The Ultimate Insult
Forget the predicted last place finish in the NL Central. Forget the 27th overall ranking.
The real slight here is assigning none other than Jack-of-All-Sports, Thoughts, and Ideas Peter King to write the Reds preview for SI's MLB Preview feature. On an only slightly less insulting note, the entire article is about how the success of former BOSTON RED SOX guy Bronson "Used to Be a Red Sock" Arroyo of the Not-Boston-Red-Sox-Anymores will determine the Reds' fate this season.
Surprisingly, despite the enormous potential for making me angry, it's not a bad article (except if you want to nit-pick at the misspelling of Cincinnati ("Cincinatti") in Theo Epstein's quote (although it's possible that that is not a misquote at all, but that Theo actually verbalized "Cincinatti" and that Peter King (who frequently writes about the Bengals, and so must actually know the correct spelling) is actually poking fun at the silly child-GM) but probably 70% of those living in Cinci spell it that way too. So fuck it).
And I do kind of agree that the Reds are very likely effed if Arroyo doesn't perform close to how he did last year (or someone else- douse me with water, but I still have faith that Eric Milton might revert to 99-01 form; also there's Bailey and of course Kirk Saarloosoos(!!)).
Also, props for the interesting tidbit about the Reds ranking 9th last season in runs scored despite being 2nd in the NL in both homeruns and walks. Although I disagree with the explanation that it was due to low team BA. Au contraire, it was lack of heart. Don't dispute it.
You win this time, Peter King. But someday you're going to write something brainless about baseball again...probably next week, in fact. Then I'll get you. Grrrr.
3 comments:
Whatever, man. Don´t get too down. This just means that the Reds have something to prove this year. And every away game they play with "Cincinnati" emblazened across their chests will PROVE, once and for all, just how exactly one spells "Cincinnati."
To be honest, I actually really like when the Reds are predicted to be awful. Over-inflated expectations only lead to emotionally crushing disappointments while zero expectations can only lead to pleasant surprises.
Plus, it helps fulfill the requirement that World Series winners must be able to say, "Nobody believed in us! No one thought we could do it but ourselves! Fuck the po-lice!"
And I suppose this latest ESPN article about how wide open both leagues are has got give you some hope. I mean, if the Rockies have a shot (which I don´t believe for a second that they do) then Reds definately do.
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