Opening for the Reds is about 10 days off, and for the life of me I can’t seem to care. But I can list the reasons for you…why I DON’T care!
My email was full of Facebook comments this morning from people out there responding to threads about the Reds, opening day, and the annual ritual that is renewal through spring, baseball, and hope in miracles.
Example:
– A photo of GABP, apparently posted by WLW radio jock Lance McAllister.
“Gorgeous,” someone said. “Of course, the Reds aren’t there yet to mess up the picture.”
I might add, too, that if beautiful turf is all you care about call Ever-Green and tell them you want your own in the backyard…without the frustration of waiting another season for the Reds to look and play like a major league team.
– A comparative of the average cost of a ticket to attend opening day at each of the major league parks.
Someone wrote, “The Reds are $145.00, and that ‘s tenth from the lowest. Can you imagine paying $150 bucks to see the Reds, even on opening day?”
Uh, my sentiments exactly. However, I’m buffeted from a lot of baseball friends who use the argument that management is doing the best it can. That Rome wasn’t built in a day. And if we don’t pay to have major league baseball we stand the chance of losing it altogether.
What? You think Knoxville or Ft. Wayne’s gonna’ ante up the money to steal ’em away? Laughable, when you consider that every major market in the country with the money and facilities already has a major league team…and some of them can’t wait to get rid of the team it has (Tampa Bay).
– Someone posted about how much fun it’s going to be to go to Great American and see the young Reds talent develop into the next champion. The old…I was there ,when, argument.
No, for $60 (the average price of a good box seat at GABP), parking, concessions, and travel time, it’s not that much fun for the average family of five to pay $400 a night to see Triple-A baseball. And if that’s what entertains you, drive an hour east to Columbus and watch the Clippers play for $10 (ticket), $5 (parking), and concessions that are still too expensive. I pledge to drink wood alcohol before I’ll pay $8 for a beer in a ballpark…anyone’s ballpark.
When Bob Braun was alive and popular as the host of his daily TV show out of Cincinnati, one of his most-used expressions was the term, “the God’s honest truth”. Didn’t matter what he was pitching laundry soap, cars, or razor blades, what Bob was selling his listeners was the “God’s honest truth”. He was also a big Reds pitch man, and if he was alive today here’s what he’d have to tell you if the subject was Reds baseball in 2016.
It’s too expensive for the product promised…and the Reds aren’t alone!
The organization is years behind the rest of baseball in its drafting and development of young talent.
Recent drafts have left the minor leagues literally devoid of offense.
And the trades they made last year to cut payroll and restock were predicated on pitching. The position players they got for Aroldis Chapman, Mike Leake, and Todd Frazier weren’t even the top prospects of the organization to which they were traded.
It’s going to take years for the Reds to become relevant again as a contender in the National League Central, compared to the current pace of the Pirates, Cardinals, and Cubs…and all the Castellinis can do is complain about the cost of poker, and how tough it is to do business in a “small market”.
Well the Reds have always been in a small market, and they they’ve always drawn from five states to compete with cities like New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago. But the people came back then because the Reds were…GOOD! And it isn’t like those people are any less baseball fans now, but they (and I) will not spend $60 dollars to watch the Louisville Bats play the Chicago Cubs. That’s the simple economics of the Reds for 2016, which will lose 100 games, and will again go to the off-season shaking their heads over the price of poker while vowing to do better next year.
Now, if you understand the above, share with me…how excited you are for opening day, outside the promise of 68-degree weather?
And that’s the God’s honest truth!
