CHIEF LOGAN STATE PARK — There was a Red invasion on Friday morning at the Earl Ray Tomblin Convention Center at Chief Logan State Park.

No, there wasn’t a rally for the Communist Party.

It was a surprise stop by the Cincinnati Reds Winter Caravan, which made a brief one-hour visit in Logan after making stops in Huntington and Charleston on Thursday.

On hand were: Reds manager Dusty Baker; Reds shortstop Paul Janish; Reds Minor League Player of the Year Chris Heisey; Reds’ broadcaster Jeff Brantley; P.A. man Jim Kelch; Baseball Hall of Famer and 1990 Cincinnati Reds World Series Champion team member Eric Davis; Cincinnati mascot Rosie Red and other members of the Reds’ staff.

The most exciting news came at the beginning of the program as Joe Zerhusen, Broadcast and Affiliates Manager for the Reds, announced that Cincinnati’s Sunday, Aug. 1 home game with the Atlanta Braves would be dubbed “Logan, West Virginia Night” at The Great American Ballpark.

Logan area residents will be able to get tickets at half price for the 1:10 p.m. game. You can get those tickets on the Reds’ official website.

Zerhusen also said Logan radio station WVOW 101.9 FM and 1290 AM would have increased Reds coverage for the 2010 season. WVOW has been a part of the Braves network for at least 10 years and will continue to do so but now will carry more Cincinnati games on the air.

“I love it here. We’re appreciative to (WVOW’s) Speedy Bevins and the radio station because this year will be a better year in our relations,” Zerhusen said. “This year we’re going to play the whole schedule. We’re looking forward to the increased coverage. We thank you for having us.”

Reds fans and guests were allowed to take part in a question and answer session with Baker, his players and the staff. Many were addressed to Baker about the upcoming 2010 season which begins April 5 at home against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Reds were 78-84 last season and were fourth in the NL Central. Baker, now in his third year as the Reds’ manager, was 74-88 in 2008 and fifth place.

“I like our team a lot,” Baker said. “I like the young players that we have. I’m hoping that we’ll have Scott Rolen and Ramon Hernandez healthy. We have a lot of good athletes that can run, hit and throw. I think we have more speed than we’ve had in a really long time. We have a young pitching staff but we had one of the finest bullpens in baseball last year. Hopefully we can score some runs and beat people 3-2 and 2-1. I like our guys and I like the fact that a lot of the guys came up together. That means a lot that they know each other and they come to play and come to win.”

One person in the crowd asked Baker about newly acquired left-handed pitcher Aroldis Chapman, 21, who hails from Cuba. Chapman signed a six-year deal worth a reported $30 million with Cincinnati and is currently listed as the No. 6 starter on the depth chart. He throws a fastball which has been clocked at 100 miles per hour and a slider between 88 and 89. Chapman defected from the Cuban National Team last July in The Netherlands and then established residence in the tiny European country of Andorra before becoming a free agent.

“Our pitching coach has been working with him out in Arizona,” Baker said. “He’s a very bright young man. He’s tall. He’s about 6-5 or 6-6 and he’s well built. He’s got a pitcher’s body and he catches on very very quickly but what he can do in the big leagues we don’t know. I think the main adaptations that he’s had to make has been coming to a new country. That’s going to be the biggest adjustment that he’ll make. I think the baseball part of it will be just fine. I’m hoping that he can catch on really quickly — hopefully it’s this year to be honest with you.”

Baker said the Reds have some questions heading into the spring.

“One question for us is who is going to play left field,” Baker said. “We also need to find out who our fourth and fifth starters are going to be for us. We have a lot of candidates for those positions. Another question is how strong our bench is going to be. That’s very very important. You saw that last year when we had some injuries. You have to have a strong bench and you have to find out who your backup shortstop is going to be, who can fill in for you in right and left field and who can pinch-hit for you. Those are the biggest questions that we have going into the season.”

