Confessions of a Hopeless Reds Fan

I was born into a Cincinnati Reds family, and I’ve been pretty much obsessed with them ever since. Now my son is a hardcore Reds fan—and, yes, I regularly apologize to him for saddling him with this burden. For the rest of my days on this planet, the Reds game will probably be on my television or radio every night, and I’ll be looking for opportunities to head out to the ol’ ballyard to catch the Redlegs as often as possible.

If I know anything about you, dear reader, you’re just like me. I mean, look at you! The Reds have been nothing but frustrating for the vast majority of the last three decades, and yet you’re ignoring your job or your family—or whatever responsibilities you have—so that you can read words about this baseball franchise on the interwebs. You’re as hopeless as me!

Last week , we explored the current situation for this club, with the Reds settling into a place where management is seemingly OK with being, well, just OK. No peaks, no valleys. A .500 club that has a shot at getting into the current watered-down playoff structure makes good financial sense these days. The bean-counters in the Cincinnati front office—and, let’s be honest, in plenty of other executive suites around the sport—believe there’s little reason to make a sincere effort to be the best team in the league when you can sneak into the playoffs with 80-plus wins. Welcome to Major League Baseball in the year 2024.

So why do we still love the Cincinnati Reds? Since 1995, we’ve enjoyed precisely one season in which the Reds could stake a claim as the best team in the National League. One! That was 2012, and even that team couldn’t avoid breaking our hearts . Why do we keep doing this to ourselves?

There are only about a million reasons, man. I’ll discuss a few here, but I’m guessing that you could add a few hundred thousand more yourself.

Rece Hinds . The second-round pick back in 2019 made his debut last week and immediately captivated Reds fans. He homered in his MLB debut. In his second game, he collected three additional extra-base hits, then picked up three more hits in the next couple of games. Then came last Friday, when Hinds blasted his first career grand slam to put the game against Colorado out of reach. Sure, the Reds were still in last place after that win, but it was fun, right?

Obscure former Reds . The Reds haven’t always had a roster full of stars, but we root for every player who wears the uniform no matter how obscure they end up being 10 years later. Tell me you haven’t had a couple of beers with your buddies and started naming off obscure players who were on the Reds when you were 14 years old. If you haven’t, you’re missing out on some fun.

Seriously, go to Cincinnati’s baseball-reference page and find the club from the season when you turned 14. Scroll down and browse the obscure players you’d forgotten about. Tweet them to me , and we’ll enjoy a little reminiscence, and maybe a laugh, together.

Players you may have forgotten from my 14-year-old Reds season: Lloyd McClendon, Jeff Treadway, Terry McGriff, Van Snider, Candy Sierra, Pat Pacillo. And, evidently, some guy named Dave Concepcion pitched an inning and a third that season, posting an ERA of 0.00. Wonder whatever became of that guy?

Elly and Hunter . They’re young and they’re fun and they’re All-Stars. And I’ll never stop loving videos showing the moment when these guys find out they made their first Midsummer Classic roster. Here’s Elly De La Cruz ’s and here’s Hunter Greene’s . Good stuff.

More obscure former Reds . What about the 2007 Reds? Remember Kirk Saarloos, Jeff Keppinger, and Chad Moeller? What about Matt Belisle, Marcus McBeth, and Phil Dumatrait? And who could forget Jon Coutlangus? I bet some of you were convinced that some of these guys were going to be good players in the long run.

Misery loves company . I bet you have some friends, both off-line and online, who are obsessed with this team too. There’s something special about being a part of this community, even if we don’t get to spend time together at a championship parade downtown.

I love discussing obscure former Reds . Let’s go back to 2015. Brayan Pena started 108 games; did you remember that? The bench featured Jason Bourgeois, Kristopher Negron, Ryan LaMarre, and Skip Schumaker. Among the hurlers that year were Keyvius Sampson, Jason Marquis, Manny Parra, and Donovan Hand. And please don’t make me remember the Kevin Gregg era. It was not fun.

Hope . We love the Cincinnati Reds because hope springs eternal. Because we’re all essentially optimists at heart. And even when the Reds are in the dumps, we can hope that a winning streak is around the corner. That’s the beauty of baseball. It’s a long season, and ya’ never know.

Sorry, I have to do this one more time . In 2018, the Reds lost 95 games. In retrospect, that’s not particularly surprising, given the fact that the offense featured such stalwarts as Freddy Galvis, Brandon Dixon, Phil Gosselin, and someone named Tim Federowicz. Among the pitchers you barely remember were Jackson Stephens, Kevin Quackenbush, and Kevin Shackelford. But I’m sure you recall fondly Yovani Gallardo and his 30.86 ERA!

Because we have no choice . This is our team, our one and only team. And we simply love them, that’s all.

Chad Dotson helms Reds coverage at Cincinnati Magazine and hosts a long-running Reds podcast, The Riverfront . His newsletter about Cincinnati sports can be found at chaddotson.com . He’s @dotsonc on Twitter.

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