Gloom and doom.
Read any Redszone thread these days and you will be sure to catch this sentiment. The sky is falling, the sky is falling. I'm done with this thinking. I am ready to embrace the understanding that anything can and will happen in baseball.
For some fans on this board, nothing but a World Championship is enough to keep them from calling for Krivsky/Narron/Catellini's head. Heck, a four-game losing streak will send some on here into depression. I think I can reasonably say that while the Reds winning a World Series would be fantastic, I think the best part of watching the Reds is eating a brat with some buddies and hoping to see something special.
I guess the point I'm trying to convey is Redszone is reverting into a place where people come to vent in anger about the coming season, rather than collectively dreaming of what's possible. Any thread of a team signing another player to a reasonable contract turns into stupid Krivsky, we should have got him. We have to understand that despite what we think, the Reds aren't the greatest team in the minds of some free agents.
We have to learn to enjoy the players we have, rather than bash them into oblivion. I love dreaming about the past and dreaming of what could be. I love looking back to June 30th of last year when Dunner hit a walk-off grand slam. The Reds had knocked off their rival and I can honestly say that was one of the greatest sports' moments of my life. I love thinking back to the game I was at later in the season when Ross hit the game-winning home run off the batter's eye.
I wish I could come to Redszone and learn about those talented individuals who are lucky enough to don the Cincinnati red. I love learning about OPS and Win Shares from the great baseball minds who frequent these boards. However, I wish we could keep from being so negative.
We are lucky to be reading about such a great game and sharing in a common interest. I wish we could recognize that baseball is a game of dreams and possibilites and that anything is possible in this game. You can use your Run Scored vs Run Against to vaguely gauge how our team is going to do next year, but you will never be able to truly fortel whether David Ross will be the next Mike Piazza or fade into oblivion.
Let's cheer up, we have a good team, it may not be the Yankees, but frankly I'm happy it's not. Let's recognize that we're talking about baseball here and not anything more serious. Hell, baseball is just a game, right? We are talking about a shared love and not something that truly decides the fate of our lives.