The Cincinnati Reds announced that the person throwing out the first pitch for Opening Day this season is none other than Hamilton County Commissioner, Todd Portune. All I have to say to that is, Are you freaking kidding me?! Opening Day for the Reds is considered a holiday around here. Everyone looks forward to the season starting, regardless of what the expectations are for the team. Throwing out the ceremonial first pitch is an honor, one that should be bestowed on someone that either means a great deal to the team or someone of high stature like a couple years ago when President George W. Bush was given the opportunity. The Reds handing the ball to Portune to throw out the first pitch is somewhat of a slap in the face of all the Reds fans as well as to the history of the franchise and those that played here in the past. Didn't they learn anything by giving the ball the Mayor Mark Mallory last year and the blunder it turned out to be?

If you ask me, there are a few other people the Reds could have offered the ball too for this great day. They could have offered it to someone in the Joe Nuxhall family. Nuxy passed away this past season and was a major part of the Reds organization for many decades. Honoring him by giving someone in his family the chance to throw out the first pitch seemed like the most sensible thing to me. If the Reds wanted to honor all of their former players that passed this past year, they could have offered the ball to a member of the Nuxhall family, someone in the Bob Howsam family as well as someone in the Sheldon "Chief" Bender family. Like Lance McAlister suggested on his radio show this afternoon, they could have had those three family members line up at the mound and simultaneously throw out a pitch to three different catchers. My last suggestion would be to give it to one of the fan favorites of the past. Someone like Chris Sabo from the 1990 World Series Championship team would have been great and would have been a much better choice than Portune. Any of these scenarios would cause the fans at GABP to go crazy and it would be something they could remember for many years to come, if not the rest of their lives.

I have nothing against Portune, don't get me wrong. But he means nothing to the Reds franchise. He doesn't have anything to do with the history of the Reds. Giving him the honor of throwing out the first pitch is just not right. Maybe the franchise will get things right next season. If they don't, they'd better get it right for the first pitch in 2010, the twenty year anniversary of the last time the Reds won a championship.