"As a matter of fact, I'm using my own cell phone," Narron says. "There's no telling how many minutes I've used."
The man in his head
Disappointing news on the imaginary friend front: Reds outfielder Freel says the midget inside of his head was never real.
Oh, it was so delicious three weeks ago when, after he made a spectacular catch against St. Louis' Albert Pujols, Freel revealed the catch was so good that he asked his, uh, "friend" named "Farney" about it.
"I've got this little midget in my head," he said then. "I was like, 'Hey, Farney, I don't know if that was you who caught that ball. That was pretty good if that was you.'
"He talked to me once in a while. The guys give me a hard time about this extra man in my head."
Sadly, the way things stand now, the Reds won't be petitioning baseball to use a 26-man roster if they do advance to the playoffs (the extra spot being for, you know, Farney). Since dropping that little revelation, Freel has gotten so much razzing from teammates, fans who have started to call him "Farney" and others that he has sent Farney away.
"It was all a joke," Freel says. "There's no such thing. It was a joke. I let people play with it.
"I don't have a man in my head."
Now you might think all of this is silly.
But Freel's latest revelation, that there is no midget in his head, comes as news to Hatteberg, who lockers next to Freel in Cincinnati's Great American Ballpark.
"Oh, OK," Hatteberg says. "I don't know who's speaking, then. Maybe he's right. He's got a lot going on in his mind. He's got a lot of personalities.
"I don't know which ones are which."
Texas fold 'em
The Tigers will hand the ball to Kenny Rogers to start Friday's series opener against the Angels as Detroit attempts to reverse its stumbling ways, and the fact that Rogers has strung together three good starts in a row at least has lightened the mood some.
Or, as skipper Jim Leyland says, "So much for all that bull---- about the second half."
Well, perhaps, but these numbers will continue to haunt Rogers until he finishes strong:
2005 pre-All Star break: 10-4, 2.54 ERA.
2005 post-All Star break: 4-4, 4.72.
2004 pre-All Star break: 12-3, 4.21 ERA.
2004 post-All Star break: 6-6, 5.46 ERA.
He's developed a reputation as a guy who fades down the stretch, which, depending upon your perspective, might or might not be fair.
"The other thing we talked about, when we signed Kenny Rogers, we said, you're not going to be pitching in 105-degree heat in August and September like he was in Texas," Leyland says.
