Time for Transition

Hey everyone,

Sorry I was away and that quite frankly, I dropped the ball just about as much as our beloved Reds did.

I guess I have some explaining to do…

April was not just a rough month for me as a fan, but as as a man. My grandmother passed away at the end of the month and it took my focus off the blog. I tried getting back into the swing of things but every time I sat down to write, I would just think about her and what I would want to say about her. My mother grew up loving baseball and there are so many stories about my grandmother, like the time she threw away all of my mom’s baseball cards because she kept leaving them out on the floor <countless late 50’s and early 60’s treasures lost for eternity>, etc.

I thought I had my head cleared after I spent some time writing down an unpublished reflection about her, but once summer hit, I was in a daze. My wife and I had to do a couple gut checks and between having a difficult time at work getting what I needed to pay the bills, not having enough space in our apartment that we were already over paying for, and in general just having a feeling that it was time to move on, we did just that. We spent the summer getting everything lined up, interviewing for jobs, and praying through the transition with family and friends. We ultimately packed our bags and moved back to Cincinnati over Labor Day.

We are still trying to figure out the living situation and job thing, but life has been good. My kids got a chance to go to their first baseball game and we had a lot of fun! Aspen ate everything that was made of sugar and was probably the most excited fan there!

Aspen even warmed up to Grandpa after he bought <her> a whole bag of carmel popcorn!

But with baseball season over now, and the Bengals at 3-1 as of this posting, I do have to say that it is time to get back down to business. Hence the face lift. Now that I live back here in Cincinnati, while Cory is still out in Long Island for the time being, we will be covering the Bengals and the Reds from two different perspectives.

I should have a pre game prediction post and a post game wrap up post this weekend, so look forward to it and GO BENGALS!

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Check out the outtakes… We have some cute kids!

A Closer Look at Opening Day

My dad and brother-in-law made it down to Great American Ballpark for Opening Day and had a great afternoon taking in all the festivities. Cincinnati is so rich in tradition for Opening Day. As the first city to host a professional baseball team, Cincinnati has a deep fondness for their team and the tradition. Enjoy some of the photographs:

Opening Day 2014

Well… It can officially be the start of baseball season. I was going through quite a bit of denial with my school (The University of Dayton) striding its way to the elite 8. Had they made the Final Four, not only would have I been in a comma, but it would have made paying attention to the first week of baseball quite difficult. But sadly, they did go down against the Florida Gators in a hard fought, but overmatched game. So goodbye March Madness. Great run Flyers. AND LET’S GO REDS!

On Monday, the reds will take the mound and welcome the Redbirds to Cincinnati for Opening Day. It’s a 4pm game on ESPN, so I hope to catch the last half of it when I get home from work. Day off Tuesday, and then wrap it up Wednesday and Thursday. The reds than pack their bags and come to New York! They take on the Mets for a weekend series that I hope to either watch all of from home or snag some last minute tickets to go to one of the games.

This week we will feature some guest bloggers, some rants, and some rebuttals. We will hopefully get some video of this weekend and get a chance to stretch out our arms with a little game of catch.

It’s finally here, and we couldn’t be happier! Rounding first and heading for home, this one belongs to the fans!

The Gift of Prophecy

Have you ever just felt something in your gut? Something that you couldn’t explain… Something you wanted so badly to happen, you felt like you just had to open your mouth and say it, as if the words would some how have power in them to make your dreams come true. It is what the things of wishes are made of. It seems ridiculous, but it is no different than the days of playing Super Mario Brothers on the Nintendo Entertainment System and thrusting the controller upward ever so slightly (or drastically) when you were about to make a difficult jump… as if jumping the controller would somehow increase the likelihood that your jump would be successful… I digress…

It is in our DNA to want to be able to control uncontrollable forces. Call me crazy, but I think as a fan, we do this all the time. Even if it is under our breath, we will mutter something like “Come on, make that 3!” and then when it happens we are all like, “CALLED IT! I CALLED IT! WHO HEARD ME CALL THAT!” — no one..

Baseball prophecy seems like a given. The game is designed for the viewer to get entranced in the game. It is sooooooo slooooooow moving that it begs the crowd to get involved. Whether it be the wave. The Charge Call. The Atlanta Brave Chop. You name it, the crowd firmly believes that it has influence over the game. A collected 30,000 voices getting into the opposing players’ heads all at once… now that you mention it, that does sound pretty powerful.

But I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about when you put yourself out there, in the most foolish of ways. Claiming something so preposterous that it would take Biblical proportions to come about. This is the kind of stuff that your friends sitting next to you pretend not to know you for. The stuff that fans from your own team laugh and mock you for. I did such a thing in 1995.

The cubs were coming to town, and I hate the cubs. One of the major reasons is because their fans are everywhere, and there has never been a game where I have gone to against the cubs where it didn’t feel like there were as many cubs fans in the audience as there were Redlegs fans. Frustrating. Anyway, as a bold 13 year old, I was about to say something so stupid, that it had to be from God. The reds were down 1-0, somewhere in the middle of the game. It was a freaking hot day, boring game so far, and i needed something to get the crowd around me fired up. I was sitting on the 3rd base line at Riverfront Stadium (cinergy field), with pitcher, John Smiley up to bat. I looked over at his career stats on the scoreboard, and like most pitchers, it was dismal. We had 2 outs. I stood up on my chair, and boldly let out one of the stupidest sentences to ever leave my lips – “John Smiley is going to hit a home run!” It was immediately met by a chorus of laughter by reds fans and cubs fans alike. Someone mocked me with a “yeah right kid!”… I just stood there. Silently. Waiting. The pitch was released…. CRACK! I think even Smiley was baffled. He had just hit his first major league career Home Run and the place went freakin’ nuts!

I felt this awkward sense of power. The block of fans around me were either stunned or had already forgotten my words, but at the end of the day, i honestly felt like John Smiley hit that home run just for me.

Prophecy or not, the power in the game belongs to the imagination of the fan. Rounding third and heading for home, this one belongs to the fans!