Phil Castellini surprised that Opening Day tickets still unsold

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Originally Posted by The Operator

They’ve won exactly as many playoff series as during Carl Lindner’s tenure and had more than twice the time to do it in.


I think we all need to let that sink in.

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Exactly. The franchise is an embarrassment. The BRM was 50 years ago.

I’m not saying relocation is all that likely, but the protective dome that once understandably would ensure that the Reds always stay in Cincinnati is now gone.

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Originally Posted by M2

What's baffling is the notion anyone would adore them when the team has won nothing during their ownership. Now that is entitlement.

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The Reds marketing for my entire adult lifetime has basically been "Remember how cool the Big Red Machine was?"

They're now shocked the under-50 crowd is demanding something different.

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Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

The Reds marketing for my entire adult lifetime has basically been "Remember how cool the Big Red Machine was?"

They're now shocked the under-50 crowd is demanding something different.

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That reminds me - what home weekend will they be honoring the ‘90 team this year?

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Originally Posted by westofyou

Ever been to the Camargo CC Fireworks Display?

Same thing, for decades

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No, I wasn't invited. But, I did work at the club for 2 years in the late 90's. Phenomenal golf course, but I would never associate with any of the members (although it was cool to get the Moon Man's clubs....Neil Armstrong). It's a different part of society and an entitlement that most, if not all, of us are not able to relate to (not intellectually, but realistically). "Why aren't these fireworks brighter, longer-lasting, louder, etc.". A spoiled-rotten class of society.

We’re closing in on the same amount of time wandering through the desert as was told in Exodus.

None of the Castellinis give off much of a Moses vibe.

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Originally Posted by The Operator

They’ve won exactly as many playoff series as during Carl Lindner’s tenure and had more than twice the time to do it in.


I think we all need to let that sink in.

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That’s not fair. The Reds from 2010-2013 were one of the best teams in baseball during that time. This ownership did what was necessary to win and were smart about it. That team was easily my favorite teams to watch. I was proud to be a Reds fan during those years.

And the last two years the Reds have been competitive and fun to watch. No team during the Linder years was fun to watch or every any good. This ownership has been miles better than the Linder ownership.

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Originally Posted by kaldaniels

Exactly. The franchise is an embarrassment. The BRM was 50 years ago.

I’m not saying relocation is all that likely, but the protective dome that once understandably would ensure that the Reds always stay in Cincinnati is now gone.

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You do raise an interesting point. I do firmly believe that Tampa, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Miami and possibly Baltimore would make a lot more sense from a relocation standpoint. I also think that The Reds moving *should* create enough of a ruckus that the power that be would do something.

But…

This ain’t our grandfathers’ MLB anymore. This is Manfred-ball. We are watching a game where playoff races might very well be decided by ghost runners in extra inning games. Anything is possible in a Rob Manfred-led game of baseball.

That being said, if they did move, would it really be all that awful? I mean, The Reds are and have been a huge part of my DNA. But if this is really what we’re going to have moving forward… if the team is going to continue to be owned by an incompetent family who refuse to execute any sort of vision or put together anything even resembling a coherent plan for how to be successful while the entitled frat bro owner’s kid insults our intelligence, what exactly are we losing?

The one thing that has kept me going all these years was hope. Hope that I would some day see my favorite team return to glory and that I’d get to experience even a fraction of the bliss my dad got to experience during the 1970’s. The closest we’ve gotten is a historic playoff collapse in 2012 and utter incompetence ever since.

That whole “having hope” thing is getting harder and harder by the day, especially when the owner’s kid is giving out arrogant ultimatums and basically telling us all to shove it. Going forward, is this really going to be an appropriate use of my free time and more so of my discretionary income? I have a mortgage, a kid and another kid on the way. I can think of lots of better things to spend my limited disposable income on than continuing to enrich someone like Phil Castellini.

My heart is telling me to stick with it, to never entertain the idea of quitting or accepting that The Reds could move, but my brain is telling me I’m an idiot for not having jumped ship years ago.

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Originally Posted by 757690

That’s not fair. The Reds from 2010-2013 were one of the best teams in baseball during that time. This ownership did what was necessary to win and were smart about it. That team was easily my favorite teams to watch. I was proud to be a Reds fan during those years.

