Another solid performance by Elizardo Ramirez, but the bullpen was unable to do its job, and the Phils won 8-4 Friday night.  I like what I’ve seen from Ramirez this season.  He’s shown poise, good command and, most importantly, he’s kept his team in games.  And the Reds hitters, though only recording one hit against rookie righty Cole Hamels, took a patient approach, ran his pitch count up, and got him out of the game after five innings.  The former first-round pick did show promise.

We always have visitors in the radio booth, both before and during the game.  Last night Jim LaBarbara, aka "The Music Professor," spent some time with us.  Jim and Marty are old friends.  He’s a huge Reds (and baseball) fan.  Jim has been on the air in Cincinnati for a long time.  He’s the afternoon drive dj at WGRR radio. When you hear Marty say "Hey, Prof" during a broadcast, he’s acknowledging that Jim has just walked in.  Before the game last night, four gentlemen who bought a package at a charity auction stopped by, and we visited with them for a while.  A visit to the radio booth was part of their prize.  Also stopping by last night was Reds CEO Bob Castellini, his first visit since escorting the President to the booth Opening Day. 

Joe Nuxhall stops by at most of the home games.  Before the game, Joe is down in the camera well at the home-plate side of the first-base dugout.  That area is known as "Nuxey’s Office."  But we usually get to see him in the booth as well.  And, again, Joe will do Sunday’s game with Marty.

The four "constants" in the booth are Marty and myself, as well as executive producer Dave "Yiddy" Armbruster and Bill "Seg" Dennison.  Dave’s been producing our broadcasts, spring training and regular season for 20 years (at least).  He has about 1,200 jobs at our flagship station, 700WLW.  You hear "Yid" weekday mornings doing traffic reports on WLW as well as other ClearChannel stations.  His nickname came from his brother, who couldn’t prounounce "David" when they were little tikes.  Seg works 365 days a year, as you know if you listen to WLW.  Seg’s nickname, well, that’s part of Bob Trumpy’s legacy.  Trumpy, by the way, has stopped by the radio booth twice this season.

I am going with the team to Cooperstown, so I plan on telling you how it goes.  Dann Stupp, the "mastermind" of this blog operation, gave me a lesson on posting photos Friday.  We’ll find out if I learned anything.