This week’s addition of 6-foot-5 shooting guard Lance Stephenson to UC’s 2009 recruiting class will have effects far beyond the instant upgrade it means for the Bearcats’ starting swingman position. Stephenson — a big shooting guard fast and strong enough to drive to the basket — is one of the rarest commodities in college basketball. (Google “Pitt’s Sam Young jams on UC — 2008” for evidence of its beauty.)

We’re still a few weeks away from the Major League Baseball All-Star break and the NFL’s training camps don’t begin until after that, but it’s never too early to start thinking about how much smack we get to type to our friends during the fall. Those of us too old, bitter and uncoordinated busy to participate in the recreational sports leagues of our youth find excitement in the all-day changing of numbers and the friendly competition of fantasy football (which is much better than fantasy baseball).

As if I didn't like the Phillies enough to start, my idiotic choice to dump one of their closers cost Hoagy Time a much-needed victory this week. Brad Lidge went on the DL, and I figured Ryan Madson would be an adequate stopgap solution. Minus-21 points later, I'm a loser again.

It’s fitting for Major League Baseball to officially honor its role in spurring America’s Civil Rights Movement by including black players during the 1940s. But it’s also appropriate to recognize the many leagues and individuals who played the game during the decades of segregated baseball that preceded it (and maybe to wonder why it took the league as long as it did to offer inclusion).

Like General Motors, Hoagy Time has "reinvented" itself. Riding the emotional wave of a two-game winning streak, my fantasy baseball team has righted the ship ... and has even softened its stance on Jimmy Rollins now that he's begun to hit. Is fantasy baseball a thinking man's game or does it come down to pulling some juvenile antics and working the waiver wire like a streetwalker on McMicken?

I went out of town and you wouldn't believe the things I saw! It sure was different! As you can see, I've been working on my leads and intro paragraphs. I spent a week in Maine and had more fun watching the New England Sports Network I ever could have i

Last night I was watching the last couple innings of the Reds game and this Reds coach popped up on the screen with dark Batman-looking eyes and a very well-defined face and I was like, “Who the fuck is that dude?”

A few weeks before the spring signing period began, Mick Cronin hinted on a local radio station that there would be some surprises in store for Bearcat fans come April 15. Well, April 15 has come and gone, and with the signing period ending next week (May 20) it’s nearly time to panic. One of Cronin’s prized recruits last year was 7-foot-3 John Riek, who never got on the court for the Bearcats. Riek spent the year rehabbing his knee, and due to some weird NCAA paperwork/eligibility issues found himself uncommitted to UC this spring. He surprisingly signed with the University of Mississippi Mississippi State this month, leaving UC without the giant dude it was expecting to put up front with sophomore Yancy Gates.

Let's not point out the many things I haven't been right about so far in 2009. Instead, let's focus on my Spring Training prediction that Laynce Nix, if healthy and in the lineup, would hit 25 home runs. It looks pretty feasible. The shot he hit to dead center in Arizona last night was certainly not a cheapie.

There are times during Reds TV broadcasts when one just shakes his head and thinks, “Goddammit George Grande, the world ain’t all that great.” And there are times when you might say, “Welshy, I really miss your mustache and I think it's funny how uncomfortable George Grande makes you.” And then there are times when Jeff Brantley talks about himself, and all you can do is laugh out loud.