Baker, 60, played 19 seasons in the Major Leagues with the Braves, Dodgers, Giants and A’s from 1968-86, hitting 242 home runs, knocking in 1,013 runs and sporting a lifetime .278 batting average. He’s also been a coach for 17 years and has managed the Giants (1993-2002) and the Cubs (2003-06). He led the Giants to the 2002 World Series but San Francisco lost to the Anaheim Angels. Baker’s 2003 Cubs’ team won the NL Central but lost in the NLCS. He has an all-time record of 1,314-1,213 (.520 percent).

Baker said baseball has changed a lot over the years.

“When I came to the Reds we were a left-handed dominant team. We had Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn and players like that,” he said. “It’s hard to find right-handed power hitters now. When I played it was hard to find left-handed power hitters. I don’t know if the parents do this intentionally. A lot of the parents wouldn’t let their kids be left-handed hitters. Now it’s the other way. There’s a whole lot more left-handed power hitters than right-handed.”

Baker then turned to Davis, sitting across the table and added, “Quite frankly, I’m hoping E can suit up again.”

Baker said the ballpark building boom of the 1990s and 2000s has put an added strain on pitching staffs as most of the new stadiums have smaller dimensions.

“I missed playing in Crosley Field,” Baker said. “I did see it from the bus going from Louisville to Columbus. I played my first Opening Day ever in the big leagues as a 21-year-old at Riverfront Stadium. The ballparks were all the same at that time. They were the cookie cutter ballparks. Our ballpark now is probably smaller than the one when I was playing, therefore, pitching has become much more difficult in the smaller ballparks. The game has changed. Strikeouts are OK now. When I played, if you struck out too much you weren’t going to play. The name of the game is still pitching. That’s number one.”

Baker said today’s pitchers are more reluctant to pitch hitters inside.

“When we were kids we pitched inside because we wanted to jam you. We used wooden bats and if they broke the bat the game was over because you usually only had one bat,” he said. “Now, they use the aluminum bats. You don’t get rewarded for pitching inside anymore. You can pitch inside and give up a home run. Consequently, a lot of the pitchers today grew up not knowing how to pitch inside. We stress that to our pitchers all the time.”

Kelch also spoke during the program, saying he’s happy to join the Reds’ broadcast team.

“I’m looking forward to being full time with the Reds and I’m looking forward to working with Marty Brenneman. He’s an icon,” Kelch said.

Davis also fielded a few questions and was asked about winning the World Series with the Reds in 1990. He hit 282 home runs in his 17-year stint with the Reds (1984-91), Dodgers (1992-93), Tigers (1993-94), the Reds again (1996), the Orioles (1997-98), the Cardinals (1999-2000) and the Giants (2001).

“We had a great season,” Davis said about the ‘90 Reds which swept the heavily-favoried Oakland A’s, 4-0. “A lot of people don’t remember but we had a lockout that year during spring training and we only played nine or 10 games so we really didn’t have a lot of time to think about a lot of different things. It was the first time that when we got to spring training we had our 24 or 25 guys. We knew that we had to play nine innings from Day One. We had a lot of games that year go our way and we made some great acquisitions like getting Billy Hatcher. The strong suit was our pitching staff. Our motto as players was that we were going to go hard for six innings. We were something like 89-0 after we had the lead after seven innings. When we got to the bullpen we had them. I see some similarities with our club and this club now with the starting pitching and the bullpen.

“If everything goes well I can’t see why we won’t be standing here in this caravan in 2011 taking about the 2010 World Champions.”

The 2010 Reds Winter Caravan, presented by CincinnatiUSA.com, is scheduled to make 14 fan stops in four states covering four days and more than 2,600 miles.

The caravan kicked off Thursday and will include fan stops that will be open to the public along with Hot Stove stops at Reds on Radio affiliates. The 2010 tour is consisted of three separate caravans touring simultaneously.