It’s been three and a half decades since he Reds have sniffed a World Series, and 15 games out – in last place at the All-Star game – they’re in no position to ask what they once called the best fans in the major leagues for a little more time, and patience.
Like many of the rest of you, I no longer watch Reds games.
It’s hard, and it’s not pretty.
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Someone joked on a radio talk show over the weekend that watching them is like watching the old Bill Murray movie, Groundhog Day. Tbe story’s the same every day.
When they hit they can’t pitch.
When they pitch they can’t hit. They’re the worst in baseball at hitting with runners in scoring position.
They continually whine about being a small-market team, ignoring the reality, apparently, that Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, and the Arizona Diamondbacks are just as small, but they’re at least competitive and interesting.
Their farm system is busted, devoid of ready prospects to trade for the kind of immediate help they need in the big leagues.
Their player development system is rooted in young players who get off to a positive start in A Ball Dayton, a brief stint at Chattanooga, then rushed to the big leagues before they’re ready to compete at that level.
Even their medical team is suspect now after starting pitcher Nick Lodolo was again shelved over the weekend because of blisters on his pitching hand.
Infatuated with the fool’s gold of last year’s Wild Card entry in the National League playoffs, they were swept by the soon-to-be World Champion Dodgers. They weren’t competitive, losing 8-4 and 10-5. But instead of questioning the outcome, they took confidence in the process that got them there – the on-again, off-again play that saw them beat out the Mets for the final playoff spot. Because the Mets beat themselves.
It’s now been 36 years since what the Reds front office once called the most knowledgeable fans in major league baseball could buy a World Series ticket – 36 years since Lou Piniella and the wire-to-wire Reds of 1990 swept the powerful Oakland A’s with Canseco and McGwire.
Then, somehow Marge Schott got the notion that they didn’t need all those baseball scouts on the payroll. She famously said, “All they do is travel around and watch guys play baseball.”
But not the right guys, apparently.
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Presently…..
Will Benson….a .188 avg, 3 HRs, 18 hits
TJ Friedl…a .181 avg, 3 HRs, 34 hits
Matt McClain…a .190 avg, 8 HRs, 51 hits
Ke’Bryan Hayes…a .143 avg, 2 HRs, 18 hits
Noelvi Marte…a .195 avg, 6 HRs, and 25 hits
Tyler Stephenson…a .238 avg, 6 HRs, 54 hits
Pete Rose as he looked as a rookie in 1963…and before he wore #14. The worst he hit in 24 years as a big leaguer was .264, and that as a part-time player.
Among the above, four first-round draft choices – Benson (Indians), McClain, Hayes (Pirates) and Stephenson
That’s just some of their issues, of course. But some on the call-in shows are blaming Terry Francona for not getting the best out of those sultans of swat. Seriously, Francona has won two World Series with Boston, he’s respected as one of the best managers in the major leagues, but even the best managers need players. He’s paid to manage the hand he’s given. And the hand he’s given has neither four aces, or a full house.
And who knows…those horrid alternative ‘City Connect’ uniforms they were on weekends might have a lot to do with their record. If you know you look silly, you might play that way, too.
36 years is a long time to ask the most knowledgeable fans in baseball to be a good sport – just appreciate that you have a big league team. After all, bad major league baseball is better than no major league baseball at all.
Or is it?
Even if they were forty games over .5o0 I don’t think I could stand listening to John Sadak tell me about it.
I can remember a time in 1961, when radio man Waite Hoyt then talked about how long it had been since the Reds had won a pennant – 21 years. And as a kid you have no sense of time. But I wonder what he would say today?
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And I wonder if the Reds have any idea about how many young fans they’re burning out? Because in 1976 you couldn’t compare them on a daily basis to the rest of major league baseball like you can now. And those that do only watch and listen out of tradition…who really do believe that bad major league baseball is better than no major league baseball at all.
Bob and Phil Castellini are the two most hated men in town…Bob for promising in 2006 that under his reign the Red were not going to lose anymore. And Phil they hate for his mocking the fans who dared to ask, “Are we ever going to win again?”
They could actually take a lesson from the Marion Local Flyers, another small-market team that’s actually won 15 titles over a span of 25 years. And I know…it’s not the same.
But Tim Goodwin could not have known when he took the coaching job at Marion in 1999 that he would be this successful. He just had a plan, and that plan wasn’t to blame failure on the size of the community.
And the plan? Scouting…player development….and don’t put players out there before their time.
36 years, and counting!
After the game stop by for a winning ‘Big Buy’ at The Spot, in Sidney…Shelby County’s downtown dining tradition.