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Reds slam door on Graves
Players shocked, angered
By Hal McCoy
Dayton Daily News
CINCINNATI | The inside of the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse Monday afternoon was so quiet it was as if somebody had died.
To most of the Reds, that's exactly what happened.
Reds management said farewell to relief pitcher Danny Graves, an unceremonious good-bye. They designated him for assignment, meaning he no longer is part of the team.
Graves, despite the verbal abuse he took from fans this year, is one of the team's most popular players and the way his dismissal was handled angered everybody.
Asked how it would affect the clubhouse and the team's performance, usually mild-mannered first baseman Sean Casey fired with triple barrels.
"This is like hitting us all in the head with a shovel," said Casey. "The guys love him. This was a poor way to handle it. It's wrong, just wrong."
Casey, near tears as he chatted privately with Graves, said later, "I'm shocked. I'm shocked. It's just shocking. He never refused to take the ball, he never complained. He is a guy you try to find answers for."
What pained most team members was that Graves, an
eight-year veteran, a loyal trooper with 182 career saves, was cast aside without the club trying other options.
Casey said the team should have had him undergo an MRI to check his health, "Because he would never complain or admit he was hurt, he's a gamer, a competitor. Put him on the DL. Pitch him in mop-up to let him try to get it right. Don't throw him out like garbage."
Casey was angry that Graves was a scapegoat for the fans and the organization.
"He is not the problem here," said Casey. "He is one of the 25 guys who care. This is not his fault. We stink. For us to be 15-28 has nothing to do with Danny Graves. For what he has done for the Cincinnati Reds for eight years, the organization owes him more than this."
Reds general manager Dan O'Brien, who informed Graves of the decision via telephone from California, said the decision was strictly non-performance.
Graves believes otherwise.
After giving up five runs in the ninth inning Sunday, when Graves reached the dugout a fan leaned in and said, "Go back to Vietnam, you (racial slur and swear words)." Graves reacted with curse words of his own and flipped off the fan.
"Our message all along is that it is about performance," O?Brien said. "It is about contributing on the field to a winning team. That is the gauge we have to use in these circumstances. The performance level was not where it needed to be."
Last week, the team designated second baseman D'Angelo Jimenez for assignment, eating nearly $2 million. With Graves, the club is eating more than $5 million.
"I feel as if I've just been kicked out of my house, that my mom remarried and kicked me out of the house," Graves said. "I've had a lot of great days here and I didn't want my great days to end this way."
Graves and several team members believe it was disrespectful that O'Brien did it by telephone and when told O'Brien was attending a scouting meeting in California, Graves said, "They have airplanes from the West Coast.
"I could deal with a trade and, in fact, I expected it to happen in July," he added. "But this way is not right.
"He told me on the phone that my performance hasn't been getting better and they didn't see it getting any better," Graves said. "That was it, but I think what happened with the fans had the most to do with it and they can't tell me not."
Pitcher Paul Wilson, who admitted Monday that he has a touch of tendinitis in his shoulder, said the pain in his heart hurt more than the pain in the shoulder.
"I would hope Danny's thing with the fans wouldn't have anything to do with it," Wilson said. "We're playing terrible. I've pitched terrible. And Danny's taken the brunt of it. It is not his fault in any way. We're all accountable.
"Danny is a professional, he is a Cincinnati Red, he has meant so much to this organization, this team, this city and to me. This hurts ... hurts a great deal," Wilson said, fighting tears.
For the first time in memory, there wasn't a smile on Ken Griffey Jr.'s face as he sat in front of his locker.
"Everybody knows Danny is going to come around," said Griffey. "The team that picks him up and fixes him, well, when he comes back in here he is going to be a tough guy to go against. It's a tough way to lose a guy who has dedicated himself to the organization."
To replace Graves, the Reds recalled lefthanded relief pitcher Randy Keisler from Class AAA Louisville, but he isn't the closer.
"We'll look at match-ups and situations," Miley said.
"Nobody is the closer right now. We hope somebody steps up and runs with it. Don Gullett (pitching coach) has some ideas, but we'll see how it plays out."
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