The 2011 Cincinnati Reds Exit Interview Post

The 2011 Cincinnati Reds ended their disappointing season–the most disappointing that I have ever suffered through in my 28 years–with a 3-0 shutout (2-hit) loss to a 40 year old pitcher.

I didn’t write anything that day because I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I think that says a lot about the way this season went. It’s not that there wasn’t the given amount of happy moments and magic that any casual baseball season will bring out in a romantic. There was, but they were far and few between. It just always seemed that there wasn’t enough fire in the barrel to keep a homeless man warm through the night.

I felt this season end on a couple of blown saves during a four game series in Milwaukee just before the All-Star break. I wonder if the players felt it then, too. It was July 7th, July 8th, and an especially damning blow on July 10th. That’s when the wind came out of the sails. That’s when I said to myself that there are forces against us that these men on the roster are not going to be able to overcome. That’s when I started to realize that all the hopes and dreams we had coming into this season for the young Reds would someday be no more than just a silly memory in my imagination.

They scored 735 runs while allowing 720. But it obviously didn’t feel that way. They didn’t hit in the clutch and left small towns on base. They didn’t play defensively like the 2010 division championship team. They didn’t have a starting pitcher win more than 12 games and they didn’t have another other than him win double digits.

The season began with a walk-off grand slam against the team that would end up winning the division; and it pretty much went all downhill from there.

I didn’t expect this team to win the division. I had high hopes obviously, but I thought the mighty hangover would affect this group and that they would get their sea legs underneath them for a “we’re all in” campaign in 2012. I’ve felt that way since the 2010 ALDS Division Series sweep took place.

The best part about the 2011 Reds is that we do not have to watch them or talk about them again. This post was done purely for closure, and for the memory of the taste in our mouth that is nothing but bitter and solid disappointment.

In every way from management, to front office, to the talent on the field; the Reds version 2011 left you needing and craving something more that simply never came to us.