Reds

The Cincinnati Reds and WVLK-FM 101.5 have teamed up to offer Lexington area residents the chance to enjoy the excitement of Reds baseball at a special discount. Lexington Community Night will take place Saturday, May 26, as the Reds take on the Colorado Rockies at 7:15 p.m. at Great American Ball Park. Lexington residents and those of surrounding areas can purchase discount tickets for most non-premium seating locations. The first 20,000 fans in attendance at the game will receive a Scott Rolen Gold Glove Award Replica Trophy presented by Kahn's.

The Reds scored seven runs in the fifth inning and held on for a 15-8 win over the Dodgers in a Junior League game Friday at Lykins Park. Caleb Goldey had a single, double and a triple as part of the Dodgers' seven hits at the plate. Kyle Swafford, Chase Austin, Bubba Delgado and Tyler Mullins each had a single. Matt Tuttle had a single and a double, and Tyler Witzel and Ace Webster had two hits apiece for the Braves. Starting pitcher T.J. Roe had six strikeouts for the Braves.

Cincinnati deserves better. For a team that's steeped in tradition, the Reds haven't been much of a player in the National League Central since the turn of the century. Other teams in the division, especially the St. Louis Cardinals, are among the elite among the six teams in the crop. Milwaukee has surpassed the Reds. So have the Chicago Cubs. Although a general manager can only do so much, Wayne Krivsky's tenure with the team wasn't a memorable one. The biggest flop of his two-plus seasons with the club was trading Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez to the Nationals in an eight-player deal for relievers Gary Majewski and Bill Bray.

Cincinnati finally did something right.Despite recently completing a season mired by a couple of bad trades, including shipping Lexington native Austin Kearns to the Washington Nationals, Cincinnati made perhaps the best move it could wish for with the addition of Thom Brennaman to the broadcast booth. Even though the announcement officially made by the Reds on Wednesday doesn't have anything to do with the ball club itself, it has everything to do with the integrity of the broadcasts for those who listen to games on a regular basis.

The Reds crossed the plate seven times in the last three innings, including a four-run outburst in the fifth to post an exciting 8-7 win over the Dodgers in the Junior League championship game Monday night at Lykins Park. Dalton Ritchie scored the wining run in the seventh inning after reaching base on a double. Taylor Howard led the Reds' offensive attack with a single, double and a triple. Jacob Tyree laced two singles. Ritchie added a two-bagger for the Reds. Howard and Ritchie combined for 15 strikeouts, with Howard fanning eight batters in four and one-third of an inning of work.

NICHOLASVILLE - The Cincinnati Reds haven't given their fans much cause for optimism in recent seasons, but they're doing their best to build a buzz this winter. Off-season moves that address the team's needs rather than simply fill holes in the roster have stoked the enthusiasm of everyone from fans to players to management. Additions to the pitching staff and the left side of the infield have given the Reds the look of a team that could contend in its division. "I know that we're better on paper," manager Dave Miley said Saturday at the Reds' winter caravan stop here.

The Cubs and the Reds scattered hits all around the outfield in Tuesday's Major League final game but, in the end, it was the walks that decided the championship. Down 6-5 in the bottom of the sixth, the Cubs had to deliver two runs in their final at-bat to claim the postseason title. A sigh of relief and a cheer rose from the Cubs' dugout and fans when the Cubs tied the game at 6-all off a David Shields' bases-loaded walk. Then the cheer turned to a celebratory roar when Keith Johnson followed Shields at bat and was also delivered a bases-loaded walk to give the Cubs the 13-12 win and the Major League crown.

The Winchester Reds beat the division-leading Lexington Busters 10 -9 and moved into a first-place tie in Winchester Youth Baseball League action last week. Justin Maggard started and got the win. Quinn Cornelius and Zack Roe came in relief and struck out six batters combined, with Roe getting the save. In the bottom of the last inning with bases loaded and no outs, Justin Maggard picked a man off third base to record the first out. Gage Shackelford caught a deep fly to center to record the second out and threw home with the runner tagging from third.

The A’s downed the D-Backs in a 12-8 slugfest to win the City Championship of the 9-10-year-old Minor League division of the Winchester Little League baseball tournament at Lykins Park June 25. The A’s broke open a 1-1 game with five runs in the second and three in the third inning to take a commanding 9-1 lead. The D-Backs bats finally came alive in the third inning as they plated two runs on five hits to cut the deficit to 9-3, but the A’s came right back with three more runs in the top of the fourth to push the lead back out to 12-3.

