The "It Wasn't That Bad" Thread - 2012 NLDS Playoffs

[Larry Schuler]

It wasn't that bad.

There were 2 embarrassing blow out games. We won one. The Giants one won.

There were dozens of plays that relied on either physical inches or an umpire's quick judgment. More of them fell in the Giants favor than the Reds. That is where the games were won and lost.

The "we were winning 2-0" and "no team has ever..." stuff is judgment and context that we add as we fill downtime between games but it doesn't change what happens on the field or make it "embarrassing" on it's own. The game of baseball has breaks- sometimes you collect bad ones while squandering the good ones.

I didn't see very many games that the Reds had "sealed and delivered" that they lost later in said game. That would be embarrassing. I saw 2 Reds wins, 1 close loss and 2 Giants wins. I don't see how that hurts more than being swept and handed your behinds in 2010.

See you in 2013.

[Larkin88]

It wasn't that bad.

There were 2 embarrassing blow out games. We won one. The Giants one won.

There were dozens of plays that relied on either physical inches or an umpire's quick judgment. More of them fell in the Giants favor than the Reds. That is where the games were won and lost.

The "we were winning 2-0" and "no team has ever..." stuff is judgment and context that we add as we fill downtime between games but it doesn't change what happens on the field or make it "embarrassing" on it's own. The game of baseball has breaks- sometimes you collect bad ones while squandering the good ones.

I didn't see very many games that the Reds had "sealed and delivered" that they lost later in said game. That would be embarrassing. I saw 2 Reds wins, 1 close loss and 2 Giants wins. I don't see how that hurts more than being swept and handed your behinds in 2010.

See you in 2013.

Thanks for this Larry. I don't know anything about the demographic makeup of RedsZone, but one thing to consider is that not everyone on here has had the luxury of 40+ years watching Reds baseball as your signature implies.

I'll out myself as one of the (probably) younger posters here. A life-long baseball and Reds fan though I am, I can only say that I've truly lived through one World Series winning team and fewer than a half-dozen post-season apperances. I can also say that most of those post-season games, including the World Series win in 1990 happened before I was really old enough to appreciate what was happening.

I don't feel that I should have been entitled to more or that the game of baseball owes me anything - it does not and I love it. I only say this to explain what I think a lot of the knee-jerk or more overtly negative reaction could in part stem from. Win or lose, it's tough to know how to act and react to things when you haven't "been there before."

So again, I offer sincere thanks for your thoughts. Someone who has had the opportunity to watch the Reds while they were up for so long might have a better context of how to handle things going wrong. And I ultimately think that's the mindset you need whether you've "been there before" or not.

You'll definitely see me in 2013. For now, it's tough not feeling deflated to have had such a good opportunity squandered. But it's because I'm not so used to having opportunities to begin with. And I do think and hope that we've at least turned the corner of being in the mix for a few years to come.