Throwing in the Towel

Well ladies and gentlemen mark it on your calendars, June 8, 2008, the date I stopped seriously following the Cincinnati Reds. Now don't get me wrong, I'll check the standings every now and then, and will watch any highlights I come across on SportsCenter, but no more. I used to have RSS feeds for all of the major Reds sites loaded on my browser and would read them throughout the day. I also listened to a fair amount of games on the radio via XM radio. This will all stop now, in fact the RSS feeds have all been deleted. It all boils down to one thing, the Reds just aren't that good, in fact, they haven't been good for 13 years. I could usually fool myself into thinking they could compete at the beginning of every year, but that was just foolish optimism. Yes, they have some good young players, but I have been down this road before. Their major prospects will fail to live up to potential (see Bailey, Homer), and the veterans will get old and fade away (see Griffey, Jr.).

If they ever make the playoffs I will watch and cheer, but I won't be the die hard fan I was recently. I can only stand to have one sports team break my heart year after year, and Notre Dame football holds that coveted position.