OT: Reds in First Place
Where are my fellow Reds fans? First place at the All Star break and an excitement not seen in years. This team lost 100 games last season. This team didn’t win its 50th game until August 27 last season. Before this season, the over/under on wins was 66.5. I’m not saying they’re winning the World Series, may not even win the division. But the turnaround has been remarkable and most importantly it’s been FUN and the future looks promising. Need some pitching help at the trade deadline and I’m sure Mr Castellini will be happy to pay! /s
I will never root for a team from Ohio.
Hmm. From Ohio AND wearing red.
On the other hand, my best friend from the Army is a Reds fan, and a Cinti cop, worked security at the stadium.
Sooo . . . go reds. (Notice I put it in lower case letters though.)
Such a silly view of the world. I grew up in Ohio and went to Michigan. There is zero problem with being a Reds Bengals and Michigan fan.
Dude, where have you been? 100% conformity is required at all times. Are you new to the internet?
You won’t even root for an Ohio MAC team or Cincinnati to beat osu?
"To beat OSU" is a far different qualifier.
To be fair, Cincinnati is about the least Ohio-y part of Ohio.
Only cuz it’s practically Kentucky…which isn’t really an upgrade.
Gah, double post.
Toledo and Cincinnati are Solid Wolverine Country. Discussion of good things happening in Cincinnati are always welcome here. Especially from all Maize and True Blue who carry our name in Ohio.
Cincy is not "solid" Wolverine Country. Maybe 40 % OSU, 40 % Cincinnati U, the rest mixed with Kentucky, Michigan and a few others. I lived there for several years. Don't know where you're getting your info.
Live there currently. I saw this on my walk yesterday.
Exactly. That's a strong ratio as well.
Also, some folks in Cincinnati aren't OSU fans, but they aren't Michigan fans either. They just don't like OSU. Which means the root for us in The Game, but they also root for every other OSU opponent.
...wait, kinda like a Michigan fan!
Ever.
Loved the steal of home yesterday-proceeded by stealing second and third.
Did he steal first? Can you just keep running the bases til they catch you?
After he stole second, he stole 3rd uncontested on the next pitch. Then he started to walk towards home. Catcher throws the ball back to the pitcher - who then turns his back on the runner. Before the pitcher could get the ball back to the catcher, the ump was giving the Safe! sign. Awesome progression in those two pitches.
Elly! This kid can run faster, throw harder and hit further than just about anyone. Maybe Shohei exceeds him but that is it. Gonna bit the face of baseball for years to come.
Cruz for Pit is almost the exact same player. quite uncanny really. to bad he broke his leg in april.
Elly De La Cruz is a beast (and just a huge human), but Ronald Acuna Jr has to be up there in terms of physical ability. His arm from right field is damn impressive, and he's currently at 21 HR, 41 steals, and 55 RBI at the break which (20+/40+/50+) has never been done in MLB history. He's also batting a cool .331 which is good for 2nd in the NL.
I do admit that I'm a lifelong Braves fans going back to the Dale Murphy, Bob Horner, Phil Niekro days, so a little bias with Acuna, but he is deservedly getting midseason MVP talk.
It was really dumb for the pitcher to turn his back on the runner. The only reason the pitcher knew de la Cruz was racing home was that he heard the crowd noise.
If I'm a pitcher? I'd want to zip tie his ankles together - cause DAMN! (Note to pitcher and catcher, do NOT take your eyes off this guy)
His 15th game and he’s in the record books!
And he's only 21. After 30 games, he's batting .325 with an OPS of .887. Maybe pitchers will figure him out, but if they don't there will be no stopping him once he gets on base.
Let's go Redlegs!
Like the Tigers & other "old school" smaller market teams, they're fun to root for, especially with big market teams spending huge and failing spectacularly.
Hope they can keep it up. I was definitely a skeptic heading into the year, but they have proven me wrong and then some.
This would not be OT for Eleven Warriors
Meanwhile us Tigers fans are wondering how many fuckin buckets of paint we have to drink to be relevant in the AL again. I lost track after my fifth bucket
We got killed by the injury bug and don't have the depth to overcome it. The division sucks, so we're not totally out of it.
They really snatched defeat from the jaws of victory today. Thanks, Lange!
And then they doubled down by taking a high school kid at #3 in the draft tonight, when Langford from UF was right there.
