Reds' organization this year.  The emergence of a great career (and more importantly the reclaiming of a life that very easily could have been thrown away) in rookie outfielder Josh Hamilton, a real feel-good story that probably would have received a lot more attention if not for a season plagued with injury.  Future Hall-of-Famer Ken Griffey Jr.'s ascent toward the 600 career homerun plateau, a mark reached by only 5 other players in Major League history.  Youngster Brandon Phillips' continued improvement, evolving quickly into one of the top second basemen in the game.  But with the players Reds fans can still get excited about, and around which sports media can actually forge a good story, it seems one young pitcher often flies under the radar.

Big right-hander Aaron Harang has been a symbol of stability and consistency on a roster filled with pitchers who have mainly relied on consistency in being consistently bad.  Highlighted by a bullpen that has put up numbers among the worst in the Majors, the starters collectively haven't been anything to write home about, either.  In fact, the team's pitching, over the course of the season, has very effectively neutralized what has often been a pretty dangerous offense.  Lost in all the talk of the sad state of affairs that is Reds pitching, Aaron Harang quietly sits among the league leaders this year, as he did last year, in both wins and strikeouts.  Showing marked improvement over the last couple seasons as his career progresses, without much talk or hype, those who are paying attention are beginning to mention his name among the better pitchers in the National League.  He received not so much as a single vote for Cy Young Award consideration last year.  This year, he was passed over for a spot on the National League's All-Star team.  His performance has been unaffected.  He's lost only two decisions all year, the last coming almost two months ago.  Sometimes-stagnant offensive performance and frequent bullpen implosions have left him with many no-decisions to show for solid, if not stellar, outings.  His 10-2 record at this point, as good as it is, might well be 14-2 on many ballclubs.  Still, 10-2 with a league-leading 138 strikeouts on a team that sits 16 games below .500 is nothing to sneeze at.

His fastball doesn't hit triple digits on the radar gun.  He's not known for winning in the dominating styles of Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax, or Roger Clemens.  He arrived in Cincinnati without much fanfare, and every five days he simply goes out and does all a team could ask of him.  He keeps them in the ballgame.  If the fans in another town aren't familiar with him when he steps on the pitcher's mound in another town, you can bet the opposing team is.  At this point, he's not catching anyone by surprise.  He's just staring batters down and striking them out anyway.  To paraphrase an excellent point Thom Brennaman made during last night's broadcast, Oakland A's GM Billy Beane doesn't make many mistakes when it comes to pitchers.  He made one when he gave up Harang.

That being said, though I would have changed the ending slightly to give Harang the win, Monday night's game was one of the most exciting that I've had the pleasure of listening to this season.  Yeah, I love a slugfest as well as anyone, but a good ol' fashioned pitcher's duel is just fine by me.  And while I'm singing the praises of Mr. Harang, I can't let it go unsaid that Brewers' starter Chris Capuano pitched a whale of a game himself, giving up only one run and striking out 7 in 8 innings.  Each pitcher allowed only one run, and for each, the blow was dealt in the form of a solo homerun.  A single mistake by each, in otherwise brilliant performances.

Harang took the mound Monday having just come off the bereavement list, returning from San Diego after being with family because of the passing of his grandfather.  Returning to normal after the loss of a loved one is tough to do, as anyone who has ever tried knows.  Returning in dominant form is nothing short of amazing.  Harang seemed to get stronger with time, in fact retiring 17 straight batters after surrendering a solo homer to third baseman Ryan Braun in the 4th inning.  Dominating performances by starting pitchers on the Reds' staff have been too few this season, and more than once a starter has been pulled from the game too soon in the midst of a very good outing, only to see their performance wasted, particularly in the dreaded 8th inning, by the bullpen.  I personally have been openly critical of the Reds' quick hook with starting pitchers, so I was more than a little relieved when Harang took the mound in the top of the 8th.  In the top of the 9th, still deadlocked at 1-1, he came back out again, and even through the radio I could feel the energy of the crowd getting behind big #39.  I was in my car when the game went into extra innings, and I remember feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when Thom Brennaman announced that Aaron Harang was taking the mound again in the top of the 10th inning.  At that point, no matter what happened, no one was going to be able to take away from what he had done, especially pitching under adverse emotional circumstances.  But I knew, I'm not sure how but I knew, that Harang was not going to lose this game.  He finished the 10th, leaving the game with 10 strikeouts, one earned run, and no walks.  The Reds failed to score in the bottom of the 10th, ensuring that both starting pitchers would have no-decisions for their efforts.  It almost seemed fair.  Neither deserved to lose.  It was after ten innings that I reluctantly had to shut off my radio and go do what a man has to do in order to put food on his table, so it wasn't until this morning that I found out the Reds had won in 12 innings.

To hear the way fans were cheering last night was really something special.  I wished that I could have been there with them, to cheer a gutsy young man who no doubt made a grandfather very proud.  Thanks for a great game and a great season, to a heck of a pitcher who hopefully will be sticking around here in Cincy for a long time.  For those fans and sports experts who proclaimed at the start of the season that the Reds need an ace to build a rotation around, I contend that that man has arrived.  To baseball fans outside of the Cincinnati area who might not have heard of Aaron Harang, I say this:  You will.