West Chester Liberty Weekly – Reds Opening Day 2023

It’s okay, tell me the truth. On a scale from one to ten, how excited are we about Opening Day on Thursday? I’m still bitter about Phil Castellini’s choice of words he used last year when the fanbase was rightfully questioning the integrity and intentions of the ball club. Phil said, where are you going to go, in response. That didn’t go over so well. I believe the hashtag #selltheteambob was conceived right then and there.

Cincinnati has some of the country’s best and most loyal baseball fans, and you have the stones to say something like that? My thought has been this for the last decade or two with the organization. The Reds’ management takes advantage of the best fans in baseball. Year after year and rebuild after rebuild, this club finds ways to avoid producing a winner.

But as Cincinatians, it’s a part of us. Reds’ baseball is in our blood. Hell, Cincinnati invented hustle! It’s where the best team in baseball history was created, the 1975 Reds, it’s where Opening Day is a holiday, it’s where most of us were raised listening to Marty and Joe on the radio calling that day’s titanic struggle to go bed hearing our favorite seven words, and this one belongs to the Reds!

I think of some of my favorites like Larkin covering every inch of the shortstop position, the Mayor Sean Casey talking everyone’s ear off who happened to make it to first base, Griffey’s inside-the-park home run, Dat Dude BP Brandon Phillips with his famous trot around 2^nd base with his hand on his helmet or the famous brew-haha he started when he gave Yadi a little love tap with his bat as he walked up to the plate for the first time, and who could forget, Jay Bruce’s division-clinching home run.

Having been born in 1986, these are great memories, however, those who were born around the same time as me, we have not been privileged to see much winning. One must forgive Reds fans for the negative outlook. It’s been a long time since this city has seen a winner on the diamond. Do I think this team is making the playoffs? Absolutely not, but I believe this is the year this team takes a step in the right direction and gives reason for optimism for the foreseeable future.

Happy Opening Day to all the Reds fans out there. It still is and always will be one of Cincinnati’s best traditions.

#selltheteambob