WHY WE LOVE: BRANDON PHILLIPS

This is Ted of A Price Above Bip Roberts reporting for Sunday night duty over at Neate's spot, after he was gracious enough to write me a 1,600 word essay on former Expos in the bigs.

OK, OK. I hear you. The Reds are absolutely God awful. There's no way you could ever love a Red; socio-culturally, there's about as much chance as you embracing a Great American Ballparker as there is of Adam Dunn suddenly becoming the next Tony Gwynn. If you came home and proclaimed your love for a Red, your mother would disown you, like she threatened to when you talked of that Neate boy from down the street.

But what if I told you there was one with 19 HR right after the break, including 2 HR and 7 RBI in the past week? And - GET THIS - his name is NOT Dunn or Griffey or even Freel. No. It's Brandon Phillips, 2B for the Cincinnati Reds. And there are plenty of reasons to love the man. Here we go now:

- Love him because he's allowed us to come conversationally full-circle today. Phillips was initially drafted by the Expos.

- Love him because he's a Dawg at heart. At one point, the Raleigh native was going to play football and basketball for the University of Georgia (note: one time at a Dawgs tailgate, a fight was actually ended by a third party saying "We're all Dawgs here, aren't we?").

- Love him because he ended up where he wanted to be. Phillips has played his entire pro career in the state of Ohio - first with the Indians, then with the Reds - which seems to make sense for a player whose HS number was based on his favorite player, Mr. Barry Larkin.

- Love him because he was involved in the Bartolo Colon, but cannot currently be described as a "footnote" in said deal. We adore people who can avoid disparaging nicknames.

- Love him because he's part of a helluva Raleigh Natives Sports Scene, that includes such out-and-out ballers as Blazers coach Nate McMillan, Olympian Justin Gatlin, former Hurricanes star Ron Francis, and Kristi Yamaguchi (not to mention Petey Pablo!).

- Love him because his current home of Stone Mountain, GA (off-season home, of course) is also home to such societal notables as Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Mother Vinegar drummer Kevin Cassels, "Chilli" from TLC, and USA striker Josh Wolff.

- Love him because his alma mater, Redan HS in Georgia, is also the former home of Chris Gardocki, the current Steelers punter who - to this day, over a decade and a half since debuting in the NFL - has never had a punt blocked.

- Love him because he was born the same day Terry Fox died, and hell, that's gotta mean something in the grander scheme of life, right? I was born the day Reagan won his first term, and depending on who you believe, that either means I'm headed for elected office or some psycho ward in the mountains of Utah.

- Love him because his whole family is full of athletes, including his sister Porsha, a basketballer whom he calls "the best (athlete) in the whole family." Gotta love a boy who gives it up for his sister.