sports newsletter

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I was blessed to have grown up not only around here but in Cedarville, one of those little towns you can find all over Ohio that lives and dies with the high school football team’s games 10 (or hopefully more) Friday nights a year.

Putting on those all-red home uniforms and red helmets of the varsity was all I wanted to do for about the first 14 years of my life, so I can relate to all of those players looking forward to starting another season with a mix of excitement and apprehension about what this fall has in store.

I will be back out there all fall looking forward to finding and telling the best stories I can from all over the Miami Valley.

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I hope you enjoy this email newsletter, and I would like to hear from you. If you have thoughts, feedback or news tips, please message me at marcus.hartman@coxinc.com.

Here’s a look at what else has been going on this week in local sports:

Joey Votto retires

The first baseman announced Wednesday night he is calling it a career after trying one last comeback with his hometown Toronto Blue Jays.

Votto was a pleasure to watch as the consummate professional hitter, and his career was also fascinating to follow because he was among the first to have to play the whole thing in the shadow of social media.

He embraced it, but fans weren’t always able to have as much fun as he seemed to be.

Not that anyone was rooting against him, but the squabbles between people who obviously believed he was great and others who wanted, let’s say, just a little more could take away from the experience at times, and they almost made appreciating his greatness more difficult.

Nonetheless, Votto is not only the Reds’ all-time greatest walker (1,355 free passes) but one of the franchise’s greatest talkers, so there is little doubt we have not seen (or heard) the rest of him.

Maybe he can replace Barry Larkin in the TV booth next year if the franchise opts to swap one Cincinnati Moeller grad for another (David Bell) at manager.

Here’s Hal McCoy’s take: Votto an all-time great who will end up in Cooperstown

Bengals Finish Preseason

Votto’s personal success did not translate to much winning for the Reds, and that was certainly not his fault.

I am tempted to say, “Hopefully Joe Burrow won’t endure a similar fate playing in Cincinnati,” but that is probably not fair since Bengals have already advanced in the playoffs multiple times and even made a Super Bowl in the Burrow era.

The last two seasons offered stark reminders of how fleeting success can be in the NFL, though.

Burrow is healthy this year, but the team is still facing some key questions as it wraps up the preseason.

Aside from Ja’Marr Chase’s contract situation, there remain issues on both lines.

On the bright side, the secondary has shown some signs of recovering from a woeful 2023, but I am going into this season assuming the Bengals will need to outscore people to win rather than rely on timely stops and field goals as they did on their way to the Super Bowl.

Dayton keeps eyes on horizon

Flyers basketball also made the news this week multiple times as fans learned they will play North Carolina in the Maui Invitational in November and they remain in the race for Antoine West Jr., a three-star recruit from Toledo also being pursued by one of the teams that played in the NCAA Tournament final last season.

These are both important parts of maintaining (and of course hoping to further elevate) the level of the program under Anthony Grant.

That is no easy task in today’s ever-changing college basketball landscape, but battling blue bloods on the court and Big Ten teams in recruiting is one way to do it.

(Shouldn’t Dayton and UNC play for some sort of Wright Flyer-themed trophy? Or would that be giving the state that only supplied some wind and sand too much credit?)