And the last two years the Reds have been competitive and fun to watch. No team during the Linder years was fun to watch or every any good. This ownership has been miles better than the Linder ownership.

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Lol I knew I could count on you to come in here and defend the Castellini’s.

You are nothing if not predictable and consistent. God bless you.


Let me guess… the real reason Phil made those comments was as a coded message to the fans that the Williams’ have staged yet another coup and we need to donate all the money we can to help the deposed Castellini family return to power?

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Originally Posted by The Operator

Lol I knew I could count on you to come in here and defend the Castellini’s.

You are nothing if not predictable and consistent. God bless you.


Let me guess… the real reason Phil made those comments was as a coded message to the fans that the Williams’ have staged yet another coup and we need to donate all the money we can to help the deposed Castellini family return to power?

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I’m so glad the Castellinis were able to counter-coup the Williamses coup. Patriots are in control!

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Originally Posted by 757690

That’s not fair. The Reds from 2010-2013 were one of the best teams in baseball during that time. This ownership did what was necessary to win and were smart about it. That team was easily my favorite teams to watch. I was proud to be a Reds fan during those years.

And the last two years the Reds have been competitive and fun to watch. No team during the Linder years was fun to watch or every any good. This ownership has been miles better than the Linder ownership.

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I’m gonna go a bit against the grain here and agree with the sentiment a bit, unless I’m just totally missing what you’re getting at here.

It’s kind of mind boggling to me that Castellini is being such a major cheapskate to this degree, because we just came up on the 10 year anniversary of Joey Votto’s mega extension. If I remember correctly, at the time that was the biggest contract ever given out in pro sports. I was genuinely super excited about what the organization was doing and I felt like they had a bright future ahead of them. To their credit, they also gave out sizable contracts to Phillips and Bailey. And hell, even a couple years ago I was warming up to them again after they went on a spending spree and gave out their biggest FA contract ever.

Which makes what they’re pulling right now even stranger and just makes it a bigger kick in the junk. I really don’t understand what could’ve possibly happened, its pretty obvious they didn’t get screwed by the pandemic THAT bad if at all, to where they needed to just blow it up completely they way they did this off-season. I don’t know if Bob is going all weekend at Bernie’s and Phil is calling the shots now and tightening up the purse strings, or if Bob himself is just the wishy washiest dude ever. But in the last 10 years the dudes ownership legacy has been a rollercoaster of being the best owner the Reds have ever had in my life (admittedly very low bar) to being cringe inducingly cheap and embarrassing.

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Originally Posted by The Operator

Lol I knew I could count on you to come in here and defend the Castellini’s.

You are nothing if not predictable and consistent. God bless you.


Let me guess… the real reason Phil made those comments was as a coded message to the fans that the Williams’ have staged yet another coup and we need to donate all the money we can to help the deposed Castellini family return to power?

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Saying that this ownership is better than Lindor’s is not defending them. Saying that a band is better than Nickelback is not defending that band.

That said, up until 2015, this ownership was a solid ownership, providing a winning team and investing in fans. Since then, they have been rather abysmal and an embarrassment, especially this year.

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Originally Posted by The Operator

They’ve won exactly as many playoff series as during Carl Lindner’s tenure and had more than twice the time to do it in.


I think we all need to let that sink in.

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That being said, the Castellini's haven't been funding any terrorist groups like the Banana Man did. Not that I know of.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mccai...ersaw_n_110354

I will say, I was in Section 304 today and apparently no one heard Castellini's comments before the game because I was the only one booing.

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Originally Posted by Sea Ray

Phil knew he screwed up because he made what appeared to be a surprise appearance on WLW with Bill Cunningham at about 2:30pm today. It was obvious that the sole purpose was to walk back the comments he made earlier. Apparently the PR team felt that wasn't enough and wanted him to repeat "his apology" with Bobby Nightengale

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I'm guessing you didn't listen to his 2:30 with Cunningham?

It's more likely PR said "hollering 'hate me all you want but we're not selling' into a microphone was not the apology we had in mind, so how about WE write an apology and hand it to the press"

That was a cool opening day, guys.