To the 2010 Cincinnati Reds: Thank You

The final chapter hasn't been written on the 2010 baseball season, but as a relatively young Reds fan who doesn't have strong memories of the last successful teams, it has already been a banner year.

For years, baseball was always about watching people on other teams perform in the big moment.

Other fanbases collected treasured memories, whereas we just got the occasional June walk-off home run, and Wily Tavares.

It was year after year after year of losing.  Not only that, but we had different ownership groups, general managers, and managers all try to sell us their idea of how THEY would be the one to turn things around.

It honestly felt like dealing with used car salesmen.  The message always sounded good on the surface, but was basically empty, full of lies, and at the end of the day, resulted in Cincinnati baseball fans being completely shortchanged.

Most years, the Reds never really had a chance, and the one year they did (2006), they folded like a cheap tent when the heat grew intense.

We had to sit back and watch a St. Louis Cardinals team, a squad that really wasn't much better than ours, go on to win the whole shabang.

Nonetheless, I continued to invest my emotional energy, time, and dollars into something that caused many people in my life to ask, "Why?"

Last night, one swing of the bat from Jay Bruce answered that question.  

I'm a big fan of other sports as well, such as the NFL and NBA, but the thrill of a walk-off home run in a moment like that is something that simply can't be replicated in other leagues.

I can't wait for October.