Last Reds championship team had a rough end to the regular season, losing four of their last six and being swept by the lowly Padres at home.
Finished 91-71. (Could be this team's final mark, too. Hopefully one more than that.)
Lost the opener of the NLCS, but we know the rest of the story.
Can this team catch fire after limping to the regular season finish line?
Rounding third and heading for home...
Any team in baseball can catch fire at any time, so why not us?
I've seen a lot of talk on here about the 1990 team and their rather lackluster mid summer swoon and poor end to the season. But it kind of ignores circumstance.
Human nature is very real. The 1990 team got out of the gates incredibly fast and they were never seriously challenged. There was never a point in that season where it felt like someone was going to catch them-- certainly not over the last few weeks of the season.
So, the team played to their circumstances a bit. We are seeing that a little bit with the Dodgers over the past few weeks IMO. It is hard to keep focus when you know you have several weeks left of games that won't really impact your situation. I doubt the outcomes of the past few weeks would be the same for the Dodgers if the Giants were nipping at their heels.
The 1990 team probably could have won 100 games that year if they needed to...but they didn't. They did what they needed to do.
The team this year needed to win more and were unable to do it. They couldn't play up to the circumstances at hand, although they came close.
Now, it comes down to one game. If they get past that game, then yes, I think they have a decent shot to make some noise.
REDREAD (09-26-2013)
Yes, the road to the World Series starts against the Pirates?
Other than that, no similarities other than they have a chance
1990 was the horse that blasted out of the gate and coasted to victory. 4 of 26 invited.
2013 was the horse chasing two faster horses for the last mile and hoping to place second in a photo finish. 10 of 30 invited to the party.
The 1990 team had old school veterans. Ronny Oyster, Billy Doran, Hatcher.
The 1990 team had a old school manager, Lou.
The 1990 team had team leaders, Davis, Larkin, Dibble, Browning, Hatcher, that played their best when the lights were the brightest.
The 2013 team does not have any of this.
The 2013 team still has last October in their memory. They need to get that monkey off their back.
The 2013 team needs to catch lightning in a bottle starting Tuesday to start comparing them to the 1990 team that beat a very good Pirates team and swept the defending World Series Champion team.
Last edited by George Foster; 09-25-2013 at 11:08 PM.
1st pick of the 2023 baseball amateur draft
Marc D (09-25-2013)
I hope this team doesn't lose the opening game of the playoffs. That would end all putative similarities right there.
Mutaman (09-25-2013)
The 90 team did not "limp to the finish line". They won 4 straight in San Diego in mid September and then took 2 of 3 from the Braves to clinich the division. The last week they were just playing out the string and getting ready for Pittsburgh, like the Dodgers and Red Sox are doing now. Went wire to wire. Beat out the Dodgers by 5 games.Originally Posted by BluegrassRedleg
cumberlandreds (09-26-2013),HeatherC1212 (09-27-2013),joshua (09-26-2013),oregonred (09-25-2013)
And earned a place in the NLCS before the watered down playoffs.
The Reds of 2013 have to win the 50/50 play in game, then beat the NL's #1 seed just to get to the NLCS.
It is a strange, enigmatic and talented bunch, I really don't know who the leaders are of this 2013 Reds team. Chapman, Votto and DatDude march to a different beat. I suspect it is the core of Bruce, plus the Big 4 arms of Latos, Bailey, Cueto and Arroyo. But, I'm just guessing based on TV observation into the dugout.
Sorry, I lived it. Was there at the park for one of the SD losses. Listened to 2 hours of WLW postgame call-in show every night that season. In the pre-internet days, that's where you got all the fan feedback. People were VERY concerned about the Reds' play in August and September. They were up something like 11 or 12 games at one point, and it got all the way down to 3 or 4. They did, in fact, limp to the finish line -- or as many said back then, "backed into the playoffs."
Of course, we all enjoyed their resurgence once they got in.
Rounding third and heading for home...
This team is probably more similar to the 1940 Reds.
I'm not a system player. I am a system.
1990 got a little scary but only for a short week or two. The four game Giant series late in August, where Sweet Lou said they would win 3/4 ahead of time. Then the Reds lost Game 1 and came back to win the other three. The division was really over at that point. I remember going to at least two of those games.
Also 34-12 quickly became 34-20 after a double header loss to the Braves -- I think (went to that DH too).
No Bonds, no Bonilla makes me feel a little better.
Rounding third and heading for home...
You ever see a race horse go wire to wire? They open up a nice lead and then they coast to the finish line. Again, the 90 Reds beat out the Dodgers by 5 games. They may have technically clinched the division due to a Dodger loss, and the fans may have been nervous Nellies due to that team having no past history of success, but that race was over in mid September when they swept the Padres in San Diego.Sorry, I lived it. Was there at the park for one of the SD losses. Listened to 2 hours of WLW postgame call-in show every night that season. In the pre-internet days, that's where you got all the fan feedback. People were VERY concerned about the Reds' play in August and September. They were up something like 11 or 12 games at one point, and it got all the way down to 3 or 4. They did, in fact, limp to the finish line -- or as many said back then, "backed into the playoffs."
Of course, we all enjoyed their resurgence once they got in.
They played .500 ball for a really long stretch that year.
I don't think it's that similar to this year though, because even though I was only 9 I still had the sense the team was just coasting in 1990 after the huge start.
This team couldn't afford to coast, and they just weren't quite good enough to win the division.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Posting Permissions
|
Board Moderators may, at their discretion and judgment, delete and/or edit any messages that violate any of the following guidelines: 1. Explicit references to alleged illegal or unlawful acts. 2. Graphic sexual descriptions. 3. Racial or ethnic slurs. 4. Use of edgy language (including masked profanity). 5. Direct personal attacks, flames, fights, trolling, baiting, name-calling, general nuisance, excessive player criticism or anything along those lines. 6. Posting spam. 7. Each person may have only one user account. It is fine to be critical here - that's what this board is for. But let's not beat a subject or a player to death, please. |
Reply With Quote