OUT LOUD: Danny Graves

The Reds’ closer tells Steve Rosenbloom about having fun despite the pressure.

A guy blows a save in the eighth inning, nobody looks at him. You blow a save in the ninth inning, you’re the one who lost the game. I think that’s why some guys can handle it and some guys can’t. They can’t handle the pressure.

I don’t want to say any names, but we can probably think of a few guys that throw 95 to 100 m.p.h. that are still setup guys because they don’t have the ability to pitch in the ninth inning.

People say the Wrigley fans are brutal, but I love them. They know how to have fun, they don’t get personal, they rag on you as baseball players. You have to learn to accept that.

After I gave up back-to-back homers to (Sammy) Sosa and (Moises) Alou to lose the game, the next day, they just wore me out. They hammered me. I just kept telling them, “Thanks.” “Graves, you’re terrible.” I’m like, “Thanks, guys, I appreciate it. At least you know my name.” I think if you just play along, they like to have fun with you. Once you start getting upset, that’s when they start getting personal.

Me, I think you have to have fun to play this game, regardless of what position you play, what your role is.

I think you have to be strange or unique in a way to be a reliever, because you have a chance to be out there every day and you have a lot of down time during the game, so you have to have some kind of craziness or weirdness to you.

I just buy all kinds of gadgets. I’m into electronics. I’m a nerd.

I still have the remote-control cars, but we’re not allowed to bring them into the clubhouse. They’re too dangerous because they go fast and they’re big, and if you run into somebody, it’s not going to feel too good. I’m not going to be the one blamed for putting some guy on the DL.

I’ve lost track because I’ve covered some up and added some(Tattoos). I’d say around 13 or 14. When I moved out of the house and went to college at Miami, it was my way of rebelling. Not that I needed to rebel, because I had a very good childhood growing up. But you’re on your own and you can go make your own decisions.

The first one has been covered up. It was a baseball with a lightning bolt and said “Strikeout.” Back then when I got it, I used to be able to strike people out. Now I don’t strike many people out, so I had to get rid of it.

We still make the rookies do certain things. I make somebody carry my Xbox for me. That’s pretty heavy.

Their whole starting rotation(The Cubs),even when they’re not healthy, is better than just about anybody in the game. And they’re going to be great for a long time. They’ve got a lot of young arms. Greg Maddux is the only one who’s older.

Kerry Wood, (Carlos) Zambrano, (Mark) Prior. It’s amazing.

It’s almost scary how good they are.

It’s unbelievable(Eric Gagne’s save streak of 84).Nobody will ever, ever do that. I don’t care how good somebody might think they’ll be, that record will never be broken.

I’m good friends with Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson. I’ve known him for a while. He’s a huge Reds fan.

They’ve always loved their baseball here. Unfortunately, we’ve had bad teams the last few years.

When I first got traded to the Reds, I met the team in Colorado. Lenny Harris thought I was the batboy. He wanted me to make him a sandwich.