I never really minded the Reds. When I was 13, I put a Reds sticker on my dirt-bike to support them in their 1990 playoff run and World Series battle with the Bash Brothers and the rest of the Oakland A’s. They haven’t really been terribly relevant, and so I’ve had pretty impartial feelings towards them for years. When Dusty Baker was picked up by the Reds, I wanted to see them fail, just because I couldn’t stand Dusty Baker. However, in the last month or so, the Reds are possibly becoming my most hated team in the division.
The Reds have become a cocky and outspoken team. There is a gray area of cocky and whiny and these Reds fall somewhere in the middle.
After the All-Star game, we awarded Joey Votto with our Asshat of the Week award for his comments about the Cubs and Marlon Byrd after Byrd’s efforts to help the National League win home-field advantage, from which the Reds could possibly benefit.
I don’t like the Cubs. And I’m not going to pat anybody with a Cubs uniform on the back.
You might be curious what Votto did to assist the NL in securing home-field advantage in the World Series. He went 0-2 at the plate.
But that’s old news. Reds players have been in the news twice this week for their statements. This week, the Reds acquired Jim Edmonds to assist him in his tour of the NL Central – 4 teams down, 2 to go. Edmonds was asked if fans would warm up to him in Cincinnati and responded with this:
As long as it’s not as bad as it was in Chicago, I’ll be all right. The media killed me in Chicago for the first three weeks until I hit my first home run.
Now I’ll admit that I don’t have the most fresh memory, but for the life of me, I don’t recall the media or fans in Chicago killing Jim Edmonds, literally or figuratively. Many fans had mixed feelings based on his years in St. Louis, but I don’t recall anyone being that difficult on him. He actually became a player I had positive feelings about, based on his effort, despite his declining skills. I posed the following question on our Twitter account: Does Edmonds think that to fit in at Cincy, you need to have an inferiority complex towards Chicago and the Cubs?
And then Brandon Phillips joined the party on Monday with his comments on the Cardinals.
I’d play against these guys with one leg. We have to beat these guys. I hate the Cardinals. All they do is bitch and moan about everything, all of them. … I really hate the Cardinals. Compared to the Cardinals, I love the Chicago Cubs. Let me make this clear: I hate the Cardinals.
The Cardinals were none to happy with these comments and Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina let Phillips know how he felt as Phillips came to the plate in his first at-bat in Tuesday night’s game. This led to the clearing of both benches and ejections of the two managers.
Since the Cubs are out of post-season contention and although I am definitely no fan of the Cardinals, I am rooting for them to destroy these mouth-breathers from Cincinnati Northern Kentucky. They apparently can not handle four months of winning baseball and I believe they will melt down in any sort of race to the finish. They exhibit the inability to keep their cool and control themselves.
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