Avila's revenge! Aaarrrghh!
ya, some were saying langford was the best prospect in the draft
About the only nice thing I can say about Cincinnati is they trained up Sparky pretty good. Thanks for that and please, sink into the Ohio River with your befouled chilli.
Go Reds, go Bengals and most of all Go Blue! Elly is the real deal and the team plays loose, has a ton of fun and acts like a TEAM... and wins a bunch. The culture this season reminds me a lot of Michigan football over the last couple of years. Young, talented players who play with heart and actually like their teammates.
I'm a Reds fan. It has been a heck of a lot of fun the last 7 weeks (31-14 over the last 45 games, since the 3-game sweep by the Yankees).
I hate to be "Mister No Fun", but I'm still expecting the Reds to finish .500, with the Brewers winning the NL Central fairly easily. Many of the Reds' perpiphary stats don't match their record. Their run differential is negative 9. The starting pitchers have an aggregate ERA in the bottom fifth of MLB. The one good starter of late, Andrew Abbott, has a FIP 1.5+ higher than his ERA. They are winning 1-run games more often than they are losing them. Their 2nd-half schedule is considerably more difficult than their schedule of late, and they get 5-straight winning-record teams after the ASB (MIL, SFG, ARI, MIL again and the Dodgers).
And, yeah, Phil Castellini is still alive and still acting like a used-car salesman.
That said --- I'm HOPING for the best. They're playing loose and have good chemistry - and those things do matter. Joey looks like he's having fun, enjoying being the old-man mentor, and he's back to banging homers. I'll be in the Queen City next weekend, I'm going to try to catch one of the games vs. the Brewers. There's nothing more I'd love than to see them play the Dodgers in the playoffs. The wildcard match-up that SHOULD have occurred in 2021 (sigh) .......
I’m going Saturday night. Go to 1-2 a year but haven’t been this excited to go to the ballpark in a long time.
Nice, have fun! My plan is for FCC Saturday and Reds Sunday.
I'm actually having to plan this --- won't be able to just walk up and get a cheap ticket easy.
Actually would like to see them mostly collapse, except for some of the pitchers. The current regime knocked out some of the most forward-thinking player dev people in the league.
Didn't their owner basically tell the fanbase: "Drop dead"?
I suspect whatever good fortune they currently enjoy isn't going to last.
With any luck, it''ll just move to Nashville.
Cardinals fan here. Glad for the Reds, go get 'em and all that, but to see the Cardinals 15 games below .500 is just weird. They have had one season this century where they finished below .500 (and that was 78-84) so to watch them struggle like this is hard to watch.
Another Cardinals fan here. This season has been painful. They went from having great pitching and defense to terrible pitching and defense. Molina's retirement and replacement with Wilson Contreras, a catcher the Cubs didn't want, probably has a lot to do with the ptiching collapse. It's hard to understand what happened to their defense.
Hutch,Devin Bush,Moody
Huh? They good at baseball too? Who knew?
All ten teams in the NL/AL Central have either a losing record, a negative run differential, or both.
It’s very, very B1G West.
Remember that time, way back in 1990 when the Reds actually had their last good team?! #StLCards
Guys like you are the reason I'm almost as happy to see the Cardinals in last place as I am to see the Reds in first.
Cardinals' fans like to say that they are the "Best Fans in Baseball." But I tell baseball fans from the other side of the state that THEY are the real best fans. It's easy to be a Cardinals fan (at least until this year). But to be a Royals fan? That's the true measure of a great fan.
In the past 50 years, the reds and cardinals have the same number of world series wins, so if your only counting world series-winning seasons as "good teams" the cardinals haven't been any more successful, despite a much larger payroll each year (including this year, when they are in last place)
Sorry, unless Sparky or Mayo Smith was Managing them then not my favorite team to follow.
Mayo for 1968 Tigers and Sparky's Big Red Machine and 1984 Tigers.
Honorable Mention to Leyland Tigers teams.
What has happened to the Tigers since is criminal. How can you be so bad for so long? I am literally done with baseball as a result and not happy about it. My brother and I were just zealously and carefully packaging up my 1968 and beyond baseball and other sports cards from my Dad's place we are selling and lamenting. He still holds out some hope for them but I just cannot watch how bad they are anymore.