For several years, the Great American Brass Band Festival has had a trusty sidekick: the Lil' Red Wagon Contest. This year, the contest has expanded to include not only red wagons, but also bicycles, tricycles and wheelchairs. It has a new name to match: Wagons and Wheels. The change was made in order to expand the range of children able to participate in both the contest and the parade. Community Arts Center Executive Director Mary Beth Touchstone explains, “Our mission here at the arts center is to create arts opportunities for every member of the community.

George Rogers Clark football coach Steven Collins and the Cardinals are on the same page. A year ago, Collins and the Cardinals were getting used to each other and forming a bond. This time around, the team's emphasis during spring workouts has been strictly football, sprinkled with becoming more familiar with each other. “It takes a year for that transition to (kick) in,” Collins said earlier this week. “The kids understand what we're about and what we expect of them as a program.

Milton “Dan” Daniel Redding, 73, of Clark County, husband for 15 years to June Dame Farris Redding, passed away Saturday at his home. A native of Lexington, he was born July 28, 1939, to the late George and Marjorie Bolden Redding. He retired from the West Orange Consolidated School District in Orange, Texas. He was a United States Navy veteran, member of the Christ Church, and was active in the American Red Cross since the 1960s, helping during national disasters. He also taught at the Red Cross.

I'm back! Let's try that again, this time with a bit more enthusiasm. I'm back!! I'm not even going to ask if you missed me. Instead, I'm going to focus on catching up. A few things have happened since we last spoke. There was 24 hours of labor, an unplanned C-section, a 6-pound baby who grew into a 9-pound baby and pacifiers. Oh, the pacifiers. When Anna Katherine was born Jan. 25 at 6:53 p.m., I was still idealistic and remembered the things I read in the baby books.

Completion of the newly named Red Oak Elementary School in Jessamine County will be delayed nearly a month after cold, wet winter weather slowed work. The board of education approved a request Monday from contractor D.W. Wilburn to add 26 calendar days of work to the project, moving the substantial-completion date from April 1 to April 27. The substantial-completion date marks when the district takes possession of the building and can begin moving in. Mitch Hunter, a project manager with architect Sherman Carter Barnhart, told board members Monday that December and January had included 18 days of above-average rainfall and many days of below-average temperature.

Editor's note: Staff writer Jonathan Kleppinger is a member of the committee that recommended a name for the new elementary school. With the walls up, the floors down and almost all work done on the doors, windows and roof, the new elementary school in Jessamine County finally has a name to go on the entrance. The board of education voted 3-2 Monday night to approve the name of Red Oak Elementary for the facility off Union Mill Road next to East Jessamine Middle School. The dissenting votes came from chairman Eugene Peel and vice chairperson Amy Day. The board voted to postpone a decision at its February meeting after Peel and Day said they didn't like the unanimous recommendation of Red Oak from a diverse committee of 13 community members headed by principal Andi McNeal.

Yesterday, I sort of returned to the land of the living! With my home health nurse's permission, I left our house and went to the Salida Hospital cafeteria for lunch. I swear, as I made my way down the long, red-carpeted hall leading to the cafeteria, I felt like I was walking the red carpet just like a movie star on Oscar night. The main difference was I wore Walmart jeans, a blue sweater and walking shoes instead of a designer gown and 7-inch heels. The other difference was the Botox injected two months ago was of no help to me as it was put into my esophagus so nobody could appreciate my wrinkle-free innards!

I love history and genealogies. In fact, I excelled in history in school. History fascinates me because I enjoy learning where we, as a people, have come from and the events of the past. Just in the last few weeks, I finished reading a book on John F. Kennedy; about a month or two prior to that, I finished a book about Abraham Lincoln. So it is with that in mind that I say this: The Jessamine County Board of Education's decision to set aside a committee's unanimous recommendation to name the new elementary school after an old schoolhouse from yesteryear was puzzling.

Eighty-three-year-old Bill Muir is still in school. He's not listening to lectures or writing papers or taking spelling tests, but he spends most of his waking hours - and all his sleeping ones - in the same building he attended school in for seven years when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president. Muir went to Red Oak School in rural Jessamine County, just 1 mile down Union Mill Road from the site of the new elementary school that will open next year and could bear the same name.