"Frazier comes through for disabled batboy, making him my favorite."

Greg Doyel:

Maybe you know the story by now, and if you do, you know it for the home run, the called shot, the touching connection between Teddy Kremer and Todd Frazier. I know it for those things, but I know it for two other reasons as well. Those reasons are coming, but for those who don't know the story -- or for those who'd like to relive it -- here it is:

Teddy Kremer handles batboy duties for the Reds from time to time. It started last season when his parents won a silent auction at a local school, minimum bid $300, for one game as a batboy. The Kremers bid the minimum and won, because nobody else bid. Why? Probably, as the Cincinnati Enquirer's Paul Daugherty surmised in this beautiful story, because people at the school knew how much the Reds meant to Teddy and didn't want to bid against him.

Anyway, Kremer handled those duties with such charm that he became a local sensation and then went national, attending President Obama's State of the Union address in February as a guest of Speaker of the House John Boehner, an Ohio native from nearby West Chester. At one point in the program, Obama picked Teddy out of the crowd and waved.

Teddy has that effect on people. He has it on me, and I've not met him. Not yet, anyway. That's on my bucket list.

Back to Frazier, and the home run. Teddy was a batboy for the Reds game Thursday when he announced in bits and pieces that he wanted three things: 11 runs for the Reds, 11 strikeouts for the pitching staff -- a local pizza company, LaRosa's, gives fans a free pizza when the Reds whiff 11 batters, and Teddy loves that pizza -- and a home run for Todd Frazier.

The Reds scored those 11 runs and recorded those 11 strikeouts. As for Frazier, this is what Teddy told him before his at-bat in the sixth inning: "Come on, hit me a home run, I love you."

And this is what Frazier told Teddy: "I love you too. I'll hit you one."

I love you too.

That's reason No. 1 why Todd Frazier is my favorite player. Not that he promised Teddy a home run, but because he told Teddy, "I love you too." Ballplayer or not, who does that? What grown man tells another grown man that? My favorite player does.

Frazier then hit a 420-foot laser to center -- not a long fly ball that carried, but a line drive that just kept rising. The video of the home run is midway down this page. The home run was unbelievable, the timing and even the scorching majesty of it, but that's not Reason No. 2 why Frazier is my favorite player. The photo is.

That one. The one at the top of this page.

Look at that thing. Look at Teddy's glee, but also look at Frazier. He's giddy, and not because he hit a home run -- but because the home run made Teddy so happy.

Look at that smile on Frazier's face, understand why he's smiling and then tell me he didn't just become one of your favorite players. There's plenty of room on the Todd Frazier bandwagon, so I'll allow it.

But I saw him first.

Read the rest.