I'm laying here in bed, and I just so happend to glance down at my phone and noticed the date:
October 1st, 2010.
I got goosebumps. I don't think I'll fully understand what October baseball feels like until next Wednesday when Phillips steps into the box against Roy Halladay, but this month already has a different feel.
I went back and watched the entire ninth inning from Tuesday's game. I've watched the home run itself about 100 times, but I wanted to watch it in context of the entire inning.
If there's one thing that stood out to me, it's how AMAZING the crowd is. With Chapman warming up, they're standing. With each pitch Chapman throws, they're standing. The entire crowd is standing the entire inning.
Chapman gets Sanchez to ground out, and FSN goes to a commercial. They come out of commercial, and guess what? Everyone is standing. I don't know if it was just me, but after the sixth inning I don't think the crowd ever sat down. I've watched a lot of meaningful non-Reds games before, and I don't know if I can recall a crowd just standing for nearly the entire game.
It reminded me of why I became a Reds fan. Griffey was a big part of it, but I remember hearing about how much of a baseball town Cincinnati runs. Maybe it was because I was young (I was 11 when I became a Reds fan) but I was always under the impression that the Reds and the Cardinals had the two best fan bases in baseball. A decade of losing will erode even the best of fan bases, but sure enough on Tuesday night there they were. One of the best fan bases in baseball standing, refusing to sit down.
They scanned the crowd and you just see all the different type of people. The older fan who can remember seeing a game in Crosley Field as well as the Big Red Machine like it was just yesterday. The middle aged fan who remembers the 1990 season like it was yesterday. The people who remember the collapse in Milwaukee. Then there's the fans like myself who all they know is losing.
I honestly never thought I would see the day we were playing meaningful baseball in October. In all other sports, I make fun of fan bases for celebrating like they've won the Super Bowl or World Series when they clinch something smaller. However, I celebrated just as hard for our NL Central crown as everyone else. I've seen "my team" win a Stanley Cup, multiple NBA Championships, and a Super Bowl. None of them compare to Tuesday night. After watching a decade of losing, the feeling on Tuesday night was unmatched. It's the Reds. The Reds.
I'm not going to be able to truly look back and appreciate this season until it's actually over. I sit here trying to wrap my head around the Reds being good at baseball and I cut do it, it's truly unbelievable to me.
It's October now. This is real. We're here. I'm not going to sit here and worry about playing the Phillies. I'm going to tell all my friends who say we have no shot that they told me we had no shot before the season. That's right, we're the Cincinnati Reds and we'll be ready to lace em up in Philly.
As the kids say these days (yeah, that's me): LETS. GO.
Originally Posted by Scooter
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