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Oct 19, 2021Liked by Chad Dotson

I think about the only one of those guys I remember, other than Billy Bates, is Van Snider. He was acquired by the Reds from the Royals for Jeff Montgomery, not a good trade for the old Redlegs.

My favorite obscure Bengal is John Garrett (brother of former Dallas coach Jason Garrett). Caught two passes in his career, both in the 61-7 win over the Oilers. Ahmad Rashad said, "That's his first catch in this league. It won't be his last." The next play he caught the second of his two receptions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys_w4ZPedIc&t=11281s

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Santo Alcala

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Jon Coutlangous & Ryan Lavarnway

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My favorite Reds player of all time is

Vada Pinson

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Chris Stynes would be my obscure Reds guy, not that he was really all that obscure. In 4 seasons with the Reds (1997-2000) he put up two solid bookend seasons before around a couple of very mediocre seasons.

Stynes makes my list because back when I was first hanging out at a certain Reds blog site, a guy commented that he brought his son to the stadium early to watch Stynes go through his lonely warmup paces lest he be caught unprepared that day should the call come his way. The guy went on to say he tried to impress upon his son how this was what life was really about. As I recall the guy went on to complain that the website was missing the boat by not spending more time highlighting guys like Stynes. It was almost enough to scare me off the site.

My most obscure Bengals guy would be Mike Wilson, an offensive lineman in the early 1970s. I attended Wilmington high school my Sophomore year which was Wilson's Sr. year there. "Big Daddy" Wilson was a star football guy as a Refrigerator Perry precursor, running the ball for TDs.

Come spring Wilson was out for track and I was out for baseball. Some of the older guys on the baseball team were hazing me pretty hard because not only was I a Soph, the coach had publicly declared me the "catcher of the (near) future". Wilson got wind of this and moved me to a locker in the high rent district of the varsity area. Then he loudly announced that anyone who got out of line with hazing would be subject to his judgment. But he also tutored me as to what was expected of guys who wore the school colors on the fields of play.

My family moved west of Dayton that summer; but, a couple of years later there was a chance crossing of paths between Daddy and me in a big box parking in Xenia, Ohio. He was a star on a pretty good University of Dayton football team at the time but stopped me and struck up a conversation about past times and what I had been up to since. That cemented his status forever with me.

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