Random Reds Rumblings

[missionhockey21]

My bet is on Valentin being the one who stays and the Reds being the ones left crying when they find out that 2005 was a fluke year.

[CincyRedsFan30]

What a tough way for UC's season to end. White and Muhammad... shame on you!

Gutsy effort tonight, regardless. I wish Andy Kennedy the best of luck in the future and I think he will be a good coach very soon.

My industry sources have indicated to me that UC is likely to hire Mick Cronin as the permanent coach.

[Geki Ace]

When does the blame start to fall on the university instead of the coaches? Huggins is gone and the trouble remains.

Newsflash, Zimpher. It wasn't Huggins, it's the university.

[CincyRedsFan30]

Kennedy goes to Ole Miss

BY BILL KOCH | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Andy Kennedy never gave University of Cincinnati athletic director Mike Thomas the chance to tell him he wasn’t getting the job as UC’s head basketball coach on a permanent basis.

Shortly after the Bearcats’ 65-62 loss to South Carolina ended Thursday night, UC’s interim head coach told associate athletic director Brian Teter that he wanted to meet with Thomas.

By then, Kennedy – who posted a 21-13 record and led his team to the National Invitation Tournament in his first season as a head coach – already knew he had been named the new head basketball coach at Mississippi.

Ole Miss athletic director Pete Boone had called him moments after the game ended.

“I met with them in the morning,” Kennedy said late Thursday night. “The meeting went well. (Boone) called before the game and wished me well and said he wanted to contact me after the game.”

Kennedy was interviewed in Cincinnati on Thursday by Boone, chancellor Robert Khayat and senior associate athletic director for finance John Hartwell for the Rebels’ vacant head coaching position.

Kennedy, 38, said he didn’t know for sure that he had the Ole Miss job before taking the court, “but I had a good vibe.”

“It wasn’t officially offered until the game was over,” he said.

He is to be introduced at a press conference today in Oxford, Miss.

Kennedy’s departure from UC, he said, is the best thing for everyone involved, even though that may be difficult for some to hear.

“I just feel it’s in everybody’s best interest to close the chapter and move forward,” Kennedy said, “because I’m a direct link with Coach Huggins and that’s not going to change. I have never distanced myself from Coach Huggins. I think the true testaments of a man are loyalty and honesty. I’ve tried to do both.”

Kennedy, who spent five years at UC, said he didn’t think much about the Ole Miss job during the game.

“My focus was on the kids,” he said, “that hopefully we could finish strong.”

The Mississippi job is an attractive one for Kennedy, who was born in Louisville, Miss.

“They say you can’t go home again,” Kennedy said, “but that’s not true. When you have an opportunity to go home and be part of the University of Mississippi and serve as its ambassador, it’s a tremendous opportunity for me and my family. I’m tremendously excited about it.”

Kennedy said his meeting with Thomas was professional.

“We did a little business,” he said. “I told him I appreciated the opportunity to talk with other people. We exchanged pleasantries and shared some things from both a personal and professional standpoint.”

Kennedy pointed out that there’s an element of symmetry to the way this worked out and wished new UC coach Mick Cronin, a Cincinnati native, a UC graduate and a former UC assistant coach, well in his new job.

It was Cronin’s departure to Louisville, where he served as associate head coach for two years under Rick Pitino from 2001-03, that created the vacancy that Kennedy filled at UC.

“Five years later, we’ve both come full circle,” Kennedy said. “I think I have an opportunity to go home and Mick has an opportunity to go home.”

E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com

[Jr's Boy]

JB's back representing.Don't know why i'm still a rookie?Been here since the old Reds MLB forum days.Gimme some rep points Mission,Crf30,lol.

[griffeyfan3]

Does anybody know if FSO has announced the televised season schedule yet? I can't really find it anywere.

[Geki Ace]

University president's bio smeared online
Someone with grudge says she's a witch in Wikipedia entry
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Bill Sloat
Plain Dealer Reporter
Cincinnati - Somebody with a grudge against University of Cincinnati President Nancy Zimpher performed a little black magic on the Internet.

The educator's biography on Wikipedia was altered to say she was a prostitute who practices witchcraft. By midday Friday, the spell was broken. The offending spiel scrubbed.

Zimpher was no longer described as flying around on a broomstick. And a saucy photograph showing a leggy strumpet attired with big hair and garter belts had disappeared.

But a few hours later, more bogus information appeared, saying, "She is currently interviewing for the President job at Northwestern Univ., because she is disliked in Cincinnati."

