DJ: Reds owner kept Votto news close to vest

CINCINNATI - You'd have never known that he had anything else on his mind. Reds' President and CEO Bob Castellini generously carved out some time Monday afternoon to talk about Barry Larkin and his pending induction to Baseball's Hall of Fame.

Castellini will lead an entourage of Reds officials to Cooperstown, N.Y., and is pleased as punch on several levels. Castellini spoke glowingly of how among all the former Cincinnati players he reached out to when he purchased the club in 2006, he was most gratified at how Barry responded. Barry has been a regular attendee at spring training in Goodyear, Ariz.

"And he doesn't devote his time to hanging around the major league complex but spends his day working with the Class A and AA guys. Showing them how to play the game the Reds way," Castellini beamed.

And Castellini is well versed on Barry's unique standing in Cincinnati baseball lore.

"You know, he's the first Cincinnati native to be inducted. That makes me as a fellow Cincinnatian very proud," he said.

And he couldn't lavish enough praise on Shirley and Robert Larkin for their parenting skills as evidenced by Barry, his sister and brothers.

"They did one heck of a job raising those kids. They are all a credit to their parents and our city. We should be very grateful for the contributions they've made to Greater Cincinnati," Castellini said.

It was only after photog Philip Lee and I took our leave that we realized how engrossed Castellini was in tribute to Barry. Within minutes of our departure, we heard the reports of Joey Votto's knee injury that would sideline him for perhaps a month.

Not once did Castellini (who has a well documented investment in his first baseman) intimate that there was anything amiss. Upon reflection it suggests to me that A: While he obviously has high regard for Votto, Castellini doesn't dwell on things he can't control, namely injuries. B: That he has every confidence that his team will prosper even in Votto's absence and C: that an unfortunate injury isn't going to cast a pall over the baseball world's tribute to one of Cincinnati's greatest players.

I have to think that many other owners would have been a basket case in the course of such an interview. Suffice to say we are far better off with Castellini than anyone else as the captain of our city's baseball ship.