It’s time for our first #RedsTweetUp of 2012, presented by Cincinnati.com! Join us Friday, May 11^th as the Reds take on the Washington Nationals. It’s also the first Fireworks Friday of the season. The $25 TweetUp package includes:

• One mezzanine level ticket in the special #RedsTweetUp section, alongside other Reds fans, media, bloggers and celebrity tweeters
• A $10 concession credit to be used at that night’s game
• An exclusive, limited edition Reds TweetUp t-shirt

It’s a $59 value for just $25.  The special #RedsTweetUp package is on sale exclusively at reds.com/tweetup

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The 2K Sports RV’s coast-to-coast tour will stop at Great American Ball Park on Tuesday, May 1.  Reds fans can check out MLB 2K12 demos on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 along with limited edition swag. The 2K Sports RV will be parked in the Fan Zone from when gates open at 5:40 to 8pm.

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/356196131087074/

Twitter: @2KSports (hashtag: #MLB2K12)

And here’s the MLB 2K12 commercials featuring Jay Bruce:  http://youtu.be/X22lzaE9KeM and http://youtu.be/-rK2Ef_WS80

The Cubs are coming to town for a three game series on Tuesday and we want to make sure the ballpark is a sea of RED.  Take advantage of a special discounted ticket offer for the Reds vs. Cubs game on Wednesday, May 2nd on our Reds Facebook page.  LIKE us now and save on tickets in your favorite non-premium seating section of the ballpark!  http://www.facebook.com/reds  Go Reds!

Pitching dominates Opening Day of the inaugural Reds Futures High School Showcase presented by PNC Bank

The inaugural Reds Futures High School Showcase presented by PNC Bank kicked off Sunday, April 25 with two games at Roselawn Park and one game at Western Hills High School.

Reds COO Phil Castellini threw out a ceremonial first pitch prior to the Turpin vs. Western Hills game.

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MADEIRA 10, SHRODER 0

Junior Andrew Benintendi pitched four scoreless innings, combining with two relievers, on a no-hitter as Madeira knocked off Shroder in the first game of the inaugural Reds Futures High School Showcase presented by PNC Bank at Roselawn Park on Sunday afternoon.

WALNUT HILLS 9, CLARK 0

Senior left-hander Aaron Frank allowed just one hit and struck out 10, facing just one batter over the minimum, in hurling a complete-game to lead Walnut Hills to a 9-0 victory over Clark in the second game of the Reds Futures High School Showcase Sunday at Roselawn Park.

TURPIN 10, WESTERN HILLS 0

Senior Ryan Paytes tossed a complete-game, two-hitter to lead Turpin to a 10-0 win over Western Hills in the Reds Futures High School Showcase game played Sunday evening at Arch McCartney Stadium. Paytes also fanned seven in his six innings of work.

All three games in the Reds Futures High School Showcase were originally scheduled to be played Saturday, the first day of the Ohio regular season. But heavy rains and soggy field conditions forced the games to be moved to Sunday.

The 25-game, 50-school event continues though Monday, April 2, leading up to the Reds vs. Futures Spring Showcase on Tuesday, April 3, at Great American Ball Park. For more information on both events, visit www.reds.com/showcase.

Hundreds of diehard Reds fans waited outside Great American Ball box office windows to purchase tickets for Opening Day on April 5th.  The 1,500 tickets sold out in 40 minutes and also included a ticket to the Spring Showcase Reds vs.  Futures game on April 3rd.  Reds Public Relations Manager and expert mascot photographer Michael Anderson took these photos from this morning’s on sale.

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The Reds also announced this morning that Aaron Boone will be the Grand Marshal of the 2012 Findlay Market Opening Day Parade.

On Friday morning at Great American Ball Park, Asia the elephant from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey made an appearance on Crosley Terrace.

Enjoying the elephant were about 50 elementary school children from the Most Valuable Kids organization. They got to cheer Asia on as she showed her batting talent to Mr. Red (she can hold a bat in her trunk) and kick an over-sized ball to Mr. Red.

In addition to seeing Asia bat, the children received an animal care lesson by one of the circus’ animal caregivers, participated in a CircusFit® exercise activity with Ringling clowns and received free tickets to the show this weekend at U.S. Bank Arena.

Reds animal photographer Michael Anderson captured the event.

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Happy New Year, Reds fans! Hope you had a safe and fun celebration wherever you happen to be in Reds Country.

As appears to be the custom, I will begin my guest blog by thanking BOR’s big cheese Jamie Ramsey for asking me to participate in the coverage during his well deserved absence. J-Ram, hopefully this one stays true to the lofty standards you’ve set for us all.

