2 things

1. Boxing is dead

I am a sucker, nay, a RUBE. A rube is the type of person living in a small town that would get overjoyed when the circus would come to town. He would take his fist full of currency down to the orgy of fried food and twirling metal and step up to every ring toss and milk bottle topple game on the property. And the man would get fleeced at every stop. And walk home empty. That's a rube.*

*A rube is also the same guy that dumps hundreds of dollars into a stripper's G-string and is convinced that she likes him. Just to give you the modern perspective.

I got fleeced by this Mayweather-De La Hoya fight. I watched the HBO special, which looking back, was more of a savvy infomercial than a documentary. I read the scouting reports. I was prepared for a monster bout of epic proportions. What I saw was two highly trained athletes dance around a ring for 36 minutes. One round bled into the next. There was no ebb or flow. No momentum shift. Just boredom.

Boxing purists will tell you it was a beautiful display by masters of the sport. Those same words could have came out of the mouth of a circus ring master. The fight was a dud. There was no sense of urgency. Mayweather, the 'pound-for-pound' champion, settled on scoring points from the outside. What real champion allows judges to decide his fate? Figure skaters.

The fact is, I pay $64 to see some violence. I want blood. I want a few heads snapped back. I want exchanges. I want punches thrown with murderous intent. And boxing failed to deliver. Again.

2. The Reds are dying

You can break baseball down into a million parts but for this point, I am going to separate the game into 4 sections: starting pitching, bullpen, offense and defense. You need each of those 4 areas to be effective to win baseball games. And the Reds just can't seem to get them all to work at the same time - and have not been able to since 1999.

The 2007 Cincinnati Reds finally have the starting pitching. This was the missing piece for so many years. The heart of the machine is pumping strong, only the liver, kidney and lungs have failed. The offense is streaky and is lousy at small ball. The defense is better but the outfield corners are slow and weak when Griffey and Dunn are playing. And the bullpen. Oh the bullpen. This group has pissed away wins and nullified quality starts. In six games, The Houston Astros have scored 17 runs in the 8th inning. Alone. All against the bullpen. That is an absolute joke.

What's worse is that the Reds have played one of the easiest schedules (29th out of 30) so far this season. They have yet to play the Braves, Mets and Dodgers. Inter-league play looms. This was the section of the season where the Reds needed to stockpile some wins. The Reds are 14-18, and 8 games back of the Brewers. After this series against the Astros, the Reds go on a west coast road trip (always a miserable stretch) against the Dodgers and Padres followed by a series in Cleveland (who are 11-3 at home). This season might be over before June.