Five Championships in 138 Years Ain't Bad for the Cincinnati Reds

To understand what it means to be a Cincinnati Reds fan, one has to understand Cincinnati's place in our national society, economy, and history.

The Reds are one of the biggest influences on how Cincinnatians live their lives. In turn, the Reds are a mirror image of the way the city feels about itself.

In 1869, Cincinnati was a pioneering city in the United States. The Ohio River was a main port of trade and travel. At this time, the Cincinnati Reds became the first group in sports to field an entirely professional team.

They were the ambassadors of baseball to every city that they visited and cities across the country would line up their best athletes just to lure the Reds into town to play against them.

Years later, Cincinnati has changed as have the Reds. Cincinnati is now one of the most conservative cities in the country, and their baseball team is no different.

However, the inability to take the city to the next level economically is looked upon with the same apathy as the incapability of taking the baseball team to the next level in the National League.

Reds’ fans are not hard on general management and ownership, despite being extremely educated in the fundamentals of the game. The fans know that they would rather run the organization "in the family" than have a corporate structure with large revenues.

This lack of ambition could be scrutinized, but it could also be thought to promote a better organization with more of an interest in the actual players than the winning percentage.

In the late 90s, the city was split in two over the conflict of where the new baseball stadium should sit in our city's skyline.

Whereas conventional economic wisdom would clearly show that the stadium should be part of a development project inside the city's neighborhoods, the prevailing idea was to put the stadium on the river because that is what we were used to.

We were accustomed to the view from Kentucky, and the omnipresent idea that sports were a main focus in the city.

The years that followed only drove home the point that a downtown stadium would have done wonders for the city's economy. Still there is the overwhelming feeling that it is in the right place.

In 2003, Aaron Boone was traded at the deadline to the New York Yankees. Boone was one of the more beloved players on the team at the time, but it was clear that his attributes would be better suited for a playoff run than preparing for the next season with the Reds.

Boone, however, was extremely emotional at the press conference before his departure. He stated that Cincinnati was his home and he was clearly upset about the trade.

Again, it would be an obvious great move for his career to play with a contender. But Boone's emotions were with the team he came up with.

Three months later, Aaron Boone's name would be alongside legends in the long line of New York Yankee greats.

Championship years have come and gone in the team's history. The Reds were the "other team" in the 1919 World Series and won the championship without anybody knowing anything about them.

The Reds were clearly the best team in baseball in 1940 when they took down the Detroit Tigers.

The stars on the team never shined as brightly as they did during the 70s when the team won their division six times, won the NL pennant four times, and was back-to-back World Champions in 1975 and 1976.

The team again included plenty of home grown talent and was led by Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, and Tony Perez. Those men would all still be favored in the city's history even without the championships, much as Ted Klusewski and Frank Robinson are.

In 1990, the Reds were a perennial second place team and the same was expected of them under Lou Pinella. After winning the first nine games of the season, the Reds never looked back and swept the heavily favored Oakland A's to win their fifth World Championship.

The expectations of the team were much higher during most years in the 90s, but the team has little more than one divisional championship in 1995 to show for it.

Now, it’s 2008. The Reds have put together another team of family-oriented players headed by our local hero Ken Griffey, Jr.

The April optimism is making its usual appearance at Great American Ballpark and in the voice of Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Brenneman. The team will make a run for the playoffs but likely come up short. 

That will be okay with everyone in Cincinnati as long as we like the guys who wear the uniform.