I have guest blogged in the past here, but since I don’t A) have a radio show or B) work as a mascot, it’s likely that roughly 99.3% of you don’t know who I am. I’m Jarrod Rollins, communications manager for the Reds. I work with Jamie and Lisa Braun on many of the Reds’ online communications and marketing, while also working with pretty much every department in the organization on writing and editing for everything from sales brochures and publications to letters and signage. It’s this part of the job that earned me the nickname “Wordsmith” a couple years ago from our VP of ticket sales, the one and only John Davis. Like many nicknames, it’s slowly shortened recently, first to “Smithy” and now at times to “WS” in e-mails. I’m thinking once I return to the office on Tuesday it may be down to # or some other special character.

Now, onto more interesting things – most notably, your Cincinnati Reds. Like many of you, I can’t wait for the 2012 season to roll around, especially after the addition of Mat Latos to the top of the rotation. A lot can be said – and has been said – about the price we had to pay to get him, but a lot can also be said about what this kid brings to the table. He’s a young stud with a high strikeout rate, and he’s certainly NOT a product of PETCO Park. The prospect of having Latos and Johnny Cueto as a 1-2 with more young bucks in Mike Leake and Homer Bailey supporting them for years to come has to make the rest of the NL Central a bit nervous.

When I look ahead to 2012, it also occurs to me that this will be the 10th season for Great American Ball Park. I have a hard time believing the park’s been open that long, just as I have an equally hard time believing it will be my ninth season full-time with the club. Before that, I was an intern for a year during the ballpark’s inaugural season, and I still feel honored to have been a part of that special year, even if it was in a small way. Although I always enjoyed Riverfront Stadium, I remember being happy that the Reds would again have a home that was dedicated to baseball. Even when we host events like the Paul McCartney concert, you still have that feel of Reds baseball around. I think that’s pretty cool.

Over my time with the Reds, I’ve experienced plenty of great moments at GABP. Not quite as many as Jamie and some others, but plenty enough to appreciate how lucky I’ve been. I was in the stands for the first Opening Day in 2003. I was there for the 2010 division clinch, which thankfully many of you were a part of as well. I was there for Sir Paul and to see a sitting President throw out a first pitch. I was there on field level to see the beginning of GABP’s first playoff game and biggest crowd ever at the ballpark on 10/10/10.

Yet, as I’ve told several people before, one moment sticks out above all the rest. As you may remember, in 2009 and 2010 the Reds hosted Major League Baseball’s Civil Rights Game, which included a weekend full of festivities featuring dignitaries from sports, entertainment and the civil rights movement. During the first weekend in 2009, the three big honorees were Muhammad Ali, Bill Cosby and Henry Aaron. Talk about a heavy-hitting lineup. Prior to the game that Saturday, Reds players had the opportunity to meet “The Greatest” in the hallway outside of the clubhouse. I made sure one of our team photographers was there to get a few shots and will always remember how special that part of the weekend was. I’m used to seeing our players at GABP, at Redsfest, on the Caravan and elsewhere signing for fans with smiling faces who are thrilled to meet their favorites. However, on this day it was the players who were awestruck. It was the players who scrambled back to their locker to grab their cell phone to get a photo taken. It was the players who were beaming at the opportunity to shake Ali’s hand. That was a great reminder for me that even though we may idolize many of our favorite athletes or artists or actors, they’re still just regular people, with their own idols and childhood heroes.

Well, I think I’ve used up enough of your time with this post, so I’ll let you all return to your normal New Year’s Day festivities/recovery. If you’d like to hear more from me (which makes you a saint by the way), you can find me on Twitter @jarrodrollins talking Reds baseball, Bengals football, Hoosiers basketball, WWE, poker and more.

Jarrod Rollins is Communications Manager for your Cincinnati Reds.  Nothing in the front office gets done without him.

WHATTTTT????  Is it REALLY the final day of 2011??  Wow, what a quick year this was.  Hopefully each of you had the opportunity to do something new, exciting and fulfilling in each of your lives.  For me there are some great memories that I will always remember the year by – including witnessing Joey Votto’s “This is SportsCenter” commercial shoot firsthand, traveling to Europe for the first time, going to trapeze school with my staff after another successful Redsfest, the big Paul McCartney concert at GABP, completing my second full marathon & much, much more.  What will you remember 2011 by?  We’ll get to more of that in a moment as we talk about our favorite memories from the award-winning Better Off Red blog at the end of this segment.  But in the meantime, I wanted to share some things to look forward to in 2012 with everyone!

