When a team wins a championship, be it a World Series or a division title, there is often a game, or a play, or a pitch a manager or player is going to recall as the turning point that started their run to the title.  I remember a game as a young(er) Reds fan, when a third-string catcher named Hal King hit a two-out, three-run walk-off home run (only back then they didn’t call them walk-off hits . . . they were just game-winners) to beat the first-place Dodgers 4-3.  The Reds were in fourth place, and the win put them nine games behind the Dodgers.  The Reds went on to finish with an incredible 60-26 record and they took the Western Division by 3-1/2 over the Dodgers, which at that time was a fierce rivalry.  King’s dinger (off Hall-of-Famer Don Sutton) was largely credited with providing a badly-needed boost to the talent-laden team that was wallowing at the .500 mark up to this point.  It was a definitive moment for the Big Red Machine.  You can catch an excellent chronicle of that day in Reds’ history at Redleg Nation.

Perhaps the most renowned turning point in modern Base Ball lore belongs to Kirk Gibson of the Dodgers in Game 1 of  the 1988 World Series.  Los Angeles was not expected to put up much of a challenge to the mighty Oakland A’s, led by the Beefed Bash Brothers, Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco.  Gibson, sore knees and all, hobbled to the plate against the great Dennis Eckersley.  He took a 3 & 2 slider and poked it into the right-field bleachers for a 5-4 Dodger victory (at that time it was the first time in World Series history that a team had trailed and homered to win in the bottom of the ninth).  The A’s were stunned, and the Dodgers went on to win the Series in five games.

A more recent event of significance actually took place during spring training.  In 2008, the Yankees were playing Tampa Bay, when the Yanks’ Shelley Duncan slid into second base with spikes flying high into 2nd baseman Aki Iwamura.  The Rays’ right-fielder promptly sprinted toward the two and tackled Duncan, clearing the benches.  The right-fielder was none other than Jonny Gomes.  Gomes commented that “they weren’t going to be pushed around by the Yankees anymore.”  The Rays maintained their swagger and went on win 97 games, representing the American League in the World Series that was eventually won by Philadelphia.

The talk of the baseball universe on this day, of course, was the brawl in Cincinnati prompted by the comments/actions of the Reds’ Brandon Phillips and the Cardinals’ Yadier Molina.  And it was on from there.  My take is this:  It is not uncommon for a player or coach (usually a player, saying something he shouldn’t have said) to make a brash comment regarding an opponent.  His salvo in an interview with Hal McCoy from the Dayton Daily News is well-documented:

“I’d play against these guys with one leg. We have to beat these guys. I hate the Cardinals. All they do is bitch and moan about everything, all of them, they’re little bitches, all of ‘em.”

And, of course, this was uttered right before the three-game series against the Cards, the biggest set to hit Cincinnati in many, many years.  This was lauded by some as providing some spunk, a tool used to fire up his teammates.  The problem  is, if the team does not respond in kind and roll over the dreaded Cardinals and take the series, they look beleaguered.  Which is exactly how the Reds looked.  Phillips, for his part, went 2-14 in the series with two harmless singles.  Following the brawl on Tuesday night, the Reds responded with four runs on six hits and three errors.  The top-scoring team in the NL had a total of eight runs and 14 hits for the three games.

Had Phillips hit the dinger instead of Yadier Molina to lead his team to victory on Tuesday evening, his brash statement and instigative “shin-taps” at home plate which set off Molina would be looked upon as “colorful”, and perhaps the turning point in their run for a title.  But he didn’t step up, and he looks foolish.  If this series is indeed a turning point, it belongs to the Cards.  The Reds, on the other hand, are at a low point in their marvelous season.  They have faced one other similar funk in the 2010 campaign.  This was the one where the Reds coughed up a nine-run lead and lost to the Braves on a walk-off grand slam by Brooks Conrad off of (none other than) Francisco Cordero.  You had to hold your breath and hope that the young team would shake it off and play good ball again, and they did.  They won seven of the next ten games and got back to playing solid baseball.

I just have to say . . .

By the way, did you hear Tony LaRussa‘s comment that he expects “disciplinary action to be taken against the Reds“?!

Really, Tony?  No one on your team had any part in the fracas?  Seems like the Reds needed a partner to dance.

Look, Phillips hurt his team.  He said something that was silly for a grown man to say to a reporter, Molina and the Cards stepped up and he and his teammates did not.  I don’t know about all the Cardinals being “whiny”, but he did, however,  speak the truth about their manager.

But I digress.

Update, August 12:  MLB announced the following suspensions as a result of the brawl on Tuesday evening:  Johnny Cueto (7 games)  and managers Dusty Baker and Tony LaRussa (2 games each).  Brandon Phillips and Russ Springer of the Reds and Cardinals Chris Carpenter and Yadier Molina were fined an undisclosed amount of money.

Perhaps the turning point for Cincinnati will be the game/series when they bounced back from being swept at home by the Cardinals.  It’s August 11th, and the Reds are one game out of first place.

One game out of first place.

It’s a good place to be on August 11th.  It all starts Friday night at home against the Marlins.

Use it, Boys!