Cincinnati Reds Ownership Profile

NAME: Robert Castellini
AGE: 58
WHO HE IS: Majority Owner of the Cincinnati Reds
OUR NICKNAME FOR HIM: Fruit & Veggie Bob
DOES HE LOOK ANGRY AS SHIT IN THAT PICTURE?: Holy fuck, does he ever.
BEST. MOVE. EVER.: Firing Wayne Krivsky
WHY WE WANTED TO CUT HIS BALLS OFF: Letting someone (that little bald-headed fucker Walt Jocketty) talk him out of giving Adam Dunn a long-term contract extension.
FAMOUS QUOTES: “The losing stops NOW!”
“While the run production generated by these two veterans will not be quickly replaced, we chose to endure the short-term ramifications for the sake of building a strong, competitive team for 2009 and many seasons to come.” (on trading Dunn & Griffey) *Note: we weren’t ‘strong’ or ‘competitive’ in 2009 but whatever
WHY HE DESERVES FORGIVENESS: He’s going to be signing Aroldis Chapman’s checks.
FINISHING MOVE: Stinkfacing his wife and disgruntled employees
SCOUTING REPORT: While we’ve been critical of Big Bob in the past on this site as well as others, we think that he really is trying to build a winner in Cincinnati. He was an avid baseball fan for 30 years prior to becoming majority owner of the Reds. You’d think because of this (and we’ve had owners in Cincinnati who weren’t fans–Marge Schott & Carl Lindner) that the product on the field and atmosphere at the ballpark would be as good as it’s been in 20 years in Cincinnati. The bottom line is even with the fan-friendly efforts of Big Bob, the jury is still out.
The signing of Aroldis Chapman and the effort in adding a somewhat strong and credible leader in Walt Jocketty are both moves that Castellini sprung for deeply out of the wallet. This however, is consistent with what he basically promised that he would do.
We’ve been at games and sitting on the first row behind the Reds dugout and saw the entire Castellini clan sitting with the fans and high fiving after a big come back victory. That’s refreshing to see. But the bottom line is that you need an owner who owns to build a true winner.
With so much happening on the field of play and so much uncertainty in performances, health of your athletes, and the consistency of your managerial and front-office decisions; you must be willing to break out the wallet at the right time and win at all costs.
We’d personally have liked to see Bob swing for the fences and go for broke to beef up this team this past offseason. Once again, the splash of signing Aroldis Chapman was absolutely huge but we feel that another key free agent or two would have really sprung this team into serious contenders for the next few years.
Instead, when do you hear people talking about the Reds being ‘on-schedule to compete’? Everyone is saying ‘look out for 2011’. The truth of the matter is, great teams end up competing a year or two or three ahead of schedule most of the time. This is an important year for the Reds and Castellini.
Hopefully if we’re within striking distance come this June or July you see Castellini give the go-ahead to add not one but several key components to this team. And hopefully now you have a better idea of who pays the bills for our favorite franchise.