OxfordPress.com

DAYTON — The Cincinnati Reds brought a little sunshine and a lot of smiles to kids at Children's Medical Center of Dayton on a cold winter morning.

Manager Dusty Baker, outfielder Chris Dickerson and broadcasters George Grande and Jeff Brantley joined Rosie Red at the hospital Sunday, Jan. 25, to visit with the kids and hand out signed baseball hats as part of the annual Reds Winter Caravan.

The Dayton stop came on the final day of the Western leg of the team's three-leg 3,000-mile tour, which began Thursday. The caravan included three buses traveling in three directions covering five states.

The Dayton leg included visits to Dayton Children's and the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

While the visit was something of a homecoming for Dickerson, a former Dayton Dragon, it was Baker's first time in town.

He said he was impressed with what he saw.

"This is perhaps one of the nicest children's hospitals I've been to," the coach said.

Baker, a father of two who has been with the Reds since the 2008 season, seemed to be enjoying the kids as much as they did him.

When 4-year-old Preston Saunders of Hillsboro said he liked to watch "SpongeBob SquarePants," Baker told him, "Me, too!" And showed Preston how he could laugh like Patrick, one of the show's characters.

Aaron Wills, 5, seemed to be a little more shy around Baker, and was hiding behind his pillow when the crowd entered his room.

Baker playfully looked all around for him.

When he found him he said, "Oh, you're in the land under the pillow!"

Dickerson, who joined the Reds in August, also seemed at ease with the children, telling one of them on his way out of the room, "Be sure and send me a pair of those pajamas!"

Although he didn't let it show, Dickerson said it was tough for him to see the kids in their conditions as patients.

"My heart is completely sunk for 45 minutes," he said of the visit. "Seeing kids in here when they should be outside playing."

He noted that it was difficult as well to see the pain in the eyes of the parents.

"I just try to stay positive for the kids and parents," he said.

Bethany Deines, director of annual gifts at the hospital, said the visit was excellent.

"The kids really appreciate it," she said. "They (the Reds) did a great job. It was really special."

Baker agreed.

When asked after the visit whether he thought the visit enriched the kids' appreciation of baseball, Baker said, "I don't know if it enriched the kids' appreciation; I know they enrich us."