I vacillated between two choices this morning: stay or go. In the end, I decided to go.
I'm glad I did.
Strike that, I'm really glad I did.
I layered up, put a Diet Coke bottle, along with an umbrella and a poncho in a backpack and walked down to Great American Ballpark just afternoon to go witness a little piece of history.
Johnny Queto, one of the most heralded prospects in Reds history, took the mound for the first time today. Since it was cold and rainy, I didn't think there would be a huge crowd, and there wasn't [less than 12,000 gate]. This kid is said to have had the stuff and my eyes did see it first-hand this afternoon.
Cueto is amazing.
His 95 mph fastball popped throughout the stadium when it hit Paul Bako's mitt. He struck out the first batter [Chris Young, whom Cueto owned today], and pitched five perfect innings. One bad pitch ruined the no-no and the shut-out, but he wrapped up seven innings of one-hit baseball with ten strikeouts. David Weathers made it exciting in the 8th, but the Reds prevailed and won the series against Arizona.
But I'm still amazed at what I saw. I'm just saying, this kid will dominate.
It was really a miserable day for baseball; the weather stunk. But seeing Cueto pitch parted the clouds and gave me hope that my beloved Redlegs will once again be the Big Red Machine.
Twenty-five years from now, when Johnny Queto is being inducted into the Hall of Fame, I'll be able to say that I was there for his first game.
P.S. JUST SO YOU DON'T THINK I'M THE ONLY ONE read what Paul Daugherty wrote about Cueto here.