My son Owen is graduating from high school this spring and we were looking forward to attending multiple Reds games this summer before he moves into Ohio State in the fall. Then the MLB lockout ended, and unsatisfied with the results Reds owners Bob and Phil Castellini declared open war on the long-suffering Cincy fan base with a player fire sale to cut payroll. How bad has it been? Worse than you think. The Athletic recently ranked every team since the MLB expanded to 30 teams in 1998. The Reds placed 29th in between the Pirates and Orioles. If this was Monopoly, this makes the Reds Baltic Avenue and our owners slumlords. Keep in mind, this story wasn’t some writer being a wise-ass trying to meet a deadline with a subjective rating. This was based on a formula of winning vs losing. The numbers don’t lie. Four postseason appearances in 24 years (counting the expanded covid season). No playoff series wins. 

For some context, in the same time frame that 22 separate teams have appeared in THE WORLD SERIES. the Reds have won just 2 playoff games.  (Click here to read the whole story.) And don’t look for improvement in 2022. To the shock of no one, this shell of a team is off to one of those worst starts in franchise history; 3 and 14 with an MLB worst -44 run differential.

But folks living here on Baltic Avenue are used to things falling apart. That’s why the Reds being over .500 the last two years felt exciting. It was still a rough neighborhood but at least the roof had stopped leaking and the electricity got turned on. We were competitive and a fun team to watch.  Personally, I just hope to have a team I can enjoy and keep me interested until Labor Day. And we had that. A solid core of players, mostly homegrown or acquired through some savvy trades that felt like our guys. But then this happened:

Goodbye: 

Wade Miley

Sonny Gray

Michael Lorenzen

Tucker Barnhart

Shogo Akiyama

Nick Castellanos

Jesse Winker

Eugenio Suarez

Amir Garrett

I’m not going to drag you into the statistical weeds here. If you squint your eyes, a couple of these moves seem semi-reasonable in strictly baseball terms. And I stress “semi-reasonable” and “a couple of these moves.” But taken together and given this ownership group’s historical fondness for padding their own bank accounts at the expense of the fans, this a monumental tank job. Phil Castellini’s opening day comments were just a kick to the groin while the fan base was already on the ground. This team was purchased for $260 million. It is now worth $1.3 BILLION. The taxpayers paid for the stadium that was given to ownership. And we don’t have $3 million to keep a homegrown gold glove catcher? Please. 

Or put another way, Reds fans are already renting on Baltic Avenue, can’t the landlord hire a guy to fix the air conditioning? Nope. Open up some windows and borrow a fan. Get ready for a long, uncomfortable summer.  Just shut up and pay your rent. Be lucky you have someplace to live. To quote Phil Castellini, “Where else are you going to go?”

Well, I’m not going to Great American Ballpark anytime soon. Those plans have been canceled. There is an emotional toll that goes with seeing your favorite players shipped off weeks before the season. Honestly, it’s truly depressing for both Owen and myself. At least these guys gave us some good memories while they played here on Baltic Avenue. 

Colin Gawel founded Pencilstorm and plays rock n roll solo and with Watershed. He wrote this at Colin’s Coffee and watching all those Reds videos made him sad.



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