Northwestern quickly denied it was looking to replace longtime President Henry Bienen. The line about Zimpher and Northwestern vanished quickly.

U.C.'s public affairs office got calls about the Northwestern report, which it called untrue. But the rumor had spread to some Cincinnati radio talk shows by yesterday afternoon.

Zimpher is the latest high-profile casualty of deviltry on Wikipedia, an Internet reference source that isn't edited for accuracy like traditional encyclopedias.

Those stuffy tomes have been trusted information staples in schools and libraries for centuries. Nowadays, they seem destined to be permanently shelved by Wikipedia, where any online computer-user can modify information.

Wiki is derived from a Hawaiian word meaning fast or quick, and a "wiki" has come to mean a Web site where content is open to rapid change.

But controversy created another phrase - info-staining. That takes in growing questions about accuracy and hacking and mean-spirited tricks. And there's little recourse, because Congress has exempted the Internet from defamation standards.
Wikipedia acknowledges it has been criticized for acts of "vandalism, inconsistency, uneven quality, unsubstantiated opinions, systemic bias and preference of consensus or popularity to credentials."

But there's no doubt about its popularity. There are now 3.7 million entries, including 1 million in English. The site, founded in 2001, is one of the 20 most-visited places on the Internet.

But there are warts.

Retired newspaper editor John Seigenthaler learned last November that for 132 days his Wikipedia bio stated he was a suspect in the assassinations of President John Kennedy and Sen. Robert Kennedy during the 1960s.

Seigenthaler, a close aide to Robert Kennedy when he was U.S. attorney general, described the hacker as "sick and malicious" and pointed out how Wikipedia could become a tool for evil purposes.

In February, the Washington Post reported that congressional staffers altered Wikipedia bios of their Capitol Hill bosses, eliminating embarrassing information.

An entry about Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn was changed to say he had once been voted the nation's "most annoying senator," a statement that wasn't true.

Zimpher, the latest victim, could not be reached Friday.

A respected educator with roots in Gallipolis, Zimpher was chancellor at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee before returning to Ohio in 2003.

She has battled over UC's powerful men's basketball program, which the Wikipedia entry noted she was determined to destroy. Last August she forced out coach Bob Huggins, a popular campus figure who made the Bearcats a national power.

The false entry was cleaned up at 11:26 a.m., about five minutes after The Plain Dealer e-mailed Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, asking about it. Wales did not respond.

UC spokesman Greg Hand was unsure what the 35,500-student university could do about the incident.

"Because of the Seigenthaler case, I think the participatory mechanism of Wikipedia has been called into question," he said. "There are certainly a number of unsubstantiated accusations out there."

He also joked that he's sure Zimpher doesn't fly on a broom.

"I can attest she drives her own car; it is absolutely a car," he said. "It's black. I think it's a small Cadillac."

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaind...850.xml&coll=2

I wish I had thought to do that.

[Geki Ace]

Carlos Pena was released today. We could pick him up for dirt cheap and he'd undoubtedly be better than Hatteberg, but I'm sure we won't.

[DirtyKash]

Watch the Red Sox pick him up.

[missionhockey21]

There's a better chance of us carrying three catchers than there is to us picking up Pena. Ugh.

[DirtyKash]

The D-backs traded Brad Halsey to Oakland for Juan Cruz today. A's clearly don't need Halsey at all, I'm thinking the Reds could have made a move for him?

[Geki Ace]

It'd be horribly stupid to do so. Halsey wouldn't be an upgrade at all. He's prone to giving up homers, his strikeout rate sucks, he's incredibly hittable, and the Reds don't really need more crappy lefties for the rotation.

[CincyRedsFan30]

Chris Welsh said near the end of the game tonight that the Reds are still looking for a 1B.

[missionhockey21]

That's promising, let's hope it's more fact than hopeful thinking on his part.

Thanks CRF.

[CincyRedsFan30]

No problem.

The way he said it made it sound like he had "heard" that they were trying to find someone. He said it was "rumored" that they were trying to.

Also, Milton gave up 3 ER in 5 IP. I didn't see much of his outing, but from the tiny bit I saw, it looked like he was still better than last year. His fastball wasn't as good tonight, but he seemed to have more movement on his pitches. Of course all 3 ER given up were on HR; a solo shot and a 2-run HR. I think he could have gone another inning or two and might have gotten out of it with no more runs given up. It was against the Pirates lineup, but I think it was pretty much their Opening Day lineup, including the presence of Randa (who walked ahead of one of the HR) and Casey (who was 0-3).