Here are my top 5 things to look forward to in 2012 (your own list may vary – you should Tweet them or post in the comments below!):

1.       Opening Weekend at GABP – Only speculating here, because I don’t set the lineups or make the team roster out, but it should be pretty awesome to see an opening series rotation that could include Johnny Cueto, newly acquired Mat Latos and veteran Bronson Arroyo and/or Mike Leake!  Also back is our outstanding lineup including @DatDudeBP, Joey MVP Votto, TreyDuece, Mr. Rolen, Snacks, The Gazelle, the “other” Zack and many more.  I think we’ll have an exciting team in 2012, and Opening Weekend with the pomp & circumstance of Opening Day, the glitz and glamour of Opening Night, and also a GREAT family day to visit the ballpark on Sunday afternoon, should just be a special way to start the season.  I hope you’re looking forward to it as much as those of us around the offices are!

2.       Reds Hall of Fame Induction Weekend – I absolutely love Sean Casey.  I got the opportunity to work with him for 3 seasons when I first began my job, and he’s an all-around class act.  I cannot wait to hear his acceptance speech during pregame ceremonies at GABP on Saturday, June 23^rd and then the full-length version at the Duke Energy Convention Center on Sunday evening at the HOF Gala.  Get your tickets for these events before they’re gone!

3.       New Music – @Jamieblog and I will be tweeting about this throughout the year, sorry if it annoys you all (that includes you, Mo Egger).  Personally I look forward to the new album by Tennis (February 14^th – produced by Patrick Carney of The Black Keys), The Shins (coming in March) & Cat Power (TBA).  I’m sure there will be more – hopefully a full length album by The Alabama Shakes!  (credit where it’s due to @Jamieblog for tuning me in to that fantastic band)

4.       London Olympics – I am not much for the Winter Olympics, but I really do enjoy the summer games, especially track & field.  We’re going to try and plan some fun things here at the ballpark to coincide with this big event.  I have a feeling our mascots will be heavily involved in whatever we do to that end!  I’m pretty sure that everyone would like to see a “Better Off Red Olympics” too (get to work on that Jamie & Lisa!).

5.       MLB Postseason – I’ll leave it at that.

So, I happened to walk by @Jamieblog’s office before making this post, to try and gather ideas for it, and I happened upon his three New Year’s Resolutions – check them out – and yes, believe it or not he wrote them in crayon!

Finally, as promised, here is a compilation of everyone’s favorite moments from Better Off Red 2011.  Thank YOU for making it the blog it is today.  And I suppose we should give some credit to the guy who writes the vast majority of the posts too.

Good work Jamie Ramsey.

Had to be the #HatsOffCin campaign!  – @LoriS526

the Vote Reds lunch, the umpteen days of Christmas, and Jamie’s trip to fantasy camp. – @KarenCincy

Getting “welcomed” by Jamie on the first day and already feeling like part of the team!  – @pk927

The #HatsOffCIN movement, culminating in the #VoteRedsLunch…and winning the contest. – @BrianWedge88

Jamie’s (fake?) Christmas card for sure. Still laugh every time I see it!  – @kim_brough

I loved all the Vote Reds Lunches, great way to get fans involved and to get our boys to the All Star Game! – @MBM71

@jamieblog isn’t going to like this but the Christmas card spoof was pretty hilarious!  – @Tonester5

Favorite moment of the year – Adding a new fan to the #Reds Nation – @paulpetera – @Tonester5

I have a couple favorites.. winning Cozart jersey(UmpteenDaysOfChristmas),Ramsey Christmas card, photos(stadium, events,etc) – @Redsfan_4192

one of my favorite has gotta be getting my magic shoelaces and BOR shirt at the redlegs run – @jesserz923

The Burt Awards  – @MissAmbur

Of course there’s nothing like a good FUNKBLAST! #BOR2011 — @MBM71

My favorite moment was the rally before Sunday Night Baseball – finding @Jamieblog, folks w/ BOR signs, Larkin – @laurie_PDX

My fave moment was almost falling off my chair at work when Ramon hit that walk off 3 run HR on Opening Day. Awesome! — @kwanfan1212

clearly Burt Bobblered’s national television debut on @ManvFoodNation  – @adumturer

when @Jamieblog fields questions about gate opening – @theworldofdale

late to the party, but my #BOR2011 fave moment was definitely #RedsForPaul. It’s pretty much the reason I’m here! -- @paulpetera

Folks – that’s all the time we have for now, but your regularly scheduled programming will resume next week when @Jamieblog returns from his vacation.  He’s been tweeting about sunny Sarasota, Florida, but that is just a cover up story.  He’s actually in San Francisco.  Odd time to visit San Fran, I know, but I believe he spent most of his time here:  http://www.catmuseumsf.org/.

Be safe tonight & Happy New Year!

–@Bongreatness

Zach Bonkowski is the Director of Promotional Events for your Cincinnati Reds and proud godfather to Jamie’s cats, Grace and Scout.