The Reds are blue

By Dan Horton
For The Post

Have you ever seen those car-safety tests where the car is catapulted into a wall at 75 mph? Do you remember what the car looked like after contact?

That's what the Cincinnati Reds most closely resemble after their horrid 66-96 2001 season.

From meaningless bickering to finger pointing, negativity flowed from Cinergy Field with such abundance that you could almost see it seeping into the Ohio River.

What happened to Major League Baseball's oldest organization that once stood tall in 1999 as the Cinderella team that came within one game from reaching the playoffs?

Well, one must look at the simple trickle-down and supply and demand theories.

From the top, owner Carl H. Lindner pumps as much money into the Reds as he pleases. He runs the organization like a business, which indeed it is. If he expects to continue high revenue after the Great American Ballpark opens in 2003, however, he must put a winner on the field. A $45 million team cannot compete consistently in Major League Baseball. He needs to pump more money into the team so it can pay its outstanding young players and prospective free agents.

Please fire General Manger Jim Bowden. In his nine years with the Reds, he has put together only one playoff team. More importantly, few of the Reds' players like the guy. In order to have a good baseball team, the ownership has to keep the players happy or they will leave.

The biggest mistake occurred when the Reds hired Bob Boone to manage the team. He carries the most self-inflated ego in baseball — most of which is filled with hot air.

Sure, Boone has been in the game for a long time, but it is obvious his players don't like him and don't play for him. He changed his second and third basemen four times in one game against the St. Louis Cardinals, which was the epitome of bad managing. One would think, given Boone's record in Kansas City, that the Reds should not have hired him.

That brings me to my fourth point: the Reds fired coaches Ron Oester and Bill Doran Sunday. This move festers the Reds' problems because Oester and Doran were two of the few bright spots in the Reds' managing core.

The Cincinnati Reds' ownership is making the worst decisions possible. The players are trying to be optimistic for next year. With an unnecessarily tight budget, unhappy players, a front office that no one trusts and disgruntled fans, the near future looks bleak.

–Horton is a sophomore journalism major. Send him e-mail at dh180500@ohiou.edu.