Fairborn commencement
Badin graduation
Division I regional track finals
Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2009 > June > 20
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Dayton loves Joey Votto
Joey Votto came to Fifth Third Field on a rehab assignment Saturday night and instead the Cincinnati Reds slugging first baseman found himself in the middle of a lovefest.
A record crowd of 9,507 — including several fans wearing their No. 31 Reds’ Votto jerseys — gave him its heart and he reciprocated almost instantly.
He ripped the first pitch thrown to him by West Michigan right-hander Mark Sorensen over the right field wall and out of the park onto Sears Street for a two-run home run in the first inning.
When the ball was still in the air, the roaring crowd began standing and cheering wildly. By the time Votto stepped on home plate, he was awash in standing ovation that was more like a communal embrace.
I was sitting in Section 113 and I heard people yelling to him “Welcome Back” and “We Love You” and finally some folks just began to chant “Joey… Joey… Joey.” People were snapping photos of the moment on their cell phones.
In the second inning, when the umpire called a questionable second strike on Votto, the fans moaned at the call. When he grounded out after that, they still cheered him. And in the fifth, when he stole second after a walk, they roared with glee. When he was thrown out at home trying to score on Carlos Mendez single, they offered up a collective moan. It was as if they were watching their own son get caught.
This might not be Great American Ball Park, but it is home sweet home for Votto, who played here in 2003 and 2004. He felt the connection and it was on his initiative that the bat he used for batting practice — complete with his autograph — was the grand prize give-away last night.
People cheer one of their own, but the special outpouring here was because Votto has been struggling of late with some personal issue that both he and the club — rightly so — have kept private.
Votto was Cincinnati’s best hitter — he had a .357 average with eight homers and 33 RBIs in 38 games — when he was waylaid with an inner ear infection.
In late May, he returned for three games, but was taken out early each time for unspecified reasons. The club later called it “stress-related.” He has been on the disabled list most of the time since.
He hasn’t played a full regulation game in well over a month. He played six innings two days in a row in Sarasota before coming here and also played in a Gulf Coast League intersquad game
After taking batting practice Saturday, he told reporters his biggest challenge would just be to play nine innings.
He’s scheduled to play for the Dragons Sunday and that may be especially challenging. It’s Fathers Day and last summer when his dad, Joseph — a Toronto chef and his son’s biggest supporter — died, Votto took the loss especially hard. He took a week off for bereavement, then returned to the Reds by club rule, though he was given some extra time out of the line-up by manager Dusty Baker.
Before he left, he had asked the club to keep the death quiet until his return. Since then he’s only talked on a couple of occasions — and very briefly — about losing his father. He declined to discuss the topic when the Reds played their last spring training game here — The Futures Game — on April 4.
Sunday, I imagine thoughts of his dad will be swirling beneath the surface with everything else that’s going on, so I’m sure he could use the same embrace that he got from the Dayton crowd Saturday night.
I’m pretty sure he’ll get it.
TweetBest Show in Town
I know Joey Votto will be over playing with the Dayton Dragons tonight and Sunday afternoon, “Legally Blonde” is still at the Schuster Center and they’ve got the Civil Rights Game and all its festivities down with the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park — and all of those are good viewing choices — but if you really want to treat yourself to something special, go see “Ethel Waters: His Eye Is On The Sparrow” playing at the Loft Theatre tonight through June 28.
This has someone who swings for the fences, civil rights and the stage all wrapped into one.
I saw it with my wife Friday night and it was flat-out tremendous. It’s the best show I’ve seen here in a long time.
Danielle Lee Greaves, the Broadway vet who plays Waters in playwright Larry Parr’s one-woman show, held the audience in her spell all night as she told the inspirational story — in animated narrative and especially with her 15 songs — of the sassy, outspoken blues and jazz singer who was a pioneer for black performers some 80 years ago and whose life was forever changed when she finally joined the Billy Graham Crusade in 1957.
Waters — who lived from 1896 to 1977 — was raised in a poor and violent back-alley neighborhood in Philadelphia, was all but forced into marriage at age 13 to an abusive husband and worked as a hotel maid for $4.75 a week.
After a year, she managed to flee the guy and, by chance, her musical talent was discovered. She ended up touring on the black vaudeville circuit, then became part of the Harlem Renaissance and from there her career spanned Broadway, movies, concerts — eventually derailing with more personal trouble — until she finally hooked up with Graham.
With the lively accompaniment of Cincinnati’s Scot Woolley on piano, Greaves takes you on that journey singing many of Waters’ songs: “Stormy Weather,” “Frankie and Johnny,” “Taking a Chance on Love,” “Heat Wave,” “Little Black Boy,” “Dinah” and the Rudy Vallee/Hoagy Carmichael treat “Old Man Harlem.” And, of course, there’s Water’s signature version of the old spiritual “His Eye Is On The Sparrow.”
Greaves is so good that — even without Waters’ stirring story line — I’d come back to see her sing anytime.
Add in the direction of Dayton native Schele Williams (schooled at Stivers and Colonel White and the Muse Machine), Tamara L. Honesty’s Loft set, the fine costumes and lighting and you’ve got a magical night that will stay with you awhile.
The Loft is at 126 N. Main St. Tickets are $33 at (937) 228-3630, (888) 228-3630 or www.ticketcenterstage.com.
Tweet
