Reds Happy for Narron

[Wally Mo Pena]

MILWAUKEE -- Sean Casey spoke for many of the players in the Reds' clubhouse last week when he talked about the team's need to remove the interim tag from Jerry Narron's managerial title.
"I think everyone here knows Jerry's the guy," Casey said. "So let him know."

The Reds did so Thursday morning, and the reaction in the clubhouse before the day game against the Brewers was positive.

"Good for him," reliever David Weathers said. "Everybody knew he wanted that job, and we've played well under him. Hopefully we'll have more success and build for the future."

The Reds have gone 46-42 since Narron took over for Dave Miley on June 21. But the record doesn't really begin to paint a picture of a team that has simply been more competitive more often from the day the switch took place.

By all accounts, Narron won over the clubhouse with his communication skills and his consistent approach to the day-to-day runnings of the team.

"No slight to Dave Miley," Kent Mercker said. "But we've obviously won more with Jerry. The biggest change is more consistency and organization as far as playing along and guessing about moves made. It seems things are just more organized."

That organization began in the bullpen, where Narron made it clear very early on in his tenure that Mercker and Weathers would be the late-inning relievers. That cleared up what had been an often mercurial bullpen situation.

"Roles are overrated," Mercker said. "But if you know you're going to pitch in the seventh or eighth inning all the time, it definitely makes it a little more organized."

Now that the players know Narron will stay aboard, they can feel a little more organized when it comes to thinking about the '06 season.

"Obviously they needed to [make Narron full-time] now," catcher Jason LaRue said. "It needed to be done as soon as possible, and I'm glad they did it now."

Narron said he plans to sit down with each of his players before Sunday's season finale against the Cardinals to discuss what can be expected of them this offseason.

And that kind of approach, Weathers said, is necessary for the team to be successful.

"It's tough to have an overhaul of players and staff year in and year out," Weathers said. "You've got to have some sort of continuity and flow. You've got to know what kind of man you're playing for."

The Reds know for sure now.

Pena's pain: Wily Mo Pena saw the replay of him crashing headfirst into the center-field wall Wednesday night and winced.

He had no idea the replay looked as bad as it did, and seeing it cleared up for Pena why so many people wondered why his head and neck were feeling.

As it turns out, Pena's head and neck are just fine. It's his lower back that's giving him trouble. He hyperextended it during the crash landing, which happened while he tried to chase down a Bill Hall line drive in the bottom of the fourth inning.

"My back's real tight and sore," said Pena, who was out of Thursday's lineup. "Last night I couldn't sleep."

The Reds aren't sure if Pena will play again this season.

"I want to play, but I don't know," Pena said. "It's up to them."

Long time, no see: Chris Booker's ERA sat at an ungodly 63.00 for three solid weeks.

Having made only two appearances since the Reds brought the right-handed reliever aboard as a September callup, Booker ran the risk of being forever plastered in the Baseball Encyclopedia with that rough statistic next to his name.

But on Wednesday, three weeks after his previous appearance, Booker finally got a chance to whittle that number down. In pitching a scoreless inning against the Brewers, he nearly sliced it in half to 31.50.

That's still a gargantuan stat, but Booker did come out with the satisfaction of feeling more comfortable on the big league stage.

"I didn't have the jitters that I had before," he said. "I'm feeling comfortable out there. I'm trying to lessen my adrenaline a little bit."

He's trying to lower that ERA, too.

Reds report: Aaron Harang's career-high 14 hits allowed Wednesday night were the most by a Reds pitcher since Jimmy Anderson surrendered 15 hits to the Cardinals on June 26, 2003 and the most by a Reds right-hander since Elmer Dessens allowed 14 hits on May 4, 2000 at Philadelphia. ... For the first time in team history, four players have 100 strikeouts in a season (Adam Dunn 158, Pena 116, Felipe Lopez 106 and Austin Kearns 103). LaRue has 99 strikeouts. With 1,263 strikeouts, the Reds will fall short of last season's strikeouts total, a club-record 1,335. ... Javier Valentin made his first career start in the cleanup spot Thursday.

On deck: The Reds open up the final series of the 2005 season with Friday's 8:10 p.m. ET game at Busch Stadium. It will be the final regular season series at Busch. Left-hander Randy Keisler (2-1, 5.98 ERA) will face left-hander Mark Mulder (16-8, 3.72 ERA) in Friday's game.

[CincyRedsFan30]

I wonder if the team was as thrilled with their loss today under Narron as they were about keeping him around next year?

It's really sad when a lot of these players don't understand the game they're playing.

[missionhockey21]

Glad to hear Pena is ok.

Anyway CRF, it's a different world of the spectator versus the player. We can scrutinize pretty easily, it's our job to do so. But the players are in the game and the end result is the only focus since most athletes have the mantra of how their are high's and low's for each game, the season is a long journey, blah blah blah. Winning can do wonders for a team and it's no question that this team had the talent to win (as evident by the offense) but maybe the shakeup of Miley got them in line and playing to potential. And it just happened to be Narron as the coach and they're going to have fond memories of him no matter how little he did or didnt do. To conclude this rambling paragraph, if they won more with Satan himself as the coach, they would all be clamoring for Satan to be getting a LTC. Winning cures all. (I do agree with your point though BTW.)

Anyway, I imagine Narron is a pretty well liked guy and I think as a leader he is much better than Miley who came off too laidback and timid at times. Not to mention I think Miley sometimes had a hard time expressing himself, his feelings, etc. But that doesnt still mean I dont question his coaching abilities. Hopefully the guys are right and he'll prove me wrong.

[Geki Ace]

The players are gonna like Narron because he's a nice and likeable guy. He communicates well with the players and doesn't play games. He's just not good at setting a line-up or managing a pitching staff, and he's not suited for a managerial position.