"Rounding third and heading for home"...for the last time

Friday was a real sad day for me and all Reds fans everywhere. I logged onto my computer at work only to find out that Joe Nuxhall had died in the night from complications due to his lymphoma. I sat there in a state of shock trying to hold in the tears and unsuccessfully imagine a world without the Ol' Lefthander. He had been sick so many times over these past years, but he never showed it or let it come through in his voice on the radio. He always bounced right back and was back at the ballpark before you knew it that it's unbelievable that he didn't do the same this time.

Not surprisingly, Joe's passing didn't get much press outside of the Tri-State area and the little blurb on ESPN's front page was quickly lost to trival news of Bonds and A-Rod. How sad that one of the games's all-time great individuals had to take a back seat to a cheat and a prima donna.

Most people knew Joe as baseball's youngest player to ever appear in a game, but for fans of the Reds he was so much more. After appearing in a blowout game in relief to face Stan Musial at the age of 15, he spent the next 63 years of his life in service to the Cincinnati Reds organization and the Greater Cincinnati area. He was part of baseball's greatest radio tandem with Marty Brennaman. Joe was perhaps the greatest homer in all of baseball's history -- born and raised in nearby Hamilton, Ohio. Joe wasn't just a player for the Reds or an announcer for the Reds -- Joe was a true blue fan to his core. Joe was the Reds.

I regret that I wasn't around for the glory days of Joe Nuxhall on the radio. I can't make the claim that I spent summer nights with an old radio listening to games like my dad can. I only started listening to Reds games on the radio recently after Joe had retired. But I'm glad I did get to hear him call the few games that I did during this past season and Spring Training. I will say that I would always flip the TV broadcast over to the radio if I knew that Joe was back in the booth with Marty or whomever. He had a great way of calling games and an unmatched enthusiam when some Reds player whacked the ball a good hard one.

I know most people won't understand our loss. I know that for most people he is just another LHP with a 135-117 record and a 3.90 career ERA who happened to make baseball history one summer night in 1944 -- if they know him at all. The only (pale) comparison I can make is to imagine that Ernie Banks and Harry Caray died on the same day and that they were the same person. That's what Reds Nation has lost and it still doesn't even come close to describing what Joe was to us as the heart of the Reds franchise. Chris Welsh probably said it best the other day.

"It's like losing the biggest oak tree in your yard that's been there a century longer than any other tree. Now, all of a sudden, you have this barren spot. You fill it with memories of his voice."

I hope that the team next season will be so much more dedicated and focused, playing their hearts out everyday, every game for the Ol' Lefthander's memory. I can't think of a better way to honor him than to go out and produce our first divison title this century. And I'm so glad that the Hamilton All-Stars represented his hometown this year in the Little League World Series. I'm sure he was so proud of that fact and it turned out to be a nice treat in what proved to be the last few months of his life.

Rest easy Nuxie. We'll miss you.