lack of passion

[cincrazy]

It's only one game, and I still think this team can have a .500 season or slightly better, but I just see no fire and passion in this team. I just see this nonchalant attitude that drives me crazy. Last year, Sean Casey was a guy that continously brought that fire to the ballpark, but outside of him, I didn't really see any last year. Now that Casey's gone, who provides the fire and passion? I just don't see it in this team. In the 1999 squad that had a great year, you had Dmitri Young, Mike Cameron, Casey, Boone, Pokey Reese, etc. All of those guys had their flaws, but they played with so much passion that they almost willed that team into the playoffs. I see bad defense, an inability to hit in the clutch, thin starting pitching, and most importantly, a lack of passion. There should be an urgency to this ballclub to get off to a great start, and I hear them saying it, but I just don't see it on the field

[OnBaseMachine]

And, obviously, Casey's passion for the game won the Reds many games over the last five years.

Lack of clutch hitting? The Reds led the NL in runs scored last year and are off to a greta start this year. They must be doing something right.

[OldXOhio]

It's only one game

that's my opinion

[kbrake]

Its a long season you cant expect them to be going nuts for every game. Teams that win, win because they are talented and know how to play the game not because they are so excited to go play the game.

[pedro]

Look at the Braves for instance. During the last 15 years they have been one of the most sedate teams I have ever seen and they have won 14 straight division titles. As everyone else has said, talent wins, not passion.

[IowaRed]

I love Casey but no amount of passion can make up for this pitching staff.

[westofyou]

Baseball is chess, the back and forths can take on a team mentality that is mob rooted in its display, that can be seen as passion. But baseball is seperate pieces in seperate instances that sometime only affect 1 guy at a time.

It's hard to go Lord of the Flies in baseball, the game is full of too many incidents of pure individualism.

[KronoRed]

I love Casey but no amount of passion can make up for this pitching staff.

Really, passion didn't allow 16 runs to score and neither did Adam Dunn, the pitching sucks, has for decades and will keep doing so for the foreseeable future.

[traderumor]

Brad Lesley had passion.

[vaticanplum]

Brad Lesley had passion.

So did John Rocker.

[membengal]

Would passion have helped Adam Dunn catch a fly ball? Or Chris Hammond field his position? Or Jerry Narron not send Harang back out in the 6th with a pitch count at a labored 88 and then leave him in after an opening walk? If so, then I am all for passion. But, I suspect, passion had nothing to do with those mistakes.

It's one game.

[SeeinRed]

If you're looking for some remorse for a bad performance, I love what Dunn said after the game, which was written on Marc's Blog.

After most of the group had broken up, someone mentioned the sac fly in his first at-bat and he perked up a little bit.

"That was awesome," he said. "It could've been a great day..."

That says a lot about the attitude of the team after the game. It was opening day, the happiest day of the year for the Reds and the fans, but through all of the excitement he didn't say something like "What happened in the game was unfortunate, but it was great to be a part of opening day in Cincinnati." That is what I want to see after a game. He didn't care about his sac fly, or the celebrations goin on, all he cared about was his performance and the team's performance.

If you are looking for a positive out of this loss that would have to be it. That and you have to realize that it was only one game. Don't worry about it. This is exactly why I hate that the Reds play one game then have an off day. We all sit around and think about one game. Cheer up, there's still 161 left.

[cincrazy]

I completely realize that this was one game. And the Reds did lead the league in runs scored last year, and how much did that mean? Nothing, just as Casey's passion meant nothing in the end. It is one game, but this one game is what we saw all last season. As I said, I still believe this team can have a fairly good year, and I'm not writing anything off. But how can this team get no better with RISP, with defense, with strikeouts, etc. etc. etc. It may be an organizational effort, or a lack of hard work, I don't know. Changing the ownership was great, getting a new GM was fantastic, but in the end, the players have to make it happen, something that didn't happen yesterday, and hasn't happened the last several years. It just disappointed me to see what seemed like a lack of focus on the biggest day of the year. Maybe I'm wrong in feeling that way, but that game embarrassed me. If the team can't get up to perform well in a game such as that, and not only not perform well, but give up 16 runs and get thouroughly embarrassed by the Cubs, then what's in store for the rest of the year? All winter, people have talked about how bad we were, and the players kept talking about how they would be proven wrong, and I believe that's the case. That's why it was so disappointing to see them go out there and play like that. To be honest, I was way more embarrassed than disappointed. This is the first professional franchise in America, and to lose like that made me sick, and that's where that post stemmed from.

[pedro]

I don't get embarrassed when the sports teams I like do poorly and neither should you.

We didn't have anything to do with the poor performance.

[membengal]

Here's the thing, you do understand that in the course of a 162 game season that pretty much every team will have a stinker or three, right?

Perhaps the fans in Philly and Oakland are as worried about passion as Reds fans are today. One game. Small sample size. Weird conditions. Losing 16-7 doesn't emperil their chances to win 81 games (or 91 or 71 or whatever your flavor of Kool-Aid) any more than winning 16-7 would have enhanced those chances.