Screw the Cardinals!
Even in these dark days, I'm happy to be a Reds fan.
I’m obsessed with Cincinnati Reds history.
Hey, listen, I’m not particularly proud of it. This team has been hot garbage for the last few weeks, and the last few decades, if we’re being honest. But they’re my hot garbage baseball club and I’ll write books and newsletters about them if I want. You can’t stop me.*
*Please, stop me. I’m so very tired.
Anyway, I happened to look at the standings, almost reflexively, after the Reds lost their 11th game of the last 12, a 6-5 defeat to Arizona on Monday. Here’s what I saw:
For years, I’ve been dreaming of the day the Reds would be competing with the Cardinals. It’s here! We did it!
Back to the “Reds history” portion of today’s program. I don’t think I wrote about it over the winter, but my secret hope was that 2024 would be the equivalent of 2010 in terms of Reds history. Remember that 2010 was the year the Reds surprised everyone and won the division, a little earlier than everyone expected. Young stars like Joey Votto and Jay Bruce, along with a pretty great starting rotation, finished ahead of St. Louis in the most fun season of the last three decades.
You can see the obvious parallels to this year’s club. And since many of the computer models projected St. Louis to be atop the division this season, I was kinda hoping the Reds and Cards would battle to the finish, just like in 2010.
This isn’t precisely what I envisioned.
Remember how insane the Reds-Cardinals rivalry was in 2010? If you don’t remember, because somehow it was almost a decade and a half ago, here’s a reminder:
I’ll never forget when that brawl happened. I was actually in Virginia Beach at a professional conference. My family and I were out to dinner, saw the highlights on a television, received a bunch of messages about the game. I got back to the hotel, read all the particulars, watched the video again, then posted this gem over at Redleg Nation:
I’m away from home and posting this on a BlackBerry, but there is something I just had to say:
Screw the Cardinals.
I really don’t like the Cardinals. All of a sudden, it occurs to me that I dislike St. Louis more than the Cubs. I hate their whining and complaining. I really can’t stand Chris Carpenter. I want to see Laynce Nix or Jonny Gomes get their hands on Carpenter.
I can’t link Brandon Phillips’ comments about the Cardinals (because of the limitations of the BlackBerry), but I fully endorse the sentiment behind what BP said.
The Cardinals think the NL Central is their entitlement. It is high time that someone disabuse them of that notion. It is up to the Reds.
I hope Cincinnati beats the devil out of St. Louis tonight. Screw the Cardinals.
I literally could not love this any more. Makes me want to browse the archives of Redleg Nation to see what other silly things I wrote over the years. When you’ve been writing about a team for nearly two decades, not everything can be a Pulitzer Prize-worthy piece, but I do love kinda reliving my passion for this team. Hard to be as passionate these days.
Hey, there are plenty of games still to be played, and I’m not giving up on the 2024 Reds by any means. Seriously. It’s only May! Plenty of time for players to get healthy and for the club to go on a run.
But if current trends continue and the Reds stay near the bottom of the National League Central, I have only one hope. That they finish in fourth place. Because…
Screw the Cardinals.
This week at Cincinnati Magazine:
The ol’ Redlegs have now lost 11 of their last 12 games, the worst stretch of baseball since early 2022, when Cincinnati began the season 3-22. Please keep your local baseball scribes, including me, in your thoughts as we try to figure out some way to make sense of the way this Reds season has veered so quickly off the rails. After all the pre-season hype and expectations, with dreams of a division title dancing in everyone’s head, Cincinnati has gone from four games over .500 to seven games under water and last place in the span of just over two weeks. Analysts’ heads are spinning.
Alas, we aren’t getting much help from Reds players and coaches, who regularly spout classic baseball cliches that would make Crash Davis proud. Do you remember in the movie Bull Durham when Davis schools his young protege Nuke LaLoosh in the art of the baseball cliche? Read the rest of this week’s Reds column over at Cincinnati Magazine.
What’s Chad Watching?
I watched all of the recent Planet of the Apes movies in the last couple of weeks, since the new one was appearing in theaters. Because that’s the kinda thing I do. Because I have a problem.
Anyway, the original Planet film, from 1968, is an absolute classic (I rewatched that one too, for old times sake). All of the movies from the recent reboot are pretty good, and I recommend them. The latest: it’s the worst of current series, but it’s still worth watching. I dunno what else to say. They’re pretty okay!
I’m still not sure what to think about All of Us Strangers. Here’s the plot line: One night, screenwriter Adam, in his near-empty tower block in contemporary London, has a chance encounter with his mysterious neighbor Harry that punctures the rhythm of his everyday life. As Adam and Harry get closer, Adam is pulled back to his childhood home where he discovers that his long-dead parents are both living and look the same age as the day they died over 30 years ago.
Bizarre, right? Recommended.