Facing the ugly truth, the Reds just aren't that good

Today the Reds jumped out to a 4-0 lead and as I spent the day with my boss, running one sales appointment after another, I was in a great mood seeing that my boys might take a series on the road, the first tilt of the year with the defending World Champion St. Louis Cardinals.

Slowly, that lead disintigrated and with it went my good mood. This team found a way once again to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and probably held no shame in doing so. They shit the bed and fucked me over and ruined my day.

At least in years past, you could count on this team to jump out to an improbable run that would see them ruling the NL Central and maybe even the entire National League for a while. Then, slowly, injuries would eat away at the team like a cancer, an unstoppable rebel force and send us fans’ dreams of a playoff chase to a firey death before September ever came. This year, they seem content just to be ordinary in a very ordinary NL Central that simply isn’t very good either.

22 Games gone. That’s 1/8th of the season, if you’re a guy who lives and breaths baseball like myself. There’s been enough baseball for me to see that this team just doesn’t have ‘it’ to get it done. They’re not the cinderella Detroit Tigers of the league this year like I predicted them to be. They’re not even the best team in my home state.

They refuse to do the little things right. They can’t bunt, they can’t hit with runners in scoring position. They can’t hit and run, and their bullpen blows leads that end up being heart wrenching defeats. They lose close games, and don’t play from behind well. With a lead they play scared, like a deer during the first day of hunting season. They sit around and wait for a 3-run homer that never comes. They waste quality start after quality start by guys that would have 3 or 4 wins deservedly on better team. Some nights they make bonehead plays in the field, in fact they do it most nights.

Their best hitter is a guy that has never played Major League Baseball before this year. In fact, he’s never played above low-A ball before this year basically. He remains the storyline that keeps me interested. Is it possible for Hamilton to win Rookie of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, and be an All-Star? It is probably the best story in the past 20 years in baseball thus far, and it’s been a magical ride even if it doesn’t last a day longer. This ballclub is lucky because he alone will sell tickets this summer and put butts in the seats, trust me. That is if the manager is smart enough to keep him in the lineup every day, which I have my doubts about.

They play with no passion. To live and die with a team that doesn’t care about winning each and every night hurts, you know? Fuck you Reds for doing this to me.

(Cue Bobby Knight Rant) If you don’t go into Pittsburgh this weekend and kick some major ass, and start scoring runs like a big league ballclub, I’m done. No one makes the fuckin’ team next year. I’ll run ya till you can’t even fuckin’ believe it. Now I’m not even fuckin’ kiddin. If you don’t recover Greg Graham. If you’re just gonna let him drive the lane, then I’m fuckin just gonna go right now. I didn’t come all this way to fuckin’ lose to Purdue. You will not fuckin’ do this to me. (/end Bob Knight rant).