And They Called It, "Tuffy Love"

Love the Tuffy.

LOVE THE TUFFY!

Tuffy Rhodes is back and badder than ever.

Tuffy Rhodes signs with the Cincinnati Reds. I actually think he has a 1-in-10 shot to make the team (but, really, who knows? It would be a better shot if Jim Bowden were still the GM). Rhodes has been called the greatest American player in the history of Japanese Baseball (at least according to the headline from The Japan Times; I couldn't click on the story).

Tuffy Rhodes: the best ever foreign player in Japan The Japan Times, Japan - Feb 18, 2006 The 10-year Japan career of Tuffy Rhodes has apparently come to an end with the announcement last week he had signed a contract with his hometown team, the ...

Here's another story.

http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060222&content_id=1319606&vkey=spt2006news&fext=.jsp&c_id=cin

http://www.middletownjournal.com/sports/content/sports/stories/2006/03/01/mj030206redsnotes.html

The Reds have signed on a lot of veteran players in the bullpen and on the bench.

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060302/SPT05/603020326/1035

Bullpen: 36-year-old David Weathers, 37-year-old Rick White, 38-year-old Kent Mercker and 40-year-old Chris Hammond.

Bench: 34-year-old Rich Aurilia and 35-year-old Frank Menechino and 35-year-old Quinton McCracken and 36-year-old Scott Hatteberg and 36-year-old Tony Womack and 37-year-old Tuffy Rhodes.

And out of those guys, who do I love? I LOVE THE TUFFY!

Looking at that bench, hells bells, Johnny Bench is only 58.

Last year, it was Aaron Holbert. (Don't worry, Aaron. Still pulling for you this year. But Tuffy's a better story right now.)

http://www.baseball-reference.com/h/holbeaa01.shtml

This year, so far, it's Tuffy Rhodes.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/r/rhodeka01.shtml

I live in Chicago, surrounded by Cubs fans and (curiously enough, many more) Sox fans. And never will I forget when Karl Tuffy Rhodes took Doc Gooden deep three consecutive times on Opening Day 1994. This was made especially important to me because of an inside joke I had and still have with a coworker regarding Jim Frey, who went to Western Hills High School in Cincinnati (as did Tuffy Rhodes, Don Zimmer, and Pete Rose [you betcha]). (I had a date to a high school dance with Jim Frey's niece back in the Seventies. Still cracks my friend up.) Doc Gooden was still considered a pretty damned good pitcher Opening Day 1994.

Here is the Cubs 1994 Opening Day starters (in alpha order), provided by Baseball Almanac:

1994 Chicago Cubs
Opening Day Starters
Steve Buechele
Shawon Dunston
Mark Grace
Derrick May
Mike Morgan
Karl Rhodes
Ryne Sandberg
Sammy Sosa
Rick Wilkins

And to think they were 49-64.