Chris Sabo is recovering from surgery on both shoulders, but that’s not going to stop the Reds Hall of Fame third baseman from his most important duty on Opening Day – waving to fans as grand marshal of the Findlay Market parade.
“It’s quite an honor,” Sabo said from his home in Florida. “You know, it’s probably the last honor I’ll get as a Red. So I’m looking forward to it.”
Sabo, a three-time National League All-Star who played on the Reds’ wire-to-wire World Series championship team in 1990, recently shared the origin of his trademark Rec Specs sports goggles and the day then-Reds manager Pete Rose bestowed a nickname that has endured nearly 40 years.
“If you knew Pete, he gave nicknames to everybody. That was sort of a thing,” Sabo said.
In the late 1980s, Budweiser was running a popular ad campaign featuring a bull terrier named Spuds MacKenzie. The rest is Reds history.
“He told me one day during batting practice, he goes, ‘Sabes, you look like that commercial, that dog in the commercial, Spuds MacKenzie.’ So, he started calling me Spuds MacKenzie. And then everyone caught on to it. And then eventually, it just got down to Spuds. And, honestly, they still call me that.
“Actually, my granddaughter calls me Spuds,” Sabo said. “So I think it’s something I just have to deal with. And honestly, most people call me Spuds. No one really calls me Chris.”
